June 2009

My name is Doctor Debbie Pinney and I specialise and lecture in contraception and sexual health. I have worked in this area for more than 14 years and really enjoy working with such a variety of mainly female patients and the challenges that they bring with them.

I attended Southampton University Medical School and was delighted to find that my instincts regarding the ‘holistic approach’ to health and medicine are at the core of Southampton’s medical course. I believe strongly that ‘healing’ is not just about accurate medical diagnosis and therapy (traditionally meaning mainly drugs) and that as doctors we need to understand all of the patients’ worries - however trivial they may seem - to enable them to help solve these themselves as well as use traditional methods to treat them. For example: adjusting their diet, increasing their exercise and using Depo Provera to treat severe Pre-Menstrual Syndrome.

Hopefully with this holistic approach, they can reach a balance in life that they are happy with. Sometimes clinicians and patients have to accept that there is no ‘quick fix’ and that a good quality of life is the most important aim.

Sexual health is a very sensitive area of medicine. It is important to try and find out if there are any other problems/reasons for the visit. Commonly there is and frequently with the women I see, being within their fertile lifespan, there are problems that appear to be due to hormonal imbalances. Over the years NAPS has worked so hard with their wealth of expertise and their resources to develop a massive selection of information and self help and support for women suffering from mild to life-crippling problems likely to be due to hormonal imbalances. I have had consultations with women of all ages of the fertile lifespan and used all of the resources that NAPS has provided and given them the society’s contact details for them to research and use in between appointments. For example, some women are so distressed by their symptoms that it is important to emphasise that they can contact NAPS by e-mail for support at times that they may feel alone. For others, the forum or reading the bulletins and purchasing the booklets available is what they need to be able to explore all avenues of self help. As I so often read in the bulletins, the women are really grateful that they can help themselves and are so elated with the information I have given them.

I always stress the importance of following up anyone suffering with PMS or menopausal symptoms to make sure that they know they haven’t reached a dead end and to keep supporting them as they try new avenues. There is always hope, it is not usually a ‘quick fix’ and the ‘dead end’ should never be reached if we accept everyone is individual and this is why, with the help of NAPS, we are lucky enough to have all of this expertise and resources at our fingertips. The monthly bulletins through e-mail are also an amazing update of information, which will certainly give hope to sufferers and their clinicians.

All of this has been really useful for friends and family too. I noticed that my daughter was developing signs of PMS (secretly softened this to my sons by saying it was ‘hormone head’ time and they knew not to antagonise). Without making an issue, I use my knowledge to support her in her lifestyle, exercise and diet, through these weeks. Last week I was reading my NAPS bulletins and Charlotte asked what I was reading. We chatted about NAPS and she immediately wanted to read all of the information that I had. She felt passionate about helping me write this article in that it should be relatable and to make sure that it will be inspiring to other clinicians and to emphasise how useful NAPS can be. Charlotte is studying really hard at A/S level with the aim of becoming a doctor of medicine. She feels that it is so important to spread the word of NAPS and feels grateful for the knowledge she has learnt through the NAPS material.

We have a new Head of Education in our service and I am going to encourage her to share about NAPS at our next Study Day and encourage a group of us to attend the Study Day in October.

Personally, as a clinician, I have always found the members of the NAPS team absolutely wonderful - nothing is too much trouble. I wish that every sufferer had the same attitude from her doctor and it is always my intention to follow the NAPS example.

I would like to say an enormous thank you to Charlotte for helping me and guiding me in writing this article and to, of course, NAPS, on behalf of all clinicians and their patients. Please keep up the good work!

Best wishes,

Dr Debbie Pinney