Chronic pain and menopause: what's the link? | The Dr Louise Newson Podcast
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- About 28 million people in the UK are thought to be living with chronic pain - that’s 43% of the population, according to the 2011 Census.
But what is chronic pain, and how can it overlap with the perimenopause and menopause?
In this week’s episode Dr Louise is joined by Dr Deepak Ravindran, a consultant in pain medicine and author of The Pain-Free Mindset: 7 Steps to Taking Control and Overcoming Chronic Pain.
Dr Deepak unpicks the science behind chronic, or persist, pain and the two discuss the relationship between hormones, inflammation and pain.
Dr Louise and Dr Deepak have co-authored a new article which offers 10 top tips for primary care practitioners on improving care for women with fatigue and/or pain.
You can access the article here: www.medscape.co.uk/viewarticle/top-tips-care-women-fatigue-and-or-chronic-pain-2024a10009vj
To find out more about Newson Health visit: www.newsonhealth.co.uk
Follow Dr Deepak on:
UA-cam: / @drdeepakravindran5361
Instagram: drdeepakravindran
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-ravindran-b225a61a/
X: / deepakravindra5
Absolutely love this podcast
I'm 54 years old ,I've had Chronic pain since I was 20 ,no-one ever ask me about my hormones. When I was 37 my condition went worse and by 40 I was on 5 different forms of pain medications and nothing improved .Three years ago due to extreme IBS symptoms i went on an anti inflammatory diet and it totally changed my health. This lead me on a path to find other ways to improve my symptoms. After listening to Louise I realised the suffering I'd had for years could be impacted by my hormones so in February this year I started HRT and the neck pain I've had for the last 10 years has improved.Why did I have to work this out myself ,why isn't enough being done to improve women's health.?
💪🙏
So, so true!
Thanks for sharing!
And best wishes for you and your health journey from Germany🇩🇪
❤
I work as an advanced clinical practitioner (physiotherapy)in a Musculoskeletal clinic in the NHS and have a good understanding of persistent pain. It is fantastic that this is being talked about more widely, as there are lots of things patients can do to help themselves. It is becoming more accepted and patients want to do what they can to help themselves. There are so many tools that can help. I too talk much more about lifestyle than I used to. It's thanks to Doctors like Louise and others that have raised my awareness of the impact of menopause on so many women. I feel more confident suggesting patients go to speak to someone about their hormones (not something I ever covered in Uni).
This was a fantastic, and desperately needed discussion, I've never cried at one of your podcasts before Louise, but this brought me to tears.
As a post menopausal woman who was diagnosed with M.E. more than 20 years ago, I can relate so much to what was said here.
I am on HRT and have felt a little bit of improvement in my chronic and acute pain symptoms with every dose increase. I'm currently on 125mcg oestradiol patch, and it was such a battle with prescribers to even get to this, but my body absolutely knows it needs a good amount of hormones to function. I'm not there yet, but every additional increase of hormones makes such a difference. (Also on micronisedP, T, and VE.)
I'm so grateful to Dr Ravindran for opening up this vital link between Pain Medicine and hormone therapy, it really IS the way forward 💛
Thank you so much to both of you 😊xx
The sad thing is that with the NHS it is far easier for women to get a prescription for antidepressants, antipsychotics, opiates and benzodiazepines than to get hormone therapy. Side effects for common antidepressants include cardiac arrhythmias, seizures and suicide, yet we can't have estradiol, progesterone or testosterone because it's "too dangerous"!
Thank you to both of you for this information, it is like you are talking about me and all my symptoms! I feel like i was meant to see this today 🙏🏻
Amazzzzzing!! I was glued to the screen, holding my breath and getting all emotional during this conversation. It has been a long , hard and painful journey from age 20 suffering with heavy migraines related to my menstrual cycle, horrific pms symptoms and then suffering surgical menopause at age 41. The only advantage I saw in that was skipping the perimenopause, because I had dreaded that due to my previous hormonal problems. If pms was hell, imagine perimenopause. But, with no HRT treatment after my surgery, it did not take long for things to change. Very difficult, a struggle to get help from my gynaecologist. I really felt completely alone in this. After 10 years more inflammatory issues arrived with lots of pain. I never gave up investigating, making adjustments to my life style,… investigating nervous system, pain and now with the newest information on menopause all the puzzle pieces seem to fall together. I realise I still have steps to take, but feeling a bit more hope after all those years. I soooo hope being on the right track now 🙏🏻.. Dr Newson thanks for all the information and education you’re putting online. Unfortunately I am not living in the UK, because otherwise I would without a single doubt would have made an appointment with you.
What I have found is that the liver and gallbladder play a role when I used to get headaches/migraines. So I now regularly take Dr Sandra Cabot Livatone Plus, Ox Bile and Super digestive enzymes, magnesium powder and haven't had them since.