The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

257 - Oestrogen, your heart and the menopause

This week on the podcast Dr Louise is joined by Dr Felice Gersh, who is double board-certified in OB-GYN and Integrative Medicine, and specialises in female health, with a focus on managing female hormonal dysfunctions.

She is the author of the book PCOS SOS: A Gynecologist’s Lifeline to Naturally Restore Your Rhythms, Hormones, and Happiness, and recently published a paper on oestrogen and cardiovascular disease, and a 2021 paper on HRT.

Here she talks about the family of oestrogens and the important role of hormones on the heart. Finally, she shares three tips on improving heart and whole body health:

1. Eat a lot of phytoestrogen-containing foods - so every kind of plant in all the different colours, including beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables. They are nature's gift to us.
2. Sunlight is like happy medicine. Try to get sunlight in the morning, midday and watch the sunset every chance you get. This will help you to sleep better, make more serotonin, and help to set your master clock in your brain, which tends to drift when we lose our oestrogen production.
3. Move. Your fitness status is more predictive of healthy longevity than your blood pressure. Think of your fitness, strength, flexibility and balance as a critical part of your life so get active in every way you can.

You can follow Dr Felice on Instagram @dr.felicegersh and Facebook @felicegershmd.

Click here for more about Newson Health.

256 - Spreading the word about menopause care in the US, and beyond

This week Dr Louise is joined by Aoife O’Sullivan, a family medicine doctor who trained in Dublin before completing a second family medicine residency at the University of Maryland.

 

After taking some time out to complete extra training in perimenopausal and menopausal care, including Newson Health’s Confidence in the Menopause course, Dr Aoife is passionate about providing more comprehensive and holistic care to women during midlife.

 

Dr Aoife share the ways clinicians, and all people, can educate themselves in order to improve the health of women in the US, and across the world:

1. Take every opportunity to learn and educate. So join any local healthcare Facebook groups and pass on links to the Confidence in the Menopause website, the balance app, etc. Even if you reach one or two people like that, it will make a difference and they might reach another one or two people.
2. Share small bites of information because it can be a little overwhelming. So when you're trying to reach somebody, give them small amounts of information at a time.
3. Harness the power of friends. If everyone informs their friends and they all go to their doctors, obstetricians, gynaecologists and urologists, and ask questions, it will fuel discussion and increase knowledge.

You can follow Dr Aoife on Instagram @portlandmenopausedoc

Find out more about the Confidence in the Menopause course and click here for more about Newson Health.

 

 

255 - Mental health issues and hormones: introducing Newson Health’s psychiatrist Dr Louisa James

This week on the podcast Dr Louise is joined by a new colleague, Dr Louisa James, a psychiatrist who has recently joined the team at Newson Health.

Dr Louisa’s personal experience of the menopause prompted her to learn more about the impact of hormones, and incorporate her knowledge in her role as an NHS consultant psychiatrist in a home treatment service. Here she discusses the importance, and power, of asking patients about their hormones during a psychiatric appointment.

Finally, Dr Louisa shares her tips for thinking about your hormones alongside your mental health:

1.Consider whether this feels different to any previous episodes of depression you may have experienced or if your symptoms are fluctuating. Some women have suicidal thoughts or are depressed at certain times of the month. Track your symptoms and look at the fluctuations.

2. Your history can affect your menopause. If you’ve had an episode of postnatal depression or PMDD, then you're more likely to experience mental health difficulties in the perimenopause.
3. How do you feel about your life? Lack of joy rather than a sadness, the emotional lability, is often greater with a hormonal mental health problem whereas irritability, rage and impulsiveness can be greater with mental health problems.

Dr Louisa James is now offering consultations to existing Newson Health patients. Click here for details.

 

 

254 - Dr Louise’s new paperback book: what’s new and who’s it for?

This week is a celebration of Dr Louise Newson’s new paperback book, a revised and updated version of the bestselling The Definitive Guide to the Perimenopause & Menopause. Dr Louise is joined by Kat Keogh, who worked on the book with her and is the head of editorial at Newson Health and across the balance website and app.

Here Kat turns the tables and asks Dr Louise the questions, discovering why the subject of HRT doses warranted more attention in the book, the importance of hearing directly from women experiencing the menopause as well as experts in their fields, plus how Louise felt sharing her personal experiences.

Finally, Dr Louise shares three reasons she thinks people should buy the book:

1. The bright yellow cover is uplifting, and when you’re happier you’re healthier.
2. It’s packed with information so you’ll learn something that will either help you or a loved one.
3. Increasing awareness of hormones, perimenopause, menopause, plus PMS and PMDD will help women feel less lonely, more included and more listened to.

Pre-order the paperback book here

Click here to find out more about Newson Health.

 

253 - Coping with the perimenopause when you’re a carer

This week on the podcast, Dr Louise is joined by Tova Gillespie, a working single parent to two daughters, one of whom has severe disabilities and complex medical needs. Here she talks about the challenges of being perimenopausal while being a carer and how it’s easy to not recognise or understand your symptoms.

 

Louise and Tova discuss how it’s easy for your own needs to end up at the bottom of the to-do list when you’re a carer or have a busy family life, and Tova shares three tips for anyone who may not be looking after themselves:

1. Learn to ask for and accept help. People want to help, but very often they don't know how to offer it and our usual response can be ‘no, I don't need anything’. Instead, say straight out: ‘Please do my washing up. Or I have five loads of clean laundry that needs sorting. Or can you bring over some food?’ Anything really.
2. If your health isn't what it should be, go to your GP. When you ring your GP, ask for an appointment to talk about perimenopause and hormones. They’ll know from the get go what it is you're after and if they have anyone in the clinic with an interest in that area, they’ll put you in with that person.
3. Try to see the good every day. I do gratitude journalling, where I write down a minimum of three positive things that have happened that day, and they're not big. It could be the sun is shining. It could be the taste of that first sip of coffee in the morning. I train myself to look for the positive because it's so easy to get overwhelmed in the bad stuff.

Learn more about Tova on her YouTube channel. Or follow her on Instagram @parentXP

Click here to find out more about Newson Health.

252 - Bryony Gordon: mental health, hormones and witchy magic

This week on the podcast, journalist Bryony Gordon, bestselling author of several books including her latest, Mad Woman, explains how the perimenopause caused her to reconsider her mental health. Was her experience of OCD affected by her hormones and what would society look like if women’s health was taken more seriously?

Bryony shares her belief that there’s a 'witchy magic' to menopause and that the issues it brings are the ones that you need to deal with and there is power in doing so.

Finally, Bryony shares three bits of advice to any woman being dismissed with 'it’s just your hormones':

1. Don’t dismiss yourself. Don’t discount your point of view or feelings just because they are yours. Maybe sometimes you're right, maybe sometimes you're wrong - that's OK.
2. It's OK sometimes to be bad. We all are. It’s just society wants us to live as women in a way that isn't very human.
3. Confidence is a trick. No one has confidence. I don't have confidence. I just have a will and a desperation not to spend the rest of my life hating on myself because it's such a waste of energy.

Follow Bryony on Instagram @bryonygordon her community organisation @Mental Health Mates

Click here to find out more about Newson Health.

251 - Kate Muir: everything you need to know about hormones but were afraid to ask

This week, Dr Louise is once again joined by journalist and activist Kate Muir, who made the Davina McCall documentary Sex, Myths and the Menopause. In Kate’s new book, Everything You Need to Know About the Pill (but were too afraid to ask), she turns her attention to the hormones commonly used in the contraceptive pill.

Kate shares personal stories of how women have been negatively affected by synthetic hormones and uncovers the bad science and patriarchy that have had such an impact on women’s health. She also offers hope that women have options and can demand change.

Finally, Kate shares three things every women should know about hormones and the pill:

1. Progestins are not all the same. Some of them are androgenic and some of them are oestrogenic, and they have very different effects. So, women can be on the wrong pill for them.
2. You can always take a pill holiday. There's nothing wrong with taking a few months off and seeing how you feel. And you may be a different person, or there may be other reasons for why you are in that state of mental health.
3. There needs to be more research into every bit of what synthetic hormones do in our bodies, and particularly in our minds.

You can follow Kate on Instagram at @muirka and on @pillscandal

Click here to find out more about Newson Health.

250 - Testosterone: the missing piece of the jigsaw?

This week we mark 250 episodes of the Dr Louise Newson Podcast!

And joining Dr Louise this week is Anita Nicholson, a nurse practitioner and menopause expert at Age Management Center in the US, where she aims to help patients lead the best quality of life for as long as they can.

Here, Dr Louise and Anita compare notes on the attitudes towards testosterone in the UK and the US, share their clinical experience of the benefits it can provide women, particularly in restoring their zest for life.

Finally, Anita shares three things she thinks could make a huge difference to women's health:

1. Women need to educate themselves. They have to be their own advocate.
2. I would love for hormones to become available and affordable. In the US, we don't even have vaginal oestrogen covered by some insurance here, never mind over-the-counter access.
3. More education of healthcare providers. So have a fellowship in menopause. Let's start very early with med students and nurse practitioner students so they understand that menopause and sexual medicine is very important for our life span and our health span.

You can follow Anita on Instagram @menopause_agewellfnp and the Age Management Center on Facebook /AgeManagementCenter and YouTube /@agemanagementcenter.

Click here for more information about Newson Health

 

 

249 - Dr Mary Claire Haver: on a mission to demystify menopause

In this week’s podcast Dr Louise is joined by Dr Mary Claire Haver, an obstetrics and gynaecology doctor and a menopause specialist in the US. Dr Louise and Dr Mary Claire discuss the challenges of ensuring all women have access to evidence-based information and treatment, and their hopes for change.

Dr Mary Claire shares her three tips to help menopausal women improve their health:

1. Really focus on your nutrition. Make sure you're getting adequate fibre in your diet every day. Fibre-rich goods are good for you gut microbiome, help you stay full for longer, and are good sources of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
2. Limit added sugars – those that are added in cooking and processing - to less than 25g per day. Women who do that consistently have less visceral fat. Visceral fat is tied to increased risk of chronic inflammatory diseases.
3. Don't just focus on cardio for your movement. You really need to keep your muscles strong so at least two days a week pick up some weights. Multiple studies in menopausal women show much better outcomes for osteoporosis with resistance training.

You can follow Dr Mary Claire on Instagram at @drmaryclaire

Click here to find out more about Newson Health

Pre-order the revised and updated paperback edition of Dr Louise’s Sunday Times bestseller The Definitive Guide to the Perimenopause and Menopause here

 

References to studies discussed in this week's episode

J Gen Intern Med 2006; 21:363–6

J Gen Intern Med 2004;19:791–804

Am J Med 2009;122:1016 – 22

JAMA 2004; 291:2243 – 52

Int J Cardiol 2010;138:25 – 31

Urology 2024; Jan 29:S0090-4295(24)00006-2

248 - The menopause brain: why it might be feeling strange and what you can do about it

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast is celebrating two huge milestones this week: not only is the podcast five years old, we’ve hit six million downloads since Dr Louise started her podcast back in March 2019!

Making a welcome return to the podcast this week is world-renowned neuroscientist Dr Lisa Mosconi, PhD. Her new book, The Menopause Brain is released on 21 March and in it Dr Lisa shares some of the fascinating changes that occur to the brain during menopause.

In this episode, Dr Lisa explains how our understanding of the importance of hormones’ role in the brain is relatively new – man was walking on the moon almost 30 years before scientists realised that the hormones that play an important part in ovarian function also have a fundamental role in the brain.

She explains that she wrote her book to empower women with the information they need to navigate the menopause – by understanding why your brain might feel foggy and the science behind it, she hopes to reassure and enlighten.

You can follow Dr Lisa Mosconi on Instagram @dr_mosconi

Click here to find out more about Newson Health