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54 - Menopause at 10 years old · The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

0:03
So Zara, we have been trying to arrange this podcast for a long
0:06
time and I fully blame myself for having a busy diary, but I'm
0:11
really excited for many reasons to have you on my podcast.
0:15
First, because when we talk about menopause or actually if
0:20
you Google menopause, I don't know if any of you listening
0:22
have done this, it always comes up with a white haired women.
0:27
And they usually got a fan in their hand or they've got their
0:30
head like on their hands and they're just like, oh, they're
0:33
always at work somehow on a desk and it just looks, yeah, can't
0:38
cope. But they're, and they're always
0:40
white, you know, and Caucasian women.
0:44
But like, actually women aren't all, we don't all look the same.
0:48
But the other thing is, is if you say to someone menopause,
0:51
wait, what's the average age of menopause?
0:52
They'll probably go 50. And when I say, oh, in some
0:55
countries, especially in South Asia, for example, the average
0:59
age of menopause is about 40. And people are quite shocked
1:02
with that. But I've always said that no one
1:06
is too young to be menopausal, and people still look a bit
1:11
confused. And I used to say every doctor
1:14
needs to know about menopause, maybe not pediatricians.
1:17
And then about 8 years ago, I said no, pediatricians need to
1:20
know about menopause too. So just tell me how old you were
1:24
when you became menopausal, if you don't mind.
1:27
Sarah, 1010. So I lost my right ovary at 10
1:32
and then I lost the majority of the left ovary at 11 due to
1:37
dermoid very large. 2 very large dermoid cysts, the 1st 122
1:41
inches. The second one, I think it was
1:43
around 10. So massive cysts.
1:45
So just for those people that haven't heard of dermoid cysts,
1:48
they're not cancer at all. And they can grow, as you know,
1:52
very big. So what were you getting?
1:54
Symptoms or discomfort? Oh, the pain, the pain and that
1:59
pain will never, ever leave me. So it was about a good, good
2:03
chunk of a year. So from when I was 9 getting the
2:05
pain and my mum would take me back because it would always be
2:08
after exercise and it would, it would be Egypt.
2:12
We just couldn't find the, the full pattern.
2:15
But it was just always after exercise and it would be a lot.
2:18
It would be every few days and my mum would take me to the
2:21
doctor. And in the end the doctor
2:24
actually said, look, I think you might need to spend a bit more
2:26
time with your daughter. This might be a case of he
2:29
actually took me out the room, but as a hyper vigilant child, I
2:32
stood there like and and he said this might be a case of crime,
2:36
Wolf And those you know those words I have a.
2:39
Lot so you remember that. Oh, yeah, yeah.
2:41
I had a lot of therapy for those words because then that then
2:44
told me I'm not feeling this. This is this is nothing.
2:47
I have to ignore this. So I remember walking around my
2:51
house doubled up and my mum saying let's play Monopoly,
2:55
let's play Monopoly, me and you. And I'm like, so this was really
2:58
extreme pain and the CIS burst when we were on holiday.
3:02
So we're in Lanzarote. I remember, you know, I couldn't
3:05
go to the toilet, I couldn't walk.
3:07
And I remember having my eyesight really, really small
3:11
sun cream in my eyes and I couldn't actually lie on the
3:14
sofa. So if my body touched, you'll
3:17
know as a doctor if my body touched anything.
3:19
So I would sort of up so nothing of my body could touch.
3:24
And my mum was saying it must be Constipation, there must be.
3:27
And my dad, it was my dad. He just looked at me and he said
3:30
we've got to get her to hospital.
3:31
She's grey. And you know, I just thank my
3:33
dad for that because they said at the hospital there was
3:35
probably about 12 hours left of life in me and the feeling like,
3:42
just take it away. So yeah, that was extreme.
3:47
It caused a lot of trauma. We then returned to the same GP
3:50
and he said, oh, you know, this is, this doesn't happen unless
3:53
you're 17 and up. The textbooks say this, this,
3:57
this said for 17 year olds, 10 year olds don't get them.
4:00
And I remember thinking, well, they do because just had one and
4:04
then another one came. Apparently they come in twins,
4:07
they come as a pair. And then that again, it wasn't
4:10
explained, it wasn't told to me. But the within about a year
4:13
later, same pains again on the left side, not the right, same
4:17
pains, the same being sick. Straight away I knew.
4:21
And I said, take me to the hospital, Mum.
4:23
By this point I had a gynecologist, I had a consultant
4:27
who was doing some follow up and he said, yeah, you've got,
4:30
you've got another one. We're going to scan you and
4:31
we'll, we'll remove it before it bursts.
4:34
I removed it and just left. He was, he was really wonderful,
4:38
wonderful consultant and he was wonderful.
4:40
He left, he said to my mum, I'm going to leave as much of that
4:43
ovary as I can. So he left a little bit.
4:46
My symptoms after that were extremely heavy menstruation and
4:50
painful, extremely heavy. And then was diagnosed with
4:55
endometriosis and adenosis, the really heavy.
4:59
I didn't know Myosis. Yeah.
5:01
Yeah, yeah. So did they put you on the?
5:06
Did they put you on any hormones after removing most of your
5:10
ovaries? And was told is everything will
5:12
be all right now, you'd be OK now because this is not going to
5:15
happen again. I did have another cyst after
5:17
but it was just a ovarian cyst. It wasn't the dermal.
5:21
And so that was removed when I was thinking about 13.
5:24
And then I did carry. I've just had issues ever ever
5:27
since 19. Was tested for my fertility and
5:33
he put me through for IVF at 19. It passed.
5:36
It passed medically because it was a medical reason for being,
5:41
but by the time it came through I was 21 with the waiting list
5:45
so I was just grateful to be alive at that point.
5:48
However, I was experiencing mood swings sleeping at my desk at
5:53
school. How I got good disease?
5:55
Just termination. So what were your main main
5:59
symptoms when you were at school then?
6:02
The extreme fatigue, Extreme. I just remember I couldn't, you
6:07
know, when I was, I was getting told off all the time for
6:10
sleeping at the desk. You know, no one's looking into
6:12
this. Why are you sleeping?
6:13
Just wake up. I mean, I just remember feeling
6:17
as well, so different to everyone else.
6:19
So much older, you know, I've just went for a lot of trauma,
6:22
you know, I woke up in that operation as well.
6:24
So there was a lot of different things, but I just remember
6:27
feeling so different and didn't know why, just didn't
6:30
understand. No, the pains, the period was so
6:35
heavy, which I now know was because my body was going into
6:38
menopause. Didn't know that then.
6:41
So I was told, well, you're bleeding brilliant, this is
6:43
brilliant, this is fantastic for you.
6:45
So people didn't then think which lots of people do know if
6:48
people are having periods right, then their their hormones are
6:51
normal, which is not true at all.
6:53
And did you have any physical symptoms?
6:55
So symptoms such as skin changes or.
6:58
Pains, pain. Mine was pain and mine is
7:01
materialized into pain and. Pain whereabouts?
7:05
All my joints. OK.
7:07
Mainly, mainly back. Now it's kind of everywhere.
7:11
HLT helps with me with that. But then it was back legs I
7:16
really struggled doing. I'd wanted to take dance, I
7:20
really struggled with it. I'd just be fatigued, but still
7:25
just thinking it's me. Something must be wrong with me.
7:28
Must be me. I must be making this up again.
7:30
You know I'm not. You know, I'd be trying to eat
7:34
of everything that I'd research myself because I did a lot of
7:38
that, but still never ever knowing it's connected to your
7:42
hormones because I'm bleeding and I was bleeding every
7:45
sometimes every two weeks as well.
7:47
OK, so you're at school surrounding by by people who are
7:52
producing hormones. So you're getting mental health
7:55
symptoms, but you're blaming it on trauma and things that you've
7:59
experienced before. You're getting muscle and joint
8:01
pains, you're getting fatigue. And did you ever see any doctors
8:05
or did you talk to anyone about your symptoms?
8:07
I. Think the questions were ever
8:09
really asked. So that's where I feel like, how
8:12
do we talk about something if it's not illicit to the outfall?
8:16
Where, where, where would a child know where to to follow?
8:20
So I remember speaking to my consultant gynaecologist a lot.
8:24
I loved him because in my mind, you know, he said he saved money
8:28
over it, you know, And I remember telling him I still
8:31
don't feel great. And it was very much dismissed
8:34
as mental health. So on my record, there is
8:35
anxiety and depression, without a doubt.
8:37
I've had that. Well, of course, but did he?
8:40
He didn't talk to you about having hormones at all?
8:42
No, he said. PMDD.
8:44
OK, which is premenstrual dysphoric disorders.
8:47
So again, that is related to hormones.
8:49
And you know a lot of people have just enough hormones for
8:53
periods, but not enough for the brain, the body, everything else
8:56
as well. And when hormone levels dip,
8:58
which they usually do before a period period, then a lot of
9:02
symptoms can really manifest and can be severe in women with
9:06
PMDD. Yes, and they did become severe,
9:11
really severe. I remember I would remember
9:13
sitting on my hands because I would feel like I'm going to
9:15
hurt myself. So I would sit on my hands with
9:19
extreme frustration. And they did treat me with
9:24
Zoladex. So, so Zoladex blocks remains
9:28
completely because sometimes people, well wrongly and rightly
9:34
think that PMDD is related to changing hormone levels, which
9:37
indeed it is. But blocking hormones is not
9:40
always the right thing. So what happened when you how
9:42
old were you when you had Zoladex?
9:45
Cognitive memory isn't fantastic.
9:47
So I'd had the twins. So I had the twins when I was 23
9:50
through IVF. And another thing as well, just
9:53
step aside to that. When I had IVF I was given a lot
9:57
of hormones. Right to keep us.
9:59
Pregnancy and the two hospitals didn't correlate with each
10:02
other. So I'm treated at an IVF
10:04
hospital and then I'm here at my local hospital.
10:07
I'd had all this, all these hormones fantastically pumped
10:10
through me to hold up this beautiful twin pregnancy.
10:13
And then I give birth six weeks early and then no hormones, no
10:18
follow up. So I then had the post Natal
10:20
psychosis, which I really believe is because you took my
10:24
hormones here where I probably needed some great amount,
10:27
probably a higher than what, you know, probably needed for me.
10:30
But I, you know, I was very, very sick.
10:32
And I believe that's because I had extra or estrogen.
10:35
I don't know if that's right, but and then the crash of those
10:40
hormones, I now feel I didn't know that.
10:43
And I thought I'm crazy again. You know this is me.
10:46
That's very scary. Yeah, so sorry, I totally
10:51
sidestepped your your question. No, it's not.
10:54
So we were talking about Sodex, but this is very relevant
10:57
because when people are pregnant, they have higher
10:59
levels of hormones in their body.
11:01
And when you have IVF, obviously you're given hormones, but
11:05
usually natural hormones, especially progesterone.
11:07
But what's interesting is if people feel sick.
11:10
So people with hyperemesis, but people with sickness throughout
11:12
their pregnancy often don't have enough progesterone.
11:16
So it's, it's very unusual to have too much estrogen because
11:19
we levels of estrogen in our body go up to like 55,000 really
11:23
high when we're pregnant. And most people feel really
11:26
great when they're pregnant. But it's not just the, the
11:29
estrogen, it's the progesterone. A lot of people don't have
11:32
enough progesterone. And we were talking a bit about
11:35
progesterone before we recorded because there's this sort of
11:39
complete misunderstanding that progesterone is just a little
11:42
hormone to help the womb and help with periods.
11:44
Progesterone is the master of all hormones, and it forms the
11:48
other hormones as well. So it forms testosterone.
11:52
Testosterone forms estradiol, but progesterone also forms
11:55
cortisone and cortisol, which cortis Cortisol, as many people
12:01
know is our stress hormone and cortisone is our
12:04
anti-inflammatory hormone, if you like.
12:06
So when people have low progesterone, they often have
12:10
more stress, as in emotional stress in their body, but they
12:13
also have more inflammation in their body as well.
12:16
So having progesterone actually helps reduce stress.
12:20
Got cat's tail in my screen here.
12:22
It helps reduce stress, but it also helps reduce inflammation.
12:26
If you're right, when people have given birth, the levels of
12:30
all hormones, estradiol, progesterone and testosterone
12:33
actually fall off a Cliff and post Natal depression is.
12:36
Natal psychosis is associated with a hormonal drop and many
12:42
people have known for decades that giving back hormones,
12:45
especially progesterone, can make a massive difference for
12:49
women with post Natal psychosis and post Natal depression.
12:53
But I'm going to ask you now and I probably can guess the answer.
12:56
Were you given hormones when you have post Natal psychosis?
12:59
No. I was given amity anxiety.
13:03
Yeah, I begged. It was.
13:06
Yeah, I begged for something. So I was talking to a
13:11
psychiatrist recently about post Natal depression and psychosis
13:16
and said why is it that we're not giving hormones?
13:18
Because it makes sense. We all know that there's a big
13:20
hormonal shifts and we've known since the 60s and 70s that women
13:24
respond to natural hormones, yet it's not in the guidelines.
13:26
And he's now retired. But he said, oh, yes, Louise, I
13:29
used to run a mother and baby unit and would see a lot of
13:32
these women and would literally put them to bed in the mother
13:34
and baby unit and we'd have to wait.
13:36
And I said, but wait for what? He said, well, they'd always get
13:39
better with time, but would wait for their periods to return and
13:43
then they'd be better. I said, OK, doesn't that tell
13:45
you something then? Doesn't that tell you something?
13:48
But for some women, their periods might never return, or
13:51
it might take a long time for periods to return.
13:54
So why can't we just supplement these women with natural
13:57
hormones like it? It doesn't make sense.
13:59
So you know, you've, you've been known to have low hormones
14:03
pretty much your whole life since having those cysts
14:07
removed. Yet somehow the obvious thing is
14:10
is not being given to you and. It was only really seeing you
14:15
some years ago now on the television, you know, my mum
14:18
would ring me quick, quick. It's all about menopause and
14:21
early menopause. And it was just so exciting, you
14:25
know, and just it, it was that that made me realise I need to
14:29
look further into this. I need to speak up.
14:32
I need to say this is not, you know, I've managed, I'm managing
14:36
my, my emotions, my moods, my thing.
14:38
I'm doing that. I've lots of therapy, you know,
14:40
I'm a therapist myself. I'm doing, but something's not
14:43
where something's not right. And I know once I started to
14:46
attune to myself and you know, your book, your the Balance Act,
14:52
you know, your information, once I started to really educate
14:54
myself, that's when I realized, and I would go in armed to the
14:58
consultant, you know, have a new one now.
15:00
And I would say, but I've, I've found this out and they don't
15:03
always like that. OK, However, I think that's it.
15:08
If that's if I'm not being educated by my health, you know,
15:11
the health system that my Health advisors that I'm going to, then
15:13
I'm going to have to educate myself and sometimes educate
15:16
them. And that's what's happening a
15:18
lot actually. And I feel really embarrassed to
15:21
say this, and I have shared it publicly before, but I wasn't
15:24
taught about menopause when I was an undergraduate or
15:27
postgraduate, and I wasn't taught about menopause in
15:30
younger women. What I was taught that if women
15:33
don't have their periods, just make sure they're not pregnant,
15:37
Louise, and then reassure them. That was what I was taught.
15:40
So as a junior GP, I'd see people in their 20s and 30s who
15:44
were worried. They had not had periods, they
15:47
were low in their mood, they might have had other symptoms.
15:49
I didn't ask about all the symptoms, so I couldn't even
15:51
tell you how many symptoms they had.
15:53
But I used to say, well, if you're definitely not pregnant,
15:56
don't worry about it. I like, why was I not even
15:59
thinking about the role of hormones?
16:00
But you know, you don't know what you're not taught.
16:03
But if someone then said to me, I've got all these symptoms
16:06
because I've done a symptom questionnaire and I'm worried
16:08
that I don't have hormones in my body, which is increasing my
16:11
risk of osteoporosis and heart disease and other inflammatory
16:14
conditions, I would like some hormones.
16:17
But the other thing I sometimes did if women wanted a period is
16:20
they'll say, oh, I'll just give you the pill and then you can
16:22
have a period. Like, why?
16:24
I mean, that's not even natural hormones.
16:25
And the period is just a withdrawal bleed.
16:27
It's not. So I don't know.
16:28
Were you given the contraceptive pill at all?
16:30
As you said that, then it triggered my memory.
16:32
Yeah, about about 13. It was my brother, actually my
16:35
brother brother moved over to America and I think just being
16:37
over there, he's seven years older, he was in for, he learned
16:41
a lot and this had really affected him, what happened to
16:43
me. So he moved at the same time.
16:46
So when I was 10, he'd moved over there and his partner had
16:49
really looked into things for me.
16:51
And he rang my mom and said you're going to have to preserve
16:54
her eggs. That was the main thing,
16:56
preserve nothing about preserve those eggs for that baby.
17:00
So I was put on the pill, but it just didn't agree with me, would
17:03
bleed all the time. And I would be told, well, it's
17:06
the wrong pill for you then. And then I'd be on another pill
17:09
and I'd be so angry and, you know, real rage and, you know,
17:13
really not feeling good to the point where I just would stop
17:17
taking it. You know, I didn't, I didn't
17:19
feel right. No.
17:21
And so the pill is obviously synthetic chemical hormones and
17:24
so it can increase inflammation in the body, but also it can
17:27
block our own hormones working. So any little bits of hormones
17:30
that you had left are often blocked by the effects of the
17:33
pill and a lot of people don't realise that.
17:35
And it's really important that people do understand that it's
17:39
not the same. And also the contraceptive pill
17:41
will block testosterone in our body, which is also a really
17:45
important hormone. So you.
17:49
Know that this is such an education for me.
17:51
So. So you're now using some HRT,
17:57
it's not been fully optimized, and you were saying that it's a
18:00
struggle to talk to someone about testosterone really.
18:04
Is it? I'm told you know, it's not
18:05
licensed, therefore you don't, you don't need it.
18:09
This is not. You're on estrogen and
18:11
progesterone. That's the deal.
18:14
So isn't it interesting that we know that about half of our
18:17
testosterone is made in our ovaries?
18:20
So for you only having a small amount of 1 ovary left, you're
18:22
not going to have the same testosterone as other people in
18:25
their 30s. If I'd taken out, I'm not a
18:28
surgeon, but if I was a surgeon and I took out some of your
18:30
thyroid gland and left a tiny bit left, there would be no
18:34
problem about having a thyroid hormone to replace.
18:37
Like it just makes sense, doesn't it?
18:39
Or if I took out most of your pancreas, of course we'd be
18:42
talking about insulin and the digestive enzymes and how
18:45
important they are. It feels really controlling by
18:48
doctors to be saying you can't have a natural hormone in your
18:52
30s. Yeah, absolutely.
18:55
I don't really get it, no. And actually the last scan that
18:58
I had showed that my ovary had been swallowed up.
19:01
This was the words. It's been swallowed up.
19:04
It's a nice way of putting. It's gone into the E throw of my
19:08
my body. It's had a cyst over it
19:11
apparently and it's it's gone. We can't locate it now.
19:13
There is nothing now. So that then says to me, well
19:18
then there's nothing. So it's really important.
19:19
So you're 37 currently? Yeah.
19:23
So it's. Really important.
19:25
So about one in 30 women under the age of 40 have an early
19:29
menopause. Now it used to say, they used to
19:31
say one in 100, but now it's one in 30.
19:34
Like basically they don't know, but they know it's very common.
19:37
So one in 30 of all women under the age of 40 have menopause.
19:41
Yet most of those women will not have access to hormones.
19:43
And if they do, it might not be the right dose and type and
19:46
certainly probably not testosterone.
19:48
Yet we know these hormones have really important biological
19:51
actions in the body, and every single cell responds to those
19:54
hormones. And we've known for decades that
19:56
women who have an early menopause have an increased risk
19:59
of diseases if they're not having hormones.
20:02
Now, our government has just announced recently that women
20:06
over the age of 40, as part of their health check, will be
20:09
asked questions about menopause, which half of me saying, oh,
20:13
that's good. But the other half of me is
20:15
like, so age 37, if I was to do AGP, doesn't matter, does it?
20:20
I mean, I don't know how that makes you feel.
20:21
Yeah. It's quite shocking because you
20:24
know, for me this has been going on for, like you say, for most
20:26
of my life and over 40. What about the rest of us?
20:30
What about those that are having early menopause from the age of
20:34
10 onwards from teenage? And I have a best friend we met
20:39
wonderfully through our IVF children.
20:41
How wonderful is that both of us when we got chatting both early
20:45
menopause different reasons for her just unexplained.
20:48
So this is what people will find a lot.
20:50
She was 17, just they just stopped never been explained to
20:54
her. This is nothing has ever been
20:55
explained. So what happens to what happens
20:58
to these people? I have people that come into my
21:01
my practice. I have women, beautiful women
21:03
who have no idea about their their hormones.
21:06
It is not even in their, it's not in their peripheral vision
21:11
at all. And I'll ask them, you know,
21:12
how's your cycle? Where is your cycle?
21:14
Where are you with it? Oh no, that's, you know, that's
21:16
nothing to do with it. And I'm, I'm informed now.
21:19
So I'm always going to have that lens of, OK, well, let's just be
21:23
mindful of a cycle. Any cycle knows that you know
21:26
where where. Absolutely.
21:28
How is it impacting, how is it informing so the thought that
21:31
it's just for over 40? Yeah, I mean, I, I feel really
21:35
sad for women that are missing out all the time.
21:37
And my work is about trying to reach all women and with
21:40
technology, like you say, with Balancer, I can make sure women
21:43
if I get it right. So a few years ago I was part of
21:47
an NHS national menopause group which has since sadly disbanded.
21:50
But I said to them at one of the first meetings, you're talking a
21:54
lot about women over the age of 50 and talking about menopause,
21:57
51 average age in the UK. I said in my mind, if I was
22:02
allocating resources, I would focus on women under the age of
22:05
40 because these women have more health risks of not having the
22:10
right treatment. They're more suffering.
22:12
Even if you look at an economy, they're going to put more drain
22:15
on the NHS and healthcare resources, but they're also
22:20
going to be less likely to work because we know if you've got
22:23
symptoms, you're less likely to work.
22:26
And main symptoms are anxiety, fatigue and memory problems.
22:30
So younger people are less likely to have that earning
22:32
potential, if you see what I mean.
22:35
And they said, oh, but it's not common enough.
22:37
And I said, but hang on, one in 30 is far more common than most
22:41
other conditions that we are. We have guidelines on, we're
22:44
prioritising. So that doesn't really make
22:46
sense. But I'm always seen as a pain
22:50
for a lot of these meetings 'cause I'm quite outspoken and
22:54
the focus has always been on symptoms, not health risks and
22:57
the 2GO hand in hand often. But even if people don't have
23:01
symptoms, we know that there are these health risks as well.
23:04
So I, I'm with you there. I feel like it's not.
23:09
We shouldn't be just thinking about menopause, but also if we
23:13
think just about menopause, we're not thinking about
23:15
perimenopause, you know, around the time when people serve
23:19
periods. We're also not thinking about
23:22
women with PMDD, which often have more severe symptoms.
23:25
So that doesn't make sense either, really.
23:27
In my mind, no. It's really bracketed it and I
23:31
think of it like a spider. You know, you have that early
23:34
menopause or perimenopause wherever we are, and then the
23:37
legs off that, you know, the connective tissue disease, which
23:40
I have the PM, you know, all the different aspects of the
23:43
obesity. You know, I gained lots and lots
23:45
of weight, which I know now is that my hormones were so out of
23:49
balance when I really have any, I gained a lot of weight.
23:53
You know, I pain, I've, I had a lot of pain when I wasn't taking
23:58
the hormones. So much pain, mood, you know, So
24:01
it's like it's all these legs that come off that we're not.
24:04
You're not just treating one thing.
24:06
Yeah. Everything that comes off that
24:09
that we can really help. Absolutely.
24:11
My concern is if we focus too much on periods, we're
24:15
forgetting the person behind that womb.
24:18
And you know, I'm sure you'd agree as a woman, we're more
24:21
than just whether we have periods or not.
24:24
You know, they're an inconvenience, don't get me
24:26
wrong. But actually, this is where we
24:28
have to think about hormones throughout ourselves, our
24:31
organs, our tissues, our bodies as well.
24:34
But for me, the most important thing is about choice.
24:37
You know, having a choice about which path you're taking, what
24:41
you're taking, the medication you're taking, any benefits and
24:44
risks is really, really crucial. And because people have got so
24:48
confused in the past about hormones and what they are, it's
24:51
ironic, isn't it? You were given the contraceptive
24:54
pill, which contains, as I've already said, synthetic
24:57
chemicals. If you look at the dose
24:59
equivalent, the dose of ethanol, estradiol, which is the
25:02
synthetic estrogen in contraception is like 300 times
25:06
higher than estradiol, which is what we prescribe in HRT.
25:10
So even if you need a higher dose of your transdermal estadol
25:14
gel, it's never going to reach the levels of ethanol estadol,
25:18
but it's also never going to block the receptors.
25:20
It's never going to have detrimental effects.
25:23
And risks of cancer and stroke and heart disease are only small
25:26
risk, but they're associated with synthetic hormones.
25:29
So it's sort of like we live in a parallel world and I, I can't
25:34
quite understand it's yeah, there's double standards really
25:37
out there. And I remember feeling a pain,
25:40
you know, you, you mentioned it before, you know, you feel that
25:43
as you're, you're speaking out, you're the voice now.
25:46
I mean, I see you as the voice for this, you know, a hormone
25:50
voice. And please speak louder.
25:51
Please be that pain in the room, please, because we need, we need
25:55
you for that. But I really felt like I was a
25:58
pain every time I went to that consultant.
26:00
Not that, not the first one, the second, the first one was
26:02
absolutely wonderful and sadly got poorly when I was pregnant
26:06
with the with the twins. And I really believe that things
26:08
have been very different for me if if he hadn't.
26:11
It's just unfortunate. But the next one, great, great
26:14
consultant made me feel like a pain, like a pest.
26:19
You know, You know, you're back. These these not helped.
26:22
Have they not this, this what you wanted?
26:25
What do you want to try now? I want you to help me.
26:28
I really need feel better. I'm young, and at this point,
26:31
I'm 25. Yeah, maybe even younger because
26:34
I've just had the twins and it was constant bleeding.
26:38
I remember being on holiday and I rang the secretary from
26:41
holiday because I just decided like I'm speaking up for me and
26:44
that's it. The 10 year old in me is like
26:46
speak and I rang and I said I'm on holiday, the first holiday
26:50
with my children, so they would have been one.
26:52
I said I'm bleeding and I've been bleeding for 12 weeks and
26:55
need this to stop. And I think that was why the
26:57
weather Solodex came from because that then, you know,
27:00
it's almost like a black shut up, Yeah, yeah, go away and
27:05
stop. And they did, they did give me a
27:08
patch, eastern patch. I think it was, I think it was
27:10
just Easter. And I don't think I had a
27:13
gesture and patch. It was just a Eastern patch to
27:16
have during the Xoladex months, but that then put me into
27:21
either, into menopause because it's already, I know it was
27:24
already there, but it did it. It threw me right into it and
27:27
now I know what I needed was. Just just your natural hormones.
27:31
It's very simplistic, it really is, but it can make a huge
27:34
difference to people. So I'm very grateful for you to
27:37
be so open about your story and I really hope this is educated.
27:43
People may be shocked and surprised them that someone as
27:46
early as 10 can have menopause. People at school can have
27:50
menopausal symptoms. It's not common, but it's not
27:53
rare. So we need to be aware, we need
27:55
to be talking about it more and thinking about it more for
27:58
everybody. So before I end, just three
28:00
quick take home tips. So three things that if you
28:03
think that either you yourself young, struggling with symptoms
28:06
or you've got someone, you know, it might be a child, it might be
28:09
a relative, it might be just someone that you know, what
28:12
three things do you I think we should be doing to help people
28:14
who are young with early menopause?
28:16
I think asking the right questions, listening listen,
28:20
don't just assume, don't just go up the textbook.
28:23
Really listen, really think out the box, think out-of-the-box.
28:28
Think what could be, don't think what what what has been before,
28:31
think what might be. You know, I was told 17 year
28:34
olds have these and I was 10. So think speak.
28:38
You know, I always I'm I'm really big for a voice for the
28:41
woman, but also the man. So dads, brothers, husbands know
28:45
about hormones. Let's get everybody educated on
28:49
in the body, not just what they do for, you know, I was, they
28:52
wanted to preserve my eggs so I could have children.
28:55
What about my brain health, my heart health, my bone health,
28:58
most everything, my mental health.
29:00
Let's let's really educate everyone about it.
29:03
When it's school education, sex education, it's so much more
29:06
than this. And what they learn, you know, I
29:08
asked my daughter, what do they tell you about hormones?
29:11
We have a period. Yeah.
29:13
What do you mean? Let's let's educate, pick up,
29:16
you know, like, yeah, everything.
29:18
Really good. So the most important thing is
29:20
to educate so we can help and also help others too.
29:23
And this conversation will really have helped people
29:25
already. So I'm very grateful for you
29:27
coming on today and thank you so much for sharing it.
29:31
Thank you. Thank you.