Speaker 1: Hey, it's Pats from The Christian O'Connell Show.
Speaker 2: Thanks for downloading episode one of my new podcast series,
Speaker 2: Rage Against the Menopause. Entering Perimenopause, you know, I was
Speaker 2: really grappling for some clarity and reassurance. I kind of
Speaker 2: felt a bit ripped off, to be honest, after a
Speaker 2: lifetime of polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis, I thought, hang on,
Speaker 2: now I've got to go through this.
Speaker 1: I think this is something that we need to talk about.
Speaker 2: And every time I've touched on it on the show,
Speaker 2: We've had an overwhelming response from listeners saying we need
Speaker 2: to talk about it, and I agree. We need to
Speaker 2: remove the stigma. We talk so much about pregnancy, conception, childbirth,
Speaker 2: why not menopause. I'm out to change that. I do
Speaker 2: want to change the narrative. I'm hoping that by me
Speaker 2: being candid about my own experience that we can build
Speaker 2: a community of support for other women.
Speaker 1: It is a no holds barred chat.
Speaker 2: We cover a lot of things, a lot of topics,
Speaker 2: helping to remove the stigma and show the power strength
Speaker 2: that comes with menopause. This episode, it's titled The Lady Garden.
Speaker 2: It features doctor Sarah White, CEO of gene Hale's for
Speaker 2: Women's Health, Australia's first women's health clinic, only the second
Speaker 2: in the world dedicated to menopause.
Speaker 1: I hope you get something from it.
Speaker 2: My very first and very special guest is doctor Sarah White,
Speaker 2: who I have known for quite some time at the
Speaker 2: Anti Cancer Council and the Quick Campaign.
Speaker 1: I think must be twenty years.
Speaker 3: Sarah, Well, you and I haven't known each other that long,
Speaker 3: but yes, quit's been around for thirty years and you
Speaker 3: and I have been talking for oh seven or.
Speaker 2: Eight maybe seven or eight so, and you, of course
Speaker 2: are at the gene Hales Foundation in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Thank you. Tell me about the gene Hales Foundation
Speaker 1: in Melbourne. Sure so.
Speaker 3: The gene Hales was an extraordinary doctor and she set
Speaker 3: up the first menopause clinic in Australia and it was
Speaker 3: only the second in the world because she recognized that
Speaker 3: women just were not getting the care and attention. And
Speaker 3: legend has it that the very first day she opened
Speaker 3: the clinic, she had a little article in the newspaper
Speaker 3: about it. And the second day she opened the clinic,
Speaker 3: there were women lined up around the block to come
Speaker 3: in and talk to doctor Hale's. Now tragically, doctor Hales
Speaker 3: died at a relatively young age, and so her colleague
Speaker 3: started the Gene Hales Foundation in her honor, and so
Speaker 3: gen Hales for Women's Health Today is our training name,
Speaker 3: if you like, and we cover a whole range of
Speaker 3: women's health issues, not just menopause, but a whole range
Speaker 3: of women's health issues that we sometimes called the lady
Speaker 3: garden between the navel and the knees.
Speaker 2: So let's talk minopause. So it's something I am definitely
Speaker 2: going through. When I look back on it, I actually
Speaker 2: think I probably started at about thirty nine, because I
Speaker 2: can remember driving into the studio and I just I've
Speaker 2: just come back from Matt leave and I had this
Speaker 2: heat at the back of my neck where it started,
Speaker 2: and I thought I've been rushing around, you know, dropping
Speaker 2: off at daycare and trying to get to work on time.
Speaker 2: But now when I look back, I think it was
Speaker 2: a progression from that point.
Speaker 1: I think that was like.
Speaker 2: The start of my hot flushes, and I also got vertigo.
Speaker 2: I remember we went to Queensland for a family trip
Speaker 2: and my daughter was probably two, and I found it
Speaker 2: really hard walking around the parks because I was like
Speaker 2: spinning and I thought it was just I've got near
Speaker 2: infection or something. But I actually think it was related
Speaker 2: to menopause when I think about it, because my periods
Speaker 2: were starting to sort of hit and miss and be erratic.
Speaker 1: What let's get to the basics. What is menopause? How
Speaker 1: is it defined?
Speaker 3: Well, it's actually a really tricky definition in some ways
Speaker 3: because you don't know that you've hit menopause until after
Speaker 3: the fact. So menopause technically is twelve months to the
Speaker 3: date after you finished your last period, so you don't
Speaker 3: really know until day you look back and go, oh, gosh,
Speaker 3: that was more than twelve months. I'm actually I've gone
Speaker 3: through that transition. Officially, postmenopause will now the period we
Speaker 3: usually talk about when we say menopause, we actually mean perimenopause.
Speaker 3: So that's the lead up to that point in time,
Speaker 3: twelve months after periods have stopped. So there are some
Speaker 3: people who get very angry we don't say perimenopause all
Speaker 3: the time, but most people understand it as menopause. And
Speaker 3: that's the period when estrogen levels start to fluctuate and
Speaker 3: then decrease, and it's really because you're overrestop functioning. So
Speaker 3: it's the end of that reproductive life, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's we sometimes talk about it always as like this
Speaker 3: deficit thing, your levels are dropping, your over reseration. It's
Speaker 3: a completely negative thing. In some cultures, menopause is really
Speaker 3: embraced as the second age, the coming of wisdom point.
Speaker 3: And if you're a woman who's experienced really terrible periods,
Speaker 3: you know, very heavy bleeding, regular periods, painful periods, pause
Speaker 3: can actually be a really good time because all of
Speaker 3: that's behind you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got polycystic o very in syndrome and endometriosis
Speaker 2: as well, and I sort of felt, to be honest,
Speaker 2: I felt a little bit ripped off, Sarah, because I thought,
Speaker 2: hang on, I've gone through infertility and all these other
Speaker 2: health issues, and now you're telling me that I'm faced
Speaker 2: with this. And what I find really frustrating is that
Speaker 2: perimenopausal period that it's a tunnel and you don't know
Speaker 2: how far through the tunnel you are, how long the
Speaker 2: tunnel is. And you can go to a GP, even
Speaker 2: a specialist, and they can't there's nothing definitive when you
Speaker 2: really want. I guess maybe I'm like a scientific approach
Speaker 2: kind of person where it's blacker. It's it's like, well,
Speaker 2: am I or aren't I? And the fact that you
Speaker 2: can't get an answer, it seems like a bit like.
Speaker 3: A tell me, yeah, it would be great if we
Speaker 3: had a blood test that said you are definitively.
Speaker 4: Now here and your tunnel.
Speaker 3: Your tunnel is six and a half months, yes, two
Speaker 3: point eight years, and then you're done and unfortunately no.
Speaker 4: And you know, sometimes that's really.
Speaker 1: The hard thing to manage.
Speaker 3: And I find it because you know, I'm the same
Speaker 3: as you got the hot flushes, got the insomnia.
Speaker 1: Occasionally, thank god, the insomnia.
Speaker 4: What is that word? I've got that word.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm trying to get it. A dead brain moment,
Speaker 1: brain fog.
Speaker 3: You know, it's frustrated, It can be really frustrating, and
Speaker 3: I think we just have to try and be really
Speaker 3: patient and manage the symptoms and try not to worry
Speaker 3: how long our tunnel is taking, because everyone's tunnel is
Speaker 3: different lengths, and you know, if we stretch a really
Speaker 3: bad metaphor, you know, the tunnel for some is really
Speaker 3: rocky and horrible and hard, and for others it's a
Speaker 3: four lane freeway.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. It's so different.
Speaker 2: Everyone's experience is so different. And I'm happy to say
Speaker 2: that not every day is a crap day. You have
Speaker 2: good days where you actually do feel normal in inverted
Speaker 2: commas again, and other days where you don't. I'm actually
Speaker 2: not taking anything. I'm not saying that to say, oh
Speaker 2: look at me, I'm so strong. That's not what their
Speaker 2: experience is different. What I've found frustrating, and I've spoken
Speaker 2: to my gynecologist about, is at what point, at what
Speaker 2: point do you know you should be taking something Like
Speaker 2: when do you know?
Speaker 3: You know when those symptoms start to really impact your
Speaker 3: mental and emotional well being or impact your ability to
Speaker 3: do your daily activities or your job. So if it
Speaker 3: gets to the point where you are really struggling with something,
Speaker 3: then you go and talk to your doctor. And if
Speaker 3: your doctor says, oh, look it's just menopause, go to
Speaker 3: the website of the Australasian Menopause Society, find a doctor
Speaker 3: who has a real interest in menopause and go and
Speaker 3: see them. Easier said than done for rural and regional
Speaker 3: people for sure, but menopause symptoms for about roughly you
Speaker 3: know the rule of thumb twenty percent will have a
Speaker 3: really hard time, twenty percent will not, and the rest
Speaker 3: fall somewhere in the middle. People who need that support
Speaker 3: should not hesitate to go.
Speaker 4: And get it.
Speaker 3: If the symptoms are really interfering with your life, you
Speaker 3: don't have to put up with anything. No.
Speaker 2: I think that's the point, isn't it. It's like my
Speaker 2: mum always told me with periods, have you got pain?
Speaker 2: I was like, actually, yeah, I think I actually feel
Speaker 2: really rotten. And she used to say to me, well,
Speaker 2: you don't, you know, you don't actually have to put
Speaker 2: up with that, Like take something for it. Don't be
Speaker 2: a hero. If you need something, absolutely take it.
Speaker 3: And we really know that there's a lot of women
Speaker 3: who think that nothing can be done, and that's really
Speaker 3: sad because in most cases, something can be done. And
Speaker 3: if you're struggling with menopause symptoms, for example, I found,
Speaker 3: you know, personally, I insomnia was the worst thing for me.
Speaker 3: Always been a bit of an insomniac, much much worse
Speaker 3: through this period. And I just went and got just
Speaker 3: a little bit of like a sleepaid to start off with,
Speaker 3: and I worked my way up a little bit and
Speaker 3: talk to my doctor about what the options were I'm
Speaker 3: not on menopause hormone therapy, I would have no hesitation
Speaker 3: on taking it if I need to. I've been fortunate
Speaker 3: that I've been okay manageable symptoms. A lot of my
Speaker 3: friends have had managable symptoms. I've got one or two
Speaker 3: friends who've really had a bad time where they've had
Speaker 3: menopause hormone therapy and it's really helped.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about HRT.
Speaker 2: There's still a lot of cloud and kind of innuendo
Speaker 2: around HRT.
Speaker 1: Is it safe for most people?
Speaker 3: It is about Look, it's a medicine. There's always side
Speaker 3: effects of medicines. There's always concerns. But there was a
Speaker 3: study done a number of years ago and the results
Speaker 3: were not interpreted well, they were publicized really badly, and
Speaker 3: overnight a huge number of women ripped off their menopause
Speaker 3: homone therapy or hormone replacement therapy patches. And we're really
Speaker 3: worried about this increased risk of breast cancer. But the
Speaker 3: risk is actually very small. The risk is small, and
Speaker 3: so for some women who have a history of breasts cancer,
Speaker 3: for example, they need.
Speaker 4: To talk to their doctor.
Speaker 3: You should talk to your doctor all the time when
Speaker 3: you're gonna have a medicine, but it's certainly if your
Speaker 3: doctor and you have that conversation and the doctor says
Speaker 3: this could help, you shouldn't be afraid of taking it.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing too, I want to point out,
Speaker 2: is the conversation. This is my whole point of doing
Speaker 2: this podcast. It is experiencing it myself. We all talk
Speaker 2: about fertility and about conception and pregnancy. Why aren't we
Speaker 2: being open and honest and raw and organic about menopause?
Speaker 2: Why is it such a dirty word. Why can't we
Speaker 2: open the conversation. It's a perfectly normal stage of life.
Speaker 3: Every woman, every person with ovaries is going to go
Speaker 3: through menopause, right, So it has been it has been
Speaker 3: a bit of a taboo subject for a long time.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's really changed over the last few years.
Speaker 3: And I think it has to do with gendered ageism.
Speaker 3: To be honest, Yes, I think it's been seen as
Speaker 3: a sign of and shown in popular culture of oh
Speaker 3: you've hit the change, and now suddenly all.
Speaker 4: This gray headed old hag.
Speaker 1: And shovy up in the top page get about you.
Speaker 4: Every productive years over. So what's your point really?
Speaker 3: And that's just you know, I think that's where a
Speaker 3: lot of women struggle. We live about a third of
Speaker 3: our lives after menopause. We're still incredibly productive. Not only
Speaker 3: we incredibly productive, we're incredibly wise. We've reached a certain
Speaker 3: threshold of you know, don't care factor if we're confident.
Speaker 3: So it's not something that we should be worried about.
Speaker 3: But I think it's comes from that gendered ageism.
Speaker 2: To be perfectly honest, I agree, and I think there
Speaker 2: is such a wisdom. I'm fifty one now, but there
Speaker 2: is such a wisdom I think about turning fifty. It's
Speaker 2: almost like, as opposed to your flower dying and wilting away,
Speaker 2: it's actually starting to bloom because I think you're starting
Speaker 2: to grow into your skin and your confidence shines through,
Speaker 2: and you think, you know what, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: make apologies anymore. If no one likes me or how
Speaker 2: I am, that's their problem, not mine.
Speaker 1: Sure, it's an interesting notion, absolutely.
Speaker 3: And there's actually only just very rich Like within the
Speaker 3: last three or four weeks, a study on chimpanzees reaching menopause.
Speaker 3: So before then it was humans and it was whales.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the only thing, because I don't know
Speaker 3: what these scientists thought that suddenly older females of a
Speaker 3: species just you know, I can't have children anymore, so.
Speaker 4: I just drop off the perch.
Speaker 3: And what they find in certainly in the whales, is
Speaker 3: the grandmothers I feel like, or the older females are
Speaker 3: the ones who are responsible for guarding the pod and
Speaker 3: looking after the young ones. So you know, it shouldn't
Speaker 3: be seen as now I'm done and dusted because my
Speaker 3: ovaries have stopped working.
Speaker 2: Yes, what do you think about menopause in the workplace?
Speaker 2: What sort of statistics have we got about women in
Speaker 2: the workforce struggling and productivity, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: We don't have a lot, And what we do have
Speaker 3: is based on what we call convenience samplings. So you
Speaker 3: go to a group of women and say how has
Speaker 3: menopause affected you? And the people who have been affected say, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm going to fill in that survey, And the people
Speaker 3: who haven't been affected say, oh, it's not relevant to me,
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to fill it in because it
Speaker 3: hasn't affected me. So Gene Hailes has just conducted the
Speaker 3: National Women's Health Survey and we asked women, you know,
Speaker 3: have you missed days of work because you've had symptoms
Speaker 3: that you thought were menopause. And about seven percent of
Speaker 3: women said in this forty five to sixty four age range,
Speaker 3: about seven percent said I've missed days and about fourteen
Speaker 3: percent said I've taken an extended break from work. Now,
Speaker 3: we didn't define extended break, so it could have been
Speaker 3: a week, it could have been a month, that could
Speaker 3: have been a year. So we do know that it
Speaker 3: has an effect on women. We do know that there
Speaker 3: are going to be some jobs in some workplaces that
Speaker 3: aren't very sympathetic. But I think there's a really there's real.
Speaker 4: Scope to improve what we do in the workplace, not
Speaker 4: just for menopause.
Speaker 3: I think we've got to be really careful about focusing
Speaker 3: just on menopause. With workplace flexibility for women, it has
Speaker 3: to also be for people who have as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: you know, pecause, in demetriosis, all these conditions where we
Speaker 3: need to have access to a bathroom, you know, a
Speaker 3: bit of flexibility around pelvic pain, So not just menopause.
Speaker 3: I'm going right off track here, Patrina. You know, I
Speaker 3: think we have to create an environment where we normalize discussion.
Speaker 2: That's what I mean we need to talk about it.
Speaker 2: Don't mean might be honest about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we just turned it into a joke
Speaker 3: around the office. Easy to do it, Gene Hales, to
Speaker 3: turn that into office. But you know, I've been in
Speaker 3: meetings We've gone, oh, hang on a minute, hot flush
Speaker 3: coming in, found myself and everybody has a giggle, we
Speaker 3: move on. That's not going to happen in every workplace,
Speaker 3: of course, But the more we have these sorts of discussions,
Speaker 3: the more we normalize talking about hot flushes or brain
Speaker 3: fog or you know, the better.
Speaker 1: We are brain fog.
Speaker 2: You know. Being on air on the Christian O'Connell Show
Speaker 2: and as the news reader on the show, there's been
Speaker 2: several times where I've gone off on a tangent and
Speaker 2: then completely forgotten about a word or it's it's so
Speaker 2: humiliating as a broadcaster. It's like because I guess maybe
Speaker 2: in a different office environment it's not as noticeable, but
Speaker 2: when I do it on air, it's there's a lot
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 1: Of course here, you stuff up.
Speaker 3: Absolutently, and to Christian and Jack notice or do you notice?
Speaker 2: I don't think they do. I think it's me. I
Speaker 2: don't know I don't think they do.
Speaker 4: So going back to that.
Speaker 3: Question around workplaces, I do wonder if some of the
Speaker 3: reason why, you know, we have when we do these
Speaker 3: surveys of people who say, you know, why did you
Speaker 3: leave the work force, and some will say because of menopause,
Speaker 3: And I wonder if it's actually about a loss of confidence,
Speaker 3: because you know, in some roles, imagine you're a barrister
Speaker 3: and you're cross examining the witness and you suddenly lost
Speaker 3: that keyword. You know, exactly what's the opposite of guilty again?
Speaker 1: You know, no, But it is as simple as that,
Speaker 1: It really is.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know. I think confidence is a big thing.
Speaker 2: I think when you I know, when I had my
Speaker 2: daughter and in.
Speaker 1: That sort of here we go, there's a fade again.
Speaker 2: In the Matt Leaf period, you do lose confidence because
Speaker 2: you not that your whole identity is on what you
Speaker 2: do or who you are in that sense. But it's
Speaker 2: I think it's just that routine of going into it
Speaker 2: when you've done something like I had for twenty years
Speaker 2: and that stopped out. And I think it's the same
Speaker 2: with menopause. There's an anxiety. I know one of my
Speaker 2: girlfriends has really bad anxiety from her menopause, Like it's
Speaker 2: really disabling for her some days. Is that obviously just
Speaker 2: a hormone impact.
Speaker 3: Yes, probably, And look it's it's the thing with menopause
Speaker 3: is it's really hard to disentangle from everything else that's
Speaker 3: going on in our lives when we're that age. And
Speaker 3: I saw I've adopted this phrase. I saw in an
Speaker 3: article which is called was called about midlife collision. So
Speaker 3: we have, you know, we have kids of a certain age,
Speaker 3: we have increased responsibilities at our job. We've got a
Speaker 3: partner that who may or may not be driving us
Speaker 3: bomb because because we've been together for twenty odd years,
Speaker 3: we've got elderly.
Speaker 1: Parentldly parents who need.
Speaker 3: More cares, all the socially labor of running households. And
Speaker 3: so this is a point where you then add on
Speaker 3: some insomnia from menopause or whatever else. It could be anything,
Speaker 3: and suddenly that middle life collision becomes a catastrophe.
Speaker 4: So I'm always a little bit wary.
Speaker 3: About saying everything's due to menopause. It could be secondary
Speaker 3: to lack of sleep. It really could be about a
Speaker 3: lot of other factors in your life. So if we
Speaker 3: put everything in the menopause basket. I think we risk
Speaker 3: the opportunity of actually getting to the root cause of
Speaker 3: what the challenge is for any one individual. But certainly
Speaker 3: menopause has been associated with anxiety and depression, definitely with
Speaker 3: you know, loss of labido, which can put more relation not.
Speaker 2: Even interested, which is actually like hit me in the face,
Speaker 2: because it's that's something it was real.
Speaker 1: It's really foreign us. It's like, hang on, but not
Speaker 1: even this is weird. It's like a tap that's just
Speaker 1: switched on.
Speaker 3: And you've also got this lovely phrase of vaginal atrophy,
Speaker 3: so dryness and thin skin for some women. Though not
Speaker 3: only is there a lack of interest in sex, but
Speaker 3: sex becomes incredibly painful, you know. And these are the
Speaker 3: sorts of things where we really want women to be
Speaker 3: able to normalize that discussion and particularly go into the doctor.
Speaker 3: That's something we don't wan to talk about in the
Speaker 3: workforce potentially, but go to your doctor and talk to
Speaker 3: them about it, because you can have those MHT creams
Speaker 3: that you know you can suffer help absolutely.
Speaker 2: The other thing that you know we were talking we
Speaker 2: touched on earlier about the finish line, the end line,
Speaker 2: which is different for everyone and we can't tell when
Speaker 2: it is, but I will quite often stop and ask
Speaker 2: myself and when will I.
Speaker 1: Feel like what's on side?
Speaker 2: Like what happens once we are through and we're officially
Speaker 2: in that menopause after the twelve months of not having
Speaker 2: a period, Like, do we still get hot flushes?
Speaker 4: Is that so?
Speaker 3: Hot flushes can last for a long time for some
Speaker 3: women unfortunately, So there are some women who report, you know,
Speaker 3: for even ten years after menopause they get hot flushes.
Speaker 3: So I think this is important again keep checking in
Speaker 3: with your doctor. Should I still be getting these things.
Speaker 3: The other thing that happens is you do have new
Speaker 3: health challenges when you're in the post menopause will phase.
Speaker 3: So things like your bone health you have to really
Speaker 3: watch that because that's when you start to lose bone
Speaker 3: you do the bone density.
Speaker 4: Things like your heart health.
Speaker 3: So estrogen has a protective factor with the heart, So
Speaker 3: you start stop having that estrogen and your risk of
Speaker 3: cardiovascular issues comes up. So I think menopause is a
Speaker 3: great time to go and talk to your doctor about
Speaker 3: your health. Check right now is in your midlife and
Speaker 3: then what do you need to do to make sure
Speaker 3: you keep healthy in that post menopause will phase as well.
Speaker 2: I touch you with my doctor quite regularly, but certainly,
Speaker 2: and he always puts me up on the block. It's
Speaker 2: like a twenty thousand K service every time. But blood
Speaker 2: tests every six to twelve months.
Speaker 1: Keep up with your breast checks absolutely. Perhaps meters which.
Speaker 2: High five are now only every five five years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: But that's a good point. I think that's a really
Speaker 1: pivotal point.
Speaker 4: Look at fear heart health.
Speaker 3: You know, talk to your doctor or talk to a
Speaker 3: nutritionist dietitian about making sure you're getting enough calcium. You
Speaker 3: do have to actively there's nothing to do with menopause.
Speaker 3: As we get to our midlife, whether you're a male female,
Speaker 3: you have to start looking after health a bit more proactively.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing too with menopause is that middle.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to shift.
Speaker 4: I know, I know.
Speaker 3: So menopause and weight gain is a really contentious topic.
Speaker 3: So we do know that your weight, your fat distribution
Speaker 3: actually shifts to the abdominal section, which is not great.
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily that menopause causes you to put on right,
Speaker 3: but you do get that distribution. And again, probably middlife
Speaker 3: collision a lot of women from our survey tell us
Speaker 3: they stopped exercising, which is, you know, the worst thing
Speaker 3: to do if you need to keep carrying strength, you know,
Speaker 3: strength exercise for your bones. It'll help your insomnia, it'll
Speaker 3: help your mental health. But a lot of women get
Speaker 3: to the i've got these bad symptoms, I'm just gonna
Speaker 3: stop exercising. So, yes, we do have to keep an
Speaker 3: eye and we probably need a few less calories. She
Speaker 3: says that she looks longingly at her lat in.
Speaker 4: Front of it.
Speaker 1: You're allowed to have a coffee one to day.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we do have to look after a health more.
Speaker 3: And that's just a factor of getting old. When it
Speaker 3: comes to menopause, there's a whole host of symptoms, and
Speaker 3: then there are a bunch of symptoms that a lot
Speaker 3: of women believe are due to menopause and they're not.
Speaker 3: So there's a lack of knowledge around symptoms that I
Speaker 3: think is not helpful.
Speaker 1: Let's bust some of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah sure, So it's easy to go with the ones
Speaker 3: that people don't recognize a part of menopause. So joint pain,
Speaker 3: for example, Oh.
Speaker 1: My god, some days I'll walk like an eighty year
Speaker 1: old woman.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So joint pain can definitely be a menopause factor.
Speaker 3: But I was going to suggest that you can go
Speaker 3: to gene Hale's website or to the Australasian Menopause Society
Speaker 3: website and we both have questionnaires that you can fill
Speaker 3: in and say, what are the symptoms I've got, what's
Speaker 3: the extent of the problem. Just filling that in and
Speaker 3: then taking it to your doctor can be a really
Speaker 3: great way of tracking how you're doing, helping your doctor
Speaker 3: focus on the issues, the most important issues for you,
Speaker 3: because sometimes it's about symptom management, yes, and then also
Speaker 3: you can keep tracking it to see how the symptoms
Speaker 3: are resolving or not.
Speaker 2: It's like a snapshot, isn't it, Because I think as women,
Speaker 2: as you say, we're busy. We might have families, we've
Speaker 2: got elderly parents, where career women we're just it's like
Speaker 2: a marathon each week just getting to the finish line
Speaker 2: and we push our needs to the side.
Speaker 1: For everyone else.
Speaker 2: I think you do it and it takes probably the
Speaker 2: five minutes to sit down, tick the boxes what you
Speaker 2: need to and get that snap.
Speaker 3: Shot absolutely and then where you do have you know,
Speaker 3: we get lots of reports of doctors.
Speaker 4: Oh, look, it's just metopause. Don't worry about it. You
Speaker 4: have to do with it.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, you don't not.
Speaker 3: But filling in something like a symptom checklist can help
Speaker 3: you go, well, actually I don't have that or that
Speaker 3: or that or that.
Speaker 4: You know that's a problem.
Speaker 3: Well, actually, so what else is going on in my
Speaker 3: life that might be the problem here? Yeah, And I
Speaker 3: think it's really important to dig into what the problem is,
Speaker 3: not just immediately say oh, it's just menopause.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, we don't have to put up with it.
Speaker 4: Let's work out what the real problem is. An address
Speaker 4: for more.
Speaker 2: Information, gene Hailes for Women's Health provides free, evidence based
Speaker 2: health information for all women.
Speaker 1: You can head to genehals dot org dot au.
Speaker 2: I'm Patrina Giants and join me for episode two Miserable
Speaker 2: Magical Menopause, where I chat to Ossie author Allison Daddo
Speaker 2: about her bestseller Queen Menopause, Finding Your Majesty in the
Speaker 2: Mayhem