The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

108 - Functional Imagery Training with Helen Pearce

Helen is a Functional Imagery Training (FIT) practitioner and weight loss coach who discovered FIT a couple of years ago and has been helping women to achieve lifestyle changes using this effective technique. FIT is a technique that supports behaviour change using mental imagery.

 

Coming from two decades of research showing that mental imagery is more strongly emotionally charged than other types of thought, FIT gives people a powerful tool to strengthen and sustain motivation to reach goals they value: weight loss, increased physical activity, or better sleep for example, which in turn leads to confidence and increased self-esteem. Women often experience weight gain, lethargy, or low mood around the perimenopause and the menopause which can lead to a negative cycle of poor choices, comfort eating and misery!

 

Living through the pandemic and associated lockdowns with all the extra stresses it has brought has also made healthy living harder for some. FIT uses mental imagery blended with motivational interviewing (a type of empathetic counselling/coaching) to help clients identify the health and fitness challenges they face now and how they would like to feel in the future. FIT is about mindset change, not a diet technique. It teaches people to imagine in a detailed way what it feels like and looks like to achieve their ideal selves and how that will benefit their health, and also benefit the people closest to them. FIT enables people to imagine in detail the steps they have chosen to reach their ideal selves. 

 

Helen's 3 take-home tips: 

 

1. Don’t see change in a negative way. We tend to focus on the things we have to give up when thinking about changes we need to make to lose weight, get fitter, have a more balanced sleep, work, or play routine. But if we can look more at the positive benefits to come out of changes to our lifestyle and plan manageable steps that don’t feel like we are denying ourselves everything we enjoy, the changes will be positive and enjoyable. 
2. Weight gain, along with symptoms of the perimenopause and menopause such as poor sleep, brain fog, or lethargy often leave women feeling depressed and self-critical. We can sometimes feel we have little control over the changes and beat ourselves up over what we may perceive as 'letting ourselves go'. Don’t beat yourself up, acknowledge that it can be a difficult time and it is not a weakness of character or an inevitable slippery slope. Talk to someone, a friend, an expert, a FIT practitioner or coach. You are not alone!
3. Prioritise yourself. In the words of RuPaul, ‘if you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love someone else!’ We are used to putting family and others first and sometimes forget (or just don’t consider) our own needs. Try to put some time into your day when you just focus on yourself, take a walk, read a book, listen to music, but above all take a moment to ask yourself, ‘am I looking after myself? What do I need? How do I feel and how do I want to feel?’ After all, no one else can look after you as well as you can look after you.

107 - Osteoporosis: What is it and how to prevent it, with Prof James Simon

In this episode, Dr Louise Newson is joined by Professor James Simon as they take a deeper look at our bones and discuss osteoporosis: what happens to your bone strength during the menopause, what are the risk factors for developing osteoporosis and what we can all do to try and prevent it. 

  

Professor Simon's 3 top tips for keeping your bones strong and healthy are: 

1. Have adequate calcium from your diet and if you're lactose intolerant (or vegan) you may need to take calcium supplements spread throughout the day. 
2. Take good care of your skin by using sun block and a hat, but try and get the vitamin D you need through time in the sun and from fortified foods. 
3. Do regular weight-bearing exercise that impacts through your bones as you hold your own body weight during the activity. 

106 - Seeing the bigger picture with Men’s Health specialist Dr Jeff Foster

If you have a male partner, this episode is definitely one for them too. Dr Jeff Foster is a GP and Men's Health specialist who shares an interest with Dr Newson in hormones and the effects of them - or lack of them - on our lives and future health.

 

Together they discuss what makes up the specialities of Men's Health and Women's Health, and explain why seeing the bigger picture - one that looks at the whole person - is crucial to understanding and treating hormone deficiencies. Dr Foster discusses testosterone in men and how symptoms of low testosterone can mirror some menopausal symptoms. They discuss the benefits of testosterone on wider aspects of health, and caution is shared about the worrying popularity in some young men to use steroids and newer unregulated drugs such as SARMs.

 

Dr Foster's advice to women is to look at the men in your life and see if they're struggling with similar symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, or low libido, and give them a nudge to speak to their doctor.

 

Dr Foster's 3 tips for men are:

1. If you think you may have low testosterone, fill in the Adam Score which is 10 simple questions that indicate whether this might be a problem. Fill in the Adam Score here.
2. Go and speak to your doctor if you are showing symptoms of low testosterone, don't be tempted to book a testosterone test yourself online.
3. If your test results come back normal but you continue to have symptoms, try and see a Men's Health specialist doctor for further investigation and discussion.

Dr Foster's website is www.drjefffoster.co.uk and you can follow him on social media:

Instagram @drjefffoster

Twitter @doctor_jef

 

The British Society of Sexual Medicine has some useful guidance for healthcare professionals on managing testosterone deficiency, read this here.

105 - Living with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency and starting a family

Emily Fisher had always known her mother experienced an early menopause and was wary the same could happen to her. When she went to the doctors with her concerns, she was merely given the advice to 'have children young', but she wasn't ready to take this step in her early 20s and decided to look into her fertility options. Investigations did indeed confirm her fears and with the help of a fertility specialist with an interest in POI, she was able to become pregnant. 

 

After having twins, Emily suffered with multiple symptoms that could have been explained away as related to post-pregnancy hormones, but she knew there was more to it. Specialists offered conflicting advice on how best to manage her very low mood, brain fog and hot flushes. With the help of a POI specialist, Emily had to advocate for herself to get the right type and dose of HRT, and she's now becoming more confident to talk to family and friends about what she has gone through and about the treatment she takes. 

 

 Emily's tips for young women who may have POI: 

1. Find out your family history, ask your mother, aunties, cousins, grandmothers what age they were when they started menopause. If any of them had it when young, try and speak to a healthcare professional about it. If you're having any trouble getting pregnant, act early and if you can afford it, see a fertility specialist that specialises in POI. 

 

2. Do not give up! If you think something's not right, see another doctor if you have to, or a nurse specialist.  

  

3. Talk to you partner, tell your friends and family. Don't be embarrassed, we need more women to speak about this. Doing this will help you feel less alone.

 

You can follow Emily on Instagram at @motheringandthemenopause 

104 - Mindfulness and Menopause with yoga teacher Claudia Brown

Back for a second time on the podcast, Dr Louise Newson is joined by yoga teacher, Claudia Brown who runs workshops at Newson Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre.  Claudia is an Om Yoga magazine columnist and runs classes, workshops and retreats in Cheshire and the West Midlands. She is currently launching, ‘The Ultimate Wellness Experience – Mindfulness and Menopause.’  She also works with professional footballers, teaching yoga at a number of football clubs!  Together, Dr Newson and Claudia discuss mindfulness, what it is and what it isn’t, why compassion and embodied cognition are so important during your menopause journey, and they discover that Louise is actually an advanced mindfulness practitioner! 
 

Claudia’s 3 Top Tips for your mindfulness practice are as follows, 

1. STOP.  Build time into your day / schedule to stop, breathe, move, and treat it like you would treat an important meeting. 
2. Make an event of it!  When you have decided what works for you (for eg, a mindful shower or a mindful walk) really make an event of it and take in all 5 senses, sound, sight, taste, touch and smell) 
3. BE KIND TO YOURSELF!  Tame that Inner Critic and remember, you can have awareness but without compassion it isn’t mindfulness. 

 

Claudia Brown

Email: claudia@yogabyclaudia.com

Instagram: yogabyclaudia

Facebook: www.facebook.com/yogabyclaudiauk

103 - Dr Radhika Vohra: When will women’s health become a priority?

In this episode, Dr Louise Newson talks to GP and Trustee of The Menopause Charity, Dr Radhika Vohra. Radhika is a GP with a special interest in women's health, particularly the menopause and perimenopause. She is also an educator for GP trainees and other healthcare professionals.

 

Together they discuss the current landscape of menopause care in the UK, the poor profile menopause has in healthcare, training and research and the improved appetite professionals now have for more menopause education. Radhika shares her insights from a women's health perspective and hopes the work of The Menopause Charity will be a voice for everyone.

 

Radhika's 3 hopes for menopause across the globe:

 

1. Greater recognition of the impact of perimenopause and menopause on women's lives
2. More education for women and healthcare professionals alike
3. Better support for women and professionals working with menopausal women.

102 - Melanie Martins: Treat me like a patient but there’s no ’one size fits all’

This episode features a very open and honest account from GP and Newson Health doctor, Melanie Martins. Mel was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 34 and, after a further diagnosis and chemotherapy, found herself 'flung' into the menopause with very little warning or discussion with the health professionals caring for her at the time. 

 

Dr Martins shares with Dr Louise Newson why she believes every woman's experience of breast cancer is unique to them and a 'one size fits all' approach must be avoided. She shares about her own quest for help with persistent and worsening genitourinary symptoms and the psychological process of navigating evidence and making a decision to take vaginal estrogen, when she had avoided contact with this hormone for years. 

 

Dr Martin's 3 pieces of advice for women experiencing menopause after breast cancer are: 

• Read this booklet and listen to the podcasts on menopause doctor website: https://d2931px9t312xa.cloudfront.net/menopausedoctor/files/information/601/Been%20through%20breast%20cancer%20(with%20links).pdf

 

• If you're troubled by vulval and vaginal symptoms, stop using soap or shower gel and use an emollient wash instead. You can buy this over the counter in any chemist. These symptoms tend to worsen over time, don't struggle on and get desperate, seek help for them. Vaginal estrogen is safe, it can be used in the long term, alongside HRT, or on it's own. 

 

• Find accurate information about menopause and treatments after breast cancer. And then make a decision that's right for you and you alone. You need to be at peace with that decision, and remember it's not set in stone forever. We can only make decisions based on the information we have and how we feel at the time, so don't look back with regret about what you did or didn't decide to do. 

101 - Dorothy Byrne: Speaking out about the menopause at work

Dorothy Byrne is the Editor at Large at Channel 4 and was Head of News and Current Affairs for 17 years at the channel. In this podcast episode, she speaks with Dr Louise Newson about her own experience of speaking up about the menopause at work. Dorothy gave a MacTaggart lecture at the TV industry's biggest event of the year, The Edinburgh Television Festival, and received an overwhelming response for talking about the menopause in such a setting.(The lecture is available to watch in full on Edinburgh Television Festival's YouTube channel).

 

Dorothy and Louise also discuss the debilitating effects of some of the long-term consequences of the menopause such as a lack of sleep and osteoporosis, and the challenges of getting testosterone prescribed on the NHS.

 

Dorothy's 3 top tips:

 

1. Go and see your doctor if you're suffering. Tell them you need to know more about your treatment options and get advice. Ask them to discuss HRT with you rather than it being quickly dismissed.

 

2. Not sleeping is a serious lifestyle and medical issue. Don't put up with it, the long-term effects on your health from a lack of sleep are considerable.

 

3. Going through the menopause and being an older woman can be great. You can be more confident, you receive less unwanted attention from men, you don't have to worry about getting pregnant, there are so many upsides. Don't accept the consequences of menopause when you can have another 20, 30, or even 40 years of a great life ahead of you.

100 - Reflecting on Dr Newson’s and Dr Lewis’ achievements for women

Newson Health celebrates its 100^th podcast episode with the Clinical Director of Newson Health, Dr Rebecca Lewis. When Dr Louise Newson began these podcasts with the aim of reaching more women, she didn’t envisage doing more than 10 episodes, let alone 100! 

 

In this emotional episode, Dr Lewis and Dr Newson reflect on their joint menopause mission to help women globally with the perimenopause and menopause, as they talk about how their worlds have dramatically changed from being GPs within the NHS, to owning and running the largest menopause clinic in the world. 

 

Their joint aims for the next decade:

 

1. See more women getting the right treatment for their menopause. Currently, only 14% of women in the UK take HRT despite it holding benefits for many more women. The Newson Health doctors would like to see 60 - 70% of women receive this safe and effective treatment.

 

2. Continue to raise the profile of perimenopause and menopause, not only medically but in society - especially in the workplace.

 

3. Raise the profile of menopause globally; many countries don't have a word for it let alone access to treatment.

 

099 - Kate Muir: I cannot let this happen to other people

Journalist and menopause activist, Kate Muir joins Dr Louise Newson in this podcast episode to discuss Kate's experience of her own menopause journey and what propelled her to make the Channel 4 documentary, Sex, Myths and Menopause.

 

Kate shares how she struggled to find the right information about her symptoms and HRT, and after an unsuccessful spell taking compounded bioidentical hormones, she was shocked to realise how little advice was out there and how limited healthcare professionals' knowledge is of up-to-date treatments. Kate thought if she, as an educated woman with an enquiring mind was fumbling in the dark, how much harder is it for other women from all walks of life to get the right menopause care and treatment?

 

Kate's 3 messages for listeners:

1. Body identical HRT saves your life, it saves your work, it saves your relationships, it makes your body work. It's fantastic.
   
   
2. The research on the long-term benefits of HRT is fascinating. If you're in a family with a history of osteoporosis, heart disease, or dementia, I would be paying very close attention to the evidence on the benefits of taking body identical HRT for your future health.
   
   
3. Tell your story. Every woman has a unique story to tell of their perimenopause or menopause. We need to talk about it more and more.