Nighat is an Ambassador for the women’s charity Wellbeing of Women, and is a member of the UN-backed Team Halo initiative. She received the Point of Light Prime Minister’s Award for her exceptional service to Women’s Health, and was also the recipient of the 2023 Honorary SHE Award for her outstanding work in women’s health. Nighat has just written a new book, titled The Knowledge: Your guide to female health – from menstruation to the menopause. Nighat is a mum to three boys, and lives in Buckinghamshire.
Dr Nighat Arif has worked as a family GP for the NHS for over 15 years, specialising in women’s health. Her ability to consult fluently with patients in Urdu and Punjabi brings a great deal of trust from her community. Nighat is a medical educator and provides teaching to local trainee GPs, as well as at National and International conferences. Dr Nighat also runs her own private women’s health clinic in Hemel Hempstead, in partnership with OSD Healthcare.
Dr Nighat was nominated for the National Bevan Prize for Health and Wellbeing to acknowledge her exceptional commitment to advancing well-being in her community. Dr Nighat has worked to raise awareness on menopause and women’s healthcare in Black and Asian women and presented her clinical work at the ‘Menopause in the Workplace’ Parliamentary committee hearing. She has also worked with Team Halo, a United Nation (UN) initiative, to bring an end to the pandemic and presented at the G7 Global Vaccine Confidence Summit. This led to her being awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science at London City University for Women’s Health, Public Health and Inclusion.
WritingDr Nighat’s new book, titled The Knowledge: Your guide to female health – from menstruation to the menopause, is an extensive guidebook designed to help everyone better understand each of the three key stages of a woman’s life: the puberty years, the fertility years and the peri/menopausal years. It will help you to get to know the female body by explaining what is normal, what to expect, how to care for yourself and when to seek help. The book will tackle many important topics, from the help available for people with conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, to the symptoms of heart disease to look out for in women. It is available to pre-order here.
Dr Nighat has had several papers published and has won awards in the past. Most recently Nighat has written and contributed to British Vogue Magazine, HELLO!, MegsMenopause, Stylist Magazine, OK, Red, Good Housekeeping Magazine and Women in Medicine Magazine. As well as contributed to many books such as Menopausing: The positive roadmap to your second spring by Davina McCall & Dr Naomi Porter, The Complete Guide to POI & Early Menopause by Dr Hannah Short and Dr Mandy Leonhardt, as well her breadth of work in women’s well-being, mentioned in Everything you need to know about the menopause, but were not told by Kate Muir.
Dr Nighat Arif’s natural ability to connect with an audience has not gone unnoticed. After an immense amount of positive feedback, Nighat became the resident doctor on This Morning, BBC Breakfast, and BBC LookEast, updating viewers on the latest medical news. Dr Nighat was seen in 2020 discussing the effects of chillies on our bodies for BBC’s Food Truth or Scare. Dr Nighat is confident in front of a live audience too and has hosted women’s health workshops and keynote speeches.
Dr Nighat is passionate about menopause awareness and making it a less taboo subject for all, but particularly for women for whom English is not their first language. As a doctor for women’s health and healthcare consultant, she made a guest appearance on BBC Breakfast: Wake up to the Menopause and she was also a contributor on the Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Lies and the Menopause.
Dr Nighat is a campaigner for Organ Donation in ethnic minority communities and has appeared on BBC Breakfast to try to encourage more organ donation. She is also very confident on the radio and hosts her own Sunday Breakfast show on BBC3 Counties Radio. Nighat regularly appears as a medical expert and guest speaker on TimesRadio, Talk Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Asian Network and BBC Berkshire.
In addition to her media work, Nighat is also an influencer and content creator via her hugely popular and verified TikTok, Instagram and Twitter accounts (@drnighatarif). Nighat has amassed a large and loyal following on her platform by uploading informative, funny and uplifting content daily.
Dr Nighat Arif is a popular guest expert on several podcasts including HerSpirit with Louise Minchin and Annie Emmerson (receiving over 100,000 downloads), HuffPost Podcast, Surgical Spirit and Sikh Forgiveness podcast, talking about depression, menopause, anxiety, female health and other medical issues that affect us all. She has also featured on the podcast of leading menopause expert and GP Dr Louise Newson (The Dr Louise Newson Podcast).
Nighat is an ambassador of many charitable causes including Wellbeing of Women, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, HerSpirit, and The Lewis Foundation and does a huge amount of work supporting NHS Blood and Transplant. Nighat is a member of Team Halo – an organisation that works in partnership with the United Nations (UN) and the Vaccine Positivity Project to help spread understanding around the vaccination programme.
Dr Nighat is incredibly relaxed and confident on camera and is keen to build on a media career as an expert female GP whilst remaining authentic to her values as a British Pakistani, Muslim woman and mother, navigating and uniting the different cultures in a positive way. She has integrity, substance, humanity and style and approaches life with humour.