I’ll be honest: in my teens and early 20s, I had the unhealthy viewpoint that being healthy meant being as thin as possible. And do you know who I blame? The media. Yes, I do. Luckily, I found some common sense, and my relationship with my body has changed for the better.

One of the things I’m forever grateful to the pandemic for is that it helped me discover a love of running. As a new mum who honestly just wanted to lose her baby weight—and also desperately needed to escape the one-bedroom flat we were living in at the time—running felt liberating. I’ve written before that my relationship with running has always been about more than just the physical; it’s also deeply tied to my mental health.

Yet, I haven’t ran in months, and it’s led me to think about my health in ways I never have before. I’ve always focused on my physical health (and when I say physical health here, I mean weight) and, in recent years, my mental health. But I haven’t been intentional about my gynaecological health for many years.