Simply Hormones Podcast

#18: Bio-identical hormones from your GP?

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:36:04 +0000

SH interviews Prof John Studd who continues to care about improving hormonal health in women.

SimplyHormones Presents: Professor Studd on Bio-identical Hormones

KC: I'd like to talk if I may about bio identical hormones. A lot of women are very interested in this because they are told it's a more natural way to go because the hormones are absorbed in a more natural way than the equine oestrogen that's mostly prescribed. Do you have an opinion on that?

Bio-identical hormones have been available in the UK for 20/30 years!

PS: Sure, I mean I've used nothing else but bio identical hormones for the last 20, 30 years. It's been very common in Europe and what's happened now is the Americans, now that they've overcome their love affair of horse urine and horse oestrones, they've just discovered it, they've just discovered the importance of using oestradiol, oestrone, testosterone and they've labelled this bio identical hormones and gullible people all around the world are thinking of this new American discovery which is a re-awakening on their part, a discovery of what we've been doing for 20 or 30 years and it's quite true. If I hadn't used Premerin for 20 years I think there's no place for it whatsoever. We're not horses, we're not plants either, we should use natural human hormones, and that is oestradiol, oestrone and testosterone EHEA, which is the precursor to testerone perhaps, and natural progesterone if you can, and that's all possible except the progesterone; we by and large use progestogen because it works. Progesterone cream doesn't work, it's not even absorbed, we've just spent, or I've just spent £100, studying this preparation and it's not even absorbed, it has no effect with the bones, the mood, the flushes, the sweats.

KC: It's not metabolised.

Want effective Progesterone cream? Ask your GP for Utrogestan

PS: It's still a racket that you go on the internet for £35 a pot per month and it's a waste of your money. I wish it did work, it would be very, very useful and convincing logically and so we really, although we use the bio-identical oestrogen and testosterone we are by and large stuck with sythentic norethisterone or Provera, although there is a more natural progresterone called Utrogestan, which is effective, and so the compromise is that I use this almost natural progesterone Utrogestan.

KC: So are the bio-identical hormones that you ‘re identifying with, where are they derived from, are they?

Hormones naturally sourced from Vegetables

PS: They all come from a laboratory. They don't dig them out of the ground or dig them from trees, they are all made in a laboratory, by vegetable precursors and they're pure and they are the same as the natural hormones in your body and my body.

KC: So it's just a case if women really want to go down the road of bio-identical hormones it's really only available from a private practice isn't it?

Get your bio-identical hormones from your GP!

PS: No that's not true. There's no reason why a general practitioner should not give you oestradiol either by tablets or preferably transdermally, that's by patch or by gel, that would be my ideal way of giving hormones, through the skin, just rubbing the oestrogen gel or testosterone gel, or a patch, but the patch caused rings, black rings where they use it very much or with an implant of course, which is very effective, a very convenient way of giving natural oestradiol and natural testosterone.

KC: That's very interesting that you've explained that more fully, women can now go to their GP and say that I heard that you can prescribe me XYZ and they are then getting a la carte prescription aren't they?

PS: They may choose not to, and this happens more and more these days, and so many GPs have just shut up shop for HRT and the menopause and there's no justification for it and it's wrong.

GP's could offer effective, cheap treatment

KC: ‘Cos there are about 7/10 women that experience debilitating symptoms, so it's not good on their part that they are not getting the advice they need.

PS: They are not getting very simple, very safe, very beneficial treatment. It's also very cheap treatment.

KC: Yes, OK, we'll have to stir up the GPs then to get their act together. I know the British menopause society is trying to push for GPs to be more informed.

PS: We've been trying that for now for 20 or 30 years!

KC: Yes, trying to get everybody singing from the same songsheet it's a difficult one to achieve isn't it?

Thank you very much for that. Interview ends.

If you’d like to know more about Professor John Studd: www.studd.co.uk

Professor John Studd DSc, MD, FRCOG was consultant gynaecologist at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London and also professor of gynaecology at Imperial College.

He is now in fulltime private practice and runs the London PMS & Menopause Clinic at 46 Wimpole Street London W1G8SD. At the same address he has The Osteoporosis Screening Centre for the assessment and treatment of osteoporosis.

He is Vice-President of the National Osteoporosis Society and Chairman of the British Menopause Society.

In 2008 he was awarded the Blair Bell Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine which is given every five years for the obstetrician/gynaecologist who has made the greatest lifetime contribution to the specialty.

www.studd.co.uk

For information on Menopause in a non-medical setting, there are over 200 pages waiting for you at www.simplyhormones.com

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 233 user reviews.

#17: Osteoporosis - the brittle bone disease you can prevent

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:36:49 +0000

SimplyHormones presents: An Interview with Prof John Studd, Vice President National Osteoporosis Society and Chairman of the British Menopause Society. Osteoporosis is a natural disease of aging but one we can ALL do something about – this brittle bone disease most often eats away at bones after degeneration of hormones at menopause.

SimplyHormones Presents: An Interview with Prof Studd on Osteoporosis

Prof. John Studd

KC: I'd like if I may now to talk about osteoporosis, the silent disease as it's often described. It's something I very much don't want to happen to me, I just can't visualise myself walking down the road with a zimmer frame. The press and magazines, womens' magazines are full of information telling us that we are supposed to be doing lots of exercise, weight bearing exercise, having better nutrition, in order to stay fit and healthy and stop the degeneration of our bones. What would you say, is that the right answer?

Overweight? You won't get osteoporosis!

PS: Well there is some truth in that, but it's more complicated. Having a good lifestyle, good diet and exercise is very good for you and what about exercise, it's very good for the brain, it's very good for the heart, it's very good for the mood, depression etc and in large amounts it's not bad for the bones, but I think it's somewhat of a deception to think that if you just keep a good diet and you're exercised by walking the dog for an hour a day, then that's going to prevent osteoporosis, and I see it very often, you have these healthy 60 year old women, slim, healthy, who walk for 2 hours a day, with a dog, without the dog and they've got rotten bones. And they mustn't think that because they are dog walkers and they exercise, that they are free from the risk of osteoporosis. Particularly, as I say, the thin women, the healthy thin women. By and large fat women don't get osteoporosis, and the reason for that is because with this excess fat they make oestrogens in their body fat, and that protects the bones.

Thin women and anorexics at risk of osteoporosis

The thin women don't make the same amount of oestrogens, so they are at higher risk, although they don't know it, if they have a healthy lifestyle with lots of exercise. So it's these women, they may have the menopause, they may have had anorexia when they were young, and they were very thin and healthy, and have lost their periods for 2 or 3 years when they were teenagers, they're the ones that are at risk, whether they exercise or not.

KC: I suppose that's why women have a natural propensity to gain weight as they go through menopause, because their cells are changing into fat cells instead of energy cells and in our day and age that's something we don't really want to see, women don't enjoy putting on weight, but actually it's good for us.

Weight gain in men and women is complex

PS: Well, weight gain in men and women is a complex thing, I don't think it's that simple. As you get older you do less exercise, you probably eat more, you might even drink more.

KC: Metabolism is slower.

Fact: HRT does NOT cause weight gain

PS: Metabolism is probably slower with age, so you tend to put on weight and I don't think it's a great deal to do with hormones, it's to do with age and exercise. And the same thing applies to giving HRT, because HRT causes weight gain when it doesn't . All the studies looking at thousands of patients over the years, what we call a longitudinal study does not show any increase in weight with HRT. There is an increase in weight, a small increase in weight with age and the menopause, but not HRT. Now that's quite clear, but of course there is the occasional woman who has an idiosyncratic effect of oestrogens who does put on weight. You stop the hormones and they loose weight so you have to accept that. But if you are looking at a big population apart from these odd cases you don't really put on weight with hormones.

I used HRT and did not put on weight – that came later!

KC: No, I found that myself actually. Thank you very much.

Here is a brief bio of Professor Studd together with his contact details: www.studd.co.uk

Professor John Studd DSc, MD, FRCOG was consultant gynaecologist at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London and also professor of gynaecology at Imperial College.

He is now in full time private practice and runs the London PMS & Menopause Clinic at 46 Wimpole Street London W1G8SD. At the same address he has The Osteoporosis Screening Centre for the assessment and treatment of osteoporosis.

He is Vice-President of the National Osteoporosis Society and Chairman of the British Menopause Society.

www.studd.co.uk

You will find a huge variety of information on menopause at www.simplyhormones.com. Over 200 pages of qualified information.

See you again soon.

Kathryn Colas signing off…

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 292 user reviews.

#16: Testosterone puts your lights back on!

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:36:56 +0000

Testosterone for libido, oestrogen for depression – when the imbalance of hormones with monthly PMT and later on menopause are the cause depression, why are women referred to psychiatrists and prescribed mind-numbing anti-psychotic drugs? You may well ask! Prof. John Studd, specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist tells us here, in the first of three interviews, about his quest to break down barriers in the medical profession to correctly treat women when hormone imbalance is not obvious.

SimplyHormones Presents: An Interview with Prof John Studd on Testosterone, oestrogen and depression

Prof. John Studd

KC: I wonder if we can start in this interview by talking about low levels of Testosterone. Headlines that are attracting a lot of media interest, especially in space are talking about this, how men can improve their sex life just by having more testosterone. What's your view from a woman's perspective and the menopause?

JS: It's certainly true, there's a relationship between Testosterone and libido and levels of Testosterone and ease of orgasms and so on, and we've literally known for a long time, and certainly in this country we've been using Testosterone for many many years. So it is not an American discover, it really is not. They are becoming aware about Testosterone about 20 years after we have in Europe, mind you the Americans are rather keen on treating men with Testosterone and they are just getting round to treating women with Testosterone. We forget that Testosterone is a normal female hormone. Women have 10 times Testosterone in their system, it's just that we men happen to have more than women, thank the Lord, so it is not a male hormone, it's not a foreign hormone and I would think that of all my patients that have HRT in various forms, probably about 80% have Testosterone as well as Oestrogen, and the reason for that is that it is good for their energy, good for mood, depression and of course for libido. They generally feel better if their Testosterone levels are at the correct level.

KC: And I've read and even attended your lecture, when you've spoken in depth about this, but what do you think about the placebo effect? Do you think that plays a part as well?

JS: There's a placebo effect with any drug that you want to give, this is why it's a very important that the study that we do have a placebo belonging to it. And I think I wrote the first paper on ‘Testerone and Placebo' about 30 years ago and that was an uncontrolled study, and it is the one paper in my career that I regret writing up inadequately, because I did not, then, 35 years ago have a placebo belonging to it, so you are absolutely right, the results could all have been worthless, in fact they are not, they've been repeated many times and it's quite clear that apart from a placebo effect there is an extra effect of Testosterone.

KC: Yes, so it's beneficial.

JS: There is no doubt it's beneficial to women.

KC: And I've also read that you feel it's beneficial, especially for depression as well.

JS: Yes, absolutely. Depression in women is a complex thing. Much of it is hormonal, and improved with Oestrogen, transdermal Oestrogen; that's Oestrogen put through the skin by gels, patches or implants. And also the addition of Testosterone does improve mood as well. And it's very important because depression is more common in women than men and it occurs at times of hormonal fluctuation, like pre-menstrual depression, post natal depression, depression around the time of the menopause, depression after removing ovaries at hysterectomy. All of these types of depression in women should be treated as first option by Oestrogens and perhaps also Testosterone.

KC: So there are a lot of benefits there and thank you for making women more aware of what it can do for our health.

JS: What I would like to do is make psychiatrists more aware of this, because psychiatrists are very unwilling to treat this sort of depression with Oestrogens and it's obvious to any woman if they have depression that's cyclical, every month, for 10 days every month, it's related to their periods. Psychiatrists don't see that. There is a severe depression, which is pre-menstrual or post natal, it's an endocrine problem, it's not a mental, psychiatric problem and the first option of treatment should be oestrogens. In the case of pre-menstrual depression, to suppress ovulation; if you suppress ovulation you suppress the cyclical hormonal changes whatever they are, which reduce the cyclical symptoms of PMS. It's very obvious and it is very effective treatment.

KC: And so many women are experiencing PMS.

JS: Well they're given anti-depressants, worse still. I certainly have patients who have spent a month in a private psychiatric hospital for their PMS or for misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder and they are given heavy duty anti-depressants, mood stabilisers like lithium, or worse, when they have an endocrine problem that is so easily treated with Oestrogens.

KC: Yes, I must admit when I was going through menopause I self-diagnosed myself as being leaning towards bipolar because there moments, days when I was on a complete high and other days when I was in the depths of despair and that can be quite frightening, to be referred to a psychiatrist as I was, was quite frightening as well, but I declined the heavy drugs and went for the talking therapy, which did get me through it, but it was emotionally quite painful.

Thank you for that information. See below for a short biography of Professor John Studd together with information on http://www.simplyhormones.com

Professor John Studd DSc, MD, FRCOG was consultant gynaecologist at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London and also professor of gynaecology at Imperial College.

He is Vice-President of the National Osteoporosis Society and Chairman of the British Menopause Society.

Tune in for our next two interviews on Osteoporosis (Prof. Studd is Vice-Chairman of the National Osteoporosis Society) and finally, Bio-identical Hormones (natural HRT) where you will find out how to get this treatment from your own GP.

There are over 200 pages of advice and support for individuals and companies at www.simplyhormones.com. Sign up for our Newsletter on the Home page.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 237 user reviews.

#10: Cervical Cancer is a known STI

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:37:30 +0000

My interview with Gill Burgess tells you everything you ever wanted to know about this silent killer; cervical smears – why they’re important and much much more. Gill Burgess is the Cancer Screening Co-ordinator for Croydon PCT, specialising in Breast, Bowel and Cervical Cancers.

Gill is innovative and forward thinking – just listen to what she has to say and the full transcript appears below.

Interview with Gill Burgess on Cervical Cancer

KC: Hello everyone, it's Kathryn Colas here from SimplyHormones.com and I'm here today talking to Gill Burgess, who's a Cancer Screening Co-ordinator for Croydon PCT (NHS Primary Care Trust) and her speciality is breast, bowel and cervical cancer, and we're going to be talking to Gill this morning on cervical cancer to see if we can find out some more about it. So good morning to you Gill.

GB: Good morning.

KC: We're going to be talking about cervical cancer, and I think the first thing our listeners would like to know is what is it exactly?

GB: Well, it's the most common cancer affecting women in developing countries Kathryn, and it's caused by Human Papilloma Virus, which is an infection of the cervix. It's associated with cellular changes which can be detected early on under microscopic examination; for example the smear test. HPV infection usually clears within a few months, I think it's about 90% within 2 years. The problem is it's persistent infection beyond 12 months which is associated with the high risk of cervical cancer.

KC: And who is most at risk?

GB: It's transmissible mainly in the younger age group. You find most of it in women under the age of 30, but it's younger people that will pick up this virus. It's a very transient virus and it just goes from one to the other very very quickly, but like all viruses they move on as well, it's those, that as I said earlier, that persist that create the problem of cervical cancer. And only a very small proportion will go on to develop the cancer as well.

KC: So it's still quite rare in a sense?

GB: Yes the risk infection is soon after sexual activity begins. In some populations there is another peak among women actually at the menopause in older women, and although HPV is sexually transmitted, penetrative sex is not required for transmission. Skin to skin genital connections, penile to vulva for example, contact is a well recognised mode of transmission.

KC: That throws a different light on it, doesn't it?

GB: Yes, I think some data was brought up a while back on age specific prevalency of HPV, suggesting that there's a pattern of infection between regions and socio- economic groups. Also HIV infected individuals are at a higher risk of HPV infection. And they can be infected by a broader range of HPV types. So if you've got HIV you've got a low immune system and you're very sexually active with different partners, then you are at a much greater risk.

KC: I've also, continuing on risk, I've read some research that says the pill could increase the risk. Do you have a view on this?

GB: Yes, there are risks to the pill. It is actually one of the contributing factors alongside having a lot of children, at the early age of the first sexual activity. Cigarette smoking is another huge factor. And long term use of the pill, you're absolutely right, it is another risk along with co-infections like Chlamydia, because persistent infection, again, this is the risk factor. And the peak prevalence of the infection is in women under the age of 30, and, as I said earlier, those that are actually over the age of 50 going through the menopause.

KC: So you say long term use of the pill, what would you describe as long term?

GB: They won't give the pill to obese women, or women who are over the age of 35 or women that smoke, because there are risk factors involved, but to me the pill is a better scenario than getting pregnant, because pregnancy is the biggest risk factor of all. So the pill is a contra-indication, a slight one, but then so is smoking. Smoking is a huge risk.

KC: And it's better to stop smoking. It's all relative isn't it? You've just got to take a balanced view, because all drugs have side effects of some kind or another and you've just got to work out whether the benefits are greater than the risks.

GB: If you put somebody on the pill you've got look at their risk factors. You can ask the question about sexual activity, I don't know whether I would. If you get a girl in who wants to go on the combined or contraception pill and she is a smoker and you can talk sexual history to her, you could say “well actually the pill is a risk factor” and you could offer alternative methods of contraception. But there is a way round it. But as you said quite rightly, smoking is what we need to get rid of first and foremost.

KC: Yes, that's a killer for everything, a big no, no! Just touching again on the over 50 age group, which of course is what I fall into and post menopausal women, I don't think women of that age group fully understand why they have suddenly become vulnerable and of course it's because the divorce rate is now much higher within that age group so of course they're changing partners and exposing themselves to the same risk.

GB: They are Kathryn yes, you're absolutely right. And I think you've got to look at the screening and the risk factors to women over the age of 50 and then tame the screening programme actually to individual needs and it is all about divorce rate and women becoming more sexually active. Woman today have a lot more sexual freedom and they are very happy to have much fuller and richer lives than our previous generations did.

KC: So just when they thought they could throw the whole thing wide open and say “yippee” now there's no risk of pregnancy and all the rest of it, all of a sudden they've still got to be careful of who they have sexual relations with because this is a sexually transmitted disease, as we've already discussed.

GB: And another consideration of course is that men are also becoming more sexually active. We're not taking into consideration what the men are doing as well. Because men have got more money at retirement age haven't they? And they're meeting older women and so that's something else we need to be thinking about really. At what age should we stop doing cervical screening? Should we extend it into the older age group? I know that some research has been done on that in the last couple of years but that again comes with its own little set of risks because if you start taking smears from women that are over age 65, you've then got the problem that it's difficult to take a smear from a woman who's over 65, because she's got the risk of vaginal atrophy, then you're going to a whole new world aren't you.

KC: I'll just explain to our listeners a bit about that. That's vaginal dryness. I'm always standing on my soapbox about this, as you know Gill, because it's not really addressed properly in the doctors surgery, if women ever get that far because it's such an embarrassing subject, it's usually when they go for a cervical smear that the problem arises because the swab can't take the test.

GB: Yes, that's right.

KC: But touching on the screening programme, there is a national screening programme in place for cervical cancer, so it sounds to me like there's a fixed age group at the moment, is there?

GB: There is, it's 25 to 65.

KC: So it's quite broad then.

GB: It is, we stopped screening under 25s, five years ago, although there is some controversy about it, because girls, if they've had early sexual relations and they've had a few partners, they feel that they ought to have a screening test done and it can be quite controversial and it took us a long time to get over to people that this is a screening programme, it's not a diagnostic test and so we have to be looking at signs and symptoms and I see many girls in my clinic, saying to me “please Gill can we please just do the smear test”. I'm a great believer is educating women so I spend a lot of time showing them pictures and demonstrating exactly why we're doing it, what we're doing and what the outcome is and if they've got symptoms then we look at why. Why have they got bleeding in-between periods, or they might have another infection. It might be that they have missed the pill or the pill packet is out of sync. There are different reasons, so you would then refer these women to the GUM (Genito Urinary Medicine) clinics or the GP who can take swabs from these women to test for sexually transmitted infections and that has to be ruled out. The answer is not to get a woman in when she's 22 to start taking a smear test.

KC: It comes back to this, where we are in society at the moment, that we rush off to the doctor as soon as something is wrong and ask for a magic pill and we've just got to recognise our own bodies more, understand what's going on, and with people like you teaching us how to recognise things, and what we can do about it.

GB: That's absolutely right and the cervix doesn't actually mature until the girl is probably 20-21 so if you start taking smear tests under that age you will automatically get an abnormal smear result in most cases.

KC: So it's not helpful is it?

GB: It's not helpful at all, it creates huge amounts of anxiety within the girl and the mother, or the parents, or whatever. It's a really difficult situation sometimes, but it's educating people, it is all about that and lots of explanations.

KC: Gill, can you describe to us what actually happens in a smear test? They're called up for a smear test, they go along to the clinic for their appointment, and I know lots of girls and women might be very nervous about what's going to happen next.

GB: I opened my own cytology clinic (cytology: the study of cells), a womens health clinic almost 8 years ago, as an alternative to a GP and the reason I talk about that is because I worked in a nurse-led scenario, on a huge housing estate, looking after many single women and their children, and one of the things I found was that the women were never having their smear tests done because they were so terrified of the smear test, and it could have been due to child abuse or rape or domestic violence, whatever. And these women were the women not coming for smears and I was very agitated by that because I couldn't understand what the problems were. So I was hell bent on educating them and then several years later I was given this wonderful opportunity. I put in a business plan to my PCT and said “let me have an alternative to a GP practice.” So I opened my own clinic and I went off and did psycho-sexual training in London and I was able to recognise why these women don't want to have their smears, and as I said earlier it's all based on fear and lack of understanding. So what my clinic offers them is time, and there's comfort and we have long chats, and if they come and they're terrified, it can take up to something like 4-6 sessions to take the smear, but we find out what the problem is. So when they arrive, providing it's a nice normal scenario when women arrive for their smear, you explain the procedure, you do a sexual history, you talk about their menstrual cycle, the children that they have. You talk about what contraception they're using and I always ask the question “do you know why we take the smear?” and 90% of them will say ”well it's a test for cancer”, but of course it isn't a test for cancer, it's a screening programme. And then I will bring out my little pictures, I'm a great one for pictures, and show them where I'm taking the smear from, what's happing in that little corner and what the results are likely to be. And then I'll explain that they will have a letter from me, or their GP, or the screening programme, very quickly, to tell them what the result is. I show them where they have to lie, it's all very private and confidential and then the smear is taken and it's a very easy insertion of a speculum and then you just quietly take cells using a very soft brush. The cells are put into a pot and they are sent off to the laboratory. It's a great opportunity for women to discuss all areas of their sexual life if they want to, anything they are unsure about.

KC: I think that's very helpful Gill, because I think so many women think that when you're going for the cervical smear, as you said, we think it's to see if we've got cancer or not, but you're just testing for abnormal cells, and when you find those abnormal cells you can take action to clear those abnormal cells. It's not cancer.

GB: I always say to women if you found a lump either in your breast, or your nose, your ear or wherever, you'd go and show somebody. But down there you can't see a damn thing, you know you can't see anything, so we take cells to have a look at what the changes might be. It's a screening programme, it's excellent. Well worth doing.

KC: And you've also explained in there, you get people that don't turn up for their appointments?

GB: Oh yes, the DNA (did not arrive) rate in my clinic is pretty high actually, so we have shortened appointments, but women get very fearful, of course if women have got their period it's not useful to take it then, and you can't take a smear on anybody who has just had a baby, you have to wait till they are 3 months post natal, because hormones need to go back (to normal), but culturally women don't agree with it, there are certain cultures that don't think it's a good idea. And of course many cultures are not sexually active and don't want to have smears and we have to recognise that as professionals, it is a screening programme, it's patient choice isn't it? And it's about recognising that the opportunity's there and if you want to take it you can, so professionals have to be very careful that we're not forcing the issues, if you understand what I mean?

KC: Yes quite, but it's in your own best interest to take part really isn't it?

GB: That's right, absolutely.

KC: And finally Gill, you've mentioned the HPV, the human papilloma virus as being a major cause of cervical cancer. Would you like to say something about the vaccination that is now available and how it helps, etc?

GB: Yes, it came out about 2007, 2008 I think. There were two types of vaccines. As we said earlier, one of them looked at four different types of virus and the other one, two. And we chose Cervarix, because, although it covers two viruses it was the one that has had the longest evidence from America, it's now up to 8 years, whereas the Guardasil didn't have the amount of evidence. A lot of people thought it was about costing, which one we would use, but in fact it wasn't, it was just that the Cervarix had a longer evidence-base against it in America, so that's why it was chosen. It's actually given to young girls between the ages of 12 and 13 and they get three doses over a six month period. They (the researchers) are constantly looking up all the information on this file, the evidence goes on all the time in America.

KC: I think I'd like to add in there, if the girls miss that vaccination at 12 or 13 is it recommended that they have it later on, or what happens then?

BG: They can have catch up on it. It was recognised I'm sure that it was not cost effective to run a national vaccination programme for women over the age of 18, which is because as soon as the woman has started to have a sexual life is at risk of catching the virus anyway. And women not covered by the vaccination programme will still be invited to be screened routinely as part of the programme. Tests for HPV vaccination exist but these are primarily for use for research purposes and not normally available on the NHS, but I know that there's a lot of work being carried out on that.

KC: And I also think another key area is what you've just said, that those girls that are invited for vaccination aged 12 & 13 will also be on the screening programme at the relative time later on, it doesn't mean just because they've had the vaccination they don't need screening any more, I think that's very important too.

GB: Yes. It's my granddaughters that will be the beneficiaries, I feel, of all of this, it's not going to be immediate. It doesn't mean to say that were going to stop taking smears because of the vaccine. The largest bonus for me is that it's the first vaccine against cancer and that's got to be a real bonus hasn't it?

KC: Definitely, yes.

GB: Absolutely.

KC: Something that can really help and my very last question to you today Gill, is to do with sexual discrimination! The HPV virus as we know is a sexually transmitted infection and it seems to me that what's good for the gander is good for the goose, so why aren't the boys in on the vaccine programme?

GB: Well I think the thing to remember is that because it's a relatively new vaccine, there's insufficient evidence to know what would happen to boys. There's also a cost issue as well, but also vaccinating the girls will also reduce the transmission to the boys won't it? So there is that school of thought. And this should lead to the reduction in rarer forms of cancer caused by HPV in both boys and girls, so I think with all of this, cost is the thing. I'm sure in America they'd love to vaccinate the boys and yes if it goes out there it will probably come over here, but at this point in time it's still very new and we're still learning a lot, but you're quite right as far as sex discrimination is, why not? Perhaps we should have given it to the boys first?

KC: Listening to you speaking perhaps the boys need a slightly different vaccine, because of course they don't have the same hormone structure as girls. It may be a whole different ball game for them altogether.

GB: Yes that's right, but certainly vaccinating the girls will reduce the rarer forms of the cancer, which is the big bonus isn't it?

KC: That's brilliant. Thank you so much for that Gill, we've covered so much today and I think I must just reinforce to tell everybody to turn up for their cervical smear when they're called forward.

GB: I have a very good motto actually you know: ‘never fear to have a smear'.

KC: I like that.

GB: It's not as painful as people think; it's just that it is about looking after yourself.

KC: And not worrying unnecessarily.

GB: That's right, absolutely.

KC: Well, thank you very much Gill.

GB: Thank you Kathryn.

KC: It's just been brilliant speaking to you and I'm sure that this information that we've discussed this morning will be of help to a lot of women.

For further information on this subject please go to http://cancerhelp.org.uk and http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Cancer-of-the-Cervix.htm. For more information on any aspect of menopause, please visit http://www.simplyhormones.com.

This interview was brought to you by Kathryn Colas of SimplyHormones.com

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 224 user reviews.

#3: The Pill is it right for you?

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:35:46 +0000

Listen to Alexandra Pope discussing HRT, The Pill; their toxicity and what is the tsunami of menopause? Such powerful information – if only I knew then…

Transcript of INTERVIEW with KATHRYN COLAS and ALEXANDRA POPE

Hello, Good morning. It's Kathryn Colas here from http://www.simplyhormones.com and I'm here today with Alexandra Pope. Now Alexandra, together with Jane Bennett wrote a book called: ‘The Pill, are you sure it's for you?' And I think it's absolute reading for everyone. Alexandra is also featured in a documentary called The Moon Inside You which has already been seen in a number of countries.

Some background to Alexandra is that she was originally a teacher of English in both the UK and Australia before training as a psychotherapist and in Psychosynthesis resulting in 20 years of private practice in Australia. She now continues in the UK and Europe, running private and public workshops on menstrual cycle education.

Kathryn Colas: Now, Alexandra, Good morning to you…

Alexandra Pope: Good morning to you, Kathryn. It's lovely to be talking to you like this.

KC: Thank you, yes, we have been trying to do this for ages, haven't we

AP: We have indeed

KC: I'd like to start with your book, Alexandra, The Pill, are you sure it's for you. Now I've read your book and found it so informative. Tell me, what prompted you to research this subject and write a book, together with your co-author Jane Bennett and what's your connection with Jane?

AP: Well, I'll begin with my connection to Jane. Jane and I have been friends for a number of years. This is in Australia and we both share a passion for menstrual education and Jane was particularly focused on girls work and has written a book in that area, you know, preparing girls for their first period and I, of course, was doing all the women's work and so we would often rave about our favourite topic and we would also bemoan the low status that menstruation has, you know, that it just seems such a negative in our culture and we are just passionate about transforming that and what brought us to The Pill, was that Jane, herself, is a teacher of natural fertility management which is teaching women how to chart their cycles for birth contraception and conception purposes and so that is her area of expertise and she has written in that area and works with a very well-known Australian woman, Francesca Naish and then of course I was doing the menstrual work and women often use the pill for dealing with menstrual problems. Both of us were tracking the research, you know, as it would come out, it would be in the press and would be more research on the dangers of the pill and always this research was dismissed as it's not, you know women, don't really have to worry and oh, yes, yes that it causes and potentially causes this cancer and that cancer and don't worry, keep on taking it.

KC; It never seems to make the national press does it

AP: It never seems to cause any kind of wake up. My God, this is a drug that is having all these side effects. It seems to have some sort of diplomatic immunity from any kind of questioning and the medical profession, generally speaking, there are individuals but they don't speak out. We know of them because women have told us and individual doctors have spoken with us but in general the medical profession sees the pill as entirely safe that the jury is in. It's safe. Women don't have to worry; they can go to sleep now on contraception, you know; take the drug, don't worry, that's contraception solved. Big tick there let's go on and do something else and actually, Jane and I are saying, no, no, no! The research is compelling. And anyway, it's a drug, you know and all drugs have consequences and you're shutting down a really vital system in women – the menstrual cycle. You can't shut down a cycle and not have consequences.

KC; Absolutely, yes

AP: So Jane and I were getting more and more apopleptic and with rage and then, one day, we looked at each other and said: why don't we write a book on the pill because no-one was writing on it. No-one was speaking out and we looked at each other and said: Oh, we should do it and then we both went, oh, no, not another book! Ha, ha, ha and how do we find a publisher and so on, but of course the book wouldn't let us go. You know how it is. And of course the rest is history.

KC: Yeah, and you say in your book: a woman who appreciates her menstrual cycle can deepen knowledge of herself, build self-esteem and develop high sensitivity and so thereby, contrary to that, by ignoring this monthly function it's more or less declaring that we keep saying to ourselves that we're unclean and that has the opposite effect which results in, you know, bad health and low self-esteem, yes, absolutely. But we don't seem to have the knowledge to embrace the menstrual system, do we. We've totally ignored it for so long.

AP: We have, indeed. It's really interesting. I mean, there's a huge cultural taboo around really valuing the cycle and I love when I run workshops, I love to begin with a silly example to try and make a point. Imagine going to your doctor and your doctor says: Ah, you should ignore your circadian rhythm, that's your day/night rhythm, you know it's such a waste of time, you having to sleep eight hours a night, you could be doing so much more. You know, take this drug, you know you can stay awake all the time, you know it's so much better and you would think your doctor was seriously mad. You know you'd probably be reporting them to the Medical Council. So, how come, we women have got caught up in this thinking that the menstrual cycle is somehow expendable, that there are no consequences to shutting it down and we are talking about our fertility system. This is our capacity for creating life. This, surely, has to be the most awesome cycle on the planet!

KC: That's right. And I suppose it's very difficult to have a balance because when you look at young women, just starting out in life and not necessarily being promiscuous but certainly being sexually active and as a mother I know I feel very protective of my own daughter and that I would rather she were on the pill at this stage because I think their education and being up front with boys and saying, you know, have you got a condom and all the rest of it, it just ain't gonna happen, is it. I feel quite strongly that it benefits younger women until they start to understand more.

AP: What you bring up, Kathryn is a really huge and very important issue and we do address this in the book. You know, how do we deal, how do we approach our teenage daughters. And, obviously there are no clear cut answers and one of the themes of our book is really empowering women to make their own choice. So we're not preaching: you should do this, or you should do that, so just some thoughts around this. As long as we have a culture, Kathryn, that doesn't value the cycle and doesn't empower women around the cycle, girls aren't going to value it, so we do need a cultural shift, so essentially, it's not something that's going to happen overnight but this is our high dream for Jane and I. Our high dream is that girls are firstly given wonderful preparation for their first period and it's not just plumbing, you know. It's actually more emotional as well as all the technical stuff. It's really dealing with their feelings and giving them a really positive message and we've really done a lot of work on this in Australia in this area and it's really exciting what we've seen in girls, with this. We've also done mother and daughter work around this and it's so empowering. So, girls really get this lovely bond with their mothers instead of this negative thing around menstruation and its' so important, that and once a girl is menstruating the girl needs another level of education which is to teach her about her cycle as a self-care tool, so we're not even talking sex, although sex is going to come up, obviously but it's about teaching the cycle as a self-care tool, so Jane has been doing a lot in this area to teach girls how to chart their cycles. You know, how to read the signals and signs of their bodies and to teach this as personal development tool, as a fundamental personal development tool for girls. And then, research time and again shows that when girls are properly educated around their bodies and around sexuality, they start having sexual activity later. So, education in itself is a very powerful means of prevention, here. And then, you know, our feeling is that girls should have body literacy so that's our emphasis and then when you come to have the conversation about contraception, yes, you talk about the full range and the truth is, girls have to use condoms anyway for protection against STD's (STI's sexually transmitted infections). They've got to get the message, you've got to use a condom. Now if they're more conscious about their cycles they're going to have more self-esteem, more confidence to be able to take care of themselves . I'm not saying it's 100%. Nothing is 100% and what we have to emphasise here is that the pill, whilst it looks like something really safe, it's not 100%. You know if girls forget to take it for one, two or three days, they have the same protection as a condom. Finally. I mean the other key thing here is, some people would then suggest, well give them an implant, you know or the injection then there's no problem with them forgetting but the health hazards, the health consequences are awful, Kathryn and the earlier you go on the pill and these other hormonal forms of contraception, the bigger the consequences are going to be, especially further down the track, so we feel education, education, education in a really wholesome, menstrual affirming, woman affirming, girl affirming way and then let the girls make their choices.

KC: Yes, I think you're absolutely right and what brought me into this, as you know, I deal with the other end of the cycle, I'm dealing with menopause and it was as a result of my own research into that, that took me back into women in their 20's and 30's with PMS and then, of course with my own daughter beginning the cycle, she and I both understood it more because she was just beginning and I was just ending, so the whole thing clicked and that took me into schools and I thought, why aren't we educating more at that level and even boys to getting them understanding, what's going on in women's lives with these hormones and then, perhaps we'd all have a safer passage right through to the end but that links me nicely in with menopause, Alexandra, because as you know, I created my own website, www.simplyhormones.com to raise awareness of the trials and tribulations of menopause and in the light of ‘the million womens study' a few years ago, now, on HRT, I wanted to ask you: what are your thoughts on the pill and HRT. Do they share any common ground? I know that HRT is not a contraceptive and women must understand that, that just because they're on HRT they could still become pregnant but what are your thoughts, you know, comparing the two?

AP: Um, they share a common ground in the sense that they are both delivering synthetic hormones to a woman's body. And so, they will have similar kinds of side-effects. They will have side-effects because they are potent drugs. They are both listed as a class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organisation. This means that they are cancer causing and they're in the same category as asbestos and tobacco. Now, I've re-checked that just recently, because…

KC: Good grief! It sounds unbelievable, actually, doesn't it.

AP: I know and I thought to myself my God, why isn't that statement out there? And then I started to doubt myself and I thought, no, no., I shall go back and check it and there it is and it is a known carcinogen. You know, it's a drug, it's a potent drug and I think the thing is, they both give the message to the female, to women, that the menstrual cycle is a problem…

KC: Alexandra, what do you mean by that?

AP: What I mean is that women see and actually this is also the message that's now being given out by the medical profession more and more, sadly, that the menstrual cycle is a problem in women in that it, ah, it's quite an interesting question, actually. It's seen as a limitation or a weakness to a kind of normal successful, healthy life and if women didn't have a menstrual cycle, they could be as successful as men.

KC: I think that is the picture that is being painted, isn't it? I don't know what the stats are but there are a lot of women out there, certainly that I know of, that are taking a particular pill and they don't menstruate at all. I spoke to one woman who hasn't menstruated for years, and she thinks it's great.

AP: Oof! Oof! oof! I feel for her body when I hear that. Yes, it's a real problem this. I mean, historically, the menstrual was seen as a limitation, that it weakened us, that menstruation weakened us and that therefore we were not fit for high office, you know whether it was economical, political, or business, or whatever and then, you know, feminism came along and started to shift that and the message we got with feminism was that women could do anything they want whenever they want and I think that's a fantastic message and I think that message is still true today and what I'm introducing here is the notion that, yes, we have a menstrual cycle and this menstrual cycle can be a huge asset in all sorts of different ways but counter to that we are also getting the return of this old message that menstruation weakens us, that the menstrual cycle is a problem and that menstruation causes all sorts of health problems, you know, weaknesses and I think the weakness is not that menstruation weakens us it's the thinking we have around this that weakens us and the moment that a woman starts to appreciate her menstrual cycle and the different kinds of assets and powers she can tap into, it would be like the lights going on inside her, it's a whole new kind of world or consciousness that she can open up to within herself. Yes, that's really what I'm kkkkkk at here.

KC: And also you were mentioning back on an historical note and actually it's not that long ago when they were locking away women going through menopause because they were declared ‘nuts' and they were locked in menstrual, no, lunatic asylums.

AP: Yes, Mental asylums, yes ha ha ha

KC: It might just as well have been menstrual asylums

AP: You know it might just as well have been. You know, I didn't know that about menopause. I do think that actually many women who are highly sensitive, you know, almost intuitive, probably historically really suffered at menstruation because that aspect of them was never valued and they would have appeared highly, kind of, out of it; because menstruation is a natural ‘high'. We do go into an altered state of consciousness but because women are not initiated into that language about their bodies, I think that women can appear to kind of ‘lose it' and, certainly in more restrictive times, you know, any woman that was full of herself and ecstatic in any way was nothing but trouble, a disturbance and I really fear that many women were put away because they were natural ecstatic and no-one knew how to care for that and I think they would have gone mad and I think I would have gone mad, too, living in that kind of environment.

KC: It's that fear and ignorance, isn't it? About anything that you know little about you lock it away to keep it out the way because you don't know enough about it and certainly as you were saying, women don't understand their own bodies properly so they felt so out of it, too that they were in a different place and didn't know how to deal with it. You sometimes lose contact with the daily world, don't you?

AP: Yes, if you repress something in you, it's going to turn up as trouble in some way. And, yes, I think you said it well.

KC: Yes, I'd like to move on, back to your book, actually, I particularly like your chapter on ‘the natural way to menstrual wellbeing', can you tell us something about that?

AP: Yes, I'd love to. Now, I present a very different approach to menstrual health and it's actually connected to what I was saying earlier about getting in tune with your cycle rather than seeing it as a problem and in many ways, menstrual problems are exacerbated because women are fighting their cycles. You know, they are trying to remain the same all the time and they're not in tune with that inner rhythm. So my approach to menstrual health is based on re-connecting with the power of your cycle with the real intelligence of your cycle. Now, what does that mean? It's very simple… I encourage women to chart their cycles on a daily basis. What I'm looking for here is your energy, your mood, your feelings and to just make a note, each day, of what comes up for you and it's also great to have a journal where you're charting your dream results as often you have very significant dreams at particular times of the month, and then, as you do that, as you start to get in touch with your cycle, you start to see a pattern and the pattern goes something like this, although each women will have her own version of it. But the pattern is a little bit like the seasons of the year and I talk about the inner seasons of your cycle and in the first half of your cycle after you come out of menstruation, the pre-ovulatory time, say from day 5 – day 10 or 11. I talk about that as the ‘inner spring' and women will generally notice a greater aliveness, energy, and motivation, and more focus and clarity and that's as it is, the nature of spring. You have this natural growth happening, a natural motivation and ride it, surf it, get the most out of it. You have this amplified talent, of course you do anything at any time but capitalise on this time. Ride the wave and then as you come up to ovulation, this is the summer of your cycle. This might be from, I'm talking of an average cycle of 28 days and everyone will have their own version, as I said, but let's say from day 11 to day 19 or so, something like that, day 11, 12. It's a bit like the summer which we're in right now and, you know, the summer energy is very kind of out there. Women feel most sexy and gorgeous at that time, you have a natural energy to connect with the world. Your focus is on the outer world and here, we create harmony. As one woman said ‘we hold court' at this time. Yes, you're totally ‘queen' of your queendom. Your riding high. This is ‘superwoman' territory. It's very creative in the sense that it's very productive. You know, in the first half of the cycle you initiate, in the spring you initiate. In the summer you fulfil that. You really fulfil it. So you really produce things. You know it's like nature producing all this wonderful food for us. So that's what you do and then as the wheel turns, as your cycle turns, you come into the pre-menstrual stage which may be from day 19 or day 21, something like that. I'm being very loose with dates here until about day 26 or so and here, just as the energy changes as you come into autumn and you feel yourself pulling inwards a bit and closing down, that's what's happening pre-menstrually and you have a different kind of power, here. A very gutsy power, it's very insightful, you can see into things. Your energy is dropping a little and this is normal. If you have extreme fatigue, that is not normal and you need to rest. But the pre-menstrual phase gives you feedback, so I call it ‘feedback time'. I call the summer of your cycle ‘having it all'. Ha ha. And the Spring phase is ‘new beginnings'. So you have New Beginnings, Having it All and now this is Feedback Time. This is the ‘get real' time. So you have real insight here and this is where you kind of clean up and edit and sort out and refine, so this is really where you polish what you do and this is the difficult phase because in any creative project you have to stand back and go ‘ OK. I've got a lot of stuff here, what's working and what isn't working?' and this is where you have to cut stuff out and our critical energy comes up here most strongly and a lot of the pre-menstrual stuff is that women not knowing how to handle that negative, that critical energy that can become really negative and destructive, if you don't know how to use it. So, in my work I teach women how to manage that.

KC: We just lash out and have a row with somebody, don't we

AP: That's right, we do. Now, that energy behind that is actually really positive and you've got to learn how to use it. You may need to speak very strongly but it's not a licence to abuse people,

KC: No!

AP: So, learning how to manage that energy is a very important part of my work and then, as you pull into menstruation and this energy of pulling in can happen a day or two before you bleed. You'll actually much more vulnerable, like you don't want to do anything, or socialise, and you'll often go off to a very kind of quiet, detached, still place or, you could go to a place of quite a dark place, for women who have difficulties, for women who have difficulties, a kind of anxiousness and so on.

KC: You certainly don't want to communication, I know that for sure

AP: Isn't that fascinating, we so don't. And this is wisdom at work, you know. You actually, this is about you pulling into yourself, now. It's not about the world, so you think about, this is our inner winter and if you think about winter, we want to hunker down by the fire place, don't we? Well, that's what you're doing in your own spirit, now. You're wanting to hunker down, deep into your own being and just saying ‘no' to everybody else. And this is really healthy. If you want to have it all, you've got to have a time where you do nothing, where you can completely chill and you say ‘no' to everybody else and you put all your juice into you. So, the winter time of the cycle is ‘you' time, ‘me' time; where I take care of myself absolutely. And when you start to co-operate with that rhythm it just transforms your experience of yourself and of your symptoms and a lot of symptoms fall away, or are eased considerably. Women generally feel more confidence in themselves, more dignity and a greater capacity, then, to take care of themselves, which is turn means you have more motivation to do all the other health practices that I will now mention and there are many things you can do to heal your symptoms but the first remedy is to restore, is the wisdom of your cycle, cycle awareness, is the first remedy; to be aware of your cycle and to respond accordingly.

So that's the first remedy, the second, and these are not in any particular order, the next remedies but diet and the state of your digestion are crucial. This is non-negotiable, you've got to have a good healthy diet and there's plenty of good information out there and it's in my books as well but, essentially, it's real food, cutting the junk basically and eating real wholesome, whole, fresh foods; mineral rich, you know and to have good quality protein and, really to get rid of the junk. To get rid of white flour, white sugar and so on. And then, the other crucial area, I think, is environmental. There's so much environmental pollution out there; there's so much junk we put on our bodies, the chemicals we use in our houses to clean. Now a lot of the pollution we can't control, like air pollution, you know out on the roads, and so on. But control what you can control in your own home. Make your own home as clean and green as you can and there are so many good products today that do not have toxic chemicals in them, so we've got no excuse there. And yes, it is a little more expensive but you can use things like bicarbonate of soda.

KC: Yes, that's brilliant, I use that

AP: I use it for everything

KC: All these old-fashioned remedies…

AP: And there's so much good information out there on the web, on that, so in a way, you have no excuse, now.

KC: Actually what I noticed is, I changed my soap powder to a more natural version. I'll give you the name, it's Ecover, I went to and as a result of using that, I've really noticed, it's like when you come up to somebody and you know they've been smoking, you can smell it on their clothes and you can smell the other generic brands of washing powders, they stand out and all you can smell is the washing powders and, you know, I don't want to be near these people because all you can smell is the soap powder and you go into their homes and their homes stink of soap powder and it's so off putting. You change the powder you use to a less toxic one, it's amazing your sense of smell completely changes.

AP: That's very illuminating, I totally agree with you. It really, you will be quite shocked when you get rid of the chemicals and not just the soap powder but all the other cleaning agents, will really shock you how shock that acrid, chemical smell is. And I go into more detail in my books on the environmental stuff, but again, there's so much information out there today, people can easily access that for free on the internet.

And the other area is ‘structural exercise' and the structure of your body and I'm afraid exercise is non-negotiable, you have to do it, you absolutely have to do it and preferably outside in natural light, as well, as much natural light as you can get because we need vitamin D and I think it is probably important to supplement with that but I'm not a practitioner so I can't, you need to see a practitioners. So, yes, get out and get natural light and exercise, it's just fantastic but also things like yoga and pilates, anything that strengthens your core muscles and your core, is critical and then you may need to work with a massage practitioner, you know, chiropractor, osteopathy, that sort of thing because there may be structural issues going on with your pelvis that are causing menstrual problems and the one remedy I recommend to every woman with menstrual problems, almost regardless of what their problem is, I recommend Maya abdominal massage and there aren't a huge number of practitioners but the beauty of this is, that once you've had a session you can do it for yourself, they teach you how to do it yourself but it's really good to have a few sessions with somebody but even just one and you start doing it for yourself. I'm very big on all the things you can do for yourself.

KC: And this is just as it sounds, is it, it's just abdominal massage

AP: Yes it is abdominal massage and it's very effective. God, you know if I had menstrual problems today, that would be my first port of call, beyond all the stuff I'd be doing for myself.

KC: Actually, I remember this, and sorry for interjecting here, Alexandra, when my mother-in-law, when my kids were small and they had abdominal problems, she would just lay them down, put some oil on their tummies and massage it and I learnt that from her and it helped. Now whether it was just psychological or she actually knew what she was doing, I have no idea but I picked up on that and I used to do it on my kids when she wasn't around but, yes, I totally believe in what you're saying about that and we stop doing it when we get older. I certainly didn't do it to my teenage daughters but they could learn to do it themselves.

AP: They could indeed and it just releases a lot of stress and tension, I think. Yes, I can't recommend it more highly.

So we've talked about diet, we've talked about environment, we've talked about structural stuff. Now with women who have extreme menstrual problems it's going to be necessary to work with a natural health practitioner and, you know, I've already mentioned chiropractors and osteopaths and massage therapists but also they may need to work with Chinese medicine, is very good; Ayurvedic medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy, you know, different strokes for different folks. I got a lot out of Chinese medicine to strengthen me but it was chiropractic work that made a huge difference to my pain and it was also the self-care stuff that made a difference to releasing the pain, along with the Chinese medicine nourishing me but naturopathy has a lot to offer as does homeopathy and, you know you may be drawn to a particular practitioner who happens to be a homeopath or a naturopath but there are lots of good things out there, but they are not a substitute for your own self-care and there is so much you can do for yourself. I really want to emphasis that.

So that's my natural approach, Kathryn, to menstrual health

KC: I think it's brilliant and I think when you first hear about it, you think, oh, god, here we go again, more form filling but you describe it so easily and you can understand it so quickly you feel better already just hearing you say the words

AP: Well do you know something? I got the most lovely feedback from a woman in Ireland. I had just been in Ireland and I got coverage in the Irish press, in the three main newspapers and each of the papers spoke about, you know, my approach; the seasons, getting in touch with the seasons, every cycle and one woman, she didn't even come to a workshop or she hadn't even read my book yet but she just thought ‘I'm gonna try this' and I just got this email from her saying ‘I've done it for two cycles and already my insomnia has cleared up and I'm not eating packets of chocolate biscuits five days, for five days before my period'. How cool is that! All I wanted to say was, yeeees! How cool is that! And she's just done that off her own bat, you know, with no more input from me, you know. Isn't that amazing?

KC: It is, you've just got to ignore the rest of the world and do it for YOU. You are important. Do it!

AP: Yes! And then you just release all this energy inside and inspiration and in the end it isn't, ah, you know, another job to do, it becomes, like, ah, yes, what I might open up to and discover and then you release energy. It's energising, you know? Yes.

KC: And all of that to me, that obviously leads on to a better experience going through menopause because you've already gone through this process of understanding yourself better, so, surely, that should be a better passage through menopause?

AP: That is absolutely the punch line, Kathryn, really. I can't emphasis this more strongly. I think the crisis we are experiencing around menopause is because women have not been grounded in their menstrual cycle. When you have worked with your cycle over many years and, you know, you're intimately connected with it, you are intimately connected to yourself. You'll be practicing really good health care and you will understand the nature of the psychological passage at menopause and you are probably going to be a whole lot healthier because you have been more in touch with yourself. You are just going to be more empowered and it just then becomes the next transition and you have already worked with transitions through working with the cycle. It's, you know, really, when I think about menopause, I, women ask me about help at menopause and I just want to tell them to come to my menstrual workshops. I could achieve that information before I go on to talk to them about menopause.

KC: Absolutely, yes. The way I see it at the moment is that menopause is a huge metamorphosis but it doesn't need to be if women are practicing understanding their bodies at a younger age then it's an easier transition, an easier metamorphosis and it's not a huge problematical thing that causes so many challenges at home and in the workplace.

AP: Yes, exactly. And women would be able to ride it better. They'd be able to get the juice out of it because there is a transition, you are being changed but women don't know about that and if they knew about that, it's just, it's like being given the rule book, not the rule book, the instruction manual. And they're coming at it with no instruction…

KC: Yes, as we always are, isn't it. We more or less make it up as we go along because nobody understand us enough and now you're telling us what to do and I think that's just brilliant. Because what I've been finding, what I keep telling women now is stop all this multi-tasking…

AP: Yes!

KC: We wear multi-tasking as a badge of honour because, hey, we've got something over the guys, look, we can do all of this stuff all at the same time and all you're doing is causing problems to your own health. The sooner you realise that, the better off you will be and start asking your partner, saying, look, so and so's coming up, I've got an important meeting but I've got the kids to deal with can you help? Or what can be do about it? Share this home life that you have with your partner and I'm sure, it's only because we don't ask the question because we think, oh, I'd better not ask because, because, there'll be a row. You don't know that til you ask the question. And that certainly happened to me and as soon as I started opening up, and said, oh, look, this is happening, can you help – of course I can, there's no problem.

AP: That is very wise, that is absolutely it and if, you know, if women had been in touch with their cycles, each month they would have been practicing the very thing that you have been talking about; because ovulation time is multi-tasking time. That's the superwoman time, you can do it. And then, menstruation is when you drop it all and you just take care of yourself and renew yourself. Now women are not renewing themselves on a monthly basis, they are trying to keep going the same as before and that is a recipe for disaster and then, of course, the real disaster happens at menopause, that's when it all comes to a head, so if a woman is practicing it on a monthly basis then menopause isn't going to be a breeze.

KC: Yes, absolutely, because at the moment it's like a tsunami, it just builds up and builds up until it eventually you can't, literally can't cope and in my case have a nervous breakdown, so, you know there's got to be a better way.

AP: There so has to be, Kathryn and I just think what you're doing is magnificent, it's just so vital. I mean even just that statement about multi-tasking, that is radical and the impact of that is huge.

KC: Yes. You think so?

AP: Yes, absolutely, absolutely, it's nuts that we just keep going, we women have to ask for help

KC: Yes, and not be afraid to. I'm talking to women, I go into business now and am talking to women and mixed audiences and what I've noticed and I don't know why it took me so long to pick up on this but of course, if you're in the workplace, whatever job you're doing, you're never going to stick your hand in the air and say ‘Excuse me, I can't cope'; you carry on and try to deal with it and make your, you know, grind yourself into the ground even further, so I think with people like yourself and myself, talking to women to get them to think about themselves more, then perhaps we won't find ourselves in this awful place of not being able to do what we thought we could do and feeling totally rejected, loss of confidence, self esteem, the whole three yards and feeling depressed about it. There's got to be a better way, hasn't there?

AP: I really think so and I think that there's something that we should really think about putting together, there, just around this, you know. I think there's a really core message there that would just transform women's lives and in the workplace particularly, I'm thinking.

KC: Yes, yes. Because men do want to help, I get a lot of emails…

AP: Oh, yes. The vast majority; I mean, there's always going to be someone who doesn't, you know, it's the same with women but in my experience, men are completely bewildered, they're shut out and actually they, in the main, they want to be able to do something but they just do not know what to do.

KC: Yes, and anything they suggest, they are just rejected because they don't know how to approach it and of course, the woman is in such a mood at that time that she thinks everybody's against her and just, you know ‘ get out of my sight, I don't want to talk to you, you don't know what you're talking about …'

AP: That's right, yes. That's very similar to what happens pre-menstrually, so what you're talking about at menopause, it's laid out monthly, pre-menstrually…

KC: It does, and at menopause it's played out every day, that's the problem

AP: Every day, instead of a few days, monthly but if we'd understood the pre-menstrual stuff then we wouldn't have that fall out.

KC: Yes, I'm absolutely convinced that you're right on that, Alexandra

So, just bringing our conversation, here to a close, would you like to tell us a bit about your other work that you do, Alexandra?

AP: Yes, I'd be delighted to, Kathryn and one aspect of my work is menstrual health and we've just been talking about that, but actually my work has relevance in all areas of women's lives, women's leadership, women coaching, counselling and therapy, education. I want to restore the intelligence of the cycle, you know, there's a core kind of practice in any kind of work with women, you know, to develop mental work, leadership work, counselling work, it's just a wonderful ground, foundation for anything, so I'm, so what I'm developing is a training programme, a course, called The Woman's Quest Apprenticeship, that would be over a year, where I would basically, I'm working with women, well, it's open to women who want to go on a personal development journey, spiritual development journey, it's both those, but it's also for women who want to take this material and use it in their work in some way. So you might be a coach, you might be a counsellor you might be a healer, a naturopath, you know, whatever, or you may be want to work with girls and teenagers because that, we're just crying out for people to take on that work, to properly prepare girls for this work for their menstruating years, so I'm offering a year long programme that would be three residential workshops over 3 ½ days and then mentoring in groups, you know on-line stuff and the three themes are ‘healing, creativity and spirituality'' that we would be working with and so it's open to any woman who has done some work on herself already and you really need to apply to me but if you've already done a workshop with me you've already had a taster and it's particularly for women who want to work with this in some way with the training in it.

KC: I think that's excellent work, yes, sounds brilliant, yes.

AP: It's very exciting

KC: Yes, and in a way, you probably feel like me that, you're not exactly fighting a losing battle but it's very difficult being one man, as it were, just going out telling the tale. We need a whole lot more of us, don't we.

AP: Yes, exactly, and I feel it growing, actually because I've been doing this work for quite some time with people around the world. In fact I just got an email from a woman in Chile, this morning, saying she wants to run menstrual workshops and she wants some guidance. So I wrote back and said I'd be delighted to mentor you. The other thing, also, is that I'm wanting to develop some on-line programmes so that if you're living, you know, not close to me, then you'd be able to still participate in this work and the other thing that I have with my colleague Shani Hugo is the Women's Quest community site that any woman can join. You do need to be invited so you need to email me first, but this is a community, and on-line community where women are sharing their experiences and discoveries, whatever, around this work and I want to see, you know, thousands and thousands of women, talking and raving and sharing and, you know. That's our vision on that and eventually I want to work towards, Shani and I would like to create a centre where, a place that's held in perpetuity, actually, for this work, where it is exclusively focussed on restoring the wisdom of the menstrual cycle and then its application in, as I've said, leadership, therapy, healing, fertility, birth; that's another area I didn't mention. Girls education and we develop people who are experts in these different areas, working with the cycle, as a core element of any of these things.

KC: Yes, well I feel that's absolutely fantastic and I wish you all the best with your continuance of that because I see we get books every now and again coming out about different areas of menstruation but to actually have a programme that people can attend either virtually or in person, I think that shows great insight and I hope it becomes very successful and others see it in the same vein.

AP: Yes, thank you. It will, you know. I decided, this life time, we're going to crack this one.

KC: Yes, definitely. That's absolutely brilliant. Well thank you so much for talking to me today, Alexandra and let's set the world alight!

AP: Yes, absolutely! Absolutely! Ha ha ha.

KC: I so thoroughly enjoyed talking to Alexandra Pope, we covered so much ground, didn't we. You'll find both Alexandra's and my contact details at the end of this transcript and thank you for listening, this is Kathryn Colas of SimplyHormones, signing off. Bye for now.

Alexandra Pope: Co-author of ‘The Pill: Are you sure it's for You?' is available from Amazon. Do go to Alexandra's website: http://www.wildgenie.com and you can email Alexandra: genie@wildgenie.com

Kathryn Colas: You'll find lots of information on menopause, including my own personal journey at http://www.simplyhormones.com. Sign up for my Newsletter: http://www.simplyhormones.com/cc.asp and do watch ‘Menopause: The Movie' highlighting how relationships are affected at menopause; here's the link: http://www.simplyhormones.com/video.asp and do join me on my blog for my own views on what's going on in the world: http://www.simplyhormonespodcast.com – feel free to comment on my ramblings and podcasts. Last but not least, you can contact me: kathryn@simplyhormones.com .

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 268 user reviews.

#15: Celia Johnson reveals Top Tips-Fitness through Menopause

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:44:08 +0000

There are 3 areas to concentrate on but first off, take it easy by listening to how to achieve your body shape – then put all your promises into practice!

KC: Hello everybody, it's Kathryn Colas here from Simply Hormones.com. And today I'm here talking to Celia Johnson who

Celia Johnson

specialises in health fitness and wellbeing, and how that fits in with going through menopause. If you've been listening to these podcasts you may already know that Celia has interviewed me about menopause and we've discussed the seven dwarfs of menopause and the symptoms and how they are affecting women and we've also done an interview on depression but today we're talking to Celia who specialises in heath fitness and wellbeing and how she can help us as we go through menopause, to understand our bodies better and get fitter. But first off, let me introduce you to Celia and we'll find out a bit more about her.

Hello Celia and welcome. How are you today?

CJ: Oh hi Kathryn, great thank you. Very excited to help those women out there on the topic of exercise and menopause.

KC: Good. First off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you come from, how you got into the health industry and where you are today?

CJ: Right, well it started a long time ago. I was born in Preston, Lancashire, England. As from 18 I moved away from home. I lived in London and had a feeling that there was a career that I wanted to go on to and that started off with health and beauty. So I started off working for a cosmetic company in London, in the department stores, working with Mary Quant and Revlon, yes it was really great. I was into the makeup and everything and I really really loved it, I always thought the women in stores looked so glamorous I thought that's what I want to do. T

Then later on I moved to Ipswich, where I found my partner and then we got married, moved over to America, and again went in the department stores there, still working with the makeup, then I had a baby and started going to the gym because afterwards trying to get rid of… I was really big and fat, so I joined Gold gym, and I started in the gym and as then as I started to see results I thought “oh God this is fantastic”, but the problem there was I got addicted. I was in there morning noon and night, and also working as a job when I had the baby, I also did another college course in America, which was ‘cosmetology', which includes hairdressing and manicure, pedicures, so I got a bit more into the beauty side of it by going to college and getting more experience there. Then I became a hairdresser.

While I was hairdressing I started the gym and it just happened one day the instructor was off and the manager of the Golds gym said “oh God sorry ladies and gents we have no instructor, but I see someone who's here 24 hours a day and that's Celia. Celia what about if you'd like to take the class?” I said “what?”. He said “well you're here 24 hours a day I know you know what to do” and I said “of course I know what to do but I've never taught a day in my life”. And all the people were saying “Oh great, come on Celia” edging me on, and then she said “Oh Celia, if you do it we'll give you a month's free membership”. So anyway I did it, but then after I finished it, it gave me a real great buzz, everybody was clapping and I though “uhh, God I could do this as a living, I love it”, so that's when I transitioned then.

Later moved over to Saudi Arabia, because my husband had started working over there, and so I thought, oh I'll give some exercise classes to women. So 5 0'clock every afternoon I put on an exercise class and experimented with the ladies. Did different types of exercise and later on moved back to England, back to Preston where then started to work for a leisure centre and then decided I'm going to get qualified in the industry, so I got all my qualifications and then took this job very seriously and started working full-time in the industry. Then it just progressed from there. I had been going back to college over 10 years in time to find out more so another 10 years of studying and finding out what the ladies want, and then just working round in different areas of Preston doing things like personal training. I had my own studio, so I had my own community classes, so that we had our own group so people started to know each other, so I brought the women together, so really I've helped and transformed around about over 30, 000 women's lives as well as working internationally in different countries. So I think that's about it. I could go on a bit more but that's an overall view of where I came from and what I did.

KC: Yes, that's pretty comprehensive and the chain of events seem naturally to have led one to the other doesn't it?

CJ: Yes it has, still concentrating a little bit on their health, the beauty side I still love it, that will never be dropped, so I've got my hands a little bit in everything, but it has been mainly working mainly in the fitness industry now for 30 odd years.

KC: Now we're all involved in a particular time of our lives and I think because it's affecting us we want to know how we can improve things and make things better. And from what I understand from when we chatted before you're getting women in your classes now that are going through menopause and are asking for particular help. So can you tell us how does exercise help us?

CJ: Right well exercise can help us because in many cases with the symptoms of menopause, such as you've got, as we explained the hot flushes, we get joint pain, we suffer from anxieties, sleep disorders and we've been in the profession suffering from a lot of weight gain, and really other related diseases that can spring off there which is osteoporosis and heart disease.

KC: I don't think enough people know that osteoporosis doesn't happen overnight, and you're going to tell us now more about that.

CJ: Yes, so I think you know mainly because I'm in my 50's I attract obviously an older clientele, you know because of experience and I've heard lots of women, when they're going through the menopause, “oh Celia, I'm going through menopause, what can help?” and they're really concerned about their weight gain and especially around the abdominal area you know I can see just with normal people on the street, and a lot of my friends are in their 50s I've seen what we call the spare tyre, the Mitchellin tyre, they have this in the middle which isn't good especially if they're not doing any exercise.

KC: What exercise help in particular, because I know that must be one of the biggest complaints I hear women talking about, that spare tyre, they just can't shift it. And don't know what to do about it.

Exercises to reduce that Spare Tyre

CJ: Of course, yes. There's not one particular exercise, there are a couple of exercises which I'm going to explain. The first exercise is very important, which is an aerobic type exercise. Now these aerobic exercises will help strengthen the heart and also help women lose weight by burning calories. These are aerobic exercises and also work the large muscles in the body which benefits and helps the cardiovascular system and helps your weight.

The Zumba Craze

It's important actually to do about 20, well as I said we were just talking before about exercises and before it was like work an hour in aerobics, but you don't need to do that any more, you can work less time but as long as you do a lot of intensity exercises, between ranging from 20-30 minutes at least 3 times a week and these aerobic exercises can consist of anything from brisk walking, swimming, cycling and if you go the gym you can do dancing or you can do dancing at home as Zumba is the latest craze or the latest craze we have is also ballroom dancing. All these type of activities will get that heart pumping so that we can get the benefits of strengthening our heart. But it's very important especially if you're doing that type of aerobic exercises that you do actually feel the workout.

Find Exercises you Enjoy:

You've got to find exercises that you really really enjoy and just really, simple exercises at home, you can do ecercises at home, even gardening or just doing your housework can be exercises, just do it differently. So that's your aerobic component.

Aerobic plus Strength Training is Key

Now the other type of exercises also very important we can't work one without the other, and that is strength training. Now strength training will help our muscles and bones of our body and especially the bones because they deteriorate, you know they get less dense and also help increase our metabolism, which will help burn fat. So as we gain weight. So the strength training improves our strength, the posture and also helps reduces risk of lower back injuries and also will help us tone our body up. You can use little things, if you go to the gym obviously you'll go strength training classes or you'll work in the fitness hall and you'll work on the machines, or if you go in your class you can work with the little resistant tubes, or the medicine balls, or all types of equipment. Also at home you can have, they're very light you don't have to have any extra space in your house and you can just use these bits of exercises or these little exercise trolleys as I call them at home.

KC: We were talking before and I do star jumps now as part of my exercise regime at my home, and I do those scrunches, I stick my feet under the wardrobe, so rolling up doing scrunches, so there's a lot you can do at home. Personally I don't like going to the gym itself and going on that equipment and I think I can probably speak for a lot of women on that too. But yes if you can find somebody who can do this core training, just like you and I think, don't you record yourself doing this on your website?

CJ: Yes I have lots of exercises which I'll talk about at the end and try and get women directed to the exercises that I have. The strength training as I said is very, very important. What I have seen in the gym when I'm working, I talk to ladies all the time. They just do kind of aerobic training. They think “oh, I'm going big time, oh I'm sweating”, and I keep telling them, “if you're really really want to do a type of exercise, the most important is the strength training”, because also with the strength training your heart will be pumping more especially in the strength training that you're increasing intensity, so you can in the strength training part, you can do your aerobic exercise and strength at the same time, which is in the industry now which is now becoming more popular. Like you said you do your circuit training, which is involving aerobic and strength training, like you said doing your star jumps, squat jumps, all different types and especially, as I said I was talking about using little toys, but at the end of the day you can also, if you haven't any equipment you can use your own body weight, so there is really no excuse not to be doing your exercises.

KC: Or you could use those small bottles of water, a full bottle of water as a weight.

CJ: Yes, because you've got your litre, which may probably weigh around about, just less than a kilo so, really the strength training again try and get at least 3, do it 3 times a week, and as I said minimum 20 minutes – 30 minutes a day. But you can probably do one day on, and have a rest the next day, because obviously your muscles are going to get sore. But minimum 3 times.

KC: And you get fitter of course.

CJ: Then you get fitter and you can do more as you go on. The last type of exercise which is very important is stretching. Now stretching is also absolutely fantastic and it helps with menopause, especially when you're suffering from sleeping disorders or you're feeling depressed as we talked about last time. Because it has that hormone cortisone, that comes in, so you must also really do either stretching in, you can do the type of exercises like yoga, pilates, or just some really deep stretching exercises. And the exercises will help maintain flexibility and help the range of motion in your joints, which when we get older they do get more stiffer, so you must really keep going with your strength exercising also. Yoga is absolutely fantastic because you can get into deep stretching, you can do some simple basic aerobic exercises at home. I teach yoga and I also teach pilates, which is another added benefit which also concentrates on your core, concentrates on aligning the body up and also helps increased ability and balance, which as we get older we start to lose balance, especially if you don't do any stability or core exercises. So again it seems like, “oh God we're doing all these types of exercises”, but these 3 types I don't think you can have one without the other.

KC: Once you get into it, it becomes part of a routine and I think that's the key isn't it?

CJ; Yes you've really got to try and make it a part of your life and especially if you want to stay strong and healthy and fit you know and that will help your weight problems. So as I said you've got to find what you like. Some people might like to do yoga, some might want to do pilates, but you've really got to find out what you like to do. You're going to stop if you're doing exercises you don't like so really try and find something that you do like. Maybe you just want to do some recreational exercises like just social group walking or something. Like your tennis for instance you know.

KC: Even a bit of golf.

CJ: Yes golf if you don't want to, sometimes people don't want to, work with a group of people, so maybe you can find a friend or something that you like to do, go bicycling or whatever.

KC: So, I think that's brilliant, I just wholeheartedly put my hands up and say yes, we've got to do that because there's nothing worse than feeling like you're becoming an old woman, because I'm 60 now and I know that you've got to use it or lose it. So just finally then Celia, just as a last piece to our interview here, how do you think exercise compares with people taking HRT therapy? Is it, they can do one, do you think exercise could overcome some of the symptoms to reduce the distressing symptoms so that they don't have to take HRT what's your view on that?

CJ: Yes my view is like you said, while we discussed in other ones, that I think it can be a major part of helping us with menopause, but if you are really suffering and you do need to go to your doctor then talk to you doctor, but on a wellbeing and natural way would be try the exercises. I'm going through the menopause myself and I haven't taken a tablet I've never gone on any type of HRT hormone, because as you're going through, when you're doing your exercises you get different hormones coming into your body, and I felt that helped me a lot you know. Yes there's times I have suffered from depression but as soon as my mental state starts going into my exercises, and same with the women which I try to explain, takes it away you know you think you forget all about it.

KC: You're in a different place.

CJ: Yes you are, you're in a different place, you're so focussed on you body and what you want to do and also enjoying it you're releasing those type of feel good hormones, so once you release those type of hormones you think “oh God I feel great now”, you know.

KC: You're absolutely right, I've spoken to a few women who I know that take exercise classes, you know they conduct the class themselves, and they say “do you know what, I've never experienced any menopausal symptoms, the odd hot flush but I don't notice it, I just get on with stuff”. There is definitely something in it isn't there.

Fitness and Nutrition go hand in hand

CJ: Yes, as I said I can only speak for myself, but as I said if it's happening to me and this is from my experience, can help the people who haven't been through it, and also the other side of it is the nutritional side, what you put in your body. It's fitness and nutrition goes hand-in-hand, so I think the exercise and the nutrition plays is a major part as we are going through menopause. And just to let the ladies out there, you know, try it, what have you got to lose? If you like it, some people get their hormones released, they want more, that's from my point of view. I experienced that, it's like a drug. That's the reason why I got into the fitness. All these hormones releasing and fitness to me became like a drug. Okay for some people it doesn't, but for me it was “I want more, I want more”, the feel good factor, I felt great. I'm keeping my weight down. As I say that's what people out there experienced.

KC: I think for others, sometimes we get bogged down with “I'm working full-time, the kids, the husband, partner, or whoever else is in your life, the house and all that stuff, and I don't have time for exercise. But I think at this time of life it becomes a lifestyle change that you need to focus on and recognise, otherwise you're going to end up with your medicine cabinet full of pills from the doctor to save your life. And then you start getting side effects from the pills, other pills to reduce the side effects, it's just a vicious circle isn't it? So we don't want to go there ladies do we?

Before you head for the doctor, try exercise first!

CJ: Try the exercise first, there's bound to be something that you like to do, we don't all like to do the same, just find out what you like to do and just do it. Keep active, you've really got to do exercises and keep fit for the rest of your life because as the body ages, you know it will help tremendously through the benefits through your health. I just advise find something, carry on and I'm sure you'll be reaping the benefits of it.

KC: Most definitely. And finally Celia, you've given us so much information about the exercises we can do and why, and the benefits that they will have for us, so just in closing can you tell us a bit more about your website and what happens on there?

CJ: Yes, I have a website, address is www.celiajohnsononline.com and on that website I have lots of articles that will help ladies, all to do with how to get rid of weight problems. There's some recipes I've started putting on, and I have loads of exercise videos and I've also got some products that will help, especially the little toys that you can use at home that you can take a look at. I have done some reviews on this so you can see what these toys are all about and what I personally think, because I've used them myself.

KC: Because some of them can be rubbish can't they? You can end up spending your money for nothing.

You Tube – 60+ videos

CJ: Exercise is, again on the different components of what we've been talking about. For dancing, I teach Zumba, which is the latest dance craze, so there are some Zumba exercises on there. I also have Youtube that you can click straight into from my website and see. I've got around about 60 odd videos now, so I'm sure you can find something you can do at home.

KC: Something there for everyone.

CJ: Some focus on certain parts of your body, some the overall component and also you can find me on Facebook. You can go on Facebook and click to join my fan pages and I've just opened another fan page on weight loss, so there's lots of tips on there, on Facebook to help lots of women that are suffering from weight problems, and also another fan page, “Life is Golden” with Celia Johnson, that focuses more on women over 40 and things, so there's lots of fitness tips and again the menopause.

KC: With the advent of the internet it doesn't matter where you are in the world you can find something to suit you, you can even get your exercise regime sorted out, can't you, it's just brilliant.

CJ: That's for a fact

KC: Excellent, well thank you so much for all that Celia, and I'm going to go onto your website afterwards and get some things sorted out. I know my own daughter loves Zumba, so I can get her cracking on that. So that's www.celiajohnsononline.com, and thank you so much . And this really concludes our trio of interviews that we've been doing on menopause, and we're going to get together after, in a little while to do some more on this, because it's working so well isn't it Celia? And it just helps people understand a little more about what's going on in their life on a woman to woman fashion. We're not talking medical problems here, it's closer to home than that, and I do hope everybody's enjoyed our talk here today and so thank you once again Celia, and we'll talk again soon.

CJ: That's great thank you Kathryn, I enjoyed that. Take care for now.

Find exercise, recipes and a host of other information on Celia Johnson's website www.celiahohnsononline.com and don't forget you can find over 200 pages of information on symptoms of menopause and what to do about it on my website: www.simplyhormones.com

Until the next time …

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 192 user reviews.

#14: Early Menopause-My sex life is over

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:40:15 +0000

True story: healthy woman and menopause at 38 who had to come to terms with no children and her sex life was over. Anne Scott wasn’t told about her condition until she wanted to prepare to have children at 40. In my own research, I’ve spoken to a number of ‘early pausers’. They do feel really isolated even more than their older sisters. Listen to Anne’s story, now. I’m grateful to Anne Scott for sharing her story with us. Full transcript follows and all references to herbal tonics and medical practitioners involved in Anne’s care are noted throughout.

Anne Scott interview – Early Menopause:

Kathryn Colas: Hello, everybody, good morning, it's Kathryn Colas here again from http://www.simplyhormones.com Today I'm here to talk to Anne Scott, about her own journey through menopause. I met Anne at a women in business conference last November and we started talking about hormones, as you do, and I thought she had a very interesting story to tell.

Now Anne's background is IT and communications, delivering technology, and now she's completely turned that on it's head and is now helping businesses. She specialises in business creation and transformation, helping people to be intuitive in their leadership and she calls herself Crossing Frontiers now. So let's go on to that Anne, and talk about your journey through menopause. What would you say were your symptoms, the symptoms that you first recognised, that made you think it might be menopause and what age were you then?

Anne Scott: Good morning Kathryn, great to speak to you. Yes this is a really interesting question, because retrospectively I can see that my first symptoms were probably night sweats. And I was having those probably in my mid thirties, 35, 36 up to about 39, got really hot, really sweaty, woke up at night had to change. Sometimes had to change the sheets.

KC: So what did you do about that then?

Night Sweats

AS: Well, actually I just lived through it, and I think part of it was at the time, what I worked out myself, was that there was a relationship between the night sweats and at night when I had a couple of glasses of wine, so I thought OK the alcohol was exacerbating this so I thought I still want to have my few glasses of wine. So I assumed that it was purely to do with the alcohol, but now that I am where I am, sort of like 15 years later, I clearly realise that was a very significant symptom.

KC: Yes. So that's all you did about it at that time. You felt it was alcohol related and had no idea that it was potentially hormonal and that you were starting to go through menopause, you were peri-menopausal.

Early 30's: 10 months without a period

AS: I didn't, because the other thing that had happened to me in my early 30s is, I had, I think about 10 months without any periods… Bearing in mind that I'm not under weight and nor am I significantly overweight, a robust person. I lost a bit of weight at the time. I was very delighted at the time, as I was travelling. It was when I was 30, I was travelling in Asia, I was really pleased not to have periods; it was a great convenience actually. But it did cross my mind that potentially there was something else going on there. About literally 9 months later I got to Australia and my periods started again, so I didn't particularly worry about it, but when I got to my mid 30s, when I was having periods I had a very clear 7 day period, which was quite heavy and it was certainly very heavy at the beginning of the cycle so I would have to wear tampons and sanitory towels and just be very aware of it, and in my mid 30s that changed significantly, so that was the other change I noticed.

Heavy Periods then less and less

My periods, quite quickly, I suppose over a period of about 2 years, went from 7 days down to 5, then down to 3 and probably in my late 30s and moving into my 40s I was actually having a 1 day period. So that was another significant change. For me I didn't actually go to the doctor. I didn't treat it as a medical issue. But what I am interested in, and some of this is because of my study, I am interested in alternative health, so I was going to an acupuncturist and I also found a great homeopath at that time and so I did start taking herbal and homeopathic medications, but not specifically because I thought I was menopausal.

Didn't even consider Menopause as a cause

KC: No. Did you know about menopause at the time? It probably didn't even enter your radar did it, at that age?

AS: The only reason why it even peaked my interest is because an Aunt of mine, on my fathers side, had what they called an early menopause. They had just got married when I think she was 36, and within a couple of years, very similar to my story I suspect now, she was menopausal, but this was a bit of a family anecdote, it wasn't something she talked about.

Doctors insisted NOT genetic, therefore NOT menopause!

But every time I talked to a doctor or talked to somebody in the medical profession about it they were very clear that the menopause, that your genetic predisposition would come from your mother. Now my mother didn't start her menopause until she was well into her 50s. In fact she was pregnant when she was 48, and I think she had her periods into her mid or late 50s. My mother's story was completely different.

KC: So listening to what you have to say there, your symptoms didn't seem to follow the norm. You were following this homeopathic regime and so, was that helpful?

Significant Hot Flushes kicked in

AS: I found it helpful particularly; I then started getting hot flushes in my early 40s, so that was much later. I had night sweats and hot flushes, very separate. When my night sweats stopped, there was then a break and I had hot flushes, then I was getting a hot flush say once every half hour. Very, very strong for about 2 years and it was at that point that I really found that the homeopathic and the herbal medication really helped. I would also say that probably in my 30s I suspect now that the… what I was taking really helped the flow I guess. What I noticed as well was I had a massage at one point called a Chi Mei Teng massage, and it really loosened up or really got things flowing. I really felt I was stuck and that's how I would describe my system, my menstrual system, in my late 30's, was that it was stuck. And I felt that these things I was taking were helping.

KC: Yes, they do say that certain massages to help the flow of the organs and help us to unblock certain areas. I know from my own self and a lot of other women would concur that I have reached what I would describe as a tsunami, the symptoms all came together at one point and were so overwhelming, I didn't know where I was or what I was doing. So did you reach that point at all?

Hot Flushes were most distressing

AS: I'm not sure that I did, I think the most excrutiating symptoms were the hot flushes. Particularly because I was working in a corporate environment with a lot of men, and also because my normal disposition was to feel cold, so I dressed for the cold and suddenly I'm having these experiences and the way I dressed just didn't suit. The idea of wearing a polo neck, I just wouldn't dream of wearing a polo neck now. So I really had to adjust the way I dressed. And also at the end of a hot flush, how cold and clammy you feel, so I really found that very discomforting.

Awful to discover my mother suffered badly with heavy periods, flooding

The one thing that I am aware of, having talked to women and my mother say for instance, this thing about heavy what they call flooding I've never experienced. I'm sure you know a lot more about that. I've never experienced that. What happened was my periods tailed off, they didn't get heavier. It is possible that they did get heavier but might have been in my late 20s. It's so long ago I just would never have correlated it. So I didn't have this experience of my periods getting heavier and heavier before they tailed off they just tailed off and that was a convenience. It was a convenience not to have heavy periods. But my mother particularly suffered flooding and she suffered them out in public and that was something I was always apprehensive about because she told me some horror stories about that.

KC: It can be a nightmare for some women. And unfortunately it's still the case that so many women are then offered a hysterectomy to be the method of reducing that problem and it so is not, there are so many other avenues to explore before you take that vital track. So, your symptoms, apart from the hot flushes, or the night sweats rather, and then the hot flushes, there weren't any other symptoms that you particularly experienced.

Menopause not discussed by sent for ovarian scan

AS: No but I did have a bad experience at this time, I think when I was probably 40, 41. I think because, and I'm not sure, unfortunately, why I was prompted to go to the doctor, but I was prompted to go to the doctor potentially because of my periods in fact. At this point they never discussed menopause with me, but what they said is I should go for an ovarian scan, which I did, and at the time I think they said they couldn't see one of my ovaries, and they said look maybe you should come back, but you know what, you look healthy, you look you… you're not having any other issues, just leave it, but about 6 months later I had a niggle and I thought I'm going to go back and see if there's anything going on, so I went back and they said there is definitely an ovarian cyst, you should have come back sooner than this, and we're referring you.

Ovarian Cancer and it was my fault?

This all came through my doctor and they were referring me to potentially an ovarian cancer clinic, which was obviously very shocking for me and the decision I took was to use my private health care and find somebody that I could talk to privately and I ended up in the Queen Charlotte Hospital in Hammersmith. A lovely gentleman there, whose name I've forgotten, and he said “right we'll get you down for a scan and straight away”, which they did, no ovarian cyst and in fact I had had a number of pains a few weeks before which maybe suggested that it dissipated but what was interesting is that he said I'm referring you to a clinic for follow up, which I thought was an ovarian clinic.

‘You're menopausal, you know that' – I said, ‘no, I had no idea'!

I ended up in a menopause clinic which I wasn't aware, they hadn't briefed me; I was examined by a woman, who reported to the nurse while she was examining me that my uterus was closed, that it was, I can't remember the words she used but it really sounded quite shocking, and it really implied that my uterus wasn't operational.

And I said “I don't understand what you're saying” and she said “well you're menopausal, you know that”. And I said “no I don't know that. I had no idea about that” and I would have to say that was the most shocking experience and it was shocking to receive it from a woman. And there was this big expectation that I understood, I think I was 41 at the time. Implication is that actually I was well menopausal. Well into my peri-menopause at that stage.

Why don't doctors ask patients for their opinion – they've certainly got one!

KC: So yes that is quite shocking and it still shows, that doctors aren't talking to, well not so much not talking to each other, they seem to know who to refer us to, but they're not talking to us to make the connection and discussing it really to get our opinion and we certainly have one. It's sad news isn't it. So as a result of that you didn't go back after that referral to the menopause clinic?

Attending a Menopause Clinic for 8 years

AS: I did and I've been going there ever since. I've been going for 8 years now and unfortunately I'll be 50 this summer. But what that triggered for me was then this realisation that I probably wasn't going to have children. I'd left a relationship with somebody who couldn't commit. I'd been with them for 5 or 6 years, they were never ready to have children and I thought well I still had the opportunity, the possibility, so at the age of 41 I really had to start going through that grieving period about that.

KC: So do you think it was because of the uterine, what appeared to be a uterine malfunction that was probably the reason you couldn't have children, that it was all linked somehow?

AS: Well, I think they made it very clear. Potentially I guess if I got together with a partner, I wasn't with a partner at that point, suddenly you just thought well I'm going to have to fast track this, find some guy, have sex all the time and hope for the best, then realised that I was on the downward slope. For me the likelihood of it happening is really much more limited. I'm sure if I said I'll go for hormone treatment, I'm sure if I took a very directly focussed approach I potentially could have children now, but at the time it was just this realising that my natural cycle and my body, and I've always felt actually that really I like being in tune with my body and I have actually never been on the pill. So I've never taken the contraceptive pill and haven't actually had HRT either, for the reasons that I really would love to work with my body with the more natural approach around it. So it was that realisation that my body in it's natural state, obviously wasn't for having children and also allowed all those components of things that have happened in my 30s like the year of not having periods, or hot sweats or night sweats all suddenly fell into place really.

KC: Yes, you could see the pattern, then but you were too young to acknowledge it at the time and nobody else helped you to find the right answer. So how do you feel now, health-wise?

Good care from Mr Nick Panay's clinic

AS: Health-wise, I feel healthy, I am aware of and I've had some challenges around this. I think medically because the menopause is medicalised in this country you know, but medically the three things that you know certainly I've been advised about in the clinic, which I really love actually, Mr Panay, it's a gentleman called Mr Panay (Mr Nick Panay http://www.nickpanay.com). I like him, I like his clinic and apparently he has told me I'm the only person in the clinic who is not on HRT and we've had a number of discussions around it. My mother had oestrogen related breast cancer, so that was a very significant factor for me. As well as the fact that I didn't really want that kind of intervention, a chemical, pharmaceutical intervention.

3 important areas of concern for me now: bone, heart and brain health

It wasn't really of interest to me, but the three things that they mentioned was bone health, heart health, brain, bone and heart health, and as a result of going to the clinic they sent me for bone scans, and the key deficiency, that's obvious now, is that I've got osteoporosis. And over the last 8 years that has been quite significant, the decline in my bones and to add to that I've been kaycene (dairy product) intolerant. I've been allergic to kaycene all my life, but actually only became aware of it in my late 20s. It's only been medically acknowledged in the last 2 or 3 years, but I haven' t been taking dairy products since my late 20s, so I haven't drunk milk. I have goat and sheep products but I don't drink milk.

KC: I think it seems to me that a lot of women are lactose intolerant, I know myself and I didn't recognise it. As a child it was always a treat on a Sunday to have a coffee made with boiled milk, and I used to love it because of all the frothy stuff on top and I always used to feel ill afterwards and never associated the two things. Until I was going through menopause and now I don't have lactose and all the rest of it and I have changed the way I drink that type of thing altogether, so it's very interesting isn't it?

The benefits of cow's milk are a myth

AS: I believe it's a myth about milk and bone health, and in fact what they said to me when they first did the scan is my bone health was really good, and so from the age of 28 through to 40 I hadn't taken milk, but what I was very dedicated to, probably up until about 2 years ago, was weight bearing exercise, and I will go between 3 and 5 days a week to a gym and in addition I did pilates, I did hiking.

KC: All the right things.

Suffers with Tendonitis

AS: All the right things, but then what's happened in my 40's, I've had, and I guess this is with the menopause, the things around bones that I'm thinking of now is I've had more things like tendonitis, I've had things like, I had really bad tendonitis in my wrists, ended with problems with my ankles, so I actually had to stop the weight bearing exercises for a while. I then took up pilates and did some yoga and more recently I'm getting back into more weight bearing exercises again. But I have had nearly 2 years of not doing as much weight bearing exercises, and now is when I need to do it but really my body hasn't been supporting me as well as I would have loved it to.

HRT can help arrest the decline of bone strength

KC: And I don't think enough women realise that it's the decline of our hormones and the changing of our hormones that does affect the heart and our bones and that you do have to take extra care about diet and exercise and make sure you're eating lots of fruit and vegetables and doing, if not weight-bearing exercises, swimming, it's still a strength exercise to do swimming, but do whatever makes you happy, and that's why they're still recommending HRT to a lot of women as a secondary prescription to support those areas because it has been shown that it helps avoid those problems, but I think women have got to be more proactive, and say we're not going to rely on pills, I can do this myself, as long as they are aware of what's happening in their body and how hormones are so powerful in our lives that we don't realise how they have been supporting our good health all our lives. Because we have so many more of them than the men, of course, and then we come a cropper at menopause and nobody tells us anything about it, so end up with zimmer frames and all the rest of it, and a cabinet full of pills. We don't want to do that, do we?

A good supplement is Udo's Choice

AS: No we don't really and I do think that when I realised the reverberation actually of oestrogen through our bodies, you did ask about some supplements earlier, but one of the things I was really pleased I was taking earlier, because I was having joint pain (that was another symptom I had was having joint pain), my sister-in-law is a physiotherapist and normally not into alternative therapy at all, but because of her physiotherapy she had come across a supplement called Udo's Choice (available at http://www.bodykind.com) and she started using that, absolutely sang it's praises and for somebody who would pop a pill before she'd do anything else, I was really pleased. So I started taking Udo's Choice and that's probably the supplement I've been taking for the longest period of time. I take 3 dessert spoons of that most days and that certainly has made a big difference to joint aches and pains.

KC: What's it got in it specifically?

AS: I can check the ingredients, but the significant thing about Udo's Choice, relative to some of the others, like there's Linseed Oil, there's Cod Liver Oil, and the way this is marketed certainly, I think that it contains Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9, in the proportions that are appropriate for humans. Cod liver oil will have maybe Omega 6 and Omega 9, but not Omega 3 and they don't necessarily have it in the right proportions, so I found that using Udo's Choice, I've tried some of the others, but I've nearly always reverted back to Udo's Choice, even though it's more expensive, I really notice the difference around my joints, and also it is supposed to be very good for mood as well, and take the edge off depression. A lot of this is anecdotal as you probably know Kathryn.

Depressed, me?

KC: Yes, you don't know when it's happening to you. I was listening to Ruby Wax recently who says, I think the title of the piece that was in one of the papers was that she had been mentally ill all her life and she is doing this show at the moment, I think it's very brave of her to do that, but you don't from my, and from a lot of women, you don't recognise, that you're going through this crazy period and that you're actually mildly depressed and you don't have time to be depressed most of us because you're always doing things, and it's only when you sit down and talk to yourself one day and they say right, I've really got to do something about this and that's when you, I think, become more spiritual in yourself and begin to recognise your own intuition, and lead a better life as a result of it. And many women change course and do completely different things. I've certainly come out of it a completely different human being with so much energy and vigour to run with things and do things ‘my way'. It's quite a different thing that happens to women that is still not written about and we've got a long way to go to recognise the whole true effect of menopause in women, and we're all working longer as well.

AS: Absolutely.

KC: And now you're taking on a new career, post-menopausally and I bet you feel ready for it and you're invigorated by the challenges that you're now facing. I know you mentioned to me that you've studied medical anthropology and this is all new; suddenly we've become sponges again and can't get enough information about certain things and we want to do other things to bring those areas of education into it. Would you agree with that?

AS: Yes. I wouldn't necessarily feel it was directly related to the menopause, I could be wrong, because I've actually studied over the course of my life starting with the BSC and in my early working career I did marketing and then I followed that up with the medical anthropology, but what was fascinating about the medical anthropology for me was I did it through the school of Oriental African Studies, who have a very humanistic approach and really what the question is, in different cultures, is what does health mean? What is illness, what is cure? and what was fascinating was to realise that menopause is medicalised in this country, it's a medical condition and I'm not demeaning it by saying that it shouldn't be but it's this idea, it's like childbirth, it's a medical condition instead of being natural events in our lives, but in a country like Japan for instance it's not very medicalised. They actually don't have a notion of menopause. According to what I've read.

KC: Until they move to the West.

In Japan: no menopause but do experience joint pain

AS: Exactly and they've done studies around that. And the key issues apparently that women present with in that age group is joint pain. It's the bone issue, but they don't have all this horrendous hot flushes and night sweats and I think there has been a lot of conversation about the relationship between that and things like lactose and milk and I wasn't taking those in my diet, so it may well be, because I didn't think I had a serious menopause, I don't feel that it really impacted on me in that way.

Shocking realisation that my child bearing years were over

The shocking things that really happened to me were really coming to terms with the fact that my child bearing years were over earlier than expected and just also what that meant not to have periods.

My girlfriends are still talking about all of those issues and they're asking questions and I'm in a different stage, so for me those were the really challenging things for me. It's interesting, I don't feel like I had to deal with lots of medical effects. I could go to the menopause clinic and they would offer me HRT and their whole thing around HRT, by the way, as you know, was for me to take it till I was 50, purely to cover that gap because the way they explained it to me was that when you're around 50, 51 a number of other systems come into play which actually supplement oestrogren, and I decided not to do that. I think if my symptoms had been not so severe like I don't really feel that I had significant depression for instance. I feel that the level of depression I had was the same as what I'd had with pre menstrual tension (PMT), so I may well have been lucky in that respect.

Atrophic Vaginitis a complete shock

But I do think the social aspects were very significant for me and just the only other thing I forgot to mention earlier, which was a shock to me, was discovering that I had atrophic vaginitis, and that again is oestrogen-related. And that's pretty shocking because I hadn't realised it and I was in a new sexual relationship and sex was very painful and I didn't want to talk about it and only talked to a girlfriend who said “go to your doctor”. I said “I can't do anything. I'm sure it's menopausal” and I am actually taking local oestrogen for that.

World's best kept secret – Atrophic Vaginitis

KC: And again, it's such an embarrassing subject even for women that have been in, like me, been in (long term) relationships. I've been married 38 years now and I just couldn't talk to my husband about that, I couldn't talk to my doctor about it and it was only when I attended a medical conference that there was lecturer up there talking about it and saying what could be achieved by prescribing women locally applied oestrogen and all the other different products that are available, and I was so cross because there are so many women that are affected and nobody's telling them that there is a simple solution. There's a moral error there and you were talking about medicalising menopause, and I think you're right. It seems to me that unless when you're going through menopause and you've got all these symptoms, and some women going completely crazy and don't understand it unless the doctor can put a medical label on it, like depression or it's gynaecological or anything like that, if it fits into a department then you get taken care of, but it's all those other women where there is no medical label attached and they're disappearing under the radar and just being sent away with a pat on the hand saying “never mind dear, it's your age” and to me that's all wrong, they're just not getting the right information. So again, they're having to put up with it because they don't know what else to do and the information that's getting out there is very slow and it's certainly not coming from the medical industry. So we've just got to get out there and do it ourselves haven't we?

“Oh my god, my sex life is over now as well”

AS: Absolutely, and I think a far better and more nurturing way to do it, to be honest, I feel, is women to women, and I don't think it has to be medicalised, but I do think it's so essential to have a forum and to be able to discuss, and also having better end results, to be able to say, yes I still want to have a sex life. Atrophic vaginitis, I got that when I was 45 and I thought “Oh my god, my sex life is over now as well”, and I really don't believe it has to be like that, and being able to support each other whether it's natural remedies, whether it's something medical, let's be open to all of it.

KC: Yes, because it's all different and it's choices we're looking for and we all need to try different things to find the right things that suit us. And we shouldn't be put off that, even the women that go for HRT, I say well go for it. If that's suits you, if it's sorting out your symptoms, bringing your life back into a steady pace for you to move forward then what's wrong with that, but obviously be aware of the medical history, but all pharmaceuticals have their side-effects so we shouldn't highlight HRT as being the worst case scenario because there are other drugs that have bad side-effects too; we've just got to be balanced, haven't we.

Consult a Herbalist or Homeopath

AS: Yes, and it's interesting that you should talk about that, because just I'm just looking here, I've got one of these tinctures I've used, and one of these if Black Cohosh, and many women may well have come across Black Cohosh, which isn't a herbal tintcture, but it's actually a very powerful tincture and potentially toxic, which I think is why there's an awful lot of concern around herbal tinctures. It just goes to show that herbs are the basis of our pharmaceuticals, so equally we should be as respectful and cautious of something like herbal tinctures as we are of HRT. I feel quite passionate about this, I really would suggest to anybody if they want to use anything for menopausal management that they work with somebody like a herbalist or a homeopath, you know somebody who can come up with a journey plan, if you like, if they want to try these things for two or three months it may not be appropriate to keep going with some things for more than that. It may not be appropriate to put certain things together. So I think we have to be… to me it's like about personal responsibility and values. You talked about people who choose HRT, women who choose HRT viz-a-viz those who don't, and I think it's all about resonating with ourselves, whatever resonates with us and if you do something that doesn't resonate with you it's not going to work with you and that's my opinion.

KC: Yes I think you're right.

AS: I think it's not just the pharmaceutical, it's about your relationship with it, I know that sounds a bit crazy but it's that intuitive thing you were talking about, and I think that if you're in tune with something it may well work for us, and if somebody else uses it, it may not.

KC: That's right. That's exactly what's happening of course and it's for us to be better informed to allow us to make those decisions for ourselves.

What's next?

I think that's been absolutely brilliant Anne we've had such a good conversation about so many different things there and I'm sure that all that information will help other women that are experiencing, maybe not everything you've gone through, but little bits here and little bits there, and it's all so helpful.

AS: I'm very pleased for you to hear my story, Kathryn. My story's going to be different to other people's stories. What's wonderful about what you're doing is you're really eliciting that. Your story is part of the patchwork quilt.

KC: Yes, well put; a patchwork quilt. And it's all of our stories and we all pick a bit from it. It's not that my story is the right story, we've all got little bits that match up and we think “yes, that happened to me, ah maybe I'll try this, maybe I'll try that.” So if it's going to help women to be in better control of their own health and understand where they're going with this I think we can all come out of it leading much better lives because it's a metamorphosis, and we should come out of it leading happier and healthier lives.

KC: Thank you once again Anne for joining me on this journey this morning, and we'll talk again another time.

AS: Lovely, thanks Kathryn.

Kathryn Colas: Well, that brings us to the end of the interview with Anne Scott who spoke most eloquently about her own journey through a very early menopause.

If early menopause is affecting you, there is a specialist website: http://www.daisynetwork.org.uk you may find useful. And can I remind you that there are over 200 pages of information on menopause symptoms and how to create your own pathway to wellness at http://www.simplyhormones.com

Until next time…

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 183 user reviews.

#12: Down to Earth Nutrition

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:27:13 +0000

Liver function, bowel health, weight gain-all in a day’s work! Here’s my interview with Shirley Ward. It was a great pleasure interviewing Shirley; she’s helped a huge number of people understand their health especially as they approach menopause. Click on the link to hear the interview, get top tips plus the transcript is set out below.

KC: Hello, good morning everyone, it's Kathryn Colas here from

Shirley Ward

http://www.simplyhormones.com. And I'm here today with some very good information for you on nutrition. That's a subject we all need more information on to avoid further confusion. I'm talking to Shirley Ward from Down to Earth Nutrition who's an established nutritionist and runs her own practice http://www.downtoearthnutrition.co.uk

in Brighton, which is where she delivers a range of health improvement solutions. She gives private consultations and runs corporate workshops for improving employee health and wellbeing. Shirley has noticed a steady increase in clients with hormonal imbalance issues such as pecos which is polycystic ovary syndrome, which is becoming more prevalent and PMS of course, premenstrual syndrome, as well as menopausal symptoms. Shirley recognises that each client is an individual and has a unique lifestyle which can impact on their health quite differently and she helps clients take back control of their health by recommending small changes for significant benefits to their health so she's really singing from my songbook there. Let's start having a chat. Hello Shirley.

SW: Hello Kathryn, good morning everybody good to be here.

KC: I know you've helped a number of women going through menopause which is really why I really wanted to interview you, and I know our listeners are keen to hear more about the true values of nutrition. So let's get started.

“Why do I keep putting on this weight, when I'm watching what I eat”?

I was so surprised to find out during my own journey through menopause how women's metabolism is turned on its head and we store fat than energy, which of course then answers that question, “why do I keep putting on this weight, when I'm watching what I eat”? Can you describe for us Shirley your view on this?

SW: Yes of course, it is actually quite a common issue with many clients that come to see me. But if we look at, as well as dealing with the menopause, around that age obviously we are ageing as we age our bodies become less efficient, converting food to energy rather than fat, you've got to combine that fact with the hormonal changes that are going on during the menopause, which combined can actually lead to additional eight gain for some women. If you think during the fertile years reduction of progesterone and she helps increase her metabolism so we therefore burn fat more efficiently, we're going to turn less food into fat and more food into energy. During the menopause when we stop production of this fertility hormone, so this can be one fact linked with weight gain, combined with declining levels of oestrogen, can also be a factor, as this hormone can help stimulate production of controlling weight and mood balancing hormone called serotonin, it's important, declining levels of oestrogen and this can therefore lead to increased cravings for carbohydrates.

KC: We all know that one.

SW: Especially, you can find yourself choosing the wrong type of carbohydrates which are linked with weight gain, so that can be quite an important factor.

KC: Yes definitely and it seems to me a lot of women put that weight on around their middle and they become the apple shape. What tips can you give us to address this?

SW: OK, well, perhaps if we can firstly look at why that may actually be the case, so when we store weight around the middle it can be a classic sign really of stress process and when you look at the way some women perceive the menopause, unfortunately it can actually be quite a big source of stress for a lot of women. They don't like these changes that are going on, they find it really impacts on their quality of life, it does actually really stress them.

KC: If I just interject there, they don't understand what's going on as well which just impacts on all these things that you're talking about.

SW: Absolutely, yes, that's a key factor. So when you've got additional sources of stress, these can combine to actually increase that weight around the middle because the stress process, any source of stress, is actually producing a lot of energy to create that fight or flight feeling, but in reality we don't actually run, we don't fight, so this excess energy is not used up. This energy is then stored for future energy reserves; the body is clever at storing it for future energy, it's trying to be efficient, and the reason it stores it around the middle is because it's located very close to the liver. The liver has a number of key health functions, one being that it actually converts stored energy as fat, back into energy for future reserves, so therefore it's very close to the liver it's very efficient at converting it back when it needs to.

Liver: your detox friend

KC: Yes, that's very interesting about the liver. That's just an area of our body that we don't even consider. I suppose I learnt that everything we eat passes through the liver including pharmaceutical drugs, which is why women need a stronger drug than men might do for instance, but to think of it in that way with the storage of energy for the future and that the liver is a key element in that function. So what do we need to do to make sure our liver is functioning efficiently?

SW: OK, well as you just touched on, the liver is responsible for detoxing, and a lot of toxins from the food digestive process, from additional drugs, from partially digested food if you're having digestive food issues as well, but it's also responsible for converting that stored energy and it's also responsible for deactivating hormones in the body before they're actually excreted so coming back to that hormone balance issue, three key areas that we need to be aware of that the liver's responsible for and why we need to keep it working properly. So some liver-friendly food sources to regularly consume are your cruciferous vegetables, your sprouts, your broccoli, broccoli has been termed as a super food by the media, it's certainly a good option to include regularly in your diet, cabbage, brussle sprouts, green leafy vegetables, so these are all helping the liver with it's detoxification functions. Also fresh beetroot is liver support food, so fresh not pickled; plus onions and garlic again are helping the liver with it's detoxification pathway, so helping to support the liver with one of it's functions means it's going to be able to function overall much better.

Don't overlook your Adrenals

KC: So if we just go back a bit to the stress we were talking about and how, I didn't realise that when we are in a stressful situation that that's creating energy, and I suppose that when you do think about it logically it is stimulating the adrenals isn't it?

SW: Absolutely

KC: As you said the fight or flight. I didn't take it through to it's ultimate conclusion. So let's talk a bit more about that, we've now detoxed our livers, but we need to still balance our hormones and it's that stress factor that I know only too well that causes hormonal imbalance and we forgot to look that in tandem with what the adrenals are doing. So can you tell us more about how the adrenals come into the whole picture?

SW: Sure, adrenal health during the menopause is very important, as even though our oestrogen levels are reducing, the ovaries actually stop producing oestrogen, the adrenals are actually another source of producing a form of oestrogen, so can help to keep those levels adequate and help avoid some of those symptoms that are linked with low oestrogen levels, and also regular sources of stress are going to overwork the adrenals, they are not going to be as efficient, in carrying out their other functions of producing this form of oestrogen. So looking at reducing sources of stress, I appreciate it's not always easy to reduce external sources of stress but a lot of listeners may be unaware that there are actually some stresses that can be incorporated into your diet that you may not be aware of so we can talk a bit more about those.

Obviously reducing your consumption of those can certainly give back control of your health, you can actually reduce those and reducing your sources of stress that help those adrenals. So dietary stresses such as caffeine containing drinks, tea and coffee, those artificially stimulating the body producing that stress process. Reducing consumption of those is certainly a good idea and good alternatives, a whole range of fruit and herbal teas out there to try, there are so many different, nice combinations.

Right and wrong carbs

Also other dietary stresses, we touched on earlier, we spoke a bit about the right and wrong carbohydrates, so now might be a good time to actually explain that a bit further. As choosing the wrong type of carbohydrate can actually create stress in the body as well. So carbohydrates, at the end of the day we need carbohydrates to provide us with energy, we can't create our own energy we need to obtain this from dietary sources, but it's choosing the right type of carbohydrate that produces those sustainable energy levels. And sustainable energy levels are going to avoid that stress process happening.

So, if we look at what are termed the right kind of carbohydrates, which are mixed with good health and with sustainable energy levels, these are foods such as brown rice, oats, wholemeal pasta, beans, lentils, fruit and vegetables, so these all contain good levels of energy but they contain that crucial element of fibre and it's fibre that actually moderates that release of energy to produce the sustainable energy levels. So producing some good levels of energy that the body can use. It's not too much energy, it's not too less energy.

KC: Steady.

The key is to balance blood sugar levels

SW: Absolutely, it keeps those blood sugar levels balanced and we should always be aiming for blood sugar balance for weight control and if we are a bit clearer when we talk about the wrong kind of carbohydrates, these are foods like white bread, white flour products, white rice. Biscuits and cakes that you find yourself reaching for when you get those carbohydrate cravings and a lot of those sugar-laden fizzy drinks are included here as well, so these foods have all been through that food refining process that has removed most of their good fibre and vitamins and minerals, so all these foods are left with are high levels of energy.

Stop multi-tasking!

KC: Yes, well it seems to me that if women start focussing on good foods, they're going a long way to helping reduce a certain level of stress in their bodies and perhaps when as a result of doing that they start looking at external stressors, and I know women wear a badge of multi-tasking, I used to do it myself, and we've just got to learn to say no more often, and not take on these tasks, and try and accommodate ways of doing things differently, like saying, if somebody says “can you just do this for me” and you say “I might be able to next Tuesday, but not right now”, that it's sending out the signals that people can't just jump on you with all these extra jobs that they don't want to do and that's got to help your stress levels as well hasn't it.

Important to make time for ‘me'

SW: Absolutely yes, and I think it's important from a lifestyle perspective that actually incorporating a relaxing time for yourself and time when you can just actually just switch off. All the time you're multi-tasking, you're constantly on the run, again you are over-stimulating your body, you're actually being ruled by what we call the sympathetic nervous system, and this is when you're over-stimulated, and your body can't function efficiently when it's in that mode all the time. You will want to get back to that relaxed state, you're moving into your para-sympathetic nervous system mode, and that's when you're relaxing more, your body can function efficiently, so that's what you want to be aiming for, is getting that balance.

KC: And I think it's also learning to recognise when your body is screaming out for that quiet time as well and I think it's when you're feeling at your most stressed state and want to strangle somebody, that's when you've got to walk away from situations and either be able to take 5 minutes to yourself at that time or make a mental note to take time out later when you are able to be on your own.

SW: Absolutely, especially when external sources of stress, if you can just remove yourself from that situation so that even if it's 5 minutes, take yourself off for a walk, if it's a work situation, if you can get outside even better, because we need to have, from a hormone balance point of view, we need to have regular exposure to daylight. It can actually help boost hormones to such as seratonin as we mentioned earlier, it is the key hormone for balancing not only the appetite, but sleep patterns and mood. It's very inter-related.

KC: It is, yes and I noticed that myself, because about 6 months ago, I live near the Ashdown Forest and I started to go out for a walk and a bit of a jog on the forest and I found that I loved it so much it almost became a drug, I couldn't wait to get out there every day. Not this spring unfortunately, the weather's been so miserable I'd be frightened of falling over in the mud, but yet it was just, I'd get back and I'd feel wow, I'd feel so good and you can go on the treadmill in an indoor situation but you do not get the same feeling as when you're outside. It's just a whole new drug isn't it?

SW: Absolutely, and it's what our bodies are built for, we need regular movement, we need to be outside. We haven't evolved to stay inside, for 12 hours a day or whatever that people can find they're stuck in offices, for that length of time, it's not what our bodies need.

KC: No that's right, get on train in the morning, go to work, straight to the office, come back again, same routine and you haven't been outside for 10 seconds have you.

SW: That's right, yes.

KC: It's not good, we've got to take more time to understand our bodies a bit better.

SW: Exactly, just listen to our bodies a bit more.

KC: Yes, because our bodies do talk to us and we've got out of the habit of listening haven't we?

SW: Absolutely.

KC: Once you do start taking notice of little pains and niggling things going, on it's your body saying “excuse me, I've got a problem down here, please see to it.” It doesn't mean going down to a doctor and popping a pill, it's probably just a lifestyle change that will help.

SW: Absolutely, as we touched on in the introduction, it's small changes to incorporate into your diet and lifestyle, that your body can adapt to that can make significant, beneficial…

Don't forget Bowel Health

KC: Can be more beneficial! We've covered a lot of things here Shirley and perhaps we could talk all day. I always feel I could talk all day to people I interview. But the one other area that I'd like to bring into this, and I know it has a lot to do with nutrition as well and that's bowel health, and again from my own personal experience I think I experienced more constipation going through menopause than at any other time in my life and just couldn't understand why, but once I started looking at nutrition and exercise the whole thing changed, but perhaps you could tell it from your perspective, from the professional point of view?

SW: Yes of course and you're absolutely right Kathryn, you need to have good bowel health to achieve good health, especially if you're dealing with hormonal imbalance issues as an additional factor. We need to be removing the waste products from the food digestive process, regularly. We don't want those waste products to stay in the bowel, putrefying, and start giving off toxins which can then start circulating round the body and causing a range of detrimental health issues, so you need those eliminatory channels to be open and working properly.

The bowel actually houses a range of good beneficial bacteria and these bacteria are very important for keeping the immune system strong. They produce white blood cells, they also produce B vitamins, which we need to convert energy from our food, so going back to that metabolic rate. So bowel are very very important, so going back to what we were talking about the right and wrong carbohydrates, that fibre element I mentioned in those right carbohydrates is really key for bowel health, because that fibre is actually adding bulk to the food as it moves through the digestive tract. And food can only move through the digestive tract by muscle action, so going back to what we were just talking about, with regular exercise, not moving around regularly, not getting regular exercise, well that muscle action can't happen, so you can then find you're experiencing issues like constipation.

KC: Even just stretching exercises, when you get up first thing in the morning, do some good stretches, even that helps.

SW: Yes, absolutely right. And, finally, with constipation, just for overall good health, make sure you're adequately hydrated. Again for bowel health, you need to have adequate levels of water otherwise that's going to lead to very drying elements, if there's not enough water to actually move that through properly. So keep yourself hydrated. On average we're losing about a litre and a half of water a day just through functioning, normal body function. So we need to be replacing that, as well as increasing water intake, reducing elements that can contribute to fluid loss such as tea and coffee which have mild diuretic properties is also a good choice, but keeping those water levels up is such an easy way of improving bowel health, improving overall health.

KC: And a combination of doing all these things correctly will stop that bloating feeling that so many women feel. You get to see these adverts on tv for these wonder yoghurts, which I doubt have the benefits they say they have, but just purely by eating the right foods, wherever you can and drinking plenty of water and getting a little bit of exercise, a lot if you can but a little bit is fine, will help to relieve that bloating feeling, because surely that bloating must be just a build up of what's in the digestive tract waiting to be excreted?

SW: Absolutely, it's going to get back into the circulation and cause issues like bloating, you're absolutely right Kathryn. I think with bloating suggests that there's potentially digestive issues going on there that actually need to be addressed, so it's digging a little bit further, a bit deeper, looking at the family history, the diet, the lifestyle, what's actually creating those digestive issues for that person as an individual, then addressing those factors through modifications to diet and lifestyle. Advice that we've spoken about so far is certainly going to have a beneficial impact on the bowel health definitely.

KC: And I think it's reaching that point of ownership of your own body and your own health and just sitting yourself down and saying, “well I must be doing something wrong, let's go through this” and write loads of lists, but just do something to help understand you and your body, a little more.

SW: Absolutely, and it's looking at factors that aren't working for you, identifying those factors and then looking at addressing those through modifications, but being aware that you're not actually cutting out key food groups, keeping that balanced diet and that's where going to see a qualified nutritional therapist can be very useful.

KC: And eating properly of course not skipping meals, because that doesn't help. In fact skipping meals can cause you to gain weight not loose weight.

Skipping meals will not help you lose weight

SW: That's a very good point Kathryn, yes, so let's go back to looking why that might be. Skipping meals can create a form of stress in the body so let me explain. Actually if you're going for long periods of time without eating or you're not a major breakfast fan, if you don't tend to have anything in the morning at all, especially when you wake up from sleeping you've actually been using up a lot of energy, because that's the only time your body's got to repair and replace those damaged or worn out cells, so you need to top up those energy reserves and if you're not eating anything in the morning, where are you going to get that energy from?

You've got to set yourself up for the day and that's exactly the same, if you're going for long periods of time, especially office based work, you come in you sit down at your computer, get completely engrossed in your work then hours pass and before you know it you think, “gosh can't concentrate properly, I'm irritable, I'm shaky, what's going on here?” Well you energy levels have gone way down, so you've got to keep them topped up, with regular sources of good sustainable energy, choosing those right carbohydrates that we spoke about earlier, very important, and also you don't want those energy levels to get low, because that's when the body can try to counter that energy dip by actually producing stress hormones, stress hormones as we said earlier produce energy, but it's not the sort of energy you want.

The wrong carbohydrates

You want to be obtaining your source of energy from those right carbohydrates and also a point to finish off on, is wrong carbohydrates that we spoke about earlier, your white bread, white flour products, white rice, biscuits, cakes, they produce an initial energy high. but because there's no fibre to actually slow down that release that's quickly used up, so you quickly experience an energy dip and again that energy dip occurs, that's when you're body is trying to counter that by producing stress hormones to produce energy, but as we just said, that's not the way you want to be producing energy, so it's another way to think about, “mm, let's chose the right carbohydrates, not the wrong carbohydrates, and those wrong carbohydrates, a large amount of energy that they actually contain is way in excess of what we need, so that excess energy is actually going to be stored as fat. That's where that comes from.

KC; Before we finish, so what can we eat as a snack between meals? Is it OK to eat dried fruits, or are they too sugary?

Are dried fruits good to snack on?

SW: Dried fruits tend to be; fresh fruit in itself is part of a balance diet, but bear in mind that dried fruit is actually going to concentrate that fruit sugar those fruits contain, so I would say probably not the best choice. I would say actually go for a fresh piece of fruit, combined with a small handful of unsalted nuts or seeds for example. Because then you're getting the carbohydrate element from the fruit for energy, but that's actually going to be moderated by the protein and good fat that are contained in those nuts and seeds, so the energy release is being moderated to produce sustainable energy levels to keep you feeling fuller for longer. So that's a good balance and avoiding those blood sugar highs and blood sugar lows that we touched on.

KC; And you can always tuck some fruit in your handbag can't you?

SW: Absolutely, but always try and combine it with that protein and good fat element which is actually going to help moderate that energy release even better.

KC: Yes, the combination of everything. That's brilliant. Well I think we've covered all sorts of good things there Shirley.

SW: It's been quite comprehensive hasn't it.

Have a better informed conversation with your Nutritionist

KC: It has, been right through the whole body function system so I think there's a lot of information there that women will find beneficial to understanding their own health, and then perhaps saying “right, now I know what it's all about, I know what to ask when I go to see a nutritionist”. Because when you go to see somebody like yourself you sit there with a blank expression on your face not really knowing what to say, so if you've got some idea of your bodily functions you know you've put on weight or not, or whatever the reason for going to see a nutritionist, then you can have a much better conversation together can't you?

SW: Absolutely yes, but bear in mind you will always complete quite an in depth questionnaire beforehand which will go through your family history, lifestyle and that is my role then to identify those factors that are linking to the health issues that you want myself or that nutritional therapist to address.

KC: Of course yes that's a great source of information isn't it? That's brilliant. OK then Shirley, thank you very much for your time this morning to discuss all that with us and I feel a lot healthier for having done it and I hope everybody else benefits too.

SW: I hope so too, that was the aim of our chat Kathryn,

KC: And for everybody that's listening I'm going to put Shirley's contact details on the transcript so they can get in touch with her if you wish to. Thanks for that Shirley.

Here are Shirley Ward's details – http://www.downtoearthnutrition.co.uk T: +44 (0)7590 527665. Shirley also runs a clinics at The Sundial Clinic, Queens Road, Brighton, East Sussex and the phone number there, is: +44 (0)1273 774114 and the Aloka Clinic, East Street, Brighton and their number is 01273 823178

Don't forget there are over 200 pages of information on symptoms of menopause and how to cope at http://www.simplyhormones.com. I'm also available for consultations, full details on the website.

Until the next time…

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 157 user reviews.

#11: Sex, Meaning and the Menopause

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:45:05 +0000

As seen in the Daily Mail, here is the interview: It was a privilege to interview Sue Brayne on her book: Sex, Meaning and the Menopause. Written for men and women, this book describes the pain and anguish, the broken relationships through misunderstanding menopause. A highly recommended read, now listen to the interview.

Interview with Sue Brayne, author of Sex, Meaning and the Menopause

KC: Hello everybody it's Kathryn Colas here from Simply Hormones.com, and I'm here today to talk to Sue Brayne. Sue has written a super book that's just come out called Sex Meaning and the Menopause. I'm going to just say a bit about that before we start talking to Sue.

I've had a preview, and I like it very much. The book tackles taboos around sexual changes, looks at the grief of saying goodbye to youth and fertility, explores deeper spiritual significance of the ageing process, provides a different perspective on medical treatments and alternative approaches, and hears from men about what it's like to live with a menopausal woman. I know my husband would like some input on that one. Anyway, hello Sue, nice to talk to you at last.

SB: Hi Kathryn.

KC: If we can just plunge straight into your book, I'd like to ask you what thoughts ultimately led you to wanting to write this book?

SB: I got really fed up trying to find information that worked for me personally, and being told that I ought to have my menopause fixed through hormone treatment. I felt angry about that. I was certainly having some changes, but I was lucky with my menopause – I only had a few tepid glows, as I call them, and some headaches – but I noticed huge sexual changes. That was the big thing. I didn't understand what was going on, but all the information I read about it was that I should get it fixed. If I didn't, there was something wrong with me. I found that really distressing.

KC: Yes, and it's that dreaded ‘M' word, nobody wants to mention it do they? So is it a dysfunction in need of treatment? What's your view on this?

SB: Well, I don't necessarily think it is [dreaded]. Some women have a lot of symptoms that I didn't, which are very distressing. When it is extremely distressing, we do have modern medicine that can help. Certainly to contain it, or to re-balance what's going on. Everybody has every right to that treatment if it is available.

But I think there's an awful lot of women like me who aren't necessarily distressed about what is happening to them, except there is a confusion about the sexual changes which are happening. Certainly my libido took a major plummet. [At the time] I didn't understand this. [Most information] talks about the body beginning to malfunction. I thought, ‘No, it's not. I'm 52. I'm just normally going through what my body should be going through at this age.'

KC: I read recently research on how it's now being accepted that menopause is a major health event in a woman's life. There's so much information out there if you want to become pregnant, if you are pregnant, and if you're a new parent, but there is still so little on the menopause itself.

SB: My big issue is that the menopause is much more than a medical event. It's much much more complex than that. [It's also] a profound spiritual deepening. You're called to the deepest part of yourself. You have to say goodbye to the woman that you were. You have to say goodbye to your fertility. You have to say goodbye to the fact that men don't fancy you particularly any more – or certainly find you attractive in a different way – and you have to face the fact that you are now ageing. For me, it was a confusing time. I couldn't find anything out there to help me. That's why I ended up writing the book. So, the book is not about medical symptoms. It's about deeper, complex issues that we face as individuals, and collectively, as we go through the menopause.

KC: Yes, that's right, because it is an emotional rollercoaster. You do feel as if you're all over the place, and you can't cope. This can be quite scary. It was certainly scary for me. In many instances – I hear from so many women, and it's in your book too – that they think they've got Alzheimer's.

SB: Well, I think a lot of women get very confused and concerned about the fact that they start forgetting everything, or they find themselves saying “What am I up here for.” I think [what happens] isn't explained properly.

Basically, it's to do with the drop in oestrogen levels. As soon as your ovaries start turning off, or the menopause happens in other ways, that plummet [in hormone levels] affects every single part of you. Of course, it affects your brain [too]. These things aren't spoken about, but I don't want to stay with the medicalisation of the menopause.

For me, it's such a profound experience. But, most information says that once you stopped having periods for 12 months you're through the menopause. That's rubbish! The menopause is huge life change. It takes years, sometimes up to 10 years, to really feel your way through to the other side of post-menopause.

KC: That's right. I think it's not until you are post-menopausal (unless you've had a better understanding earlier on in your life) that you understand it so much better. You start to have more energy again. You want to take things in a different direction, do different things, and, in effect, have a new life.

SB: [Speaking] as a post-menopausal woman, I actually think there is a gift to be found in the death of fertility. The death of being a young woman is a very painful experience to go through, for me anyway. But now I'm out the other side, I feel much more peaceful with who I am. I can see – I witness this through the lives of younger women who I work with in my psychotherapy practice, when they talk about their midlife crises at 40, 45, maybe, even 50 – I can actually see the archetypal journey that we're all on. I understand that being in a post-menopausal state means I've been freed up. It's such a cliché to talk about ‘the wise woman', but I do feel I have a much more objective viewpoint, and a much clearer view about how life plays itself out. I'm deeply grateful for that.

KC: Do you feel that if you'd had some of this information at the beginning of the journey it might have been an easier one?

SB: I asked quite a lot of people about that. Some interviewees said, ‘I don't think you can ever prepare for it.' In a sense, I agree because menopause is such a personal journey. You can't really compare yours with anybody else's. It's like dealing with a death. It's such a personal thing, yet, at the same time, it's also collective.

I think I would have liked to have been told that the sexual changes I went through were normal. They were not abnormal. It's what happens to a woman as she gets to a certain age.

Some women carry on being just a sexual as they were. Fantastic. But a lot of women, in fact, one in two women, experience something called vaginal atrophy, where it's very painful to have sex. I wish had I understood that more. I wish I had understood what it was going to mean to me, what it was going to mean to my husband and my relationship, and how much pressure it put on my relationship. My husband certainly wasn't prepared for it.

We went through quite an interesting experience. That was one of the reasons I wrote the book. I wanted to say, ‘Look, these changes that happen are normal, except we're sold [the notion] that they are a dysfunction. That's not true.' [Unfortunately] I think that's very much down to what happens, the fact that our sexuality is so medicalised now. You go on the pill when you're a girl. You go on HRT as an older woman. Hang on a second, who are we in between?

KC: And if you don't look good at the same time, then there's something else to throw at you.

SB: I've chosen to go grey, because I wanted to make a statement. ‘Actually, yes, I am an older woman, who in 18 months time is going to be 60.' That doesn't mean to say I don't feel alive. In fact, I feel more alive than I did as a younger woman. But, personally, and I can only talk for myself, I don't want to deny the fact that I'm getting older, I actually want to celebrate it. There's no reason why I can't look good with grey hair. But I think it's about what works for you inside. However, I don't want to chase youth, because youth is not part of who I am any more, although I do feel incredibly young inside!

KC: Yes, it's not the book. It's what inside the book that's better. I think also talking about the confusion that goes on. I don't think women understand that hormones are messengers. The brain is sending messages all round the body to do x, y and z, and because the hormones aren't the ‘right quantity or quality' any more, then strange things happen. I liken it to being re-wired. Having a new IT system installed, if you like. Some of the wires aren't joining up properly, which is why you get sparks going off in different directions. Things aren't working too well.

SB: I think the word ‘atrophy' is quite relevant here. Things do start to dry up after the menopause. You're just not a juicy fertile woman any more, and I think [the message] we're sold – the image in the media that we're sold – is that we should be this juicy young woman age 60. Well, sorry, the reality of evolution means that at a certain point in our lives, this is what happens. The trouble is that, in a way, we've gone beyond evolution. Now, of course, we're living maybe 30 years after our menopause.

KC: And working longer.

SB: But, the whole sexually-obsessed culture that we live in saying, ‘Oh God, you shouldn't look that old. You should look like a 20 year-old.' Look what happened to Joan Collins, the classic example, trying to get into a dress (for an Oscar party this year) fit for a 22 year-old, and she ends up in hospital having fainted. Come on!

The problem is the baby boomers are growing up with media that is completely youth-obsessed. This is the first generation this has ever happened to. So, we're straddling these two worlds of growing older, but still being thumped every day with the message, 'You shouldn't look that old.'

KC: Yes, do something about it. You're supposed to have plastic surgery, and all the other stuff.

SB: Get the Botox out!

KC: Going back to your book Sue, was there any one interview that particularly struck you?

SB: Yes. It was, without question, talking to the men. I found this a most enlightening, encouraging, heart-warming experience. I interviewed [most of] them on Skype, or on the phone. I suppose because I was this kind of disembodied voice, they opened up. Virtually none of them had spoken about this before. They were so confused about their wives. [Some] were [also] feeling rejected because their wife suddenly didn't want sex. They took it personally, and were struggling to make sense of it. But they didn't want to leave, they loved their wives.

KC: And wanted to support them, but the woman is saying ‘go away, and leave me alone.'

SB: Absolutely. That's why I wrote the book for men as well. They can read about other men's experiences, and not feel so utterly alone with it. [Some] told me that they'd been going on the internet and all they can find out [about the menopause] is, ‘You need to go on HRT.' So they would say to their wives, ‘You need to go on HRT.' But the wife says, ‘I don't want to.' And, then there's a huge row.

I interviewed two sex therapists about the psychological aspect of what happens when sexual changes occur in a relationship later in life, and how hard it is. The men [interviewees] were graphic when they talked about how they cope when they don't have sex with their wives.

KC: I get a lot of men emailing me too, and talking to me on the phone, in great distress in some cases. But, what I have noticed over a period of time is that the men seem to notice these physiological changes before their wives do. Or, perhaps, women don't want to recognise it, and don't want to acknowledge it. But the men do see those changes, and they want to do something about it. But don't know how.

SB: Yes, I think that's absolutely right. But, I think that a woman goes through such a deep, profound change in who she is. A man, yes, he does have a midlife crisis, that's scientifically proven now, but [he] doesn't have this almighty fall in hormones that a woman does when she goes through the menopause. First, she has to go through the 40's midlife crisis, which is more about ‘who am I', and then, ‘Wham!' She goes straight into the menopause, without much of a breath in between.

So, the [inner] changes that she experiences, [which prompt her to ask] ‘Who am I?' ‘What am I here for?' How can I find my place in the world without the role of mother and wife?' I think are much more profound than a man's experience. Normally, but I don't want to categorise all men as this, when they [men] are unhappy, they will often leave to go to another woman. A woman tends to leave to be on her own to find out who she is. That's a very different experience.

It can be a very frightening for men who've been married for ever, when their wives, who've been looking after the cleaning and washing, and so on, suddenly say, ‘Hang on a second, I don't want to do this any more.' Husbands end up asking, ‘Where's my wife gone?'

KC: Yes, ‘I just want my wife back', is very common.

SB: Well, a wife isn't going to come back as she was. She's going to be a different person. Unless, of course, she chooses the role of carer, and steps into being the grandmother. But, again, we're not talking sexual here. We're not talking about sexual identity.

KC: I think none of that is really covered in magazines or newspapers. They may make a few ripples, but they don't really get into the depths of it.

SB: The other thing I found really interesting was interviewing women who had chosen to take HRT. There are plenty of women that don't need this [HRT] by the way. They don't experience these sexual changes. But a lot of woman do. [HRT] enables older women to continue to be sexually active. There's a huge issue now, of older men and women getting sexually transmitted diseases because there's no sex education for older couples who are changing partners. They think nothing happens to them. HIV is one of the biggest dangers of sexually transmitted diseases in older couples. So there's a major health warning about that in the book. Take responsibility, and put a condom in your pocket!

KC: Yes, just when you think you don't need that [sexual protection] any more you've got to be vigilant once again, haven't you? It comes up time and time again.

SB: I think there's a huge lack of general information and understanding about sex for an older person.

KC: Yes, because it has never been spoken about. I keep hearing time and time again that to enjoy an intimate relationship it isn't necessary to have penetration.

SB: Absolutely, I hate to say it, but we are now riding on the back of the porn industry. That comes from what's happened on the internet. It is driven by the porn industry, I can't remember, but something like 500 million pages on the internet are to do with pornography.

And, pornography is about penetration.

For a guy who looks at pornography on the internet, he's going to see that it is all about penetration. [It's difficult for] a man to understand there's other ways to be intimate. There's a big, big problem here. A lot of older women don't want to be penetrated any more. It doesn't mean to say they don't love their husband, they can actually have a different kind of intimacy. But for a man, there's an almost evolutionary need to have penetration to feel fulfilled [sexually]. It's a big issue, and it doesn't match necessarily with a woman who's growing older on a sexual level.

KC: That's right. And, of course, men are being prescribed Viagra, but the poor woman on the other side has vaginal atrophy. So, all hell breaks loose. But I don't think it's necessarily the internet either, I think it's just men's upbringing, and how men talk to each other. That it's all about penetrative sex.

SB: About having a good bang. Are you getting it?!

KC: It's all about that, isn't it? Yes.

SB: [Message is:] ‘No? Oh, well, then you couldn't have had sex.' A lot of the men are ashamed about the fact that they aren't having sex. They feel embarrassed, and find it very difficult to admit. Or, if they do, they kind of say, ‘Oh God, I didn't get it again this weekend.' There was nothing about intimate connection. It is all about the physical penetration that goes on. I can understand, having talked to these guys [interviewees], how frustrating it must be. The trouble is so many woman are having, it seems to me, penetrative sex just to keep their husbands quiet, to shut them up. That's no way to have a relationship.

KC: No, it isn't.

SB: [Sex] isn't spoken about. It's made fun of. It's highly distressing for a woman to feel that she has to have sex just to keep [her husband] quiet. And, it's highly distressing for a guy to feel he's having sex with his wife, and he knows she doesn't want it any more.

KC: Yes, they must know that.

SB: I've got a lot of interviews in the book with women talking about this. The solution is that you have to communicate, and find a way which works for you both.

KC: It's very embarrassing – just like vaginal atrophy is very embarrassing to talk about. Sexual problems are difficult to discuss, aren't they? And so they avoid them like the plague, and just carry on pretending there's nothing's wrong.

SB: Research that has been done into this say that women who are in happy relationships and want to continue sexual intimacy, find it much more stressful and upsetting to have these sexual problems as they go through the menopause, than women who think, ‘I don't really care, levitra' or, ‘Thank God I don't have to do that any more'.

So there's quite an interesting psychological difference. The trouble is that a lot of academic research doesn't come out into the public domain. Academics normally just end up talking to other academics.

KC: That's right. Yes. There's always a conclusion at the end, and what should be achieved from here on in. But that's rarely taken up by anybody, is it?

SB: [And usually] impenetrable to read, excuse the pun. The layman in the street doesn't want to trawl through academic journals. They just want to know what's going on in plain English. That's what I hope I have achieved [in the book].

KC: Yes, I think you have. I think it's a lovely book to read. I think we've just about covered everything, although I think we could talk ad-infinitum about this subject of menopause and sexuality.

SB: I just wanted to add – and I know you're very involved yourself, with women in the work industry – just how many women, struggling with the menopause, are in positions of authority, or in management. They really do need a huge amount of support. I spoke to several [business] women facing these issues, and then I spoke to a whole bunch of women in their fifties, academics or working for themselves, who said they felt as if they were just beginning to hit their stride. So again, it's quite a complex area. You can't just say this is what the menopause does for everybody. It's a very individual journey that we're all on.

KC: Generally speaking 50% of menopausal women do not declare the real reason why they're taking time off work. This is usually it's to do with line managers. The average age of a line manager is 43, and they are either disinterested or embarrassed. Again, if they [menopausal woman] are a senior executive, they've got nobody else to confide in.

SB: One interviewee for the book told me how she now found herself working in a very youth orientated business. She realised that she couldn't work in that industry any more because clients ‘don't want to be buying from their mothers.'

KC: Oh dear, how awful, yes!

SB: That's a really hard thing to come to terms with. It wouldn't happen for men. That's why the menopause is such a different experience for women than it is for men at the same age. They don't age the same way that we do.

KC: That's why I think there needs to be a whole programme for men and a whole programme for women.

SB: Education.

KC: They'll start talking, hopefully.

SB: Well, at least everybody can understand more. I think if you understand more, then you're actually more allowing.

KC: If you are a little better informed, you have a better understanding of where you can go from here can't you, and make better decisions. So let me just remind everybody the name of your book Sue. It's called Sex, meaning and the Menopause.

SB: Yes, it's due to be published on June 9^th, by Continuum Books, and it's out already on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk. More information is on my website www.suebrayne.co.uk, where I also blog about issues to do with end of life, menopause and ageing.

KC: That's excellent. Of course, this book is for men and women. I found it very good. Thank you so much for that Sue. I'm sure we'll talk again soon because you've got another book that I'm very interested in called the D-Word, which is about dying.

SB: Different ways to talk about dying, yes.

KC: I've just bought that myself. We'll get back together on that one. Thank you once again Sue, lovely to talk to you.

SB: And you, Kathryn.

Will Your Marriage Survive the Menopause, was adapted from Sex, Meaning and the Menopause, and published by the Daily Mail on 2^nd June, 2011.

For more information on menopause do take a look at my website: http://www.simplyhormones.com and you can see more about what Sue Brayne is up to at http://www.suebrayne.co.uk

Until the next time…

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 152 user reviews.

#9: Breast Cancer-The Pill-menopause

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:23:44 +0000

A no-holds barred open discussion on breast cancer, the pill and menopause. Check out this online radio http://www.redshiftradio.co.uk, the Scarlet Ladies slot – a bit like Loose Women only it’s audio! It’s already happened, so click on the link for the recording.

It’s great to have a UK based internet radio – check it out.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 254 user reviews.

#8: Breast Cancer on the increase

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:21:59 +0000

Get the real story behind Mammograms and my preferred route of Thermal Imaging. Listen to Prof Gordon Wishart on why this disease is on the increase.

Here’s the full transcript of the podcast interview:

Hello it's Kathryn Colas here of http://www.simplyhormones.com and I'm here today to talk to Professor Gordon Wishart about the early detection of breast cancer and how thermal imaging fits into this profile.

Before I speak to Professor Wishart, let me tell you something about him. He's a consultant breast and endocrine surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. He is distinguished for his pioneering work in the treatment of breast cancer, where he has introduced innovative and sometimes controversial techniques, which have subsequently seen wide acceptance and adoption. (If you want to find out more about Professor Wishart I've put all the details at the end of this transcript.)

KC: Hello, Professor Wishart, and welcome…

GW; Good morning.

KC: I'd like to start if I may by discussing the current breast screening program. There's currently a very good NHS screening program in place that calls forward women aged 50+ every 3 years, until the age of 70 for a mammogram. But it seems to me that evidence is becoming more widely available in the public domain about an alternative, less invasive method, and perhaps more effective method that can detect tumours at a much earlier stage, and that is thermal imaging. The use of a heat seeking camera. Professor Wishart, can you explain to our audience in layman's terms how thermal imaging works?

GW: Yes well, thermal imaging has been around for approximately 50 years, but the reason it's come back to the fore is because there have been great advances in the digital camera technology, mainly because these are now being used by the military. And in addition to that we now have the ability to interpret these scans, which are lots of different colours, and we can interpret those with computer algorithms much more easily. So because of that we now have a system where we can take digital temperature pictures of the breast while it has been cooled and what we are looking for are areas of the breast that have abnormal blood patterns, or areas of the breast that don't cool down during this period of cooling, and the reason that the cancers and tumours don't cool down is that they encourage their own blood supply to go around them to feed the tumour, and these are abnormal blood vessels that don't contract when they meet cold air, so they retain their heat, so those are the things that we're looking for on an infrared scan.

KC: It seems to be working quite effectively doesn't it?

GW: Well the recent research study that we publish said that it was very effective in detecting breast cancer especially in younger women, and that's the great challenge for us. Most of the delays in diagnosis in breast cancer occur in women under 50 and it's in that age group where the breasts are more dense, the mammograms are less sensitive and it's just much harder to actually detect breast cancer in those women.

KC: But it also seems to me that no-one is paying any attention to looking at ways of reducing the incidence of breast cancer. In my view I wouldn't want to be faced with such a diagnosis and be subjected to disfiguring surgery and a lifetime of dependency on drugs, but instead it's become the norm, if you like, where both the NHS and cancer charities channel the research and thus our understanding of the process towards looking at a truncated life after diagnosis and how they would provide a reasonable quality of life through drugs. What would you say to this?

GW: Well I think the prevention of breast cancer is probably going to be something that we are going to talk more about. Up until now the two main risk factors for breast cancer are being female, and having a family history, of course neither of which you can do anything about. I think some of the things that have increased the risk in recent times are essentially reproductive factors.

A lot of women are now having their first pregnancy at quite a late age; they're not breast feeding because they're anxious to get back to work and in general having less children than they had before. All of these things increase your risk of breast cancer, by small amounts, but they all add up at the end of the day and so I think when you look at the incidence of breast cancer in western countries compared to say rural Africa or Asia, they have a much higher incidence because they have multiple pregnancies; they start as teenagers and they breast feed, and so I think that this is something for public health to tackle there.

But I think there are two other risk factors that have now really been much more recognised and those are alcohol and obesity and we know it this country that we do have a teenage and a young adult alcohol problem and there's much more binge drinking and much greater alcohol drunk by women. If we look at the generation of my mother or my grandmother, women didn't really indulge in alcohol, but that's changed dramatically, and we do have quite a lot of young girls now who are both drinking heavily and are overweight, and we already know that incidence of breast cancer are going to increase to about 1 in 7 by the year 2024 But with alcohol and obesity moving forward at the rate they are, it could actually be higher than that.

KC: And that's in younger women you think?

GW: Yes it is, the risk factors are occurring in younger women, we don't know how long that will take to feed through to increase the incidence, but it's something we need to monitor.

KC: Obviously, as women age their incidence increases, but now you're saying it's going to become a serious problem with women even younger?

GW: I suspect so yes.

KC: That leads us nicely to my next question to you. If we could move on to how information is made available to us. My own research has revealed that published information on early detection of breast cancer focuses on personal breast awareness, feeling for lumps that you haven't noticed before, but not much else really. What are your recommendations on personal breast awareness?

PW: I think that probably there are 3 main areas to focus on. One is knowing what to look for, one is knowing when is the best time in the month to actually examine yourself, and then the third element really is what is your risk? Is it average, is it lower than normal or is it higher than normal? I personally think that the breast cancer charities are giving a very mixed message to women during the last 10 to 15 years and I think that discouraged many women from carrying out self-examinations. I think when they introduced the breast awareness campaign I think what they were trying to stop was women examining themselves every day and becoming very anxious about everything they felt. But actually, given that women detect 90% of breast lumps themselves, unless they know what a normal breast feels like, I can't see how they're going to find a new lump easily, so I think examining yourself once a month is the right thing to do. I think the best time to do it is about day 10-14 of your cycle so that the normal lumpiness that can often come with a period has settled down by then, so then you have the best chance of spotting something new. So I think self-examination is a good idea; doing it mid-cycle is the right time, and then the other thing is that now we can actually give someone an idea of what their own personal risk is and at Breast Health UK we've been using a well-validated model, which looks at family history and lifestyle, called Tyrer Cuzick, and by filling in this questionnaire we can give someone a prediction of their lifetime risk and feel that if it's lower than normal that must be quite reassuring, although low risk doesn't mean no risk.

KC: Vigilance is key isn't it?

GW: That's right, but if someone's at higher risk, then there are a number of things you can do. They might want to start screening at a younger age, or have more intensive screening, I think those are the key things.

KC: And do you think that's where the thermal imaging could come in, because you could see more than a mammography would pick up?

GW: We've certainly got a number of younger women under the age of 50 who are now having a digital infrared breast scan, which is a type of thermogram, because they want to start something at a younger age and so it has become very popular with women who just can't get access to mammography.

KC: That's good, and also just to bring in the older woman, with women who are already post-menopausal, obviously they're not in a cycle any more, so would you probably just pick a date in the month, say the middle of the month for arguments sake, when they should check their breast?

GW: Absolutely and I know that these things are always difficult to remember and just one of the things that we are introducing as part of breast awareness month is an actual text reminder service through Breast Health UK, so that women who sign up for this will get a text at the right time of the month, so that they can remember to examine themselves and there's also a very good video showing women how to examine themselves so that's something that we hope, through the Breast Awareness Month, people can get access to this. To be quite honest I think the majority of women do not examine themselves and those that do are not very sure what they're looking for.

KC: It's certainly raising awareness isn't it, in a much better way because it's quite random at the moment, where women may find out how to examine their breasts properly?

GW: I think that's absolutely true.

KC: Moving on again, I recall listening to an interview you did recently on Radio 4 Woman's Hour with Professor Hilary Thomas from Breakthrough Breast Cancer. .I remember Professor Thomas expressing a view that thermal imaging was not an option, as the evidence in research was just not there. What would you say to this?

GW: Yes, I think any representative from charities would always give a very balanced view, and there's always a balance between early results and getting those new technologies out there and not really raising women's expectations too high. I think what she was trying to say is that we haven't done a screening, a research study of 10, 000 women and followed them for 10 years, and the reality is that whatever new technology comes along we're not going to be able to do that now. We're just not able to wait that length of time, we have shown in our research study that it can detect breast cancer and so the way that we have been using it recently is in addition to mammography, so we're not trying to take this up as an alternative to mammography. What we're trying to say is that mammography is not very good in younger women. Why not add this on so they have a better chance of detecting something if it's there? I wasn't surprised by that approach and you always get a very cautious approach with any new breakthrough.

KC: I think it's different with drugs though, because you have to do so many tests to make sure that it's safe, but with something like this new technology, it's like new computers with ipads for example, it's so fast isn't it? The technology is coming into our field of recognition in such volume and so quickly that we need to understand it more quickly don't we, ourselves?

GW: Yes I think that's absolutely right, but I think it's all to do with being cautious and managing expectations. For instance you will remember that there was a story just a few months ago about a possible vaccination to stop women getting breast cancer. And that was very well exposed in all the media, but the reality from that is it's only been tested in animals. You would then have to do a study in humans where you took a group of women and you randomised half of them to the vaccine and half of them not to have a vaccine and then you'd have to follow them up for a very long period of time to see who got breast cancer and whether it was less in the vaccinated group; so I think that's an example of where expectations were raised far too high and there wasn't really a balanced reporting. I think it's always difficult to get it right

KC: Because people want these things to happen yesterday don't they? When they hear the news they want to start queuing up and getting it sorted.

GW: Yes they do and of course every time there is one of these large news stories, those of us in breast cancer clinics just see people coming in with bundles of papers that they publish from the internet, and they want to talk it through asking “why did I not have this” and it does create a lot of anxiety, so I think we have to just talk it through in the best way that we can.

KC: And finally I'd like to talk to you about improving the early detection of breast cancer must surely be a long term goal for the NHS, not least because it could save so much money and of course the disfiguring surgery along with chemo and radiotherapy, the psychological trauma for women, and the savings overall in all those things must surely run into millions of pounds, what's your view on this?

GW: Well, I think that there's no doubt that breast screening in this country has been successful at detecting smaller tumours that are less likely to have spread and as you say require much less treatment. So I hope that despite the economic crisis and the reductions in funding for the NHS that the breast screening program is here to stay. It does seem to me however that the people running that program are reluctant to change the way that it's organised, for instance it's the same screening program for everybody regardless of your age and regardless of your risk.

One of things we know for instance is that if you have more dense mammograms you have a higher risk of breast cancer. We've known that for many years now; it wouldn't be that difficult to look at the first mammogram that someone has at the age of 50, and if they were very dense they might go down one particular route that might involve more intense screening and if it's less dense they might need less screening. In addition to that there are genetic tests that you can do that modify that risk up or down now, and so it seems to me that a screening program that would stratified according to your risk might actually be more cost effective than just doing the same thing for everyone. But despite asking these questions I think that it's unlikely that it is going to change and it's unlikely that new things are going to be added in to it. I suspect that it's going to remain very much the way it is at present.

KC: So from a personal perspective, and I know many women agree with me on this, that mammograms can be very very painful and you also run the risk, I've heard women say, and I've said it myself, that I'm not going for another mammogram, they're just too painful. So I think they would probably embrace thermal imaging, but of course they'd have to do it on private basis wouldn't they?

GW: Well yes unfortunately that's correct. If we look at the uptake for the invitation to come for a breast screening, across the UK it's about 70-75% in the best areas. In some of the parts in inner London where there are large numbers of ethnic minorities, where maybe the message hasn't come across about the importance of it, the pick up rate can be as low as 30%, so there are clearly a large number of women who either don't want to come or choose not to come, so at least we now have an alternative that they may want to explore.

KC: Yes absolutely, well thank you so much for all that information Professor Wishart. I think it's been very helpful and I'm going to put all the information at the end of the transcript about the breast health program you're running, because of course it's breast health awareness month in October and I think there will be a lot of people that will be picking up on this. I've already spoken to some friends about thermal imaging and the things I've discovered, and they're saying oh yes, give me the details, so breast cancer I think is something that really hits home to women and they want to be aware and to do something about it. So thank you once again professor.

The FREE service launched by Breast Health UK to remind women when and how to check their breasts is detailed here http://www.breasthealthuk.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=290 and here is the reminder form: http://www.breasthealthscript.com/form.php

New breast screening technology offers breast cancer detection hope to women under 50

Research from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge in May 2010 revealed that using Digital Infrared BreastScan (DIB) to detect breast cancer in combination with mammograms, increases the sensitivity of detecting tumours to 89%. The study showed that dual imaging increases sensitivity by 11% compared with mammograms alone (78%). Read more … http://bit.ly/97egsa

Kathryn Colas: You'll find lots of information on menopause, including my own personal journey at http://www.simplyhormones.com and do watch ‘Menopause: The Movie' highlighting how relationships are affected at menopause; here's the link: http://www.simplyhormones.com/video.asp and do join me on my blog for my own views on what's going on in the world: http://simplyhormonespodcast.com and feel free to comment on my ramblings and podcasts. Last but not least, you can contact me: kathryn@simplyhormones.com .

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 181 user reviews.

#7: How to improve your pelvic floor and enjoy better sex

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:22:52 +0000

I recently interviewed Susan Gala who specialises in strengthenening the pelvic floor. What a find! She is already helping women avoid leakage and improve your sex life! This subject is so embarrassing and Susan handles it beautifully. Listen to the podcast – I am sure this will help you.

Susan Gala Interview – The Pelvic Floor

Hello, it's Kathryn Colas here from SimplyHormones.com and today I'm talking to Susan Gala from pelvicfloorexercise.net about incontinence and how pelvic floor exercises can improve not only this much forgotten area of the body but how it can have a beneficial effect on your sex life too.

Susan is a lifestyle fitness and wellness professional, which includes being a Certified Stott Pilates practitioner and a licensed massage therapist and she's been involved in the industry for over 25 years, so she knows what she's talking about. Susan's enthusiasm for maintaining healthy lifestyles and wellness is contagious! She's devoted some time and expertise to a new website called http://www.pelvicfloorexercise.net as she understands the problems that can develop when we don't look after this particular area of the body.

So, let's talk to Susan, now. Hello, Susan and welcome.

Susan Gala: Hello Kathryn, it's a pleasure speaking with you today. Thank you for having me.

KC: You're most welcome it was a joy when I first found your details. I must say that, first of all I am most glad I found your website, I think it was through Twitter, one of those because what you're doing is actually supporting what I'm trying to do.. In my professional life, of course, with simplyhormones.com, I'm always standing on my soapbox talking to women about incontinence and even vaginal dryness and what they can do about it. As you know it's an area that's acutely embarrassing for women to discuss with anyone, so to be able to interview you today is just brilliant and I hope all our listeners think so, too.

So, let's start with some questions. We'll go on and talk about your new specialist feminine fitness regime called Sexercise(R), in a little while but first of all can you tell us something about the pelvic floor and how it gets into such a bad state?

SG: The pelvic floor muscles can become very weak from life specific events which we need to be very aware of, such as pre and post-natal, menopause, the natural ageing process, obesity and oral nutrition, drinking excessive caffeinated fluids that irritates the bladder, the bowel and the nervous system; some medications can increase bladder dysfunction and, believe it or not, inactivity and what I mean by that is not being physically or sexually active.

The pelvic floor muscles form a balance or a foundation that supports the bladder, uterus and rectum and just like other muscles in our body, such as the biceps and triceps in our arms, the quadriceps and ham strings in our legs, that need to keep strong for flexibility and balance, the pelvic floor muscles also need to be strong.

KC: That's quite interesting what you were saying, it's not just an ageing process, it's about diet and exercise and medication and all sorts of other things, too that you mentioned. So can you say why do we need to make sure it stays healthy and strong?

SG: We need to make sure that the pelvic floor muscles stay strong because it insures us from incontinence, it protects us from infection and also I think that while we're looking at the big picture, most women have babies and that is the foundation or the bowl of the pelvic floor muscles that hold up the bladder, uterus and rectum, that forms the birthing canal and also it is a very sexual epicentre which enhances our sexual desire and if we don't keep those muscles very strong and active during life specific events, they become weak but also as we age or experience menopause, the area can become very dry. So the pelvic floor is your foundation for all movement, all balance, all flexibility and alignment and what I mean by alignment, is posture. Think of it like a building. If we were an architect and were going to build a building, we have to first place it with a foundation; the same thing with the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is our foundation it is our support system for the entire body and captures the problem.

KC: I think those women who maybe listening who have perhaps done some Pilates will understand about the central core and strengthening the central core but I must admit I never considered the pelvic floor to be at the very heart of it. So that's very interesting.

SG: If you think of it, the pelvic floor begins at the base, which is basically the top of our thigh, in between our legs and it's intertwined like also bungi-chords and muscles and ligaments and nerves – all in between the pelvic girdle so muscles forming all around the pelvic girdle in the lower part of the abdominal wall and the lower part of the back is intertwined with the pelvic floor muscles. In fact the lowest part of the abdominal wall the transversive abdominus muscle which I refer to as the TA muscle is right behind your belly button and it wraps around your torso in a horizontal way. It's a very important muscle bed, connected to your pelvic floor muscles and the pelvic girdle along with a deep, deep, lower back muscle which is called the multipidus muscle. So those muscles also work in conjunction with pelvic floor muscles which are all connected to the pelvic girdle.

If you go over to my website, http://www.pelvicfloorexercise.net you can download a free e-book called ‘7 Secrets to a Sexier You'. There are illustrations in that downloadable booklet of the pelvic floor muscles and if you also go to my Fan Page on Facebook which is http://www.facebook.com/sexhercise, in my blog you will also see illustrations that you can download of the pelvic floor muscles.

KC: I'm going to put all these contact details in the transcription, Susan, so that will be great for women to find out more about that.

I also wonder if I could just move on a bit. It's so interesting all this. I certainly find it so, that it's an area of our body that we totally ignore on a daily basis except that we know we need to pee and that we might be giving birth and of course, you don't realise til you get older that it starts drying out as well. Can you tell us what prompted you to get started on helping women in this particular area?

SG: That's very interesting because in the past five years I've had a lot of clients and patients that have been in their fifty's and they have experienced menopause, in a normal way that most women go through menopause and I didn't have the experience that they're having so they wanted to reveal a lot of their secrets to me and I spent time listening to them. We've had lunch, we've talked about different situations but all the time there was one area that I kept on hearing from all of them which would be a leakage problem. A leakage if they were laughing or giggling; a leakage if they were having sex; a leakage if they were going to a gym class and so it was quite obvious that these muscles they weren't in touch with and quite frankly they didn't realise that they had pelvic floor muscles. They didn't realise they had them or where they are located.

KC: And it's so embarrassing. It happened to me and straight away you think oh, my god I'm turning into my mother and that means I'm ageing and I'm not, I look at myself in the mirror and I don't see, well I do see my mother but I don't look as old as I think I should be if I'm experiencing incontinence. It's such an awful stage to get to and not understanding it but you don't have to be menopausal, either, as you've already said. It can happen following child-birth and other different times in people's lives, perhaps following an operation of some kind but it's just not knowing how you can deal with it and thinking that you've got to spend the rest of your life wearing special incontinence knickers and that's just dreadful, so it's so good that you're talking about it in such a detailed way to us all.

SG: Thank you. Part of my programme is the anti-aging side too; it's not jus creating a physical fitness pelvic floor programme but I want to educate women on where these muscles are; how to palpate certain muscles that we can palpate and to realise that during our daily activities, sitting, standing, walking, we use these muscles. We don't realise it but if we're seated right now, we're sitting on those muscles! So how important is that to keep those muscles strong where a lot of people nowadays sit at their computer working…

KC: You could do these exercises without anybody else knowing, can't you, really.

SG: Absolutely, yes.

KC: That's the brilliant thing about it. Susan I understand that you've got your programme coming out on cassette and it's also going to be downloadable. Tell us a bit more about that, what people can expect to see on that.

SG: Yes, this is very exciting: Sexhercise, which is my pelvic floor exercise programme is now world-wide and what I mean by that is that I offer a Virtual Studio on the website where I will guide you through the Sexhercise programme to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. It's offered as a membership programme so that will be a monthly investment of $19.99 with other bonuses. (American Dollars)

You could also purchase my audio programme which is my audio guide to Sexhercise Essentially, two c.d.'s with a colour booklet for $29.99 or it's a downloadable programme for only $19.99.

KC: It sounds just what people need because it's been said to me before that some people, some women don't know where their pelvic floor is and they almost need 1:1 contact with a teacher to show them how to do it. Would you agree with that?

SG: Yes I do agree. In my Sexhercise basics programme, the entire programme is dedicated to learning where the pelvic floor muscles are, how to palpate certain muscles; how to breathe properly because breathing properly will help you activate these muscles. If you don't breathe properly it is very difficult to activate these muscles and keep them strong, to restore them. I always suggest to everybody, whether you visit my website and I will be your guide throughout the basic process or if you see me in a live workshop, I reckon then that everybody spends a long time, at least a month or two understanding the basics because you understand how your body functions.

KC: I've also heard from the medical profession that sometimes it can take up to eight weeks for women to get their pelvic floor muscles back into good shape so they shouldn't expect results straight away.

SG: No. And I say, eight to twelve weeks. I suggest just doing one programme at a time, eight to twelve weeks, two times a week. However, we should never stop, though, because this is now lifestyle. It needs to be integrated into your lifestyle. If you look at any recent research now, the baby-boomer generation is huge. It is the largest population right now. We are living longer and we want an alternative. Now what I mean by that is a holistic awareness; an holistic awareness of our lifestyle so that we can live a healthier lifestyle as we age.

KC: Yes. And it seems to me that we've got to go out and find it ourselves. It's not being promoted within the medical industry. We've got to find it.

SG: Absolutely, I understand that and it's going to be one of my challenges which in a way is very exciting to me because I am going to, as soon as my promotional video is finished, I've just produced a 10-minute promotional video, to send out to the medical community.

KC: Some of them are listening but most of them wear blinkers, don't they. They just keep on writing prescriptions and just pass you by, don't they but I think the tide is turning and I think women are letting the medical profession know that they want to know more about what is available to them to stay healthy and doesn't necessarily cost a huge amount of money and it certainly doesn't need a prescription being written does it?

SG: No. Absolutely. As soon as my promotional video is finished, I will upload it to my website. I have interviewed an acupuncturist and a physical therapist regarding incontinence and I highly suggest that women try and experience with this fitness programme dedicated to pelvic floor fitness; an acupuncturist or even a physical therapist who specialises only in women's health.

KC: I think it's almost worth not necessarily interviewing prospective therapists but at least finding out a lot about all the different people and what they specialise in before you start paying out your money because you may find that that person doesn't really know how your body ticks or how you want to make it tick better, so you've always got to put some homework in there, haven't you.

SG: Absolutely and we don't have to be shy about doing that. This is our body. We only have one body but we have many parts to this body, so we've gotta make sure that it all works together as one unit.

KC: Yes. And I just think it is superb what you are doing, Susan and it really doesn't matter anymore where you are based, anywhere in the world, that anybody can access this information and it doesn't take weeks to be delivered to you. It's instant, isn't it, so I think that's just fantastic.

I'm going to put all your information at the end of the transcript, Susan so that people can read more about how to contact you, about the cassettes and videos that you're doing, so that they can get better access and certainly learn more, on a personal basis, in their own time, 24/7 about how to make their pelvic floor more healthier and as women are ageing, how to have a healthier sex life, because it's all involved, isn't it.

SG: Yes it is.

KC: OK. That's brilliant. Thank you so much for talking with us today, Susan. We've covered a lot of information here and I can't wait to send this out to everybody so that they can hear it.

SG: Thank you for having me.

KC: You're most welcome.

Here are all those contact details, as promised: Susan Gala: Susan's website has full details of her pelvic floor programme – http://www.pelvicfloorexercise.net and her Sexhercise programme and Kathryn Colas: You'll find lots of information on menopause, including my own personal journey at http://www.simplyhormones.com and do watch ‘Menopause: The Movie' highlighting how relationships are affected at menopause; here's the link: http://www.simplyhormones.com/video.asp and do join me on my blog for my own views on what's going on in the world: http://www.simplyhormones.com/mainpage.asp?pid=52 and feel free to comment on my ramblings and podcasts. Last but not least, do feel free to email me: kathryn@simplyhormones.com and follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/simplyhormones

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 226 user reviews.

#6: Target Ovarian Cancer

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:00:40 +0000

The Silent Killer! A recent phenomenon, in medical terms, and it’s up to YOU to find out about it – it could save your life. Look no further, here you will find symptoms and treatment options and ‘where to go next’ inforamtion. It has been a pleasure to interview Dr Sharon Tate. Raising awareness of this deadly disease can only help to improve the low survival rate.

It’s such a recent phenomena, in medical terms, but symptoms can now be identified enabling women to take charge of their own health

Trasncript of Interview with Dr Sharon Tate, Target Ovarian Cancer and Kathryn Colas, http://www.simplyhormones.com

Kathryn Colas: Hello, good morning, it's kathryn Colas here from SimplyHormones.com and I'm here today talking to Dr Sharon Tate of Target Ovarian Cancer. Target Ovarian Cancer is a charity dedicated to achieving a long and good life for every woman diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United Kingdom, and working to improve diagnosis and treatment of this disease. This silent disease..

They have a challenge. Ovarian cancer in the UK today is characterised by low survival. We have the lowest survival rates in Europe. Low awareness, though lack of understanding. Chronic underfunding, that means they're not getting the investment. Fragmentation, means it's a piecemeal approach to research and patient care and there is no national platform, as such, just yet, so there's no research grant for them.

To me, that looks quite grim! And it seems to me that whatever stats I look at for whatever degenerative disease, the over 50's seem to be prime candidates and I feel that by helping to raise awareness of ovarian cancer and the challenges to overcome it we can reduce the incidence of this dreadful disease, particularly in the most vulnerable age group, which just happens to be mine!

KC: Good morning Dr Tate

ST: Good morning

KC: Morning. So, let's get some answers for the listeners about ovarian cancer. How familiar do you think people are with the symptoms?

ST: Well, Kathryn, awareness of ovarian cancer and, in particular, its symptoms is very low amongst women and we know, from a big piece of research that we did last year called the ‘Target Ovarian Cancer Pathfinder Study' that only about 4% of women are confident in naming a symptom of ovarian cancer.

KC: Right. That's very low, isn't it?

ST: It is. This tends to be the case for women of all age groups. Women who are slightly younger, say in the age group 16 – 34 are a little less confident in naming symptoms than women who are more mature, say, age 55 or over but overall, awareness across all the age groups is poor.

KC: It's, poor, yes. Can you tell us about the most common symptoms and are they the same across the board in the different age groups.

ST: Well, the symptoms most commonly experienced by women of all ages who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer include: an increase in abdominal size or persistent bloating, so this is not the kind of bloating that tends to come and go and fluctuate like women experience around a period or if they have food intolerances. It's not like that. They also experience persistent pelvic or abdominal pain in the tummy or below and many of them experience difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and those three tend to be the major symptoms. However, occasionally, women do experience urinary symptoms so this may mean that they need to pass water more urgently or, perhaps, more often than usual. Many women experience changes in bowel habits so this may include ongoing diarrhoea or constipation and also extreme fatigue and back pain are symptoms that women do experience. And it's important to bear in mind, as well, that the list I have just reeled off, is not a check list, per se, so women don't have to be able to go down it and say, yes I've got that got that, got that one…

KC: Yes. If I just interject there, because some of those symptoms you've mentioned cross over into menopausal symptoms, as well.

ST: That's right. They do. And that is one of the challenges of ovarian cancer that that list of symptoms is common to many conditions that are not caused by cancer and what we advise women is that they seek advice from their GP; in particular if the symptoms are new to them, so they've never experienced this type of symptom before and also if they experience them on most days and also if the symptoms are getting worse over the days or weeks. So, the symptoms, once they start, won't tend to fluctuate they will tend to progressively get worse and be there continuously.

KC: And, there is a terribly low survival rate with this disease. Why is that? And how can we improve recovery?

ST: Well, ovarian cancer is an extremely challenging disease to diagnose and also treat and many cancers do contribute to keeping the survival rates low. However, a lack of awareness of symptoms amongst women and also medical professionals is now recognised to be a very key issue. And we do know that women often experience mis-diagnosis and by the time they are actually diagnosed, their disease has spread well beyond the ovary, making it more challenging to treat and tive them the most successful outcome. But opn a more positive note, what we do know also is that among the women who are diagnosed when the procedure is confined to the ovary, the survival rate is significantly improved. So that would be our goal, really, trying to diagnose women when their cancers are at a stage where it hasn't started to spread beyond the ovary.

KC: So it's really up to women, not so much to be vigilant but to be persistent when they, if they really feel and I think women really know their bodies and if they feel that there is something causing them problems, even if the doctor says, ‘no, it's this and it's that, there's nothing to worry about', if women could be more persistent themselves and say ‘look, I'm not happy, I really think it's something more serious, who can I see' and maybe they'll get a bit more attention.

ST: Absolutely. We dol speak to women all the time that face these sorts of challenges who aren't being listened to and we would advise them, where possible to get a second opinion and if it's at all possible for them, if they can't get that within their local NHS services, if it's at all feasible then perhaps to seek, say a private consultation because it might expediate their diagnosis.

KC: Yes. And just movbing on a bit – most of us are familiar with cervical smears and can ovarian cancer be detected through smear tests like this?

ST: It's a very common misconception that a smear test can detect ovarian cancer. About 50% of women believe this to be the case. However, it's not. The smear test is just designed to detect abnormalites in the cervix. Importantly the smear test is designed to detect abnormalities before they even become cancerous. At a stage when they are easily treatable before they can progress on and become cancerous. At the moment there is no national screening programme available for ovarian cancer as there is for breast and cervical cancer. So as we've just discussed really the best thing women can do is to understand their own bodies and know what is normal for them and obviously there are changes as you go through life and obviously what was normal for a women prior to menopause isn't necessarily the same as after the menopause but they will get use to what is their current state of ‘normal' as we like to call it and if anything deviates from that, then we really encourage them to report potential symptoms to theier GP as soon as they can.

KC: It might be a nice idea, some time in the future when money is more available for women over 50, like they're invited in to have a mammography, that they could also be invited in for the cervikcal smears the ovarian cancer tests, whatever and get them all over because it's that age group, isn't it?

ST: Absolutely. I mean at the moment, in the UK, there are two clinical trials ongoing to assess the efficacy of the tests that we have for ovarian cancer, to see if it is feasible to roll the tests out as part of a national screening programme. But we won't know those results for at least another five years. In the meantime vigilance and symptom awareness is absolutely key.

KC: Yes, yes. And going back to diagnosis… we expect our GP's to know so much, don't we and perhaps that's why there's mis-diagnosis. Do they get trained in recognising symptoms for ovarian cancer|?

ST: Well as I mentioned earlier on, it's only be in recent years that we've had any evidence to show that women with ovarian cancers do experience symptoms and so, unfortunately, at the moment, in the UK what has happened is that most GP are unaware of the recent developments in research and they wouldn't recognise the symptoms that I spoke of just now as being potentially caused by ovarian cancer and so although, as an organisation we are working very hard to update GP knowledge, we do encourage all women to know the symptoms and if they are worried, in particular to ask their GP to rule out ovarian cancer. Say those words; get them on their radar and we also advise women to take along a copy of our symptoms leaflet which they can obtain from us, to help them explain their concerns, really.

KC: Yes. If they've got it written down, it's so much more helpful, isn't it?

And, going into a scenario – if a woman recognises these symptoms and goes to her GP, what's the next stage, what happens next?

ST: Well in the first instance the GP would order some tests. The two tests that are considered the gold standard for helping to diagnose ovarian cancer are a blood test, called CA125 and levels of CA125 in the blood can be increased by ovarian cancer and also a test called the trans-vaginal ultrasound or TVU, this is an internal scan which is used, basically, to create a picture of the ovaries and then this picture can then be examined basically for any abnormalities that may exist. If these tests are positive then the woman would be referred to the hospital to see a gynaecologist for further tests because in themselves, these tests are, I suppose a ‘steer' telling the doctor what to do next. It wouldn't necessarily mean that the test's positive, you wouldn't necessarily have ovarian cancer but it's a good ‘steer'.

KC: Yes. There's some questionable cells there. And, … I've forgotten what I was going to say there. Oh, yes… And would then that ultimately result in a hysterectomy?

ST: Unfortunately, yes. For most women because, as I mentioned just now, by the time they are diagnosed the cancer has spread well beyond the ovary and so what is required in most cases is very radical surgery which includes removal of both ovaries, both fallopian tubes, the uterus and also often the cervix; very extensive surgery.

KC: Total hysterectomy. That's quite drastic isn't it? Obviously to save a life.

I'd just like to move on a bit and briefly touch on the subject of funding. How can ordinary women help to raise funds for your research|?

ST: Well there are many things women can do if they'd like to support our work. I mean, it may be something like making a donation which could be in the form of a one-off gift or a monthly contribution. They may also like to take part in a challenge event, so for example, Target Ovarian Cancer will have a team of runners which will include staff, supporters and trustees, taking part in the Adidas 5K challenge in Hyde Park or they may like to run their own fund raising event and if they would like more ideas on what they could potentially do or support, or materials to help facilitate that, then they might like to visit our website and, or, contact our fundraising team who would be more than happy to support them with their fundraising.

KC: i SEE ON I notice on your website that you have a super poster on there, haven't you, that people can print off and put in their place of work or gym, or wherever, can't they?

ST: That's right, we have a range of awareness materials, including that particular poster and the symptoms leaflet which are available as you say to download from our website or they can order them direct from us, free of charge and they'll get a nice glossy version of it. And, yes, they can often people will approach, say their local library or community centre or any sort of social network that they're involved in and create a display or, people have been into their local pharmacy and have asked them to display them in store. We also have a booklet available, called ‘Let's talk' which is full of hints and tips for raising awareness and we also run a course which accompanies that ‘Let's Talk' booklet which really aims to give people practical skills and advice on how they can go out there and raise awareness if that's the sort of thing they are motivated to do and we run these courses throughout the year at venues across the country, so anybody who's interested in attending can contact us and we will let them know when there's an event in their area.

KC: So there's lots of scope for everybody to do absolutely anything, really, isn't there?

ST: Absolutely. And I think, in a way, that for some people, raising awareness is a new concept. People are very familiar with the concept of raising money but, actually, these two activities very much go hand in hand. If you're fund raising then, what does it hurt to give somebody a leaflet, so we see them very much as a partnership but to some people it might be a little bit more unusual to think about raising awareness.

KC: Yes. That's excellent. I think we've covered a lot there in our quite short conversation and I could probably talk to you ad infinitum about everything but thank you so much for the opportunity of talking with you and explaining everything clearly and I'd just like to tell the listeners that your charity details and website information will be listed at the end of the transcript which always accompanies my podcasts and, thank you, once again and I'll say goodbye.

ST: Well thank you and goodbye, Kathryn

KC: Thank you, goodbye.

TARGET OVARIAN CANCER – Contact Details: Target Ovarian Cancer, 30 Angel Gate, London EC1V2PT. tel 020 7923 5470. Full of information describing symptoms and how you can help raise awareness, get posters/leaflets for your workplace, etc. Web: www.targetovarian.org.uk Email: info@targetovarian.org.uk

Kathryn Colas: You'll find lots of information on menopause, including my own personal journey at http://www.simplyhormones.com and do watch ‘Menopause: The Movie' highlighting how relationships are affected at menopause; here's the link: http://www.simplyhormones.com/video.asp and do join me on my blog for my own views on what's going on in the world: http://www.simplyhormonespodcast.com and feel free to comment on my ramblings and podcasts. Last but not least, you can contact me: kathryn@simplyhormones.com .

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 193 user reviews.

#5: Menopause Real Lives: Marian Child

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:30:47 +0000

I had the pleasure of interviewing Marian Child on her own journey through menopause. Experiencing an Early Menopause, Marian felt lost; her own family were highlighting her symptoms, as she wasn’t recognising them.

Marian Child

Transcript of INTERVIEW with KATHRYN COLAS and MARIAN CHILD – June 2010

Hello, Good Morning, it's Kathryn Colas, here from http://www.simplyhormones.com and I'm here today talking to Marian Child from her clinic called Marian Child. And I know that Marian specialises in a variety of different therapies which we'll talk about during our conversation but we're going to start by talking to Marian about her experience going through menopause. Marian thinks she's now post-menopausal, she's 45 and has probably gone through it earlier than most people which, normally you might reach post-menopause by about 51. So, Good Morning, Marian, how are you?

Marian Child: I'm fine, thank you, how are you?

KC: I'm very well, it's a nice sunny day, here in Sussex. So let's talk about menopause, Marian, you are currently, well still experiencing some symptoms but can you describe the symptoms you experienced as you were first going through menopause?

MC: First of all, I started to suffer from hot flushes, both during the day and during the night because I wasn't really sure what they were. I just thought it was a bit strange and then the periods stopped and that's when I sort of, I guessed, that I'm quite young, I was 43 when they started, so I just wondered whether it was a blip in my health.

KC: Oh, right, yes, yes. So you didn't really experience, or, let me ask you, did you experience other symptoms that you may not have associated with menopause like loss of confidence, loss of self-esteem, or even mild depression. Do you think any of those might have affected you?

MC: I think, possibly but that was the time I started to work for myself and when you're working for yourself there is a lot of that when you're on your own, so maybe I did experience them but it was a bit hit and miss with what I was going through anyway. So it wasn't something that I identified.

KC: No. But it might perhaps have added to your own feelings at the time because you were starting a new business?

MC: Yes

KC: Yes. OK. So now, we're pretty sure that you're post-menopausal now. You haven't had any periods for a year, although they did briefly re-start once you'd done, you told me, didn't you do some reflexology, or something?

MC: I was practicing reflexology for my exams so thought I'd try it on myself and it seemed to co-inside with that because as soon as I stopped doing it on myself they did not come back again.

KC: Ha, ha, how bizarre, isn't it. Don't know the answer to that one…

MC: Might just have been coincidence

KC: Yes, yes. But you say you are still experiencing some hot flushes? How's that?

MC: They're not as they used to be, they're just, sometimes I'll suddenly feel warm. I don't get the sudden flush and sweaty feeling in my face. I just feel unaccountable warm suddenly and I need to take my jumper off and then I'm back to normal again very quickly.

KC: And do you get that many times during the day?

MC: Yes, I'd say, seven or eight times during the day but not very often during the night, though

KC: Yes, that's good, that's something. I do know from my own research that I was horrified to discover that elderly women in their 70' still experiencing hot flushes. So, it's obviously a hormone imbalance that we're still experiencing in there, that's creating these hot flushes. So it's a bit rough on some of us, well, it just goes on, doesn't it. We never seem to… Although other areas of our lives improve; I know from my own self, my health and wellbeing is certainly much more improved, have you found the same?

MC: I think I'm still getting there, I think I'm still getting to the point… various things like my skin doesn't feel as good as it used to be and I think, again it's a hormone imbalance…

KC: Yes. Is it much drier would you say?

MC: No, other way round!

KC: Oh, really, yes

MC: It's a lot more oilier

KC: A lot oilier. I'm the complete opposite

MC: I am, as I say, I am trying to do a lot more things to make myself feel better. A lot more exercise and I'm going to try and diet but I think, first things, first. I find it very difficult. I think I'm comfort eating a lot.

KC: Did you find, as you were going through menopause that you put on weight? Or, are putting on weight now and not because you are comfort eating but generally even when you were on a regular eating regime?

MC: I think there's a problem being self-employed, you tend to pick at meals when you are available to eat. Most of my people that want appointments want them at lunch time, so, again, it might be a bit hit and miss. It's very difficult to identify and I must admit I don't eat a healthy diet. It's one of those things you keep meaning to do but I don't but I am trying to exercise more and I am beginning to feel the benefits of it.

KC: Good, yes, that certainly does help. It helps to stabilise the metabolism, get all your organs moving, if nothing else, doesn't it.

MC: And it makes you feel better

KC: It does, yes. And were you aware, I know you didn't when you first started to go through menopause you had these hot flushes and you weren't sure that it was actually menopause that was starting then, were you also aware that metabolism, our metabolism is turned on its head and that we do start to store more fat as a natural process than we used to store as energy. Did you know about that?

MC: Yes, I think because of the setting that I do, the massage and the general anatomy and physiology that you have to learn, I'm probably a lot more aware of my health and changes in my body than perhaps I would have done in any other sort of business but it does make you feel better to know that.

KC: And, while you were having your hot flushes and even now, have you taken any supplements or any medication to try and overcome this?

MC: No I haven't. I know that Evening Primrose Oil and HRT but I must admit I'm not really aware of what you can take and what's good to take.

KC: Yes, because there's a whole myriad of things out there, isn't there and they say take some of this, take some of that but when you just walk into the health food shop you can end up buying a whole basket full of goodies, not understanding exactly what you are taking, why and how much of it

MC: Yes, and another thing, because I'm early, the doctor sent me for an osteoporosis test and then they've identified that I've got the very early, early stages, so I increase my intake of calcium through milk and yoghurt which I enjoy eating but that's probably the only thing which has changed and I'm increasing my fish, eating more fish, particularly sardines

KC: Oily fish, yes

MC: Again, all because of the calcium

KC: Yes, most definitely. I'm glad you raised that point about osteoporosis, Marian, because I don't think women realise how soon osteoporosis can start to affect our bones. We just always associate this silent disease as affecting us when we're about 70. But it doesn't start the night before your 70^th birthday, of course, it takes about ten years to start having an affect on us and it's only as a result of the decline of our hormones that it starts to have a serious effect but, of course we can do something about it and we always go back to that boring old subject of having to do exercise and eat more nutritious meals. And of course, luckily, you've had your doctor tell you that quite early on, so you're able to do something about it.

MC: Yes, also my mother had it.

KC: Right

MC: It's not something that either of us were aware of until it was too late but knowing what to look for now is something that I appreciate a lot more and I'm glad that we've done something about it

KC: Yes, most definitely. There is something about the genetics that we go through as well that's very important so it's always worth knowing what any member of your family, blood relative, has gone through to know what to look for your own future health, isn't it.

MC: Yes

KC: Just moving on a bit and talking to you about your work, Marian. I know you're a therapist and I understand that you specialise really, or you utilise three areas predominantly of therapy, to give them a more rounded experience to your clients and you must find it interesting as every person is seeing you for something quite different and of course you're seeing men and women. Can you tell me a little bit about how you talk to your customers, your clients and what leads you into which type of therapy they might be needing.

MC: Well, I work with a variety of different therapies, for example Sports Massage, Manual Lymphatic Drainage, ordinary massage, Reflexology and quite a few more. When someone comes in they generally give me an idea of what's going on; maybe they've got back ache, maybe they've got neck ache. But you've got to be aware of the whole of them; what they're doing as they're walking in, how they're standing, how they're walking. I think what is really exciting about my job is you never know when people come in the door what they're going to bring in with them and how you're going to solve it and until they come in and you discuss everything, what to do. Maybe they've slept funny just the night before, maybe it's part of their job and I just love the idea of working with them, not just me working on them, it's working together with them to help to produce a solution.

KC: And they go away much happier, obviously

MC: Yes, I like to keep tabs on them; I give them homework to do, little exercises to try and keep them going, so I like to think that I continue to do a good job once they've left the room, as well.

KC: Yes. I think that's the experience we all want to get from a therapist, actually and not just go to a therapist for one particular thing that we've been recommended by somebody else because it might just not be suitable. So it's always best to find somebody that does perhaps have the knowledge of more than one therapy, in some case.

Going back to menopause, Marian, I always say that ‘I wish I'd known then what I know now. Is there anything you would say that start to feel those hormonal changes that are starting to have some kind of impact on their lives.

MC: I think involve your partners, your husband, your children; to let them know what's going on, to help them understand that maybe you're going to be a little bit irritable; maybe you, yourself don't really understand what's going on but you know you're going through it. So it may be the case that they're going to look out for signs that perhaps you're missing, as you say, maybe when you're low, they can help by ignoring you if that's how you prefer to feel. I must admit I've been a bit irritable at times which I don't think is like me and so they are fore-warned …

KC: That they recognise that. And yes, I would agree with you that communication is key and that's something I didn't do which lead to all sorts of traumas in my own family life but it's interesting, would you agree that you don't quite feel yourself, you know there's something not quite right but you can't put your finger on it?

MC: I think it's usually in hindsight. Sometimes you just feel rotten, or you just feel, I don't know, the whole world's again and then when you come out of that, I feel that I don't recognise it at that time. I'm almost relying on other people around me to identify that perhaps I'm acting a bit more irrationally. I find I don't always have patients to do a job that I've done the day before …

KC: Yes, without any problems at all

MC: Yes. And also, sometimes I feel I'm useless. It's not so much in what I'm doing but as a human being. I feel like Mother Nature no longer needs me and there's sometimes I don't feel like dressing up. I don't feel like putting on my make-up and again, I just want people around me to understand that I'm not necessarily letting myself go, it's just part of how I'm feeling that day.

KC: Yes. I don't want to be part of the world today, just leave me alone. Yes, that's another point a lot of women, don't realise, because so many of us have those same feelings and it's all down to this hormone imbalance again. I've read about women when they get PMS or, not just PMS, the cycle of the hormones with the oestrogen coming in and then the progesterone and then there's an imbalance and that's why we feel so rotten sometimes, on a monthly basis, just when we're menstruating, so this seems to be magnified as we go through menopause and we just don't understand it. As a human being, I'm sure the medical fraternity understand it but, again, they never get around to telling us what's going on. Would you agree, we need to get more information at our doctor's surgery, for instance? Where do you think might be the best placeto get some information?

MC: I think I'm a very much internet based person and I'm probably more likely to find stuff on there but occasionally do don't always know you're going through it until after the event, or it's almost you need to be forewarned but we don't want to know do we. It's all part of the ageing process. We don't look into it and perhaps that's something that we need to be more aware of when we get to a certain age, to be educated.

KC: Yes, yes, better education earlier on – be it through a doctor's surgery, or magazines, or on the internet, some information should be available to encourage women to do something about it sooner, rather than waiting until they're in the depths of despair in some cases before they think ‘I must do something'.

MC: I think it shouldn't be something … we tend to think it's the end , the end of our womanhood and I don't think it should be seen like that. And because it's such a hidden, unspoken kind of life, it's taboo – it should be more spoken about…

KC: Yes, that's right, yes and more accepted because it is a metamorphosis that we're going through, really and instead of being the end of a journey, it's the beginning of a new one, because you can come out of it with a new perspective on life. You might start a new career, for instance, which is what I did and just feel so much better about yourself and the way you want to live your life now. I suppose quite a cleansing process even though it can be quite painful, so would you agree with that?

MC: Yes, I would. I think that might be perhaps the reason why I decided to change my career. Although being a bit early but I had to travel four hours a day to London and I actually didn't like it but I actually had a need to do something different, I really felt there was something wrong with the way I was doing things, so maybe again, that's all part of the change.

KC: Yes, because I keep reading in lots and lots of the books I pick up now, psychology and all sorts of other things, ‘to be true unto yourself' and it took me a long time to understand that phrase because it's a very loaded phrase, ‘ be true unto yourself' and I think it's different for everyone and I think it's just a case, or I felt that it was just the case for me of looking inwards and finding what I was really all about and who I really was because I think we forget that, in a sense, we're on that treadmill of going out to work , day after day, got the husband, the house, all sorts of things going but we forget who WE once were and our likes and dislikes because we've started compromising and supporting other areas of our life.

MC: I think that's not something we should just do just at this time of our lives, I think that's something we should have been doing earlier on but we should also continue to do because we do all change and I think you said, we need to be true to ourselves.

KC: Yes, yes, but for me, it didn't really hit me until I was going through menopause and I suffered from mild depression from my… I suffered from mild depression and it was only as a result of that that I got a wake-up call, you know, hang on , I've become a door mat, is how I felt and so I felt that need to do something about it and I've come out of it much stronger, I must say. I still have my moments, of course, I mean, nothing's perfect, but yes, it is something that everybody needs to make a note of. You don't need to be zealots about the whole process but just to be aware and know that we should cling onto our personality and develop areas that we enjoy doing; different subjects, might be antique collecting, painting, therapy, all sorts of things, isn't it. Something you feel good at doing. Like mine, is researching hormones, it's just fascinating for me and I just love it.

MC: I think we all have a certain need to learn more. I think we've done the same thing time and time again and now we need to rediscover, not just ourselves but what's going on out there.

KC: That's right. And I think, for me, it surprised me that I could actually take all this information in and because you forget how to learn, or you feel you forget how to learn, don't you. You never stop learning but to actually pick up a book and study it and learn something in depth about what you want to do and you come out of it thinking, wow, I know about that now, that's surprised me.

MC: I've always learnt. I've always done courses since I left school because I love learning but this is completely different. I've always learned very technical stuff and this is very much more hands on and being in tune with people.

KC: Yes, it's more spiritual, isn't it?

MC: Yes. Although I think you need to think differently and I think it's just doing something that's completely different but also doing it for yourself.

KC: Yes, and I think, coming back to being true to yourself, as well. I became more spiritual and it's not in a religious way, it's just understanding more how your body works and how nature is working in tandem with that and just the awareness of it. Again, you don't have to rush off to India and do a course on Ayurveda, or anything like that but it's just finding your own balance, your own level of understanding and what you feel comfortable with. Isn't it?

MC: Yes, yes, and enjoying it

KC: Yes, and enjoying it, most definitely. Ok. Well that's brilliant, Marian thanks for your insight onto your own feelings going through menopause and good luck with your finding out your best nutrition levels and keep up with the exercise. Because I know that as soon as I stop excercising I immediately start to feel bloated again and it's keeping up with that and it doesn't have to be manic, either, as I'm sure you would agree. Just do it at your own level, as long as you're doing a regular exercise.

MC: And enjoying it

KC: And enjoying it! OK. Alright then, Marian, thanks very much for your time and I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

About Marian Child – Marian Child is 45, married and lives in East Sussex. Family comprises of a 3 year old puppy called Treacle. After working in London for 24 years as a business analyst and webdesigner she felt she had lost her individuality and self- worth.

After qualifying as a hypnotherapist she left her London job to develop her therapy portfolio to include Massage & Reflexology in which she now specialises. You can contact Marian: info@marianchild.co.uk and her website is http://www.marianchild.co.uk. Tel: 07912 344954

Kathryn Colas: You'll find lots of information on menopause, including my own personal journey at http://www.simplyhormones.com and do watch ‘Menopause: The Movie' highlighting how relationships are affected at menopause; here's the link: http://www.simplyhormones.com/video.asp and do join me on my blog for my own views on what's going on in the world: http://www.simplyhormonespodcast.com and feel free to comment on my ramblings and podcasts. Last but not least, you can contact me: kathryn@simplyhormones.com .

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 258 user reviews.

#4: Early Detection of Breast Cancer

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:12 +0000

The early detection of breast cancer is essential, in my view. Detecting rogue cells up to ten years before they cause serious problems has to be our first line of defence. Here, I speak to Dr Nyjon Eccles about how Thermal Imaging can help reduce the incidence of breast cancer and how subsequent preventative measures can reverse the damaged cells creating good cells. Very powerful!

Dr Nyjon Eccles

Transcript of Interview with Kathryn Colas and Dr Nyjon Eccles BSc, MBBS, PhD, MRCP – July 2010

Hello, It's Kathryn Colas here from http://ww.simplyhormones.com and I'm here today to talk to Dr Nyjon Eccles about Infrared Thermal Imaging for the early detection of breast cancer. First of all, I'll give you a brief biography of Dr Eccles so you can see all the different things he's done.

Following his double doctorates (medicine and pharmacology) Dr. Eccles has worked as a general and naturopathic physician with special interest and experience in complementary nutritional treatments that promote well-being and recovery. He significantly expanded his knowledge of complementary medicine by blending research, extensive training and clinical practice. The outcome has been the compilation of an extremely powerful repertoire of treatments and products. He has a special interest in complementary cancer and cellular health therapy and has become well known for his treatment and product innovations in the field of complementary medicine and also for his research based verification of non- conventional treatments.

As the medical Director of a private clinic in Harley Street he has become the UK's leading clinician involved with Medical Infrared Thermal Imaging and particularly its application as a non-invasive tool for early detection and monitoring of breast cancer. Much of his time is spent in research and his reputation is supported by numerous papers and scientific reviews on a wide range of topics related to integrated medicine.

Kathryn Colas: Hello Dr Eccles and Welcome

Dr Eccles: Hello, Good Morning

KC: I'd like to go straight into our discussion if I may and I think the first point I'd like to raise, as a woman is that I feel a radical change is needed, not just in breast cancer awareness but in diagnosis. Is mammography, still the equipment of choice to detect cancer cells and does it detect cancer cells early enough. Certainly from my perspective, I find mammograms barbaric and archaic; a piece of machinery that should be consigned to the recycle yard. What can you tell us …?

NE: Well, the first thing to say is that I don't think we can throw mammography away. That's the first thing to say, it has a place, however, we need to clarify some reservations about this technology and perhaps I can start with that, so what I'm about to say is not in any way to say that this is a useless tool, it has a place but the listeners need to understand that basically, the use of mammography has not really lead to any survival advantage in terms of breast cancer. In other words, the whole screening programme has not improved survival rates, so, we're failing with it. We're not doing what we set out to do which was to reverse or stop breast cancer, at least reduce it. And the reason for this is because on of the problems with mammography is it can only detect a tumour when it is a certain size. A tumour has to be big physically big enough to block enough x-rays for it to appear on the plate by which time it is the size of a small grape. And that actually represents about 500 million cancer cells at that stage. This is not early detection and in fact between 60% and 70% of those that are detected by mammography are already starting to invade (cells) outside of that local space, so this is one of the problems. The other problem with mammography is it's only offered to women, in the UK, at age 50. So what about women who are younger? Some of those, there's an increasing incidence of breast cancer and they're not offered any screening programmes. And the other issue is that once you do detect something it's reasonably late so it has failings and …

KC: I was just going to say, if I can interject there, you were talking about the number of cells so, is that what represents the lump that can be detected by self-analysis and so that is quite a large number of cells, then, even at that stage.

NE: Yes, a lump that is the size of a small olive or a small grape is about 500 million cancer cells

KC: That's huge isn't it

NE: So it's late detection, it's what I'm saying is that one of the problems we have with mammography is that it's too late. We have to be looking for methods which detect a developing cancer much sooner than that if we're going to change the tide. The problem is that we're not changing the tide with mammography, we need to look for an additional tool

KC: Yes. And as you say, it's confirmed by some of the statistics that I've picked up that the risk of surviving is still the same as it was 50 years ago and that's quite a horrendous statistic, really

NE: That, combined with the fact that if you look at the incidence of breast cancer, it's risen by about 80% in the last forty years, in fact it's the same for other cancers. Basically, if you look at all cancers and I know we're talking specifically about breast, but I just want to put this in context. If you look at other cancers the incidence of cancer in men in general, all cancers in men has increased by about 49% in the last forty years and in women its about 41% and that's all cancers and in that context, breast cancer has increased by about 80% in the last forty years, so we're not winning the war.

KC: And do you think the NHS or Department of Health is being a bit slow in recognising that there are alternative pieces of equipment out there that could assist in early detection?

NE: To be honest, yes, I do think so and the way things are, unfortunately, in medicine in terms of the arrangements and the politics is that we are slow to act, particularly in this country. We've known about other technologies, like thermal imaging, for example, for over 30 years now. Admittedly the early technology is not as good as the digital infra-red that's available now. But still, in 1982, look how long ago that is, the FDA, in America, approved thermal imaging to be used adjunctively alongside mammography for detection for breast cancer, now how come if that approval was given that long ago, that we don't see centres everywhere offering it.

KC: Yes, it's so difficult to understand and I even telephone my own local Primary Care Trust to ask the question, could I go for thermal imaging, would they support that. The answer was ‘no'. We hardly had a conversation. I said, well what if you pay your section for what would be the mammography and (I) just top it up for the thermal imaging if there is a difference. I don't know the cost factors, here. But no conversation, ‘goodbye' was the answer, so …

NE: It's a pity…

KC: I was just going to say that as far as I can understand, that thermal imaging can improve detection so can you tell us a little more about thermal imaging and what's involved?

NE: Yes. Thermal imaging, basically is like having a heat picture taken of the breasts. I mean you can use it for other things as well but we're talking about detection of breast cancer, here. It's basically a heat sensor. The camera itself is an infrared detector. So, the first point to make is nothing goes in, there is no radiation which goes into the body. It's really a heat detecting camera, so, therefore, it's non-invasive, completely non-invasive. You can have one every day, no contact is required, no compression of the breasts are required. It's just like having your picture taken; the whole process, which is now automated, is artificial intelligence to do the interpretation side of it as well which increases the sensitivity. The whole process takes about five minutes to do, it's really been honed, now. And as I say we now digital infrared thermal imaging which is sensitive to as little as .03 degrees centigrade, so we can detect very, very small temperature changes. What we're really looking for is heat generated by a developed cancer and if I may just explain this… A cancer, when it's developing, develops a new blood vessel formation around itself to nurture itself and we call that process angiogenesis. It affects about 86% of developing cancers and that new circulation creates heat, so that's one thing; in conjunction with the fact that cancer cells are much more highly active metabolically than normal cells, so that increased activity, metabolic activity, also generates heat, so those two processes are what we are detecting when we're using infra-red technology. And we see those changes much sooner than the small grape size that is first seen on a mammogram, so it does give us, we think, from the studies, a six to ten year earlier detection advantage than something like mammography.

KC: Yes, yes. And I'm glad you touched on the time scale there because I don't think an awful lot of women really understand or appreciate that cancer cells take years to develop. It's not something that happens overnight.

NE: No, that's right, that's right. In fact, that's the point to make there, just to emphasise it is that by the time you detect a tumour on a mammogram, if it's the size of a small grape, it's been there for six to ten years. The problem is, it's not been felt, there have not been any changes in the breast which are flagged up to the woman that there may be a problem, so this is the thing, we need to be going back in time and detecting those changes before they can even be felt in the breast. That's what we've got to try and achieve.

KC: Yes. Because you don't feel symptoms, do you, it's silent, isn't it, like so many of these cancers

NE: Like so many cancers, exactly. That's one of the problems of detection, how do you pick something up if you can't feel it, if there are no signs, if there's no pain associated and often there isn't. It's one of the problems, as you rightly say, with a lot of cancers.

KC: And, so how can women go about teaching themselves to look after themselves better and also asking their own doctor, perhaps about thermal imagery, perhaps we can start a revolution here, with women wanting the actual change, rather than waiting for the system. It seems to me that if a whole group of people get together and do something, they can sometimes move mountains..

NE: I think you're right on that. I foresee, that if a change is going to happen in the whole tide of breast cancer, it's got to come from women acting concertedly to create the changes because it isn't gonna come quickly from the medical powers that be; that's just being straight, and I think you're right, a revolution has to occur amongst women and it's interesting that you point that out because when I first appeared on This Morning television in 2005, October, I spoke for eight minutes about thermal imaging on live television and the number of women who called us, of their own volition, i.e. not talking to their doctors about it; they decided to take matters in their own hands because they saw that there was a technology that might be useful to them. We could not take the calls because there were so many. So it shows you that women are concerned, they want to do something, they want to be pro-active and I think you're right I think there does need to be a revolution on this topic.

KC: Yes, well, look I can only ask our listeners, all the women out there and even the men, join in, let's send out this information to all our own contacts to spread the work and see if we can get something moving on this.

NE: Yes, I think that's a start

KC: Something's got to happen hasn't it

NE: But you did ask me a question which I didn't answer which I think is a two-pronged question because you did say how can women, apart from this technology which is important because as we've already established the studies all show it is earlier detection, it could potentially increase the survival from breast cancer, if it's even combined with mammography by 61%, that's what the studies show, now that's remarkable and that would represent a significant change in the tide from where we're going at the minute, so the thing is, though, suppose you do detect something which you can't feel by thermal image. Let's suppose that a woman has an abnormal thermal image which is not diagnostic, it doesn't mean that she has a cancer but it means that we need to be vigilant and we need to go into preventative action. What are some of the things that she can do. And if I may, just quickly, say, that you do not need to be a sitting duck. A woman, once she has had this early detection, she doesn't just need to be passive, there are things that she can do to reduce her risk and very simple things, for example: if she drinks too much alcohol, she can reduce her alcohol intake; if she's overweight, she can lose weight; if she smokes, she can stop smoking; if she's not eating enough fruit and vegetables; she can increase her fruit and vegetables; if she's using aluminium containing deodorant she can stop and use something more natural. Now, all these things, simple as they sound, can make a profound difference in her long term progress. We've seen this in our clinic. If we find women who have abnormal thermal scans, we advise them on what they can do in making these lifestyle changes. We advise on the appropriate nutrients which are going to help the immune system go into higher gear and actually start to reverse any possible cancerous changes that there might be early on and the outcome of doing all of that is that when we re-image them six months later and then twelve months later, we see abnormal thermal images becoming normal again. So here we see in reality how you can take a woman who may be at high risk and take her off that high risk track completely so she becomes, has normal breasts again. Now no surgery, no pharmaceuticals involved; just simple things that women need to know, how to reduce their risk.

KC: I was just going to say, you mentioned surgery there, so finding abnormal cells doesn't necessarily mean that surgery needs to be the next step

NE: No, because, suppose you have the scenario where you have an abnormal thermal image and that woman goes and has a mammogramme or an ultrasound or an MRI depending on her age and what is appropriate, suppose it doesn't show anything structurally. In other words, nothing you can stick a needle in to, to take some cells. Well you're in a bit of a fix there because you have an abnormal thermal image that shows you have a woman with increased risk but you haven't got a structural scan because maybe what we're seeing isn't big enough to see yet, on a structural scan. So you have a predicament, what are you going to do. There is no surgery that is indicated. You may not be able to find a surgeon to do a blind biopsy. In other words stick a needle in an area where there seems to be a suspicion… because that in itself is an invasive attack on breasts which may increase the risks or may even, there's a lot of debate on this, may serve to spread any cancer cells that there are there. So, the surgical option at that stage, in this scenario, is inappropriate and we need to be looking at well, ‘what else can be done' which will truly reduce that woman's risk of developing breast cancer. Now this conversation we're having now may be the most pertinent part of this discussion as well because, at the end of the day, if breast cancer has increased 80% in the last forty years and we're not stemming the tide, we also don't just need to detect earlier we need to be proactive in what we're doing to stop …

KC: … Preventative measures

NE: Exactly! So these two arguments, the early detection and the proactiveness and lifestyle measures that make a difference need to go hand in hand. Which is perhaps why medicine is not so quick to embrace this technology because if we are detecting earlier, what is the solution to be offered to women if there's nothing to biopsy, so you need to be thinking outside of the box from the medical perspective in order to look for ways that do work that will actually stop cancer in its tracks.

And I'm saying, I believe from what I've seen over the last ten years, that's entirely possible.

KC: Yes, if you go to your GP it becomes naturally medical lead that they have to take some kind of medical action to help resolve the problem

NE: Correct, correct.

KC: And of course, as you say, we've got to extend our viewpoint now and look at other resources. And I was just looking at the stats I've got in front of me, as well and I'm looking at one particular one – with 70% of women with breast cancer now over 50, that's my age group and probably the age group of many of my listeners and I'm looking at the other stats and of course, you're more susceptible to breast cancer the older you become but it seems to me just thinking about it on the level of just being a woman that we look at these stats, and say, well I haven't hit that age group yet, so it's not actually going to happen to me. So that's why I think we've become involved, we've become more susceptible to it and less able to do something about it because we're actually waiting for that point for somebody to detect it in us and we say ‘oh dear, I'm a statistic now'.

NE: Yes, and then it's too late, that's the problem. And the other thing pertinent to that argument that you've just presented is right, is that there is the false assumption that if you don't have a family history of breast cancer, that, actually, you're not at risk. This is wrong, because if you look at the statistics of women who have breast cancer in the UK, it averages about 40, 000 women every year. That's a one in nine incidence amongst women, of breast cancer, which is unacceptable. The thing is, of those women who have it, the percentage who actually have a family history of breast cancer is only about 8%, that's eight. That means 92% of women who have breast cancer do not have a family history of it. So, in other words, it's a false security to think that because you don't have a family history that you cannot become a statistic.

KC: And also, my aunt had breast cancer when she was close to 80 and I think the general consensus among doctors is, that, you know, general practitioners, that is, is that well, you've got to die of something! But who wants to have a disease, you want to die, well you know, I just want to die naturally in my sleep, thank you very much!

NE: Yes, well I'm gonna tell you something else now, that the label of cancer, this label, with conventional thinking, people think when they hear that word ‘cancer' that it's a death sentence. Now I would say this: what I know about cancer as a disease in general, and I've spent a lot of time researching it, is that, certainly in my experience, this is not the case and that cancer does not have to be a killer disease; there are things that can be done which can contain it and I would be bold enough to say this, not just contain it, but even reverse it and those things are not necessarily and in fact, more often than not, are not the sort of conventional toxic therapy that is available now, the non-invasive therapies which many doctors are having success with and so even if you have a cancer it should not be a death sentence there are things that can be done.

KC: Yes, yes, my own theory is, the awful diet that the majority of the population seem to be engaged in and I was one of those as well, with all the processed food and everything and it's very difficult to get off that track but would you agree that nutrition and diet can help keep us healthier longer?

NE: Well, I would say that's probably one of the most important things, actually. From my own research, it is very under estimated because people still think of nutrition as just fuel, you know, that we need to eat to give us energy, to give us protein, we're still thinking in those sorts of terms and even dieticians, to be honest, are still thinking in those sorts of terms. They're still recommending high sugar diets to people with cancer and it's a nonsense because cancer cells, feed off, more than normal cells, high sugar diets, so why aren't we at least giving advice to women with cancer that they should not have a lot of refined carbohydrate and sugar in their diets and with that knowledge, when we do PET scanning (Positron Emission Tomography), it involves injecting radio-active glucose and the cells that appear black on the scan are the ones which take it up most avidly, they are the cancer cells, so knowing that, why aren't we advising women that they shouldn't be eating refined sugars if they have a cancer situation. Simple things like that but to go beyond that, what is even more interesting now, is where we're at with this knowledge and that is that a lot of the plant based nutrients that many of us are so deficient in because we don't eat enough fruit and vegetables in our diet; those plant based nutrients seem to have the ability to reduce our risk of cancer, quite significantly so, as much as 50% in populations. So, you see, now, it's a new dimension, what can you do to reduce your risk? One of the simple answers is to flood your system with a broad range of plant based nutrients.

So, nutrition, it's this whole thing now. I mean I could talk about this for about three days! But what we're really saying is that there are certain plant nutrients and this is really cutting edge information I'm giving you now but why not? We've started, so we might as well finish! Is that the ability of certain plant nutrients to actually alter the way that our genes behave; and our genes determine how our cells behave: how well our cells detox: how well our cells communicate: when that cell should die, etc. It's all important. It's this whole process of cell regulation; and what is cancer? It's unregulated cell growth, it's only a normal cell that's lost its regulatory control. So here we find that a lot of these plant nutrients seem to keep cells regulated and behaving normally, so one of the biggest things we can do to reduce cancers in the long term, whether you have a family history or not, is to flood your system with a broad range of plant based nutrients.

KC: That's very powerful, isn't it? It's quite a small thing to do but it's a very a powerful result.

NE: An extremely powerful result. We've seen it ourselves in our own clinical experience when we do this, as I say, we see thermal images which are abnormal becoming normal and that's in conjunction with some other lifestyle changes that I mentioned earlier and it's exciting because I believe what we're seeing is, we're seeing how we can turn the tide.

KC: Yes. But that's going to be another hill to climb. We're trying to get thermal imaging to be more widely recognised but to change people's whole attitude to diet is a whole new hill to climb, isn't it? It will take time but we'll get there

NE: It will. But if we want to make a difference in the incidence of breast cancer, this is where, I believe, the solution lies.

KC: Yes. That's brilliant, well I'll be putting the word out there then, Dr Eccles, you've got no problems there.

I think we've covered pretty much everything about the thermal imaging, what it can do and how it can detect breast cancer, as well as what women can do to improve their own life styles to reduce the incidence of the growth of bad cancer cells. So, I want to thank you so much for your time, today and for elaborating on these complicated issues of detecting breast cancer

NE: Well, I must thank you, Kathryn, for being proactive in this because the fact that you approached me and wanted to do this interview and what you're trying to do in terms of you're creating the awareness amongst women of how they can be involved in instigating this change. I'd like to say ‘thank you' to you for your efforts in this because I think you're doing sterling work.

KC: Thank you very much!

For our listeners, don't forget, ladies out there, let's start a revolution and get something moving in the Health Service for the benefit of our own health and also, you'll find Dr Eccles contact information at the end of this transcript and, until next time, this is Kathryn Colas, signing off, thank you and Good bye.

Dr Nyjon Eccles: CEO and Medical Director, The Chiron Clinic, 48 Harley Street, London, W1G 9PU http://www.chironclinic.com Tel: 02072 244 622

Kathryn Colas: You'll find lots of information on menopause, including my own personal journey at http://www.simplyhormones.com and do watch ‘Menopause: The Movie' highlighting how relationships are affected at menopause; here's the link: http://www.simplyhormones.com/video.asp and do join me on my blog for my own views on what's going on in the world: http://www.simplyhormonespodcast.com and feel free to comment on my ramblings and podcasts. Last but not least, you can contact me: kathryn@simplyhormones.com .

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 219 user reviews.

#2: Menopause Real Lives with Wendy Calver

kathryn@simplyhormones.com (Kathryn Colas) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:00:51 +0000

Hello, It's Kathryn Colas, here from http://www.simplyhormones.com and I'm here today talking to Wendy about her experience of Menopause. Click on Recording and see transcript below…

KC: Hello Wendy, How are you?

Wendy: Hello, Kathryn I'm very well, thank you

KC: That's good. Can I ask you, from your experience of menopause, what your age is now?

Wendy: 55 now

KC: You're 55. And do you know what stage of menopause you're at?

Wendy: Two years post-menopause

KC: OK. So that really fits into the national average of between 51 and 54, really, doesn't it. Can you remember what age you were when you started to experience symptoms?

Wendy: I was about 45. I started to miss periods. I was quite fuzzy headed, un-confident, not myself.

KC: No and I think that not a lot of women recognise those symptoms as potentially being the start of ‘the change' as it were, do they?

Wendy: No. I don't think they do

KC: No, because, like you, I experienced those same symptoms and didn't really understand what on earth was going on. So, as you went on, what sort of symptoms did you start to experience?

Wendy: Well, missed periods, fuzzy headedness, really not being very confident about myself; feeling not right; I was quite depressed, didn't understand what was happening, really. I thought it was possibly menopause because both my mother and sister had gone through this at 45.

KC: And I think, also, a lot of women don't realise that depression seems to be a natural process of menopause. I know from my own research that depression is four times higher for women going through menopause than it is for the national average and, again, the same thing happened to me, so we're not alone on that, are we?

Wendy: No we're not, definitely.

KC: Did you use any kind of supplements or hormones supplements to try and help with, to reduce any of those debilitating symptoms?

Wendy: Yes. I tried some Progesterone cream which I applied, which didn't help.

KC: It did help or it didn't?

Wendy: No it didn't

KC: Did you get it off the internet or from a therapist or something?

Wendy: It was from a health food shop, I found a leaflet and I got the cream from there.

KC: It didn't really help very much then? Did you try anything else?

Wendy: No. Not at that time. I just coped with it really.

KC: Yes, as we do…

Wendy: Yeah, that's right. And I spoke to some ladies, menopausal ladies who gave me various ideas about phytoestrogens, the evening primrose oil. I thought the evening primrose oil was very good for the flushes but it didn't really make me feel any better, generally.

KC: I think that's why some women go into these health food shops, as I did and end up with a basked full of goodies, not really understanding how much to take, when to take it, how it's going to benefit us.

Wendy: And it's pretty expensive as well.

KC: It is, yes, very expensive. Can you tell me did you go onto HRT or anything like that?

Wendy: Yeah, I originally asked my doctor for HRT but she wasn't happy about giving it to me, then a few years later, my hair started falling out and I was really getting distressed so I went to the doctor again and I told her what was happening to me and then she did give me HRT patches and now, my hair is thinner, it's never come back completely but it's far better than it was. And it basically gave me my life back, the HRT, made me feel a lot better.

KC: I think HRT has had a lot of bad press because it seems that it can contribute to the incidence of breast cancer but it seems to me that, again, having read the research, the risk is all relative, it's a very small risk and it's all down to your own history because cancer doesn't start overnight, of course and it takes several years for those cancer cells to grow and grow and grow and cause serious problems. So I think HRT in my view, I don't know if you agree with me, is a definite choice for women when they've got serious debilitating symptoms when they don't know how to resolve any of them.

Wendy: Absolutely. I used to be quite against HRT, listening to the media but for me it was a definite choice. It was a choice between life or death, I was really going to chuck myself off Beachy Head, I was so depressed and the anti-depressants weren't working.

KC: Dear, oh, dear. That's not good. Yes, you were on a hiding to nothing, in a way, aren't you.

Wendy: Um. And I think, women that I've spoken to have felt like that.

KC: Yes, I know from my own self, when I was feeling depressed, I felt as if I was in a box and all the walls were grey and there were no doors or windows. But strangely, I felt comfortable in that place. I suppose it was some kind of comfort zone and it meant that I didn't have to relate with the outside world. Could you relate to that?

Wendy: Not a box, it was just a different place that I was in and I used to cry a lot. I just felt so bad.

KC: Yes, I can relate to that and you don't know why you're crying, you just have this urge to weep, don't you.

Wendy: That's right.

KC: And how are you feeling now?

Wendy: Yeah, I feel a lot better now. I can get on with my life.

KC: Are you still on HRT?

Wendy: I am still using it, yes.

KC: And how long have you been on it?

Wendy: Nearly two years

KC: So do you think you might come off it gradually in the not too distant future or are you happy to run along with it while it's helping you feel good?

Wendy: Yes, I'm happy to run along with it because I know that when I come off it, it could all start again

KC: Yes. I think what happens is that it's like going ‘cold turkey' and you can wean yourself off but it's a very, very slow process and I think some women perhaps go at it too quickly and so all the symptoms seem to come back. But your body does carry on its natural ageing process, so we're not, HRT is not holding that up at all. It's just like coming off any serious drugs, I suppose, and it can give you these strange feelings back again. But as long as the doctor is (monitoring) doing all the things that doctors do, you know, blood pressure and everything else and you feel happy on it, then it does seem that there are a lot of quite elderly women out there in the community that are still on HRT. I've heard of women in their 70's still take it. Would you feel that you just want to keep going if it makes you feel good?

Wendy: Yeah. I can't really see myself coming off it unless I find something just as good.

KC: Yes, yes. OK. So what would you say to other women, knowing that you've gone through what you've gone through, all the different symptoms; do you feel that if perhaps women were better informed earlier in their forties, say, that they might be able to, not necessarily prevent, because that's not always possible, but reduce the disabling symptoms that they can experience. What would you say about that?

Wendy: I think it's always a good idea to see your doctor and get a blood test to find out if your menopausing, or whether there is some other reason for the way you are feeling and, unfortunately for me, you weren't around at that time…

KC: Ha ha, ha ha, yes, thank you

Wendy: With your wonderful website, so I would advise women to thoroughly explore www.simplyhormones.com as there is an abundance of information on there for them.

KC: Thank you, Wendy. That's the reason, of course, why I started the website, because, like you I went through some really awful symptoms for a period of at least ten years and I just couldn't understand it and I just feel this was the right thing for me to do at that time, to find out about things and help to inform people and it is one of the best jobs I've ever had, for me.

So what do you think about the future, Wendy, with other women coming along, moving into their 40's, etc. Would you recommend that they started to find out more about what's going on with their health?

Wendy: They certainly need to. There's information on the television, on the radio, your website, in magazines. They really need to think ‘it's not going to happen to me' because, believe me it is and when it comes, it's not very pleasant. They do definitely need to be more informed and of course there are people like you out there.

KC: Yes, that's right and when you realise that there are probably twelve and a half million women going through menopause at the moment (in the UK) and 75% of them are experiencing debilitating symptoms, makes you wonder why something big hasn't been done about this from the NHS or from anybody who has a lot of clout. I mean there's only little me, doing my little bit but it really needs a lot of work on it to get it out there, doesn't it?

Wendy: Well with the NHS it's the usual thing about money, the lack of money, yes, thank God for you, Kathryn, that's all I can say.

KC: ha, ha, ha, ha

Wendy: Ha, ha, it's how women feel.

KC: Well, that's a super enlightenment from you, Wendy. I think it's always so worthwhile for other women to hear how their sisters have coped with different symptoms and it's always comforting, even though those symptoms might not be very nice, it's comforting to know that we're sharing those symptoms and trying to understand them a bit better, so that's brilliant.

Wendy: I would also like to say, Kathryn that even if they're past their menopause, even if they're in their 70's, it's never too late, to look at your website and find out some hints and tips to find out how to carry on being a woman.

KC: Yes, that's right, because all sorts of things come up, don't they and we need to, erm. I know I went through the process of getting my colours done and, you know, there may be cosmetic surgery, or something which I know you specialise in and that all helps women, gives them so many more choices to make them feel better about themselves and raise that confidence level and self-esteem which we all seem to fall down with as we go through, menopause, don't we.

Wendy: Yes, that's right and a lot of women don't realise that we get a lot of bladder infections as we get older because our vagina's shrink, our skin goes prune like. You can't be a sissy and get old, you know.

KC: No, that's right. That sounds awful, doesn't it?

Wendy: They still need information when they are older.

KC: They do. Yes and they don't get the time in the doctor's surgery, unfortunately, so it's got to come from places like my website, magazines, radio programmes and until we reach that, I suppose, critical mass, where the information's going to be out there and relayed in a much better way than it is at the moment. Excellent! Ok then, Wendy. Thank you very much for sharing your information with us and I'll say goodbye to you for the moment. Thanks, Wendy, bye bye.

……………………………………………….

Like many women of a certain age, Wendy Calver, a fully qualified nurse specialist, changed career and set up her own business helping women to feel good about themselves; specialising in the very delicate field of cosmetic surgery and cosmetic tattooing (nipple tattooing following breast cancer surgery and even scar reduction from any surgery) as well as the specialist semi-permanent make-up that she does. See her website for full information: www.cosmeticsophistication.com.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 255 user reviews.