Hodgson studied at
Somerville College, Oxford. She worked as a
GP, then performed as a
locum in clinical genetics at
Guy's Hospital, saying she found the subject "irresistible". She became Senior Registrar in Clinical Genetics for the South Thames (East) Regional Genetics Centre and Honorary Senior Registrar at Hammersmith Hospital, London, from 1983 to 1988; then Consultant Geneticist at
Addenbrooke's Hospital from 1988 to 1990. Hodgson is the daughter of
Lionel Penrose and his wife Margaret Leathes and the granddaughter of the
physiologist John Beresford Leathes. She has three older brothers,
Oliver,
Sir Roger, and
Jonathan Penrose. She married
Humphrey Hodgson in 1971. She is a
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. == Works ==