Iris Pase

Ever felt like you and your partner(s) aren’t quite on the same page when it comes to sex? Maybe one of you is always ready, while another just isn’t feeling it?

Beyond a platform for viral dances and teenage slang, TikTok is a testing ground for a novel form of communication known as “algospeak.”

We sat down for a Q&A with the founder of the Bi History project

Its untapped diagnostic potential could shake up medical science. We meet some of the people who are redefining this previously overlooked biological resource

When Jen Parker was just 10 years old, she started experiencing pain and clicking sensations in her hips. ‘I went from being able to do leapfrogs to not being able to do them anymore and losing mobility,’ she tells Metro.co.uk.
Her GP told her there was ‘nothing wrong’ with her and attributed her symptoms to growing pains, recommending physiotherapy and hydrotherapy, with an X-ray to follow later.
Physiotherapy continued for years, but Jen’s mother was unconvinced. ‘If she put her hand on the...

A desire for offline community and connection is fuelling a resurgence of interest in book clubs in the UK

What if the key to your healing lay in your body?

Self-care note: This newsletter talks about cervical screening and genitals. If you find this distressing or triggering, remember to take it at your own pace. You may prefer to read small sections, wait until you feel ready to read it all, or choose not to read it at all.
Content note: "My first time…" is a series that leverages personal experiences to provide readers with insights into various scenarios. Due to their experiential nature, articles within this series may not fully capture ever...

Ahead of World Menopause Day on 18 October, here are 10 ways that awareness is improving, from the business place to the big screen

The national reoffending rate makes it clear that our current approach to stopping gender-based violence is not working.
By Iris Pase
Walking home with your keys in a fist, sending your location to friends “just in case”, only wearing one earphone so you’re not caught “off guard” – for women worldwide, these “tricks” are part of the informal safety training we receive from a young age.
And, yet, despite our continuous vigilance, gender-based violence is a constant threat. According to the UN,...

As I opened a copy of “It’s About Bloody Time, Period” by BBC journalist Emma Barnett, I realised that the English language has so many euphemisms to describe or, better, to avoid saying the word “menstruation”. Expressions like blood rain, auntie flo, rag week, rusty pipes, and red sea were just a few of the phrases I found.
No matter the wealth of our period vocabulary, however, we still suffer from a sort of reticence when it comes to actually discussing the issue of menstruation itself. F...

If I were to talk about the “gender gap”, most of you would immediately understand that I am referring to the difference between the way men and women are treated in society, culture, politics, economy and more. Some of you might directly think about the “gender pay gap”, which concerns people’s average hourly earnings and how they differ based on gender.
If, however, I started to talk about the “gender pain gap”, I’m sure that I would get more than a couple of confused looks. And this is exa...

Five years to the day that the UK voted to leave the EU, European nationals find themselves at a crossroads. Should we fight to preserve our own exceptionalism – or campaign for a fairer and more humane immigration system for everyone?
In post-Brexit Britain, gone are the days when Germans, Italians or Spaniards could simply board a plane and start their new life in the UK. So much has changed since I first left Italy three years ago, carrying just one suitcase but many ambitions.
As I build ...

“While walking with my baby in the pram, I passed one protester standing on the pavement outside the centre. She tried to hand me a leaflet which clearly had anti-abortion messaging… I spoke to her about what she was doing… She looked into my baby’s pram and said ‘but there’s a reason you didn’t want to murder your own baby’. I walked away and she shouted after me: ‘You are a hypocrite. You knew she was a baby and you knew she was in your womb. Would you kill her too?’”
In a turn of events th...

For The Independent, I've written about Italy's "Gardens of Angels", cemeteries where thousands of fetuses are buried every year by Catholic anti-choice association Defending Life with Mary (Advm) - all without the parents knowing.