Our Women's Health Conference - 29 September
There's only one month to go to book your seat for the next NAPS clinical conference to be held in Canterbury in September.
Places are filling up and the programme has now being finalised for the next NAPS Women Health Conference on Friday September 29 at the Darwin Conference Suite, University of Kent. This Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care accredited event will bring together leading clinical specialists in menstrual health and, as always, promises stimulating and informative discussion on a wide range of women's health issues.
The conference will provide up-to-date assessment, diagnosis and treatment information. All speakers are giving freely of their time to make the conference as accessible as possible.
For further details and a copy of the application form, please click on the links.
For further information, CLICK HERE
To book your place for this important conference, CLICK HERE
Interactive menstrual chart on its way
NAPS interactive, on-line menstrual chart, developed in conjunction with Femal, will be up and running later this month on NAPS new website.
Visitors to NAPS exciting and revamped website www.pms.org.uk will be able to record their confidential personal diary accurately on-line each day. PMS symptoms will be logged according to the severity of those symptoms, participants will be able to examine trends in symptoms over subsequent months, and benefit from sound treatment guidance. In addition, women who are approaching the menopause (known as the perimenopause) can identify and monitor the change in their symptoms and track their frequency or severity, allowing them to make useful decisions about treatment now and in the future.
Accessible through the NAPS website, users are taken to the diary's homepage, which includes an introduction to the diary and how it works. They are then asked to fill in the Selection Criteria questions, which identify them as having PMS and/or perimenopause symptoms. This is followed by in-depth definitions of both conditions and access to the main areas of the site including the Diary Section, where symptoms can be recorded on a daily basis.
Other areas include the My Symptom Trends section, which provides graphics of emerging symptom patterns. Another key feature of the site is the Guidance section which contains advice on coping strategies to manage PMS or perimenopause and other tips on lifestyle, diet and treatments.
"By providing a way to gain a greater understanding of their body and cyclical changes, the diary empowers women to take control of their symptoms without allowing them to take over their life, work and relationships," comments NAPS chairman, Nick Panay.
PMS Awareness Week
Plans are taking shape for this year's PMS Awareness Week taking place from 11 September 2006. Ban the belly during PMS Awareness Week
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Q. What do 3,000 African elephants and the UK's female population have in common? A. Their weight! The amount of pounds that may be piled on by UK women just before their period due to water retention easily equates to this vast amount!* |
Most of us girls have come to accept the discomfort and the 'dreaded' bloatin just before our period - but we rarely ask why it happens. Click on this to see the rest of the text for aquaban
Agony Aunt and relationship psychologist, Susan Quilliam will be addressing ways of managing the impact of PMS on couple relationships. We'll be flagging up PMDD too. What it is, who gets it, what are the characteristic signs and possible treatments available?
There'll be radio shows, TV interviews and magazine and newspaper articles, discussing PMS and how it affects your lives and we'll be on the look out for women and couples who are willing to share their story with the press. We need you to tell your story. If you would be interested, please contact Christine at www.pms.org.uk.
Lorraine Kelly needs you
GMTV's Lorraine Kelly show is looking for two women suffering with hormonal problems to appear live on LK Today in September.
Researchers are looking for one woman with premenstrual problems and another suffering with the menopause, who is not taking HRT. The women will be filmed in their homes during August and will work with LK Today's nutritionist, Patrick Holford, who will give them a dietary regime to follow. A follow-up interview will take place live on the sofa with Lorraine Kelly to discuss how the new dietary programme has helped their situation. If you are interested in taking part in this exciting venture, as well as helping to promote NAPS, contact Christine on 0870 7772178 or email chris@pms.org.uk
Nationwide award to NAPS
NAPS has been awarded a grant of £1500 from the Nationwide Foundation to help us with our work in the community to provide a pilot scheme for training for Home-Start volunteers, their clients and families, in South Kent.
Home-Start is a nationwide charity providing emotional and practical support to young families with at least one child less than five years of age. The training day, called Breaking the Cycle, will be held on October 31 at The Angel Centre, Tonbridge, Kent, bringing together NAPS, Home-Start and other relevant organisations such as local Primary Care Trusts and family planning organisations in South West Kent.
"This will empower volunteers to provide more effective support to women experiencing problems with their menstrual health and support women with more effective tools to help them and their families in making decisions about their health care," comments Chris Ryan, NAPS Chief Executive.
All participants - volunteers and clients - will be asked to complete a menstrual chart before they attend the events, so that they can related information during the day to their own health. It is intended that the pilot scheme will spread from South West Kent and become a national scheme.
To find out more about Home-Start, just click on the following link.
http://www.home-start.org.uk
Sleep problems answered
Lack of sleep is a problem many of us will encounter from time to time, particularly during the premenstrual phase of our cycle. If this occurs occasionally and for a short time only, we will just feel a little tired.
However, for some, sleep difficulties can create longer-term problems and can begin to affect a person's health, physically and mentally. If you are suffering with sleep problems or know someone whose life is affected by sleep difficulties, you will find really useful information on The Royal College of Psychiatrists website.
www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/mentalhealthproblems/sleepproblems
Weight gain after menopause linked with breast cancer
Keeping slim could help keep reduce your chances of getting breast cancer. According to a recent study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, research studies have shown that even putting on a stone and a half after the menopause increases the risk of developing breast cancer by 18 per cent.
Conversely, women who lost a stone and a half and kept the weight off cut their risk of developing the disease by more than half.
The study of 87,000 women conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, looked at weight change since the age of 18 and again after the menopause. Those women, who had put on 55 lbs since the age of 18, were at a 45% increased risk of breast cancer, compared with those who had maintained their weight. Those women who put on 22lbs following the menopause were found to have an 18 per cent rise in breast cancer risk. Those who lost 22lbs after the menopause and kept the weight off had a 57 per cent lower risk of breast cancer compared with women who maintained their weight.
Women's breasts are getting bigger
According to an article in the Daily Mail recently, it seems that since the fifties, women's breasts have expanded by an average 1.5in.
The report says that over the last 10 years the average bra size in the UK has gone up from a 34B to a 36C. It's thought that this is probably partly due to the popularity of cosmetic implants, as well as the fact that women's body shapes have also changed naturally over the decades. This may be due to the contraceptive pill as well as the fact that we are heavier now than we were generally in the fifties as a result of our diets.
Diet linked to morning sickness
Eating properly could help prevent morning sickness in pregnancy. A study carried out at the University of Liverpool suggests that eating certain foods could induce morning sickness and that hormonal changes in the body are not necessarily to blame, as generally considered.
The researchers looked at 56 studies from 21 countries and analysed typical diets to see if food played a part. The researchers then focused on studies from Europe and North America. They found a strong link between morning sickness and a diet containing high levels of sugars, sweeteners, oil crops used in frying foods, meat, milk, eggs and caffeine and alcohol. The research also showed the chances of morning sickness falling if the diet contained a higher proportion of cereals and pulses. Further studies will be conducted to confirm the findings.
Poor diet linked to stress
A recent study conducted by the University of Leeds has indicated that women who work long hours are more likely to comfort eat and exercise less than men.
They are more likely to turn to high-calorie snacks, drink more caffeine, smoke more and exercise less. The study analysed the daily pressures and eating habits of over 400 workers and showed that women rather than men tend to come under the umbrella of emotional eaters - turning to high-calorie foods when under stress and eating fewer vegetables and fruit. The Economic and Social Research Council study plotted a diary and behavioural patterns of 193 men and 229 women with an average age of 40.
Beating the Blues
NAPS are currently evaluating a new computerised cognitive behavioural therapy self-help treatment aimed at health care practitioners.
Beating the Blues has been developed and evaluated by Ultrasis in collaboration with a research team from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London. The aim is to develop the provision of CBT via GP surgeries.
Approved by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, the eight-session treatment programme is said to be valuable for mild to moderate depression, which uses interactive modules, animations and voice-overs to motivate and engage the user. It has been tested with independent clinical randomised control trials, the results of which have been published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and has been designed for patient's independent use in a GP surgery. NAPS will be reporting back in the next bulletin.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a drug-free method of treatment, which helps combat anxiety and depression. It is a talking treatment that emphasises the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. The treatment involves identifying how negative thoughts affect us and then looks at ways of tackling or challenging those thoughts.
NAPS celebrates four years of Samantha
Our office volunteer, Samantha Lunam, who has now been working with us for four years, will greet visitors to the NAPS clinical Women's Health Conference in Canterbury in September.
As well as dealing with the membership administration, Samantha, who has enduring health problems caused as a result of a car accident some years ago, co-ordinates mail shots, sends out information in response to requests and generally looks after us extremely well. In 2004 she was awarded Volunteer of the Year, as a result of which, NAPS won an Employer of the Year award. She will be in charge of the reception desk in Canterbury and looks forward to meeting you there.
Cartoon of the month
NAPS teams up with Sally Ann Lasson, Cartoonist with The Independent newspaper to keep you chuckling this month.
