Our Women's Health Conference - 29 September
Places are filling up and plans are now finalised for the next NAPS Women Health Conference taking place in September.
Following the successful conference held in Derby in February, the conference will take place in Canterbury 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. Topics for discussion will include an overview of PMS by Mr Nicholas Panay, Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea and Westminster hospitals. Dr Ruth Wilson, breast clinician at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, will discuss "Breast Problems - a modern approach," while relationship psychologist Susan Quilliam will discuss the impact of PMS on couple relationships. Professor John Studd will give an overview of the latest in menopause issues, and there is a session entitled "Cervical Cytology." The latest news in complementary therapies and treatments will be presented by Dr Claudine Domoney and NAPS dietary advisor, Gaynor Bussell will discuss "Females and Food."
New for this conference will be a patients' perspective with Paula Phillips, a local teacher and PMS sufferer, giving her personal story. Finally, Gilly Andrews, Menopause and PMS nurse specialist, and editor of the standard Sexual health textbook, will give an update on developments in contraception.
Attendance costs £40 for NAPS members, to include refreshments and buffet lunch. For non-members the cost is £65. For further details and an application form, please click on the link.
For further information, CLICK HERE
To book your place for this important conference, CLICK HERE
PMS Awareness Week turns spotlight on relationships
Keep alert for PMS Awareness Week - beginning on 11 September - where we'll be putting the spotlight on relationships and how PMS can affect them. The importance of the impact of PMS has been highlighted frequently on the NAPS forum as the following examples show. "My wife can be violent when suffering with PMS. In the past she has held a knife to me, hit me with a chopping board and broken a hair brush over my head. In April's episode she caught me with a right hook and I am now sitting here writing this with two broken ribs."
"I am ashamed to say... but a couple of times I have hit my husband."
"My ex-husband suffered a couple of broken noses and I used to regularly smash items in the house or hit walls in temper."
"She will say leave me alone, I'm tired, so unless I do, there will be a full scale row. I work 5 days a week, sometimes 6 and it is hard work coming home to her and the little one. I don't know how much more I can take. Please, please help me."
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 couples that 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
Every month we consider divorce
"Every month, we consider divorce" - that's so often what couples report about PMS.
The physical, mental and emotional symptoms don't just affect the woman in a partnership - all too often they impact on the man too, and then create doubt and frustration between partners, undermining the entire relationship.
Of course there's much that can be done to ease a woman's symptoms -but the problem also needs to be tackled by both partners. Over the years, through my advice columnist postbag and my work with NAPS, I've realised that while there's no easy way forward, major improvements are possible if partners are able to take a huge but vital step - get a totally different perspective on the place of PMS in their relationship.
At the NAPS Conference in September, I'll be talking about this shift in perspective. My presentation will explore what needs to change at the very heart of the couple's understanding of themselves, their relationship and the premenstrual symptoms in order to ease the stress. I'll be including some very practical steps to help partners make the change and some very particular ways in which practitioners need to offer support. Susan Quilliam
Women's Health charity closes doors
Women's Health, the charity that provided valuable information service on a wide range of health issues specific to women for around 25 years, has now sadly closed.
Not all services will be lost, however, as Women's Health Concern is taking over the Helpline and website. In addition, NAPS, which is very saddened by the news of the closure of such an important charity dedicated to the specific needs of women's health, has managed to find homes for the charity's library and some of its office resource. NAPS volunteer Sam Lunam is thrilled with her new computer. "It's really lovely having my own computer and workspace," she comments.
NAPS and Homestart launch bid for menstrual health pilot scheme
NAPS is teaming up with Homestart to prepare a proposal for National Lottery funding to provide training for Homestart volunteers, their clients and families, in South Kent. Homestart is a nationwide charity that provides emotional and practical support to young families with at least one child under five years of age. The proposal is initially for a pilot scheme to provide a joint training programme, bringing together NAPS, Homestart and other relevant organisations such as local PCTs 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 allow women to have more effective tools to help them make decisions about their individual menstrual health care," comments Chris Ryan, NAPS Chief Executive.
All participants - volunteers and clients - will be asked to complete a menstrual chart and questions at the beginning and end of the training programme. The end result is that the pilot scheme will spread from South West Kent and become a national scheme.
The training session will take place in October in Kent, with one section designed for volunteers and their client groups and another section specifically for volunteers. To find out more about Home-start, just click on the following link. http://www.home-start.org.uk
Department of Health supports NAPS
Funding has now been awarded by the Department of Health to enable NAPS to further develop its on-line advisory services, particularly its Ask the Experts service. Thanks to the funding, a special Ask the Experts web page is now being developed within a completely new NAPS website. This will display photographs of all the Experts, together with a brief summary explaining their area of expertise.
NAPS is very privileged to have the support of its expert team who are the best in the country in their field of work and give the service completely free to NAPS members. "Our members receive the highest quality advice available in the country. It is a very valued service and we receive a great deal of positive feed back from members who have received advice. With this extra funding, we will be able to develop this invaluable initiative even further," NAPS comments.
NAPS and Menopause Matters launch Scottish Conference
NAPS has teamed up with Menopause Matters to organise a women's health conference in Scotland.
Sponsored by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Menarche to Menopause, will take place on 17 November 2006 at the Hilton Strathclyde, North Lanarkshire. It will put the emphasis on women's health from adolescence into older age.
Following a welcome overview from NAPS Chief Executive, Chris Ryan, there will be discussions on adolescent gynaecology, teenagers and sex, an overview of PMS by Nicholas Panay, as well as talks on nutrition and menstrual health, menstrual dysfunction, contraception at peri-menopause, an update on HRT, sex and the menopause and the latest news on osteoporosis.
Commenting on this important conference, Heather Currie, managing director of Menopause Matters and Associate Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary says: "Some aspects of women's health continue to cause confusion and controversy, particularly menopause and the role of HRT. Both women and health professionals are frequently concerned about using effective, safe treatments and women continue to suffer unnecessarily. This conference, which is only for health professionals, covers important aspects of women's health from adolescence to older age. We hope to raise awareness among health professionals of the impact of problems of women's health and improve management."
Cultural differences and menstrual health
In the first of a series dedicated to exploring women in different cultures, keep a look out for the August issue of Once a Month when NAPS will present an in-depth investigation into how Muslim women manage their menstrual health.
Cartoon of the month
NAPS teams up with Sally Ann Lasson, Cartoonist with The Independent newspaper to keep you chuckling this month.
