Trans woman leaves role with women's health charity

A trans woman, whose work for a women's health charity was criticised by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, has left the organisation.

Steph Richards was chief executive and later parliamentary adviser to Endometriosis South Coast in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

The 73-year-old posted on X that her departure was "in the best interests of myself, the charity and the vital work it does".

Braverman, the Reform MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, said Richards' charity role was "insulting and inappropriate" to women with the condition, which affects areas of the body around the womb.

Writing to the charity in March, the MP said: "It is remarkable that a charity established to advocate for women's health would appoint a man, without female anatomy or experience of this disease, to speak for those whose suffering is defined by their sex.

"This regressive decision erases women from their own health issues, replaces lived female experience with male self-identification and silences the very people your organisation claims to represent."

In her X post, Richards did not elaborate on the reasons for her decision.

However, she added: "Further to my recent resignation as CEO of TransLucent [a transgender community interest company] and changes in my life generally, an opportunity recently arose to work more closely with Women's Action Network Portsmouth."

In 2023, she said criticism of her appointment as chief executive of Endometriosis South Coast was "transphobic" and she was a "passionate" women's health campaigner.

She told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour: "I was brought in... to raise the awareness of endometriosis full stop and also to raise the profile of Endometriosis South Coast.

"It's pretty amazing that in five days I've achieved that and the vehicle that's done that is transphobia."

The charity's founder Jodie Hughes told the programme: "The CEO of Prostate Cancer [UK] is a female - they can't get prostate cancer."

Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

It can affect women of any age and can cause pain and fertility problems, according to the NHS website.