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
216 - All about progesterone: PMS, PMDD, postnatal depression and menopause
215 - More than ‘a little vaginal dryness’: how vaginal hormones can transform lives
214 - Dry eyes and menopause: what’s the link?
213 - Lorraine Candy: how to make your midlife magnificent
212 - How to thrive at work during the menopause
211 - Melasma: keeping hyperpigmentation at bay in the summer
210 - What is the right dose of HRT for you? Hormones and premature ovarian insufficiency
209 - Learning disabilities and the menopause
208 - Ultra-processed food unwrapped with Henry Dimbleby
207 - Managing menopause while living with physical disabilities
206 - Utrogestan supply issues: what it means and alternatives available
205 - Author Joanne Harris: ending the invisibility of menopausal women
204 - Hormonal changes and mental health: maternal mental health awareness
203 - Nursing and the menopause: International Nurses Day special episode
202 - What does the future hold for menopause and HRT? With menopause activist Kate Muir
201 - More than skin deep: menopause, skin and HRT doses with Dr Andrew Weber
200 - Osteoporosis: how to protect your bones during menopause and beyond
199 - Rosacea and menopause: what’s the link?
198 - Joe Wicks: how to exercise and stay active during the menopause
197 - The problem with medicalising the menopause without HRT
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