Hannah Gregson

Background

About Hannah Gregson

Currently working as a Research Associate at the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing (CPFW) at Aston Business school. My research interests and expertise include sociological perspectives of medical harm, gender inequality within healthcare, and defensive medicine, and how these issues interact to shape the everyday lives of patients harmed by medicine. Fieldwork for my PhD explored the experiences of women who had been harmed by transvaginal mesh implants. Through the employment of a mixed methodology of qualitative interviews and diaries, my research demonstrates that although Transvaginal mesh devices can cause significant harm, the suffering of mesh injured women has been exacerbated by their treatment by healthcare professionals and systems. My thesis examines how women experience medical harm and identifies three medical processes through which harm is inflicted: a lack of informed consent, a struggle for diagnosis, and a prolonged dependence on healthcare, all of which are underpinned by gender biases. My analysis extends beyond the clinical encounter and examines the impact of these medical events on everyday life and biographies. My research demonstrates that without appropriate and timely healthcare, mesh injury- both to the body and to wider life- is progressive and cumulative. Before joining CPFW, I worked as a Teaching Assistant within the Sociology Department at the University of Manchester.