Her father, Angus Macintyre, was the then rector of St James's Scottish Episcopal Church, Leith.

Having not reached the required height to join a classical ballet company, she went to Chichester College of Further Education to obtain university entrance qualifications.

Macintyre read social theory and administration at the University of Durham, as a member of St Aidan's College, graduating in 1970.

She then did an MSc in sociology as applied to medicine at Bedford College, London, and was awarded a distinction in this degree in 1971.

She undertook a part-time PhD while working as a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen, on the topic of decision-making processes following premarital conception, the degree being awarded in 1976.

[11] Between 2014 and 2016, she co-chaired the expert advisory group advising the Chief Medical Officers of the UK about revised alcohol consumption guidelines.

[13] In this period, she was also a member of the Human Tissue Authority and of the UK Biobank's Ethics and Governance Council.

She demonstrated that many of what were thought to be natural aspects of motherhood were actually highly socially constructed and culturally variable.

[21][22][23] Macintyre has also applied her sociological understandings to a range of emerging contemporary issues, such as HIV and AIDS,[24][25] the development of 'the new genetics',[26][27][28] and food choices, scares and representations of health risks in the media.