197 - The problem with medicalising the menopause without HRT

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Advisory: this podcast contains themes of mental health and suicide. In this episode, Jo shares a moving account of her menopause experience before finding the right treatment for her. Struggling with numerous symptoms including vertigo, dry mouth and eyes, joint pain and vaginal dryness, Jo went from not visiting her GP for six years to monthly appointments. After being prescribed a cocktail of medication and spending thousands of pounds on dental treatment to no avail, Jo felt she was never going to get better. She talks to Dr Louise about the effect of low hormones, and the transformative impact finding the right dose and type of HRT had on her mental and physical health. Jo’s three top tips: Download a period tracker, such as the balance menopause support app, to track your periods. This will help you notice any changes and identify any patterns of other symptoms occurring. Educate yourself: try to read as much as possible about the menopause so that you can understand what's happening with your body. Reach out to friends: by being honest and saying how you're feeling, you can help others to open up too.

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.
0:45.6	So today I'm going to introduce to you someone called Joe, who I was introduced to through Dr. Rebecca
0:52.1	Lewis, who's one of our doctors, as many of you know, who
0:54.5	works with us. And she was telling me how inspirational Joe was and how incredible her story
1:00.4	was. And it's not all Rosie, but she's been very keen to be open. And the reason she's
1:06.4	going to be so open is to help other people, actually as many of you know most of my work isn't really
1:11.6	about helping others so they don't have to suffer so welcome joe today thanks for coming onto the
1:16.5	podcast thank you for inviting me thank you so you're sitting there looking very happy very well
1:22.4	but it's not always been a positive journey for you do you mind just summarising? I know there's a lot, but just summarising
1:29.5	a little bit about what happened, if you don't mind. So for me, the first time I was aware of any
1:35.6	issues was in 2015. And me and my husband were in France on holiday. And I had a massive bleed. I thought
1:43.4	I was having miscarriage. I'd always had regular periods. And so I'm out of massive bleed. I thought I was having miscarriage.
1:44.7	I'd always had regular periods.
1:46.9	And so I'm out of the country.
1:48.2	I have this massive bleed.
1:49.3	And I said to my husband, as soon as we get home, I'm going to have to go to the GP.
1:52.8	Now, I hadn't been to see my GP for probably five or six years because I've got no sort of
1:57.2	outstanding illnesses or anything.
1:59.2	And I'm fit them well.
	...

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