Rose Bundock | PMDD Is as Common as Diabetes - and Nobody Treats It That Way | Pharma Prescribed
⚠️ This episode discusses women's health and, briefly, suicide risk associated with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). If you're struggling, you're not alone - in the UK, Samaritans are free on 116 123, day or night.
Rose Bundock is a journalist and researcher turned advocate, and the founder of Femsights - an audience research consultancy that helps health innovators understand the people they're building for. Her premise is deceptively simple: health solutions should be made with the people who live with the condition, not just for them.
Rose's route here is unusual. She edited English-language scripts for Shanghai's TV News at 10, broadcast live to an estimated 10 million viewers, then worked at Haymarket and on BBC Gardener's World Magazine before leading content for Merck. In 2023 she stepped on stage and spoke publicly for the first time about living with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder - and by the next morning knew she had to build a way for people with health conditions to be heard by those designing solutions for them.
The conversation is a clear-eyed tour of the gender health gap. Rose's framing lands hard: if clinical research were a 280-page book, the requirement to test on female as well as male bodies has only been standard for four years - the last four pages. The result is a field that too often treats women as small men. She's equally sharp on "bikini medicine," on the tension between patient-centred language and patient-centred practice, and on why variability in women's physiology became an excuse not to do the work rather than a reason to do it properly.
She's also candid about PMDD itself: a condition affecting an estimated 5-8% of reproductive-age women - as common as diabetes - driven by the brain's sensitivity to hormonal shifts, and still widely unrecognised. Rose talks about symptoms, severity, the stark treatment ladder, the role of community, and why sometimes the most effective intervention is simply being listened to.
Rigorous, warm and quietly radical. A conversation about whose voice gets to shape the evidence.
💚 SUPPORT & RESOURCES Samaritans (UK) - 116 123, free, 24/7 IAPMD (International Association for Premenstrual Disorders) - information and peer support for PMDD If you are in immediate danger, call 999 (UK) or your local emergency number.
🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes
⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Content warning 0:35 Intro 1:00 Meet Rose Bundock 2:00 The mission behind Femsights 4:00 The gender health gap explained 6:00 Beyond "bikini medicine" 8:00 The patient-centric tension 10:00 A menopause-at-work story 13:00 Speaking out publicly 15:00 PMDD symptoms breakdown 18:00 Severity and treatments 23:00 Community and shame 25:00 Workplace safe spaces 27:00 Listening as treatment 30:00 A biopsychosocial care model 31:00 One HealthTech origins 38:00 PMDD resources and tracking 40:00 PMDD apps and features 43:00 Research gaps and hope 45:00 Quickfire and wrap up
👤 ABOUT ROSE BUNDOCK Founder of Femsights, an audience research consultancy for health innovators. Journalist and researcher - formerly Shanghai TV News at 10, Haymarket, BBC Gardener's World Magazine and content lead for Merck via a London agency. Author of "Beyond the Cycle: PMDD, Insights for FemTech" and lead on a national patient survey for Forte Medical (PEEZY Midstream). Co-leads One HealthTech Brighton. Advocate for closing the gender health gap. 💼 Search "Rose Bundock" on LinkedIn 🌐 https://www.femsights.com
🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics 🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast
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