Â鶹ԼÅÄ

September is Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month and a new survey from the charity The Eve Appeal reveals how embarrassed young women feel about gynaecological issues. A thousand women of different ages from across the UK were questioned and one in five women aged 16-25 years could not name a single correct symptom of any of the five gynaecological cancers, which include: ovarian, cervical, vulval, vaginal and womb cancer. Plus, only half of women aged 26-35 were able to label the vagina accurately on a simple diagram. Jane is joined by Professor Usha Menon, Professor of Gynaecological Cancer at University College London, to discuss why women need to be more open and better informed about gynecological health and how understanding the symptoms can save lives. Jane is also joined by Emma Darts who discovered she had ovarian cancer at the age of eighteen.

After a relationship has ended and your ex has moved on to someone new, how do you react to their new partner? With feelings of bitter resentment, a desire to blank that woman from your mind, or a need to just let it go? Or have you perhaps decided to befriend that new woman? Suzy Miller did just that when she became friends with her ex partner’s new wife. As did journalist Daisy Buchanan, who was devastated to split from her boyfriend, but then discovered she got on even better with his new girlfriend than she ever did with him. So what’s it like to make friends with an ex’s new partner? Is it an act of madness, as some might say, or a source of resolution and a new best friend?

A career that offers the opportunity to travel, clear career progression and the potential to make lots and lots of money. Sound good? Well arguably working on an oil rig offers all those things, of course it can also mean being stuck in the middle of the North Sea in the middle of winter for weeks on end, unable to escape your colleagues. Either way, women do not appear to be interested in this kind of work, only 3 and a half percent of those working on the rigs are women. So what’s life like for the few who do live their lives off shore, and should more girls be considering it as an option? Jane speaks to 

In this country, care for older people rests mostly with family carers.  Without them, it is said the health and social care system would collapse. But one in five women born in the 1960's don't have any children, and 25% of women in their 40’s now will age without children. So with the social care system already stretched to breaking point, who will look after people without children in their old age? We speak to who is a third sector consultant with 20 years experience working in the field of ageing- and who has no children. And to Caroline Abrahams, Director of Age UK.

Culottes are having a bit of a fashion moment – but will you be wearing them this autumn?   Trousers designed to look like a skirt may sound like a bit of a contradiction, but culottes have a long history going back to the days when women were not supposed to wear trousers, but sometimes needed something more practical than a skirt.   Jane is joined by fashion writer, and historian Oriole Cullen to consider culottes, how to wear them and their place in fashion history.