158 - Pushing against social and political constraints on women’s health with Dr Heather Hirsch

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Heather Hirsch makes a welcomed return to the podcast this week. Heather is an internal medicine physician, specialising in women’s health and menopause care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston Massachusetts, USA. Her clinical work and research centres on inequalities or unanswered questions in the field of women’s health, specifically in menopause education. In this episode the menopause experts discuss the bigger picture of menopause care as a gender issue, women’s role in society and in the workplace, perceptions of women’s suffering and the menopause as a medical specialty. Louise and Heather share the challenges they each continue to face to educate and inform the public and healthcare professionals on the perimenopause and menopause and the benefits and safety of HRT. Heather’s 3 tips: Know what’s going on in your body by keeping a journal and tracking your symptoms. I recommend the free balance app to my patients for this. List your own priorities and what matters most to you, whether that is your sexual health, your hair or skin, your sleep and so on. Understand the three strands of menopause management: lifestyle changes, non-hormonal treatments and HRT, and know the pros and cons for all to realise what choices are best for you. Follow Heather at: Instagram @hormone.health.doc Website: heatherhirschmd.com YouTube: Health by Heather Hirsch Podcast: Women’s Health by Heather Hirsch

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Louise Newsome and welcome to my podcast. I'm a GP and menopause specialist and I run the Newsome Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre here in Stratford-Bron-Avon. I'm also the founder of the Menopause charity and the Menopause support app called Balance.
0:29.9	On the podcast, I will be joined each week by an exciting guest to help provide evidence-based
0:36.5	information and advice about both the perimenopause and the
0:40.9	menopause. So today in the studio, I'm delighted to reintroduce to you, Heather Hirsch,
0:50.0	who came about a year ago to record a podcast with me.
0:59.4	And she's recently recorded a fabulous podcast for any of you who want to listen to for the News and Health Menopause Society.
1:01.7	And now she's back again.
1:03.0	So Heather is a menopause specialist doctor who works in Boston in USA.
1:09.8	So welcome Heather today. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so glad to be back.
1:14.7	Oh, thank you. So you're doing a huge amount of work, obviously with your patients, but you're also
1:21.0	doing a lot of education as well, aren't you, to really get menopause onto the map.
1:26.2	Like we're trying to desperately over here.
1:28.7	And we've talked at length and we will continue to talk at length,
1:33.3	how hard it is actually to do something that's actually very easy medicine, isn't it?
1:40.1	Oh, yes.
1:40.8	You know, actually, this reminds me I was teaching at Harvard Medical School. That's the hospital that's affiliated with my institution. And I was teaching the medical students about menopause and how important it is. And one of the students raised her hand and she said, well, what special certification do you need to prescribe hormone therapy? And I said, none. She said, well, okay, you know, these are medical
2:03.2	students. So she's like, why is it so hard? You know, what is it about it that makes it that so many
2:07.4	doctors are so confused? And she just hit the nail right on the head. It's absolutely true,
2:12.4	isn't it? Because, you know, those of you listening know that the menopause is due to a lack of hormones. And if I said to
2:19.6	you, Heather, you've got a lack of vitamin D, you'd say, well, give it to me then. I'll have it.
2:24.0	Thanks very much. If you have a lack of iron, you take an iron supplement. It's just endocrinology,
2:29.6	it's hormone medicine. If lack of any other hormones, you just replace. And that's the beauty of endocrinology,
	...

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