Tell me why breast cancer should be addressed all year round

Gulf News

Sophie: Companies do breast cancer awareness campaigns in October but then don't talk about it for the rest of the year  Estrogenic cancers are caused by estrogen dominance   Sophie: your body gives you lots of signs and symptoms that you may be estrogen dominant long before you find a lump in a breast  Interrupted menstrual cycles, ovarian cysts and tissues you grow in other parts of the body are signs of estrogen dominance, says Sophie  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #podcast #breastcancer

Transcript

00:00During October, a lot more companies do run breast cancer awareness events,

00:04they do a lot more screening, but then that's it, and it doesn't get talked about for another year.

00:09And if you think about how a lot of the breast cancers happen, a lot of them are caused by

00:18oestrogenic cancers, so caused by oestrogen dominance, and oestrogen is kind of your tissue

00:23growing hormone. Your body gives you lots of signs and symptoms that you may be oestrogen

00:30dominant long before you find a lump in your breast. In interrupted cycles in the first

00:36instance, so menstrual cycles, in polyps, fibroids, ovarian cysts, tissues that you

00:42grow in other parts of your body, these are all signs that perhaps your oestrogen

00:47isn't doing exactly what it should.

00:54Circling back to the fact that you were talking about Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the fact

01:01that we usually talk about it the most during that month, you have a very special campaign

01:08called Unthink Pink, I think it's called. Can you tell us a bit more about that? I found that

01:13very fascinating and I think that it's crucial for us to address women's health all year round

01:20and not just that one month and create that hype and then just forget about it for the rest of the

01:25year. Well exactly, and in fact you've effectively summarized actually the overarching message of

01:31Unthink the Pink, which is that women's health is a bigger topic than a single month or a single

01:37day, it deserves to be spoken about all year round. Why this is important is because, take

01:44breast cancer for example, October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month has become such a thing

01:51that often women will not go for a breast exam outside of October and if you ask them, did you

01:57go for a breast exam this year, they say, oh I missed it in October, I'll just go next year instead.

02:03Which is counterproductive, yes during October a lot more companies do run breast

02:08cancer awareness events, they do a lot more screening but then that's it and it doesn't

02:13get talked about for another year and if you think about how a lot of the breast cancers

02:18happen, a lot of them are caused by oestrogenic cancers, so caused by oestrogen dominance and

02:26oestrogen is kind of your tissue growing hormone. Your body gives you lots of signs and symptoms

02:34that you may be oestrogen dominant long before you find a lump in your breast, in interrupted

02:40cycles in the first instance, so menstrual cycles, in polyps, fibroids, ovarian cysts, tissues that

02:47you grow in other parts of your body, these are all signs that perhaps your oestrogen isn't doing

02:52exactly what it should and if these things are happening, you should probably be thinking about

02:58breast cancer screening and self-exams and just really understanding what's going on in your body

03:04and trying to address the oestrogen dominance also a lot earlier than maybe 40.

03:09If you have a family history of cancer, you should be thinking about breast cancer earlier than 40

03:16and the screens and things that you have to do again, quite apart from the fact that

03:22they shouldn't be limited to one time in a year, should be more extensive than a breast exam

03:28because we are one body, we are a whole person and the hormones, the chemical messengers that

03:37allow our bodies to function are incredibly complex and intertwined and it's important

03:42to understand what your kind of health baseline looks like, not just in the context of potentially

03:50getting breast cancer. So we are running a very active campaign now for the next 12 months with

03:56a different kind of campaign partner every month, trying to get conversations about women's health

04:02into places where they perhaps aren't so much. So this coming month, we're going into labour camps,

04:08we're setting up pop-up clinics that don't just do medical check-ups but also run with a partner who

04:18will be announced soon, but do fitness classes and distribute fresh fruit and vegetables. So it's

04:24taking this like holistic whole person approach. In December, we're partnering with the university to

04:32bring the topic of women's health to medical students and to the sort of student body around

04:38the UAE. In January, we have another partner, we're going out to farms and to more rural parts

04:46of the UAE to talk about women's health and why women's health is important, again with this very

04:50kind of holistic and personalized approach. So we're trying in a very active way over the next

04:5812 months to ensure that women's health is a conversation that is had all year round and also

05:04everywhere by everybody. If people aren't saying, oh my goodness, not NABDA Health, I am sick of

05:09hearing that name, I am sick of talking about women's health, by the end of next year we will not

05:14have done our jobs. Yeah, you will not have achieved your goal. You know, it's just, I think the key

05:21takeaway from what you just said is understanding your body. Like as a woman, I feel like that's

05:27something that I lack and I lacked from a very early stage. I mean, from the moment I hit puberty,

05:33there were so many things that were unanswered and I think, we spoke about this before the show as

05:38well, there's so many taboos and there are so many like unspoken of, you know, aspects of a woman's

05:44health and a woman's body and I think growing up in an Arab household, my mom, I mean, bless her,

05:50it was just an awkward conversation. She was never used to that and I can't blame her for that

05:55and I feel like that's a lot of what I'm going through right now. A lot of unexplained

06:01aspects of my body and my health that I just want to know more about and I appreciate what you're

06:06doing and I think that just goes into my next question is from the moment a girl hits puberty,

06:15there are so many changes and so many things that we don't know about. I mean, I remember

06:22going through it all and until today, there are so many things in my head that I feel like

06:27are still unexplained, like why did I experience that on that certain day and that's what I want

06:33to talk about. I want to talk about the different phases and the different challenges that women go

06:38through from that moment they hit puberty up until menopause. I mean, we don't have to go

06:43into details because that's a lot but I mean, if we can just touch on that because I feel like a lot

06:48of girls are also afraid to come forward and ask questions in fear of like getting an answer that

06:54they might not want to hear. Yeah, so I think, I mean, even puberty and hitting puberty is kind of

06:59a funny concept because there are actually five stages to puberty. Well, there you go. Yeah,

07:04exactly. So, what we think of as puberty is when your period starts essentially, which is actually

07:09stage four. So, there are three other whole stages that happen. Well, see, I thought that was the

07:14first stage. No. There you go. That's the last stage. So, understanding that and understanding,

07:23you know, educating parents as well about the conversations they can be having with their

07:27boys and girls about the stages of puberty and what's happening and what's appropriate to

07:32talk about and what's palatable for the children also to be spoken about at different stages.

07:37I think there's a lot of de-stigmatization to do around menstrual periods because,

07:45you know, they're in many ways things to be celebrated. Yes. The menstrual cycle is like a,

07:50it's often referred to as the fifth vital sign these days because it gives you a window into

07:56what's happening in your body. Often, I mean, there's a very good reason doctors ask you,

08:01what was the date, what's the date of your last period? It's like the first question often that

08:06you'll get asked. It's because if you have something like insulin resistance, probably

08:11the first place you'll see that is in your cycle. It'll become irregular. Oh, interesting. If you

08:18have something like polyps or you have any other kind of gynecological issue,

08:25you'll see it in your cycle first. You might start to experience bleeding between periods.

08:31If you understand what your moods and your sort of strengths do over the course of your cycle,

08:41you'll be able to see when something is changing physically that's affecting those. There are

08:47better exercises to do at different points in your cycle because of the different hormone

08:54balances in your body at that different point. There's an argument that says, you know, we should

09:00be thinking about how to rebuild workplaces so that they really play to the strengths of women

09:05because women have a lot more energy at certain points in their cycle. Should we be flexing up

09:10and down the length of work days so that when you are in a particularly energetic phase of your

09:15cycle, you work 14 hours and then when you're going into your period, you work four? Question

09:21mark. There are lots of things that you can think about, but understanding what is happening with

09:31this fifth vital sign is really crucial and really interesting. Also, women should be interested in

09:36it. Women and men should be interested in it. There's also an argument that says, you know,

09:41we should be educating boys and girls about puberty in the opposite sex from early on

09:47so that how the human body works and how fertility works, not overlaying things around

09:56relationships, which is where stuff can get a bit emotional and messy, but just how the human

10:01body works anatomically would mean that the first time a couple discusses fertility isn't

10:09on their wedding night when suddenly you go from it not being something that is discussed

10:14to having to produce a baby in nine months. You know, if people understood how their fertility

10:20worked, how their bodies worked, and also how that was the relevant aspects for the other sex,

10:27then it would make all of the conversations that will inevitably happen later on in life much

10:33easier. Oh, of course. Yes, precisely. And then how would you like, I would say, for people who

10:40are experiencing, you know, symptoms either during menopause or I want to say before, I mean,

10:47how would you explain that? How would you help someone ease into that? Because I feel like

10:52a lot of women go through a very tough time when they start to experience those symptoms and

10:56going into it psychologically and physically, I guess. Yeah, so menopause is another interesting

11:03one. I mean, I think actually, with most women, the symptoms creep up, and then they kind of

11:10gather to a peak. And a lot of women will acknowledge that or think, gosh, could I be

11:16perimenopausal when they have so many different symptoms hitting them in parallel that they can

11:21no longer ignore them. But actually, you might start to experience, firstly, there's a misconception

11:29about when perimenopause starts. A lot of women will enter perimenopause in their late 30s. It's

11:34not something that happens in your late 40s or 50s. And it can last 10 to 12 years. So it can be

11:41something that you go through from your late 30s right into early 50s. And you might hit menopause,

11:47which is just one year exactly after your last ever menstrual cycle in your early 50s.

11:55And then symptoms can continue beyond menopause into post-menopause.

11:58Oh, wow. Yeah, see, I didn't know that. That's another thing that we never speak about.

12:03It's another thing that we never speak about. And so I think, again, it's a period of transition.

12:10The reason why our logo is five petals is because each petal is meant to represent

12:15a hormonal stage in a woman's life. So you have childhood, then you have puberty, which is a kind

12:20of ramp up of hormonal activity. Then you have normal adulthood, which is a stable 20, 30 years

12:26where you are ovulating one or two eggs every cycle in an ideal world, and you are reabsorbing

12:34about 1,000. Then you have perimenopause, which in some ways is a little bit of a mirror image

12:40of puberty. You have a gradual ramp down in hormonal activity, although with the prevalence

12:46of chronic diseases today, it's more like a roller coaster kind of ramp down. And then you

12:51have post-menopause, or what we like to refer to as the second childhood, and the moment where

12:57a lot of women feel like they are truly free for the first time in their lives. So understanding

13:05that these are each phases of the same, I guess in our case, kind of flower or life. They are

13:15periods that you move through. Your body changes and evolves with each one.

13:22They make sense together, and you can make sense of them together as well, is a really important

13:28thing. Again, perimenopause is a funny one because of the 35 plus symptoms, if you saw those symptoms,

13:40same symptoms in a man, they could be a sign of a really serious life-threatening condition,

13:46a thyroid malfunction, cancer. A lot of the things that women actually live with and experience as

13:53normal are things that would be a sign that something has gone seriously wrong in a man.

14:00So supporting women and understanding really how things might feel, what they might feel like.

14:08For example, I'm breastfeeding my daughter at the moment, which means that my prolactin levels are

14:12high and my estrogen levels are low, which means that I get hot flushes sometimes, a little bit

14:17like someone going through perimenopause. And we live in a very hot country. So a lot of the time

14:23you could just feel like, why isn't the AC working? And you don't realize the extent to

14:29which that moment of feeling hot affects you, but it affects you. Your energy levels drop

14:36a little bit. And obviously the hot flushes I get are not anywhere near the hot flushes that

14:43women would experience going through perimenopause, but they're there. And yeah, I'm very aware of

14:50them, but enabling women to understand and to be thinking like, is this thing that I'm experiencing

14:57happening a lot? Is it happening every day? Just getting them a little bit more conscious again

15:03about what their baseline looks like from a health perspective. And so what abnormal also

15:08looks like for them from a health perspective is really important. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think

15:13it just goes back to knowing your body, paying attention to whatever you're going through and

15:18getting the answers. I feel like a lot of women would feel the difference if they got all the

15:24necessary answers and if they asked questions a bit more openly. And I think- And if they were

15:29heard. And if they were heard, precisely. And if they were heard. So we did a survey of about

15:34500 women. And the last question we asked was, if you could change one thing about the healthcare

15:41you received today, what would it be? And it was, I wish my doctor would listen to me. I feel like

15:47my doctor doesn't listen to me. I go in and I say how I'm feeling and my doctor dismisses it.

15:54I'm being emotional. I'm being a drama queen. I'm flagging things that aren't relevant. It's

16:03just normal. Get on with it. I feel like I don't have a voice. I don't have a voice.

16:07Oh my goodness. You honestly touched on the right point because we had a psychologist on

16:15the show who spoke about postpartum. And that is one of the main issues that women deal with

16:21postpartum is that they are told, oh, you'll be fine or it's okay. Just pick yourself up. I mean,

16:29if she could pick herself up, she would have done it. Trust me. It doesn't take good at that.

16:35Exactly. Exactly. And even if she could pick herself up, there are still underlying challenges

16:42that she's going through and that she has no explanation for. And she doesn't need you to

16:48tell her that, you know, oh, just get over it or you're being dramatic. Like

16:52if she's laying in bed for hours and she can't get herself up, there is something there. That's a red

16:58flag. So just listen to her. And it's not just the doctors. I was going to add it's the partners as

17:03well. I feel like a lot of women have complained about not being heard by their family, family

17:09members, their partners or their doctors. And I think that's something that we're lacking. And I

17:16think that's something we have to change. Yes. Absolutely. One of the things that really isn't

17:21picked up on it. So we did a survey of 400 women in the UAE with one of our partners Rise Birth

17:26Center and the prevalence of postpartum depression. So this isn't baby blues. It's yes. PPD is was 56%

17:34in women and 30% in men. So what you don't realize is that often you might have a partner who in

17:43their head is thinking, I want to support my wife with her baby, but it's also incapable of doing

17:48so. Of course. So you really need support that again. And I think you, you, you see the gaps

17:56immediately postpartum as well. The mother's first and only priority is her baby, right? You know,

18:04she will think of herself in every instance lost. Oh, you have to forcibly get her to do stuff like

18:11shower and change her clothes and have a decent meal and make time for herself and, and, and so.

18:17If you want to do one thing for a family postpartum, take care of the mother, because if you

18:23take care of the mother, she will take care of her baby. Yes, absolutely. And this is something that

18:29partners forget that healthcare providers also forget, you know, even if you give birth in a

18:34really excellent, you know, midwifery led facility here, the instant that that baby is out,

18:41the mother is forgotten about. Yes. You know, when I gave birth to my last baby,

18:49I was desperate to get some sleep. She just wouldn't settle. You know, she was waking every

18:5430 minutes, every 60 minutes. I was like, I just need to sleep for 45 minutes uninterrupted,

18:59knowing that the baby's okay. They wouldn't come and take her. There was like, there was no one to

19:03watch her. We can't leave from reception. Like nobody would come and just wheel her around a

19:08corridor for 45 minutes so that I can sleep. They refused. And this was in one of the most

19:14supposedly like mom and baby friendly hospitals. And it's because they're worried about

19:19breastfeeding and they say the baby's got to be there and available to breastfeed. It's like the

19:23baby's fed, the baby's done nothing but feed. Please, like you got to listen to me as the

19:28mother and hear what I need. And then you can advise me on what needs to be done for my baby.

19:36But yes, in a lot of things, in a lot of places, in a lot of countries, in a lot of instances,

19:42in a lot of times, mothers are just not heard and forgotten about. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And

19:49you did mention something that I also wanted to add is that oftentimes, you know, men are also

19:55forgotten when it comes to care and attention. Because on the flip side, sometimes the men feel

20:03like, oh, I shouldn't be complaining. She's been through so much. And I just, I don't want to be

20:07unfair, because I mentioned that, you know, sometimes the men forget about the mothers, but

20:11it's also, I mean, the same applies. Exactly. Arguably, we're forgetting about fathers by not

20:18having shared parental leave. Exactly. How can we expect mothers to share caregiving obligations?

20:26How can we relieve mothers of some of those caregiving obligations, if men only get a couple

20:31of weeks paternity leave? If they're lucky. If they're lucky. Some get days. Some get days.

20:39I mean, who do you give the baby to? Exactly. Absolutely. How do you also, you know, in those

20:46very critical early days, really establish as a couple what your routine looks like? You know,

20:51how do you learn together about how to look after a new baby and then a toddler and then a child?

20:55Yes. You know, if only one parent is forever present, it can't happen. It physically can't

21:02happen. It's just, so yeah, it's important. Again, in the same way we spoke about fertility

21:08and understanding that sometimes to relieve the burden on women, the stuff you do has nothing to

21:13do with women and everything to do with men. Yes. With fertility, it's understanding that you need

21:18to test and check men in the same breath that you test and check women. Absolutely. With parenting,

21:24it's giving men the freedom to parent responsibly as women are also free to parent responsibly.

21:32It's always a two-way conversation. There are always two sides to the coin.

21:37Sophie, we're going to have you back, but before we let you go, I just want to ask one last question.

21:42If you were sitting in a room right now filled with women of all ages, what would your advice be?

21:51Just one takeaway, one golden advice. Oh, that's a good one and it's actually on your wall. Yeah.

21:57It's ask why. Like the one thing that I think people stop doing and we do it as children very

22:03naturally is asking why and we accept the things that people tell us as gospel and that extends to

22:09the things that we accept about our body. A lot of women get told, oh, bleeding is a

22:16normal side effect of, for example, hormonal contraception. It's normal. Don't worry about it.

22:21They stop asking about it. Gynecological cancers get detected late. Women are lying in bed.

22:27They can't get out of bed. They're told it's normal. They stop asking why. They don't deal

22:32with issue. I think my one piece of advice to all women, regardless of age, is never stop asking why.

22:40I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you very, very much for sharing your time with us. I know

22:46we have such a busy schedule and we were just talking about it before the show, but we really

22:52appreciate it and we want to have you back. So whenever you have the opportunity, please come

22:56back and answer some of the why's that we may get. It would be my pleasure. Thank you so much.

23:02And if anyone has any questions, please send them through to podcast at gulfnews.com. If we do get

23:08a bunch of questions, we will definitely have you back for a Q&A. Okay. Thank you. Sounds good.

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