In this episode Maria Satchi sits down with Tina Rashid and Tharani Nitkunan to explore surgical leadership, gender bias, motherhood in surgery, and the pursuit of balancing high-pressure careers. For anyone who’s ever wondered if they could lead without losing themselves, this episode offers real stories, honest reflections, and the reassurance that leadership can be both powerful and personal. 

Host: Maria Satchi 

Maria Satchi is a Consultant Urological Surgeon with subspecialist expertise in Men’s Sexual and Reproductive Health. She qualified in 2009 from the University of Southampton in 2009 with a Bachelor or Medicine and Bachelor of Science with Honours degree. She has completed advanced training in male fertility, andrology and genito-scrotal reconstruction during the prestigious competitive fellowship at the Institute of Andrology, University College London Hospital. 

Early in her career she established a regional andrology and male fertility service, introducing advanced microsurgical techniques. In her current practice, she is the Clinical Lead for the Andrology and Male Factor Infertility Service at a tertiary referral centre.  

She sits on professional committees as an elected member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons’ national Andrology and Genito-Urethral Surgery Committee and the Andrology Special Interest Group of the British Fertility Society. She currently serves on the advisory board of Fertility Alliance to improve public awareness and access to specialist care and was selected for the 2024 RCS Emerging Leader programme. She is published in the field of urology and andrology and is a member of the editorial board of Trends in Mens’ Health and Urology. 

Guest: Tina Rashid  
Tina Rashid is a Consultant Urological Surgeon with extensive experience in gender surgery, and one of only a small number of surgeons in the UK practicing exclusively in this field. She leads the NHS gender surgery service at Nuffield Health Parkside Hospital and co-leads the service at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, having previously worked as a consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and St George's University NHS Trust. She has been the National Clinical Lead for Gender Dysphoria Surgery at NHS England since 2022, where she is a strategic advisor focusing on national policy, workforce training, and service expansion.  

A passionate educator, she developed and leads the London Gender Surgery Fellowship Programme—the first of its kind in the UK—and, as a former Training Programme Director for Urology Higher Surgical Trainees, brings significant experience in training, education, and mentorship to support the next generation of surgeons. A Keith Yates Gold Medal recipient who has performed more than 1,500 lower feminising surgeries, she continues to champion equity, inclusion, and compassion within surgical leadership and practice. Her greatest lessons, however, have come from being a mother to two young children, who remind her daily of the importance of patience, perspective, and purpose—both in and beyond the operating room. 

Guest: Tharani Nitkunan 
Tharani Nitkunan has been a consultant urological surgeon since 2013 and specialise in female urology, paediatric urology and HoLEPs. She has been a clinical lead for five years, a BAUS trustee since the beginning of 2025, had various roles in education (foundation year 1 training programme director and member of the urology specialist advisory committee) and audit (BAUS audit steering group). She is a mother to two teenagers and a dog. 

Resources:

• sexism-in-medicine-bma-report-august-2021.pdf 

• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/2808894 

• https://www.urologynews.uk.com/features/features/post/supporting-return-to-clinical-practice 

• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2768006 

• https://publishing.rcseng.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1308/rcsbull.2022.23?mobileUi=0 

Produced by: Andrea Pearson