12 January 2026
Reproductive health
After inviting your proposals for new guideline topics, the Guideline Steering Group is pleased to commission the development of a new BSR life course guideline to support reproductive health in females with inflammatory rheumatic diseases.
There is no other guideline in the world that covers the breadth of topics proposed here. From puberty to menopause, the objective of this new BSR guideline is to provide evidence-based, practical guidance to support a life course approach to reproductive health for females with inflammatory rheumatic disease.
Led by Dr Zoe McLaren and Dr Bethan Goulden, the reproductive health guideline will complement the existing pregnancy prescribing guidelines and seek to address exclusions from other published BSR guidelines where this topic has been considered important, but too big to add. It will utilise collaborative expertise across multidisciplinary and multi-speciality boundaries and will be co-developed with experts by experience, within the parameters defined by the BSR guideline development process.
Recruitment to our new reproductive health guideline working group will begin from April 2026. Sign up now to be kept informed.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Applications are now open for our 2026 pregnancy and breastfeeding guideline working group. This guideline update will be led by Prof Ian Giles and the first meeting will be held in March/April 2026. View the current and of the guidelines here. All applications must be received by 5pm on Friday 6 February.
We are inviting applications from:
- Consultant paediatric and adolescent rheumatologists; pharmacists; nurses; general practitioners. For these health professionals, please apply via email by providing a short personal statement (up to 500 words) and include:
- Your profession and current role
- Your experience supporting people with rheumatic disease around conception, pregnancy and breastfeeding
- Any relevant experience in guideline development/systematic literature reviews
- Membership of any national/international groups or committees related to pregnancy or associated leadership roles
- Why you are specifically interested in this topic and supporting the GWG.
- Patient experts; please also contact us via email to receive a role description and to find out more.
We are excited to make women’s health in rheumatology a key priority for 2026, especially with the Government’s recent announcement that the Women’s Health Strategy will be renewed.
If you would like any further information, please don't hesitate to contact our guidelines team at guidelines@rheumatology.org.uk.