The Therapy Edit - One Thing with Dr Louise Newson on what you need to know about perimenopause

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

In this guest episode of The Therapy Edit, Anna chats to menopause specialist, Dr Louise Newson about the importance of listening to your body and getting clued up when it comes to perimenopause. Dr Louise Newson is GP a menopause specialist and co-founder of the free menopause support app balance which you can download here You can find out more about Louise here https://www.newsonhealth.co.uk/And you can follow her on Instagram at @menopause_doctor

Hello and welcome to The Therapy Edit with me, psychotherapist's mum of three and author Anna Martha. Every Friday, I invite one guest to tell me the one thing they would most like to share with mums everywhere. So join with me as we hear this dose of wisdom. I hope you enjoy it. Hello and welcome to today's guest episode of The Therapy Edit. I'm really excited about getting stuck into the topic. topic that I'm going to be talking with Dr. Louise Newsom about. Dr. Louise Newsom is a renowned GP, a menopause specialist, passionate about improving education about the perimenopause

and the menopause and improving awareness of safe prescribing of HRT to healthcare professionals. Amongst other amazing achievement, she is the founder of the balance app that I've had a little look around this morning. It contains lots of medical evidence-based information and tools designed to empower women around the menopause. She founded the menopause charity. She's a creator of the Balance website. She's the host of Dr. Louise Newsom podcast and a member of the government Menopause Task Force.

And she has a couple of books which I will draw your attention to at the end because I know that you're going to want to get your hands on them after this chat. So welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Oh, thanks. Thanks, Anna. Thanks for inviting me. Well, thank you for coming.

This is such and I'm realizing. what an important topic. I'm 30, just 37. And it is the perimenopause and menopause are kind of edging into my awareness over the last few years. And I think that's because people are talking more openly about their journeys, which is thanks to people like you for empowering. Then we're giving them the kind of the language and the confidence to do that. So how are you today? I'm good. Thank you. A bit tired. I'm sort of seem to be living off less sleep all the time. I was saying to someone this morning, I've already had three meetings this morning, actually, but I was saying to someone, I used to be a bit of a nightbird, and now I get up really early,

but I'm still a nightbird. I'm just trying to survive on their sleep. I think sleeping's cheating a bit, isn't it? So it's getting chipped away at both ends of the night. Yeah. But it's good. I'm not complaining. It's good because, you know, my brain's busy and there's lots going on and there's lots needed to do.

So I'm not complaining. But, yeah, no, it's fine. Tired but energized. Yes. passionate. Yeah. So if you could share one thing with all the mums that listen to this podcast, what would that? What would that one thing be? I think the most important thing is to listen to your own body and try and be in tune with your hormones and try and get all that knowledge about the perimenopause and menopause. I kept thinking it's not going to happen to me yet. And so I didn't

really think. And it's very different when it's yourself. So when I was writing and lectures, and educating, I still didn't think about myself because I'm a mum of three children. I'm busy. I think as busy mums, you often don't have time to think about yourself. We're right at the bottom of the list. Whereas if you know what your hormones are doing, even when you're just having periods and how they change, any sensitivities to hormones are just going to be exaggerated when you're perimenopausal or menopausal. So knowledge is power, but the knowledge when your brain's still working because once it starts to go in the perimenopause, it's so much harder to remember things and just to be aware of what's going on. And also

educate others around you. Ask your friends. Ask your partners. Just if I change a bit, if my mood changes, if my energy changes, if I'm not quite myself, can you just remind me about my hormones? And I think that's really crucial as well. Yeah. So I've got an app that I have been tracking my periods for years and years. I don't know what prompted me to download it. I think probably because I didn't realize when I was getting my period and I'd get these kind of, you know, premenstrual syndrome. And I just feel really irritable and rubbish for a couple of days. And I think, oh my gosh, what's wrong with me? And then I'd look at my app and I think, ah, there we go. That makes sense. It's going to pass. This is where I'm in my cycle. And I've just kind of habitually been tracking that for years.

I think it's really helpful just to know what's going on in your body, to know where you're at in your cycle. And then also I've noticed my cycles getting so much shorter and more erratic. And I thought that was having my third child and I remember filming something. And there was a doctor there and we were just talking about hormones. I said, oh, my cycles are all over the shop. She said, that's probably good because of your age. And I thought what? I hadn't connected the two together. I thought I was 35 maybe at that point. And I thought, I'd have to be thinking. about this yet. You know, there's probably nothing to do with that, but actually the more I'm learning, the more I'm starting to connect some dots together and, and thinking of kind of

menopause is not just, I think, what we've been taught, it's this thing that happens and it's like an event, whereas actually the reality, or so I'm learning is that it's a, you know, it's a journey, it's a journey and it's, you know, it's not just something that happens overnight. And so when do you think is a good time to start thinking? and learning? Or is it always good? And we should be learning this at school and the way that we learn about hormones and periods. So the first thing is, is that no one is too young to be menopausal. My youngest patient was menopausal age 15. She never, her ovaries didn't develop properly. She didn't have regular periods. I've got another young lady who had a cancer when she was young

and the cancer treatment affected the way her ovaries worked. So no one's too young to be menopausal. No one's too young to be perimenopausal. So we need to be aware of it. And even if we ourselves don't become menopausal or perimenopausal till we're older, we'll all have mums, aunties, sisters, cousins, teachers, people we work with. Awareness is really, really key because it's sometimes it's more important to notice it in someone else than it is yourself. But it is a journey, but actually it's not a journey that needs to be endured either. I think a lot of people say, well, I know it's my hormones, I know I'm going to feel like this, or even with PMS, oh, I'll have two days a month where I feel dreadful. Well, why? Don't suffer. There is

treatment. And, you know, if it's due to your hormones, then often thinking about replacing hormones is really key. And also, there's a lot of women now who have the progested an implant or they have contraception or the marina coil, so they won't have periods. So therefore, monitoring symptoms is really, really key. And, you know, with a balanced app, although it's a balanced menopause support app, anyone can download it and then look at the symptoms every three or four months. And if you're starting to get these symptoms, it doesn't mean your menopausal, but it means that there might be some hormonal changes. And so the key, really, is to think about your hormones as early as possible, top up rather than replace. Hormone replacement therapy is

the wrong word. It should be hormonal support treatment. top up with any hormones that you need. And so therefore, you're not suffering, but more importantly, when you have low hormones, there are health risks. So we reduce the health risks. We prevent disease. And women will feel happier.

They will feel better. They'll have less symptoms. They're more likely perform at work. They'll more likely have a better, happier home. So, you know, awareness is key, but it's not just awareness. It's about how to get help and how to get the right treatment that's individualized for you as an individual.

so if you recognise that your moods are shifting and you're not feeling great instead of just thinking oh it's just something i have to endure and put up with it's kind of nudging up that bar for yourself and thinking actually i i don't want to feel like this and maybe there's a way that i don't actually have to and i think you're right it's that awareness of checking in with ourselves and tracking things so that we can see where that that's starting to happen because i don't think i think it's It's like that frog in the hot pan, isn't it? Have you heard of that metaphor where if you just put a frog in a hot boiling pan of water, it will leap out? I don't know if anyone's actually tried this, can I hope not. But if you increase the heat slowly, they're not going to notice, you know, that they're in that environment. And I think, you know, these things happen over time, not overnight. And sometimes we can look back and think, oh my gosh, I didn't used to feel like this.

When did this happen? And it's a slow kind of movement towards it, which means we're less likely to notice. and if we track. Yeah. And I think that's really key, absolutely, because I know myself, I'd had my third child, age 40, and then it wasn't until I was 45,

I diagnosed my perimenopause. But, you know, looking back, I wish I thought about it quite soon after having my daughter. You know, it's only when you replace your hormones, you realize how important they are and how not having enough really affects the way that you work. And for me, it was a lot of it was my brain, brain function. I was just slower. I was tired. You know, I already said I don't sleep very much,

but when I sleep, I sleep really well now. I'm not in bed very long, but I used to be in bed for twice the length of time, but my sleep was rubbish. I kept waking up, I was tossing, I was turning, I was having night sweats. And I just thought, oh, it's because I've got too much on my mind, but I've got even more on my mind now, but maybe, you know, I do yoga, I meditate, but I also take hormones. And I know the whole combination has allowed me to be more effective and more efficient. But I thought, oh, it's also, I'm tired, I'm irritable because I've got three children, I'm trying to get my job, I'm trying to open a clinic. You know, you always put it down to something else, whereas if you're in tune with how you feel just before your periods,

which is when your estrogen levels at its lowest, then that's really important. The other hormone testosterone is really important, and a lot of people become testosterone deficient before they become estrogen deficient. And testosterone can really help with libido, but we also, you find that it can improve mental health, it can improve mood, energy, concentration, stamina. So if younger people are thinking, I can't exercise as well, I can't remember things, I'm not on the ball, I can't multitask as well, my sort of energy for life, my sort of joy de V is going, is it because of life or is it because of my hormones? And often it's very hard to know, there's no diagnostic test, but just having that awareness

and then thinking, how can I help? And even often in the clinic, the only way of knowing is by rebalancing hormones and then seeing what's left. And a lot of people, they might feel 20% better and the rest 80% might be their job or their family or something else that they can then deal with. But getting them 20% better means that they can then start this journey of making them feel better. Or they might feel 80% better and sort the 20% out themselves.

But we can't deny hormones. You know, women have been denied hormones for the last 20 years because of these unfounded fears. Yet we give out contraceptives all the time. They are synthetic. They have more risks than HRT. We've got to get over the fact that HRT is not associated with awful, bad. You know, it's not, most types that we prescribe

haven't ever been shown to be associated with the risk of breast cancer, but they've been associated with a reduction of heart disease, dementia, diabetes, osteoporosis, and actually massive improvements in mental health. So we need to look at all the reasons why we should be considering safe body identical hormones, even above and beyond taking contraceptives that are synthetic. So it's, but it's more than that. It's about empowering ourselves and making the right decisions for ourselves. Everyone's different.

But we need to have the information accessible so we can make that choice is when the time comes. So that's why having more information earlier, you've got time to make a decision before you give up your job because your brain fog is so bad or before you leave your partner because you are giving all the time without any libido. You know, have the knowledge at the beginning and then you can shape it depending on how you feel and what your journey, if you like, is and how it's affecting you. Yeah. And I like that what you were saying about, recognise when you're starting just to kind of attribute. how you're feeling to to what's going on in life. And I think, you know, I've heard so many stories recently of mums becoming really quite unwell. And it's, you know, they say, well, I just thought I was tired because of motherhood. I thought I was just run down because of Christmas. I thought, and then suddenly they're hit with like pneumonia or they're hit

with. And actually it's because their bodies have been struggling and fighting and they've just been putting it down to life. But I think we do that a lot. And it's, yeah, really helpful. to be encouraged to recognize perhaps when you're just just attributing the things that are going on inside you, the things that you're noticing to what's going on around you. And yeah, ask that question, might it actually, might it have something to do with my hormones? And so I know you're really passionate about kind of part of what you do is about improving awareness of the safe prescribing to the healthcare professionals, to those people that we might go to the doctor and say, you know what, I'd really like to explore my hormones. I'd really like to explore.

my options with regards to kind of hormone support and what happens if you do speak to a healthcare professional perhaps who doesn't have that that knowledge and that awareness and that kind of that that needed understanding of how good HRT and hormone support can be for people sadly we hear it a lot from people but I think the important thing is to see if there's someone else that you can speak to in the practice and increasingly practices do have it might not be a doctor, it might be a nurse or even a pharmacist who has specialist knowledge in the menopause and speak to them. And, you know, we've got, there's lots of evidence on the website, on the app, there's a nice guidance as well in menopause. You know, if you're arms with knowledge,

and the other thing is really important for all the work I do is we've got some other nice guidance called the shared decision-making guidance. And that's really key because that's putting patient central. And it's if there's a treatment that as a patient you feel that you should have and even if there are risks, there are benefits as well and you want to try that treatment, then you should be empowered and be able to have that. So if you're not having a shared decision-making consultation, then it's certainly within your right to go and see somebody else. And it might be that you need to be referred or hopefully there's somebody local to your practice. And I think being an advocate for yourself is really important.

And if you feel not strong enough, then get someone else to be with you. I think when we, if we're to go to speak to a healthcare professional and we're not to have, we don't have that kind of information. It's so much harder to advocate for ourselves, isn't it? And I think that's where your books come in. Your first book is called Menopause. All you need to know in one concise manual. And then your second, which was, I was going to say last year, but it's 2023 now.

So 2021, you released a book called Preparing for Perimenopause and Menopause, which was a Times bestseller. And I think that just says everything about the hunger and the need to feel empowered about this massive important area of our lives, this massive transition that has been kind of lacking in information support. So I think what an amazing go-to for us to to grab hold of one of your books and empower. and educate ourselves. So when we do go, we have those conversations with our, with our doctors, with our healthcare professionals, we can advocate for ourselves more so because we have, we have that knowledge. So thank you so much. So I think I would love just to hear one thing from you about kind of what's, I think there can be a lot of scaremongering. I know that this is really shifting and changing now as people are talking more openly and we're being empowered

and our options. But for those who hear the word menopause and perimenopods and just tense up and think, oh my gosh, I've got that coming and I'm, you know, it's going to be hard and bad. What would you like to say to those people who are listening? Make it positive. It should be the most positive time of your life, actually, if you get it right. So it's not doom and gloom is the most important thing. Arm yourself with knowledge that's relevant for you, but make sure you look at the sources. So yes, my books, I've got a new book coming out in March. You might know called the definitive guide for the perimenopause and menopause. So that's a very meaty book. Lots of references in it. We've got really good experts, including Joe Wicks,

Liverell, Baroness, Wesse, talking about their experience and the involvement. So it's not just about HRT, lots about nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, everything else as well. Look at the, download the app, even if you're not menopausal, listen to my podcast. Just talk to people, get knowledge is power, as I said at the beginning. So, but feel, feel invigorated, feel encouraged because there is help. And that helps going to increase the more work we do. We're doing a lot of work behind the scenes to really democratise menopause care in a big way, not just in UK, but globally. So a lot you can do. Just don't feel alone is the most important thing. Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to be pre-ordering your book

out in March. That's really exciting. And thank you for all that you do to equip, to equip us and empower us, yeah, changing the landscape, I think, for the future generations and how they approach this stage of life that we all journey through. So I've got some quick five questions to finish off. The first one is, what is a motherhood high for you? I think for me, having my children together and having them happy and healthy, you're only as happy as your least happy child. And I've got three gorgeous girls who were 2018 and 11. They've all had different health issues at different times. One's crippled with migraine. One had sepsis. The other one's had a few operations. And, you know, when they're happy, they're not bickering, they're looking

after each other and they're healthy, then actually it's the most joyous thing ever. You know, I could give up my work. I could give up everything to just have those moments where they're together. As a family, you know, time is so precious. And so never underestimate the value of family love, because when you don't have it, you miss it. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. And what's motherhood low for you? Wishing that you could have the pain for your children when they're texting you. My oldest daughters have migraines getting better when she texts and says, I can't carry on like this. This is awful. You know, she's a musician and an artist, and it's horrendous and anyone who's listening who's got children you just want that pain yourself you know

tried everything and you feel completely disempowered that's really hard i think that's take it take it on yourself yeah yeah and what's one thing that makes you feel good anything something you do to feel good just feeling that each day is an achievement and i think i have quite low expectations I'm really hard on myself because I always feel I haven't done enough. But actually, if you set the bar low, anything little can make you feel good. You know, yesterday I just, I was busy. I only did half an hour of yoga instead of an hour. I finished with a headstand. That makes me feel good because not many people can do headstands. So little things that just make you feel good can just set you up for the day. Yeah. Yeah, that sense of achievement. Oh, yes. I love that. It's a buzz, isn't it? And to finish off, how would you describe mother who? in three words. I would say that it's challenging, it's rewarding, and it's, well, this isn't really a word, but you shouldn't underestimate how hard it is. Yeah, challenging, rewarding.

I think that's the reasonable to say. Yes, yes, definitely. Well, thank you so much for your encouragement and your warm wisdom today. and I'm going to be heading online to pre-order the definitive guide which I think it sounds amazing having that kind of all of those different

areas of holistic input and I've loved what Liz Earle is also kind of doing and sharing her journey around this and empowering people and of course the body coach bringing his energy to it as well so I look forward to that

and thank you so much again for everything you're doing passionately to empower us well thanks and thanks for your great work too Anna so thanks for inviting me today thank you for listening to today's episode of The Therapy Edit if you enjoyed it please do share subscribe or review because it makes a massive difference to how many people it can reach you can find more from me on Instagram at Anna Martha you might like to check out my three books mind over mother know your worth and my new

book the little book of calm for new mums grounding words for the highs the lows and the moments in between. It's a little book. You don't need to read it from front to back. You just pick whatever emotion resonates to find a mantra, a tip and some supportive words to bring comfort and clarity. You can also find all my resources, guides and videos, all with the sole focus of supporting your emotional and mental well-being as a mum. They are all 12 pounds and you can find them on anamatha.com. I look forward to speaking with you soon. Thank you.