The Dr Louise Newson Podcast - 129 - Taking a mid-life career leap to help menopausal women with Gaele Lalahy

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

Gaele Lalahy had a successful career in consumer electronics as Board Member and Head of Brand Communications & Olympic marketing at Panasonic. Having been with the same company for two decades, Gaele became fearful of not having tried a different career, so she decided to take the leap and leave her job without a plan in place. When the opportunity came up to run Dr Louise Newson’s balance menopause support app, it didn’t immediately grab Gaele’s interest because, as she admits, she knew nothing about the menopause or the scale of the problem facing women. After doing her own research and realising hundreds of thousands of women were suffering and struggling to get treatment, Gaele came on board as the Chief Operating Officer for balance at the start of 2021. Since then, the app has grown ten-fold and is really helping to change the narrative around perimenopause and menopause and empower women with the information they need to get help from their local GP practices. Gaele shares some of the remarkable statistics that show how the app helps women get a diagnosis and treatment more efficiently, and she discusses plans for the app’s future that will make even more of a difference to people’s lives. Gaele’s 3 reasons to use the balance app: The balance app is a safe space to share and get support from like-minded people who also going through the peri/menopause. All the information on the app is very easy to digest, all medically approved and based on the latest evidence. Come to the app to figure out what is going on with your body and mind and join the dots. You will learn more about the many changes you may be experiencing and can then use this insight in discussions with your doctor to get a diagnosis and treatment. Find out more information about the balance app on the balance-menopause.com website here. Read about balance for healthcare professionals (HPs) or share with your HP on their website here. Look out for balance+ coming in early 2022!   You can follow the balance app on their social platforms at: Facebook @balanceMenopause Instagram @balancemenopause Twitter @balanceMeno LinkedIn @balance-app

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 well-being centre here in Stratford-Bron-Avon. I'm also the founder of the Menopause charity and the Menopause support app called Balance. On the podcast, I will be joined each week by an exciting guest to help provide evidence-based information and advice about both the perimenopause and the menopause. So today with me in the studio I have someone who I've not long known actually called Gail, but actually I speak to her at least once every day, I think, and email certainly more

than once every day. So welcome to the podcast, Gail. I'm very happy to have you here. So some of you, hopefully all of you listening, know that I've been working very hard behind the scenes actually to develop a free Benipause app called Balance, which we launched, well, about 18 months ago now. And Gail was introduced to me by someone who we both know to become the COO of Balance. And I was delighted that she accepted. So I just really thought it would be really useful for you to be introduced to Gail. And she can tell you a bit about her story and her background because it's not from healthcare,

actually and certainly not from menopause either. Gail, just start off telling us a bit about your background before we met, if you don't mind. Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for having me in this podcast. I've been dreading the day that you would ask me. So the day has come, so I couldn't say no. Of course, I can never say no to you. You know that. So, yeah, my background is completely, completely remote from startups, from healthcare

professional. I actually have a 20-year experience in consumer electronics, where I kind of worked in my background is digital marketing and then climb up the ranks within Panasonic who really, really treated me super well with an amazing career, international career, where I could indulge my passion for Olympics, Panasonic is a global Olympic partner and for Japan. I studied a postgraduate in Japanese and Japanese economists, of course, working with a multinational global company, a Japanese company, was just amazing. So I climb up the rank, you know, fulfill my dream.

becoming kind of head of comms and brand, run the global campaign for Olympic during London 2012, took charge of a techniques brand, brought in and developed the Lumix brand in the UK when we introduced cameras in the UK and then took full charge of the Panasonic brand, kind of itself, running a team of more than 30 people across digital, PR product, comms, etc.

And after a 20 years kind of career, I decided to jump. I decided to jump because the fear of not knowing where to go, the fear of becoming maybe stale or becoming something that I didn't want to become was bigger than the fear of jumping. So lots of people say, oh, how courageous this is. But actually, it's not driven by courage. It was driven by fear.

So I decided to jump without anything, without any plans. And it was amazing. I mean, a lot of my mentor, a lot of my friends they told me to remain in that space for as long as I could, having conversation with people, trying to feel what I wanted to do, what I was good at. And so I put a lot of keywords on a sheet, and I started to call people, and startup came up,

and making the difference came up. And so I started to pick up the call, and I picked the call to Andrew, which is a person we have in common. And after a few months, he calls me back and say, oh, I think I've got something for you. I've met this amazing woman. She's got this app.

I think you'll be brilliant. I say, wow, some amazing startup tech. I had done a lot of work with startup in Panasonic to bring innovations in marketing. So it sounded really exciting until he told me it's something to do with the menopause. Oh. And I think this is probably the reaction that most people have. You know, it's such a big taboo. It's such a word that you really don't want to be associated.

with, it took me a really, really long time to actually even answer or tell him, yes, no, or nothing. I'll just completely shut down. I said, just forget about what he said and just keep looking in the cool stuff. I wanted a cool job in sports, in marketing, with a big brand. What is it talking to me about the menopause? And I think, unfortunately, this is a little bit what then I have found in the topic that is such a big taboo, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And it's very interesting. So this person, Andrew Humphreys, who I am going to get onto the podcast at some stage in case he's listening. He's not going to get out of it. I met him about four or five years ago. So menopause was even more

of a taboo then. And I was at an event, actually, and we started talking about the menopause. And I was talking to someone from ACSA healthcare, trying to understand why menopause isn't insured? As you know, it's not covered as private insurance. And I spoke to this guy who's very high up and he just laughed in my face and said, why on earth would you cover menopause? Menopause is just women who winch really. And I felt like I wasn't drinking, but he had a very big bals of red wine and I felt like pouring it over his head. And I didn't, but I said, I'm not going to carry on this conversation because you clearly don't understand the menopause. So I turned away and the next person I spoke to was lovely Andrew, who said, you look a bit harassed. I said,

yes, I just had this awful conversation, but it doesn't matter. I'm just going to leave, I think. He said, no, tell me more about what you do. So I said, well, I'm just a menopause doctor and he said, oh, that's interesting. And he then seemed to understand, actually, what the menopause meant and what it was like to experience some symptoms. And so I thought, gosh, he's an understanding man and he gave me his card. And I went back to the clinic and the next day I saw Rebecca, who you know, who's a director with me and a really good friend.

And I said, Rebecca, I've met this guy called Andrew and he's going to help me somehow. I don't know how. And he doesn't know it yet, but it's going to happen. And it was really interesting, but it takes a couple of years of seeing him a couple of times. And then finally, he said to me, Louise, you've got this app. I'm quite interested in that. And I said, well, it's really at the beginning. I don't know what we're doing with it.

But I just know that we really want to reach as many women as we can globally. And some of my mentors have said to me, Louise, slow down. You can't help everybody. And I said, of course I can. But I can't do it just on my own. So technology is the way to go, isn't it, when you want to reach lots of people? So then when the rap got bigger and I said to Andrew, how can we expand?

We need somebody to run it. This is out of my comfort zone. He said, oh, I have a thing. I think I know someone, and it was interesting because he said she's got all the skills you need apart from she knows nothing about the menopause. And I said, well, that's not a problem because she'll soon learn.

And it was fantastic actually. When I first met you, we did a, it had a little interview over Zoom because it was in the middle of one of the numerous lockdowns. And you told me that you'd actually, she's spoken to a doctor to try and get treatment. Yes, because I couldn't believe you. When I met you, I couldn't unhear what I heard from you.

It was just stuck in my head and said, she's saying that, she's saying that, she's saying that, that looks amazing, you know, that looks like a fight I could take. I was really fired up, but I said, but I need to double check. I can't believe everything she's telling me. It can't be such a big problem. It can't be that no one noticed, you know,

so many women being ignored and women dropping off the workplace and women not being treated and so many women being misdiagnosed or women being refused HRT because a misconception that is giving breast cancer. So indeed, I call my doctor and I'm sorry, I hope no one's going to make the connection between me and my local surgery because I'm going to be told off. But I did call my doctor and say, I've got this and these symptoms. Of course, it was not true. And here I had it.

live on the phone my doctor saying, you're asking for HRT, but you know it's been well known to be associated with increased risk of breast cancer. So I put the phone down, I dialed in Andrew and said,

okay. She's right. Let's move forward. So that was really the point where I discovered that I wanted to, you know, I was amazed of that solo fight you'd been fighting on your own and say, I want to be a soldier. I want to help. There's something there.

Yeah, which is incredible, isn't it? And I think, you know, there's a lot of amazing work being done by all sorts of people in the manifolds. But my frustrations is it's not done well enough and it's not done quick enough. And every day we delay, we're doing millions of women and misservice actually. And this has gone on for decades. And so it's generations now of women who are suffering and not just personally suffering, but professionally suffering or their families are suffering, their loved ones are suffering. But more importantly for me as a doctor, their health is suffering. And it's absolutely scandalous, barbaric, despairing, actually, what's been happening. And so it's great to be able to have this platform where we can really educate and empower

people with evidence-based knowledge. And I think, you know, what I really love, Gaila about you is that your integrity is very good, but also you want to set the really good foundations, which is so important. And it would be very easy to fly off on one direction and then it all just fall over. Because I think the pace of technology is so fast now, isn't it? And there are so many ways that you can do things. But when you started with us, you very much pulled everything down and slowed it down really, didn't you? Which I think was really important. because it's a big doubt to try and reach 1.2 billion women across the world. Yeah, yeah, it is.

And again, this is so inspirational and people need to watch us. That, you know, people who believe that we can't help everybody. But yes, of course, with drive and passion and technology, you know, we will. That's our mission. And this is why we're keeping head down. But going back into what we've done at the very, very beginning, of course, I was entrusting this magnificent app that, you know, came out of your brain. reason because you knew exactly what were the hurdles.

You know, you see those women every day in your clinic, so you knew exactly where were the pain points. And I mean, the fact that it's, you know, the diagnosis is the first pain point, joining the dots and, you know, knowing that despite the fact that a quarter of women suffer severe symptoms, but 77% do not realize that their symptoms are due to the perimenopause was the first thing to do, right?

That woman realized and put the dots together because, as we know, sometimes their GP, doesn't bring the dots together either. So that was the first thing you've done. I think that what the app is doing so beautifully. And on the recent app, we know that 85% of women on the app have managed to get a diagnostic much, much faster. Again, we know that the other point is not only they don't join the dot,

but it can take up to 10 appointments to get a diagnosis. It can take 44% of women more than one year to get an appointment. So I think this is what you've built in the app, because you understood all of that exactly how it could help. So I've narrated all of that. I'm not taking any credit for this beautiful, beautiful and useful product. But I think what we've done is kind of, okay, how can we, as you said, build a foundation? How can we gain credibility?

How we can organically grow? Because, of course, we are privately funded. So I could be, you know, throwing a lot of money in advertising. But actually, that's not the point. For us, was more important to gain the credibility, to work with the medical profession. So this is the first thing we've done, actually, gain accreditation from Orca, who kind of certifies apps for the NHS actually, so that where women are coming with their issues,

then they can be the right tool there. So we gain this accreditation, and we're working with healthcare professionals to make sure that in consultation rooms, in GP practices, there's information there are available about the app posters, etc. So that was very, very important to do, and then just finding every organic way we could find

signpost women, you know, fish where the fish are really, where are those women going and how can we signpost it? And it worked. It worked really, really well. We've gone the app 10 times since I've joined in less than nine months. We were in tens of thousands when I joined. We are now in many, multiple, hundreds of thousand women that we're helping it every day. And we still haven't spent the pain in direct advertising. Which is amazing, isn't it? You know, I think when I say to people, we have over 330,000 active users and it's increasing all the time. but we haven't spent a penny on advertising. For me, the positive side of me would say,

haven't we done well? But the realistic side of we would say, isn't that dreadful actually? That women are so desperate that they're finding and coming. But what we're also providing on the app is, like you say, a way that women can diagnose and sort of have that light bulb moment

about what's going on with their hormones. But also they're given quite individualised information. So when you sign on to the app, it will ask you some questions, which can be quite liberal. borious to go on. I know when I first joined, I was like, oh, I just want to get through to it. But actually, it's very clever because if I go on and say I've had a hysterectomy, it's not going to tell me about progesterone. It will just tell me about, you know, which type of HRT I might need and

surgical menopause. And so the information on it is very tailored, which I think is really important. But also there's this community section, isn't there, where people can share their stories. And there's a lot of women helping women out there, which is really, satisfying to see actually, isn't that? It is. And actually, this is the part of the app that is the most kind of prolific. I mean, every week we have over 1.4, 1.5 million

kind of views and hits on the app. And the community is one big part of that. And again, it's so humbling to look at all those stories, women saying, helping each other, oh, have been refused to the diagnosis again. And you have women saying, come on, you go back, you take your health report. So you go there on the app,

download your health report, fill in all your information, print it and go back, it worked for me. So they're really supporting each other, which is amazing. And also, just one last point, the relief. Again, one story we see very, very often is women, they're coming to the app and say, could it be the menopause? So they start talking, they start reading. And then two or three days later, you've got this feeling of, oh, my God, I'm not going mad. And I think it's happening so often, woman feeling that they're,

They've got early dementia or something is really, really wrong with them. And by exchanging, reading the right information, they've got this relief saying, oh, my God, I'm not going mad. And this is so often at the case. It's so important. And I think it's changed. So when I started my Instagram, which is also quite big and has a big following, women were headless chickens.

They would just go around in circles and I'd spend a lot of time individually replying to people and helping them. And then the comments or the response from other women was always quite negative. Or you don't want HRT. No, don't do that. Don't do this. You should do this, take this, do, do, do. And I was like, oh, goodness, there's so much noise.

And these people need help. And they're just going in all these directions. And since the apps come out, definitely I can see this whole thing that people are helping each other. But in a really positive way, they're like their sort of remote friends almost. They're saying, come on, no, do this. And what we're trying to do with the app is hold people's hand as far as we can until they reach the healthcare professional, either remotely or face-to-face, in whichever country they're at.

And I think that's really important. And I can see that's helping. And we're helping, but other people are helping us do it too. And just to reassure people, we keep a very close eye to make sure that people aren't being led to a wrong path. You know, we sort of weed out anything that isn't right, but it is lovely because, you know, the work I do sort of behind the scenes with NHS England and other educational bodies, it's very much doctor and healthcare professional driven, but actually it should be patient driven. I very, very strongly feel that as a healthcare professional, I'm a patient's advocate.

I'm not there as a dictator. And so it has to be about choice. and it has to be about individualised care as well. But the only way you can have individualised care is if you're empowered with the right knowledge. And certainly this makes people more confident because they can stand on their own two feet. And I think the app is really helping, isn't it,

these women, get individualised care. So what are the percentage gain of people who receive treatment once they've been using the app? I mean, again, this is one of the most humbling stats I've been sharing with you 65% of people who are on the app are currently receiving HRT, and we know it's not been easy because we can see the stats how long it took them to reach that, and you can really see a, you know, kind of a tipping point around two to three months of using the app that they're finally getting there. And it's just so humbling because we know we've kind

of supported that. And the other day, when we were in Parliament Square, I had a great chance to speak to a BBC doctor, Nigat Arif. And obviously, she's a great advocate. I mean, in the morning and the BBC breakfast, she was talking about the app herself as an amazing tool to help the diagnosis. But she was telling me, she was laughing because she said, I had this consultation the other day.

This woman came and said, right, obviously, she didn't know who Dr. Nigat Arif was. So the woman was all prepared. She said, right, I read all of the information. I've downloaded my report. I know what I want. And she was obviously expecting a fight. This lady, she was expecting a fight because she's read how difficult it is for her friends,

how, you know, other stories on the app. And of course she was lucky, you know, to be seen by Niggat who said, yeah, absolutely. And I thought it was such a, again, a change of narrative, you know, from what was happening. Even when I joined just even less than a year ago, is quite, quite amazing that, you know, we've shifted the emphasis on the power into the woman and have patient-led consultations. Absolutely, which is so important because still globally, the minority of women are receiving evidence-based treatment. So increasing is incredible, but it's not just about HRT. Obviously, giving hormones replacing or, well, not even replacing, topping up the missing hormones

is really important because the menopause is a hormone deficiency. But there are health risks with the menopause we know, such as heart disease, osteoporone, diabetes, dementia, and we know that these reduce by taking HR2, but they also reduce by improving our lifestyle as well. And so what we're also doing with the app is not just giving people information, but we're trying to take it that step further to try and improve their health and their well-being as well, aren't we? So we'll talk about that in a minute, but before we talk about that, what we are offering with the app at the moment is free and we're very keen and we're very determined that what we offer now, the functionality of the app as it is,

so to be able to do the community, to be able to create this health report, to be able to get all this information is always going to be free. And we're hoping as we get some funding, so money, we can have it in more languages as well. But I just want to reassure people this is not an advertorial for anything else because, you know, it's crucial that people know that. We're not working with any partners who are going to start popping in adverts or doing anything like that because that would change the narrative of what we're doing. So it has to be a safe space for people to come to and it has to provide evidence-based information that we are in control of and it has to be free. But obviously we have to make some money otherwise none of us can work for it and certainly

you wouldn't have a job and no one else would either. So we're looking at other ways, aren't we, of how we can get some income, that we can use a lot of the income. to improve the app so it's going to be a circular way this money is going to flow. So when we look at the well-being lifestyle side of things, we're working with some incredible people actually, aren't we, Gail, who are actually really believe in the cause and have very experience of what they're doing. But what we have done is we've involved people who use the app

and ask them what they want. And there are various things they really want and more information about nutrition, about exercise, about skin actually has come up all the time, a bit about beauty, but mainly about skin and hair, because skin and hair changes are really very, very common during the perimenopause and menopause, but also a way we can look after our bones and our heart by exercise,

our nutrition, our gut microbes, I've got health, and our mental health as well is really important. And so all these things actually when we did a cell, over app users, these were the things that came out, which is no surprise. So not only have you been working hard on the app, also working very hard on the new website, which is balance hyphen menopause.com instead of the menopause doctor website. We've put all the information onto this. We've got one amazing library of resources. But you've also been working on the next phase of the app, which is this Balance Plus. So just explain very briefly, Gary, what it is.

Yeah, so Balance Plus, we're hoping to launch in January, and it's like your kind of menopause wellness companion. And we're calling it a companion because there's a lot of programs out there that you take for eight weeks, six weeks, whatever. But it's not, you know, the menopause is just a phase of your life. So we're really firm believers that it's just a companion. There's no stringed attach. There's no goals to achieve. It's not another opportunity to feel bad about yourself because you haven't lost those kilos because you haven't run your 3K today. is just there to support you and helping you make better choices about your lifestyle. So we are working with just the most amazing hand-picked specialist that actually you always have

hand-picked. Because not only they are kind of discipline experts of within nutrition or dermatology or mental health, but they also have this intersection of discipline expertise with kind of the menopause itself. So they've got a huge experience of working in their own. discipline specifically for menopausal women. So this is going to be the world's most comprehensive piece of assets in terms of kind of a wellness dedicated to perimenopausal and menopausal women. And we are leaving no stern and turn. We are really, really excited. We're really investing into the content, really having amazing kind of quality content, resources, videos,

recipes, articles, talks. But also, what we feel is very, important is kind of the opportunity to women and individuals to also express themselves and to be on a journey about learning. So we are going to bring kind of monthly talks that quiz is going to run and have a guest every month, but also having the opportunity for the general public to ask questions. We know when we do talks and we all always ask to do many, many talks, the most important bits of those talks is actually the questions and reassuring people and giving that learning. there's such a big need. So we're going to bring that into the app.

Two more things that we're bringing into Balance Plus, because again, we've done our research. We know what people are wanting. So a very important thing that people have asked is, again, to feel empowered and to receive the confidence to seek help for their symptoms. And we know that through the app, we're doing that very, very well. 79% have told us the app has given me the confidence to go and seek help. But I still don't know how the confidence.

consultation is going to take place. What question should I ask and what question am I going to be asked? And so we also have kind of filmed a library of life consultations with Louise and other doctors at the clinic so that actually individuals can see different scenarios and what a consultation looks like. And finally, we just want to be a very safe space, a happy space. And so we are bringing daily moments of happiness as well. Because why not? Because You know, life is not always easy and I could do with waking up every morning with a little bit of sunshine. So this is what we're going to bring. It's just going to be poems, paintings, a little quotes, a happy stats from the community, a happy story. Because why not? Because we can. Because we want to.

And it's brilliant, because it's just linking everything together, which is so important. You can't do one area of your health in isolation. and what we're trying to do, we've got some very interesting companies because what we're also trying to do is to bring it under well-being program for some organisations. And what I would love it, if the organisations could pay for it rather than women have to pay for it, because women have enough struggle on their own and we really want to, again, try not to enable women to have to pay.

So we're hopefully have some organisations that will be able to finance some of it. But there's so much going on, which is absolutely fantastic. And the great thing about technology is that we can change the shape of it. We can change the direction. And because we don't have external investment, we're actually free to do what we want. And I think that's really important, actually. It's, you know, we're a force to be reckoned with. But actually, it's a great team.

You know, it's a small team, but it's an expanding team. But it's a very, very dedicated team. And it's phenomenal the hours. is that you and your colleagues have spent just getting it to where it is. And for those people that haven't gone on to the website, which you can access by doing Menopause Doctor, or the new is balance hyphen menopause.com. And you'll see the amount of work that's gone in actually is incredible.

And the way you can search for articles, podcasts, videos, booklets, There are some translated videos as well. It is incredible. And, you know, I often think we should be having some huge government grant to fund what we're doing. But we haven't, but we haven't applied for it because we haven't got time to apply for grants because we're too busy trying to help people. And so I think it's incredible, but there's a lot of work that we need to do. But certainly just to give this as an opportunity before we end, Gail, is just to say,

big thank you, not just for me, but from behalf of all the people that benefit from the app and all the feedback. And I think, you know, I'm just amazed that we met and that you've had the vision and the confidence and your family have given you the time to really dedicate your life because I know it has been incredible the amount of work that you have done so far. And it's just going from strength to strength. And the thing that keeps us going is the stories. that we hear, it really is. That's the biggest thing that we're experiencing is this lovely warmth from women who we don't know.

We'll never meet. And women from other countries, more than 150 countries, there are women who are benefiting from the app. So it's the most incredible feeling, actually. And I'm very privileged seeing people in part of my work as a doctor. But I think for allowing other people to have this privilege where we're helping people that we couldn't help in other ways is just the most amazing feeling actually. But we've got a long way to know.

We're not resting on our own. No, we're not going to say. This is not a thing to say you can slow down, girl, actually. You can see your family a bit more and hopefully we can get a slightly bigger team. There's a true of project, as you know, for the next year, back to back. So, and I will have you back. This isn't your one and only podcast with me. We will meet again in the new year and we can feedback about what's happening, what the

feedbacks we like, how Balance Plus is going, and the next project that we have that we're not talking about yet, but we will do how we're going to even help, even more women. But so before we end, I'd just like you to give me three reasons why someone should either download the app if they haven't or use the app. if they've downloaded it and maybe they're not using it properly. So what are the three main reasons for using the app? Okay, three main reasons for using the app. First of all, because it's a safe space. So, you know, you can be sure that your data, your story is safe and it's full of kind of like-minded women who are, and in Jol's who are ready to help. I guess the other thing

is, again, we're battling with a lot of misinformation, I think, in the menopause space. And I guess you can be reassured that all the information there on the app is really, really easy to digest and it's all medically approved. And again, that's really, really important one in this space, actually, to vet and to make sure that what you're consuming is of quality and medically approved because this is a medical matter, isn't it? And then finally, because it's so difficult, I think, to get a diagnosis. I think it's very important that, you know, you can come to the app and, and, and, and, and, you know, make sure that you can join the dot. And even if you think that what I feel is relevant, I would never mention that to my doctor. If I've got bones aches, for example, or joint egg, et cetera, I would not mention it. I don't want to come to my doctor talking about five or six

different things because I'm always told only bring one problem at a time. Actually, menopause is one where you should be bringing everything together. And so go to the app, really, really go to the app and fill in all your symptoms. Don't be scared because it might be the difference between, and I'm hearing that I'm going to quote one of our user who said is the difference between my life being black and white and finding the colours again. So that could be that for you. So I will end up on that one. Fantastic words. Really, really important. And thank you again, Gail, for everything that you do, have done and continue to do to make balance the most amazing app for people out there.

So thanks again. Thanks for having me, Louise. Thank you. For more information about the perimenopause and menopause, please visit my website, balance hyphen menopause.com, or you can download the free balance app, which is available to download from the App Store or from Google Play.