Middling Along

My guest this time is Steve Rawlings, founder of Cool Embrace. Steve and his wife Lisa moved from London to leafy, rural Shropshire after Lisa suffered a brain tumour, to get away from their hectic business life and adopt a slower and more tranquil way of life. They were both involved with the fabric industry, Steve in a career spanning 50 years, mainly in specialist textiles relating to military, police, aerospace and temperature-controlling applications.

When Lisa started having night sweats, Steve harnessed his knowledge of the use of these types of fabrics to invent the Cool Embrace intra-blanket, as he couldn’t bear to see her suffer any longer. After Lisa tried the intra-blanket for the first night and slept through for 8 hours straight, she was determined that he should share this revolutionary invention with other women who could benefit from it’s permanent cooling properties.

Steve talks us through how the blanket works - which is a combination of heat dissipation and moisture control - fascinating if you’re a science geek like me! The blanket has five different layers which in combination help to move water and heat away from the body and spread heat throughout the blanket to ensure the user stays at an optimal and comfortable temperature all night.

I’ve road-tested the blanket myself over several months, and whilst I don’t suffer from severe night sweats, I can definitely see a difference in how well I sleep and, let’s say, ‘comfort levels’ especially on hotter nights. Cool Embrace has a couple of versions of the blanket in different fabrics and sizes, as well as a silk pillow case that incorporates the cooling technology.

They have kindly offered listeners a 10% discount code - just enter MTM23 at checkout. They also have a full money back guarantee if you find that the blanket does not work for you - that’s how confident they are that you will love yours too!

https://coolembrace.com/

You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com

Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share

We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/

It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too!

You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training.

Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources

Join me this time as we chat to Dr Zoe Schaedel: Zoe is a GP and an accredited British Menopause Society Menopause Specialist. She is currently a member of the British Menopause Society’s Medical Advisory Council, the Primary Care Women Health Foundation’s Education Committee and NHS England’s Menopause Improvement Programme Clinical Reference Group. She has developed a special interest in sleep and sits on the British Sleep Society Education Committee, is the co-founder of The Good Sleep Clinic, and has published articles on Menopause in The Lancet and Post Reproductive Health.

What a great, informative episode this is: did you know that sleep disturbances are one of the most common symptoms of the perimenopause? 40-60% of women report difficulties staying asleep, and waking more during the night!

We’ll cover:

• How our bodies need to stay at a low and stable temperature to stay asleep
• The impact of our symptoms (such as anxiety, needing to wee more, and hot/cold flushes and night sweats) on sleep and getting back to sleep between our 90 minute sleep cycles
• Sleep hygiene tips (including light, temperature, and bedtime routines - bath, book and bed isn’t just for the kids!)
• Why alcohol (yet again) is not our friend and leads to less REM sleep and more ‘micro-wakings’
• What is sleep drive and why is it important?
• The role of adenosine in sleep drive, how to increase it, and how caffeine acts on adenosine levels
• How ‘putting the day to rest’ can help stop our busy brains keeping us awake and running through the mental load list at 4am!
• How HRT can help with sleep in perimenopause
• How CBTi works even on chronic insomnia

You can find Zoe at https://goodsleep.clinic/ and www.mylahealth.co.uk and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/zoemenopausedr/

The CBTi based sleep apps we discuss in this episode are Sleepio and Sleep Station.

You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com

It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too!

You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-2-1 coaching and workplace training.

Free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources

Join me this time as I chat to Abi Adams - mum of two, female health change-maker, emotional liberator, and founder of Prøject Wøman.

Abi is ridiculously passionate about raising the bar on feminine health and has been on a fascinating and enriching journey to expand her skills and knowledge that has enabled her to create a unique way of living in harmony as a woman.

Abi has such an infectious enthusiasm for life and an ease about her that I challenge anyone not to warm to her immediately! Prøject Wøman is the culmination of Abi’s 20 years of experience spanning kinesiology, mixed movement, yoga and cycle awareness.

We cover plenty of interesting topics in this episode, including (but not limited to): the impact of emotions on health, understanding our cycle, how to exercise in harmony with cycles, deeply listening to our bodies, and the process of Wintering - and how moments of quiet can feel incredibly difficult for those who have experienced trauma.

This Spring, Abi is hosting the Project Woman Experience - an opportunity to recharge, reset, and refuel before going back out into the world with a better understanding of your needs. With a stunning location and plenty of space, music, exploring how our body holds emotion and releasing that through movement - plus a full weekend of being cared for and well-fed, it sounds like a wondrous start to Spring if you can make it!

You can find out more about Abi and the ‘retreat that’s not a retreat’ at https://www.abiadams.co.uk/project-woman-march-retreat and you can find Abi on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/abiadams_projectwoman/ / https://www.instagram.com/we_are_project_woman/ and at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyx08SrcUSgh-GdhaSdQdg

You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com

It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too!

You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-2-1 coaching and workplace training.

In this episode I chat to writer, blogger, influencer and content creator Gabrielle Blair, aka Design Mom herself, from award-winning blog DesignMom.com, about her new book 'Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion.'

After writing a (deliberately provocative) stream of Tweets in 2018 on why men are responsible for 100% of unplanned pregnancies which (of course) went viral, Gabrielle has been parrying responses (both positive and negative) ever since.

After four years of additional research, she's turned her thoughts into a small, but perfectly-formed book (road tested on all 6 of her children!) which she hopes will radically shift the focus of the abortion debate (a hot topic since Roe v Wade was overturned) on to preventing unwanted pregnancies.

We talk about why women have for years shouldered the vast majority of responsibility for contraception, why making this a 50/50 responsibility seems so radical but actually makes a whole lot of sense, given the facts around mens' fertility, and why this is a perfect time to reframe the debate, given how impossible it is to have nuanced discussion around abortion and bodily autonomy.

We also talk about how and why we need male allies to step up in support of the ideas in the book, and how critical it is that teens and young people engage with the topic.

You can find Gabrielle at www.designmom.com on Twitter https://twitter.com/designmom and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/designmom/

Ejaculate Responsibly is published by Workman Publishing and is out on 4th October: https://www.workman.com/products/ejaculate-responsibly/paperback

Don't forget to follow us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ or find out more/listen to past episodes/subscribe to the newsletter at https://middlingalong.com

It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts to share the love!

You can also find me at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer coaching and workplace training.

In this episode I welcome Dr Angela Wright from Spiced Pear Health. Angela is a GP, Menopause Specialist and Clinical Sexologist. She is particularly interested in improving sexual function and menopausal symptoms in women who have undergone cancer treatment. Angela is passionate about women’s health and sexology and is frequently asked to teach or talk about this subject. She is a registered trainer for the BMS & FSRH, involved in training future menopause specialists and is an active committee member of the British Society of Sexual Medicine, and the education committee of the Primary Care Women's Health Forum.

We covered so much in such a short space of time! We started by talking about the impact of localised (vaginal) oestrogen vs what systemic HRT does - both for GSM (genito-urinary syndrome of menopause) and for sexual dysfunction. For anyone wanting to know more about GSM, or pass information on to their GP, Angela recommends the British Society of Sexual Medicine consensus statement on GSM that’s available on their website (linked below).

She goes on to explain that there is no increase in recurrence risk for oestrogen receptor positive breast cancers when using localized oestrogen to treat symptoms (and that it can be used alongside letrozole and tamoxifen). We discuss the need for patients to be able to make an informed choice about risks vs benefits, which can be challenging when healthcare professionals are not taught to understand the impact that GSM and sexual dysfunction can have on quality of life - certainly male sexual dysfunction gets a lot more attention and usually pretty rapid treatment!

We move on to discuss ‘sex tech’ and the burgeoning menopause ‘market’ in this area, including laser therapy (TLDR: more research needed, long term effects not known, it’s expensive, and vaginal oestrogen would be more effective in the majority of cases).

Angela gives an overview of what self-care practices can be helpful for someone struggling with GSM - listen in to find out some very little known information about the clitoris (and how to keep it healthy) that was totally news to me! She also explains that a range of prescription medicines (in particular antidepressants, but also antihistamines, and blood pressure medication) can mess with our sexual responsiveness, so could be something to discuss with our healthcare provider.

For anyone struggling that wants to find out more, or support them in advocating for better care, Angela recommended a wide range of resources listed here:

Mind The Gap, by Karen Gurney

Better Sex Through Mindfulness, by Lori Brotto

Becoming Clitorate, by Laurie Mintz ​​

Institute for Psychosexual Medicine website directory of practitioners https://www.ipm.org.uk/patients/specialists/

COSRT https://www.cosrt.org.uk/ - list of therapists

British Society for Sexual Medicine (email [email protected] and ask for a local practitioner)

Menopause-ull webinars ​​ https://www.mnetwork.org.uk/resources/recorded-webinars/

You might also be interested in our testosterone episode with Dr Katie Barber: https://middlingalong.com/episodes/middling-along-dr-katie-barber-helps-us-get-to-grips-with-testosterone-dos-and-donts/

You can find Angela online at ​https://spicedpearhealth.co.uk/ and https://www.instagram.com/spicedpearhealth/

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to help me keep it running (on a shoestring!) please consider buying me a ‘virtual coffee’ at Ko-fi.com/middlingalong - or you can support me in a non-monetary way by sharing this episode, or writing a short review online!

If your workplace wants to become more ‘menopause friendly’ then please let them know about the work I do at http://www.managingthemenopause.com

You can also find me over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause

Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly(ish) goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share

We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 ...