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Woman's Hour: Scottish rape survivors, Writer Natasha Walter, New research on the Y chromosome and male infertility

Scottish rape survivors, Writer Natasha Walter, New research on the Y chromosome and male infertility

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Scottish rape survivors, Writer Natasha Walter, New research on the Y chromosome and male infertility

New research on the Y chromosome and the implications in relation to male infertility

New research on the Y chromosome and the implications in relation to male infertility.  Writer Natasha Walter on her deeply personal memoir about her mother's suicide.

A group of  women who were raped by the same man are now coming together to campaign for better treatment for survivors of rape in the Scottish justice system.  After his sentencing, the women were photographed arm-in-arm outside the high court in Glasgow, having forged a close bond.  Catriona Renton, reporter and presenter for BBC Scotland, joins Nuala.
Writer and activist Natasha Walter joins Nuala  to discuss her  new, very personal  book, Before the Light Fades: a memoir of grief and resistance.   One day in December 2017 Natasha's mother Ruth took her own life.  Natasha overwhelmed, by grief and  guilt  starts to look back through Ruth's history, trying to understand how her life led to this death.   
Last week scientists in America announced that they have taken an important step  in understanding the human genome- our genetic blueprint-  by decoding the Y chromosome which is passed from male parent to male offspring and determines biological sex and fertility. Professor Chris Barratt, head of Reproductive Medicine at Ninewells Hospital and the University of Dundee Medical School explains the implications of this research in relation to male infertility. 
Next to Normal is a Pulitzer prize-winning production currently on stage at the Donmar Theatre in London.  At its heart Diana Goodman is a suburban wife and mother living with bipolar and haunted by her past. We speak to actor Caissie Levy playing Diana and birder and environmentalist, Mya-Rose Craig whose recent book Birdgirl talked about the impact on her and her family of having a mother with the same diagnosis.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

Opener 00:00
Rape 01:20
Natasha Walter 10:32
Y Chromosome Breakthrough 22:23
Bipolar Mothers 30:19

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Scottish rape survivors, Writer Natasha Walter, New research on the Y chromosome and male infertility

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