Women's health is not a niche — it is a lifespan defined by transition. From adolescence through the reproductive years, into the seismic shifts of perimenopause and menopause — a woman's biology is never static, and each transition carries its own clinical complexity. Yet this is precisely where both conventional medicine and functional approaches too often fail women: one handing her a diagnosis that explains little and offering solely pharmacological or surgical solutions; the other too frequently reaching for expensive testing panels in place of clinical reasoning, or retreating into reductive narratives — like oestrogen dominance — that flatten the extraordinary complexity of women's hormonal biology into a single, often misleading frame.
For many of you, something else sits beneath all of this. A quiet frustration that the frameworks you were trained in — medical or functional — are not holding up against the reality of the women you see in practice. And a particular kind of clinical exhaustion that comes not from the complexity itself, but from carrying it alone.
You have seen it repeatedly: women with chronic pelvic pain cycling through interventions without resolution; PMDD reduced to a progesterone sensitivity narrative; peri-menopausal shifts in metabolism and mood met with hormone therapy offered as a single lever in a system of extraordinary complexity. We are stuck in clinical loops and linear thinking — and it is time to step out of them.
The Women's Health Practicum is curated to break those loops and welcome a genuinely new paradigm of women's health care. We'll move through the full clinical arc: from the HPO hierarchy and hormonal pattern recognition, through the neuroendocrine interplay between ovarian hormones and neurotransmitter systems — and what that means for how we read and respond to hormonal presentations across the lifespan — to what a comprehensive metabolic blood panel can reveal when you know how to integrate it fully, not cherry-picking singular markers but reading the whole picture. From there we move into the realities of chronic pelvic pain, endometriosis, adenomyosis, and central sensitisation.. And then, crucially, we turn the lens inward. Peta and I will open our own kit bags: the tools, clinical frameworks, and practices we actually use — with an invitation to bring that same quality of attention to your own health and your own practice!
This is not just another lecture — it is, above all, a rich clinical conversation: evidence-grounded, honest, and curated to translate directly into your practice.
A day I genuinely don't believe exists anywhere else for practitioners in this space.
Tanya x
Raising The Bar in Serving Women’s Health
This email landed in my inbox last week. And it won't be the last one like it….
A practitioner — thoughtful, diligent, doing exactly the right thing by questioning what she'd heard — reaching out because a viral podcast claim had created genuine clinical anxiety. Not just for her, but for her clients .
The claim: that oral micronised progesterone floods the brain with a toxic metabolite, creates drugged rather than restorative sleep, and may increase the risk of early cognitive decline.
This is the landscape we are all practising in right now. Where a plausible hypothesis — dressed up in credible voices and confident delivery — can travel from podcast to prescribing decision in a matter of days. Where the noise is loud, the nuance gets lost, and the women sitting in front of you are anxious and confused before they've even walked through your door.
Knowing what the science says is one thing. Knowing how to interrogate a claim — how to trace it back to its source, identify where the evidence base ends and the extrapolation begins, and hold your clinical ground with confidence — that is an entirely different skill set. And it is exactly what we will be building together at the Women's Health Practicum.
MORNING: BUILD THE FOUNDATION
The Women’s Health Practicum
9.30am - Arrival & welcome refreshments
Organic coffee, fresh herbal teas, & time to settle with views across the coast
10-11.30am: The Architecture of Female Hormonal Health with Tanya Borowski
The morning's anchor session — and a direct challenge to how hormonal health is currently being approached in functional and nutritional practice.
Too many women are being asked to spend significant sums on functional testing panels that, in truth, add little to clinical decision-making. The real gold lies in knowing how to use serum pathology intelligently — understanding what to test, when to test it, how to interpret results in the context of each woman's individual presentation, and crucially, what the patterns are actually telling you.
Part One works through the HPO axis as a hierarchy of communication — the CEO (GnRH, and the dopaminergic signalling that regulates it), the managers (LH, FSH, prolactin), and the players (oestrogens, progesterone, androgens). But this is not simply an endocrinology primer. Because oestrogen and progesterone are not only reproductive hormones — they are powerful modulators of dopamine, serotonin, and GABA signalling across the entire cycle. How your client feels, thinks, behaves, and responds to stress at any given point in her cycle is inseparable from where she is in this hormonal architecture.
Drawing on the DASH-MC framework — one of the most important recent contributions to our understanding of hormonal sensitivity and psychopathology — we map three distinct windows of neuroendocrine vulnerability across the cycle. And critically, individual response to these hormonal shifts is not random — it is shaped by genetic variants in neurotransmitter pathways, steroid-metabolising enzymes, and receptor sensitivity. This is where nutrigenomics stops being an add-on and becomes central to the clinical picture.
You will learn when to test, how to read hormonal patterns across the lifespan together — not in isolation — and how to recognise the common presentations that confuse: the patient whose SSRI stops working for ten days every month, the woman whose ADHD symptoms cycle with her hormones, the perimenopausal patient whose anxiety and cognitive fog don't fit neatly into any single diagnosis.
Serum reference ranges, cycle phase timing, and case examples are woven throughout.
Part Two cuts through the noise on testing strategy — where gold-standard NHS pathology outperforms functional alternatives, where nutrigenomic testing genuinely adds clinical value, and how to build a sequenced, proportionate approach you can stand behind. The same forensic rigour applied to the science is applied here: where the evidence holds, where it doesn't, and how to construct a clinical strategy that serves your patient rather than your curiosity.
This is not just teaching you the science. It is teaching you how to think about the science.
You will leave with:
A working framework of the HPO axis and its key hormones — roles, patterns, and what test results actually tell you
Confidence reading serum reference ranges in the context of cycle phase and life stage
Fluency in the neuroendocrine interplay between ovarian hormones and neurotransmitter systems — and why this changes everything about how we interpret hormonal presentation
An understanding of how genetic variants in neurotransmitter and steroid-metabolising pathways shape individual hormonal sensitivity — and where nutrigenomic testing earns its place in the clinical sequence
Beautifully presented handouts as clinical tools for your clinical practice
11.30-12.15pm: Mid-Morning Break
Guided movement & breathwork session, overlooking the sea
Organic coffee, fresh herbal teas & healthy snack on the deck
MID-MORNING: CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN
12.15-1.30pm: Chronic pelvic pain: understanding, approaching & supporting women in clinic
with Dr Peta Wright — integrative gynaecologist
Women with chronic pelvic pain are among the most underserved in the medical system — and often among the most exhausted by the time they reach your clinic. They have been investigated, managed, and discharged. They have been told their pain is normal, or that nothing more can be done. And yet they are still suffering.
The problem is rarely the patient. It is the model.
Because chronic pelvic pain is not simply a tissue problem. Endometriosis, adenomyosis, interstitial cystitis, central sensitisation — these conditions share a common thread that conventional gynaecology has been slow to acknowledge: the profound role of nervous system dysregulation, unprocessed trauma, and the body's own protective responses. Layers that most practitioners have never been taught to recognise, let alone work with.
In this session, Dr Peta Wright — integrative gynaecologist and one of Australia's leading voices in whole-person pelvic pain care — brings her clinical framework to the practicum. How to assess complexity without being overwhelmed by it. How to work alongside medical management rather than around it. And how to hold space for women whose pain has been dismissed, minimised, or medicalised without ever being truly understood..
You will leave with:
A clinical framework for assessing and approaching chronic pelvic pain across endo, adenomyosis, IC, and central sensitisation
An understanding of the nervous system's role in pelvic pain — and how to begin working with it
Practical guidance on collaborating with medical management rather than working in isolation
The communication approaches that build trust, reduce overwhelm, and genuinely move the needle for women in complex pain
1.30-2.30pm - Lunch: plant-based and locally sourced
Connect with speakers, colleagues & sponsors — overlooking the sea, which will do the rest 😘
AFTERNOON: THE PRACTITIONER'S OWN TOOLKIT
2.30-4.30pm: The practitioner audit: tools, practices & wellbeing for the clinician
with Tanya Borowski + Dr Peta Wright
This is where the format shifts. After a morning of rich clinical teaching, the afternoon moves into something different — and equally important.
We open with the question that shapes everything that follows: how do we actually frame a case? How do we order our thinking, prioritise interventions, and decide where to begin when the presentation is complex and the woman in front of us is exhausted? Nervous system regulation is not an afterthought here — it is the thread that runs through the entire clinical structure, informing how we interpret symptoms, sequence support, and build a framework that holds.
Tanya and Peta then open their own kit bags — the tools, practices, and frameworks they actually use to support their own hormonal health, nervous system regulation, and sustainable clinical practice. No performance, no perfection. Just honesty about what works, and why.
The session then moves into live case work, welcoming your questions throughout. Two cases submitted in advance by ticket holders will be worked through together — a collaborative, open format that reflects the kind of clinical thinking that lecture-style learning simply cannot replicate. Sitting with complexity in real time, hearing how experienced clinicians reason through uncertainty, recognising your own clients in the room: this is where integration happens.
The afternoon closes with a guided breathwork practice — a lived demonstration of one of the most accessible and evidence-based nervous system tools available to both practitioners and clients.
Attendees leave with a practical, personalised set of tools to carry into their own wellbeing and working lives — and a reminder of why you chose this work in the first place
You will leave with:
Tanya and Peta's personal hormonal health and nervous system toolkit
Rich clinical Insight into two real cases worked through collaboratively — and the clinical reasoning behind them
Space to reflect on your own health through the lens of the day
A renewed sense of purpose and practical grounding in your practice
4.30- 4.45pm:
Final Questions, goodie bags & carriages
Gynaecologist | Paediatric & Adolescent Gynaecologist | Fertility Specialist. | MBBS MRMed FRANZCOG
Founder, Vera Wellness
Dr Peta Wright has a relaxed and compassionate attitude that will put you at ease knowing you’re in capable, caring hands. She is a gynaecologist, paediatric & adolescent gynaecologist, and fertility specialist.
Peta is deeply committed to all aspects of women’s health care and founded Vera Wellness in 2020. She strives to take a wholistic approach to managing the health concerns of women of all ages. Peta has a particular interest and expertise in the areas of paediatric and adolescent gynaecology, having completed a fellowship in adolescent gynaecology in 2013.
Peta is the author of Healing Pelvic Pain, published in 2023, a book about transforming the trauma of period pain, endometriosis and chronic pelvic distress. She aims to empower women to ask the right questions, get the right treatment, and make lifestyle changes that bring about release from pain.
Location | Date | Cost
Wednesday 15th October 1015 - 5.30pm
This educational packed day takes place at the breathtaking location of The Roof Terrace - Rockwater, Nestled right by the water, in Hove, East Sussex
I have specifically chosen this venue to curate an event away from a dreary traditional hotel conference room, allowing us all to immerse ourselves in nature with the opportunity for you to interact with the panelists, presenters and sponsors while sparking cognitive pathways with inspiring and engaging knowledge to be able to then implement with your clients once back in clinic.
Cost
£175 - early bird until 22nd May
£185
Directions
CAR: Rockwater Hove, Western Esplanade, Brighton and Hove, Hove BN3 4FA | There is no dedicated on-site parking. But there’s paid for on-street parking on Kingsway, the Main Street which Rockwater is just set back from.
TRAIN: Direct London services can be had to Hove or Brighton
TAXIS: Can easily be picked up form Hove or Brighton stations
book here
What’s included
Fully referenced slide deck
Delicious plant based lunch and refreshments throughout the day
6 hours CPD (in application)
Tanya Borowski goodie bag with treats & delights, including signed copy Peta’s book - Healing Pelvic Pain