Spotlight on...Joyce Harper

What is your role and what does it involve? 

I am a Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute for Women’s Health. My job mainly involves teaching, doing research and travelling the world to talk about my research. What I love about my job is that I have been able to frame it with the projects I am passionate about. And this has changed over the years from being a laboratory scientist working on genetic testing and embryology to a public educator. 

I have done a lot of teaching over two decades and I love teaching students, but now my research and teaching is centred around educating the public about reproductive health. I love doing this and I really love public speaking – at conferences, on TV or radio or in the press. Recently I have been making videos about reproductive health which I put on all social media platforms, including TikTok.  

I love the multidisciplinary nature of my work and I am very lucky to work with many amazing people around the world. This year UCL have supported me to set up a podcast called ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me this?’ where I get to talk to lots of interesting people about their work and their amazing lives. The podcast aims to debunk myths around reproductive health – and there are a lot of myths. 

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role? 

I joined UCL in 1994, initially on a grant looking at genetic analysis of human preimplantation embryos in a procedure called preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). I wrote the first two textbooks on this topic. After I published two papers on the world experience of PGT in 1994 and 1996, we set up an international PGT Consortium in 1997 which is still running. The main role of the Consortium is to monitor the use of the procedure globally and we published annual papers of world data. 

I set up our first MSc in 1996 when we were in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology which then became part of the Institute for Women’s Health. I was Director of Education at our Institute for 25 years. We now have over 150 students and I love to keep in contact with them and watch their careers bloom. I feel so proud when I see them presenting at conferences or read their papers. We had a terrific time at the graduation last week.  

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of? 

I am most proud of finally getting my book on reproductive health education published in 2021. Your Fertile Years, Sheldon Press. I started writing this book in 1987 when I was working as an embryologist in a fertility clinic. At that time, I realised that my friends and I knew very little about our menstrual cycle. Roll on 30 years and my friends are now going through menopause and still do not understand how their menstrual cycles work – so it was long overdue to write the book! But it was frustrating that it came out during lockdown as I could not have a proper launch – I really had wanted to do a book tour. 

And I felt very privileged to be awarded a lifetime achievement award last year from the European Fertility Society. 

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list 

My current project is reproductive health education and I hope that we can totally change the way everyone learns about reproductive health, from puberty to menopause.  

I co-established the UK fertility education initiative in 2015. I was aware there were many excellent people doing global research in this area so I got them together and in 2019 we set up the International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration. We then embedded the collaboration in the biggest fertility society in the world – the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE – www.eshre.eu/IRHEC). I know it sounds corny, but I really feel we are making an impact to help educate everyone about their reproductive health, whether they want children or not.  

I have been doing research with schools, which started with going to see my local school to find out what they were teaching. The answer was – not much on reproductive health. Since then I’ve given many talks in schools, our UCL team have published two papers on the UK curriculum, surveyed over 1000 UK sixth formers (our survey has been repeated in Belgium, Greece and Japan), and run focus groups with year 10 girls to ask them about their periods. We have written to the Department of Education with recommendations for how reproductive health could be taught in schools more effectively.  

And at the other end of the reproductive years, I am leading a UCL team working with key stakeholders on a project for menopause education and support. This follows 4 surveys I have done asking women about menopause and focus groups with perimenopausal and post-menopausal women. Everyone really wants education and support. We will be announcing the details of our programme in a press release in August.  

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

This is a very hard one. I would say my favourite album is Station to Station by David Bowie. Bowie influenced me a lot when I was a teenager, and I was lucky enough to see him live twice. I used to listen to Station to Station all the way through, singing at the top of my voice! I am a terrible singer! My favourite film is also very tricky so I am going to say a recent one: Where the Crawdads Sing – one of those rare cases where the film was equally as good as the book.  And my favourite book – The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern – I loved being lost in the magical world. 

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

I do not have a favourite but I have been bringing up three boys on my own who are now teenagers, so any jokes about kids not being able to find the dishwasher or anything that is right in front of their eyes, always makes me laugh! 

Who would be your dream dinner guests? 

Charlie Brooker, David Bowie, Einstein, Joan Rivers, Kathy Burke, Cleopatra, Stephen Fry, Brian Cox, Nelson Mandela, John Cooper Clark, Grace Jones. Hopefully, we will have laughter, music and good conversation. Not too much politics! 

What advice would you give your younger self?

This is a great question and one that I ask all my podcast guests. Episode 1 of my podcast was an interview with myself so you can hear the full answer on the podcast. 

I do a lot around well-being – and I talk about the 4 pillars of well-being: nutrition, sleep, exercise and mental health. I have always exercised (I trained as an aerobics teacher when I was doing my PhD), I am not a big drinker and sleeping is my superpower, but I have two pieces of advice for my younger self. Be more still – I am quite manic and not very good at sitting still – if I am still, I usually fall asleep. I have been trying to meditate and take life more slowly. As well as cold water swimming, I also kayak and paddleboard. I love drifting along in my kayak, listening to the birds singing. My second bit of advice to my younger self would be to sort out my sugar addiction. I have failed at this and I know sugar is very toxic to our health. 

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I can do the splits – at age 60. I’ve always been able to do it and it has become a party trick. Unfortunately, I do it too often, especially after a few glasses of wine. My friends find it amusing and love egging me on. There are too many photos of me doing it. Hugely embarrassing. 

What is your favourite place?  

I do not have a specific favourite place but I have two general favourite places – any beach at sunrise, sunset or full moon – I prefer sunset rather than sunrise as I am not good at getting up and I am a cold water swimmer so I love being in the water at this time. But I do manage sunrise in December and January in Frinton on the Essex coast. It is amazing.  My second favourite place is a music festival – being in a field dancing is a passion of mine. I usually go to about 6-7 festivals a year. And I am very happy that day raves have become a thing, so we can dance all day and be in bed before midnight. Love it. In the next few years, I am going to buy a van and convert it to a camper van so I can be in my favourite places more.