Surrey & Sussex Private GP

21/08/2023

🍎 Changing habits - 🍏 changes experiences and 🍎 changes outcomes … we all have some ‘bad habits’?! I’ve been thinking about mine ALOT! I’ve always come to my lovely friendly hairdressers with my laptop and worked during my colour & cut, they’ve accommodated me each time. BUT today I’m going to flick through some magazines. Can’t remember the last time I did this!?! Excited to see what ideas I may come across! Have you tried changing a habit of late? If you did, what would it be?

19/08/2023

This comprehensive booklet ‘Understanding Menopause’ is proving to be such a valuable resource for patients in clinic & community!

Particularly at a time where access and time with health care professionals is so scarce and menopause misinformation is rife.

It’s available in paper to download from the website. Grateful to and for creating it & posting it out to those who request it by emailing hello@menopausesupport.co.uk

It’s a brilliant resource to share within your community and medical team. Covering all areas including , and . I’ve had such great feedback so far as you see!

17/08/2023

It’s my birthday 🎉 today… I’m 45, perimenopausal, it’s certainly not what I had imagined or planned, but full to the brim of what is important for life! The last few weeks challenges have shown me this: Family, love, friendship, connection, sunshine after rain, breathing, reflection and positivity. My family got me an outdoor speaker and I’ve been sat her listening to music 🎶 from Queen & Bowie and enjoying the moment. I now believe I can get back from this disc prolapse 💪🏼 the pain will pass, I’ll come back slower but mentally stronger and with more self compassion. 🎈 I hope you’re having a good day and if your not, I hear you and please lean on those around you & reach out 🙏🏽

26/07/2023

Exciting news about the benefits of static muscle exercises today (isometric) - such as wall sits and plank. Exercise is fundamental for your health but even better if there is evidence to show little gems that can help reduce your risk of high blood pressure without massively sweating! Everyone should know about this! 🔊 So motivating!! Drop them into your day and evidence suggests it will help lower your blood pressure. However, who should take extra care? I’ve included the main paper and it’s summaries. What do you think? I’d love to hear the thoughts of the fitness affiliated peeps here!

25/07/2023

Contraception clinic today as a locum at a new practice. It went well 😊 we had 3 of these trolleys and lots of procedures. As a user it’s easy to overlook the work & materials that goes into providing a service in a practice and we are very fortunate to have this provided for free in the NHS. It empowers women to get contraception care not just to avoid pregnancy but period pains, heaviness, endometrial protection and much more. It was so satisfying to run the clinic and they appreciated it enormously. I’m so glad I can carry this skill in my bag of tools 🛠️ Women need options!

Mirena is a 5 year intrauterine system. It’s the only one licensed for:
with

Heavy and/or irregular bleeding can be a sign of and at this time the Mirena can be life changing, reducing blood loss by almost 90% and allowing oestrogen to be added easily.

If you have questions about intrauterine devices - feel free 👇🏼
I would love to hear your thoughts 💭

25/07/2023

Had my annual orthodontic check and a very clever scan for my replacement retainer.

There are five stages in a women’s life during which changes in hormone levels make them more susceptible to oral health problems –
puberty,
the monthly menstruation cycle,
when using oral contraceptives,
during pregnancy and
at menopause.

What is the link between hormones and women's oral health? Coming soon on a Q & A! There is an enormous link between lifestyle choices and oral health of course!

This was my summer priority both in terms of time and money. Investing in the right health choices is important. What’s yours? Maybe jot them down!

23/07/2023

If you’ve felt less controlled and well, despite being on HRT then this explanation may be useful.

21/07/2023

Fantastic resource made available by The Menopause Charity and Dementia UK

There has been a lot of talk about dementia and menopause recently, so we wanted to remind you of the great resource we developed with last year

For some women experiencing menopause, it can be challenging to differentiate whether symptoms including 'brain fog' and concentration issues are a result of hormonal changes or a sign of dementia. While women living with young onset dementia, may also struggle to discern whether their symptoms are being cause by menopause.

Together we released a resource providing information on the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, and how living with young onset dementia and perimenopause and/or menopause can impact day-to-day life.

Check out our leaflet https://www.themenopausecharity.org/young-onset-dementia-and-menopause/

14/07/2023

It’s about time we noticed that research on women is inept and there is a gender research gap. “In general, (women) have different hormones, different body fat distribution, a different (average) size and different risk factors for various diseases to men. They also have periods, pregnancies and menopause”. This article The Guardian is very much worth a read.

Seems startlingly obvious given it’s over 50% of the population but this was not taken into consideration and for most areas such as crash dummy testing, sports recovery and ultra sports guidance is based on research on white men.

But… it’s being noticed and I look forward to change coming 👊🏼 … As Trustee The Menopause Charity I know we are going to support quality research into women’s health in the future.

In the meantime… if you’ve incorporated movement and exercise, then it’s definitely got benefits and it’s important (as I found) to listen to your body as you know it best. 🏃🏽‍♀️ 🏊🏼‍♀️ 🧘‍♀️ 💃🏽🚲

A new audit shows that most sports research is conducted by men on other men – meaning we don’t even know if women should be doing things differently

07/07/2023

Balance exercises include - yoga, Pilates, tai chi, standing on one leg, standing/sitting from chair without arms, hopping etc . Regular exercise can significant reduce the risk of developing dementia by about 30% ( ). I enjoy a bit of balance work before heading out to work as you don’t really sweat! Doing it in mini snack sizes through day is great too. I would love to try tai chi and need to make time for this! What about you?