109: Dr Louise Newson on Menopause Advocacy and Education

Transcript

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Welcome to the Dear Menopause podcast.

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I'm Sonya Lovell, your host Now.

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I've been bringing you conversations with amazing menopause experts for over two years now.

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If you have missed any of those conversations, now's the time to go back and listen, and you can always share them with anyone you think needs to hear them.

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This way, more people can find these amazing conversations, needs to hear them.

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This way, more people can find these amazing conversations.

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Hi everybody, big, warm welcome to this week's episode of Dear Menopause.

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Louise Newson is joining me from the very early hours of a wintry English day and she's got a little bit of a cold, so you might hear that come through in her voice.

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Hi Louise, how are you?

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Hi Sonya.

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Well, other than my cold cold I am fine.

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Actually, I'm getting very excited about seeing you again in real life.

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I know what do we mean.

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We're talking about the so Hot Right Now event that is happening in Sydney, and that's the big event on the Saturday at the Sydney Opera House, and you also have a number of kind of satellite events happening around that as well.

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We've got a big lunch on Friday and then there's a big medical conference on the Sunday as well.

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We've got a big lunch on Friday and then there's a big medical conference on the Sunday as well.

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So it's a jam packed weekend, something for everyone and such an amazing event to be able to really make available to the Australian women and Australian community.

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It's going to be a blast and I'm so excited to get to see you again.

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Yeah yeah.

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No, it's great, it's.

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Things have really moved on, though since I was last in Australia, I feel like you know we're all behind.

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We're all behind to how we were 22 years ago, actually, with hormones and awareness and knowledge, but actually I think Australia is really waking up to the fact that we need to be talking about it.

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We need to be thinking about it.

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We need to be thinking about it.

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We need to be thinking about it as individuals, as healthcare professionals, as policymakers and just as anybody who knows anybody, because we also need to be thinking about future health as well, and that's something that's been ignored so much.

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So I just love what's happening over in your country actually.

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I know I did a deep dive into my calendar actually and had a quick look at when you were actually here last and it was October 2023.

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So we're talking 15, 16 months ago now and we absolutely have had such a shift here in Australia when it comes to the conversation, the places the conversations are now being held.

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We've had the Senate inquiry, obviously, which you participated in on one of the evidence days, and we find ourselves weeks away from I would hazard a guess, is probably the biggest event that's ever been held in Australia.

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That is just about perimenopause and menopause yeah, I might sneak in a little bit about hormones at other times, but totally, I mean, who would have thought when the Sydney Opera House was being built all those years ago that they would actually allow an event like this?

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Brilliant, yeah, it's great.

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Now, louise, one of the things that anybody that knows you, anybody that follows you, anybody that listens to you on different podcasts in your own work, really should be aware of your incredible passion for improving healthcare for women, and, as you know you touched on just a couple of minutes ago, it's not just about the hormones, and it's not just about perimenopause and menopause.

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It's also about longevity and long term health as well.

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So would you perhaps be able to give me a quick soundbite of what Louise Newsom does for anyone that's listening that perhaps hasn't come across your work before?

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Yeah, I think probably it's useful just to say a bit about my background, because I don't have a conventional background.

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I mean, everyone's story is different, isn't it?

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Everyone's career is different.

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But I actually, as part of my medical training, I took a year out and did a pathology degree, so a study of disease BSc.

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I got a first class honours degree from it and that really sparked my interest in about the study of diseases why do they happen, what goes wrong in the body, and a molecular you know, really looking at those individual cells, what happens.

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Anyway, I did that.

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Then I wanted to do cancer medicine, so I did a lot of hospital medicine.

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I'm a member of the Royal College of Physicians.

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I did lots of different specialties and then I went into general practice, but I went part time because I've got three daughters and my husband's a surgeon and I wanted to see them, watch them, help them grow up.

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So I was a medical writer and I'm very interested in evidence-based medicine.

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I've written four books for GPs about evidence-based medicine, summarising guidelines, summarising key papers, articles, so they could read them very quickly, the summaries, rather than having to go into deep dive.

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And I've done that for 25 years actually, and so I guess one of my skills not just being a doctor is being able to unpick evidence and read papers in a way that's very critical, very analytical, but to translate them.

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So the average not anyone's average, of course, but the average sort of person that wants short sentences, two syllables, can just like read.

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So I've done that for many years.

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I had no training about menopause as an undergraduate or postgraduate, I think.

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When I was doing gynecology I was told a few hot flushes, something women just experienced.

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That was it.

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But because of my sort of academic brain, I've been sort of thinking and joining the dots for many years, thinking hang on, what goes wrong in the body?

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What happens?

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What do these hormones do?

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It's like all we've heard is hormones equals breast cancer and it's like hang on, hormones are something that are just chemicals that are natural in our body and they are chemical messengers and they go everywhere in our body and we've got lots and lots of hormones.

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So the ones that we're really talking about are just three estradiol, progesterone, testosterone.

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So then, when you unpick the basics and say well, they work in various ways.

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They work on every cell in our body.

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They reduce inflammation, they keep our heart, our lungs, our kidney, our bowel, especially our brain, really healthy.

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So hang on, what happens in menopause?

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We don't have those hormones, the levels are low and stay low forever.

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So I'm coming at it thinking it is a multi-system disorder.

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That is a real priority to understand because we live so much longer as women.

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And this whole sort of health span versus lifespan I'm very interested in.

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You know, it's not the age we die, it's a journey to that age.

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And we know women live in poor health, often for the last 10 years of their life.

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There's lots of reasons for that, but one of the reasons, of course we know women live in poor health, often for the last 10 years of their life, and there's lots of reasons for that.

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But one of the reasons, of course we know, is because they don't have hormones, so they have an increased risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, dementia, diabetes, inflammatory conditions and so forth.

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So as soon as I sort of joined the dots and realised, and then realised there's a massive difference between our natural hormones and synthetic hormones that we've been giving women for years and we still do, as contraception.

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They're very different in the body, they work very differently in the body and so when you realize all this.

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It's like well, I want to share this knowledge, I want to enable people to make decisions that are right for them, and so it's very, it's a lot easier now, isn't it, to be able to share, you know, through podcasts, through?

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You know?

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I've written books on menopause, but they don't have the reach that other platforms do, and a lot of my work is about sharing information and knowledge because I've been a medical writer for so long.

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But it's also driven by the injustice, actually, of women being unable to receive evidence-based treatment, and I know it's the same in Australia than it is in UK.

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But it's actually easier to get antidepressants than it is to get HRT, and that's fine if that's what people want and need.

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But every day I'm hearing stories of women that don't actually need antidepressants because they're not clinically depressed and they don't want them either.

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So this is what sort of drives me to get off in the morning thinking about these women who aren't as fortunate as me, who haven't been able to see a healthcare provider who understands what they want and need.

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That's quite a long answer, but anyway, hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea.

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Absolutely, that's a great real insight into what brought you to where you are today it was also your personal experience as you started transitioning through perimenopause and menopause as well, that really kind of cemented for you that there was this huge knowledge gap and support gap.

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And one of the other things that I'd like to highlight that I think that you have done such an incredible job at and that is really bringing together globally doctors and specialists and GPs to really open up this conversation for everybody.

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I think about Australia as an example, and I think about some of the incredible local GPs that we have that are now starting to do such amazing work Dr Emma Harvey, dr Kerry Cashel, drita Shalva.

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We've got Dr Joe Bruce.

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I know that none of these GPs potentially would have connected in the same way without you, yeah, and I love that.

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You know people connect me, connect with me all all the time.

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Actually, it's often to ask advice.

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You know, I've seen this patient, what do you think?

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And obviously I've got a huge amount of clinical knowledge and experience that I didn't have, you know, know, 10, 20 years ago.

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I would never have had any conversations 20 years ago because I didn't know the myriad of symptoms I didn't understand.

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And it's really interesting, isn't it, when you're being given information that you didn't grow up with, whether you're a healthcare professional or anybody.

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And it goes two ways, doesn't it?

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Either people embrace that new knowledge and go gosh, I want to find out more.

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Is this person right?

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Really, I didn't know that, wow, and they go back and read and work for themselves.

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Or there's this resistance where they know that she can't be right.

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She can't be right.

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And that's not just in this conversation, that's anything in life.

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And it's that rigidity of thinking, that sort of willful blindness that's still going on, that I find quite interesting.

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Actually, it's about just personalities, it's about human nature.

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Yesterday I was down at the Houses of Parliament roundtable group talking about osteoporosis and there are a few people there who I'd spoken to about five years ago who told me quite clearly, to my face that it was my opinion that hormones were good to for bone strength, but it wasn't their opinion, so they wouldn't put it on their platform or whatever their website.

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And I said, well, it's not my opinion, this is evidence, this is just basic knowledge.

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And they said no.

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And I was looking at the emails.

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I still got them when they were pushing back five years ago.

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And then yesterday I gave a short presentation about the importance of hormones, bearing in mind one in two women have osteoporosis, and no one pushed back.

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They said, yeah, no, this is really important, we need to get this message out.

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I said, gosh, isn't it interesting?

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But this is just human nature, isn't it?

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And I think that's what's really interesting, but difficult as well, because some people are very quick for change and other people aren't, and then that makes it really confusing for people as well.

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And there's nothing that you know.

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We can never know everything about every disease, every condition.

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You know, we're learning all the time and we don't get things 100% right.

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As doctors, we share uncertainty with patients, but I think what's happened for far too long is it's been a no.

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Hrt is so dangerous, let's not even talk about it, and that's because of this misinterpretation.

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Of course, as you know, the WHI the Women's Health Initiative study from decades ago.

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But that was decades ago, sonia, it wasn't yesterday.

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We've had a long time to unpick the evidence, but whenever I go to conferences, they're still talking about that study and it's affecting the way women can access hormones.

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Yeah, and it's such a shame.

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It's such a shame that, as you said, we've been talking about this for such a long time and we've been talking about the WHI for such a long time, and it is so frustrating on so many levels that we have to keep talking about it and we can't seem to get over this hurdle and create the change.

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And yeah, you really make such a good point about how everybody does come to their decision about what's right for them over different periods of time.

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Some people are very quick adapters and they'll take something new and they'll, you know, be super curious of mind and they'll run off, like you said, and do their own research and they'll decide what's right for them.

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But there are others that are much more resistant to a quick change.

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And, yeah, and it's finding, I suppose, a balance between those two, as somebody that is trying to make such a difference and to educate, that at times that must be, you know, a fine line that you have to walk.

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Yeah, absolutely, but I think you know I don't really like seeing my faces, but I'm quite clever.

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I know a little bit, but I know the science.

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You know I used to work at Birmingham University and teach a graduate entry student, so these are people that have already got a degree and then they go into medicine and a lot of them had physiology degrees, pharmacology degrees.

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They were good scientists as well.

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It's quite intimidating when you're older and you're teaching these people and it was very discussion-led-based learning and that really challenged me.

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And actually then I went back to my undergraduate texts.

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I went back to my pathology notes for my degree, but with the knowledge now of what it's like to actually have those diseases, because when you're young you don't know what it's like to have diabetes.

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And I think this is what's joining the dots is really important.

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Is this translational research.

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You know I've had academic papers published.

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They haven't actually helped anyone.

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They're just interesting laboratory type research, whereas actually what you want to do is combine any scientific papers with real life data as well, because what I want to do is help that woman in front of me.

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I don't want to say to her well, we haven't got that study, let's come back in 20 years time when we've got, you know, this really big study that might or might not be funded, bearing in mind we've got, you know, this really big study that might or might not be funded, bearing in mind this women's health.

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You know it's actually well, no, let's just unpick what we've got and then it's really easy actually with hormones, because all you do is work out how they work in our body, because it's not like I'm giving a drug.

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You know, if I was giving an antidepressant.

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There's a big debate about SSRIs and serotonin and how they work, and I can understand.

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It's very complicated, but all I'm doing.

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We were so lucky and you have as well in Australia these they're just the natural hormones you replace like with like.

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So they're actually not really drugs, they're not paracetamol, they're just hormones.

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And so if you think, well, what am I doing?

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What are the risks, what are the side effects, what are the problems or what are the benefits, we'll just go back and see how they work in the body and then it all fits into place really yeah, it's such a good point, isn't it?

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because there is so much pushback about this whole over medicating that if, if it's just a replacement of what we naturally have with a product, that it is a natural product.

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It's not a, it's not an over medication.

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It's not a medication to begin with and we don't talk about over medication of raised blood pressure, and raised blood pressure doesn't usually cause it yeah, but but if you think, I think raised blood pressure is a really good analogy, because most people don't have symptoms when they've got raised blood pressure, and we know most women have menopausal symptoms, so it's something that's usually asymptomatic hypertension, but we treat people to lower their numbers, to reduce their risk of a heart attack.

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Now we've got good data that women who take hormones have a lower risk of a heart attack, in fact lower than if they were a had raised blood pressure, reduced their blood pressure with antihypertensive medication.

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So even it.

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And and then you know, talk about osteoporosis as well.

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So even if you were only in in inverted commas, giving hormones to improve future health, that's not a bad thing.

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We don't say, oh, you're over-medicalized because you're on lisinopril for your blood pressure.

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You say, oh, that's really good, my blood pressure's come down, my risk is reduced.

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And then the other discussion about this over-medicalization is hang on.

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Most women I see in my clinic are on antidepressants, they're on painkillers.

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Sometimes they're on sleeping tablets.

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Increasingly they're on antipsychotics, you know.

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They're on statins, they're on blood pressure lowering trap.

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So we deprescribe quite a lot when they're better because they don't need these medications yeah, yeah.

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It's a fascinating and frustrating kind of conversation that keeps unraveling as a result of shining a light and rate and change, trying to really bring a more positive narrative into just what should really be a no-brainer for so many women.

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Yeah, totally but I think we're getting there and I think what's also easy is that people can access medical literature in the way that they couldn't before.

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You know, 20, 30 years ago you had to go to an academic library at a university, you had to go and find the original paper.

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You had to go to an academic library at a university, you had to go and find the original paper, you had to go and read it, whereas now you've got PubMed and a lot of articles now are free, open access, so it's not just the abstract, you can read the whole article.

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For example, the article that we have published in a peer reviewed journal about oestrogen dosing.

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You know some women need higher dosing for adequate absorption.

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That's a freely available, open access academic paper.

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So I can share the link you click on.

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You read it as a non-healthcare professional, whereas 30 years ago, when I was starting to do more writing and evidence-based medicine, there was no way you could access, as a non-healthcare professional, that sort of information.

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Yeah, and I think that's really good.

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I don't see why, a doctor, I need to know different things to you as a non-healthcare professional, because I don't know what it's like to be you, sonia, I don't know what it's like to have any conditions you've had in the past.

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I don't know what your menopause is like.

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I can guess because you can tell me, but I have no idea, so I can't make decisions for you.

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I can just support your decision and listen to you and we can come to a conclusion together.

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You, I can just support your decision and listen to you and we can come to a conclusion together.

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And that's where medicine's really changed, because you know it used to be very paternalistic.

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You do this, you do that.

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I am the doctor, don't argue with me and it's great, you know, yeah, yeah, of information totally, and I am a doctor and a patient, you know, and I think so I can see it from both sides, um, but it's really important to be involved in decision making.

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Absolutely.

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I'm a huge advocate for patient led decision making and conversations and I had somebody reach out to me the other day in the menopause and cancer community who was feeling really frustrated.

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She was here in Australia and she'd done a lot of her own research, had made a decision that she wanted to try taking HRT.

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She knew what her risks were but she was getting a hard no every time she had the conversation with her doctor and that's such a frustrating position for someone to be in.

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Nobody should ever get a hard no about anything without some type of conversation.

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I think so because I think the thing is it's like you say, it's about individual choice and knowledge, weighing up any risks and benefits.

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And you know, I had a lady recently who's one of my well, she was a patient and I saw her seven years ago optimized her hormones.

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She's doing very well.

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She gets her HRT from her NHS GP.

00:17:56.941 --> 00:17:58.005
So I haven't seen her for years.

00:17:58.005 --> 00:18:05.508
And then she emailed me a few weeks ago and she said Louise, I'm really struggling.

00:18:05.548 --> 00:18:17.099
They've reduced my dose and now I've got pins and needles, I've got pain, I can't walk very well and it's a real problem because I look after my husband with dementia and they've said I can't have any other dose because I will get, will not, might, will get cancer of the womb.

00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:23.002
And they've had a group meeting at the practice and they've said who's going to look after your husband when you die from endometrial cancer?

00:18:23.002 --> 00:18:25.616
Now this lady has had normal scans, she's had no bleeding.

00:18:25.616 --> 00:18:25.959
Oh my goodness.

00:18:25.959 --> 00:18:34.291
I know she can't afford to come to the clinic and she shouldn't and I just thought, hang on, even if, worst case scenario, she had endometrial cancer.

00:18:34.291 --> 00:18:36.011
It's up to her to decide.

00:18:36.300 --> 00:18:43.931
And actually, her risk of not walking, her risk of osteoporosis, heart disease and everything else will increase without her adequate dose of hormones.

00:18:43.931 --> 00:18:47.329
So I think you know, as doctors we are not God.

00:18:47.329 --> 00:18:49.768
We cannot control patients.

00:18:49.768 --> 00:18:52.409
You know I don't judge people differently because they smoke.

00:18:52.409 --> 00:18:59.041
I like to inform patients and people that smoking is not good for you, but I'm not going to judge anyone differently.

00:18:59.041 --> 00:19:03.540
Or, you know, talk to them in a different way to treat them precisely, you just don't do it.

00:19:03.662 --> 00:19:08.902
That's one of the first things I did, and I've been doing a lot of work last year in areas of deprivation.

00:19:08.902 --> 00:19:10.765
I've been going to quite a few prisons as well.

00:19:10.765 --> 00:19:15.614
Um, because I used to work in a prison and I didn't know anything about hormones and now I do.

00:19:15.614 --> 00:19:17.684
I've sort of gone back and see all these poor women.

00:19:17.684 --> 00:19:26.381
Yeah, they've got early menopause because they've had drug abuse, they've had, you know, very chaotic lives and the ovaries often switch off to protect themselves.

00:19:26.381 --> 00:19:28.365
So they're getting these myriad of symptoms.

00:19:28.365 --> 00:19:31.329
Some of the life is obviously a menopausal because they're older, because they're older?

00:19:31.349 --> 00:19:32.632
yeah, they're not getting any hormones.

00:19:32.653 --> 00:19:37.851
They're just unable to access it at all and they're they're chaotic sort of lifestyle.

00:19:37.912 --> 00:19:48.281
Their symptoms, especially their, their mental health symptoms, are just blamed for their past life and their trauma and their this and that and it's like, hang on, guys, these people are menopausal as well, but there's this sort of blinker.

00:19:48.281 --> 00:19:50.972
So it's you know, it affects everybody.

00:19:50.972 --> 00:19:57.372
It's not just white middle-class women who just have a few little symptoms and they want to feel really well.

00:19:57.372 --> 00:20:04.946
It's not that and that's sometimes how it's perceived and it shouldn't be, because most people die from heart disease and dementia.

00:20:04.946 --> 00:20:15.390
Anything that we can do to reduce that risk and keep healthy as women but also stay in the workplace like if I wasn't taking HRT, there's no way I would be working as a doctor because my brain just went.

00:20:15.390 --> 00:20:16.701
I couldn't remember anything?

00:20:16.942 --> 00:20:18.146
yeah, no, well, I'd be the same.

00:20:18.146 --> 00:20:27.481
I have to say, I don't believe that I would have the capacity to produce and edit my own podcast and have these amazing conversations that I'm so lucky to be able to have.

00:20:27.481 --> 00:20:38.923
If you know, I wasn't on hormones and it wasn't allowing me that clarity of mind, the energy that I need yet to be able to and to be able to multitask again, which I lost for a while oh, it's so hard.

00:20:39.125 --> 00:20:41.530
It's so hard you don't know until you've been there.

00:20:41.530 --> 00:20:47.623
But the other thing, like you know, I have to say to people and I'm sure I said to you, sonia, when I met you it's a reversible decision.

00:20:47.623 --> 00:20:54.547
So if you were taking hormones and your dose was optimized and you worried every day or you didn't feel right, well, you just stop them.

00:20:54.547 --> 00:20:56.411
Yeah, no one's coming.

00:20:56.411 --> 00:21:00.248
I like I don't go around to people's houses and put their patches on twice a week.

00:21:00.729 --> 00:21:15.278
I don't force them to take hormones, yeah, and then, just ever since you said that to me and I do, I remember that so clearly because it was such a simple but important light bulb moment for me I've had that same conversation with so many people that have said to me you know, oh, but you know what?

00:21:15.278 --> 00:21:19.249
If it doesn't work, I'm like stop taking it, it's really, really well.

00:21:19.269 --> 00:21:20.711
This is the thing I think people think.

00:21:20.711 --> 00:21:25.512
It like lasts in the body forever and once you're on it, you've got to stay on it and it's.

00:21:25.512 --> 00:21:40.895
You know, if I and in fact we were in Croatia on a holiday in the summer and I changed my patches obviously twice a week, and it was on a Thursday we'd gone to a art gallery and then we're sitting having lunch, and then in the evening we're having like a supper and the children go.

00:21:40.895 --> 00:21:41.819
What's wrong with you, mummy?

00:21:41.819 --> 00:21:48.766
You're really irritable and I was like, oh, I don't know, maybe it's the heat or whatever, but I was just feeling just not quite right and I was getting a bit of joint stiffness.

00:21:48.766 --> 00:21:56.582
And then I'm feeling my back's like, oh, now I didn't put my patches on and it's amazing how quickly they can work out of your system because the system.

00:21:56.903 --> 00:22:01.512
The half-life is so short, um, and that is a, you know it's a good and a bad thing.

00:22:01.512 --> 00:22:03.625
It's reassuring to those people to know.

00:22:03.625 --> 00:22:15.291
I mean, I don't give implants, so implants will last in the body for a long time, yeah, but if you have it through the skin, you can stuff at any time and I think that's really important for people to know absolutely 100 louise.

00:22:15.653 --> 00:22:20.788
We are so excited to be able to welcome you back to thank you.

00:22:20.788 --> 00:22:27.084
A warm and sunny australia where there are no signs of winter colds good, bring it on.

00:22:27.084 --> 00:22:31.112
And rebecca's coming back with you as well, which is great, fantastic.

00:22:31.112 --> 00:22:33.202
And yeah, what are you most excited about?

00:22:33.202 --> 00:22:38.124
I mean, how do you feel about the fact that you're going to be, you know, speaking in the opera house?

00:22:38.344 --> 00:22:39.006
well, do you know what?

00:22:39.006 --> 00:22:46.662
I sort of live in a parallel world, because I don't think any of this is happening to me, because that's the only way I can cope, and that's like yeah, I am.

00:22:47.222 --> 00:22:48.385
I'm very weird in my mind.

00:22:48.385 --> 00:22:52.560
So anything good and anything bad, I don't think it's happening to me.

00:22:52.560 --> 00:22:59.124
It's like I've got this identical twin that I look after and nurture and encourage, but it's not me and and and it's.

00:22:59.124 --> 00:23:04.684
I think people don't understand that really, I'm, I feel very privileged that I can come and share my knowledge and experience.

00:23:04.684 --> 00:23:08.161
I'm not coming thinking, wow, this is me, I'm going on the stage.

00:23:08.161 --> 00:23:09.704
It's not about that, it's I.

00:23:09.704 --> 00:23:12.392
This is where I'm quite conflicted and I think people don't understand.

00:23:12.392 --> 00:23:16.628
I'm looking forward actually to seeing the energy from people.

00:23:16.628 --> 00:23:20.230
I'm looking forward to just seeing this connection that you might know.

00:23:20.230 --> 00:23:22.648
I did this theatre tour before Christmas.

00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:24.487
I went to 34 different theatres.

00:23:24.487 --> 00:23:24.708
Yeah.

00:23:25.101 --> 00:23:32.060
And my mother was an actress actually and I thought, god, I never go on the stage Like actually.

00:23:32.060 --> 00:23:33.626
And I thought, god, I never go on the stage like what am I doing?

00:23:33.626 --> 00:23:36.997
But actually there's nothing better than a real audience to really feel that, not just the love, but the connection.

00:23:36.997 --> 00:23:50.305
You know this, this sort of joining of people, even just hearing people in the interval like women after us were talking to go oh, I've met this person and she bought me a drink and now we've shared emails and we're going to set up this group and it's like bringing on this is what.

00:23:50.305 --> 00:23:53.730
So that's what I'm looking forward to more than anything really.

00:23:53.730 --> 00:23:57.020
Um so, and also, you know, your country's lovely.

00:23:57.020 --> 00:23:59.907
I mean, I'm going to Perth and Melbourne as well.

00:23:59.907 --> 00:24:15.623
So I'm doing an academic conference in Perth for urologists, so I'm looking forward to converting them into thinking about hormones as well when we think about recurrent newly trapped infections, and my husband's a urologist, so he's a bit annoyed actually, because I'm going to see some of his friends and colleagues.

00:24:15.702 --> 00:24:16.905
But you know, too bad.

00:24:16.905 --> 00:24:23.567
And we have the wonderful Dr Kelly Casperson coming out, who is also a urologist Kelly's amazing yeah.

00:24:23.646 --> 00:24:32.911
So you know I really love that take of um from you, that you know what you're most looking forward to is just that energy and I must admit I I feel very much the same.

00:24:32.911 --> 00:24:37.805
You know I'm lucky enough to have been to the opera house and countless times to attend different things.

00:24:37.805 --> 00:24:46.949
Uh, yeah, to be in a room with over 2000 um, you know I would imagine predominantly women, um, assigned female at birth it is.

00:24:46.949 --> 00:24:52.634
It is going to be an absolute joy yeah, no, I mean, it's such a privilege.

00:24:52.695 --> 00:24:55.042
It's a one-in-a-lifetime experience, isn't it?

00:24:55.042 --> 00:24:56.547
But um, yeah, no, it'd be good.

00:24:56.547 --> 00:24:59.603
I'm looking forward to it, definitely, and I'm looking forward to the heat too.

00:24:59.603 --> 00:25:03.131
Yeah, a bit of warmth, yeah excellent.

00:25:03.151 --> 00:25:03.412
Louise.

00:25:03.412 --> 00:25:10.560
Thank you so much for your time today, and I am very much looking forward to um hugging you when we get to meet again in Sydney.

109: Dr Louise Newson on Menopause Advocacy and Education

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