Margaret McGowan - Women's Health Dietitian at Simply Women's Nutrition

I'm Margaret McGowan an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) and PhD candidate.

I grew up in the Perth Hills, WA and after graduating high school, I moved to Tasmania to study Health Science. During my first year, a nutrition science unit sparked my interest and I realised that many people, myself included, lacked basic nutrition and cooking knowledge.

My passion and desire to share nutrition education with as many people as I could grew as I finished my Bachelor of Nutrition Science at the University of Tasmania. I moved to Wollongong, NSW to complete my Master of Nutrition and Dietetics, and I dived into a research project looking into depression, diet and food addiction, this opened my eyes to the impact nutrition has on mental health. 

Throughout all my studies I found women's health to be under researched, making it difficult to provide evidenced based nutrition advice to women for women's health concerns. A PhD opportunity came up at Monash University looking into polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and lifestyle (diet and exercise) management, so I packed my bags again and moved to Melbourne, where I am currently studying my PhD and practicing online as a women's health dietitian.

Beyond the gap in women's health research, I have my own lived expereinces with trying to manage endometriosis. For as long as I could remember I had mysterious lower abdominal pain which no medical professional could name or management. Over the course of 10 years I saw several different doctors and OBGYNs none of whom even mentioned endometriosis. Using the skills I learnt at university I researched my pain and suspected I had endometriosis, in 2021 I advocated for a referral to an endometriosis specialised and underwent laproscopy confirming my endometriosis diagnosis. After being diagnosed I researched all the ways I could alter my lifestyle to manage my endometriosis.