Dr Louise Newson: [00:00:02] So Matt you're on my podcast and I'm very excited to talk to you because my husband introduced me to you actually, he was scrolling through Instagram as you do in a very romantic way in the evening and it was the one about being an entrepreneur and having loads of emails and it's like, oh don't disturb me, I've got this email and this email and he was sharing it with my family and going, this is your mother and it was quite funny. And so, and it was a great little video and it is how I work because I have lots of things going on. My mission is to improve the global health of women and there are lots of women. And so I'm very busy, but then once I started looking at your account, then suddenly you're wearing a wig and you're being a perimenopausal woman. And it's just the most amazing thing and you have so much engagement. So I'm really keen to talk to you about like, why are you doing this? And what the response has been? And like, just tell me a bit about you. [00:01:01][59.1]
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Matt Hyams: [00:01:01] Okay, well, I'm a comedian first. Well, I am a husband first, I suppose.  [00:01:05][4.1]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:01:06] Yeah, well done, right answer.  [00:01:07][1.3]
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Matt Hyams: [00:01:09] You ask a comedian, no, they're always going to make themselves comic first. So my main thing is I've just been trying to be a comedy writer, comedian for years and I've tried a lot of different things. And so I write scripts, I do stand up also. And I also love social media and I love the immediacy of it and I loved making videos and I have made a lot different kinds of videos over the years. Actually, I made that entrepreneur video a couple years ago.  [00:01:35][26.4]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:01:36] Okay.  [00:01:36][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:01:37] On December 23rd. So I like try like a lot of different things on Instagram, like what will see, what we will hit. And it's been a long road to be honest with you.  [00:01:45][8.3]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:01:46] Yeah.  [00:01:46][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:01:46] So on December 23rd, I made a video that was like tips for men whose wives are going through perimenopause. It was like, don't chew as much, don't be around as much, but I was just kind of like, trying to be funny. And I didn't really think much of the video. Like I was like you just try to be like, oh, I haven't made a video in a while. I've got to stay alive. I've gotta do something to feel creative, be funny, so I made that video and that blew up. And then I was, like, I'll follow it up with a how to say happy New Year's to your perimenopausal wife and then that blew up. And I was like, oh yeah, if everyone loves the wife stuff, I'm going to repost the entrepreneur one and this one where I'm being my wife on the drive in the passenger seat in the car, because she's a huge backseat driver. And it's very annoying. And then those blew up. And then I was, like, all right, I'm just going to keep the wig on and be my wife and keep going with this with perimenopause and entrepreneur and mental load. And that's what happened and now and then this I started growing and all these women were coming out of the woodwork being like she is us, we are her, it was like an I am Spartacus moment and like I was like and they were like you see me I feel validated and I was like okay you know and I love it and I get like really nice messages from women and men. They're like I show your video to my husband and now he understands me more and, but my main thing was like to be funny. I wasn't trying to become like the king of perimenopause, you know, and, but I'll wear that crown if I have to. I'm really happy about it. I'm happy that people are getting something out of it and they think it's funny and I, my wife loves it. I show them to her them to her before I post to make sure, You're cool with this? She's cool with it. She loves seeing the success of it. She gives me, she helps me, it gives me ideas sometimes. So that's basically I'm a comedian first and then and this is something that hit and this has now become my lane and I'm sticking with it.  [00:03:40][113.8]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:03:40] It's great, isn't it?  [00:03:41][0.9]
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Matt Hyams: [00:03:42] Yeah, I love it.  [00:03:43][0.7]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:03:44] Yeah, it's very interesting because I've written a few books and my first book on menopause was probably about six years ago and it was Penguin that was my publisher and I wanted to have perimenopause on the cover. So not just menopause and they said, no, it is too long a word. You can't do it. No-one uses that word. And I said, well, if you want to publish my book, you have the word perimenopuse on. And it's really interesting because a lot of people still don't know what it is or what's going on. Menopause has always been about stopping periods and hot flushes, whereas actually the perimenopause, the lead up to the menopause is often far worse for women because you get these real shifts and changes in hormone levels and the biggest symptoms or the most commonest and most severe symptoms are those affecting the brain and mental health. And so, so many women have been misunderstood for decades because they have been misdiagnosed with anxiety and depression and it's all in your head and it can't be, it can't be your hormones because you're still having your periods. So it's so interesting because I feel very strongly that women are really intuitive and actually give them the information, they can work it out themselves. But often they haven't had the information. So what you're doing is completely just validating them, aren't you? That you're allowing them to be heard and understood, which perhaps they haven't been before.  [00:05:10][86.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:05:10] Well, you know, I've always thought of myself as a healer, and, I'm just kidding. I love that. Yeah, like I... It's good to be doing something that's funny and doing something helpful that is beneficial to people. Like I didn't go into comedy to be any kind of like, you, know, source of validation for any gender. But I, but now that it's happening, I'm really into it and I really like it and it feels doubly good. It feels good to get a laugh and then it feels doubly good for it to have this positive effect, you know. And one thing I'll say also is that I didn't even realise until my wife was going through this that I think what most people think about like perimenopause is actually most of the period that it feels like a woman is in, like the menopause, what like when the period ends. I'm using period in two different ways, but like. A period era and then period your period and then like but like menopause correct me if i'm wrong is like when your period stops and maybe for like a year after? [00:06:11][60.6]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:06:12] Well, this is what's interesting actually, because it's officially when people have been a year since their last period, but it's just bullshit, excuse my language, because why should we be defined by our periods? And a lot of women, if they've had, for example, a hysterectomy, they're never going to have periods, so you can't work it out. So it's really related to our hormone levels being low and they stay low forever. So actually, a woman is menopausal forever. And a lot of people think it's just a transition and then you come out the other side. And as you know, one of the things I'm very interested in is the protective roles of our hormones in our body. So even if people don't have symptoms, they have health risks of not having those hormones because they're very anti-inflammatory in their body. And often when our hormone levels stabilise, you know whether they're stable low or stable high in pregnancy or stable sort of middle of the road. People often don't get symptoms because the body sort of acclimatises really. It's a bit like if you're hungry, initially your brain is like on overdrive telling you how hungry you are and after a while it just accommodates and it just sort of adapts. And it's the same with menopause actually. The body can adapt but it will often be in a different level and a different gear and obviously there's more inflammation. But in perimenopause, hormone levels, especially estradiol, but also testosterone and progesterone really do fluctuate and it's a bit similar to women before they have their periods. They can get real changes in their hormone levels just before their periods so those symptoms are the same because of the changing hormone levels.  [00:07:43][91.7]
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Matt Hyams: [00:07:44] I imagine must be a lot of, before this was gaining more such awareness. I bet there's like a lot of like divorce and like, you know, marriage conflict and everything without the understanding like I could imagine that husbands are like, my wife's crazy.  [00:08:00][15.4]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:08:01] It still is now. Yeah I mean the problem is you know it's really sad because the divorce rate increases in the 40s but we know that a lot of couples, I see so many couples who have just, their relationship's fallen apart and it's not because they don't love each other they just can't tolerate each other in the same way and they don t realise what's going on, and you know I was perimenopausal about 11 years ago and you know just looking at the way my husband ate food and listening to him breathing was the most frustrating thing ever. It's really hard to explain. I had an argument once and I've got three daughters and we're really close. I've known my husband since I was 18. But we were having breakfast one morning at our hotel and another surgeon came over to talk to him. And they just had a nice chat and then he left and I said to Paul, who's this guy? And he went, well, you've met him before. Why were you rude? Why didn't you talk to him? I said, because you'd never introduced me. He said, no, we've met him recently. I said, well, I don't remember. So rather than leaving it like that, I just went on and on and on at him. And he said, let's move away from the restaurant because you're making a bit of a scene here. And there was a staircase going up to the bedroom and I was still on the staircase shouting up at him. Just going on, and my children were in front of me. like, it was just the weirdest thing. I'm not really a shouty person, but I just remember it so vividly. And it was like, I had this demon in my head saying, it's fine, you carry on shouting because he's awful and you don't need him and you're fine. And if he had said to me, right, Louise, I'm leaving you, I would have gone, good, just go because I've really had enough. Like, it's just ridiculous. And even my children, one of them says, she was so scared because she'd never heard me shout like that before and was saying, oh my, thinking to herself, oh gosh, I think mummy and daddy are going to divorce and what am I going to do because I don't want to stay with her because she's being really horrible, but daddy can't cook and he's like, what should I do? And and they were only young, and  it does make me realise that the impact of that is really hard for both sexes really in different ways.  [00:09:57][115.8]
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Matt Hyams: [00:09:58] Yeah, without the awareness of what's going on. I mean, I've had like, it was like a year or so ago. It was winter, it around holiday time and like, my wife was like, I don't know, she was pissed off at me about something. And she gave me this, I thought I was getting divorced. She was like I don't feel appreciated, I don't feel taken care of. She's like, I'm done. You don't like think about me like, you know, this whole tirade and I felt like shit and I was like wow. And she's like you know just, she's just like, I don't know. Like, I don't know, she kind of left the conversation, like, I don't, like it's in your hands now, you know, and I was like, I don't even know what to do. Like, not really sure like where this came from maybe I could kind of like, you know, I kind of know. I mean, like if I wasn't, she's speaking English, so I'm hearing all the words, but like, but, and then I was like, so, I dunno, like a month later, I said, or did something in the way, along the lines of like what I thought she had been talking about in that conversation. I was like, you know, because trying to do this because of the conversation we had and she was like, what conversation? It's like the one where you were on the verge of leaving me, you know, remember that one? She's like, oh, I don't know. Well, anyway, you know, so it was like conversations like that. And yeah, so she can get like really pissed off and then like, it's like a spell, kind of like what you were describing.  [00:11:18][80.6]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:11:19] It is, totally.  [00:11:19][0.1]
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Matt Hyams: [00:11:19] It's wonderful. You know, it's great. I'm just happy to be here, you know, part of everything. Sadly, she's still with me. But the awareness helps, because you know periods men get used to if you're in a relationship, oh, it's that time of the month, I can see like it's happening again or whatever. But with the perimenopause, you're like, it is not the time of month so like what's going on, you know and then you just, you feel crazy. And I have to go to another room to eat cereal also. I'm not allowed to eat in the same room with her. So, and sometimes I'm just like, I was taking a picture of our floor, our bathroom floor and I was like, oh, she's like, what are you doing? I was, like I'm, just taking some pictures of the floor to upload to Chat GPT to see if they know how it can be fixed. And she's, like why are you, doing that? And I was. Why can't I do it? You know, like well, I'm not like hiring. I'm not spending your money. I'm literally seeing if it has any ideas of how to fix it. And it's like those moments when I'm like, that's also perimenopause where she's just annoyed with me with whatever I'm doing. It has no effect on her or our life, but something about what I'm doing is horrible.  [00:12:31][71.9]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:12:31] It's triggering  [00:12:31][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:12:32] Yeah, it's triggering, yeah.  [00:12:33][1.2]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:12:33] Yeah. And I think, you know, it's really difficult for partners and, you know, partners of any gender because I have quite a lot of patients in same sex relationships and both of them are perimenopausal.  [00:12:45][11.7]
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Matt Hyams: [00:12:46] Oh yeah, I've been wondering about that too. I wrote in my notes that I keep, like comedy ideas. I was like, how do same-sex partners deal with this. That would be insane.  [00:12:56][9.6]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:12:56] Well they have different, often people have, everyone's experience is different, so their symptoms can be different and you know they, it can be really difficult. I've had some patients who you've just treated one of them and they feel really well and then the other one maybe is a bit younger or different and then starts but then they can recognise it a lot quicker. But it's very difficult and it can very disconcerting because it's also very hard to tease out, you know, is it because, you know, I've been with my husband for decades, is it because of that?  [00:13:27][30.6]
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Matt Hyams: [00:13:27] I'm just annoyed...  [00:13:27][0.0]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:13:27] Or is it something else? And if you've got children, then how do you know what's going on because life's busy and everything. But one of my big issues is that women have often been gaslit and told, oh, you're like this because you're stressed, because you've got three children, because you are working full time, because because and they never say that to my husband. And it's like, hang on, I've always coped with having three children and a busy job. So something else has changed and then I think if people realise that it could be a hormonal imbalance, the next thing is thinking about what can I do about the imbalance because women shouldn't be suffering and neither should the men who are watching them suffer really. So that's the biggest problem is that the majority of women who are perimenopausal are still not able to access evidence-based treatment, which is just wrong. So there's all this needless suffering that's going on and women have to work it out for themselves.  [00:14:18][50.7]
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Matt Hyams: [00:14:18] I know it stinks, although it's starting, it's seemingly it's, I mean, I'm not the only account I've seen talking about perimenopause on Instagram, so it seems like it's getting more awareness now, which is good. I imagine it's even like doubly difficult if you are the spouse who's not going through perimenopause, then if you're, if your partner's like, I'm really pissed off at you and it's not my period and it's not perimenopause, it is actually just you. Like, then you start to be like, I hope it is, you start to pray like maybe this is just perimenopause and she actually doesn't hate me, you know, because then it's like, but yeah, I mean, I see it happening more which is good. I mean I didn't even know about it until my wife was going through it. I'd never heard of the word, I heard of menopause. I never heard the word perimenopause. [00:15:03][44.7]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:15:03] No, no. A lot of people don't. But it is interesting because it can work both ways in relationships. I remember many years ago, a lady came back to me and she said, I'd like to thank you because I've now divorced my husband and I was like, oh dear, what have I done. She said, well, I suddenly started to feel so much better on my hormones. I had a real solid look at myself and thought, what am I doing with this person that I actually haven't enjoyed being with for the last five years. But I didn't have the energy, I didn't have the space, I didn't have the motivation to leave him. And now I have because I feel better and I realised, you know, she was only in her mid-40s. So I realised I've got a whole, you know, hopefully next chapter ahead of me. And I felt really guilty as a doctor that I'd sort of split up the relationship in a weird way. But I've known her for many years now and she's had this new lease of life. I just think that's actually something that's, you know, can be a positive thing as well. And it's interesting.  [00:15:55][52.0]
Matt Hyams: [00:15:56] That's like a thank you menopause, like PSA or something, you know.  [00:15:59][3.7]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:16:00] Yeah  [00:16:00][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:16:01] Thank you. Most people think they're going to lose out on life, but I got my life back.  [00:16:04][3.3]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:16:05] Mmm!  [00:16:05][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:16:06] Because of it. Well, hopefully that won't be my story.  [00:16:10][4.0]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:16:11] No!  [00:16:11][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:16:12] Yeah, no, I don't think so. Yeah, it's a it's rough out there.  [00:16:19][6.7]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:16:20] So what are the symptoms or what are things that you've learned about perimenopause that have surprised you the most with what you're doing and the feedback that you're getting?  [00:16:29][8.6]
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Matt Hyams: [00:16:29] I mean, I only have the experience, my direct experience with, with my partner, my wife. So... [00:16:36][6.5]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:16:36] But just the feedback on social media for a moment. [00:16:38][1.9]
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Matt Hyams: [00:16:38] Oh, the feedback on social media has just been, I got one negative response. I had an interview in People magazine, online, people online, and there's like one comment on it or maybe there's like three, but like the first one was, what a self-righteous jerk. I was like, oh, okay. Well, so, and if I had gotten hundreds of those, I would start to take a look at myself and be like, what am I doing. But it's the only one. Thank God. Most of them I get, and comments on the videos that are like, I look forward to these. I can't wait for another one. This is me. You understand us. She is her. Oh my God. One of the things my wife says is, her coffee smells like tuna fish. It's like some weird perimenopausal smell thing. Other people were like, my coffee smells like tuna fish. Oh my god, the smells. I made one on perimenopausal spidet sense of smell. Because I think her smell is like, her sense of smell is insane. She's like, there's like running water somewhere in the house. I was like, oh, they should like work with the police to like solve crimes or something. And all women are like, that's me. I'm having, Oh my God. I thought I was going, some of them, like, I thought it was going crazy, you know, but no, now I realise like, Oh, it's maybe part of this. Some women are, like I'm not going through perimenopause, but I'm also experiencing this, but it's been a lot of like positive validation, feeling, seen, that kind of thing. And then, you know, like thinking it's funny also, which is always good.  [00:18:03][85.5]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:18:04] Yeah, it's a great balance because I don't feel that you're making fun of women, but you are enabling them to think and understand and like you say, feel validated. And I've written a chapter in my new book about women who aren't being listened to. And that's the biggest problem actually, I think in healthcare, in that patients, but especially women are not believed and not listened to and not understood. And as a doctor, that you almost have a tick box of symptoms. And if you get enough ticks, then they've got this diagnosis. If they've got some other symptoms, you've got that diagnosis. And for so many of us, we haven't had really good training in hormones and perimenopause. And so, if I was a neurologist and someone came to me with tinnitus, ringing in the ears, and maybe some, like you say, some smell changes. I'd be trying to work out the pathways in the brain, do a scan and work out if there was a tumour or something going on that was causing it. If the scan was normal, I would say to the patient, well, you're normal. And they would go, well, no, I'm still having these symptoms. If I was a cardiologist and someone had palpitations, I would just focus on the heart. And you can see it, medicine's very siloed. So actually to have someone that can explain the reason for those symptoms is incredibly validating because otherwise you do almost drive yourself mad thinking maybe I am making up, you know, like, why would I make up that my coffee smells of tuna fish, you know what I mean. But if you're the only person thinking that, then it's like, okay, well, maybe it's just me being a bit weird, but you're validating and allowing other people to go oh gosh, and then, you know, we know that our hormones, progesterone, estradial, and testosterone work everywhere, so they affect the pathways from our nose to our olfactory centre, which is what determines the way we smell, and those pathways are disturbed if you don't have hormones or you have fluctuating hormones. So we know why it happens, and often people, when they have the right dose and type of hormones, those symptoms really, really improve. But the first thing about any diagnosis is making it, and if people aren't looking at the bigger picture or doctors aren't, then women are just being dismissed left, right and centre.  [00:20:14][129.9]
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Matt Hyams: [00:20:14] Yeah, it stinks. It's terrible. I feel bad. I think even with the awareness, there's clearly still like a gap because I think that I probably wouldn't be getting as much attention if it was more mainstream. You know, I think women are coming like when they see the videos, they're like, oh, I'm not crazy. And even though I knew about perimenopause, this is even, it drives it home. They're like, I feel much better, you know, now. So I think you're right it's like all the more awareness that we can get as possible.  [00:20:48][33.8]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:20:50] Yeah, I mean, it's great. One of the things I know it sounds weird as a doctor is I actually don't like to prescribe drugs that are unnecessary to people. And, you know, one in three perimenopausal women, especially in the US, are taking antidepressants for their hormonal imbalance, which is just ridiculous actually when you think about it. That's often because of the anxiety and the low mood and people have misdiagnosed them with clinical depression and forgotten about the role of hormones in the brain.  [00:21:16][26.3]
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Matt Hyams: [00:21:17] That's depressing.  [00:21:17][0.4]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:21:18] Yeah, it's really depressing. So a lot of people have been medicalised inappropriately and they've not had the knowledge to almost question and push back. And I feel, especially over the last year or two, women have become more empowered. So then they can make choices that are right for them. And a lot of my work is just imparting my knowledge so people can make those choices. But I think when they have this lightbulb moment almost, like me shouting at my husband isn't because I hate him, it's because the hormones are changing in my brain and just this weird behaviour, it's just different. And then they can join the docs and then hopefully say to their doctor or healthcare professional, look, I'm getting XYZ symptoms, I feel they're my hormones, please can I talk to you about hormones? Whereas before people would just literally talk about one symptom and then the doctor would compartmentalise it into one diagnosis and that's when often they were given among treatment.  [00:22:15][56.8]
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Matt Hyams: [00:22:15] I was going to say it feels lazy, but I suppose they're just working with whatever they know.  [00:22:19][3.5]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:22:20] Well, this is the thing, and I've done the same for many years as a family physician. You know, someone would come maybe with a urinary tract infection and I'd go, okay, you've got an infection, have some antibiotics. I wouldn't then say, oh, you're having any palpitations. What's your mood like? What's your sleep like? And that's why we've developed a symptom questionnaire, which people can fill out and then work it out themselves because then they can say, well, actually, I'm having these urinary symptoms. But I'm also having mood changes and I can't sleep. Whatever, and I think it's my hormones because my periods are all over the place. And then, as a doctor, you want your patients to help you. Do you know what I mean? It's so much more productive.  [00:22:55][34.4]
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Matt Hyams: [00:22:55] Right, help me help you.  [00:22:55][0.1]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:22:58] Yeah, totally. And especially if you're limited, you know, I used to only have 10 minute consultations. So you would focus very much on the problem that the patient came with you wheras, when the patients are more empowered, you can start in a very different level. And I'm hoping, you know that's with all your work, but it's just so brilliant that women are then going back and thinking, right, okay, I've worked out that it's not me going mad. So what am I going to do about it? Because the suffering is immense. Like it's It's just awful for women where they have symptoms for years and years. It's awful.  [00:23:30][32.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:23:30] Well, my goal is that someone, a woman, can walk into a doctor's office and just be like, show her my video. You know, this is how I feel. Do you find, like, is there pushback from male doctors about all this in London? I don't know how, if you speak to doctors around the world, but, or just in your city, like, do you find that, like they're less accepting of your, of these beliefs? [00:23:58][28.5]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:23:59] It's interesting actually. I think male doctors, this is a generalisation, are more accepting than a lot of female doctors. There's a lot female doctors that are my age, I'm 55, but they're my age and older and they've never had a problem, they've ever had a symptom. So they just think it's all just ridiculous. And quite a few doctors now have said to our patients, menopause is just a fad, perimenopause is just a media term... [00:24:26][27.3]
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Matt Hyams: [00:24:28] A buzzword.  [00:24:29][0.5]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:24:28] A new fashion, buzzword, yeah.  [00:24:30][2.2]
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Matt Hyams: [00:24:31] It looks so good on you...  [00:24:31][0.0]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:24:31] And it's almost like because they didn't have a problem, they don't think it's an issue. And I think that's a very dangerous place to be as a doctor. You know, I've never had psychosis, but does that mean I can't treat people who've had a psychotic episode or...  [00:24:48][16.9]
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Matt Hyams: [00:24:49] Sort of like empathy 101  [00:24:50][1.0]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:24:50] Yeah. Yeah. So there's this sort of willful ignorance and blindness that goes on, which I think is really not very validating for women. And there's misunderstanding so much about menopause and hormone treatment is just a sort of a celebrity drug that people take rather than something that actually can really transform the quality of life and improve their future health as well. And we know from many studies that women who take hormones live longer. Which is huge. And they have less osteoporosis, they have less heart disease. Like it's massive, but it's somehow. If doctors don't know it, they don't tell their patients, and then they're dismissing them. You know, we have lots of patients that are told you're too young to have symptoms. It can't be your hormones, and no one's too young. My youngest patient was 12 when she became menopausal because her ovaries didn't develop properly. Yeah, so can you imagine being perimenopausal at school and no-one being able to pick it up, you know?  [00:25:50][59.9]
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Matt Hyams: [00:25:51] That's crazy, what's that called?  [00:25:51][0.9]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:25:52] Yeah. Well, she had these things, she had streak ovaries. So like the tiny ovaries that didn't develop, so they weren't producing hormones. And then I had another patient who was 14. She had a cyst removed from her ovaries and then a year later another cyst, but they essentially removed most of her ovary. So she's sitting in class, like not being able to concentrate, not having a clue what's going on and who do you talk to, you know? So it took both of those people 10 years for diagnosis...  [00:26:18][26.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:26:19] That's brutal...  [00:26:19][0.1]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:26:19] And then another 10 years for the right treatment. It's awful, yeah. So, you know, and then people think we can exercise our way out of menopause or we can do some mindfulness or whatever and you know it's a hormone deficiency, you wouldn't do that if someone had an underactive thyroid gland, you would not say okay, just go for a walk in the woods and do a bit of chanting.  [00:26:40][20.6]
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Matt Hyams: [00:26:40] You'll be fine. Yeah. Have a glass of water.  [00:26:42][2.1]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:26:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:26:43][0.7]
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Matt Hyams: [00:26:46] You guys, you go through a lot in this life  [00:26:49][3.0]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:26:49] Yeah we do and it's so unnecessary  [00:26:50][1.1]
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Matt Hyams: [00:26:51] Unbelievable. It's just too much. The periods alone... [00:26:53][2.4]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:26:54] Yeah, and it's not even, you know, you're going to have to branch out. I'll have to mentor you a bit because there's a lot of women with PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and PMS where, you know they have essentially perimenopause just for a few days before each period. So their mood drops, they become more anxious, they can become more irritable, and then their period comes and they feel fine. But again, it's the same cause. It's a hormonal change, and that's been normalised. Like for women, we're told, oh, well, you will feel a bit crap a few days before your period. When I see women like that, I'll often give them some hormones, usually just some progesterone for a few days, and then they feel the same every day of the month, which is incredibly important. Because if you're getting a symptom on those days where you've got a big, I don't know, assignment at work, or you're at school and you're doing a big exam, or, you know, like you wouldn't say to a man, three days a month, you're just going to feel a bit shit and you might not go to the gym and you won't be able to sleep and you'll argue with your partner. Men would go, what? Is there a treatment? Can I do anything about that? [00:27:53][58.7]
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Matt Hyams: [00:27:53] If any of this happened to men, it would be solved.  [00:27:55][2.0]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:27:56] Yeah, of course it would. But we've got a solution. It's just can't be accessed. That's what's really frustrating.  [00:27:59][3.8]
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Matt Hyams: [00:28:01] Well, at least you get, you know, a solid week or a few days a month where everything's fine...  [00:28:06][4.2]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:28:06] Yes that's great. Thanks Matt.  [00:28:06][-0.1]
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Matt Hyams: [00:28:06] You shouldn't complain, you know. You're not looking on the bright side.  [00:28:12][5.2]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:28:14] We're so lucky...  [00:28:14][0.3]
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Matt Hyams: [00:28:14] There's, there's a solid two or three days when everybody's good. And I think that's a good place to be.  [00:28:20][6.4]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:28:21] So yeah, well, it's great, it is brilliant and I'm looking forward to seeing how your content progresses and empowers people.  [00:28:30][8.6]
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Matt Hyams: [00:28:30] Yeah, me too.  [00:28:30][0.4]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:28:31] It's brilliant. So before we end, I always ask for three take-home tips actually, three things that I'm going to ask you that have surprised you the most about the work that you do. What are the three things you were really surprised about that you didn't know before?  [00:28:47][16.2]
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Matt Hyams: [00:28:48] With making these videos? [00:28:49][1.1]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:28:49] Just yeah, in general, yeah.  [00:28:50][0.9]
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Matt Hyams: [00:28:50] In general. I think the validation was a big surprise, the community that was developing and the I am her, she is us, I love your wife, all this. That was unanticipated. Three other surprises. I mean, it's sort of an offshoot of that one, but just how popular the topic is, you know, how much it blew up like as someone who's been trying to be creative in a lot of different ways over the years, you know, with standup clips and other comedy ideas that I make into social media videos and scripts like, and that didn't take off, you know, that there was this sort of ready audience, like, like a random perimenopausal audience, like waiting unknowingly perhaps for these videos. Um, so that was a surprise. It's just like the audience that's out there that was, that wanted this content. And that it would be, these are all sort of like subsets of the first one, but um, and that this would be my, where my success comes from, you know, like that I, I thought I would be like a, and I may still be, you know, TV comedy, right. I just had such an idea, a different idea of like how I would become successful, you know, I have dreams of like being a successful stand up and this may get parlayed into like some kind of successful touring show as my, I don't know what way it'll be and what incarnation but like you know I thought I was going to be like an original edgy comic stand-up or some like innovative TV writer or something and it's like no I'm gonna be the voice of perimenopause. Turns out, you know so that was a big surprise. I think because I think I'm gonna stay in this lane for a while...  [00:30:41][110.5]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:30:41] Good.  [00:30:41][0.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:30:42] I think where my success is happening I think this is like and I like it and it feels fun, and I liked the response so I think that's just a personal surprise is like where my life is heading. [00:30:52][10.6]
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Dr Louise Newson: [00:30:53] Well, you know, the more that you can educate people, the more that people resonate with you, the better in my mind. So keep going. It's brilliant. Thank you.  [00:31:01][8.0]
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Matt Hyams: [00:31:01] Thank you. I plan to. Yeah, I'm so glad. Thanks for having me.  [00:31:01][0.0]