The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

177 - Families, relationships and the power of connection with Julia Samuel

Human beings are hard wired to adapt to unexpected life events but how do we manage this process alongside our natural need to control? Psychotherapist, Julia Samuel MBE has been interested in this question throughout her 30 year career supporting families with grief and bereavement. Julia founded the charity Child Bereavement UK and has worked extensively with families in the NHS and private sector as well as writing books on grief, family, and change.

In this episode, the experts discuss human nature and our response to adverse life events and times of transition. Julia speaks of the importance of love and connection with others and about the impact menopause can have on relationships, family life and work.

Julia’s tips for helping your relationship:

1. Be aware of how you’re communicating in your relationship and look at what has changed
2. Try and form a regular habit like going for a walk together to talk and listen to each other and make time to reflect
3. Be aware of your own inner critical voices and turn down the volume on those. Turn up the volume of self-compassionate voices and practice being kinder to yourself
4. Remember connection with others is key throughout our lives

For more information about Julia Samuel and her books, visit juliasamuel.co.uk

For support and information if you have experienced the loss of a child or care for a grieving child, visit www.childbereavementuk.org

176 - Introducing new Chief Medical Director, Dr Magnus Harrison

Newson Health has recently appointed a Chief Medical Director to ultimately help more women improve their health. In this episode, Dr Magnus Harrison shares a whistlestop tour through his professional life so far as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine via New Zealand, Australia, and Manchester and his experiences in leadership at Stoke on Trent in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust’s ‘adverse mortality’ investigation. Via Harvard, USA and India, Magnus then oversaw the merger of Burton upon Trent and Derby NHS Trusts before the hardest time of his career to date – the COVID 19 pandemic where 8 staff members from his organisation lost their lives.

Magnus discusses with Louise what he hopes to bring to the medical leadership and management of Newson Health and the key values that underpin his mission.

Magnus’s aims for his leadership at Newson Health:

1. I will be humble and led by professional curiosity to learn how to help more women
2. I aspire to be a compassionate leader, will listen to understand, empathise and ask how I can help
3. Kindness is essential and should underpin all that we do.

175 - Mood, mental health and hormones with Dr Clair Crockett

The focus of this year’s World Menopause Day is cognition and mood. In this episode, Dr Louise Newson talks to Dr Clair Crockett, a GP and menopause specialist with an interest in mood, mental health and hormones. Clair’s interest in the topic stems from her own experience of escalating anxiety, low mood and intrusive thoughts in the premenstrual phase of her cycle during her mid-to-late 30s. Through her own research, she looked for ways to help her symptoms including through lifestyle changes, supplements and antidepressants. While these all helped some aspects of her mental health, it wasn’t until she began taking HRT that the premenstrual mental health symptoms eased.

The experts discuss the importance of considering hormones when helping women experiencing mental health problems and outline some of the ways they are working to improve education about menopause and mental health amongst healthcare professionals.

Clair’s tips to women with mental health symptoms in perimenopause and menopause:

1. Track your symptoms and periods, the balance app is a good way to do this. This will make it easier to relay to your healthcare professional when you see them. Ask who has an interest in women’s health in your GP practice so you can see the most appropriate person.
2. Tackling mental health in perimenopause and menopause is multi-faceted, it can take a while to get it right through a combination of taking HRT, your food choices, exercise, and doing work that inspires you.
3. Make peace with your body image and don’t let it stop your progress.

If you’d like to read more about Clair’s personal experience of mental health and hormones, you can read her story here.

174 - World Menopause Day Special with Dr Louise Newson

On World Menopause Day, Dr Louise Newson has recorded this special edition of her podcast on her own. She describes her medical career to date and her reasons for doing what she is doing. She discusses her interest as an undergraduate and postgraduate and also talks about her lack of menopause training during this time.

Louise has a medical degree and also a degree in pathology which is even more relevant when thinking about the menopause as a systemic condition in which the low hormones, especially estradiol, affect all the cells and organs in the body. During this podcast she talks openly about her reasons for setting up a private menopause clinic and how the clinic has enabled her to finance the free balance menopause app and also the free Confidence in the Menopause education programme for healthcare professionals.

She clearly states this is the beginning of her journey and she has much more work to do. It will be very interesting to watch and see how the next year unfolds for menopausal women.

Her three take-home tips are

• Work as a team - communicate with others and share your knowledge and experience
• Ensure information you receive is evidence based - there is plenty of really good quality information both on the free balance app and the balance-menopause.com website
• Be positive – working together to make a change will enable women to have better future health

173 - The challenges of accessing menopause treatment as a young woman

In this episode, Georgina talks openly about her struggles to get a diagnosis for her erratic periods since she was 15. In her early 20s, her concerns around fertility were brushed off and she acknowledges she didn’t have the strength and resolve to pursue the issue. Georgina then began to experience low mood, muscle fatigue, joint pains, hot flushes and night sweats. When her mental health dipped further, this became the tipping point and with the help of a supportive mother, Georgina pushed for a formal diagnosis and treatment for her debilitating symptoms.

Dr Louise Newson explains the impact of premature ovarian insufficiency and the risk a lack of hormones presents to your future health. Georgina shares the struggle she went through to access the right type and dose of HRT and reminds others to advocate for yourself to get the right help.

Georgina’s three tips to young women:

1. Talk openly with other women about periods, sex and vaginal dryness to understand what is and isn’t common
2. Do your own research about your symptoms and the menopause to get enough knowledge to advocate for yourself
3. Be patient with your HRT and give it time to work

172 - Learning to make empowered choices after cancer with Dani Binnington

Dani Binnington was diagnosed with breast cancer as a young mum at 33. For the next few years her life did not feel under her own control amidst countless medical appointments, treatments and surgeries. After discovering she carried the genetic BRCA1 mutation, Dani chose to have a double mastectomy and at 39 she opted to have both her ovaries removed as several family members had died from ovarian cancer.

Previously a jewellery designer, Dani then embarked on a change of direction towards yoga and healthy living, and she now offers programmes for women on menopause after cancer. Dani is on a mission to empower women to learn about their choices, seek out specialist menopause care and her goal is for every women to have the conversations with healthcare professionals that they deserve.

Dani’s tips for women after cancer:

1. Talk about it with the right group of people that understand what you’re going through
2. Make time for yourself to check and understand your symptoms
3. Continue conversations with your healthcare team and ask for specialist menopause care
4. Learn all your treatment options, including hormonal and non-hormonal treatments, complementary therapies, lifestyle management, and how to avoid triggers.
5. Don’t sit back, show up for yourself and be empowered. Be active in your own recovery.

Visit Dani’s website at www.healthywholeme.com

And follow her on social media at:

www.instagram.com/healthywholeme/

www.facebook.com/healthywholeme

The Menopause And Cancer podcast:

Listen here on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-menopause-and-cancer-podcast/id1631842514

Listen here on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3OhAwupemqzdI6sCXCZLSX?si=DsriNnCXSIee6i10Cd4kww

171 - Finding hope with hormones after 20 years of struggling with my mental health

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of suicide

Vanessa had always suffered with PMS and struggled with her mood and emotions after the birth of each of her children. After her fourth child was born, Vanessa’s mental health took a severe turn and she became suicidal. When her husband intervened and insisted she received specialist care, a psychiatrist realised how unwell Vanessa was and this was the beginning of an eighteen year journey of taking medication and receiving mental health support, including spells of inpatient care. It was all Vanessa could do to wake up every day and look after her children. Vanessa had wondered whether her mood was linked to her hormones as she would have 2 good weeks in every month before two bad weeks would inevitably creep in. In more recent years, friends persuaded her to see a menopause specialist and begin topping up her declining hormones and, as Vanessa explains, this has been lifechanging.

Vanessa’s advice:

1. You may not be well enough to go and ask for help yourself, allow family and friends to support you with this.
2. Don’t always accept everything you’re told by healthcare professionals, challenge thoughts and negative attitudes towards mental health and the link with hormones.
3. We develop lots of coping strategies to mask how we are really feeling. Don’t carry on hiding how you really are, speak to someone.

Help is available if you are struggling. Please contact the Samaritans by phone on 116 123, download the Samaritans Self-Help app or email jo@samaritans.org

170 - Recognising and reversing osteoporosis with Dr Taher Mahmud

Dr Taher Mahmud is a rheumatologist from London who has the ambitious plan of eradicating the bone weakening disease osteoporosis by 2040. Osteoporosis is a common disease, particularly for women around the time of the menopause, but with the right nutrition, exercise and hormone supplementation it is possible to prevent loss of bone tissue and even reverse osteoporosis if it has developed.

The experts discuss this worldwide preventable problem and some common misconceptions about bones. The discussion covers the challenges of current healthcare systems in getting accurate information about your bone health and the importance of raising awareness of how preventable osteoporosis is to all individuals.

Dr Mahmud’s tips:

1. Take time for yourself, think about your body and your health and value it
2. It is easy to diagnose osteoporosis and treat it, however…
3. It is far better to learn about your bone health and do what you can to prevent osteoporosis

To learn more about your own risk of osteoporosis, visit www.sticksandstones.org.uk

Dr Mahmud is based at the London Osteoporosis Clinic, for more information visit www.londonosteoporosisclinic.com

169 - The unfair choice for elite female athletes with Janet Birkmyre

Janet Birkmyre began her career racing as a track cyclist in her mid-30s and won her first elite medal at the age of 40. She went on to win three elite National Championship titles and multiple masters World and European titles.  Now at 55, Janet is continuing to improve her times and fitness, and she is a champion of women continuing to enjoy and excel at sport at any age.

In this episode, the conversation covers Janet’s experience of perimenopause and menopause and taking HRT. As an elite athlete however, there are sanctions for Janet if she takes testosterone replacement as there are currently no exemptions to the regulations for therapeutic use in women, only for men. Janet shares her frustration at the unfair choice imposed on her of continuing with the sport she loves and excels in or replacing her low testosterone levels to help with her ongoing menopausal symptoms.

Janet’s three positive steps to improve health through exercise:

1. Enjoy being active – make it fun
2. Exercise with a friend – you will motivate and encourage each other
3. Don’t be self-conscious or compare yourself with others – we come in all wonderful shapes and sizes.

So whatever you look like, whatever you’re wearing, be active and enjoy it!

Follow Janet on Instagram @janbirkmyre_torq_track_cycling

168 - The facts and fiction about menopausal skin with Dr Sajjad Rajpar

Dermatologist, Dr Sajjad Rajpar makes his third visit to the podcast this week to separate the facts from the fiction about skin changes in perimenopause and menopause and debunk some of the messaging around recent skin products marketed for menopause.

Dr Rajpar explains the importance of estrogen for skin and how HRT can prevent and heal damage to skin tissue such as leg ulcers, for example. The experts discuss the negative impact of skin product marketing on initially younger women and now menopausal women, and unpick some perceptions about what a ‘menopausal’ face cream will and won’t do for your skin.

Dr Rajpar’s three tips for problematic skin:

1. For dry and irritable skin, avoid foaming and detergent based cleansers and use very gentle cleansing products or even a moisturising lotion to wash with. They may not lather or bubble but they do adequately remove dirt from your skin.
2. Use a good moisturiser once or twice a day, consider a lotion in the day as it is lighter and use a cream at night.
3. There are creams containing active ingredients that don’t have to rob the bank. Look for ingredients like retinol, vitamin C, and sunscreen.

You can visit Dr Rajpar’s website here www.midlandskin.co.uk and follow him on social media @dr.rajpar_dermatologist on Instagram.