Free Offer
Start your New Year with the opportunity for the first 100 new and renewing members to join NAPS and receive a free 60 capsule pack of quarma Virgin Organic Evening Primrose Oil capsules worth £7.99. Don't miss out on the last chance to take advantage of this fantastic offer.
The British Menstrual Health Conference
Book now for the first British clinical conference to be held in Derby. Taking place at the Catalis Conference Centre (www.catalis.com) in Derby on February 17, the Menarche to Menopause conference will support clinical practice by providing up to date information on menstrual health treatment aimed at GPs, practice nurses, women's health and Family Planning health professionals. The conference will also be valuable for complementary and alternative therapists.
An exciting group of speakers will be addressing issues relevant to sufferers and health professionals. Mr Nicholas Panay, Chairman of NAPS and Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital London, has a specific interest in problems related to the menopause and PMS and has recently set up the West London Menopause and PMS Centre unifying the clinics at Queen Charlotte's Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He will also be giving a talk on PMS through the years.
Dr Carrie Sadler, Derbyshire GP with a special interest in women's health and research, and a NAPS trustee, will be discussing social inclusion and women's health. Until August 2005 Carrie worked as an Associate Specialist in Reproductive Health and as a Research Fellow in Southampton. She has recently moved to Derbyshire and plans to continue to work in general practice and continue her interest in women's health.
Complementary treatment and therapies - any questions? will be the subject of Dr Claudine Domoney's talk. A Specialist Registrar for the South Thames Region, Claudine was previously a Research Fellow at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Dr Domoney has a special interest in PMS and the menopause involving both traditional and complementary approaches.
Dietary control of PMS and menopause will be addressed by Gaynor Bussell, NAPS Dietary Advisor. Gaynor is a State Registered Dietitian and graduate in Nutrition. She has worked both privately, as a visiting lecturer to two universities and in the NHS, focusing on women's health. Gaynor has been the dietary advisor to NAPS for the last 8 years.
Managing the menopause will be Gilly Andrews' topic. A menopause/PMS nurse specialist and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Family Planning at King's College Hospital, London and Nurse Specialist in the Menopause at The Lister Hospital, London, Gilly has been a council member of the British Menopause Society for the past five years. Gilly lectures and facilitates at conferences nationally and internationally and is Editor of a textbook for nurses, entitled Women's Sexual Health.
The role PMS and the menopause plays in women's mental health will be discussed by Dr Ingrid Whitton, a Community Psychiatrist in Leeds
.
Reproductive health in the workplace will be discussed by Julia Hammond research nurse, Southampton and Sex at the end of the day will be discussed by Dr Annie Hawkins Specialist Registrar,
N. W. Thames. A previous Research Fellow with Professor Studd at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital researching hormones, PMS, menopause and impact on Sexuality, Annie is a Member of the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine.
Click here for the application form
Click here for the programme
Femal free offer
Femal, the pollen-based suppliment which helps ease PMS and menopausal symptoms, are launching a special NAPS promotional offer for the New Year.
Worth almost £35, a two month's supply of Femal, the pollen supplement offering nutritional support during the monthly cycle as well as during the menopause, is being offered free to each of the first 100 NAPS members who apply.
To receive your free offer, simply fill in the attached lifestyle questionnaire, focusing on your eating and drinking habits and how that affects your PMS. The first 100 responses will be sent to Femal direct and in total confidence.
Pollen makes sense of PMS
Femal, the pollen-based supplement, has a fresh approach to help remedy PMS and menopause symptoms. It is a unique combination of standardised flower pollen extracts, anti-oxidant vitamin E and other nutrients that help ease the symptoms caused by monthly hormonal fluctuations.
Femal is one of the few nutritional supplements to have undergone successful clinical trials, and experts believe it addresses the variations in symptoms caused by monthly hormonal fluctuations rather than try to even out natural hormonal levels.
Femal is available from Boots, Lloyds pharmacies, Alliance pharmacies, Holland and Barrett and other pharmacies and health food stores in packs of 30 tablets (£9.99), or 60 tablets (£16.99).
Follow the link to find out more about Femal on www.femal.co.uk
Volunteers needed to trial new PMS supplement
We are urgently looking for women who would be willing to trial a new PMS supplement called Escape, and possibly become a case study for the product.
Do you know of anyone (a relative, friend or yourself) who may be willing to trial this unique, effective and natural supplement?
Escape (available from selected Boots branches nationwide from February)
is a pleasant tasting drink, which is taken during the premenstrual period and helps with the mental symptoms of PMS such as mood swings and food cravings (especially chocolate!). It works very quickly, usually within 45 minutes and lasts for five hours.
Being a case study involves a short interview with a journalist and an appearance (usually with a photograph) in a magazine or newspaper feature. Anyone whose story appears in print will receive payment for their time and help.
If you, or someone you know would like to take part, please contact NAPS by emailing your contact details including telephone number to escape@pms.org.uk
NAPS receives donation
NAPS wishes to express its most sincere thanks to Tracey Gladman, who has kindly made a donation towards our work.
Tracey is a very active volunteer for NAPS who lives in West Sussex.
Thank you very much, Tracey.
New Years present for NAPS
Thanks also to the trustees of the charitable funding body established in the name of Mr and Mrs Pye.
NAPS has received a donation of £500. Mr and Mrs Pye's Charitable Settlement is known for its willingness to support organisations that undertake unheralded work. Their support for our work on behalf of women is most welcome.
NAPS works hard to achieve self-sufficiency from earned income and we operate at minimum possible costs. Nevertheless we still depend upon grant aid and the trustees of Mr and Mrs Pye's charity can be assured that any grant provided will be used to maximum effect. Our heartfelt thanks for their support.
Women may need to boost oestrogen levels before menopause
A report published in The Guardian before Christmas highlighted the findings of a study suggesting women may need to boost oestrogen levels up to 10 years before the menopause in order to prevent heart and bone disease.
NAPS responds to concern for women prisoners
Following the publication of the Longford Lecture, 'Women's lives are still very different from mens' given by the Law Lord, Brenda Hale, NAPS has written to Mrs Owers, Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons.
The lecture focuses on the fact that whilst women are given the same sentences as men, their prison sentence carries with it a number of wide-ranging implications. The lecture paper shows that there is a disproportionate increase in the female prison population rising from 900 women in prison in 1960 to 4,600 in 2005. Most of the rise is attributed to the severity of sentencing rather than the nature of the crime committed.
A woman, the paper said, is now twice as likely to go to prison for theft as she was in 1991. More women are sent to prison for theft or handling stolen goods than for any other crime. Mental health problems are also more prevalent amongst women prisoners, the lecture states. The incidence of suicide and self- harm is also higher than amongst male prisoners, which gives an indication of the distress women in prison suffer. Women are more likely to be the prime carers of young children and the worries regarding separation from children and families, homes, financial problems, all add to the stress.
This fits in with Dr Katharina Dalton's work at Holloway Prison, whose research involved regular visits to inmates there. This highlighted the need for women to be assessed for their menstrual health as part of an evaluation of what may influence behaviour whilst in prison. PMS exacerbates pre-existing conditions. Women with more intense PMS are more likely to offend, suggesting that women in prison may have more severe PMS symptoms.
As Christopher Ryan, Chief Executive of NAPS comments in his letter:
"We share your concern at the levels of self-harm, suicide and attempted suicide amongst women prisoners. Our Association interest in PMS and offending, and the impact of the syndrome on women prisoners, began with our founder, Dr Katharina Dalton, whose research involved regular visits to Holloway prison.
An estimated 30 per cent of women reproductive age experience moderate to severe PMS, with 3-8 per cent suffering acute long-term mental ill health symptoms. Depression is most common. In a recent NAPS study 24 per cent of women reported feeling suicidal during the premenstrual phase.
The severity of PMS symptoms is frequently intensified by stress. Nevertheless, menstrual health is not routinely included in prisoner assessment or monitoring.
NAPS calls upon the prison service to include menstrual health within the assessment and monitoring of women prisoners and offers to provide information, advice and support to all women prisoners, prison health support professionals and officers.
TUC flags up PMS in its new website
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is focusing on PMS as part of its new Worksmart website.
Do GPs Understand PMS? features many of the most frequently asked questions relating to PMS and the workplace, with detailed responses from NAPS specialists and representatives. Topics range from an explanation of PMS to dietary guidance and how to deal with stress at work.
For further details check out the website above and follow the links through Your Health, Illness and Injuries, Women's Health, Your Body and then PMS. It makes for very interesting reading.
Katharina Dalton lecture success
An enthusiastic audience gathered at the Kings Fund in London on December 15 for the inaugural Katharina Dalton Memorial Lecture given by Nicholas Panay.
Reviewing her work and contribution to medicine Nick said that she was a genuine pioneer in women's health. Beginning her working life as a chiropodist she was responsible for publishing the standard reference work on chiropody before she decided to achieve her real ambition and train as a doctor. From the audience, NAPS Treasurer, Jackie Howe said that Dr Dalton had told her that she was unable to undertake earlier training because of financial constraints in her family.
Dr Dalton joined a long tradition of GP's who have made important discoveries in medicine by analytical enquiry based upon close observation and by making connections that have revealed new insights into illnesses. From her personal health experience she analysed the relationship between her health and menstrual cycle. In her work as a GP she began to find connections between the symptoms experienced by patients and their cycle, notably the increased severity of pre-existing conditions that were triggered premenstrually. Dr Dalton joins a select group of pioneering women clinicians who have made an outstanding contribution to medicine.
