Content advisory: this podcast contains themes of mental health and suicide.
On this week’s episode of the Dr Louise Newson Podcast, Anna Geldard shares her story of how her mental health was severely affected by menopause.
Anna tells Dr Louise how therapy and medication had helped her successfully manage her obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and mild depression symptoms for over a decade. But out of the blue, Anna’s symptoms returned and quickly spiralled. Anna was admitted to hospital, on six psychiatric drugs but still didn’t feel better.
Thankfully, after learning about the impact of hormones on mental health and being prescribed HRT, things changed for the better.
Anna’s top three tips:
1. Have more open conversations, starting from at home with the kids. This will filter through society, making menopause less of an unspoken thing and more of a just another thing about the body.
2. Make sure your resources are evidence based. There's a lot of information on social media, so just make sure that whoever you're listening to is appropriately qualified.
3. Advocate for yourself. If your symptoms are hormone related and you're being told you're too young or whatever, try again and don't just give up at that first hurdle.
Anna is on Instagram @Hormones.on.her_mind. Find out more about OCD through charities OCD-UK and OCD Action.
Contact the Samaritans for 24-hour, confidential support by calling 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
239 - Challenging NICE's draft menopause guidance
238 - New Year, new mindset – why movement matters more than exercise
237 - The juggling act: how to navigate menopause and midlife
236 - Menopause in overlooked communities
235 - Menopause and brain health: what’s the link?
234 - Breast cancer treatment and HRT
233 - Gaslighting of genitourinary symptoms of the menopause
232 - Gabby Logan: the power of exercising in midlife
231 - Getting to the truth around HRT and breast cancer with Dr Avrum Bluming
230 - Confronting my menopause fears
229 - Testosterone: beyond libido
228 - Exercise ‘snacks’ and menopause with Lavina Mehta MBE
227 - Children and the menopause: the importance of talking
226 - From PMS to menopause: why we need to talk about hormones
225 - Cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and HRT
224 Confidence in the Menopause: introducing our revamped course
222 - Empowering women unheard during menopause
221 - Emma Kennedy: the menopause, the speculum and me
220 - Hormones, HRT and advocating for yourself
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