Conference Agenda

Between Christmas 2023 and Easter 2024, three school-going girls attempted suicide in my community; one was fatal, the other two were hospitalized for a period of time. This led to a Participatory Action Research (PAR) into the question - what was driving our teen girls to suicide and how could future suicides be prevented? The findings led to the design and implementation of a participatory experiential learning initiative - a Bible based youth club - which meets once a month to learn and discuss issues related to youth suicide prevention. Even though this is a step in the right direction it is not enough to reach specific girls who are currently living with so many risk factors that could eventually lead to suicidal behaviour. Attempts to reach and help these girls change their life course have been met with strong push-back from their family members, the community and even the very perpetrators of the various abuses these girls are subjected to. Tactics used include but not limited to -

1. Silencing and re-victimization of the girl-victims
   1. The community’s tendency to protect the male-abuser rather than the girl-victim
   2. Not making use of systems in place for reporting abuses of all kinds including sexual harassment and abuse
   3. Not making use of the available reproductive health care (RHC); as the dominant narrative within the community is that RHC is bad for a girl’s health
   4. Fear of revenge and exclusion from the community should the perpetrator be brought to book

The above factors and more hinder the work of suicide prevention with vulnerable girls in my community.

Background Menopausal transition is a period of psychological vulnerability, yet suicidality remains underassessed. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may influence mood symptoms, but its mental health effects – particularly regarding suicidality – are poorly understood. Aims To evaluate changes in depressive symptoms, menopause-related distress and suicidality among menopausal women attending a specialist clinic, and explore whether outcomes differed across HRT regimens and baseline risk factors. Method We analysed routinely collected data from 957 women attending a UK menopause clinic. All participants received some form of treatment following their initial consultation. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Menopause Depression Rating Scale (MENO-D) at baseline and follow-up (2–6 months later). Mixed-design analyses of variance assessed changes over time, including interaction effects for HRT type and baseline risk factors (body mass index (BMI), smoking, suicidality, antidepressant use). Results Depressive symptoms and menopause-related psychological distress significantly declined over time (around 46% reduction on average). The largest improvements were observed among women receiving oestrogen–progesterone–testosterone combinations, although similar gains were also seen in oestrogen–progesterone and oestrogen–testosterone groups. Suicidality (PHQ-9 item 9) decreased by 92% among those with baseline ideation, but this was not moderated by HRT type.

Self-worth (MENO-D item 4) also improved, but similarly showed no significant moderation by HRT regimen. Higher BMI was associated with worse baseline mental health, but did not moderate treatment outcomes. Conclusions Combined HRT, including formulations with testosterone, was associated with substantial improvements in mental health outcomes. Suicidality was a distinct symptom profile, often underdetected by general depression scores. However, findings are exploratory and should be interpreted cautiously because of the lack of a control group, observational design and small sample sizes in some subgroups. These results highlight the need for menopause-sensitive mental health assessments and integration of psychological screening into routine menopausal care.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-international/article/improving-detection-and-treatment-of-psychological-distress-during-menopause-evidence-from-a-clinical-hormone-replacement-therapy-cohort/15EB0EBA1F681B5A308B8FE52275EFEE

Young women in Australia experience the most suicidality of any population, with suicide being the leading cause of death for women aged 15-44. Despite this, suicide continues to be framed primarily as a male problem in research and prevention policy. This paper critically examines how gendered assumptions shape suicidology and policy responses to suicide in Australia, for example in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2024-2025. The effect is that it institutionalises male suicide as urgent while rendering young women comparatively invisible. I argue for a reframing of suicide prevention that takes seriously the high levels of suicidality among young women rather than reducing them to a comparator to prioritise men.

This paper examines domestic abuse‑related suicide through the combined lenses of sociological autopsy and slow femicide, arguing that these deaths are not only individual acts of self‑harm but also outcomes of sustained gendered violence and institutional omissions. Sociological autopsy provides a methodological framework for reconstructing the social, relational, and institutional conditions preceding a victim’s death. By analysing Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) relating to deaths by suicide and coronial inquests, this paper traces how domestic abuse shaped victims’ lives, how institutional responses were fragmented or inadequate, and how official accounts often omit the contextual knowledge held by families, communities and indeed the victim themselves.

Slow femicide offers a complementary theoretical lens, conceptualising suicide in the context of domestic abuse as part of an extended continuum of gendered killing. It highlights how prolonged domestic abuse in all its forms, and a structural lack of care and empathy can lead to a victim’s death. This framework demonstrates how institutional narratives can sanitise or simply individualise these deaths, reframing and pathologising them as borne from mental ill health rather than consequences of gendered harm.

Together, sociological autopsy and slow femicide provide a feminist analysis that repositions domestic abuse‑related suicide as a form of gendered violence that is preventable, offering a more just and contextually grounded understanding of responsibility, prevention, and care.

This presentation compares two cohorts of young women in the Netherlands—interviewed in 2006 and 2024—to examine rising rates of suicidal behavior in a Western context. Several factors may contribute to this increase. Over the past decade, rates of psychopathology and internalizing problems have risen, particularly among girls, and these are strongly associated with suicidality. At the same time, young people report higher levels of perfectionism and academic pressure, trends that disproportionately affect girls.

Using qualitative narrative interviews, we explore self-perceived reasons, risk factors, and triggers for suicidality among 18 women aged 18–24 (n=9 in 2006; n=9 in 2024). All participants experienced suicidal thoughts, and half had attempted suicide. Participants were recruited via mental health professionals and local advertisements in 2006, and via Instagram in 2024. The two subsamples were matched on age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis with a mixed inductive–deductive coding approach and constant comparison.

We compare accounts across time to identify qualitative shifts in how young women understand and experience suicidality. Particular attention is given to the roles of psychopathology, internalizing symptoms, perfectionism, and academic pressure in shaping contemporary young womanhood and self-harm.