Listener Week: Lipoedema, Third Culture Kids, Sprinting, and the noises men make

Listener Week on Woman's Hour is where we bring your stories, ideas and the issues you want to hear about to air.

Why isn’t more known about Lipoedema? One listener wants to know why there are so few treatment options available, and so little awareness of a medical condition that affects around ten percent of women, and very rarely men. Lipoedema causes a build-up of fat in the hips, buttocks and legs, and sometimes the arms. It causes a disproportionate body shape which can be distressing for women, and can also cause extreme pain and immobility. Kylie Pentelow speaks to Emily Blake, who documents her experiences of Lipoedema on social media, and by Guido Köhler, Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital and Spire Norwich Hospital.

Do men make more noise than women? One of our listeners thinks so and wrote: ‘I am a big fan of Woman's Hour, and I wanted to run this by you. It seems like a bit of frivolity, maybe, but it is blooming annoying, and I started to wonder if there is something psychological behind it: the noise men make when there is no need to make a noise at all. The coughing, sniffing, ‘ahhing’ as they get up and down, the belching, farting etc. It seems to get worse as they get older; or is it that women become less tolerant? Women seem to be silent in a room, but their other half is constantly making some sort of noise.’ Janet Street-Porter and Tim Dowling discuss.

We’ll also be hearing about the experiences of “Third Culture Kids” those who have been raised in cultures that are different to their parents, often educated at international schools, and what it means to their identity. One listener who is a teacher at an international school, has raised her children around the world but now worries about what this means for their sense of home.

Also, where are all the female sprinters? Kylie is joined by a Woman’s Hour listener who is keen to get more women interested in sprinting competitively. She speaks to sprint coach Kerry Dixon, and former Olympian Dr Jessica Piasecki, who is an associate Professor of Female Physiology at Nottingham Trent University, to explore the health benefits of sprinting and how midlife women can benefit from competitive training. Presenter: Kylie Pentelow Producer: Helen Fitzhenry