I am not alone in feeling crestfallen, bewildered and bloody sad at the sight of Serena Williams injecting herself with a weight loss jab in an advert during this year’s Super Bowl.

To hear one of the greatest sporting champions of all time, and my favourite tennis player, say she is moving better and feeling better than ever as she flogs her family’s business (her husband Alexis Ohanian is an investor in and serves on the board of Ro, the company in question) was troubling.

When even the ultra-fit take so-called fat jabs, are we all doomed?

There are people who say it’s her body and her choice, especially after she revealed that she wanted to lose weight following her second pregnancy. But that argument fell apart once she decided to do away with injecting herself quietly and privately in her own loo, and instead star in an advert during one of the most-watched media events on the planet. She has influence. A lot of it. And she knows it.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty, a new analysis this week of private prescription data has made for further grim reading. The Health Foundation, a thinktank, has crunched the numbers and found that despite obesity rates being significantly higher in poorer regions, it is wealthier people living in more prosperous areas who are snapping up the expensive weight loss injections. The stark class divide was revealed once more.

And while it won’t have surprised many, I still felt crushed to see another data point in black and white and hear it come out of my mouth as I read the headlines on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: of the more than two million in the UK on medications such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, spending hundreds of pounds a month to buy them online from private pharmacies, 79 per cent were women. Just take that in.

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I am now just imagining these women in their 30s and 40s, probably not eligible in terms of their weight or health for these drugs to be prescribed on the NHS (although some will be), injecting themselves thinner in their bathrooms up and down the country.

Again – their body, their money, their choice, right? Possibly, and we can duke that out another time. But you know what this really revealed to me? That body positivity – a whole movement only five minutes ago – must have failed for a lot of women.

Yes, the world women move through is still wired against them on so many levels, despite many strides forward. But as Billie Bhatia, the writer and forthcoming guest on my podcast Ready To Talk, says, being fat is still the worst thing a person can be – especially if that person is a woman. And they don’t even have to be significantly overweight. Judgement is shared, comparisons made and feelings of inadequacy abound.

Of course, we don’t help ourselves. We are swamped by filthy conformity on Instagram, listening to what tastemakers and the media say is beautiful and wondering why we don’t fit the bill.

But the media was meant to change. We were meant to change. Body positivity was here. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t. Was it a dream? A mere media mirage for a hot minute, as a magazine would occasionally put a woman in a bigger body on a cover or a label would use a plus-sized model on the catwalk?

And of course it will have done some good, and some women never needed it in the first place – they know their worth and feel valued for their insides and not just their outsides. I wish this for all women everywhere.

Of course, it’s normal in this world that even the most accomplished women can feel rubbish about their bodies. And we also have to deal with a food industry designed to addict us to its products – a reality governments are finally waking up to.

But I still wish it wasn’t so. Sure, desire strength and fitness so you feel good and also look good. But keep it in perspective and remember who you are.

Yet I cannot say I will never take these jabs, because never say never. A doctor only suggested it to me just last week for anti-inflammatory purposes, to potentially help my endometriosis. Some women are trying this right now with no proof either way. But I can say I am pretty sure I won’t take these jabs, and will not be reaching for the Botox needle either.

Partly that’s because I did four years of needles due to IVF and I never want one or any unnecessary drugs near me again.

But also, I have experienced pretty poor health of late – courtesy of endometriosis, adenomyosis and perimenopause. Not a triple whammy I would recommend even to my greatest foe.

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I can’t afford to experiment with any drugs other than my finely tuned Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). But I also want to see this life out in the body I was dealt (which is highly challenging at times) and for that to be OK. Yes, I look at people in much tighter shape than me on the beach and think: wow, you are bloody fit. But I have been weight training for two years now, and am the strongest I’ve ever been. Strength is now the real goal, and being healthy.

While many are fine on these jabs, we still don’t know the long-term consequences. Robbie Williams has reported vision loss and blames the jabs; others say the shots made them depressed. I already wear strong prescription glasses and have fought hard to keep my mind healthy as my oestrogen exists stage left. So: no thanks.

But the tide is turning. Once again, a load of women feel forced to change themselves for the world around them, rather than the world changing to accept them.

Watching… Ballet Shoes, National Theatre  Belated shout-out for this stunning and clever theatre adaptation of one of my favourite childhood books by Noel Streatfield. I took my seven-year-old boy – his first time to the theatre at night – and we were both enraptured. If it comes to NT Live, it will also work on the silver screen. Pure joy, but some hard-hitting truths too. Watching… Balance, Prime and Apple TV Nuns, menopause and feminism – what more do you want? When two nuns, Jain nuns to be precise, start feeling off both emotionally and physically, they don’t know what’s happening. Somehow, they realise they are in the throes of perimenopause. And they are very aggrieved that no one told them about it earlier, and how many women are suffering. This powerful and thorough four-part docuseries is the answer. I love it. Listening to… Impulsive, BBC Sounds This short series packs a punch. My BBC colleague Noel Titheradge has done some important journalism to tell the story of drug side effects. Some of which cause people to develop sex and gambling addictions – with devastating consequences.

Watching… Ballet Shoes, National Theatre 

Belated shout-out for this stunning and clever theatre adaptation of one of my favourite childhood books by Noel Streatfield. I took my seven-year-old boy – his first time to the theatre at night – and we were both enraptured. If it comes to NT Live, it will also work on the silver screen. Pure joy, but some hard-hitting truths too.

Watching… Balance, Prime and Apple TV

Nuns, menopause and feminism – what more do you want? When two nuns, Jain nuns to be precise, start feeling off both emotionally and physically, they don’t know what’s happening. Somehow, they realise they are in the throes of perimenopause. And they are very aggrieved that no one told them about it earlier, and how many women are suffering. This powerful and thorough four-part docuseries is the answer. I love it.

Listening to… Impulsive, BBC Sounds

This short series packs a punch. My BBC colleague Noel Titheradge has done some important journalism to tell the story of drug side effects. Some of which cause people to develop sex and gambling addictions – with devastating consequences.

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