{"id":345,"date":"2026-09-10T10:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T10:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/?p=345"},"modified":"2026-09-10T10:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T10:46:37","slug":"launching-whip-at-the-climatic-physiology-group-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/launching-whip-at-the-climatic-physiology-group-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Launching WHiP at the Climatic Physiology Group Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Dr Jessica Mee<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 1st September, the Female Heat Lab took our newest study out into the wider heat physiology community for the first time, presenting at the Climatic Physiology Group Meeting at King’s College London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting was hosted by King’s Aerospace Medicine and Extreme Physiology (AMEP) research group in association with The Physiological Society, bringing together researchers working across environmental health, thermal physiology, hypoxia physiology, and aerospace physiology and medicine \u2014 from academia, policy and industry, and at every career stage. It’s exactly the kind of room a study like this needs to be heard in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we presented<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I gave an oral presentation with Dr Tessa Flood (University of West London) titled “Including women across the lifespan: building expert consensus in heat physiology research.”<\/em> This wasn’t a presentation of results \u2014 it was a launch. For the first time, we set out WHiP (Women in Heat Physiology) to the room: a three-phase, mixed-methods study exploring researcher practices, perceptions and barriers around the inclusion of women, and consideration of ovarian hormone status, in heat physiology research using human participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WHiP starts with an international survey of current practice, followed by in-depth researcher interviews and an expert Delphi consensus process. The aim isn’t to tell the field what it’s doing wrong \u2014 it’s to understand where practice actually stands, what shapes researchers’ decisions around menstrual cycle phase, hormonal contraception, pregnancy and menopause, and to work towards recommendations the heat physiology community can actually use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We already know heat physiology research has a female representation problem. What’s less well understood is why. Is it a lack of guidance? Practical barriers to recruitment and scheduling? Uncertainty about how to interpret hormonal variability once you’ve collected it? Until we ask researchers directly, recommendations risk being written for a problem we don’t fully understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A team effort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We took the full Female Heat Lab team to King’s for this one \u2014 myself, Olivia Barnes and Emma Lawrence \u2014 and it was as much about the lab as it was about the study. There was a lot of interest in our work from the floor, and the meeting gave Olivia and Emma direct exposure to the wider UK and international heat physiology community, including industry delegates, in a way that’s hard to replicate from inside the lab. Seeing that engagement first-hand, and building their own connections with researchers and industry contacts beyond Worcester, made it a genuinely valuable day for both of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phase 1 of WHiP \u2014 the international survey \u2014 is open now. If you’re a heat physiology researcher working with human participants, at any career stage, we’d love to hear from you. It takes around 20 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take part in the WHiP survey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our thanks to the AMEP research group and The Physiological Society for hosting such a well-connected meeting, and to Tessa for launching this with me. It’s an early step for WHiP, but a good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Dr Jessica Mee On 1st September, the Female Heat Lab took our newest study out into the wider<\/p>\n

Continue readingLaunching WHiP at the Climatic Physiology Group Meeting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-female-heat-mitigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/femaleheatlaboratory.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}