In the spirit of Women’s History Month, I shall be continuing from where I left off last week on Women’s health. Interestingly, there have been two women with cancer in the news this past week. A black beauty influencer who initially had her cervical cancer misdiagnosed as fibroids and subsequently died and a member of the British royal family who had surgery even before she was diagnosed and is now receiving further treatment. I am tempted to go off on a tangent about how money/wealth is the best medicine and sometimes the difference in medical care is being able to afford your own private medical team who do not have to deal with a full waiting room of patients, but I’ll try and maintain my focus.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, my aim is simply to highlight some of the more common health problems I’ve noticed amongst women.
Mental health - This is one that a lot of us do not pay enough attention to for various reasons. For those of us who were raised in communities where mental health problems were neither recognised nor acknowledged, it can sometimes be hard to recognise or even admit when we are struggling mentally. The symptoms can also be very vague and non-specific.
Interestingly, our mental and physical health are so interconnected that mental health problems can sometimes present with physical symptoms. I saw an Instagram post recently where a psychologist was talking about physical manifestations of depression including chest and/or back pain and exhaustion. I’d been complaining of tiredness for weeks before my friends diagnosed me as being depressed, and even then it felt weird to admit it. Speaking for myself, I know that there can be shame associated with the realisation that you are not as strong as you’d like to be. However, the reality is that life can sometimes be too much and there will be times of struggle and these struggles can have very real effects on our brain functioning.
I am a believer in the benefits of therapy but I also know that it is not within the reach of many people. A few of the things I have found helpful include: giving the long answer when asked “how are you”, minimising decision-making by creating routines and not being afraid to say no to things.
Menopause - If you’re not a fan of periods, chances are you’re probably looking forward to menopause so you can be done with them forever. We’ve probably all heard about the hot flushes that come with menopause but many of the other symptoms don’t get talked about as much, therefore many women do not know what to expect. Menopause affects the brain just as much as the reproductive organs and so the symptoms can mimic many other conditions including depression. In my practice, I’ve seen women present with everything from poor concentration to vaginal dryness which causes sex to be painful and eventually leads to loss of libido. These symptoms can sometimes be debilitating and life-altering.
The good news is that there is treatment available for many of the symptoms of menopause. As with any hormone-based treatment, there are also side effects that should be considered and discussed before commencing treatment.
Another important thing to note with menopause is that it is diagnosed clinically after 12 months of absent periods. If you or anyone you know suddenly starts bleeding after reaching menopause, this is considered a red flag and should be reported to a doctor immediately in order to rule out cancer of the endometrium (womb lining).
Weight, Diet and Exercise- As a clinician, part of my job is health promotion and this usually involves talking to patients about these three things. One of the criticisms I have heard about doctors in recent times is women complaining about medical fatphobia. The complaint is that instead of addressing the symptoms that they come with, some doctors focus on their weight and fat shame them instead. The truth is that these are the top three modifiable risk factors for many medical conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer. It is therefore important to consider these when thinking about ways to optimise our health and well-being.
Still, it is important to go about this sensibly and not fall into dangerous habits that can end up causing more problems. Being underweight can also cause problems. In addition, when screening for cancer, one of the important questions to ask is about unintentional weight loss, so if you ever find yourself losing weight unintentionally, you need to see a doctor.
In an ideal world, there would be more funding for research into women's health issues. There would be more encouragement and support for women to study medicine. There would be better access to healthcare services for women from less privileged backgrounds. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world, but we can do a few things to help ourselves.
Know what is normal for you because when you know what is normal, you’re more likely to notice when something has changed. Listen to your body.
Check it. Whatever it is. If you have a symptom that’s lasted past a couple of weeks, speak to your doctor. It is better to check and find nothing, than not check and get a delayed diagnosis.
Educate yourself using credible resources. I can not tell you the number of times I have seen somebody in scrubs or a white coat peddling false information on the internet. It is so easy to be misled if you get your information from the wrong sources. A few of my favorite doctor babes on Instagram include: @talkswithdrsesay, @signed.drj, @gynaegeek .
Trust your gut. Advocate for yourself. If you’re not satisfied with one doctor’s responses, seek a second opinion, as many opinions as you deem necessary but bear in mind that doctors do not always have all the answers.
This week I read
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. This was a bit of an unusual book for me. I am struggling to articulate why but let’s just say that this is exactly the type of book I’d have laughed at and ignored a few years ago. The author opens by saying that he is writing thoughts and not facts and that helped me appreciate the book for what it was, one person’s thoughts on what it means to create. Interestingly, a lot of it did resonate and I have a feeling I will read it again sometime in the future.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie. I picked this one up randomly because one of my friends mentioned she was reading it and I realised I couldn’t remember the story. I have a physical copy of this book in my library but I had zero recollection of the story so this felt like I was reading it for the first time. It was narrated by an English woman who tried her best. The story reminded me of my grouse with the fanatical style of religion practised in Nigeria, and how much we worship money to the point that rich people are allowed to get away with murder. The story also highlighted the far-reaching impact of abuse. It also made me sad how little things have changed from the time the book was set in till now. The writing was stellar of course but I’m a CNA fan so I might be biased.
This week I listened to
Episode #188 of TKP where Shane talks to Bryan Johnson about his life-prolonging protocols. This guy is the perfect example of doing too much. This episode made me appreciate Shane even more because this is the first time I have ever been able to listen to this guy without rolling my eyes into the back of my head. He talks about how he has outsourced his decision-making to an algorithm because he doesn’t trust himself. As I listened to him talk about his V02max and grip strength matching that of an 18-year-old, and being the most measured human on earth all I could think of was how joyless it all sounded. But like Shane pointed out, he is living his own life on his own terms and not harming anyone (just making money from selling his method) so it is all good. The one thing I do agree with is his emphasis on sleep. I now know first-hand how important sleep is and my mission for next month is to hopefully correct my sleep patterns.
I’ve decided to include 75 hard in my mental health strategy and the plan is to start the program in April. I have a few new habits I would like to incorporate into my current routines, plus I need to fix my sleep and also whittle my waistline down in time for wearing less season so I figured this would be a good stone to kill many birds.
If you would like to join the party, feel free to hit me up :)
Here’s wishing you a week of listening to your body and giving it the things it needs.