The Dr Louise Newson Podcast - 63 – Hormones, disability and the battle to be taken seriously : Laura Dallison

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

What happens when you know something isn’t right, but no one will listen?In this episode, Dr Louise Newson is joined by Laura Dallison, who shares her experience of navigating hormonal changes while living with a physicaldisability. After a spinal cord injury, Laura began experiencing symptoms including brain fog, insomnia and recurrent infections, but was repeatedly dismissed and told she was too young for hormone treatment.Laura explains how she had to advocate for herself to access hormones and how much they’ve improved her health. Together, they discuss why so many women are still not being heard and why having the right information can make all the difference.We hope you love the podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to follow us and leave a 5-star rating and share it with someone who needs to hear it.LET'S CONNECT  Subscribe here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@menopause_doctor Website 👉 https://www.drlouisenewson.co.uk/Instagram 👉   /@drlouisenewsonpodcast  LinkedIn 👉     / https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlouisenewson/ TikTok 👉   / https://www.tiktok.com/@drlouisenewson Spotify 👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/7dCctfyI9bODGDaFnjfKhg  LEARN MORE Download my balance app 👉 https://www.balance-menopause.com/balance-app/Get tickets for my new theatre tour, Breaking the Cycle 👉 https://www.nlp-ltd.com/dr-louise-newson-breaking-the-cycle/ Pre order my new book 👉 https://bio.to/ThePowerofHormones

Laura Dallison's on my podcast today. She talks very openly about what it's like living with a physical disability and also having hormonal changes. Not being listened to, not being believed, not being understood and how hard it was for her to access hormones, which have made a real difference to both her mental health and her physical house. So being an advocate for yourself is so important and we unpick this during the episode today.

So Laura, thank you so much for coming into the studio, today because we have done a podcast before, but it's probably about three years ago and we did it remotely. And it actually looked quite different. You look very different now. Maybe because hormones, who knows. You've got a story that I think will resonate with a lot of people. Well, there's lots of stories that you've got, you haven't got just one story, but you've got journey. And I really want to highlight the importance that nobody is left out when it comes to the conversation about hormones and there are still quite a few groups of women

that are really marginalised and I do think people with a physical disability come into one of those groups so tell me a bit about you So I had a spinal cord injury in 2019 I was 42 and prior to that I was working full time but I was also a part-time yoga teacher

I used to run sort of 50K a week so I was really really active really active. And then suddenly overnight, I found myself having had this spinal called injury following trauma. I was paralysed and was told I'd never walk again. So I've had to learn to rewalk. I've had intensive rehab. And that battle and that journey has been incredible with kind of doors that have been

opened, but doors that have been closed for medical practitioners. And I'm a medical practitioner myself. So it's been even harder to be talking. hold by your GP, well, you're never going to walk again and it's just one of those things. So I've been on a journey and I have not taken no for an answer. So you've really had to advocate from yourself right from the start because it was a freak accident that you had that, you know, literally overnight, wasn't it? As you say, your whole life changed.

You've got family. You weren't going to just not drive yourself. I had two choices. I either laid on the sofa and went, this is my life or I got up and fought it. So I had a four-year-old at the time, or three-year-old at time, sold the push chair, bought a wheelchair and paid for my rehab. I started having symptoms of depression, insomnia, incredible joint pain, the brain fog. I just put that down to my disability. It was around COVID, and the brain fog was really bad.

And I thought, well, maybe I've got long COVID, maybe I've got dementia. You know, all these things are going through your head. And it was really when I saw some of the work that you've done, that some of the questions was like, hang on a minute, these are the same. So I did a little bit of research. I went to my GP and my GP just wanted to prescribe me anti-depressants. Did they not want to talk about hormones? No, I didn't want to talk about hormones.

They said I was 42. I was too young and I was depressed. And I was like, I'm not depressed. I was told I'd never walk again. That didn't make me depressed. That made me determined. So please don't tell me I'm depressed. I know something's not right.

So I had to self-discover and I am someone who is resilient and I push and I don't accept an over an answer. But when you're living with a disability, throwing in another medical problem, it's easy to see why people just go, yes, I can't fight this anymore. So yeah, it's that having to advocate for yourself constantly and having to have those arguments with the GPs and because I am a clinician, I understood certain things. So did my own research and then I was having to go back and say, like, this is what I want and this is why I want it. And it's wrong.

Women should be heard, not spoken down to and not being told that it's in the head and, you know, menopause symptoms is just life. Yes, because the problem is, and I hear it a lot, that it's let's normalise the conversation. And firstly, I don't know what normal means for a start because we're all different. but actually that's almost like saying let's trivialise the conversation and you know you've got a not to deal with you've had even more to deal with having you know this accident not thinking you'll be up to walk at all but you still use your wheelchair you still have a disability but you want to be the best version of yourself and then your hormones are changing you and so one of the things that I'm very interested in is the role of hormones

throughout the body. And, you know, even if you didn't have any symptoms or many symptoms, the role of those hormones for your muscle strength, your bone strength, is really crucially important because you are very fit and you've kept your fitness, but we know people get sarcopenia, this loss of muscle mass without hormones. Like, you don't want any loss of muscle mass when you've got any sort of disability, do you? No, even more so, you need to, to preserve that.

And it's giving people the information. If they choose not to take it, that's fine. That's absolutely fine. But to be told, but it's just an ageing process. It's no different to if someone's got diabetes or they've got cardiovascular disease, which is an ageing process, do we not treat someone with high blood pressure

because, well, they're old and it's years of wear and tail on their bodies. So get on with it. You know, it's no different. No, there was somebody who was quite high up in the Royal College. of GPs who wrote on LinkedIn actually that menopause is just a natural ageing process. And I know she's very anti-hormones. But, you know, I wear glasses to read. That is 100% due to my age.

I have, you know, and I choose to wear glasses to read. And I know soon I'll have to wear them all the time. But again, it isn't any different because I know there are benefits to my well-being if I can read. I, you know, like it's just, again, but it's a choice thing. But to have this down, but you know, you had a lot of symptoms. And you also were getting, I'm sure I remember some urinary tract symptoms, weren't you? Yeah, so I was having, I was under urology for urine tract symptoms, which is linked him with a spine called injury, my level of injury.

So I do have a bladder that doesn't always understand when I need to avoid. So obviously bacteria can build up. So I have to go to the toilet to make sure I avoid properly. So there is always risk of unutriacht infections. And I just kind of accepted, well, another gift that keeps on giving with a spinal cord injury. So it wasn't until I had sort of conversations with yourself and then looked into it and realized actually the link with using the vegetar, yeah, the pet, the peceries. And it's made. And I can't tell you how. different it's made it and it's been so different for me that I'm now advocating for it and my mum suffers from uti's again an ageing thing that just people accept and I was like go back to the doctors and get some hormone replacement treatment and since she's been on them she's had no problem so it's you know it's simple things that we just don't talk about it and we just accept again that well women get uti as they get older but you know it's If men had UTIs and they knew how uncomfortable they are

and how kind of, you know, you're sort of rolled out in pain and it's horrible and a simple treatment stops it. It's incredible, isn't it? I mean, we've spoken about this on other podcasts. My 23-year-old uses vaginal hormones and she was getting urinary symptoms and they melted away. But I'm married to a urologist and I love him dearly, but I had symptoms for many years actually looking back.

It was, you know, one of the symptoms that was just there and having recurrent eunery tract infections. And most people will know what it's like when you're sitting on the toilet and it's just so it's just so uncomfortable. And there's nothing you can do just like, oh. I know. And it's just awful. And I actually saw one of my husband's colleagues, a urologist who did a cystoscopy on me,

he did a scan. All of that. But no one. I mean, this was about 15 years, 20 years ago maybe. And it's so invasive. It's so invasive. I didn't think about hormones no one else did think about it

I mean it's just it's always so obvious that it's not thought about Yeah yeah I mean I've since had a friend recently who was describing something And I said about having the vagina HRT And she goes oh no I'm not dry Down below I don't need that And I was like just trust me

And I explained it and then she came And I gave her some of my pessories Which probably shouldn't have done But and literally She's a month later she's like Oh my God made such a difference. And I think it's so stereotypical, what is dryness?

Yeah, of course. And it's the taboo. No one wants to talk about vagina dryness, do they? No, not so. But somehow it's easier to talk, I think, about urinary symptoms. But a lot of people don't. And, you know, even in urinary incontinence as well. And, you know, thinking about people with spinal injuries, you know, bladder problems,

as well as bowel problems actually can be a real issue. And we've got these hormone. receptors throughout our bladder and our bowel, our pelvic floor, and also just they help the nerves, the physical nerves to work. So that sensation of knowing when your bladder knee's emptying or not, that's going to improve when you've got hormones. Absolutely. Same with bowel function as well. And that's often not discussed or not thought about. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's just accepted. You've got a spinal injury. It affects your bladder, it affects your bowel and, you know, accept it, you know, talk about catheterization and sort of bowel washouts and bits and pieces

and that's, you know, historically what people have done and, you know, medicines moved on and we need to move on with the times of stuff. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm very interested in the role of hormones in a physiological way, so how they work in our body. And I was reading some papers recently. Some of them were written by research called Donald Stein in New York. And he's done a lot of work on progesterone, especially the natural progesterone, looking at people who have had head injuries, so traumatic brain injuries, but also transaction of the cord, so trauma to the spinal cord, showing that people that have progesterone, and there's quite a lot of preclinical data in mice as well, showing that with progesterone, they actually have a better repair because one of the

things our body naturally does is produce progesterone in our brain, if you had a brain injury. and then there's a huge cascade reaction that occurs. It's not just local where the trauma is. It gets into the blood and you have all these sort of chemicals, these cytokines in the body and this oxidative stress. And so especially progesterone can calm all that down. Then it can help the nerves to regenerate the muscles to get stronger, all those pathways to work a lot better.

But it's just been ignored for so long. And any work I've done with any charity, for brain injuries, for physical disabilities, no one's thinking about hormones. It's almost like it's just been forgotten, and I can't quite understand why. You know, it's medicine, isn't it? We follow an algorithm.

And once you get to the bottom of that algorithm, you go, oh, not my specialty, we feel on to the next. And we don't work holistically, do we? No. I think if we were to work more holistically, it would allow those hormone conversations to come in, rather than thinking that hormone only affects women when they reached sort of 45 to 50, you know, I also believe there's an effect with men,

do they have menopause as well? Do they have a drop in a testosterone and how it affects them? And I think in 10 years' time, we'll have the same conversation, and we will be talking about the male menopause. But it all comes back to that hormones. Hormones affects everything, doesn't it? Yeah. And I think that is a big problem, and it's still happening now, that a lot of people think

that it's a gynecological problem. And I've just come back from America and it really is the OBGYN, you know, the gynecologists that run the menopause clinics and everything else. And I feel very strongly as a general physician, I'm better placed because I'm thinking about all the different organs, all the systems, not just the gynecological organs. But it's still difficult because, you know, you've had HRT prescribed for you by one clinic. Then you were told you had to go and see an NHS specialist, weren't you? So after I had an appointment at your clinic, which was amazing, literally had an hour's appointment. And I came off the appointment.

I just burst into tears because the first time in probably two years, I felt heard and someone had actually listened. And I wasn't going mad in my head. The brain fog that I was experiencing was real. And then she explained the clinical side to why things were happening, which all made sense. And I'm kind of research-based. So I needed to know that as well. And then I went back to the GP with the letter to say, these are the medications that you suggested.

And I, and I, and I, again, I had a brick wall. And the GP was like, no, you don't need any of that. We don't prescribe testosterone and we don't agree with that, that dosage that's too high for, um, the progesterone. So again, I was like, another battle. So I had to be referred to a, um, NHS menopause clinic, which was ridiculous because it was, I was taken somebody's place. Yeah.

Who maybe couldn't have. for you to go privately. And it was, I went on a waiting list. It was a six-month waiting list. And when I went to the clinic, it was a phone consultation and I'd said that I'd seen, been seen in your clinic. And he was like, oh, great, yeah, are you happy with the treatment? Yeah. Well, I agree of it. So it was a waste of time. It was a complete waste of time. I was probably on the phone for less than five minutes. And that was probably a 20-minute appointment that could have gone to someone who really needed it. Thanks so much for listening to my podcasts.

Did you know that if you prefer to watch rather than just listen, my podcasts are available on YouTube every week. You'll find full episodes and additional educational content on our hormones, menopause and women's health, all grounded in science and real clinical experience. So if you want to stay up to date, revisit episodes or share them with others who might benefit, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube. And it makes me sad really because, you know, if it was a cardiologist recommending a heart drug, the GPs are less likely to push back. Yeah.

It's a trusted referer and it should be. Yeah. Yeah. And as you say, it's making a huge difference. If you weren't feeling well, of course, you know, go and see someone else. But you were feeling well. And for you to invest in your future health, it's crucially important. Like you said, even before your injury, you were super fit.

you've always looked after yourself. There's no reason why you can't continue to do that. Absolutely, yeah. And it's just, again, it's another battle that we have to have. And probably what really upsets me even more is that you sometimes, I've heard people say, well, I've built an appointment to see a female doctor because they would understand better. But they get a young female doctor who doesn't get it and is, you know, that blanket.

This is what we were taught in med school and this is, this is what I'm sticking to. I mean, you know, and it's how do we break that mould? And how do you think we do? I don't know. I'd be very rich if I could break that mold. It's talking, isn't it? And it's highlighting and it's showing the research and it's women coming forward and sharing their stories.

Yeah. And I think that's where people are listening more, even from when we first met. I think it's, you know, as you know, I've had various huge knockbacks from different people in the medical establishment. But actually, the biggest difference is women listening and men actually.

But working out for each other, like you've advocated for your mother, your friend, you've shared that information. And a lot of this is choice. I think doctors get very hostile sometimes because they think everything's very binary. And in medicine, everything is a choice really. And I think, you know, you learned the biggest choice

when someone said to you, you know, this is it, you can't walk again. and you decided to not take that information too literally and to see whether there were other choices. And if you'd tried all the other avenues and you still weren't getting anywhere, well then that's fine. And I think that's what's really important.

But somehow in the NHS and in other healthcare systems globally, people think the first healthcare professional they go to, the butt stops there and they sort of almost aren't entitled to have another choice or another go. Yeah, absolutely. And you can understand why people end up in the A&E departments and our annual departments are in such crisis

because they go to their GP and they don't get hurt and then they sit and they fester and they know something's not quite right but they don't know how to access the support they don't know how to access the help so they think I'll go to A&E so we then burden another system

with another problem that should have been resolved sort of lower down in that hierarchy it's I don't know the answers to unpick it but if we share our stories and we educate. And it was really interesting when I was talking about the coming here today and talking in the car to my husband about it and my children, I've got teenagers, teenage girls, and they were kind of listening and they were talking about hormone replacement and stuff that had been taught at school.

And I thought, that's great. They are hearing it. So we are changing. So I'd like to think that when our gen. When the younger generation get to our age now, it will be much easier for them. Yeah, I think so because I think they're growing up listening to a different conversation. And there are this lost generation of women and also healthcare professionals where they've been sold, if you like, well, not literally sold, but they've been given misinformation.

Yeah. And it's very hard to unpick something and it's very hard for people to change. Whereas for my daughters and your daughter's generation, they haven't got the past, they haven't got the fear. They're just coming at it from a very simplistic way. And I remember years ago, my youngest daughter's 14, but she must have been, she was at rainbows, so she must have been about six.

And they were doing some decorating of a bag, just a cloth bag. And everyone came out with tinsel and like sparkles and the glue dripping down. And I was thinking, oh, no, how am I going to get this in the car? and Lucy just had hers in a pocket and I was like oh Lucy did you not do anything she goes oh no I have I've done a bag for you

mummy to get home and she had divided the bag into two so she put a line down and there was a woman and so there was a half a woman each side of this line and one half the woman had a smiley face there was a rainbow there was sunshine she was happy the other half

she had a sad face and there was a cloud and she'd written HRT on the handles like all the around and she said this is before and after HRT. I love it. And I've still got the bag. In fact, I will put it out on my story of the day of this podcast because it's, it was

just so funny because they see it how it is. And it was, it was around the time that the clinic was opening. So there was a lot of refurb in the building. So she was constantly coming and just being involved in conversations. I've never had that sit down. I'm going to talk to you about hormones conversation because why would you to a six year old? But she'd picked it up. And I thought, isn't this interesting?

And that's through lovely innocent eyes. And it sort of stuck with me because if you don't have this sort of, oh my gosh, HRT causes breast cancer, it's so terrible, then it's fine. But then we've almost gone the other way because there's all these synthetic hormones that would be very easy for your children of mine to access if they wanted to take contraception that has far more risks than the hormones, the natural hormones. But it's sort of a double standard almost. Yeah. That doesn't make sense. No, no. But I think going back on to your daughter Lucy, I know when I talk to my teenage girls about, you know, puberty and periods and contraception and stuff, we tie in the same

conversation with hormones and with HRT and I've got a 10 year old and she keeps on asking, she said, so when, how old are you when your period stops? And she's fascinated with, has nanny got her period? And even last night she was asking me. She said, your friend Rachel, she's still got her period. And how old is she? So understanding that when you get to a certain age, that the periods stop and then you have your hormone replacement and your symptoms that you have when you're in your 40s

are very similar to your teenagers. So I think a lot of girls, the conversation is still normalised. They're accepted to have, you know, bad moods just before their periods or whatever. So thinking about replacing with natural hormones, especially progester. can make a real difference. And I do think for us as parents, we do have a responsibility for sharing that, you know, information to our children.

We've also got responsibility, like you say, for our mothers as well. And it's a transgenerational approach, which I think makes the conversation more leaning just towards hormones rather than the perimenopause, the menopause, PMS, like all these different definitions. There's hormonal changes. Yeah.

And what we do about them is really up to us to disqual, to decide, but we have to have that information so we can make the choices that are right for us at the time that are right for us as well. Absolutely. And not to feel that if we go to our GP or we go to a health professional, that they're not going to show us the hand

and talk down those symptoms because if even those symptoms to one person doesn't seem much to another person, it could be huge. You know, I get really bad insomnia and I know when I forget to take my HRT, It's usually because I haven't been using my medication. And then I think, right, I'm going to be religious about using it now.

But not sleeping, just... It's a form of torture, isn't it? And I, you know, I wake up in the morning and I'm just grumpy and I take it out on everybody. And my day starts off bad. And then I speak to people and they go, oh, yeah, I suffer from insomnia. And you're like, well, what do you do? Or it's just one of those things. And I'm like, no.

It shouldn't be. No, no, no, no. It's torture and there are things that you can do, not just accept it. And that's the thing about advocating for yourself as well. I think, you know, your symptoms when you first went to your doctor could have been related to depression, but you knew inherently that they weren't. Now, you were offered antidepressants, which actually are associated with a greater risk than the hormones that you take because there are risks of osteoporosis, probably dementia, not being able to orgasm.

there's risks of intolerance, you know, risks of addiction with antidepressants. You don't have that with hormones. No. But then it still boils down to choice as well. So almost I feel if doctors don't want the conversation about hormones, they should be saying it might be hormones. I'm not going to treat you, but go and see someone else rather than speak to the hand or go and have something else.

And even if those conversations would have been had, it would be easier for women. And actually the, well, I haven't got hot flushes, so it can't be menopause. And actually, I think if you've got to the point where you've got hot flushes, you've probably got every other symptom. That is the last point. Well, we're all different, aren't we? And absolutely right, and we know from hundreds of thousands of people that monitor their symptoms on our balance app,

the commonest symptoms of the brain fog, the memory problems, the mood-related problems. You know, hot flushes don't even go in the top 10. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's fact. and so that's why so many women are being misdiagnosed as well. Yeah, because they haven't got that, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's a lot we need to do. We need to change it for our children. I think, slowly I think things are changing because of knowledge and knowledge is power. So three things that you think, or three ways really of advocating for yourself that have worked for you, but just things to recap for the audience, three ways of really being a good advocate for yourself. Listen to your intuition because actually if you feel it's. something's not right, then you're probably right. And don't just accept, if you're told no, live with it, come back in a couple of months.

Don't be afraid to say, could I have a second opinion? So that's my first tip. Second tip is don't be embarrassed by any of the symptoms, especially things like having a dry vagina. It goes beyond that. It's not having a dry vagina. It's the complications of having UTIs and that. So if you are having UTIs or something, again,

doesn't feel right, go and speak to a professional. And do your research so that when you do go, there's so many great apps out there and books that you can read, the balance app and bits and pieces, get the information. And then you'll feel powered when you go to speak to somebody. That's such great advice. So thank you so much and thank you again for coming today. It's been really good. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Thanks so much for listening. It would be amazing if you could follow me or subscribe because it will really make a difference to grow numbers, enable this to reach even more people. Thanks so much.