Progesterone is a hormone produced after ovulation and dominates the second half of your menstrual cycle. It balances the effects of oestrogen, supports the body during pregnancy and is known as the relaxing hormone.
But how can progesterone impact your mental health in the run up to periods, after childbirth and during the perimenopause and menopause?
Joining Dr Louise this week is Newson Health GP and Menopause Specialist Dr Hannah Ward, whose interest in the menopause and HRT was ignited following her own hormonal struggles after the birth of her children.
Here, Dr Hannah shares her personal experiences of progesterone treatment, and takes us through the key differences between body identical progesterone and synthetic progestogens.

216 - All about progesterone: PMS, PMDD, postnatal depression and menopause

Have a menopause question? You’ll find the answers here.
Join me, GP and Menopause Specialist Dr Louise Newson, for the definitive perimenopause and menopause podcast. Each week I’m joined by a special guest for the lowdown on the latest research and treatments, bust myths and share inspirational stories. 
This podcast is brought to you by the Newson Health Group, which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing personalised perimenopause and menopause care for all women. It funds cutting-edge menopause research and creates clinical-led education programmes for healthcare professionals. It also funds the award-winning balance menopause support app, which provides free menopause resources and support to millions of people worldwide, empowering and enabling women to have choice and control over their perimenopause and menopause treatment.

Medicine

Science & Medicine

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Mental Health

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.

254 - Dr Louise’s new paperback book: what’s new and who’s it for?

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.

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

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.

252 - Bryony Gordon: mental health, hormones and witchy magic

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.

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

This week we mark 250 episodes of the Dr Louise Newson Podcast!
And joining Dr Louise this week is Anita Nicholson, a nurse practitioner and menopause expert at Age Management Center in the US, where she aims to help patients lead the best quality of life for as long as they can.
Here, Dr Louise and Anita compare notes on the attitudes towards testosterone in the UK and the US, share their clinical experience of the benefits it can provide women, particularly in restoring their zest for life.
Finally, Anita shares three things she thinks could make a huge difference to women's health:
Women need to educate themselves. They have to be their own advocate.
I would love for hormones to become available and affordable. In the US, we don't even have vaginal oestrogen covered by some insurance here, never mind over-the-counter access.
More education of healthcare providers. So have a fellowship in menopause. Let's start very early with med students and nurse practitioner students so they understand that menopause and sexual medicine is very important for our life span and our health span.
You can follow Anita on Instagram @menopause_agewellfnp and the Age Management Center on Facebook /AgeManagementCenter and YouTube /@agemanagementcenter.
Click here for more information about Newson Health

216 - All about progesterone: PMS, PMDD, postnatal depression and menopause

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