142 - Losing my wife: was her perimenopause a contributing factor? With Peter Smith

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Content warning: suicide Peter Smith joins Dr Louise Newson this week in a difficult and emotional episode. Peter lost his wife, Victoria, to suicide a year ago after she experienced a sudden change in her mental health in her late 40s. In their quest to understand how things could have got to such a crisis point for Victoria, Peter and his family have learnt more about the menopause and mental health, and they’ve raised the question of whether Victoria’s perimenopause could have been responsible for, or at least contributed to, her sudden mental illness when she had never previously experienced any such difficulties. Peter describes the series of events that led up to Victoria’s death and how healthcare professionals dismissed the possibility of hormones playing a part in the worsening of her mental health, both at the time and during a recent inquest. Louise explains the work she is now jointly involved in, with Peter’s help, to raise awareness of the link between mood and menopause both in Pete’s local NHS Trust and nationwide. Peter’s advice for partners if your loved one is struggling: Go with your partner to see a GP, and if needed, find someone that specialises in the menopause. Talk about it with each other. Listen and try and understand what they’re going through, and support them as best you can. Encourage them to talk openly with friends about it too.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Louise Newsome and welcome to my podcast. I'm a GP and menopause specialist and I run the Newsome Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre here in Stratford-Bron-Avon. I'm also the founder of the
0:22.0	Menopause charity and the Menopause support app called Balance. On the podcast, I will be
0:31.8	joined each week by an exciting guest to help provide evidence-based information and advice about both the perimenopause and the
0:40.9	menopause. So today, this podcast actually comes with a tissue alert. So for those of you
0:50.5	listening and about to listen, have a box of tissues because I certainly will need them.
0:55.5	And I'm very honoured and privileged to introduce to you, someone called Pete, who I was introduced to by a hospital trust actually a few months ago now.
1:06.5	And he's very bravely agreed to join me today in the studio to talk about his experience of
1:14.0	perhaps the perimenopause and menopause and what he's learned.
1:17.9	So I'm very, very grateful for you sharing your time today, Pete.
1:21.2	So thanks for joining me.
1:22.3	Oh, thanks for asking me.
1:23.7	Thank you.
1:24.7	So I was introduced to you by someone called Elizabeth, wasn't I, who works in Norfolk for the hospital,
1:32.3	and she reached out following a very sad story, which we'll talk about in a minute. And she told me
1:39.1	about you and what a strong person you are and about your amazing family network that you have.
1:45.8	And so the story that I heard obviously was very upsetting.
1:49.2	And so I picked up the phone and spoke to you.
1:51.5	I didn't quite know what I was going to say to you.
1:53.7	I was surprised to hear from you.
1:55.6	Yeah.
1:56.4	But I couldn't listen to a story like the one I heard and not speak to you actually, but it was a bit
2:02.9	of an awkward conversation because I was complete stranger to you and just, I think it was a Friday
	...

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