March 30, 2025 • 40 mins
Menopause is one of the most natural things a woman can go through, so why is it so taboo to speak about?
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks dB.
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Ala, Yes, welcome back. This is the Weekend Collective. I'm
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Speaker 4 (00:48):
Welcome to the Health.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We want your calls on eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty text nine to nine to two. And this afternoon
we're talking menopause. And of course, you know, it's been
one of those conversations I my guests'm about to introduce
and just the second I had a chat with her
if you, probably about a year or so ago, and
I remember feeling very very nervous about talking about menopause
(01:12):
because it seemed a little bit taboo and something that
people went comfortable talking about but it seems that times
are changing. But I want to know from you, how
comfortable are you talking about menopause, whether as someone who's
going through it or about to go through it, or
perhaps the partner of someone who may be going through it,
And would you be comfortable saying I don't know how
you start that conversation, are you is there any chance
(01:35):
you're going through menopause? I can't see that conversation starting
too well. But to navigate these issues, we want you
to give us a call on eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. But we are joined by Nicki Bizant. She
is the co host of the upcoming Hot Mess Tour.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And she's with us now. Nikki, good afternoon, Sam.
Speaker 6 (01:50):
You and I have actually been talking about this for
nearly more than two years. Yes, my first book.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's two years. Yea gosh.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I was going to say cheekily like, because I was
going to say, you are the Queen of menopause.
Speaker 7 (02:01):
But.
Speaker 6 (02:03):
I'll take it.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I did feel it was funny because at the time
I thought before you came in and I thought I
was actually a little nervous about how to navigate it.
But it was actually a fantastic conversation. But has Okay,
so we've been doing it for well since it was
two years since I chatted to you and you had
your new book out, which was your first book out.
I think it was coming out. Yeah, this changes everything.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Yeah that was in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Okay, And how's the conversation gone with menopause?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Do you think we're more comfortable about it?
Speaker 6 (02:33):
Well? I am probably in a bit of a menopause bubble.
I'm talking about menopause all the time, so I may
have a slightly skewed view of it. But I do
think that we are more comfortable talking about it now
than we were, Say, you know when I started researching this,
was it like five years ago? Yeah, there was just nothing.
There was silence on it. So I think that we've
definitely become more comfortable discussing it, and certainly amongst women,
(02:57):
there's a lot more conversations going on in all age
groups too. I think.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, I came out, okay with a dumb question. I
can't remember if I know the answer to this. We
actually have we as a general population, or at least
with women, known about menopause and what it is. How
long since the veil started getting lifted about changes that
happened with women.
Speaker 6 (03:17):
Well, we've always known it since the dawn of medicine.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Because of just the physical change.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
Yeah, yeah, that there's a change in women's bodies and
that we can't keep having babies forever. So I think
that's that's long been known. The knowledge of hormones is
actually quite a young science, almost went discovered really until
the thirty twentieth century, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, that doesn't surprise you. Yeah, it's quite a complex
area of science.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
Yeah, So the influence of hormones and how that impacts
menopause is probably only very new within the last hundred years.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Is it, because it would have been taboo at one stage,
and there probably are some senses of taboos, to be honest,
I don't know if I it was an issue for me,
whether how comfortable i'd be, how I would raise the
topic of menopause with whether either my wife or a
friend or anyone. It's not iboul to feel like keep
out of it until it gets brought up.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean it can be tricky inside relationships, I
think to talk about.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
But especially if you're just had an argument.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Yeah, yeah, saying I know why you're so cranky. That's
probably not the way to do it. I do get
asked about that quite a bit, actually, but I think
that there is some empathy that can be built by
talking about it inside a relationship. Yeah, it's quite important.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
To do that.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
About minopause as a something that we are comfortable talking
about has been taboo for generations really until very recently.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, how did you notice the reaction to when you've
wrote your first book and over the last two or
three years, what's the journey for you've been on that?
And I know you've said you're living in a menopause bubble,
but the people who talk to you are not in
the bubble there.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
No.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
I mean I do a lot of as you know,
I do a lot of speaking on menopause in workplaces.
And the reaction there has been from the start and
is still so there's kind of this gratitude that comes like,
thank you for starting this conversation, thank you for talking
about it. Now we feel that we can talk about
it too, especially in a workplace where it's a kind
(05:11):
of an environment where you might not feel comfortable talking
about it, or you might feel unsure about how it's
going to be received. To start a conversation. Sometimes when
someone like me, who's an outsider, comes in and starts
the conversation, it just sort of gives everybody a big
sigh of relief and they can go, oh, excellent, now
we can talk about this and it's okay.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Are there some?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Are there many prominent sort of celebrities who talk about
it that have made it easier in terms of acknowledging
their own journey with it.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Well, Oprah is just about to release a big menopause special,
so you can't get much bigger than that. No, lots
of Hollywood names have opened up on menopause now because
all these women are in this age group. You know,
I think of all about gen X kind of heart
throbs and idols. They're all in this age group now,
so a lot of them are talking about it. Halle Berry.
(05:57):
You know, Naomi Watts has got her own company of
minopause products. This is all happening.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I still think of Nami, what's has been about thirty
years old. But I guess it's just a sign of
how quickly time passes it.
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I've actually was chatting with a younger colleague about this,
and she was saying, one of the one of the
changes that will come is when the Gen Z and
maybe even Gen Y, when menopause comes around for them,
it's really going to be very out in the open
because they're the generation who share everything about that. They
don't really seem to want to hide much about everything.
(06:34):
They share and share and share, whereas we still have
a generation of the Baby Boomers to Generation X who
may be a little conservative with what they really want
to share publicly.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, that's probably true. I mean, I do think my
generation Gen X are a pretty good at problem solving,
you know, and so we're not so keen to be
fobbed off and told look, no you can't have that treatment,
or what's happening to you is just something you have
to put up with. Yeah, that's not for us. And
the millennials are coming through now. The oldest of the
millennials is heading perimenopause now, so you know, they also
(07:07):
are not a generation that's just going to sit back
and not find a solution to what's happening with them.
They want the knowledge. They're very you know, they're very
keen to understand what.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Age of millennials I've lost track.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Well, the old oldest millennials are in their forties.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Now, okay, yeah, all right, okay, it's together because on average,
I mean they don't want to generalize what age does
it start becoming quite common at that age that you're
going to be looking at pause kicking.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
In the average age of menopause is around about fifty
one of minnopause, but perimenopause, which is all the time
leading up to menopause, that can be anywhere between two
and ten years. So feasibly you can you can start
hitting perimenopause even in your thirties. You're like thirties most
of us, it'll be in your forties somewhere.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So what I've actually, if I remember rightly, when people
talking about going through menopause, they're broadly speaking about it's
all perimenopause, because the menopause are simply the day that
you stop ovulating, isn't it is that it's the day.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
It's one year. Technically it's one year. I've your last period,
so you've had no ovarian you had no cycle for
a year, then that's technically menopause. But everything leading up
to that date is what we know is perimenopause, and
you're right, that is the time when often we're having
quite a lot of symptoms and things can be quite
disrupted and turbulent that we might think of that as menopause,
(08:26):
but it's actually technically referred to as the menopause transition.
So it's a whole period of time.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Okay, okay, I'll specialize in dumb questions as a man.
So it seems to me logical that if it's a year,
if menopause is actually a year after your last period,
then in fact the final few months of perimenopause may
not be so bad. Is because you've gone through the
journey which leads up to that stop or are they
(08:51):
are big hormonal changes that happen after your final period?
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Yeah, there still can be Like what's happening during perimenopause
is actually not this kind of slow and steady decline
that you might be imagining of estrogen, which is our
main film right here. It's actually kind of like a
roller coaster a right, It's going up and down, up
and down in a crazy roller coaster way. And that
can still be happening after your last period for a
little while until it kind of calms down. It does
(09:15):
tend to calm down post menopause and become much more
stable than women who are a bit older and through
the other side off and talk about how much better
and more calm and more stable they feel. But the
turbulence can last for quite a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
So before we get before, we will love to have
your cause anytime, if you've got some questions for Nikki,
she's been working on and she's written a couple of
books on menopause. The first one is This Changes Everything,
and then the second one, which I think was released
about a year ago, is The Everything God by Nicki Bizant.
So we'd love to hear from you. In fact, even
I don't mean even guys, I mean guys as well,
(09:49):
because actually I think men, the more you know, the
better you can support your partners, would be the way
I think we'd put it, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
Nay, Absolutely, it's really important for men to understand.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And we're not going to be taking any questions on
the male menopause, okay, because we get people who call
about the mail pause. We're talking about women's women going
through menopause, and we want your cause. I know e
one hundred and eight ten eighty but before we go
to the break because you're doing the hot it's great.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
And how did you come up with the title the
Hot Mess?
Speaker 6 (10:15):
I don't actually know how we came up that you
might have been. It might have been Petra, or it
might have been Lou our collaborator who's helping us as well.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
What is the Hot Mess Tour?
Speaker 6 (10:24):
It is an evening with Petra Vegas and myself talking
about all the things to do with menopause and midlife,
just unpacking it all, having some laughs, learning lots of
stuff and sharing together. I think it's going to be
lots of fun.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, do you do you sort of have it sort
of mapped out in terms of the initial part of
the evening scripted and how much of it as audience participation.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Well, we want to try and get a bit of
a sense of where the audience is at. One thing
that I've noticed over my kind of three years I
guess of speaking on menopause is that the knowledge of
my audiences has grown. You know, when I first started out,
no one knew much about menopause at all, Whereas now
I think we're a little bit where they're on the journey.
People tend to know a little bit more. So we
want to understand where where the group is coming from
(11:11):
and what stage they're at. So there will be a
little bit of audience participation, and then there will be
quite a lot of learning where we're getting into digging
into all of the ins and outs of menopause, what
it is, what the symptoms are, how what we can
do to support ourselves through this time, all of that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How much of it is myth busting? How many myths
are there around menopause?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Can I imagine quite a lot?
Speaker 6 (11:31):
There is quite a lot. Yeah, And there's incident in
all areas really, because what's happening now, of course, is
that we are seeing not just information from the likes
of me, but if you go on to social media,
if you're a woman in this age group, you are
bombarded now with a whole lot of information about menopause,
which I think is great, never used to be that.
But it's also the other side of that is that
(11:53):
some of it can be conflicting, some of it can
be wrong.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, Because if there's money to be made, there's always
a snake oil salesperson out there pushing the latest thing
to deal with your symptoms which may actually have either
do nothing, we're actually not be particularly helpful or even harmful.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Yeah, there's tons of marketing now. There's products everywhere being
marketed at women to sort of solve the problems of menopause,
which may or may not be real problems, or may
or may not be solvable in fact. So the market
is I've seen this in the world of nutrition as well,
which is where I've written for a long time. The
marketers can get a little bit ahead of the science
on a lot of the claims around what they can
(12:28):
and can't do. You'll see programs and diets and supplements
and all kinds of things being sold, and so that's
that can be confusing. So there's a we do some
mythbusting around some of that stuff, and we get some
stories from people. We're going to have some local heroes
talking about their experience as well, and we'll talk about
our own experiences.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
How do you actually find the local heroes to talk
about their stories? Is it just through meeting and greeting
or through the course of what you've done the last
three years?
Speaker 6 (12:56):
The men network, you know networks, there's lots of us.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
We'd love we'd love to take your calls on this,
any questions you've got for Nikki or sharing your experience.
The broad question I've got for just talkbackers, and I
guess it's going to be a sort of a self
fulfilling question, will be how comfortable are we talking about
menopause now? And we're going to dig and dig into
that this hour. But also, you know the taboos around it,
what are the myths and some of the you know,
(13:23):
let's put some myths to rest show we as well. Well,
when you get a moment, you can give us a call.
Oh eight one hundred eighty ten eighty text nine two
nine two on tim Beverage. This is a health hub
with Nicki Bsant, co host of the Hot Mess Tour.
Great name back in the moment. It's twenty past four, right,
we're going to get straight into it. By the way,
some people have said, how do I get in touch
with Niki? You can just go to Nicki Byzant dot
(13:44):
co dot nz.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Oops. Sorry, we'll just turn that on.
Speaker 8 (13:47):
There.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
There we go, Nicky Bissant dot com dot com or else.
You can find me on Instagram Nikky Bizant. I'm pretty
easy to find.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
And the Hot Mess tour people want to Yeah, so you.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Can go to hot Mess Tour dot n Z. Now
we've sold out christ Church and Auckland, but we're still
We're still got tickets available. A few tickets available for
for Rotorua on the I need to get this right
on the eighth of April and then Queenstown is this
Saturday night on.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
A good stuff Okay, looks like the start of I
think you might be doing some extra shows at some stage,
just be a wild guest. But anyway, your time to
chance to talk to Nicky and let's kick it off
with Karen.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Karen.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Hello, Hi, how are you good? Thanks?
Speaker 9 (14:27):
Hi Karen, Hi, Yeah, Look, my.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Question is just I'm just wondering what your thoughts on
are about natural supplements versus going on HRT, either the
patch or the estrogen patch or the gel. Just there
seems to be so much slipper of information and it's
hard to kind of know where to start.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
I know, there is a lot of information out there
and it is hard to start. The thing to know
about hormone therapy, so are you talking about the patches
in the gel is that this is a very well
researched treatment and a very we now know a very safe,
an effective treatment for most women and can be really
(15:08):
a big help if you're struggling with symptoms. So that's
something to talk to your doctor about. The supplement side
of things is less well researched, and the current state
of play is really that there's nothing in the supplement
area that they have found to be as effective as
hormone therapy. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean that those
(15:29):
things aren't useful, and I think they can definitely be
a support to you if you you know, a part
of the puzzle, like there's no one magical solution here,
We're not Hormone therapy is not going to solve all
the problems, and NEI there is any supplement, just like
with anything. So I think I always say with supplements,
if you find something that you think is working well
and you find it helpful and you can afford it,
(15:50):
it's not giving you side effects, then you know, go
for your life. Just know that there is not a
huge body of evidence on most of them.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Actually, just to go chip and what Karen's that the
last time we spoke, I think Nikki there was almost
a shortage of them. There was a problem with supply
of the hormone replacement therapy wasn't there.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
Yeah, that's that's the patterns the patches, And there's still
a problem with patches. The supply is a little bit
globally is a bit of as a bit of an issue.
Farm Meker working on that at the moment and they
have just on Friday released their proposal for funding of
two different brands of patches for the future. And so
(16:28):
it's time for all of us women on hormone therapy
to get our submissions and give feedback on that at
the moment. So you can go to the FARMAC website.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And forgetting that you need it prescribed by.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
By your GP or by a doctor.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, okay, well got it, Karen, Thanks for your call.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Any anything else.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
That is there's still because I haven't been to the
doctor recently, and there's still issue with getting the sources
of the.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
Patch that there is. There is a supply and you
know you should be able to get them now, but
it's just you're probably not going to be able to
get a choice of brand if there's a particular brand.
Woe prefer certain brands and you can't. It's pretty much
like of the drawer whether you can get you know,
the brand of choice, is.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
The technology or the science is it all proprietary as
it owned by various The hormone replacement is it's not
something that anyone can manufacture. It's particular companies that have
developed it.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
And well, it's the hormones are generic. It's estradiole basically
is the estrogen patch, and anyone can develop a product
like that. But the delivery mechanisms are you know that
they are different. So a different patch will have a
different adhesive, and it's the adhesive that it absorbs through
the adhesive, which, if it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So yeah, there are different versions of.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
The same thing.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Yeah, but so some people find that one brand will
work better for them than another brand, even though technically
not the same medication. It's just the delivery is a
little bit different.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, okay, right, let's take some more calls. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eight. If you've got any questions for
Nicki or anything you'd like to share about menopause, we'd
love to hear from you.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
And and.
Speaker 7 (18:06):
Hi, idea, heini, how are you? Hi? Am Hi, Hey,
I'm posting a portal. In my mid fifties and started
to gain weight to we see it in the Cumming area.
I'm getting on Facebook because I've looked up you know,
as you look on different things. I'm getting hammered by
(18:26):
advertising from a particular company about collagen, PEP tie and
hormone harmony and things like that just bearaged all the time. Yeah,
are those things that's in particular happy members hard of
the situation? How do those things walk at all? I
(18:48):
or think is a bit more a load of possible.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
I think a lot of it is marketing hype and
probably quite exploitative. I don't think that they often have
a good amount of evidence behind them. And I think
that that particular hormone harmony, this idea of balancing your
hormones is kind of a myth anyway, So anyone that
uses that kind of language, and also especially I have
a real beef with the people targeting, you know, the
(19:14):
meno bally type stuff. I think that is really just
exploitative and targeting women when they're vulnerable. And some of
that stuff is just stuff that happens to our bodies
as we get older. And there's nothing that anything that
any pill that you take, whether it's a supplement or
a medication, can help with that. We're better off doing
(19:35):
other things, spending our money in other areas that make
us feel good and actually do improve our health, you know,
like good food, like exercise, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Because it's not about balancing hormones. It's the clue is
in the product. It's replacement therapy.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So is that right?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Is that the clue wide balancing your hormones isn't well.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Our hormones no matter what age we are, whether we're
in menopause or pre or you know, in our reproductive years,
our hormones are always going up and down. Especially as women,
they're going up and down and fluctuating all the time.
So the idea of them being in perfect balance, it
doesn't make any sense. Yeah, hormone therapy is not really
it's not really replacing hormones to the point that you
(20:11):
were before you went through menopause. But it is kind
of evening out symptoms that you're having.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
By the way, and there's one thing I can help
you with. If you are sick of being bombarded with
ads on Facebook, you can actually go into your you
can go into your settings if you just google how
to stop being targeted on Facebook for whatever? AI will
give AI will give you an idea. And also you
can also click on the ads and go stop seeing
(20:37):
these sorts of ads I think, but you can't.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
You can actually do something about it.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
And just but if you google that, you'll get some
good information. AI has got a pretty good overview of it.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
Okay, yeah, okay, thank you very that's very much, because that.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Would bug the hell out of me. Actually, yes, a
couple of questions of your mates. It's like, hey, you
came with us, and all of a sudden facebooks like
boom boom boom bom boom boom.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Booms like go away, and.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
It really is overwhelming, especially and it's very It makes
you know when you're feeling a bit vulnerable about something anyway,
and then you see all these things promising to solve
that problem, but then they're also selling you the solution
to the problems. I don't know. It is overwhelming. It's
that's a good tip to sort of curate your feeds,
curate your social feeds, and it actually applies to any
(21:20):
influencers or anyone that you see.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Actually, we've got just before you go to the next callers,
I did have one thing about just does choice of
doctor make a difference for getting the health the health
advice you need on the stuff. A general practitioner is
better equipped than them. Maybe they might have been years ago.
And I don't want to jump to conclusions either, because
they might be GP's listening to excuse me.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
I think choice of doctor maybe can make a difference.
A GPS, I think are getting more training and more
information on this now because because women are asking more
about it and wanting more help with it. You know
that the demand for hormone therapy has gone up a
lot in the last five years, which is partly why
we've got shortages around the world. So, you know, I
(22:06):
think doctors are definitely upskilling and gps. You know, they've
got a really tough job to do anyway, just generally
they've got to keep on top of so many different things.
Some gps probably have more knowledge than others and have
kept up more with the latest treatments than others, and
you kind of don't really know until you show up.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Pharmacist has just dropped us a line saying there's currently
also an issue with estra gel supply.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Oh no, really, Okay, so that's the gel which is
which is also the transdermal hormone instead of that you
can use instead of a patch which you rub onto
your skin and.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
It just absorbs through the skin.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Yeah, but that's alarming to know that.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's also hopefully, when Chris says is an issue a
minor issue, hopefully.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Maybe it's temporary, because the idea of that was that
it would it would help to ease the demand for patches,
and you know, ease up the shortage of patches.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
So okay, right, let's take some more questions. We'll keep
it rolling. We'll try and get it through as many
excourses as we can, I promise you. So it's twenty
seven minutes to five.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Mandy.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Hello, Oh hi, I'm Mandy.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So I'm just pretty ignorant about menopause in general, always
have been, and I'm just my The concern is, let's
just say, at fifty normal periods for a year, fifty
five still kind of on somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster.
(23:34):
And what I want to know is, how do we
know where we're at? Can we find that out? And
when do we need to check if there's something else
going on with your other than just menopause.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
Well, I think there's a few parts of that question.
You need to kind of just keep in touch with
your own body to know where you're at. If you
haven't had a period in five years, is that what
you said? Yeah, yeah, then you definitely that's in you're
fifty five, that you definitely post menopausal. That's pretty that
seems pretty clear. Your cycles, yeah, your cycles will tell
(24:08):
you all your lack of cycles will tell you. And
so you know that would you'd seem to be postmenopausal
then I always like to say when I show people
the list of long symptoms you know, or signs, we
shouldn't saymptoms, not an illness, but the things that happen
to us in perimenopause and menopause, all the different things
and all the different systems of the body, including mood
(24:29):
stuff that you're talking about. You know, not everything is menopause.
A lot of things are a lot of things can
have a hormonal component, but not everything is totally about menopause.
So it's really important to make sure that you do
get checked out to eliminate other causes for some of
these things. You know, like there's a lot of components
(24:49):
that go into some of these symptoms, and also think
about how you are in your life, like fifty five.
In our forties and fifties, we have got so much
going on in our lives. We are, we're working, we're
probably at the peak of our career. We're very likely
often got kids at home still, We've got parents who
are older who need support. We've got all kinds of
(25:09):
things going on. We've got relationships, family, community, obligations here
there and everywhere, and it's a really dense time of life,
and it can be really stressful. So all of that
can also feed into whatever else is going on with
you health wise. So I think it can often be
a case of eliminating other causes for things before you
get down to hormones.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So adoptors, right, they can do hormone tests some things
for you.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
It probably wouldn't be of any use to have a
hormone test, and that applies for women who are wondering
whether they're imperimenopause as well. Testing your hormones is only
giving you a snapshot of a moment in time at
your stage. I mean it might be useful just to check,
and they'd want to be checking other hormones as well,
your thyroid hormones and your insulin, all the kind of
(25:57):
other things that might be happening in your in your body,
not just to reproductive hormones because they're probably stable.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Think, Hey, thanks Wendy, Thanks Mandy, Sorry, thank you for call.
I mean, here's an example that some people still can't
talk about it, says why the heck would you want
to be talking about menopause on national radio? Tim It's
very personal thing, says Pam. But well, yeah, you know,
I understand that. Well, actually that's a perfect example. It's personal.
You can talk about it if you want or not.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
Yeah, I understand that, and some people are not comfortable
talking about it, and we do have to respect that
as well. But I don't think that it has helped
women in general not to have talked about this for generations,
to just brush it under the carpet and not mention
why we might be really struggling. That's not helpful. That's
like not talking about mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, I just read that out, because actually the point
is people calling if they're comfortable talking about it, even
though it's personal personal, And.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
So I understand that, and generations past have not been
comfortable talking about it at all because of lots of reasons. Really,
you know, we've been conditioned not to talk about anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Right, let's take some more calls.
Speaker 8 (26:59):
Kate.
Speaker 9 (26:59):
Hello, Well, hi, I did about twenty five years ago,
and it came on and it was dreadful. I was
running my own business and it barely work, you know,
feeling frightful and taking one pill after another and they
all other than seem to help. And I read somewhere
that exercise can help. So I took it up and
(27:22):
it was just absolutely amazing about just twenty minutes and
you know, sort of walk stuff and simons all went
and I felt miles better than I've felt for years
and ears and years, and just kept it up ever since.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
I love that cage. That's awesome.
Speaker 8 (27:41):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
I'm sorry that you had such such a bad time,
but you're right about exercise.
Speaker 9 (27:46):
But not for long. But the other thing was that
I haven't really been having problems with depression for ages
and was taking pills and things. So I dragged him
out with me and behold me though, within a ruddy
week his depression was gone and never came back.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
Gosh, Well, there's a ton of research, there's a ton
of evidence around the benefits of exercise. And it's what
I always say actually when I exercise, which I do
put a lot of focus on because I know how
good it is for me for my future health and
for my current health. But the main reason, the main
benefit I get from it right now is for my mood.
It makes me feel better every single time. And I
(28:19):
think that's for everyone that applies, whatever age or gender
we are.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Actually I mean that, yeah, thanks, Hey, thanks very much, Kate,
appreciate your call.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Actually, I mean that is a lessest example, I think,
just not a lesser example, it's the wrong expression, but
just for any age and especially as you get older,
regardless of that's one thing that ties them for men
as well. It's like, oh, feeling if you're not exercising
and you start exercising, well, guess what you probably once
you get over that early hump of just you know,
the challenge of it, it's huge difference.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
So you're going to feel better. Yeah, and it's just
so so valuable for your future health as we get older,
all of us, as we age, you know, having a
strong and fit body is just so so beneficial.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Right, We're going to take a quick moment back in
just the technicky buzanders with me. She is co host
of the hot Mess Tour and we're talking menopause. Anyone
can give us a call on eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty Your Experiences or Picnicky's Brains for a bit
of advice on what to do with the challenges that
you feel and might be facing. Twenty one minutes to
five News talks'd b Yes, Welcome back with Nicki Bizant,
(29:22):
co host of the hot Mess Tour. You can go
and google that if you're interested in the remaining seats
for Rota or Quen's down where we're talking. We are
talking now menopause and taking your calls Alan, Hello, Hey m.
Speaker 8 (29:35):
I, Nikki, Hey, hey No. I did a lot of
traveling to the UK and it's been a big topic
over the last four or five years. And finally enough
I said to my wife a couple of years back,
I said, should I be asking you about menopause and
how you're doing? And she said yep. She looked at
a surprise actually, and then she said, yep, no, No,
(29:56):
I'm okay. So you know it's something I think all guys,
you know, should be aware of. I guess the other
thing for me is I'm in an industry where I
employ a lot of female staff. I think the awareness
is important for bosses in terms of being able to
cut their stuff from you know, a bit of a
(30:18):
break when they're not doing well. You know, indometriosis has
been a big thing, and I think, you know, as
the aging population happens, we're going to be much more
exposed or much more I shouldn't say exposed, I guess
you know, it's going to be more significant menopause. So
I think you're doing a great job. I think education
(30:40):
is important.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
God, thanks Ellen. Yeah, I agree. I mean it's it's
a very common thing when I go into workplaces.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Well, that was the question.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
How does a boss, especially male boss, put in place
some sort of mechanism for you can I don't know,
for how do you handle that whole menopause thing. Well, hey,
by the way, if anyone's got menopause and feeling, but
I mean, you can't I can't.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Imagine that being a winning way to go about it.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
Well, there's all kinds of levels of things that are
happening in workplaces, right, so it can it can be
as simple as having someone like me come in and
do a talk for a start, like as in a
wellness setting or as a webinar, whatever I do all that,
if anyone's out there wants to bring me in, I'd
love to. And I have spoken in every kind of
workplace that you can imagine, from the high viz best
(31:29):
type environments where it's mostly men through to you know,
law firms and accountant firms and all the rest of it,
and all kinds of businesses in between where there's lots
of women and often there that their bosses are male.
But those men and women in the senior roles understand
that actually it's about supporting women. And if you don't,
if you don't look after women and actually support them
(31:49):
through that transition, because it is just a transition, then
you're not going to get women in leadership, you know,
coming through or staying in those leadership roles. So what
Allen says is right, It is just about understanding. So,
like the really onto it web, workplaces have got menopause
policies in place, just like they have a policy for
you know, every other kind of health challenge. But it
(32:12):
doesn't have to be that formal. It can be really simple,
like having menopause champions in the workplace, that you feel
like that here's a group of people that you know
that you can go to and talk about all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Thanks Allan, Thanks for you cole mate. Really appreciate it.
Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
I thought, all actually that is the way for men
to I thought the way he put that, he said
to his wife, should I be asking you sometime about menopause?
Speaker 6 (32:30):
It's a nice way of putting it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Isn't that that's it's just the should I yeah? In
other words, and might be no, you shouldn't, or you
have raised it.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
I would add to that that it's not just one
conversation either. It's lots of little conversations, micro conversations from
time to time, just checking in with each other.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Clue for me.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And if you've had an argument, that is not the
time to say.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
Most definitely.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Okay, we're going to have to sprint through the callers,
so we're trying up the pace of it because we've
got lots of people wanting to talk to Nikki Ali.
Speaker 10 (32:58):
Hello, Hello, I'll make sure if well now seventy seven
year old. But I experienced very awful periods as a child,
awful periods at men pour very heavy and I became suicidal.
(33:19):
And it was only before my period was due. I
could have been driving down the motorway and I think
I could handle this, and just driving to that truck.
I knew I should go to the hospital, but I
knew if I had to walk over the bridge and
might want to jump. And I managed to get through it.
(33:42):
It was a terrible time.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
What got you through got you through it all?
Speaker 10 (33:50):
I started talking to people. I kept it secret, and
my husband was really worried because I don't think he
really was supportive. To be honest, I don't think he
he thought that I was wanting attention or something. But
was definitely before I had my periods and they were very,
(34:10):
very heavy and very painful. I started taking some tablets
hormonal tept but in the end I lost my husband
suddenly at sixty five. Two years after that, I started
(34:31):
getting very for in my side and the doctor gave
me some medication. A year later, I was still going
and he took He said I'll better have some tests
and they found that I had huge end of metriosis
(34:55):
and I was seventy by that stage.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Gosh, that's a hell of a story, Eli, I'm sorry. Sorry.
By the way, look as we.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Do when people talk about any questions around, I'm wanting
to hurt themselves. If you do need if you're someone
who's going through really tough time and you do need
to talk to someone, please that there's a fantastic service
which is one seven three seven. You can call or
text it if you ever have thoughts that are you
know where you're thinking of harming yourself, So please do that.
If anything that we're talking about does trigger those sorts
(35:22):
of thoughts, please go to one seven three seven. Let's
take another call. Thank you for your call, Ali, I
really appreciate it. Wendy, Hello, Hello, Wendy, tell you what
that's a sign. We'll take the break. We've got time
for maybe squeezing in a call or two more. I've
got a truckload of text we can also dig into
with with Nicki Bezant, who's with us the Hot Mess tour.
(35:45):
You can go and check out if there's still some
tickets for Rota and Queenstand. But more importantly, Nicki wrote
has written a couple of books and one of them
is called This Changes Everything. That was the first book
about menopause and subsequently she has followed it up with
a guide, which I imagine would the guide if you're
going to buy one book, which one would you buy first?
I know this is asking like someone, which is.
Speaker 6 (36:06):
Your favorite child? Well, this changes everything as a deep
dive into menopause and periomenopause and everything. Guide is a
little bit more about healthy aging, so about everything beyond
menopause as well as menopause.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Okay, so if you probably if you really want to
dive into the menopause questions, the guide and then.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
This changes everything would be that would be the menopause book.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think, oh oh, this changes everything would be in
the minipause book.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
So and then the guide is the next one. Oh okay,
So it's like here we are in minnopause. Let's look beyond.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Boks are cheap these days anyway, just by both.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Anyway, hey, look, we'll be back with so we'll cover
some more of the correspondence as well. It is coming
up to ten minutes to five newstalk S head b
This newstalk s head Beat and Beverage with Niki Bizant,
and we are going to do a bunch of quick
text because about three and a half minutes to go,
So here we go. Firstly, just quickly, Nikki, somebody said
taboo is being lifted on an Air New Zealand flight
today where there were three menipause questions on the n flight.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Quiz.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
I've heard this. I think that's wonderful. It's really cool.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I wonder what the questions are now. I sort of
dine to do that quiz now. And just another one,
just saying, listening to your great conversations about menopause really good.
And the comment about the gelbing and short supply is
a bit of a concern, but this person has checked
the farmac's website.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
There is no.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Shortageaw supply chain challenge noted in this person's give me
a link to that. So that's a good bit of
research from Christmas.
Speaker 6 (37:29):
It's useful. Yeah, and you can keep up to date
with the patches situation on that same website, so that's
worth checking.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Okay, let's see if we can do a few short
fire ones memory menopause relationships.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
Yes, there is some cognitive stuff that happens, brain fog,
memory concentration. I have suffered this myself. It is very frustrating.
It is normal. It's part of the transition and it
does they tell me get better as you get further
on through. It's the brain doing a bit of a rewire.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
In continence and menopause. I'm summarizing these tests again.
Speaker 6 (38:01):
Urinary issues can be a problem, and that's partly to
we have estrogen receptors in the urethra and the bladder
and the volver all that whole area. Investigate vaginal estrogen.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Okay, HRT.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Does it have possible side effects e g.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Cancer, blood clots, stroke.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
Yes, these are some risks with it. There is a
small risk of breast cancer, quite small, equivalent to drinking
one drink of alcoholiday or being physically inactive for most women. Yes,
there is a risk with certain forms of HIT with
blood clots. Normally it's the oral estrogen, so the patches
don't give you that risk. And there are other side
(38:42):
effects that can happen for some women. Okay, it's worth
discussing those with your doctor and your own individual risk factors.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Don't get your medical advice from Facebook too, Hei Niki,
When would you consider being on the other side of
menopause or is it for the rest of your life
once you've completed you twelve months.
Speaker 6 (38:59):
Well, you're deemed in medical language to be postmenopausal at
that point after that one year, but that's still there's
still a bit of transitional stuff happening for probably a
couple of years after that. It's kind of you're kind
of going to know yourself well in terms of how
you feel. You're going to start to feel more stable.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
It's a difference between patches and gel.
Speaker 6 (39:20):
It's just a it's the same medication, it's just a
different type of delivery.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Okay, what is Nicki's views on this might be a
big question. Nicki's views on women getting PMS or pm
d D symptoms while in menopause. Is there a cure management? Thanks,
I know what that is.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
Well, PMS is pre menstrual syndrome and PMDD is pre
menstrual dysmorphic disorder, which is where you have really serious BMT.
Those kind of symptoms get a bit tangled up in
perimenopause with perimenopause symptoms, So just to be a case
of talking to your doctor about what's going on with.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
You, Okay, I think that's it. I'm sorry people, we
haven't got to all the texts. We've had a lot
of correspondence on this but if you want to know,
learn more Nikki byzant dot com and you can google
the hot mess tour. But also again, just if you're
getting bombarded because you've asked your friends about it on
Facebook and all of a sudden you're getting all those ads,
google how to stop being targeted for Facebook at menopause
(40:15):
ads and you'll get the answer there. Hey Nikki, thanks
great to see you again.
Speaker 6 (40:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Likewise, good luck with the tour and enjoy getting around
the country and talking to everyone.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Thank you. Yeah, looking forward to it.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
Good stuff. We will be back shortly.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
A man of Morales with us for Smart Money, talking
about investing through the generations and playing catch up as well.
Eight one hundred and eight ten eighty will be taking
your cause three minutes to five.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
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You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks dB.
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Speaker 4 (00:48):
Welcome to the Health.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We want your calls on eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty text nine to nine to two. And this afternoon
we're talking menopause. And of course, you know, it's been
one of those conversations I my guests'm about to introduce
and just the second I had a chat with her
if you, probably about a year or so ago, and
I remember feeling very very nervous about talking about menopause
(01:12):
because it seemed a little bit taboo and something that
people went comfortable talking about but it seems that times
are changing. But I want to know from you, how
comfortable are you talking about menopause, whether as someone who's
going through it or about to go through it, or
perhaps the partner of someone who may be going through it,
And would you be comfortable saying I don't know how
you start that conversation, are you is there any chance
(01:35):
you're going through menopause? I can't see that conversation starting
too well. But to navigate these issues, we want you
to give us a call on eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. But we are joined by Nicki Bizant. She
is the co host of the upcoming Hot Mess Tour.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And she's with us now. Nikki, good afternoon, Sam.
Speaker 6 (01:50):
You and I have actually been talking about this for
nearly more than two years. Yes, my first book.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's two years. Yea gosh.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I was going to say cheekily like, because I was
going to say, you are the Queen of menopause.
Speaker 7 (02:01):
But.
Speaker 6 (02:03):
I'll take it.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I did feel it was funny because at the time
I thought before you came in and I thought I
was actually a little nervous about how to navigate it.
But it was actually a fantastic conversation. But has Okay,
so we've been doing it for well since it was
two years since I chatted to you and you had
your new book out, which was your first book out.
I think it was coming out. Yeah, this changes everything.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Yeah that was in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Okay, And how's the conversation gone with menopause?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Do you think we're more comfortable about it?
Speaker 6 (02:33):
Well? I am probably in a bit of a menopause bubble.
I'm talking about menopause all the time, so I may
have a slightly skewed view of it. But I do
think that we are more comfortable talking about it now
than we were, Say, you know when I started researching this,
was it like five years ago? Yeah, there was just nothing.
There was silence on it. So I think that we've
definitely become more comfortable discussing it, and certainly amongst women,
(02:57):
there's a lot more conversations going on in all age
groups too. I think.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, I came out, okay with a dumb question. I
can't remember if I know the answer to this. We
actually have we as a general population, or at least
with women, known about menopause and what it is. How
long since the veil started getting lifted about changes that
happened with women.
Speaker 6 (03:17):
Well, we've always known it since the dawn of medicine.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Because of just the physical change.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
Yeah, yeah, that there's a change in women's bodies and
that we can't keep having babies forever. So I think
that's that's long been known. The knowledge of hormones is
actually quite a young science, almost went discovered really until
the thirty twentieth century, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, that doesn't surprise you. Yeah, it's quite a complex
area of science.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
Yeah, So the influence of hormones and how that impacts
menopause is probably only very new within the last hundred years.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Is it, because it would have been taboo at one stage,
and there probably are some senses of taboos, to be honest,
I don't know if I it was an issue for me,
whether how comfortable i'd be, how I would raise the
topic of menopause with whether either my wife or a
friend or anyone. It's not iboul to feel like keep
out of it until it gets brought up.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean it can be tricky inside relationships, I
think to talk about.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
But especially if you're just had an argument.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Yeah, yeah, saying I know why you're so cranky. That's
probably not the way to do it. I do get
asked about that quite a bit, actually, but I think
that there is some empathy that can be built by
talking about it inside a relationship. Yeah, it's quite important.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
To do that.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
About minopause as a something that we are comfortable talking
about has been taboo for generations really until very recently.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, how did you notice the reaction to when you've
wrote your first book and over the last two or
three years, what's the journey for you've been on that?
And I know you've said you're living in a menopause bubble,
but the people who talk to you are not in
the bubble there.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
No.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
I mean I do a lot of as you know,
I do a lot of speaking on menopause in workplaces.
And the reaction there has been from the start and
is still so there's kind of this gratitude that comes like,
thank you for starting this conversation, thank you for talking
about it. Now we feel that we can talk about
it too, especially in a workplace where it's a kind
(05:11):
of an environment where you might not feel comfortable talking
about it, or you might feel unsure about how it's
going to be received. To start a conversation. Sometimes when
someone like me, who's an outsider, comes in and starts
the conversation, it just sort of gives everybody a big
sigh of relief and they can go, oh, excellent, now
we can talk about this and it's okay.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Are there some?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Are there many prominent sort of celebrities who talk about
it that have made it easier in terms of acknowledging
their own journey with it.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Well, Oprah is just about to release a big menopause special,
so you can't get much bigger than that. No, lots
of Hollywood names have opened up on menopause now because
all these women are in this age group. You know,
I think of all about gen X kind of heart
throbs and idols. They're all in this age group now,
so a lot of them are talking about it. Halle Berry.
(05:57):
You know, Naomi Watts has got her own company of
minopause products. This is all happening.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I still think of Nami, what's has been about thirty
years old. But I guess it's just a sign of
how quickly time passes it.
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I've actually was chatting with a younger colleague about this,
and she was saying, one of the one of the
changes that will come is when the Gen Z and
maybe even Gen Y, when menopause comes around for them,
it's really going to be very out in the open
because they're the generation who share everything about that. They
don't really seem to want to hide much about everything.
(06:34):
They share and share and share, whereas we still have
a generation of the Baby Boomers to Generation X who
may be a little conservative with what they really want
to share publicly.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, that's probably true. I mean, I do think my
generation Gen X are a pretty good at problem solving,
you know, and so we're not so keen to be
fobbed off and told look, no you can't have that treatment,
or what's happening to you is just something you have
to put up with. Yeah, that's not for us. And
the millennials are coming through now. The oldest of the
millennials is heading perimenopause now, so you know, they also
(07:07):
are not a generation that's just going to sit back
and not find a solution to what's happening with them.
They want the knowledge. They're very you know, they're very
keen to understand what.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Age of millennials I've lost track.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Well, the old oldest millennials are in their forties.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Now, okay, yeah, all right, okay, it's together because on average,
I mean they don't want to generalize what age does
it start becoming quite common at that age that you're
going to be looking at pause kicking.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
In the average age of menopause is around about fifty
one of minnopause, but perimenopause, which is all the time
leading up to menopause, that can be anywhere between two
and ten years. So feasibly you can you can start
hitting perimenopause even in your thirties. You're like thirties most
of us, it'll be in your forties somewhere.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So what I've actually, if I remember rightly, when people
talking about going through menopause, they're broadly speaking about it's
all perimenopause, because the menopause are simply the day that
you stop ovulating, isn't it is that it's the day.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
It's one year. Technically it's one year. I've your last period,
so you've had no ovarian you had no cycle for
a year, then that's technically menopause. But everything leading up
to that date is what we know is perimenopause, and
you're right, that is the time when often we're having
quite a lot of symptoms and things can be quite
disrupted and turbulent that we might think of that as menopause,
(08:26):
but it's actually technically referred to as the menopause transition.
So it's a whole period of time.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Okay, okay, I'll specialize in dumb questions as a man.
So it seems to me logical that if it's a year,
if menopause is actually a year after your last period,
then in fact the final few months of perimenopause may
not be so bad. Is because you've gone through the
journey which leads up to that stop or are they
(08:51):
are big hormonal changes that happen after your final period?
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Yeah, there still can be Like what's happening during perimenopause
is actually not this kind of slow and steady decline
that you might be imagining of estrogen, which is our
main film right here. It's actually kind of like a
roller coaster a right, It's going up and down, up
and down in a crazy roller coaster way. And that
can still be happening after your last period for a
little while until it kind of calms down. It does
(09:15):
tend to calm down post menopause and become much more
stable than women who are a bit older and through
the other side off and talk about how much better
and more calm and more stable they feel. But the
turbulence can last for quite a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
So before we get before, we will love to have
your cause anytime, if you've got some questions for Nikki,
she's been working on and she's written a couple of
books on menopause. The first one is This Changes Everything,
and then the second one, which I think was released
about a year ago, is The Everything God by Nicki Bizant.
So we'd love to hear from you. In fact, even
I don't mean even guys, I mean guys as well,
(09:49):
because actually I think men, the more you know, the
better you can support your partners, would be the way
I think we'd put it, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
Nay, Absolutely, it's really important for men to understand.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And we're not going to be taking any questions on
the male menopause, okay, because we get people who call
about the mail pause. We're talking about women's women going
through menopause, and we want your cause. I know e
one hundred and eight ten eighty but before we go
to the break because you're doing the hot it's great.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
And how did you come up with the title the
Hot Mess?
Speaker 6 (10:15):
I don't actually know how we came up that you
might have been. It might have been Petra, or it
might have been Lou our collaborator who's helping us as well.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
What is the Hot Mess Tour?
Speaker 6 (10:24):
It is an evening with Petra Vegas and myself talking
about all the things to do with menopause and midlife,
just unpacking it all, having some laughs, learning lots of
stuff and sharing together. I think it's going to be
lots of fun.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, do you do you sort of have it sort
of mapped out in terms of the initial part of
the evening scripted and how much of it as audience participation.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Well, we want to try and get a bit of
a sense of where the audience is at. One thing
that I've noticed over my kind of three years I
guess of speaking on menopause is that the knowledge of
my audiences has grown. You know, when I first started out,
no one knew much about menopause at all, Whereas now
I think we're a little bit where they're on the journey.
People tend to know a little bit more. So we
want to understand where where the group is coming from
(11:11):
and what stage they're at. So there will be a
little bit of audience participation, and then there will be
quite a lot of learning where we're getting into digging
into all of the ins and outs of menopause, what
it is, what the symptoms are, how what we can
do to support ourselves through this time, all of that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How much of it is myth busting? How many myths
are there around menopause?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Can I imagine quite a lot?
Speaker 6 (11:31):
There is quite a lot. Yeah, And there's incident in
all areas really, because what's happening now, of course, is
that we are seeing not just information from the likes
of me, but if you go on to social media,
if you're a woman in this age group, you are
bombarded now with a whole lot of information about menopause,
which I think is great, never used to be that.
But it's also the other side of that is that
(11:53):
some of it can be conflicting, some of it can
be wrong.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, Because if there's money to be made, there's always
a snake oil salesperson out there pushing the latest thing
to deal with your symptoms which may actually have either
do nothing, we're actually not be particularly helpful or even harmful.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Yeah, there's tons of marketing now. There's products everywhere being
marketed at women to sort of solve the problems of menopause,
which may or may not be real problems, or may
or may not be solvable in fact. So the market
is I've seen this in the world of nutrition as well,
which is where I've written for a long time. The
marketers can get a little bit ahead of the science
on a lot of the claims around what they can
(12:28):
and can't do. You'll see programs and diets and supplements
and all kinds of things being sold, and so that's
that can be confusing. So there's a we do some
mythbusting around some of that stuff, and we get some
stories from people. We're going to have some local heroes
talking about their experience as well, and we'll talk about
our own experiences.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
How do you actually find the local heroes to talk
about their stories? Is it just through meeting and greeting
or through the course of what you've done the last
three years?
Speaker 6 (12:56):
The men network, you know networks, there's lots of us.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
We'd love we'd love to take your calls on this,
any questions you've got for Nikki or sharing your experience.
The broad question I've got for just talkbackers, and I
guess it's going to be a sort of a self
fulfilling question, will be how comfortable are we talking about
menopause now? And we're going to dig and dig into
that this hour. But also, you know the taboos around it,
what are the myths and some of the you know,
(13:23):
let's put some myths to rest show we as well. Well,
when you get a moment, you can give us a call.
Oh eight one hundred eighty ten eighty text nine two
nine two on tim Beverage. This is a health hub
with Nicki Bsant, co host of the Hot Mess Tour.
Great name back in the moment. It's twenty past four, right,
we're going to get straight into it. By the way,
some people have said, how do I get in touch
with Niki? You can just go to Nicki Byzant dot
(13:44):
co dot nz.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Oops. Sorry, we'll just turn that on.
Speaker 8 (13:47):
There.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
There we go, Nicky Bissant dot com dot com or else.
You can find me on Instagram Nikky Bizant. I'm pretty
easy to find.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
And the Hot Mess tour people want to Yeah, so you.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Can go to hot Mess Tour dot n Z. Now
we've sold out christ Church and Auckland, but we're still
We're still got tickets available. A few tickets available for
for Rotorua on the I need to get this right
on the eighth of April and then Queenstown is this
Saturday night on.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
A good stuff Okay, looks like the start of I
think you might be doing some extra shows at some stage,
just be a wild guest. But anyway, your time to
chance to talk to Nicky and let's kick it off
with Karen.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Karen.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Hello, Hi, how are you good? Thanks?
Speaker 9 (14:27):
Hi Karen, Hi, Yeah, Look, my.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Question is just I'm just wondering what your thoughts on
are about natural supplements versus going on HRT, either the
patch or the estrogen patch or the gel. Just there
seems to be so much slipper of information and it's
hard to kind of know where to start.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
I know, there is a lot of information out there
and it is hard to start. The thing to know
about hormone therapy, so are you talking about the patches
in the gel is that this is a very well
researched treatment and a very we now know a very safe,
an effective treatment for most women and can be really
(15:08):
a big help if you're struggling with symptoms. So that's
something to talk to your doctor about. The supplement side
of things is less well researched, and the current state
of play is really that there's nothing in the supplement
area that they have found to be as effective as
hormone therapy. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean that those
(15:29):
things aren't useful, and I think they can definitely be
a support to you if you you know, a part
of the puzzle, like there's no one magical solution here,
We're not Hormone therapy is not going to solve all
the problems, and NEI there is any supplement, just like
with anything. So I think I always say with supplements,
if you find something that you think is working well
and you find it helpful and you can afford it,
(15:50):
it's not giving you side effects, then you know, go
for your life. Just know that there is not a
huge body of evidence on most of them.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Actually, just to go chip and what Karen's that the
last time we spoke, I think Nikki there was almost
a shortage of them. There was a problem with supply
of the hormone replacement therapy wasn't there.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
Yeah, that's that's the patterns the patches, And there's still
a problem with patches. The supply is a little bit
globally is a bit of as a bit of an issue.
Farm Meker working on that at the moment and they
have just on Friday released their proposal for funding of
two different brands of patches for the future. And so
(16:28):
it's time for all of us women on hormone therapy
to get our submissions and give feedback on that at
the moment. So you can go to the FARMAC website.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And forgetting that you need it prescribed by.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
By your GP or by a doctor.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, okay, well got it, Karen, Thanks for your call.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Any anything else.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
That is there's still because I haven't been to the
doctor recently, and there's still issue with getting the sources
of the.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
Patch that there is. There is a supply and you
know you should be able to get them now, but
it's just you're probably not going to be able to
get a choice of brand if there's a particular brand.
Woe prefer certain brands and you can't. It's pretty much
like of the drawer whether you can get you know,
the brand of choice, is.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
The technology or the science is it all proprietary as
it owned by various The hormone replacement is it's not
something that anyone can manufacture. It's particular companies that have
developed it.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
And well, it's the hormones are generic. It's estradiole basically
is the estrogen patch, and anyone can develop a product
like that. But the delivery mechanisms are you know that
they are different. So a different patch will have a
different adhesive, and it's the adhesive that it absorbs through
the adhesive, which, if it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So yeah, there are different versions of.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
The same thing.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Yeah, but so some people find that one brand will
work better for them than another brand, even though technically
not the same medication. It's just the delivery is a
little bit different.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, okay, right, let's take some more calls. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eight. If you've got any questions for
Nicki or anything you'd like to share about menopause, we'd
love to hear from you.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
And and.
Speaker 7 (18:06):
Hi, idea, heini, how are you? Hi? Am Hi, Hey,
I'm posting a portal. In my mid fifties and started
to gain weight to we see it in the Cumming area.
I'm getting on Facebook because I've looked up you know,
as you look on different things. I'm getting hammered by
(18:26):
advertising from a particular company about collagen, PEP tie and
hormone harmony and things like that just bearaged all the time. Yeah,
are those things that's in particular happy members hard of
the situation? How do those things walk at all? I
(18:48):
or think is a bit more a load of possible.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
I think a lot of it is marketing hype and
probably quite exploitative. I don't think that they often have
a good amount of evidence behind them. And I think
that that particular hormone harmony, this idea of balancing your
hormones is kind of a myth anyway, So anyone that
uses that kind of language, and also especially I have
a real beef with the people targeting, you know, the
(19:14):
meno bally type stuff. I think that is really just
exploitative and targeting women when they're vulnerable. And some of
that stuff is just stuff that happens to our bodies
as we get older. And there's nothing that anything that
any pill that you take, whether it's a supplement or
a medication, can help with that. We're better off doing
(19:35):
other things, spending our money in other areas that make
us feel good and actually do improve our health, you know,
like good food, like exercise, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Because it's not about balancing hormones. It's the clue is
in the product. It's replacement therapy.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So is that right?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Is that the clue wide balancing your hormones isn't well.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Our hormones no matter what age we are, whether we're
in menopause or pre or you know, in our reproductive years,
our hormones are always going up and down. Especially as women,
they're going up and down and fluctuating all the time.
So the idea of them being in perfect balance, it
doesn't make any sense. Yeah, hormone therapy is not really
it's not really replacing hormones to the point that you
(20:11):
were before you went through menopause. But it is kind
of evening out symptoms that you're having.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
By the way, and there's one thing I can help
you with. If you are sick of being bombarded with
ads on Facebook, you can actually go into your you
can go into your settings if you just google how
to stop being targeted on Facebook for whatever? AI will
give AI will give you an idea. And also you
can also click on the ads and go stop seeing
(20:37):
these sorts of ads I think, but you can't.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
You can actually do something about it.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
And just but if you google that, you'll get some
good information. AI has got a pretty good overview of it.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
Okay, yeah, okay, thank you very that's very much, because that.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Would bug the hell out of me. Actually, yes, a
couple of questions of your mates. It's like, hey, you
came with us, and all of a sudden facebooks like
boom boom boom bom boom boom.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Booms like go away, and.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
It really is overwhelming, especially and it's very It makes
you know when you're feeling a bit vulnerable about something anyway,
and then you see all these things promising to solve
that problem, but then they're also selling you the solution
to the problems. I don't know. It is overwhelming. It's
that's a good tip to sort of curate your feeds,
curate your social feeds, and it actually applies to any
(21:20):
influencers or anyone that you see.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Actually, we've got just before you go to the next callers,
I did have one thing about just does choice of
doctor make a difference for getting the health the health
advice you need on the stuff. A general practitioner is
better equipped than them. Maybe they might have been years ago.
And I don't want to jump to conclusions either, because
they might be GP's listening to excuse me.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
I think choice of doctor maybe can make a difference.
A GPS, I think are getting more training and more
information on this now because because women are asking more
about it and wanting more help with it. You know
that the demand for hormone therapy has gone up a
lot in the last five years, which is partly why
we've got shortages around the world. So, you know, I
(22:06):
think doctors are definitely upskilling and gps. You know, they've
got a really tough job to do anyway, just generally
they've got to keep on top of so many different things.
Some gps probably have more knowledge than others and have
kept up more with the latest treatments than others, and
you kind of don't really know until you show up.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Pharmacist has just dropped us a line saying there's currently
also an issue with estra gel supply.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Oh no, really, Okay, so that's the gel which is
which is also the transdermal hormone instead of that you
can use instead of a patch which you rub onto
your skin and.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
It just absorbs through the skin.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Yeah, but that's alarming to know that.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's also hopefully, when Chris says is an issue a
minor issue, hopefully.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Maybe it's temporary, because the idea of that was that
it would it would help to ease the demand for patches,
and you know, ease up the shortage of patches.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
So okay, right, let's take some more questions. We'll keep
it rolling. We'll try and get it through as many
excourses as we can, I promise you. So it's twenty
seven minutes to five.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Mandy.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Hello, Oh hi, I'm Mandy.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So I'm just pretty ignorant about menopause in general, always
have been, and I'm just my The concern is, let's
just say, at fifty normal periods for a year, fifty
five still kind of on somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster.
(23:34):
And what I want to know is, how do we
know where we're at? Can we find that out? And
when do we need to check if there's something else
going on with your other than just menopause.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
Well, I think there's a few parts of that question.
You need to kind of just keep in touch with
your own body to know where you're at. If you
haven't had a period in five years, is that what
you said? Yeah, yeah, then you definitely that's in you're
fifty five, that you definitely post menopausal. That's pretty that
seems pretty clear. Your cycles, yeah, your cycles will tell
(24:08):
you all your lack of cycles will tell you. And
so you know that would you'd seem to be postmenopausal
then I always like to say when I show people
the list of long symptoms you know, or signs, we
shouldn't saymptoms, not an illness, but the things that happen
to us in perimenopause and menopause, all the different things
and all the different systems of the body, including mood
(24:29):
stuff that you're talking about. You know, not everything is menopause.
A lot of things are a lot of things can
have a hormonal component, but not everything is totally about menopause.
So it's really important to make sure that you do
get checked out to eliminate other causes for some of
these things. You know, like there's a lot of components
(24:49):
that go into some of these symptoms, and also think
about how you are in your life, like fifty five.
In our forties and fifties, we have got so much
going on in our lives. We are, we're working, we're
probably at the peak of our career. We're very likely
often got kids at home still, We've got parents who
are older who need support. We've got all kinds of
(25:09):
things going on. We've got relationships, family, community, obligations here
there and everywhere, and it's a really dense time of life,
and it can be really stressful. So all of that
can also feed into whatever else is going on with
you health wise. So I think it can often be
a case of eliminating other causes for things before you
get down to hormones.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So adoptors, right, they can do hormone tests some things
for you.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
It probably wouldn't be of any use to have a
hormone test, and that applies for women who are wondering
whether they're imperimenopause as well. Testing your hormones is only
giving you a snapshot of a moment in time at
your stage. I mean it might be useful just to check,
and they'd want to be checking other hormones as well,
your thyroid hormones and your insulin, all the kind of
(25:57):
other things that might be happening in your in your body,
not just to reproductive hormones because they're probably stable.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Think, Hey, thanks Wendy, Thanks Mandy, Sorry, thank you for call.
I mean, here's an example that some people still can't
talk about it, says why the heck would you want
to be talking about menopause on national radio? Tim It's
very personal thing, says Pam. But well, yeah, you know,
I understand that. Well, actually that's a perfect example. It's personal.
You can talk about it if you want or not.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
Yeah, I understand that, and some people are not comfortable
talking about it, and we do have to respect that
as well. But I don't think that it has helped
women in general not to have talked about this for generations,
to just brush it under the carpet and not mention
why we might be really struggling. That's not helpful. That's
like not talking about mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, I just read that out, because actually the point
is people calling if they're comfortable talking about it, even
though it's personal personal, And.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
So I understand that, and generations past have not been
comfortable talking about it at all because of lots of reasons. Really,
you know, we've been conditioned not to talk about anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Right, let's take some more calls.
Speaker 8 (26:59):
Kate.
Speaker 9 (26:59):
Hello, Well, hi, I did about twenty five years ago,
and it came on and it was dreadful. I was
running my own business and it barely work, you know,
feeling frightful and taking one pill after another and they
all other than seem to help. And I read somewhere
that exercise can help. So I took it up and
(27:22):
it was just absolutely amazing about just twenty minutes and
you know, sort of walk stuff and simons all went
and I felt miles better than I've felt for years
and ears and years, and just kept it up ever since.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
I love that cage. That's awesome.
Speaker 8 (27:41):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
I'm sorry that you had such such a bad time,
but you're right about exercise.
Speaker 9 (27:46):
But not for long. But the other thing was that
I haven't really been having problems with depression for ages
and was taking pills and things. So I dragged him
out with me and behold me though, within a ruddy
week his depression was gone and never came back.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
Gosh, Well, there's a ton of research, there's a ton
of evidence around the benefits of exercise. And it's what
I always say actually when I exercise, which I do
put a lot of focus on because I know how
good it is for me for my future health and
for my current health. But the main reason, the main
benefit I get from it right now is for my mood.
It makes me feel better every single time. And I
(28:19):
think that's for everyone that applies, whatever age or gender
we are.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Actually I mean that, yeah, thanks, Hey, thanks very much, Kate,
appreciate your call.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Actually, I mean that is a lessest example, I think,
just not a lesser example, it's the wrong expression, but
just for any age and especially as you get older,
regardless of that's one thing that ties them for men
as well. It's like, oh, feeling if you're not exercising
and you start exercising, well, guess what you probably once
you get over that early hump of just you know,
the challenge of it, it's huge difference.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
So you're going to feel better. Yeah, and it's just
so so valuable for your future health as we get older,
all of us, as we age, you know, having a
strong and fit body is just so so beneficial.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Right, We're going to take a quick moment back in
just the technicky buzanders with me. She is co host
of the hot Mess Tour and we're talking menopause. Anyone
can give us a call on eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty Your Experiences or Picnicky's Brains for a bit
of advice on what to do with the challenges that
you feel and might be facing. Twenty one minutes to
five News talks'd b Yes, Welcome back with Nicki Bizant,
(29:22):
co host of the hot Mess Tour. You can go
and google that if you're interested in the remaining seats
for Rota or Quen's down where we're talking. We are
talking now menopause and taking your calls Alan, Hello, Hey m.
Speaker 8 (29:35):
I, Nikki, Hey, hey No. I did a lot of
traveling to the UK and it's been a big topic
over the last four or five years. And finally enough
I said to my wife a couple of years back,
I said, should I be asking you about menopause and
how you're doing? And she said yep. She looked at
a surprise actually, and then she said, yep, no, No,
(29:56):
I'm okay. So you know it's something I think all guys,
you know, should be aware of. I guess the other
thing for me is I'm in an industry where I
employ a lot of female staff. I think the awareness
is important for bosses in terms of being able to
cut their stuff from you know, a bit of a
(30:18):
break when they're not doing well. You know, indometriosis has
been a big thing, and I think, you know, as
the aging population happens, we're going to be much more
exposed or much more I shouldn't say exposed, I guess
you know, it's going to be more significant menopause. So
I think you're doing a great job. I think education
(30:40):
is important.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
God, thanks Ellen. Yeah, I agree. I mean it's it's
a very common thing when I go into workplaces.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Well, that was the question.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
How does a boss, especially male boss, put in place
some sort of mechanism for you can I don't know,
for how do you handle that whole menopause thing. Well, hey,
by the way, if anyone's got menopause and feeling, but
I mean, you can't I can't.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Imagine that being a winning way to go about it.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
Well, there's all kinds of levels of things that are
happening in workplaces, right, so it can it can be
as simple as having someone like me come in and
do a talk for a start, like as in a
wellness setting or as a webinar, whatever I do all that,
if anyone's out there wants to bring me in, I'd
love to. And I have spoken in every kind of
workplace that you can imagine, from the high viz best
(31:29):
type environments where it's mostly men through to you know,
law firms and accountant firms and all the rest of it,
and all kinds of businesses in between where there's lots
of women and often there that their bosses are male.
But those men and women in the senior roles understand
that actually it's about supporting women. And if you don't,
if you don't look after women and actually support them
(31:49):
through that transition, because it is just a transition, then
you're not going to get women in leadership, you know,
coming through or staying in those leadership roles. So what
Allen says is right, It is just about understanding. So,
like the really onto it web, workplaces have got menopause
policies in place, just like they have a policy for
you know, every other kind of health challenge. But it
(32:12):
doesn't have to be that formal. It can be really simple,
like having menopause champions in the workplace, that you feel
like that here's a group of people that you know
that you can go to and talk about all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Thanks Allan, Thanks for you cole mate. Really appreciate it.
Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
I thought, all actually that is the way for men
to I thought the way he put that, he said
to his wife, should I be asking you sometime about menopause?
Speaker 6 (32:30):
It's a nice way of putting it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Isn't that that's it's just the should I yeah? In
other words, and might be no, you shouldn't, or you
have raised it.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
I would add to that that it's not just one
conversation either. It's lots of little conversations, micro conversations from
time to time, just checking in with each other.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Clue for me.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And if you've had an argument, that is not the
time to say.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
Most definitely.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Okay, we're going to have to sprint through the callers,
so we're trying up the pace of it because we've
got lots of people wanting to talk to Nikki Ali.
Speaker 10 (32:58):
Hello, Hello, I'll make sure if well now seventy seven
year old. But I experienced very awful periods as a child,
awful periods at men pour very heavy and I became suicidal.
(33:19):
And it was only before my period was due. I
could have been driving down the motorway and I think
I could handle this, and just driving to that truck.
I knew I should go to the hospital, but I
knew if I had to walk over the bridge and
might want to jump. And I managed to get through it.
(33:42):
It was a terrible time.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
What got you through got you through it all?
Speaker 10 (33:50):
I started talking to people. I kept it secret, and
my husband was really worried because I don't think he
really was supportive. To be honest, I don't think he
he thought that I was wanting attention or something. But
was definitely before I had my periods and they were very,
(34:10):
very heavy and very painful. I started taking some tablets
hormonal tept but in the end I lost my husband
suddenly at sixty five. Two years after that, I started
(34:31):
getting very for in my side and the doctor gave
me some medication. A year later, I was still going
and he took He said I'll better have some tests
and they found that I had huge end of metriosis
(34:55):
and I was seventy by that stage.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Gosh, that's a hell of a story, Eli, I'm sorry. Sorry.
By the way, look as we.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Do when people talk about any questions around, I'm wanting
to hurt themselves. If you do need if you're someone
who's going through really tough time and you do need
to talk to someone, please that there's a fantastic service
which is one seven three seven. You can call or
text it if you ever have thoughts that are you
know where you're thinking of harming yourself, So please do that.
If anything that we're talking about does trigger those sorts
(35:22):
of thoughts, please go to one seven three seven. Let's
take another call. Thank you for your call, Ali, I
really appreciate it. Wendy, Hello, Hello, Wendy, tell you what
that's a sign. We'll take the break. We've got time
for maybe squeezing in a call or two more. I've
got a truckload of text we can also dig into
with with Nicki Bezant, who's with us the Hot Mess tour.
(35:45):
You can go and check out if there's still some
tickets for Rota and Queenstand. But more importantly, Nicki wrote
has written a couple of books and one of them
is called This Changes Everything. That was the first book
about menopause and subsequently she has followed it up with
a guide, which I imagine would the guide if you're
going to buy one book, which one would you buy first?
I know this is asking like someone, which is.
Speaker 6 (36:06):
Your favorite child? Well, this changes everything as a deep
dive into menopause and periomenopause and everything. Guide is a
little bit more about healthy aging, so about everything beyond
menopause as well as menopause.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Okay, so if you probably if you really want to
dive into the menopause questions, the guide and then.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
This changes everything would be that would be the menopause book.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think, oh oh, this changes everything would be in
the minipause book.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
So and then the guide is the next one. Oh okay,
So it's like here we are in minnopause. Let's look beyond.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Boks are cheap these days anyway, just by both.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Anyway, hey, look, we'll be back with so we'll cover
some more of the correspondence as well. It is coming
up to ten minutes to five newstalk S head b
This newstalk s head Beat and Beverage with Niki Bizant,
and we are going to do a bunch of quick
text because about three and a half minutes to go,
So here we go. Firstly, just quickly, Nikki, somebody said
taboo is being lifted on an Air New Zealand flight
today where there were three menipause questions on the n flight.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Quiz.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
I've heard this. I think that's wonderful. It's really cool.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I wonder what the questions are now. I sort of
dine to do that quiz now. And just another one,
just saying, listening to your great conversations about menopause really good.
And the comment about the gelbing and short supply is
a bit of a concern, but this person has checked
the farmac's website.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
There is no.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Shortageaw supply chain challenge noted in this person's give me
a link to that. So that's a good bit of
research from Christmas.
Speaker 6 (37:29):
It's useful. Yeah, and you can keep up to date
with the patches situation on that same website, so that's
worth checking.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Okay, let's see if we can do a few short
fire ones memory menopause relationships.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
Yes, there is some cognitive stuff that happens, brain fog,
memory concentration. I have suffered this myself. It is very frustrating.
It is normal. It's part of the transition and it
does they tell me get better as you get further
on through. It's the brain doing a bit of a rewire.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
In continence and menopause. I'm summarizing these tests again.
Speaker 6 (38:01):
Urinary issues can be a problem, and that's partly to
we have estrogen receptors in the urethra and the bladder
and the volver all that whole area. Investigate vaginal estrogen.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Okay, HRT.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Does it have possible side effects e g.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Cancer, blood clots, stroke.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
Yes, these are some risks with it. There is a
small risk of breast cancer, quite small, equivalent to drinking
one drink of alcoholiday or being physically inactive for most women. Yes,
there is a risk with certain forms of HIT with
blood clots. Normally it's the oral estrogen, so the patches
don't give you that risk. And there are other side
(38:42):
effects that can happen for some women. Okay, it's worth
discussing those with your doctor and your own individual risk factors.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Don't get your medical advice from Facebook too, Hei Niki,
When would you consider being on the other side of
menopause or is it for the rest of your life
once you've completed you twelve months.
Speaker 6 (38:59):
Well, you're deemed in medical language to be postmenopausal at
that point after that one year, but that's still there's
still a bit of transitional stuff happening for probably a
couple of years after that. It's kind of you're kind
of going to know yourself well in terms of how
you feel. You're going to start to feel more stable.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
It's a difference between patches and gel.
Speaker 6 (39:20):
It's just a it's the same medication, it's just a
different type of delivery.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Okay, what is Nicki's views on this might be a
big question. Nicki's views on women getting PMS or pm
d D symptoms while in menopause. Is there a cure management? Thanks,
I know what that is.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
Well, PMS is pre menstrual syndrome and PMDD is pre
menstrual dysmorphic disorder, which is where you have really serious BMT.
Those kind of symptoms get a bit tangled up in
perimenopause with perimenopause symptoms, So just to be a case
of talking to your doctor about what's going on with.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
You, Okay, I think that's it. I'm sorry people, we
haven't got to all the texts. We've had a lot
of correspondence on this but if you want to know,
learn more Nikki byzant dot com and you can google
the hot mess tour. But also again, just if you're
getting bombarded because you've asked your friends about it on
Facebook and all of a sudden you're getting all those ads,
google how to stop being targeted for Facebook at menopause
(40:15):
ads and you'll get the answer there. Hey Nikki, thanks
great to see you again.
Speaker 6 (40:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Likewise, good luck with the tour and enjoy getting around
the country and talking to everyone.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Thank you. Yeah, looking forward to it.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
Good stuff. We will be back shortly.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
A man of Morales with us for Smart Money, talking
about investing through the generations and playing catch up as well.
Eight one hundred and eight ten eighty will be taking
your cause three minutes to five.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk sed Be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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