Amani Maidi (31 years old) won the Ph.d Cup competition among five young researchers in front of a judging panel and a packed hall at the DR auditorium. She also received praise from the judges for being good at engaging the audience in her presentation. The three judges are:
Anja Andersen, Professor of Science and Technology, Jesper Petersen, Minister of Education and Research, and Vicki Knudsen, a biologist and host of the P1 Wildly natural program, started the PhD Cup competition in 2013 in cooperation between Information and DR, with the support of the Lundbeck Foundation. Amani Maidi won the cup and the cash prize of 50,000 kroner.
In her medical research, Amani Maidi studied the side effects of the drug tranexamic acid.
In exactly three minutes, Amani Maidi presented her three-year research on a drug given to women with excessive menstruation. Amani praised the vast resources available in the health records in Denmark. The records were essential to her study of tranexamic acid, a well-known treatment for excessive menstruation in women. It has been used since the 1960s and quickly stops bleeding by clotting the blood in the uterus. However, tranexamic acid also works elsewhere in the body and can clot the blood in any organ, such as the heart, which can cause a blood clot.
Drug side effects are usually categorized as very common to very rare, but the frequency of blood clots with tranexamic acid use is not yet known.
“As a doctor, our biggest task is to balance the pros and cons of treatment, and there are side effects to all medical treatments,” said Amani Maidi. “But it is difficult to make a decision with peace of mind and with the patient’s consent if one cannot determine how often the side effects will occur.” She added, “Fortunately, my study showed that blood clots are a very rare side effect.” She also explained that up to 80,000 women would have to be treated to see a single blood clot, which might be due to the treatment.
According to Amani Maidi, research shows that women who suffer from excessive menstruation experience a reduced quality of life. Symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, and shortness of breath, and the condition can hinder their work and social lives. The vast majority of women who suffer from this are menopausal.
Amani Maidi’s research is based on women who received tranexamic acid several times a day for several days as part of treatment against excessive menstruation.
outstanding student
It is worth mentioning that Amani Maidi achieved a score of 13.1 in the high school results, and the media at the time talked about her excellence, which also qualified her to work in the gynecology clinic at Hvidovre Hospital at a very early age, and she was the youngest student to be employed there.
Amani said she would use the prize money to pay off a mortgage on a house she and her husband bought for her parents, so they could be closer to them and she could help her parents care for her children. Amani lives in Hillerood and works as a doctor at Hvidovre Hospital on the outskirts of London.
