251 - Kate Muir: everything you need to know about hormones but were afraid to ask

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Dr Louise is once again joined by journalist and activist Kate Muir, who made the Davina McCall documentary Sex, Myths and the Menopause. In Kate’s new book, Everything You Need to Know About the Pill (but were too afraid to ask), she turns her attention to the hormones commonly used in the contraceptive pill. Kate shares personal stories of how women have been negatively affected by synthetic hormones and uncovers the bad science and patriarchy that have had such an impact on women’s health. She also offers hope that women have options and can demand change. Finally, Kate shares three things every women should know about hormones and the pill: Progestins are not all the same. Some of them are androgenic and some of them are oestrogenic, and they have very different effects. So, women can be on the wrong pill for them. You can always take a pill holiday. There's nothing wrong with taking a few months off and seeing how you feel. And you may be a different person, or there may be other reasons for why you are in that state of mental health. There needs to be more research into every bit of what synthetic hormones do in our bodies, and particularly in our minds. You can follow Kate on Instagram at @muirka and on @pillscandal Click here to find out more about Newson Health.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr Louise Newsome. I'm a GP and menopause specialist, and I'm also the founder of the Newsome Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre here in Stratford-Pon-Avon.
0:23.9	I'm also the founder of the free Balance app.
0:32.8	Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause and menopause.
0:37.7	We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments,
0:42.5	and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories.
0:46.9	This podcast is brought to you by the Newsome Health Group, which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women.
1:02.8	So today I'm going to be talking about contraception, which some people think isn't relevant
1:07.6	when it comes to the menopause, but it is really relevant. For two reasons.
1:11.5	Firstly, because it's talking about hormones, but secondly, a lot of women who take HRT still
1:16.5	needs to have contraception because HRT isn't licensed as a contraception. And I did a great podcast
1:22.2	recently with Dr. Claire Crockett talking about contraception. And today I have someone with me
1:27.4	who isn't a healthcare
1:28.5	professional, but actually I have said to her many times knows more about this area than some
1:33.6	healthcare professionals. So Kate Muir, who I've known for quite a few years now, who is, I admire
1:40.2	for her work, but I also, she's become a really good friend and confidant as well. So
1:45.5	she's been on the podcast before. This won't be her last appearance on the podcast, I'm sure,
1:50.0	but welcome back, Kate, to the podcast. Thank you. It's great to be here with you talking
1:55.1	hormones as ever. And it's funny, isn't it? I was talking to someone about you this morning,
1:59.8	actually, a doctor who was talking about the Divina documentary and I said, well, actually, it's all thanks to Kate Muir and how we first met, and I couldn't remember how many years ago, but it was before COVID, so it feels like many years ago.
2:12.7	It was in 2019.
2:14.6	So, what, five years ago nearly, you came and I'm not breaking confidentiality
2:20.6	because you've spoken before. You came to my clinic because someone had recommended. And I'm not very
	...

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