Newson Health and the menopause industry

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8e5y4e83lo

Keeping an eye on this. Newson makes an awful lot of money out of HRT.

I am a Newson Clinic patient and I have nothing but good things to say about the clinic.
The NHS will not give me HRT, I was forced into to menopause too early.
I cannot function on a basic level without HRT, it has saved my life and I have Louise's clinic to thank for that.
This is nothing more than a smear campaign to disempower women, in my opinion!

@Violet80 don't be ashamed. I didn't know much about it (still don't have my head around it due to conflicting schools of thought) until I started my own journey. I don't know the science but it is well documented that oestrogen protects you against the diseases I mention. Due to early-ish menopause I have been encouraged to take oestrogen until I'm at least 50 and likely beyond. The issue is that oestrogen also feeds hyperplasia and endo and so I need the coil to counteract that. What I've learned is that hrt is not a magic wand, it's more about balancing risk according to the severity of your menopausal symptoms, medical history and lifestyle. You will make the right decision for you when that time comes.

Could not agree more.

My doctor told me that joint pain, anxiety and brain fog have nothing to do with menopause. It's so frustrating.

I also have osteopoenia and would love to know if HRT could protect my bones before it's too late.

Considering some of the side effects of HRT, and considering that sometimes it exacerbates symptoms, I do think that it is wrongly suggested as a simple, failsafe, straightforward treatment with no downsides.

The list of symptoms of meno are very, very long. It's very hard to parse out what is ageing, what is hormones, what are the life-stresses of middle age, and to consider what balance we need of potential risks and potential benefits. I have friends who have found it very complex and difficult to balance the right dosage, added testosterone/progesterone, and some for whom it hasn't helped at all. And some for whom its contraindicated for various reasons. I'm sure it has helped others, too.

Lifestyle changes that can help include diet, exercise, weight management, stress management, nutrition, sleep, etc. Can probably help with many of those issues at least to an extent. Weight bearing exercise is wonderful for strengthening bones, from what I hear. Which isn't to say that HRT is wrong, either! Just that it shouldn't be automatically suggested as the only cure all for everything.

This 'decision tree' seems pretty sensible to me:

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/tree.php

This page may be helpful:

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/osteoporosis.php

I thought the newson clinic did bloods to see what your levels are and prescribe accordingly.

Which may seem more than the nhs prescribed as they don't test At ALL !

Interested to see this documentary later as I'm taping it.

I think private clinics are simply providing a paid for service plugging the sometimes appalling NHS gaps. Those gaps in availability AND shocking GP knowledge. There is no dark agenda. And making money from providing a service isn't the tool of the devil.

I use a private clinic. Not Newson. I don't have the time or patience to take my GP on the necessary learning journey.

Glad for those who receive excellent GP care.

Totally agree with @WitheringHighs, not as I'm a gp but because I've been through the hrt thing and then off due to hormonal BC. I don't think hrt was the magic bullet for me. It was at first but it didn't seem to last.

Weirdly I have a friends on 100 patches who seems to be getting more meno symptoms than I do off it and on tamoxifen now. I've watched two have full on hot flushes while we met up recently. (though it did take a while to go through all that. The half hourly cold/ hot sweats were fuuuuuun!)

I have spent a very long time working on life style stuff, more for the cancer to be honest (the women on the cancer threads here are amazing) but it seems to have helped the meno stuff too.

I exercise for cancer and eat for menopause

I had a consultation with a Newson Health GP who was very good. I had thirty minutes, she really listened and asked lots of questions before she prescribed a normal dose of HRT. I had a free follow up and then all prescriptions went via NHS. They wrote to my GP to help me get the progesterone for free when my local NHS wouldn’t fund it.

I didn’t feel they were trying to fleece me, the opposite in fact.

This is interesting, I looked at her website recently as wondering if I might have some peri menopause going on

Will watch it later tonight

I need to add that none of the above was easy and I 100% used my cancer diagnosis to take time off to learn how to manage my symptoms.

That is a luxury few women are able to have in my opinion. And yes I saw it as a luxury!

I think meno care starts when we are in our 20s and 30s with education about maintaining and building strength for bones.

Totally support women's right to have access to hrt but bigger picture needed of how to use it as a tool and not the only focus.

I have been told by my NHS GP and NHS Rheumatology that hrt is the first line treatment for oesteopenia. I was put on it at age 41 due to low bone density. Most women's bone density drops rapidly in menopause due to the lack of oestrogen so if yours is low hrt is advised in NICE guidance.
https://theros.org.uk/information-and-support/osteoporosis/treatment/hormone-replacement-therapy/

I exercise for cancer and eat for menopause
Could you explain what this means, please?

I once questioned the whole anti-depressants versus HRT thing on a forum and ended up being completely piled-on by her acolytes

Anti depressants are another excellent tool to try. It's the only medication for women with hormonal cancers and it does really work.

All options should be presented to women and risks and benefits explored.

I know of a woman who's found beta blockers a game changer

https://coles-books.co.uk/the-happy-menopause-smart-nutrition-to-help-you-flourish-by-jackie-lynch

There is this. Main takeaways for me were:

Drink LOTS more water and
Eat LOTS more protein.

Also now taking 400 vitamins, which has seemed to have helped. Magnesium being 1st.

Quite shocking. Louise Newson isn’t all she’s cracked up to be.

Thank you. It is good to get this opinion from a medical professional. I agree completely that lifestyle plays a huge part in symptoms of menopause along with so many other health issues, but this isn’t what people want to hear. They want a magic bullet and there’s a whole industry just waiting to capitalise on this.
I wonder what incentives these celebrity HRT promoters are given.

I would second anti depressants. Sertraline has helped me enormously. Anxiety was one of my first symptoms when I was peri (though I've always had anxiety to one degree or another) and I haven't come off them since starting low dose hrt. I don't think hrt alone would cut it for me.

WarriorN I'm sorry to hear about the cancer. Wishing you all the very best.

So the wonderful Liz o riordan pointed me towards the research around and books linked to how exercise reduces risk of reoccurrence post cancer, as well as helping manage side effects of chemo and radiotherapy mostly by trying to manage fatigue (and interestingly improving the impact of those treatments too.) if you were doing very little exercise pre diagnosis and start doing the recommended amounts, reoccurrence rates can be reduced by something like 30 % (might even be higher.) that's as much as some of the drugs you're given.

There's actually a trial looking at getting exercise classes for women post bc on the nhs.

Diet really does seem to help my meno symptoms.

A recent Zoe podcast said they'd found that many women on hrt still had symptom but diet could alleviate up to 30% for both those on hrt and those not on hrt.

I've also been reading bits of "grow your own hrt" - the old style diets of eating buckets of cabbage and swede appears to have been to western women what soya is to the women of Japan.

Yes - with the cancer exercise stuff they all yell "eat loads of protein!" As you're trying to remain strong.

If you go for plant protein (google vegan body building) you're also ticking off the good stuff we need to eat for meno - beans, nuts seeds etc.

I'm not vegan but eating way more of that type of thing than I ever was to boost protein.

Went through a rather windy phase though 💨

She deserves to be struck off! Offering more than two or three times the licensed dose of estrogen is just asking for trouble, it’s well known that this can cause hyperplasia (increased cell production in the womb) this can develop into cancer, absolutely horrendous. I have no medical qualifications, but it’s so easy to find the information on the web, she’s putting women’s health at risk. I see a menopause specialist and she has explained the risks to me of estrogen in too high a dose, and would never deviate from the British Menopause Society guidelines, Jesus it’s unbelievable 🤦‍♀️

Did they get micrograms and milligrams mixed up on Panorama?