An expert in women’s reproductive and post-reproductive health has been awarded an honorary degree by The Open University (OU).
Among hundreds of published works by Professor Margaret Rees are more than 20 textbooks – several of which have gone on to win awards from the British Medical Association.
In accepting the award Professor Rees said: “I am still overwhelmed by this recognition from the OU of my contribution to women’s health and research ethics”.
“The reason I specialised in these areas is that I wanted to make a difference. In medical school it was apparent that there were too few women gynaecologists undertaking research.”
Professor Rees has served on the OU’s Human Research Ethics Committee for more than a decade.
As a direct result, her expertise has informed the policies, guidance and training materials produced by the committee. This, in turn, has shaped the research carried out by OU researchers.
She said: “Thanks to the OU my horizons have broadened,” and she added: “The OU has given me new perspectives on promoting women’s health as Executive Director of the European Menopause and Andropause Society. Thank you again.”
Professor Rees has held visiting professorships at Glasgow University, the University of Turku in Finland and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, at Rutgers University. In 2020, she received the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Women’s Health Institute (RWJMS WHI) Woman of Distinction Award.
Today, she is Reader Emeritus in Reproductive Medicine at the University of Oxford, where she initially studied for her doctorate; a Supernumerary Fellow at St Hilda’s College in Oxford, and for 11 years was the editor-in-chief of Maturitas, the international journal of midlife health. She is now editor-in-chief of Case Reports in Women’s Health and editorial advisor to Heliyon.
There are many other prestigious organisations she is connected to, including being a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
