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
179 - Advancing menopause care after breast cancer with Dr Sarah Glynne
178 - My story of ‘treatment resistant depression’, ketamine and HRT
177 - Families, relationships and the power of connection with Julia Samuel
176 - Introducing new Chief Medical Director, Dr Magnus Harrison
175 - Mood, mental health and hormones with Dr Clair Crockett
174 - World Menopause Day Special with Dr Louise Newson
173 - The challenges of accessing menopause treatment as a young woman
172 - Learning to make empowered choices after cancer with Dani Binnington
171 - Finding hope with hormones after 20 years of struggling with my mental health
170 - Recognising and reversing osteoporosis with Dr Taher Mahmud
169 - The unfair choice for elite female athletes with Janet Birkmyre
168 - The facts and fiction about menopausal skin with Dr Sajjad Rajpar
167 - The benefits of yoga (revisited) with Lucy Holtom
166 - Researching suicide in perimenopause and menopause with Dr Pooja Saini
165 - When menopausal symptoms persist, with Dr Anna Chiles
164 - When ADHD collides with perimenopause with Margaret Reed Roberts
163 - When night sweats are not the menopause with Dr Susanna Crowe
162 - Divorce, perimenopause and menopause with Farhana Shahzady
161 - Jill’s experience of heart attacks and hormones
160 - Thinking hormones in psychiatric consultations with Dr Devika Patel
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