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Associate Professor Gemma Sharp
Associate Professor Gemma Sharp, Head of the Body Image and Eating Disorders research group in the Department of Neuroscience, has received an Early and Mid-Career Researcher Award from the AHRA Women’s Health Research, Translation and Impact Network (WHRTN).
The AHRA WHRTN Early and Mid-Career Award aims to strengthen the career development of women working across the breadth of women’s health research, developing leaders in the area and delivering impact and better health for Australian women. The network launched in 2021, following an investment of $5 million from the Medical Research Future Fund.
Associate Professor Sharp will use the funding from the award for a project to co-design new treatment resources with people with a lived experience of eating disorders. The resources will specifically address and cater for the biological and psychological needs of women in menopause enabling them to get access to the support they need.
Women are at particularly high risk of eating disorders in the lead up to and during menopause. This may be the result of hormonal changes leading to alterations in appetite and weight. The prevalence of eating disorders for women in mid-life is 3.5 per cent. Nevertheless, eating disorder treatment services are often oriented towards adolescents and young adults.
“I’m very grateful for this support. It’s notoriously difficult to receive research funding for people experiencing eating disorders in mid-life or who have long-standing eating disorders. This is a great step in the right direction,” said Associate Professor Sharp.
The project, ‘Perimenopause and Menopause Considerations in Eating Disorders: Co-Designing a Novel Treatment Program’ will be conducted with community support organisation, Eating Disorders Victoria and the Alfred’s new Statewide Women’s Mental Health Service.
Associate Professor Sharp is a Senior Clinical Psychologist and Research Lead at the Statewide Women’s Mental Health Service. Her research group focuses on understanding the causes of body image-related disorders and developing novel treatments for these disorders.
To learn more about this work, Monash University invites you to attend a hybrid public lecture by Associate Professor Sharp on 7 September titled, ‘It’s time for change: New perspectives on Body Image’. You can register here.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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