Overview

I’m an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Exeter, where I research and teach about women’s mental health, reproductive health, and early life influences on health and wellbeing.

I lead the Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M) Consortium and teach a third year seminar module on women's reproductive mental health.

I'm always interested in hearing from students or colleagues who would like to visit and work with me. Just drop me an email.

Qualifications

Environment Health and Sustainable Development (MSc module) - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) - University of Bristol

PhD Reproductive Biology - University of Edinburgh

MSc Reproduction and Development - University of Bristol

BSc Biology - Cardiff University

Career

I trained in biology as a first generation undergrad student at Cardiff University in the mid-00s, where my favourite modules were those related to zoology, ecology, and research methods.

When I left university, there were limited jobs in conservation, so I took a job as an admin assistant and eventually enrolled in a part-time distance learning masters in Reproduction and Development at the University of Bristol. Although my switch from studying plants and animals to studying humans was largely due to financial and practical limitations, it turned out to be a great move and a springboard for the rest of my career.

Fascinated (and alarmed!) by finding that we didn't (and still don't) have a good understanding of what triggers labour in pregnant humans, I pursued my PhD in reproductive health at the University of Edinburgh. There, I found that I was particularly inept at wet lab work, but that I enjoyed data analysis and visualisation, and communicating research to the public.

I found a natural home in epidemiology, fortunately very near to my actual home back in Bristol, so I spent nearly a decade working at the University of Bristol in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU). After a few years conducting and publishing research in molecular epidemiology (using genetic and epigenetic data to understand patterns and causes of health related traits and disease), I wanted to develop a more holistic understanding of health, particularly women's health. I published research critiquing the traditional biomedical focus on maternal behaviours during pregnancy, and the over-extrapolation of population-based correlative findings into public health policies that target individuals. Around the same time, I also established the Menarche Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M) consortium, which brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to discuss and conduct research.

Motivated by a strong desire to expand my understanding of different perspectives and paradigms, I moved out of Bristol Medical School and into Exeter Psychology in 2022. In this department, I am exploring the intersection of epidemiology and psychology, and leading research that combines elements of both disciplines (and more) to consider the biological, psychological, and social influences that interact to shape human health and wellbeing in different contexts. I do this from a feminist theoretical perspective: aiming to understand the nature of gender inequality in health and wellbeing by examining women's experiences across the life course.

Links

• Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M) Consortium
• More about me

Research group links

• Clinical

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Research

Research interests

My research takes an interdiciplinary approach to consider the biological, psychological, and social influences that interact to shape human health and wellbeing in different contexts. Much of my work is from a feminist theoretical perspective: aiming to understand the nature of gender inequality in health and wellbeing by examining women's experiences across the life course.

You can find an up-to-date list of all my reseach outputs here.

Some of my more specific interests include:

Women’s reproductive health

The menstrual cycle and menstrual health
I established the Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M) consortium to facilitate collaborative interdisciplinary research into how the menstrual cycle and menstruation interacts with mental health. This association is likely to be extremely complex and multidirectional, involving interactions between genetics, reproductive hormones and other physiological processes, but also environmental factors including lifestyle and social, political and structural influences on health and wellbeing.

Pregnancy health
My PhD was entitled comprehensive data analysis to study pregnancy complications (or something like that). Since my PhD, I’ve been involved with several studies of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.

Early life and prenatal influences on child and adult health

I’m interested in how our early environments and experiences can shape our health and wellbeing into adulthood.

(Critical) DOHaD
Traditionally, research on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) has focused on the influence of the lifestyle of pregnant women on the health of their children. Although much of the evidence has been correlative (rather than showing robust causal effects), it has been used to back up public health policies and clinical practices that seek to change pregnant women’s behaviour. Through my research, I have tried to improve the causal evidence base in DOHaD by studying potentially causal biological mechanisms and using genetic and statistical approaches to infer causality. I have also tried to expand the traditional focus on pregnant women to study paternal factors and the wider social determinants of health as well.

Cleft lip and/or palate
Some of my research has focused more specifically on particular conditions in children; exploring the early-life causes of these conditions, as well as the consequences. Most notably, I’m a member of the Cleft Collective research team at the University of Bristol, where I’ve led research on the epidemiology of cleft lip and/or palate.

Research projects

My main research projects and activities at the moment include:

• Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M)
• Exploring Prenatal influences on Child Health (EPoCH)
• Understanding and improving mental health and neurodevelopment in children born with a cleft lip/palate

Research networks

• Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M)
• Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) consortium

Research grants

• 2022 UKRI Advanced Pain Discovery Platform
  Katy Vincent, Gemma Sharp, Sharon Dixon, Mina Fazel, Emma Cox, Krina Zondervan, MaryAnn Noonan, Kate Stein. Understanding the Role of Adolescent Dysmenorrhoea as a risk factor for the transition to chronic Pain (RoAdPain). £976,107.
• 2022 GW4
  Gemma Sharp, Anna Murray, Maria Fannin, Melanie Channon, Arianna Di Florio. Developing the Menarche Menstruation Menopause and Mental Health (4M) consortium. £5000.
• 2021 MRC
  Evie Stergiakouli, Gemma Sharp, et al., Improving mental health outcomes in children born with an orofacial cleft: Identifying children at most risk to target clinical provision. £608,551.
• 2021 GW4
  Gemma Sharp, Melanie Channon, Anna Murray, Arianna Di Florio. GW4 Menstrual and Mental Health Research Community. £15,000.
• 2019 MRC
  Sarah Lewis, Gemma Sharp, Evie Stergiakouli, Deborah Lawlor, et al., Identifying genetic and environmental risk factors for cleft using genome wide association study data. £493,710.
• 2019 Horizon 2020
  Gemma Sharp, Janine Felix, et al. NutriPROGRAM: Early-life Nutritional Programming of Metabolic Health through Epigenetic Pathways. £267,345.
• 2018 MRC
  Gemma Sharp. Prenatal influences on childhood health: what role for mums and dads? £541,891.

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

I am the co-Director of Research and Impact for Psychology, and my role is particularly focused on supporting the department's researchers to generate and evidence impact.

Personally, my research is motivated by a strong desire to have a positive social impact. I try to achieve this through embedding plans for impact throughout my research process, working with stakeholders, and ensuring my research is accessible to diverse audiences.

In addition to my role in Exeter, I have an honorary position at the University of Bristol MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, where I supervise several PhD students.

Recent external media exposure:

Tech developers and researchers should work together to tackle gender data gap, says expert, Femtech World Feb 2024

Clue launches initiative to close diagnosis gap for female health conditions. Femtech World Dec 2023

Global researchers team with menstrual health app Clue to research female health conditions. UoE press release. Dec 2023

Did pandemic stress change women’s periods? Washington Post. Nov 2022

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Teaching

I enjoy designing courses, sessions and assessments that are ‘constructively alligned’, which helps student to meet the intended learning outcomes for the teaching. My sessions are interactive and use a range of media and activities. I particularly like using a ‘flipped classroom’ approach where students are given some digital material to read/watch/complete in their own time before coming to a live session to participate in interactive discussions and group tasks.

Modules

2023/24

• PSY3462 - Women's Reproductive Mental Health

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Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

Research Technicians

Alumni

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