The Lowdown’s April 2025 Newsletter

Hi everyone, Alice from The Lowdown here 👋

It’s been a huge month at Lowdown HQ. After 18 months of writing, editing, and (let’s be honest) a fair bit of stressing, our book on contraception and women’s health is finally here!

We’ve also teamed up with the brilliant organisation Feed to publish a powerful new report sharing the results of our infant feeding survey. Read on for exclusive insights…

The manual for your reproductive health has officially landed – The Lowdown’s book is out now! 🎉

Off the back of our appearance on Channel 4 with Davina in 2023, we were deluged with book deal offers from various publishers. And it’s thanks to the team at Piatkus, Dr Fran, Dr Mel and I have written down everything we’ve learnt from thousands of women in The Lowdown community – plus pretty much every bit of decent clinical research in the contraception and reproductive health space.

We wanted to write a book that answers all the questions we get from you – in a practical, accessible and (hopefully) interesting way. Using exclusive insights from our review platform, our book covers how not to get pregnant, how to plan to get pregnant, and what to do if you no longer want to be pregnant. We talk about everything from contraceptive side effects, benefits, risks, how to manage symptoms of conditions like endometriosis, fibroids and PCOS – and what to expect from the menopause.

It’s something you can read cover to cover, or pick up when you’re struggling with a symptom or issue. We’d love to know what you think, and please spread the word!

(And yes, both Dr Mel and I fell pregnant at the time of writing this book)

Our infant feeding survey finds that 75% of you have felt guilt and shame using infant formula and more than half were unprepared for the reality of their infant feeding journeys

Thanks to the 830 of you who completed our infant feeding survey back in March. To recap: the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recently completed an investigation into the infant formula market. Their findings confirm that guilt, shame, and a lack of preparation around formula feeding have contributed to a distorted market that puts pressure on parents at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives.

UK politicians now have 90 days to respond to the CMA’s recommendations – and at The Lowdown, we see this as a critical opportunity to campaign for much-needed change to infant feeding guidance in the UK.

Here’s what we found:

• Only 4% of you said the information you received during pregnancy about infant feeding was balanced, evidence-based, and fairly presented across all options.
• Nearly half of women who tried breastfeeding said the challenges affected how they felt as a mother (49%) or made them feel low or anxious during the postpartum period (48%) highlighting how current breastfeeding support is not fit for purpose in this country.
• Just 6% of you support the current NHS approach, where formula feeding is only discussed if a woman raises it. In contrast, 85% said all feeding options should be discussed proactively, ideally during pregnancy.
• While most women planned to exclusively breastfeed in line with NHS guidance, 68% ended up using formula within the first weeks or months – yet healthcare professionals are still discouraged from offering reassurance or support around formula use.

There’s so much more in the full report, and if you’ve ever struggled with feeding your baby, we really encourage you to read it. It shows clearly: you are not alone – and it sheds light on the cultural, emotional, and policy-driven dynamics that shape this area of healthcare. 

The bottom line? We need the NHS infant feeding policy to change – to reflect real women’s experiences, to meet their needs, and to prepare every parent for the full range of feeding journeys, including when formula is needed to support establishing breastfeeding.

Please sign the petition below calling on the Government to overhaul the NHS infant feeding policy and centre women’s choices and voices. Please also share the report with your MP (it always helps to include your own experiences) and ask them to join the campaign for change. You can find their email address here. 

In the news… 📰🌎

🥑 April delivered some wild womb news. First, the UK welcomed its first baby born from a womb transplant – donated by the mother’s sister. Then, in an equally mind-blowing case, a woman with ovarian cancer had her womb (and baby inside!) temporarily removed so surgeons could remove the tumour. The baby was safely delivered later, making it feel like they were almost born twice. 🤯 Can we please take a moment to appreciate how resilient the womb is? 

🏊 While many women’s health startups are fighting to survive, a group of men just raised $1.5m to host the world’s first sperm racing event in LA. Jokes aside, Sperm Racing launched the genius competition to raise awareness of men’s health and male fertility, and it definitely put The Lowdown’s events to shame. No contraception themed cocktails though 😉

❄️And finally, a study of 350 Japanese men (because of course, no women need to be studied in clinical trials, ever) found that people conceived in winter tend to have more active brown fat, which burns calories to generate heat. They also had lower BMIs and slimmer waists. So if you were conceived between mid-October and mid-April, your metabolism might be working overtime.

Review of the month:

Back pain is out, good sex is in – all thanks to the copper coil 💪

Post of the month 🫣

You all got a little too excited over our April Fool’s day hoax… Maybe one day eh? 

That’s all for this month, as always I love hearing your feedback on anything we write about, so please just hit reply to this email – I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Alice

Our new book Contraception: Your essential guide to separating the myths from the medicine is available to order now here