John Studd: a towering figure in gynaecology

Outspoken

Studd may have been at his most outspoken in his contention that once child bearing was complete, the female reproductive organs were redundant. The risk of cancer, he argued, outweighed the benefits of natural but inconsistent oestrogen over HRT. He was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council in 1997 for removing a woman’s ovaries without her consent.

But he was highly critical of the medical establishment. He is reported to have dismissed the GMC as a “useless organisation” that had done “a great deal of harm” by attacking “high profile, internationally respected doctors.” The Medical Research Council was a “gold card cabal,” in which researchers looked after one another. He also attacked consultants who had full time NHS contracts but “spent half their time in Harley Street.”

Treasuring his independence, he financed most of his own extensive research from private practice. His forthright views inevitably divided opinion. A retired south London GP said, “I avoided sending him any patients. I just did not like him. But I know that other people were full of admiration for him.”

Studd saw himself as an ambassador of women’s health, women, and women doctors and was deeply upset by criticism suggesting otherwise—especially that he was misogynistic. He had as many women trainees as men trainees.

Early life and career

He had a troubled childhood, His father, Eric, a former professional footballer who had served in the Royal Navy, died from tuberculosis before his first birthday. Young John was billeted out to various friends of his mother, Elsie, while she ran a boarding house. He later recalled how he had been one of many children in one home. They had one bath a week in shared water. As the youngest, he was always the last in.

His life was transformed at the age of 11 when he joined the Royal Hospital School for naval orphans in Suffolk. Physically as well as intellectually formidable, he played rugby and became the East Anglian schools’ heavyweight boxing champion. The school also brought out his softer side, reflected in a lifelong love of music and literature, inspired by his housemaster, Leslie Burbridge, who played classical records in the dormitory. At the age of 17 Studd began reading medicine in Birmingham.

After graduating and completing his house jobs, he opted for general practice in Hay-on-Wye before a surgical stint Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Already free with his views, he fell out with his boss and spent the next two years in gynaecology, a fortuitous move shaping the rest of his career.

On returning to train in Birmingham, he was championed by Hugh McLaren, who enabled him, in 1969—while he was still a junior doctor—to set up Europe’s first specialist menopause and HRT clinic. Four years later, in 1973, he published his landmark paper in The BMJ, describing the Studd stencil, a nomogram defining the expected rate of dilatation in the cervix.

In 1972, as a consultant at King’s College Hospital, Camberwell, London, he became an inspiring but demanding teacher who would call students late at night to ask about their ideas for research, often after returning from the theatre or the opera, which he attended several nights a week. He expected students to develop ideas within 24 hours.

Although his career may have peaked at King’s, his commitment to private practice and admiration of Margaret Thatcher did not fare well in the multicultural neighbourhood of Camberwell. Lured by the promise of a chair at Imperial College, he moved to the newly opened Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in 1993.

The following year he received a doctorate in science in recognition of his accumulated publications, mostly about menopause and HRT. A prolific writer, Studd edited 15 volumes of Progress in Obstetrics and Gynaecology—essential reading for membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

After retiring from the NHS in 2006, he continued to see patients until 2019. In 2008 he received the Blair-Bell gold medal from the Royal Society of Medicine. This is awarded every five years to the doctor judged to have made the greatest lifetime contribution to obstetrics and gynaecology.

Studd spent 20 years on the RCOG council and was a popular president of the obstetric section of the RSM.

In 1980 he married the respiratory physician Margaret Johnson, who rose to national prominence as an HIV/AIDS specialist at the Royal Free Hospital London. Johnson attributes part of her success to Studd and his passionate insistence that she should undertake research. Johnson said, “His family was always the most important thing to him because previously he’d never had a family and he married late. He doted on his children. I couldn’t keep up with him. There was no way I was going to the opera three nights a week.”

Studd leaves his wife and three children.