The Dr Louise Newson Podcast Dr Louise Newson

This week on the podcast Dr Louise is joined by Dr Felice Gersh, who is double board-certified in OB-GYN and Integrative Medicine, and specialises in female health, with a focus on managing female hormonal dysfunctions.

She is the author of the book PCOS SOS: A Gynecologist’s Lifeline to Naturally Restore Your Rhythms, Hormones, and Happiness, and recently published a paper on oestrogen and cardiovascular disease, and a 2021 paper on HRT.

Here she talks about the family of oestrogens and the important role of hormones on the heart. Finally, she shares three tips on improving heart and whole body health:

Eat a lot of phytoestrogen-containing foods - so every kind of plant in all the different colours, including beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables. They are nature's gift to us.

Sunlight is like happy medicine. Try to get sunlight in the morning, midday and watch the sunset every chance you get. This will help you to sleep better, make more serotonin, and help to set your master clock in your brain, which tends to drift when we lose our oestrogen production.

Move. Your fitness status is more predictive of healthy longevity than your blood pressure. Think of your fitness, strength, flexibility and balance as a critical part of your life so get active in every way you can.

You can follow Dr Felice on Instagram @dr.felicegersh and Facebook @felicegershmd.

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This week Dr Louise is joined by Aoife O’Sullivan, a family medicine doctor who trained in Dublin before completing a second family medicine residency at the University of Maryland.
 
After taking some time out to complete extra training in perimenopausal and menopausal care, including Newson Health’s Confidence in the Menopause course, Dr Aoife is passionate about providing more comprehensive and holistic care to women during midlife.
 
Dr Aoife share the ways clinicians, and all people, can educate themselves in order to improve the health of women in the US, and across the world:
Take every opportunity to learn and educate. So join any local healthcare Facebook groups and pass on links to the Confidence in the Menopause website, the balance app, etc. Even if you reach one or two people like that, it will make a difference and they might reach another one or two people.
Share small bites of information because it can be a little overwhelming. So when you're trying to reach somebody, give them small amounts of information at a time.
Harness the power of friends. If everyone informs their friends and they all go to their doctors, obstetricians, gynaecologists and urologists, and ask questions, it will fuel discussion and increase knowledge.
You can follow Dr Aoife on Instagram @portlandmenopausedoc
Find out more about the Confidence in the Menopause course and click here for more about Newson Health.
 
 

This week on the podcast Dr Louise is joined by a new colleague, Dr Louisa James, a psychiatrist who has recently joined the team at Newson Health.
Dr Louisa’s personal experience of the menopause prompted her to learn more about the impact of hormones, and incorporate her knowledge in her role as an NHS consultant psychiatrist in a home treatment service. Here she discusses the importance, and power, of asking patients about their hormones during a psychiatric appointment.
Finally, Dr Louisa shares her tips for thinking about your hormones alongside your mental health:
1.Consider whether this feels different to any previous episodes of depression you may have experienced or if your symptoms are fluctuating. Some women have suicidal thoughts or are depressed at certain times of the month. Track your symptoms and look at the fluctuations.
Your history can affect your menopause. If you’ve had an episode of postnatal depression or PMDD, then you're more likely to experience mental health difficulties in the perimenopause.
How do you feel about your life? Lack of joy rather than a sadness, the emotional lability, is often greater with a hormonal mental health problem whereas irritability, rage and impulsiveness can be greater with mental health problems.
Dr Louisa James is now offering consultations to existing Newson Health patients. Click here for details.
 
 

This week is a celebration of Dr Louise Newson’s new paperback book, a revised and updated version of the bestselling The Definitive Guide to the Perimenopause & Menopause. Dr Louise is joined by Kat Keogh, who worked on the book with her and is the head of editorial at Newson Health and across the balance website and app.
Here Kat turns the tables and asks Dr Louise the questions, discovering why the subject of HRT doses warranted more attention in the book, the importance of hearing directly from women experiencing the menopause as well as experts in their fields, plus how Louise felt sharing her personal experiences.
Finally, Dr Louise shares three reasons she thinks people should buy the book:
The bright yellow cover is uplifting, and when you’re happier you’re healthier.
It’s packed with information so you’ll learn something that will either help you or a loved one.
Increasing awareness of hormones, perimenopause, menopause, plus PMS and PMDD will help women feel less lonely, more included and more listened to.
Pre-order the paperback book here
Click here to find out more about Newson Health.
 

This week on the podcast, Dr Louise is joined by Tova Gillespie, a working single parent to two daughters, one of whom has severe disabilities and complex medical needs. Here she talks about the challenges of being perimenopausal while being a carer and how it’s easy to not recognise or understand your symptoms.
 
Louise and Tova discuss how it’s easy for your own needs to end up at the bottom of the to-do list when you’re a carer or have a busy family life, and Tova shares three tips for anyone who may not be looking after themselves:
Learn to ask for and accept help. People want to help, but very often they don't know how to offer it and our usual response can be ‘no, I don't need anything’. Instead, say straight out: ‘Please do my washing up. Or I have five loads of clean laundry that needs sorting. Or can you bring over some food?’ Anything really.
If your health isn't what it should be, go to your GP. When you ring your GP, ask for an appointment to talk about perimenopause and hormones. They’ll know from the get go what it is you're after and if they have anyone in the clinic with an interest in that area, they’ll put you in with that person.
Try to see the good every day. I do gratitude journalling, where I write down a minimum of three positive things that have happened that day, and they're not big. It could be the sun is shining. It could be the taste of that first sip of coffee in the morning. I train myself to look for the positive because it's so easy to get overwhelmed in the bad stuff.
Learn more about Tova on her YouTube channel. Or follow her on Instagram @parentXP
Click here to find out more about Newson Health.

This week on the podcast, journalist Bryony Gordon, bestselling author of several books including her latest, Mad Woman, explains how the perimenopause caused her to reconsider her mental health. Was her experience of OCD affected by her hormones and what would society look like if women’s health was taken more seriously?

Bryony shares her belief that there’s a 'witchy magic' to menopause and that the issues it brings are the ones that you need to deal with and there is power in doing so.

Finally, Bryony shares three bits of advice to any woman being dismissed with 'it’s just your hormones':

Don’t dismiss yourself. Don’t discount your point of view or feelings just because they are yours. Maybe sometimes you're right, maybe sometimes you're wrong - that's OK.

It's OK sometimes to be bad. We all are. It’s just society wants us to live as women in a way that isn't very human.

Confidence is a trick. No one has confidence. I don't have confidence. I just have a will and a desperation not to spend the rest of my life hating on myself because it's such a waste of energy.

Follow Bryony on Instagram @bryonygordon her community organisation @Mental Health Mates

Click here to find out more about Newson Health.