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In this week’s episode, Dr Louise Newson is joined by broadcaster and journalist Naga Munchetty, known for her role on BBC Breakfast. Naga discusses her new book, It’s Probably Nothing, where she explores how women’s health concerns are often dismissed, left undiagnosed, or told their pain was normal. Drawing on her own personal experiences, she examines the harmful impact of medical misogyny and stresses the urgent need for change in how women’s health issues are treated.
Naga reflects on the pressure she felt in sharing her personal experiences publicly, balancing her role as a journalist with the vulnerability of becoming the story. Yet by speaking out, she realised how many others had experienced similar struggles. Her diagnosis of adenomyosis took over three decades, a delay that mirrors the experiences of many women conditioned to minimise their symptoms.
The conversation highlights the emotional toll of being dismissed in the healthcare system and the barriers that prevent women from advocating for themselves. Both Naga and Louise emphasise the importance of genuine listening and collaboration in medical care, calling for greater support systems, second opinions, and the vital role of self-advocacy. They also highlight the need for better care for marginalised communities, particularly in regions where the word ‘menopause’ doesn’t even exist and women struggle to receive the support they need. This episode is a powerful call for more compassionate, inclusive, and informed healthcare for women everywhere.
This episode serves as a powerful call for better treatment, increased awareness, and stronger support systems for women in healthcare.
To find out more about Naga, follow her on X here & Instagram here.
Check out Naga's book, It's Probably Nothing: Critical Conversations on the Women's Health Crisis (and How to Thrive Despite it) here
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Email dlnpodcast@borkowski.co.uk with suggestions for new guests!
Disclaimer
The information provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dr Louise Newson or the Newson Health Group.
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Dr Louise Newson (00:00:02) Hello. I'm Dr Louise Newson, and welcome to my podcast. I'm a GP menopause specialist and founder of the free balance app. My mission: to break the taboos around women's health and hormones, shining a light on the issues we've been too afraid to talk about, from contraception, sex and testosterone to menopause related addictions and beyond. We're covering it all. I'll also be joined by experts and inspiring guests, sharing insights and real stories, as well as answering your questions and tackling the topics that matter to you the most.
Dr Louise Newson (00:00:42) Today on the podcast, I'm very excited and privileged to have with me Naga Munchetty, who is a presenter, a journalist, and actually really inspirational to allow others to think and move forward in lots of conversations. So I've obviously been very enamoured with your work for many years, but I was super excited when you asked if I could be involved in your book that has just come out, called It's Probably Nothing, but it absolutely isn't nothing, which we're going to talk about today, so thank you so much for joining me.
Naga Munchetty (00:01:17) Oh, well, look, thank you, Louise, I'm, I'm really proud of this book, and one of the reasons I'm really proud of this book is because I got brilliant people to be part of it. You know, I had more than 100 contributors, and I was determined that I was going to talk to people with real life experiences, but back all of those up with experts from their fields. And so, when you said yes to talk to me, I was ever so grateful. So, thank you.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:01:42) Oh, thank you. And do you know what? I don't think 10 years ago, I could, well, I couldn't have done a podcast, I couldn't have had these conversations, because I didn't know the suffering that was going on. And as a doctor, obviously, I work a lot with lots of people, but when you're a GP, which I was for 25 years, you're actually in your own consulting room doing the best that you want to do for your patients, but you think everyone else has a similar experience. And it's not until you yourself become a patient or maybe a family member, or like I've done now, expose myself to lots of people through different platforms, especially social media, that I realise that people don't all have the same experience. And then sometimes I think maybe I'm quite skewed in who I see in my clinic, but your book just opens really talking, not just about your experience Naga, but about lots of other women's experiences, and one of the things that really comes through to me is that people often aren't listened to. I don't know whether what you think about that?
Naga Munchetty: (00:02:49) Yeah, I mean, I was always determined that this book, even though the launch pad from it was my own experiences, and having spoken about my own experiences on 5 Live radio where, obviously, I have a show, and that's that, in itself, is really difficult, because it's difficult on so many levels. Firstly, it's difficult because I want to be seen as a professional. I'm a journalist and a broadcaster. I don't want to be seen as someone who has problems with my reproductive health or gynaecological problems, I don't want to be seen as the story, because my job is to ask questions. By the way, this is very weird, being on the other side being interviewed. I never enjoy that. But the job is to get the story out from the person you are talking to and to inform the audience. So you never want to be the story, because you have to be impartial. You have to be away from it, so you can ask questions that are comfortable, and allow someone to tell their story, but also be able to challenge someone. So if you're involved, that makes it very difficult. So that was difficult in itself, but when I did first talk about it was my coil fitting that I first talked about on radio, and the number of women and men that got in touch who'd experienced the same thing, it just made me think, you're not. You're not. Oh, woe is me, look what happened to me, because it wasn't about that, because Caitlin Moran had written about it as well, brilliant journalist, but it made me realise and then with my adenomyosis, which took 32 years to diagnose, and even then it wasn't a clear diagnosis, of course, I started realising just how many times we are dismissed, left undiagnosed, told it's normal, told to suck up pain and that whole idea that women, because, apparently we're made for childbirth, then pain should be a natural default, and it was seeping into the language of medicine and women's treatment. And I'm mad about it. I'm mad, if I'm being honest, I'm angry about it.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:04:56) Yeah, and so you should be really. I mean, my oldest, oldest daughter, is actually 22 and when I had her, it was an emergency section, and I was ill after I had sepsis, and I remember going to the consultant saying, look, I just really don't feel right. I'm in so much pain. I keep getting these horrendous sweats. I can't think straight. I really don't think I'm well. He said, Louise, you're quite middle class, you're quite posh, and you've had a section, and this is how people feel after a section. And like, I've never had a caesarean section before. I didn't know what to expect, and I'd never really expected a doctor to talk to me quite like that, because I would never waste anyone's time. I would only go if I was ill. I wasn't getting better. She was six weeks old. I'd had three different types of antibiotics. I hobbled in to see him, and in retrospect, I know I looked really ill. My husband, who's a doctor, was really worried about me, and you're you're right. I think as women, we're expected to just carry on, and so much is normalised and and I think it's, it's awful, not just that it took 32 years for you to have this diagnosis, but like, how many consultations, how, how much time you know how it's sort of, that's what's really sad, that people are desperate, and then they almost gaslit and they think, well, maybe I'm not that bad. Maybe I should just carry on. Maybe I'm making a fuss, maybe I'm wasting that doctor's time. I don't know if you had any of those feelings in any of your consultations over 32 years.
Naga Munchetty (00:06:23) All of those and much more. And what's interesting is I was diagnosed after 32 years of very, very heavy and painful periods, but only because I had bled constantly for nearly a month, and it was because of that that I was referred to a gynaecologist. I'd, the only other time I'd seen a gynaecologist was when, and actually, he was a surgeon, was to perform my sterilisation.
Naga Munchetty: (00:06:55) So the only time I was ever referred and had a transvaginal scan was because I'd been bleeding for so long abnormally up until then, every appointment I'd had with the doctor and I'd say my periods are really heavy, they're really painful. Yeah, that's normal. We'll pop you on the contraceptive pill, um try the coil, Depo-Provera. And so, the whole time, I was never diagnosed with it, because no one looked for it. No one ever seemed to care about what was causing it. No one asked me, how are these? What do you mean? You've got heavy periods. Tell me about them. And if I had they'd know I was passing out for the first 48 hours. I was throwing up, I was flooding I was even though I worked shifts, I was setting an alarm every three hours. I was sleeping on a towel, wearing a period towel and a tampon, and setting an alarm to change those because I knew I'd flood them through after three hours, for the first 48 hours, and I'd be in pain, I'd have cramps, I would still be going to work. No one asked me, How does this impact your life? Which I don't understand, isn't why the first thing a patient is asked when they come in saying they're ill, well, how's it affecting your life? How is it stopping you being the best you can be, because if anyone had then they'd have bothered to try to diagnose me, maybe. But no one did. They just tried to mask these symptoms.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:08:22) It's quite something, isn't it? I realised, and I'm not from a medical background, so no one in my family has ever been a doctor before, and so I always see, and I still do today, being a doctor is a real privilege. It's a real honour, but I did a lot of hospital medicine, and it was very much, treat Mrs. Blogs in bed three with asthma, treat Mr. Smith in bed five, who's had a heart attack. So it was all like labels conditions. And then I went into general practice later on really, and I had the most amazing trainer who said to me, Louise, you're going to be really bad doctor. I said, What do you mean? She said, You're not going to be a good GP because you won't listen. It will be about getting that diagnosis and finding that diagnosis and then talking out the treatment.
He said, In this year that I train you, I'm going to make you involve the patient. Ask the questions to the patient. Ask them, What made them come today? Why are they thinking about it? What do they think is going on? And it really opened up my mind to a way that I still consult now, because there might be 100 different people with, I don’t know adenomyosis, but every single person is going to have a different experience and a different impact. So you don't want to be labelled as Mrs. Smith with whatever - you want, you've got this condition, but actually, how is it affecting you? How is it impacting not just you, but your work, your colleagues, your people at home, your circumstances? What are you worried about? Because sometimes people might be have something very trivial, but they're worried they've got cancer. And for me, just to say, actually, it's very unlikely it's cancer. We'll do a scan, then they're so reassured, it doesn't actually matter what the diagnosis is. You just see what I mean. And I think being involved as a patient really early on, and like you absolutely say, the doctor, the clinician, understanding the impact is really, really important, and that I feel really sad that people aren't given that vehicle to actually explain the impact. Because I know myself when I go to see a doctor, I'm quite nervous. I don't want to waste their time. I'll answer their questions, but I won't volunteer more information, and I understand more and more the time constraints. People are tired, people are busy, so you're not going to be explaining to the doctor how you flood through the sheets if they don't ask. But then, as a doctor, you can't build up that picture of what's the impact of that condition in that person, and the urgency, not just of making a diagnosis, But treatment options as well.
Naga Munchetty: (00:10:52) Yeah, and I think I mean, every doctor I've spoken to for this book has given that advice. You know, go in knowing that what you want to say, talk about the impact of your life. There are doctors GPs in there who say, if I have to listen, I have to ask about the impact on life. But I don't that definitely didn't happen to me, and I was dismissed for so many times I remember I talk about this. I had thrush, and I had a GP, who I saw at least twice, who basically told me I was unhygienic, too sexually active, and kept saying just, here's the here's the pessary. And I'd been repeatedly saying, this isn't working, and it was only because I saw a GP, because he wasn't available. And she said, Oh, you can take a tablet, and it went within two days. And now I know I can then go to the pharmacy. And I've been to pharmacists who have said, oh, no, are you sure this is what it is? And I'm like, I know what this is, because I know my body, and I've had this before, and they've been gatekeepers at the pharmacy. And. So I've gone to a different pharmacy where a woman has listened to me and says, okay, fine, ask all the right questions, but then gives me the tablet I just, I felt and both occasions, and this is nothing against male GPs. I've spoken to male GPs in this book, who are brilliant, who who listen. But I think women. I write in the book, I went back to that second GP who'd accused me, who'd made a moral judgment on me, and that had affected my treatment, my medical treatment. And I look back now and think, how dare they? But I didn't realise it at the time, because I, my pain outweighed the humiliation of the first appointment. And it takes, as you say, it takes so much for us to book a GP appointment in the first place, because we put things off in terms of, we prioritise other people, other things work, whatever in our lives. So, and I say this, that if a woman is at a GP and she's asking about it – it could have taken years for her to get to that point. It does not take half an hour of her not feeling well. I'll ring up the GP, because that's what I do. It takes days, weeks, months, even years, before they ask for help. And that's on us. That is bad, but it should give practitioners an idea of, oh, my goodness, I can already, I already know this is serious to her, because she's here.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:13:18) Yeah, I totally agree and one of the things that I really worry about, and you said it earlier, is about how much is normalised. So then it makes it very difficult to know, when do I go and seek medical help? So talking about heavy periods, oh, well, you will have heavy periods, or they will be painful. Well, why do we accept it, and how has it become so normalised that people aren't receiving the right help, support and treatments as well? And I think that's really sad, because, you know, we're both English speaking, we're both educated. I worry a lot about areas of deprivation for people that don't speak English, that can't advocate for themselves, that really can't put them number one, because they've got so much else going on, and like you say, the impetus, the sort of time for them to go and see a doctor will be that much harder. So you often in certain areas and certain communities, you've just got one chance as a doctor, you know you'll never see them again. And for me, it's such a priority. If someone's coming for help from certain areas, I will think, right this person's really suffering. But actually, if those people aren't listened to, then what happens? Or they get given the wrong treatment or treatment that doesn't help them? It's an absolute car crash, because it not just impacts them. It's everyone around them as well, isn't it?
Naga Munchetty: (00:14:40) Absolutely. I mean, I've spoken to doctors who do go to various communities and speak to, you know, for example, South Asian communities, it is not spoken about. Your periods are not spoken about and menopause isn't spoken about. In some languages, there isn't even a word for menopause, right? So it's like, and in some it's like in in some languages, it means the end, or the withering, or, you know, something ridiculous, that is menopause anyway, so, so no wonder it's taboo in so many cultures, because women are I don't I can't admit this. I can't say I'm no longer of use in society or you know, I'm the hag that goes and sits in the corner. We go back to the days of witches. Then, do you know what I mean, the normalisation, the normalisation. It makes me mad, because for two reasons. One, I remember once being asked about my level of pain when I had my periods. And this is someone who was fainting, sweating through pain, screeching, wrapping myself around the toilet, curled in a ball, often sleeping on the floor, because I just thought, if I'm uncomfortable sleeping, then I won't notice the pain as much, if that makes any sense.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:15:52) Yeah, it does make sense.
Naga Munchetty: (00:52:53) And you know, and you're, you're digging nails into your the palm of your hand. So, you just, you divert the pain almost. And I remember saying once, it was later on, oh, my pain's probably a six. That is not a six, right? But because I'd normalised my pain, because I've been told it was normal, that's what I did so and the other thing is, you're told at school, I think a lot goes back to education. I've spoken to some young girls in the book, as you'll be aware, you know one girl who started her period before her 10th birthday, and she was at school having the lesson, the talk, as it's known, and they were told, oh, it's just a teaspoon, couple of teaspoons a day of blood. And you're it's a bit it can be a bit uncomfortable, but it lasts a few days and it’s fine. You'll just you'll use period products, and you'll be fine. When she put her hand up to say no, because, no, I really have, she was basically told to shut up by the teacher because they didn't want to scare the other girls. And I'm no one's saying you have to scare children, boys and girls, by the way, boys and girls need to know about menstruation, because boys, how many times have you been you know you had a boyfriend or a partner who's, oh, my goodness, what's happening to you? Because they don't, they're not told about what's what's going on, and you explain to them. But boys and girls need to be educated. But also this, our whole idea is just because a girl menstruates, therefore she's in puberty and able to get pregnant, that a girl is going to run out and get pregnant. Now, if you're if you're more worried about the girl getting pregnant than having healthy periods and having a healthy life and great career, something's askew here, isn't it? This societal, this message, is a skew, and that is the problem as well when it comes to normalising, you know, pain, bleeding, heavy bleeding, in that sense.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:17:34) I totally agree, because also quite a few of treatments are contraceptives, as you know. But actually, for many years, people don't think about what contraceptives are and what they do to the body, and how different they are to natural hormones, and they can increase inflammation, so people with adenomyosis or endometriosis often actually giving synthetic hormones can make things worse. They might stop periods. But as you say, women shouldn't be defined as about their periods. You know, it's what's going on in their body, and that's what's really important. And I think almost some doctors and I used to do it was the way I was trained by gynaecologists. It's almost a marker of success, this woman isn't having a period, therefore she'll be fine. Well, no, she can still have hormonal changes, she can still have pain, she can still have mental health issues due to the hormones that have been given because they're synthetic. But that's sort of not looked at in the in the same way, almost, which is, again, it's focusing on the woman as somebody that has a womb, which we're more than that, aren't we?
Naga Munchetty (00:18:52) We are more than wounds on legs. I say that - we are!
Dr Louise Newson: (00:18:57) Yeah, and, and you know that your book is amazing because it goes through different areas, and, you know there's quotes throughout. But actually, as I said to you before we went on air, I started reading it in the bath and I carried on. Had a very long bath, but the it's amazing, the sort of sadness in the pattern and towards the end, and it's 2025 and these are people with real lives, and they're really struggling, and I just don't know why It hasn't got any better.
Naga Munchetty: (00:19:25) Everyone who took part, who I interviewed, wants what happened to them not to happen to someone else.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:19:32) Indeed, yep.
Naga Munchetty: (00:19:33) That's why that and and every every interview was at least an hour, and we've had more than 100 contributors, and you know, some of them, some of the people I spoke to, not all, have chosen to use their real names because it's still very painful. And they, they would say it's almost like a therapy session because they hadn't said things out loud when it comes to their trauma. And it is trauma, some of it, and I found that really heartbreaking, and I would step away from interviews in tears, sometimes because they people are just being treated so badly, or or, and by not being treated that is treating so badly. I'm not talking about being spoken too badly. I'm talking about being left in this state.
Naga Munchetty: (00:20:28) Those stories are also massively cut down, so they're no more than usually a page, a page and a half, you know, because after speaking to these people for an hour, you can only get so much in and after every story there is a professional who offers advice in terms of how to fight your corner and talks about what treatments are available, there's no advice as in, you should be doing this if you have these symptoms, but there is advice in terms of how to stand up for yourself, and this is the theme throughout it. That these people who are every person I spoke to is brilliant, but they either were too ill, too tired, too worn down to fight, and didn't have that backup, which is what I hope this book will be, will do.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:21:11) Hmm, it's so important. I mean, I I found them sad to read, because, as a healthcare professional, I found it really sad thinking these women have been let down by my colleagues. You know, it's not the fact that they are sad stories making me feel sad. It was the fact that I feel really disappointed, actually. And I think in medicine, we don't always know the answers. We can't always make diagnosis that we can't know everything about everything, but what we can do is definitely listen and try and understand, and we can give options to people. And I've always sort of done it in that if this treatment doesn't work, then that we could try this, or maybe we'd give you this investigation, or I’ll refer you to this person. So it's part of sort of safety netting, but it's also enabling patients to know they can come back and it's not the end of the road if something doesn't improve. Because, like you say, if it's taken a long time to come to that consultation, and then I give you a treatment and you feel no better, then it doesn't matter how kind I am in the consultation, if you don't feel better, it's irrelevant. But if you know that, that doctor said, well, actually she did say, if this treatment doesn't work, there's something else we can do. It's opening that door again for you. And I feel these poor women haven't had that as options. And I think what's also really different now to what it was when I qualified when we didn't have the internet, was that women learn so much more quickly than they did. You don't have to learn anything from your doctor anymore. You can learn from other people's experiences. You can learn you know, you've got access to the same information as I have really now about diseases. But the big thing that I think echoes through this whole book is about being an advocate for yourself, being really prepared for that consultation. And I think that's crucially important, in my mind, that's the sort of biggest take home that you come away from this book thinking, yes, actually, I'm not doing this alone, I'm really going to get the most out of that consultation, because it's my body, it's my life, It's my future, and that's really important, Isn't it?
Naga Munchetty (00:23:25) Yeah, I mean, I've had to advocate for friends and family when in all different situations, not had to, but I've offered to, because sometimes it's not that someone doesn't have the language, it's just they're so upset by how ill they are that when they get into that consultation, they can't think because they're either so relieved they're being looked at, or they're going through some treatment that they can't think about the details. So I've often sat with friends or family and said, right, what do you want out of this? What questions do we need to ask? And I've sat there and just made sure those questions are asked, and sat, you know, by the side of someone, and made sure the questions are asked. And I'm thinking of one particular friend, when she was going through treatment, who just got so upset because there was a history of cancer in her family, which is what she was scared of, that she would be in tears, a brilliantly strong woman, articulate, feisty, brilliant, but be in tears. So I would sit there and leave her to cry and say, right, what about this? And ask, you know, the practitioner, what about this? What about this? So that when we left, we could go back, have a coffee and go and make sure that everything was understood. Now this is if someone is who is educated, as you said, educated, capable, articulate, can feel overwhelmed like that. I agree with you what you said earlier, that those in marginalised communities who are vulnerable, who don't have that help, and by the way, there are advocacy groups available as well. If you haven't got friends or family who can help, you, can look up advocacy groups as well peer groups to help you. Then, what hope do they have?
Dr Louise Newson: (00:25:12) Yeah, It’s, really difficult. I know many years ago I had pancreatitis, I was really ill, and I still have problems afterwards and went back and forth to a specialist clinic. It was really, really very good doctor, but I wasn't getting better. And the last consultation, I actually cried because I was feeling so awful, and he examined me, and he looks at me, said, Louise, I think you just need some antidepressants. And I was really, the first time I was so shocked, because I knew I wasn't I was I was low in my mood because I was feeling awful. And I then actually my husband said, this is ridiculous. I'm going to get you to see someone else, and I think you need your gallbladder taking out. And then I felt fine, and it was obviously all related to my gallbladder. But if I hadn't have had the strength of my husband, if I hadn't, like, this was about 10 years ago, I would still be, you know, what would I have been? I would be taking antidepressants inappropriately, still be ill and I think the other thing is, it's really important that people listening know that you can get a second, third opinion. You know, none of us as doctors mind if someone sees somebody else. And I think that is important, isn't it? That that people can see someone else, they don't have to go back to the same doctor.
Naga Munchetty: (00:26:22) I think that people have this fear of offending their doctor, don't they? I mean, you go in and into a surgery and you're asking them to help. You know you've only got 10 minutes, unless you've booked a double appointment, and that's something else you can do if you know that there are multiple conditions or you really need some time to explain what's going on, but you really don't want to offend your doctor. I mean, I remember apologising to a GP who wasn't offended, by the way, because I was taking notes and because I felt, oh, do they think I'm keeping a record of what they're saying and I'm going to use it against. You know, how does the mind work? So I think, you know, we are intimidated or in awe of doctors, but ultimately, we have to think that we have the right to feel better, and their job and their will is to want to heal us. They've gone into this to make people feel better, and it is, you know, they're puzzle solvers as well, which is part of the joy of that job as well. So there is a satisfaction when they can help someone and solve the puzzle. So it's but it's it should be a partnership. It is not going there, you know, and expect them to just tell you what's wrong or for them to immediately fix you, because it doesn't work like that either.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:27:31) And I think that is crucially important, actually setting the scene for the consultation, even at the beginning, saying I've come because I'm having really painful, heavy periods, and I would really like to talk to you about a treatment that is going to improve the quality of my life, or I want to talk to you about the next test that I need to have to try and get the diagnosis, or whatever. So you're framing that consultation from the start, and I think it's really important for that patient to be as empowered as, as possible to actually anybody who can make some notes bring some more information, is really important, and they're not wasting people's time and if a doctor feels threatened, then they're probably because they're out of their comfort zone, and maybe they're not the right person to be seeing. But at the end, I think it's also really important to almost summarise. So from this consultation, what I understand is, you're giving me X treatment for Y symptom, and if it doesn't help, I can do Z. So you've got that really clear, because it is a partnership, you know, I feel as a doctor, I'm actually the patient's advocate. I'm there to help them with the right you know, I've got that knowledge and experience, but every consultation I do is different, even if the person had exactly the same disease, because it's the way that, like you said at the beginning, it's the way it affects them, but also what they want out of it as well. Because some people, it might be the vomiting that they're getting is far more significant than the pain, and if I only focus on the pain, then I haven't done the right consultation, you know. So I think that's, well, I know it's so important, and that's something that really, I think echoes through your book a lot. It gives you this fire in the belly, whether it's out of sympathy for some of these people, or anger, it doesn't actually matter what I think it will do, and I'm really intrigued to see how the comments and the reviews go with this book, because I think it's going to give people permission to maybe be slightly different In their consultations.
Naga Munchetty: (00:29:35) I really hope so. I really hope so. I, I gave a talk yesterday, and a woman came up to me and she said, I've got to go back to my doctor. I've had treatment for this, and it's just not working. And I just thought, Oh well, I'm 60 now, so not really much you can do for me. She said, I'm going back. I'm going back. I'm gonna go and book an appointment. And if this book just gets one person back to being healthy, and it's, look, society is tough enough. It is hard enough to be to try to be the best who you are. Again, with all the systems in society at this moment in time, our health is something. There is a system. There is the there is the NHS designed so that we are we all have the right to be healthy, to be as healthy as we can and be the best we can, and then contribute to society. If this book just gets one person saying, No, I know how to get the best out of my GP appointment. I know how to get the best out of my condition and understand my condition. I know how to advocate for myself, and I'm, I'm going to go back, or I'm going to do this great, great.
Dr Louise Newson: (00:30:42) Yeah. Brilliant. Well, I think it actually will be more than one person that does that, from your book, so, but I'm so grateful for your time, because I know how busy you are, but before we end, I'd just like three take home tips. So three things that you really would love to make a difference to people's lives going forward, three things that you think people could do that's going to improve that 60-year-old, that 10-year-old, whoever you know in the in the best, shortest way, almost.
Naga Munchetty (00:31:16) Embrace puberty. Talk about it with young people, and don't see it as just now you can get pregnant for girls, see it for what it is, and embolden girls to understand their bodies at a young age and not fear periods. Talk to each other, open up the conversation. We're great talking about mental health. We're not great about talking about our physical health, particularly gynaecological problems. Talk about the pain you might have, because more often than not, other people have experienced it, or know someone who has, but we're not talking about it enough. We're not normalising that conversation. And know that if you go to a GP and you feel you're not being heard. Feel free to say, I don't think you're hearing me. If you become what's called a heart sink patient, when a GP is feels they've gone round in circles and their heart is sinking when they see you, ask for a referral, as you've said, GPS, don't mind if you get a referral, you're still not heard and you can't you see another GP if you're still not heard change practices. You are entitled to do that. Don't give up
Dr Louise Newson (00:32:28) Very good advice, lots of information, lots to think about, and hopefully lots to really empower people going forwards. And I'm so grateful for you coming on today, and good luck with everything, with the book as well. So thank you.
Naga Munchetty: (00:32:41) Louise, thank you so much and thank you for your wise words in the book as well I'm sure people will take those away and that will help their lives better too.
32.48 ENDS