Latest / The Menopause Resource Hub Podcast / Anyone can say they're menopause informed. Here's how to check.
Transcript
- Episode 4 4 checks: Anyone can say they're menopause informed and anyone can say menopause specialist on their website. But here's the thing that most of us don't know. In Australia, there's nothing stopping them from doing that. There's no regulated term when it comes to menopause health. So how do we know that someone is actually doing what they say they can do? So that's what this episode is about. I'm Sharon Ludlow and I'm the founder of Menopause Resource Hub. And if you listened to the last episode, you would have heard Dr. Namala Daya. Something she said has stayed with me because I found her online. But when I reached out to her and offered her to be on the Menopause Resource Hub and we got talking, she said to me when I was interviewing her that she had been working quietly away in the corner of Pinball. Doing exactly what these women had needed. And I thought this is a problem because good people like her are harder to find. And they're out there, they're working, they're researching, they're really serving women. But how how do we find them? And this is a problem, I think, in Australia, maybe not just in Australia, because the websites don't really tell you who they are. And I started to investigate ways to be able to bring these people more forward so that women looking for menopause help can find someone, listen to someone know what they're talking about in the Australian context. Because I think that we listen to the Americans, we listen to the British and okay, maybe menopause can be a women challenge across the world, women are women, but in the Australian context there's certain things that might be different nuance here. to other places. And I I think it just helps us to hear from Australian providers, Australian women, knowing what's going on and and some of the Australian men that are doing incredible things in this space. And I think some of them I've met are like the unsung heroes because they're working very hard for women and women's health. And it's a really interesting space when you get into it. Because I'm not the health expert For me it's been a real eye opener talking to a lot of these providers that are a really great service to people like you. So how can I help you find them? I went and found them to to kind of ha ask those questions to and know who else I could talk to, know other pathways of health. So I wanna give you four checks. They're just simple checks. They're not like rules or anything, but they're just like little ticks to help you decide how to book with someone who you want menopause questions answered by. You don't necessarily need the menopause resource hub. This is just ways to think about how to make sure they are serving you where you're at. So we're not judging other professions. What we want to do is just go, okay, for me where I'm at, I need someone who is really focused on menopause or perimenopause or aging women. This is the space. Dr. Deus said something to me. She was saying that menopause isn't disease. It's a natural life transition. And medicine is a training that is around disease and illness. So a lot of medical training, there's been very little done about menopause to this point. She actually said that she's learnt more from helping women and dealing with patients than in any textbook she learnt from. So we're in a developing place of health and the focus on women and how to help them in our age bracket. It can be a lot of ages, but let's just say from 40s up to into fifties, sixties, you're looking broadly at those age groups. So it's not a criticism of doctors. It just means that you can't assume because someone is qualified, has a qualification, that they are focused on it and even really that they care about it. Some do and they're amazing, some don't and we just want to save you time. Right? Because you're exhausted, you're time poor, you don't necessarily want to be forking out for different appointments because one guy or one girl let you down. Some people are going into these GPs and they're saying to them, well, you can't be a menopause because you've still got your period. But maybe that person is getting all the perimenopause sympt symptoms and they're on their way and they've just been knocked back at the door. We want to try and help you avoid all that if we can. So the first thing I want you to do is check. their registration. In Australia doctors, physios, nurses, psychologists, and a lot of other health professionals, they have to be registered with AFRA. And that's the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. That is a public register and you can search names and see what they're registered for. You need to know it it registers for the profession, a GP, a physio, that kind of thing. It doesn't certify a particular interest. So it doesn't say menopause in that certification. It's just a registration that they are GP or they are a physio, they've got that qualification. The next thing that we're looking for, not everybody is going to be registered on AFRA. There are certain health groups that aren't going to be registered there. They've got a different registration body. So people like dietitians and naturopaths or coaches They might be registered somewhere else. So it's worth having a look at what their qualifications are and who they're a member of. So the second area is: have they shown a real interest in the perimenopause menopause space? The closest thing we have in Australia is the Australasian Menopause Society. And it's a professional membership. So when a practitioner is a member of that, it just really indicates that they have a special interest. It's not necessarily telling us they're really great at it or they've done a lot of work on it. They could have just done a really short course and listed themselves there. So again, I'm not trying to say that just because they're listed there, they're great, but it is an indication of a special interest. And these are things that you're looking for when you're looking to see if they're gonna be in the sphere of being able to help you. So the third area is Does menopause show up in in the things that they do, the subjects that they talk about, perimenopause? Is it showing up in and around their space? When I first started building the menopause resource hub, I added a whole lot of practitioners because I would go to their website and I would see the word menopause there, and I would think, great, they do look after those women. Over time and different conversations, I started to realize that. Some of these people are putting it on their website, it's just a search engine thing so Google can find them. It's just a generic blanket term because they're trying to look after generalized women's services in an area. When I started to notice these differences and I would speak to different people and they'd be like, that doctor wasn't that great and you'd look at the thing and you'd at the website and you'd think, but they said that and they're not. So I actually went back over the whole website, everybody that was listed. I did it individually. I re-vetted them and I went through and I ended up removing a whole lot of people. We had over five hundred listed. I think we're down to just over three hundred now. And that process of really making sure that people are specifically caring for that space of women's health. So I just want to be clear. It's not a judgment on other people. They might be really great in their space. I just want to really make sure that we're really dealing with this space in the hub. Do they talk about midlife women specifically? Have they done extra training for it? Do they write or speak about it? What's in their bio? Is it indicating that that's the space? So a label can tell you what someone calls themselves. It doesn't necessarily show what they do. The last area Is really going to be about you and who you need to see. Because not everybody needs to go through the path of a GP. Even Dr. Deyer is saying the same thing in the sense that you can create a team around you of professions that help you with different elements. So it could include the physio, it could include the dietitian or your gym because know, health is really a holistic thing and when we're gonna be advocating for ourselves, we can have different resources in our space, right? And what I found in this is that say for example you have pelvic floor issues, then you could just go to a pelvic floor physio. Now you might need to get to go to a doctor for a referral if you want to be able to claim it on Medicare. I don't know that space enough to comment on that. But I'm just saying that you can go straight to a physio for pelvic floor help. You could go straight to a dietitian to rebuild your menus, items, or your food planning to support your body in this new phase. So not every path has to go through the GP. I I kind of liken it to like the board of directors or this board around you for your health and you can draw and they can talk to one another as well. They're not isolated silos. One of the interviews I did with a naturopath and she was saying they will get notes from the GP. They will write their notes back to the doctor. They will talk to one another to support your whole health. And that's what we're looking for. We we want to be informed and engaged in our own health. We don't want to just leave it to someone else. in my experience, I went to one and they were like, I'll book you in for surgery. F and I was like, For what? And they were like, Well, it's better to be safe than sorry. From what? It was a real shock that we would be exposed to that in this State in Australia. And so we want to cut that out for you as much as we can. And myself, that the more informed you are, the better you are. There's a few things here I just wanna mention before we wrap up. Dr. Deya made a point about telehealth that I think is really important. And we said telehealth is great and it's filled the gap where people can't access really good resources. But she said that at some stage you actually want to be physically seen face to face because a proper examination matters for your long-term health. So if you start online, just Keep that in mind. Because I I know a lot of women have reverted to telehealth because mm they think in their mind, I've got menopause, I need hormone replacement therapy. One and one is two in their mind. And that is not always the case. And so I think sometimes we've created solutions for ourselves to be able to find a pathway forward. But working with a health professional that is really trained in this area is going to really help you long term to think broadly about. Your health. This is one of the reasons why I've built the Menopause Resales Hub and we're still developing it and I'm engaging with people to hone it and craft it and it's not a stagnant. I want it to grow and emerge as a place. You can go online and you can find it on Google Maps if they're near you. You can click and call on that person's link and make an appointment directly. You can email them directly. You can find out the services they have. So all in one place are menopause providers. Who have been curated, if you like, or vetted, and you can go in and go, they're near me, they're near me, or their telehealth, and start to engage and find out more about these people. You can check their registration, you can check if they're really doing it. Don't just book someone locally because it's convenient or you've always seen them. Really empower your own health so that you can move forward. That's the whole premise of what we're trying to build here with the MetaPores Resource Hub. The link to the directory is going to be in the show notes and have a look, see who's near you, or if there's someone that you know and you recommend, you can always submit it in through the contact form so that we can take a look ourselves. I wanna know. We wanna build this out to be a really great resource for Australian women to have information, education, and actual contact with really great providers. So whether it is you yourself looking for those solutions, maybe it's your partner, your husband, who's trying to help you and he can go there and find out how to help you, like who's around. That's what we want to build. And I look forward to seeing it grow and I look forward to hearing from you and how we can really solve those questions that you have to take charge of your health. I'll see you in the next episode.