Latest / The Dr Louise Newson Podcast / 285 - Friendships and menopause: how conversations can be transformational

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285 - Friendships and menopause: how conversations can be transformational · The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

1:02
Today on the podcast, I've got someone with me called Louise
1:05
who kindly has agreed to share her story and everything in
1:09
medicine or a lot of medicine, I learned through my patients.
1:13
I obviously have got good background knowledge.
1:16
I learned the science, but actually when it's patients that
1:19
I learned from all the time. And so Louise was recommended to
1:23
see me a while ago and was not quite as as well as she is now,
1:27
but she's agreed to share her story.
1:29
So thanks so much, Louise, for coming on to the podcast.
1:32
Great. How would you like me to start?
1:34
Just from the beginning how we came across, I came across you.
1:37
If that's OK, Yeah. OK, so I'm Australian and I've
1:41
been on a holiday in Australia and while I was there I was on
1:45
the Marina coil, had the Marina coil featured and I'd had that
1:48
for some years. I've had three children and I'd
1:51
finished obviously having children.
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I had no signs or symptoms of menopause in any way.
1:57
But while I was down in Australia, I had this incredibly
2:01
heavy menstrual bleed, quite, quite unusually heavy, which
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obviously those of you who have a Marina coil will know it's not
2:08
common. And that got me thinking, oh
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gosh, you know, we all have busy lives and I've got a job and
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these children and I thought, God, maybe that thing's expired,
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I'd better check it out. So when I got back, I started
2:20
feeling quite agitated. I got in touch with my male
2:25
gynaecologist and said, listen, I think this Marina Quill may
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have expired. And he said, well, it hasn't
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expired for contraceptive purposes, but from a sort of
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progesterone releasing purpose it has.
2:37
You're probably about the age we should be considering some kind
2:41
of HRT. And I said, Oh yes, yes, of
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course, yes, I should. I said, well, I don't want any
2:46
messy creams and potions and I don't have time for that or
2:50
patches. He said we'll take these
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tablets, they're very good. And I sort of said yes, OK then.
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And off I went. Anyway, I didn't.
2:57
And this is so ridiculous because I am quite an
3:00
intelligent person, but I just, I didn't even read the
3:03
instructions properly nor did he give me any instructions because
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he just said I'll pop one of these today, you'll be right
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kind of thing. So I was merely popping them
3:09
away. But I started becoming more and
3:12
more anxious to the point where a very good friend of mine, who
3:16
is actually one of Doctor Louise Newson's patients was due to
3:19
meet me. And she rang me up to say, now
3:23
what time were you meeting? I said, I just can't meet you.
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And she said, what's wrong? I said I just, I, I can't leave
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the house. I'm just so agitated.
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I, I don't know what's wrong with me.
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And the next thing she just turned up at my door.
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She's a very good friend. And that would actually make me
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quite teary. Anyway, she said, this isn't
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like you, what's going on? And I said, I don't know.
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And I just started crying and saying I don't want to feel like
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this. I think something to do with
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menopause. I don't know.
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I've been given these tablets. She said go and get those
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tablets. So she looked at them and she
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said, well, you're supposed to be taking them sequentially,
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which you're not doing. Obviously they have different
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hormone levels, she said. But did did this?
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Doctor, get you to do any blood tests.
4:01
Did this doctor even investigate what sort of hormone levels you
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had? What's going on?
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This is ridiculous. She goes, right, that's it, I
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can't have this anymore. I'm going to call Doctor Newton
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now and I'm going to get you an emergency appointment, even
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though she can't see any more patients at the moment.
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She's full, but you can't leave the house.
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And this is ridiculous. And I couldn't stop crying.
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So anyway, she sat with me for several hours.
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We had loads of cups of tea. And then very fortunately, I got
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to speak with you the following week and relayed that story.
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And you said to me, I can't believe I'm hearing this.
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I hear this all the time. We've got to get onto this
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straight away. I'm going to send you some stuff
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tomorrow. Then in a couple of months
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you're going to go and have blood tests.
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We'll reassess, re evaluate. And I cannot tell you within a
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matter of weeks, I was back to my normal self.
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It was that fast. It was that fast the descent
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into despair. And it was that fast, the track
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out of it. And honestly, I know it was
5:01
because of those hormones. It's quite scary and I do
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remember seeing you and you're right, you weren't as well as
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you are now. But you actually said to me you
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feel like you're on a Snakes and Ladders game and you're the
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snake and you've landed on the tail and you've gone down.
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Do you remember saying that to me?
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It was honestly, it was that fast.
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In fact, my friend and I were talking about it.
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She was saying she'd experienced something similar, which is why
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she was so helpful and supportive.
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And she said she equates it to being just standing on a trap
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door that opened suddenly and down you go.
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And I said honestly that I felt like I was in a game of snakes
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and letters, that I had literally stood on the biggest
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snake and went right down to the bottom and I didn't even know
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how I was going to climb my way out.
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I couldn't find the ladder. That makes sense.
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It absolutely makes sense and it's really scary.
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And obviously there are many symptoms that can occur with our
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hormones. And as many people who are
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listening know that our hormones, our three hormones,
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estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, affect the way our
6:02
brains work. They work as neurotransmitters,
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chemicals that have messages from one part of the brain to
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another, and they affect other neurotransmitters as well.
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So when the balance is off kilter, it can really affect
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people. Sometimes it's very insidious.
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It's very slow onset. People just feel a bit more
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nervous, a bit more anxious. They might not want to go out
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with their friends as much, they might not want to drive as much,
6:25
they might want to go on the tube as much.
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And it can be over a few months. And then they just adapt and
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think, oh, it's just because I'm getting older.
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But for some people, and we don't know why, but for some
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people it can be a real, that you say fall off a Cliff moment,
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you know, you're fine. And then and there's nothing
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else that's happened in your life, you know, to account for
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this well. This was the strange thing,
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Louise, just for other people to understand, I suppose there's
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two things I wanted to say on that.
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The first is, so I am a really happy, positive, cheerful person
6:55
by nature. I've got a fantastic husband,
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great kids who are all doing really well.
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I live in a lovely home, I've got gorgeous friends, I've got a
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great job. There wasn't something in my
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life that could have been causing this.
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Obviously you have your little ups and downs, of course, go on,
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but nothing serious. And the second thing is when I
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was a very young woman in my very late teens, I did suffer an
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episode of extreme anxiety. And I was quite a late developer
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to just to put this in context. And then I sort of got back on
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track and I almost had the feeling that this whole sort of
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hormonal thing that happened brought me right back to an
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episode of when I was in my late teens And so, so very quickly.
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And I couldn't see the way out. I just could not see the way
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out. And there was no reason in my
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life that I should be feeling like this.
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And in fact, I couldn't even see the hormone thing for myself
7:55
because I thought I'd done what I needed to do from a menopause
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point of view because I, this doctor had prescribed these
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pills to me. But it was when my friend came
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around who understood and had been there before herself, and
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she could see. She said she'd seen it all
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before, and she knew it wasn't normal.
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That action had to be taken. But also the recovery out of it
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was just so swift. That was the other strange
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thing. Yeah.
8:20
You know, And I just want people to know the reason was really
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keen to come on the podcast, actually when we talked about it
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is I wanted people to know how powerful the change and how
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quick the change can be, but that a lot of doctors themselves
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aren't giving women the sort of help and support that they
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really need. Yeah, and often that's due to
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lack of education, not realising the power of hormones in our
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brains. And I was, I've recently emailed
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quite a few psychiatrists. I know, and I do know a lot,
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asking what's the evidence for antidepressants, for clinical
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depression and anxiety. And of course there is some
8:59
evidence, but it's actually not brilliant evidence.
9:02
They do help, but not a huge number necessarily.
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And there are risks of antidepressants if people are on
9:07
the long term. We all know about the addictive
9:10
properties, but we also they can increase incidence of
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osteoporosis for example, which lots of people don't realise.
9:17
But actually when you look even in our clinic data of people who
9:20
have anxiety and low mood and it's in the 80s and 90s, it
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reduces by about 60% within three months at the follow up
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consultation. Now, if I said to you, Louise, I
9:33
found this new drug that will reduce anxiety by 60%, It will
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improve sleep by 60%. It will improve memory and also
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joint pain, skin dryness, you know, palpitations.
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It will also improve by about 4050%.
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You'd go bring it on. Can I have some, please?
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But we've got this. But people are avoiding it
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because they're so worried about the potential risks, which we
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know for most types aren't there.
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But the other thing that you're clearly highlighting is that you
10:01
weren't on the right dosing type of HRT.
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And that's really crucial. About 37% of women who come to
10:07
our clinic are already taking some sort of HRT, and often
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they've been told it can't be your hormones because you're on
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HRT. But that's like saying you can't
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still have a headache because you've taken paracetamol and
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that's a painkiller. Well, actually I might need to
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take Brufen as well. It's not, you know, and there
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are so many different doses. And if you take a tablet, as you
10:32
know, estrogen then gets metabolised differently.
10:35
The progesterone is usually a synthetic progesterone which can
10:38
have detrimental effects because it can block the natural
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progesterone working in the body.
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And then obviously testosterone is another hormone and some
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people respond better to testosterone than estrogen.
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You know, we're all different and that's where you said.
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Having the blood test afterwards is in my mind, quite useful.
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It's still only a guide, but actually if someone has got low
11:00
hormone levels being on HRT, it suggests they're not absorbing
11:03
it properly through the skin and the dose might need changing.
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So it's really crucial that we review people regularly and make
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sure they're on what's right for them at that time.
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So what you're on now, even in a year's time could change if your
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body changes in some way, you know, you might still be
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producing hormones now that will reduce with time and that's
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fine. And we need to know that giving
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hormones is a dynamic process. It's not like A1 pill.
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There you go Louise, on you go. You've had this, which is what
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you were really told before, isn't?
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It. That's right.
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Well, not even told how to take them properly, quite frankly.
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I mean, and I don't want to say that he was sort of mansplaining
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me or anything like this, but it was, it was more like, I'll just
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take one of these and off you go.
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And I was just so naive. I just thought, Oh yes, he's a
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doctor. He knows what he's talking about
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and that was my mistake. Well, to be fair, you might have
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got better, in which case, absolutely, that's fine.
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And certainly a loss of my work as an educator, medical writer
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is to just empower people with knowledge and then know that
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they're, we're all different, Know about the different
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hormones, know that there are other reasons why people can
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feel like this. But certainly when somebody has
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a mental health issue without any triggers at a certain age,
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we've got to be thinking rather than could it be the hormones we
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should be asking ourselves as practitioners, is there any
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reason why it's not her hormones?
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We should be thinking hormones at top of the list.
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And it's a pivot to the way we've been taught and the way
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we're thinking and the way that I wish I'd thought for 30 years
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as being a doctor, because now in my mind, so much is related
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to hormones. And I'm usually right, but I
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didn't think about it before because no one told me to think
12:51
about hormones in women of any age because hormones can change.
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And, and it's really interesting because someone ages ago was
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pushing back on the lecture that I gave and said, well, you're
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just medicalising women. We don't medicalise adolescents
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or people that have hormonal changes when they're younger.
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And it's really interesting because I'm increasingly doing
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work for women who have PMS and PMDD, which you could say is
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just a normal part of their cycle.
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They're feeling rubbish a few days before their periods when
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their hormone levels drop. But actually also those women
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just having hormones on those few days to lift their hormone
13:28
levels. It can be transformational for
13:30
the way that they work, and that's fine as well.
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We're allowed to do those things too.
13:36
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
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Because obviously teenagers are going through a lot of hormonal
13:41
changes. And I actually, all through my
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reproductive life, suffered from terrible PMS, terrible pains,
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but more significantly horrific. A couple of days of deep, deep,
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dark depression. Really.
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And then, I mean, I'm such a moron.
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I literally would feel this way. I'd start crying, and two days
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later, I get my period and I'd feel happy again.
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And I think, oh, that's what it was.
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You know, it constantly seemed to surprise me every month.
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But it's weird, I think that's where having such a good friend
14:14
has been amazing for you, because you want someone to
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recognise it. Because I think so often in as
14:20
women, we normalise the way we feel.
14:23
And actually when you're feeling low, it's also your brain often
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doesn't process in the same way. So you do think, oh, that's just
14:30
a knife. That's just it.
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Yes. And many of us felt like that.
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And actually even now with my youngest daughter who's 13,
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she's sometimes she's really level headed, but every so often
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she gets very tearful. I'm like, gosh, and then she's
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has this really heavy period. It's like, okay, that's why she
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was like that. And we can laugh about it, but.
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I was very lucky to have such an understanding friend and that is
14:51
why I was quite keen to talk openly because I still think
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there's such a stigma around mental health issues, anxiety,
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particularly with women. So many women I speak to who are
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in sort of my age bracket, I'm now 54, are suffering from
15:08
tremendous anxiety and other things and having personality
15:12
changes and all sorts of things going on and it needs to be
15:15
spoken about. At least menopause now is in the
15:17
conversation. When I was young, my mother and
15:20
her friends, I didn't know anything about menopause because
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I didn't talk about it. Now people talk about it, but
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the mental health side of it is still not talked about very
15:29
often. No, you're absolutely right.
15:31
And I do a lot of training with psychiatrists actually, and it's
15:34
really interesting because they are waking up to it, which is
15:37
great, but they haven't been taught about it before.
15:39
And I do a lot of training for psychiatrists because we need to
15:42
recognise it. There's so many conditions that
15:46
are now around that they weren't even 30 years ago when I
15:49
qualified as a doctor. And a lot of these personality
15:52
disorders, you know, it's not a personality disorder, it's a
15:56
disorder of our hormones that hasn't been identified.
15:59
And I suppose, you know, the important thing for people to
16:01
understand is of course there are other issues for mental
16:06
health and other issues around mental health.
16:09
And it might be that there are other factors coming into things
16:12
and at play. And you know, hormones aren't
16:15
the panacea and the be all and the end all.
16:17
But in my particular case, and why I felt quite strongly about
16:20
talking about it, is that, you know, I was at a certain age, so
16:25
it's obvious that something was happening hormonally.
16:28
I was too blind to see it because I got myself into such a
16:31
state so quickly. And, you know, it really, really
16:35
did work in my case. And obviously it's not going to
16:38
work in everyone's case, but it couldn't do any harm.
16:41
Well, this is the thing, I totally agree.
16:42
And you can have more than one diagnosis in medicine.
16:45
So you're, you know, there are some people that do have a
16:48
psychiatric illness, they do have clinical depression or
16:50
schizophrenia or bipolar, but they'll also be menopausal and
16:54
perimenopausal. So there's no way that I'm
16:56
saying it's all related to hormones and we'll be fine if
16:59
everyone just has their hormones.
17:01
But we need to Co prescribe, we need to work together the same
17:05
way that if someone had an abdominal operation and also a
17:09
migraine, you would give treatment for the migraine and
17:11
you would do their surgery as well.
17:12
That's fine. But I think what's happened for
17:16
many years, decades, centuries, is that our hormones have been
17:20
forgotten. And then you can never
17:22
completely help that person to be completely well because
17:25
you're not treating the underlying cause.
17:27
Yeah, I think the other thing too, I wanted to say, I suppose,
17:30
is that you talk to so many different people about their
17:33
experiences with menopause. Some people have 10 or 12
17:37
different things happening to them.
17:38
Some people say they've had nothing happen to them.
17:41
In my case, it was one. Well, I always say I have a bit
17:44
of weight gain, but I don't think that's because of
17:46
menopause. I just think that's my age,
17:48
sadly. But in my case, I really just
17:51
had one big thing happened to me.
17:53
I have no brain fog. I don't forget things.
17:56
I sleep extremely well. You know, this thing just went,
18:01
it was like I got one big thing happened to me.
18:04
And so again, I think, you know, women need to know that
18:07
menopause isn't one of these things that necessarily causes
18:10
brain fog or heart palpitations or lack of sleep.
18:13
It could be just one other thing.
18:15
And if you are suffering from anxiety or you are feeling
18:18
stressed and anxious, maybe go and do something about it from a
18:22
hormonal point of view. Yeah, and that is really
18:24
important because actually some of the menopause guidelines will
18:26
still talk about hot flashes, sweats, low mood and vaginal
18:31
dryness. They don't talk about any of the
18:32
other symptoms at all. And lots of people think you
18:36
have to have a certain number of symptoms or a certain duration
18:39
for those symptoms or a certain sequence of events.
18:43
And some menopause conference I've been to, they say all women
18:48
have flushes and sweats and then they have some low mood and then
18:51
they'll get vaginal dryness. And it's like, hang on.
18:53
No, I've seen women that have only had tinnitus or they've
18:57
only had dry skin or they've only had vaginal dryness and
19:02
cystitis when they're young and no other symptoms.
19:05
So we can't put people in a box and say no, you've not had XYZ
19:10
symptoms, therefore you can't be perimenopausal or menopausal.
19:13
And that's the danger, I think in medicine because we don't
19:16
have a diagnostic test, you know, I can't send you for a
19:20
blood test and go, yes, actually, Louisa, you are
19:22
definitely menopausal. But even if I you had a blood
19:25
test, of course, aged 54, you know, your hormone levels will
19:28
be low because that's what happens as we age.
19:30
But having low hormone levels doesn't mean it's the cause of
19:32
your anxiety. You know, you could have had
19:34
something else going on. And so that's why in medicine
19:38
it's really important that we keep our minds open to all sorts
19:42
of reasons for a possible diagnosis and also think about a
19:46
differential diagnosis as well. Because sometimes what happens
19:50
is, and I've seen it a lot, people maybe give an example,
19:53
someone with tinnitus, the ringing in the ears.
19:56
I saw said lady recently and she had been seen by the Max Fax
19:59
team. She'd been by ENT.
20:01
So she'd had brain scans, she'd had inner ear balance tests,
20:04
everything was normal. So said, well, you're, it's
20:07
fine, you're normal. She's like, no, I am waking up
20:09
with tinnitus. It's driving me to distraction.
20:12
I really can't cope. I can't work, I can't function.
20:14
It is awful. And she was 54.
20:17
So I said, well, you're menopausal because of your age.
20:21
I know there are more benefits and risks for you for HRT.
20:24
I have no idea if it's going to help your tinnitus, but we know
20:26
tinnitus is a symptom. Let's see how you get on.
20:31
And then when she came back three months later, she's like,
20:34
you've cured me. This is incredible.
20:36
So the proof is in the pudding sometimes as long as we're
20:38
giving safe treatment to see if it helps and if it doesn't help,
20:41
then I can think of something else, you know, and that's what
20:44
we often do in medicine. But you, you know, your story
20:47
was very clear that you had this catastrophic, it really was
20:51
catastrophic anxiety that. Oh, it was awful.
20:54
Yeah. And just so fast, but fix so
20:57
quickly, too. That's the unusual thing.
21:00
And the other thing I also wanted to say is I, I have told
21:03
a lot of people, my friends about it because I just, you
21:05
know, I think it's important for people to not be afraid to talk
21:08
about these things. But there are a few women that I
21:11
knew who sort of said to me, oh, I haven't needed any HRT.
21:16
I've been fine. I have no menopausal symptoms,
21:18
almost sort of showing off, if that makes sense.
21:20
And, well, good luck to them. But the problem is that makes
21:23
other women feel bad. And I don't want other women to
21:25
feel bad about taking HRT. It's not a secret.
21:30
I think that why wouldn't you? And I want anybody out there who
21:35
might possibly feel even the tiniest bit anxious or low to go
21:39
and get their hormones checked and to continually check their
21:43
hormones and realise that maybe it's not them, it's their
21:47
hormones. Yeah, and that's where doing
21:49
even a symptom checker like On Balance app is really useful
21:52
because you can see if you have any change in symptoms.
21:55
You know, having hormone level levels checks can sometimes be
21:58
confusing, but thinking about hormones is the most important
22:01
thing. But also allowing others to know
22:03
the importance of hormones so they can maybe witness it in
22:07
you. And, you know, maybe ask, could
22:09
this be related to your hormones?
22:11
Because I've read that anxiety could be a symptom when your
22:13
hormone levels change because that's really useful as well,
22:15
like your friend did for you. But you're right.
22:18
And I've seen quite a few patients over the years who've
22:21
felt so much better on hormones, but they say, I'm not telling my
22:24
friends. It's like it's it's just a badge
22:27
of shame for taking hormones. And that's hanging over from the
22:32
WHI study from people thinking hormones are bad.
22:35
And actually I keep saying to people, you don't get a medal
22:38
for suffering. No one says, well done, Louise,
22:41
and you've had menopausal symptoms for three years and
22:44
you've done nothing about it. But also, I think we need to
22:47
turn away a bit from thinking even about symptoms because we
22:51
need to be thinking about the health risks of not having
22:54
hormones. So we know that there are health
22:57
risks the longer we are without our hormones.
23:00
So are you being menopausal? And these risks include heart
23:04
disease, dementia, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis,
23:08
clinical depression, type 2 diabetes, neurodegenerative
23:12
disorders. I mean, that's just, we know
23:14
that that's fact doesn't mean everyone's going to get these
23:17
conditions. It's like saying to you, if you
23:20
never exercise again, you will have an increased risk of all
23:23
the same conditions actually, Or if you eat fast food every day
23:27
or if you smoke or drink, it's your choice, but you need to
23:30
know that. So these people that are saying
23:33
I don't have symptoms, fine, but actually they've still got these
23:37
health risks. And you obviously can reduce
23:40
risk by nutrition, exercise, but you're not going to replace
23:43
those missing hormones that are biologically active.
23:45
And it's really important because we're living so much
23:48
longer. In the Victorian times, the
23:50
average age of the menopause was around 57 and the average age of
23:53
death for women was around 59. And evolutionary, we're designed
23:58
to reproduce, aren't we? We're designed to be pregnant
24:00
most of our lives with very high levels of hormones.
24:03
Actually, when we're pregnant, we're not really designed to
24:06
have 30-40 years without our hormones.
24:08
Suddenly enough my mum who is 76, had a late onset epilepsy
24:14
condition mainly because she had a brain tumour when she was 50
24:17
and went into menopause as a result of that surgery and
24:21
everything was fine. But then the scarring, it was a
24:24
bit more rudimentary in those days, the scarring on the brain
24:26
caused to have a late onset epilepsy.
24:28
She's got this lovely old Doctor Who's about 90 and then he said
24:32
get back on HRT now obviously is on anti epilepsy medication but
24:36
she said the HRT has made an enormous difference and she said
24:40
I will be on it till I die. And that's really interesting
24:43
actually, when you look at the effects on the brain, I'm very
24:45
interested in neurophysiology, so how our brain actually works
24:49
and how it responds to hormones. And our brains produce hormones
24:53
and one of the first things our brain does if we have a head
24:56
injury or a stroke, the same with your mother with the
24:59
scarring on the brain is that your brain cells will produce
25:02
some progesterone, which is very anti-inflammatory healing if you
25:05
like on, on tissues. But if you are older and you're
25:09
not producing the same amount of hormones, of course, you won't
25:11
have that there. And so it can not just stabilize
25:15
conditions, it can improve conditions.
25:17
And over the years, people have said, oh, we can't start HRT and
25:20
older people because there are risks.
25:22
No, there are risks with older types of hormones, but not the
25:25
natural ones. And I've got a patient who's got
25:30
dementia and is quite mild, but it's come on over the last
25:34
couple of years and she started HRT and it's absolutely
25:37
stabilized her dementia. And she had a fall recently,
25:41
quite a nasty fall, but she didn't break her hip.
25:43
And when she went to hospital, they were shocked that she
25:47
hadn't break it. And so she's still independent,
25:49
she has carers, but she's at home.
25:52
And it definitely has made a difference to her muscle
25:54
strength, obviously her bone strength, but cognitively she
25:57
was declining quite a fair amount.
26:00
And if she'd carried on, she's only 76, if she's alive for
26:03
another 10 years or so, she'd definitely be heading towards a
26:06
nursing home. And it's been stabilised.
26:08
And who knows whether it's hormones or not, but certainly
26:12
her son really doesn't want them stopping because he's noticed a
26:15
really big difference. That's very interesting.
26:18
Well, all I can say is, you know what?
26:20
I'm very grateful to you. I'm extremely grateful to my
26:24
friend. I mean, she's a very good friend
26:26
indeed. And I think all of us are very
26:29
lucky with the friends we have in our lives and we need to
26:31
share with them because if I hadn't shared with her, I don't
26:34
know where I'd be now. Yeah, and that's such an
26:37
important way to end actually, is, you know, look out for each
26:41
other, sharing information, sharing how you feel because so
26:44
many times people feel embarrassed, especially when
26:47
it's mental health. It's so much easier if I had a
26:50
rash on my arm to show you and you would give me.
26:53
But when we're feeling vulnerable, when we're feeling
26:56
low or anxious, it's a really crucially important time that we
27:00
share with people because those people might help us get the
27:02
right help, support and treatment.
27:05
So I'm very grateful for you being so open about your story.
27:09
Before we end, I always ask for three take home tips.
27:11
So you're not going to run away without me asking those.
27:15
So 3 tips, I'm going to spin it a bit.
27:18
Three things that if you were a friend, an acquaintance, a loved
27:22
1A work colleague and you saw that person slipping mentally,
27:28
what are the three things that you think would be really useful
27:31
for them to do? Well, if I saw it, I would
27:34
firstly approach them and say, would you like to talk to me
27:40
about it? And if not me, somebody else.
27:43
Would you like to talk about it with no judgement?
27:46
And of course I'm not going to talk to anyone else about it in
27:49
a very confidential way so that they felt they could sort of
27:53
unburden themselves. And then I guess I, if I hadn't
27:56
told them already, I would share my story.
27:58
That would be my second thing, because often if people realise
28:01
it's not just them, they feel more comfortable in sharing
28:07
what's going on. And the third thing I suppose is
28:12
I would always tell anybody to just keep an open mind because
28:18
obviously if you are feeling very low, you should certainly
28:23
not turn away from antidepressants or other sort of
28:27
psychological aids or talking therapies or any other sorts of
28:31
therapies or medications because your experience might be
28:35
individual to you. But if you do the maths and
28:38
you're a woman between 45 and 60, there's a very high chance
28:43
your hormones are playing an integral role in this scenario.
28:47
So keep an open mind and perhaps consider that it might, as I
28:52
said, not be you. It might be your hormones.
28:56
Absolutely really important and great advice and I'm very
29:00
grateful. So thanks ever so much for your
29:02
time today, Louisa. It's been.
29:03
Great. Thank you for your time because
29:06
you helped me a lot. Thank you.
29:12
You can. Find out more about Newson
29:14
Health Group by visiting www.newsonhealth.co.uk and you
29:20
can download the free Balance app on the App Store.
29:23
Or Google Play.