Getting interactive
14 Apr 2007
With regard to being interactive with our menstrual health, NAPS is reporting a fantastic response to our Interactive menstrual chart.
Initially devised with the idea that women would print off their diary when they visited their GP or consultant, increasingly, NAPS chairman and consultant gynaecologist, Nick Panay says that he discusses the symptom chart interactively with the patient in the consulting room, where they work on the results together. According to Nick, the interactive menstrual chart is really transforming his practice. Please contact us and let us know how you are getting on with using the diary and how effective you are finding it in helping your personal treatment plan. This brings home how much computers have become part of our lives. I was amused to read an article on the internet entitled How Bill Gates cured my PMS, written by L J Williamson. In the article, she describes how she turned to her computer to help with awareness of the onset of what she terms :“My Irrational Bitch side.” She realised that it wasn’t until after she had started her period that she had just spent another week prior to this screaming and shouting, been moody, depressed and suspicious at the expense of everyone around her. It was time to find a way to remind herself, and, therefore warn others, of the imminent maelstrom that was about to engulf everyone – again.
Working out a solution, she realised that Entourage, Microsoft’s information-management programme for Mac users, had a “monthly reminder” feature. She decided to send a message to herself and another to her husband as a red alert. It was straightforward. She simply clicked on “New Calendar Event,”typed in “Linda’s Period”, clicked “Recurring event” and entered “Recurs every 28 days.” She then clicked “Invite Attendees” and entered her husband’s e-mail address, scheduling the reminder notice to go out one week before her period was due to begin. The only problem she had with the system was to explain to her husband that the awareness alert was meant to be for the pre- part of the period and not as a consolation prize after the period – thus, when the worst was over, he brought her steak and chocolates – still he’s probably got the picture by now!
