Dr Annalise Weckesser

Senior Research Fellow

Email:: Annalise.Weckesser@bcu.ac.uk
Phone:: 0121 331 7154

Annalise came to the UK in 2007 from Canada to undertake doctoral studies in Medical Anthropology at the University of Warwick's School of Health and Social Studies, where she was a Warwick Postgraduate Research Fellow.

From 2009 to 2011, with funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, she undertook fieldwork on gendered care networks in the rural South Africa and the context of catastrophic illness for her PhD dissertation, Girls, Gifts and Gender: An ethnography of the materiality of care in rural Mpumalanda, South Africa.

Annalise joined Birmingham City University's Centre Social Care and Health Related Research in 2012 to undertake qualitative health research on gender and reproductive health. She co-leads the Family, Gender and Health Research Cluster with Gemma Williams, founded and leads The VQ Collective (a women’s (sexual) health public engagement initiative) with Dr Keeley Abbott, and leads (REF) Impact for the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Science UoA3 (Allied Health Professionals).

Annalise has been invited to speak about her work to academic and public audiences. Talks include ‘The Vagina Dialogues: Challenging Stigmas around Menstruation, Menopause and Female Sexuality’ for Oxford’s Evidence-Based Health Care series (available as a podcast), as well as similar talks for the Pint of Science series, the Fawcett Society and Plan International UK’s Let’s Talk.Period project.

Her research and public engagement work have been highlighted in the press, including in The New Statesmen (Caroline Criado-Perez’s article ‘Why the “Gender Data Gap” Means Doctors Don’t Take Women’s Pain Seriously’) and The Independent (Lucy Pasha-Robin’s article ‘Endometriosis: Millions of Women Suffering from Chronic Lack of Research’).

Current Activity

Annalise leads a project for Plan International UK’s and Brook’s Let’s Talk. Period initiative, creating a series of evidence-based resources for the menstruation education, health, policy, and advocacy sector. The series entails four reports:

In collaboration with Dr Stella Bullo and The Language of Endometriosis project, Annalise is undertaking a study of health professionals’ experiences of providing care for patients with suspected or diagnosed endometriosis. See the Discover Society article, ‘It’s a Challenge’: Doctors’ Perspectives on Diagnosing Endometriosis and Improving Care, for preliminary findings from the project. She is also collaborating on an ESRC funded project led by Gemma Williams on period poverty in the UK during the Covid19 pandemic.

Annalise leads two research projects for Umbrella Sexual Health. One study entails improving the return rates of STI home testing kits ordered online. The other study examines the use of the ‘mystery shopper’ method in evaluating sexual health services within community pharmacy settings.

Annalise has and is disseminating findings from a number of NIHR-HTA funded qualitative research projects. These include an examination of women’s post caesarean section recovery experiences as part of the PREPS (Vaginal Preparation at caesarean section to Reduce Endometriosis and Prevent Sepsis) feasibility trial. With Professor Emeritus Elaine Denny, she explored women’s experiences of pregnancy while living with epilepsy as part of the EMPiRE (Anti-Epileptic drug Monitoring in PREgnancy) Trial. Annalise and Denny also examined women’s experiences of medical treatments for endometriosis for the PRE-EMPT (Preventing Recurrence of Endometriosis by Means of long acting Progestogen Therapy) Trial.

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Teaching

Postgraduate Supervision

Publications

Abbott, Weckesser & Egan (forthcoming) ‘“Everyone knows someone in an unhealthy relationship”: Young people’s talk about intimate heterosexual relationships in England’ in Sex Education

Denny & Weckesser (2019)‘Women’s Experiences of Endometriosis’ in Routledge International Handbook of Women’s Seuxal and Reproductive Health.

Weckesser et al. (2019) ‘Women’s perspectives on caesarean section recovery, infection and the PREPS trial: a qualitative pilot study’ in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth

Hodgetts-Morton, Hewitt,Wilson, Farmer, and Weckesser, et al. (2019) ‘Vaginal preparation with chlorhexidine at cesarean section to reduce endometritis and prevent sepsis: A randomized pilot trial (PREPS)’ in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica.

Thangaratinam, Marlin, Newton,Weckesser, et al. (2018) AntiEpileptic drug Monitoring in PREgnancy (EMPiRE): a double-blind randomised trial on effectiveness and acceptability of monitoring strategies. NIHR-HTA Final Report. Health Technology Assessment, No. 22.23.

Denny, Weckesser, et al. (2018) ‘Women’s experiences of medical treatment for endometriosis and its impact on PRE-EMPT trial participation: a qualitative study’ in Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 4 (1).

Denny & Weckesser (2018) ‘Qualitative research: what it is and what it is not’ in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Jørgensen,Weckesser, et al. (2018) ‘Young people’s views on sexting education and support needs: findings and recommendations from a UK-based study’ in Sex Education.

Lee,Hewett,Jørgensen, Turner,Wade, and Weckesser (2018) ‘Children and sexting: The case for intergenerational co-learning’in Childhood.

Weckesser & Denny (2017) ‘Reworking Biographies: Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy Whilst Living with Epilepsy’ in Social Science and Medicine, 185, July: 110-117.

Middleton, Daniels, Weckesser, and Bhattacharya (2017) ‘Preventing Recurrence of Endometriosis by Means of Long-Acting Progestogen Therapy (PRE-EMPT): Report of an Internal Pilot, Multi-Arm, Randomised Controlled Trial Incorporating Flexible Entry Design and Adaption of design Based on Feasibility of Recruitment’ in Trials, 18 (21).

Weckesser and Denny (2013) ‘Women Living with Epilepsy, Experiences of Pregnancy and Reproductive Health: A Review of the Literature’ in Seizure, 22(2): 91-8