Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I'm off to speak with Katrina and Eilidh about their Menopause Health Workshops at Maggie's.
00:05Both myself and Katrina we run the Menopause Workshops here at Maggie's.
00:09Day to day we meet women coming in the centre and we hear the impact of cancer treatments
00:15on their lives, the side effects that they have and sometimes or often the mix of that
00:21menopausal side effects can get overlooked initially.
00:24Well there's such a range of side effects that can come with cancer treatment induced
00:30menopause so those can be more on the physical side, hot flushes and not just a couple of
00:35hot flushes, you know sequences of hot flushes, hot flushes through the night, disturbing
00:39sleep but it can also be changes to things like cognitive function, memory, concentration,
00:45all of which can make it really difficult to manage sort of day to day activities that
00:50would have felt quite straightforward before.
00:52Cancer treatment induced menopause is very abrupt so with a more natural menopause, not
00:58always, but with a more natural menopause the symptoms may start to appear over a period
01:03of time but with cancer treatments it all seems to happen all at once.
01:08What's great about workshops and the different groups we have here at Maggie's is we get
01:12women together because they can feel very isolated and alone in what's happening but
01:18by getting them together they know they're not alone and that there's others experiencing
01:22similar challenges.
01:23I mean it has to be said that you know for women who can have HRT and they get the benefits
01:28from it that you know that's fantastic but there are women that will go on HRT who maybe
01:33perhaps don't as well so there's a lot of hype out there and information that can perhaps
01:39make a lot of women think well maybe I should be on HRT when maybe they might not benefit
01:44from it or maybe they might not need to be, it's not always the answer.
01:49We like to give a bit of a background around the role that hormones play in the body because
01:55there's a lot to learn there, understanding what happens when you have different cancer
02:00treatments, how these affect hormone levels, possible symptoms, side effects and challenges
02:06that can play out with those and then as Eilidh mentioned kind of looking at yes the possibility
02:13of medical management of those effects but also the wider lifestyle factors which might
02:17be more applicable and suitable to more people.
02:20Another aspect that we cover in these sessions is talking about the role that hormones play
02:25in keeping our bodies healthy and well that we don't see the kind of invisible role that
02:30they play so that can be ensuring our heart health, ensuring our bone health, ensuring
02:35that we're able to be sexually active in the way that we want to be, all of these things
02:38that are maybe a little bit more hidden and not so openly discussed.
02:42So I think in the future explore a different topic around female hormone health, we'll
02:46just see and what we like to do here at Maggie's is discuss with the women who come into the
02:52centre what their needs are, what their questions are and then kind of build a workshop around
02:58that.
02:58I think that's been one of the greatest parts of it is bringing that conversation together
03:02so that women don't feel so alone.