253 - Coping with the perimenopause when you’re a carer

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

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.
0:21.6	I'm also the founder of the free Balance app.
0:25.6	Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause
0:31.6	and menopause. We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments,
0:38.2	and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories.
0:43.7	This podcast is brought to you by the Newsome Health Group,
0:46.9	which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women.
1:02.4	So today on the podcast we're going to talk a bit more inclusively actually because there's
1:06.9	lots of women we know that are struggling but but also as women, we often put ourselves
1:11.6	right at the bottom because we're too busy, often looking after others, concentrating on
1:17.3	various things in our life. And so I've got someone with me today, Tova, who has been
1:23.0	really inspirational. Hopefully after this podcast, many of you will follow her on YouTube and see
1:28.6	how incredible she is. She's got a really interesting but not unique story. And I want her to
1:35.2	really share it with us and talk about how hard it can be when really it's impossible for us to
1:40.5	concentrate on ourselves in the way that we should. So thanks so much for coming on to the
1:44.9	podcast today. It's great having you here. Thank you so much for inviting me to be with you today.
1:50.2	It's really fantastic to be here. So do you mind telling me about what's been happening to you over the
1:56.8	last, well, since your oldest daughter was born, really, how your life changed?
2:06.6	Yeah, absolutely. So I had children quite late in my life. I was 36 when I had my oldest daughter. And I went through a pregnancy that from the baby's point of view was perfectly
2:11.4	healthy. And it was a highly monitored pregnancy because I live with a thyroid condition.
2:16.6	So it feels like I had a million
2:18.3	ultrasounds throughout to make sure that everything was fine with the baby. Then at the very end of
	...

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