Dr Novikova on Expresso: Navigating Women’s Health
Interview with Ewan Strydom of Expresso Show and Laura Johnston of Phytoceutics
Ewan Strydom
Good morning. Right now, I want to ask all the lovely women out there to turn up your volume just a little bit, because today we are diving into a rather important conversation about women’s health, something that affects every woman at different stages of life. And joining us in studio this morning are two incredible women leading the way in this space. Laura Johnston, we know her well, CEO of Phytoceutics, an integrative nutritional health coach, together with Dr. Natalia Novikova, a gynaecologist, aesthetic specialist, and endoscopic surgeon. Ladies, welcome. Thank you very much for joining us on the show this morning. We’re talking about women’s health and everything that goes along with it. Natalia, I want to start straight with you as a gynaecologist. What are some of the common concerns that you find women struggle with when they come and meet you?
Natalia Novikova
There’s plenty of concerns that women struggle with when they come to my office. In perimenopause, menopause stage of life, women quite often complain of hot flashes, brain fog, forgetfulness, mood swings, sleep disturbances, poor libido, vaginal dryness, painful intercourse. Sometimes they just say they just don’t feel themselves anymore. And it’s actually really common. So there will be a number of women who go through that stage of life feeling absolutely fine. But at least 50% of women will have serious disturbances that interfere with their day-to-day well-being.
Ewan Strydom
What do you say to someone like that?
Natalia Novikova
I start with just helping women to step out of their inner space into the outer space and look at what’s going on with their bodies and their minds from outside and working out if there’s anything they can optimize in terms of their lifestyle. So absolutely basics: eating, physical activity, sleep, stress management, connection, some joy, and that’s the basics of it. And if they can optimize the basics and it’s not enough, then we would look into optimizing hormonal health. And of course, hormonal health sometimes needs to be optimized first. Just because they cannot start exercising because they are just so fatigued. And that’s because of hormonal issues or some other issues. It could be vitamin D deficiency or iron deficiency. So looking into lifestyle first, seeing a medical specialist to help them to work out what the issues are and what would be the best way addressing them would be my advice.
Ewan Strydom
Very good advice. Laura?
Laura Johnston
I think often When women start off with perimenopause, they don’t feel, like Natalia said themselves, and they don’t quite know what’s going on. I think it’s important to address that and know that if you’re not feeling normal, then go and see a specialist and pinpoint exactly what’s going on. Do your blood test, find out, is it vitamin D deficiency? Is it potentially hormonal imbalances? What do you need help with? And then you can take steps to mitigate that. It’s really to address these changes that women feel throughout their lives, the natural way. So we’re all about natural supplementation, high bioavailability, also less is more, so fewer products that have more of an impact. And then we leave the hormonal support to the specialists.
Natalia Novikova
Yeah, and there is plenty to do in terms of supplement treatments for premenstrual tension disorders, such as mood disorder before the menstrual period, for polycystic ovarian syndrome, for even heavy menstrual bleeding. So there’s a lot of supplementation that can be done before we introduce hormonal treatment for our patients.
Ewan Strydom
The hormonal treatment, is that the last thing that you look at?
Natalia Novikova
I think its approach is very much an individual, and it would very much depend on the particular patient, situation, condition, and their own desires, or how they are prepared to address whatever problem they have.
Ewan Strydom
And then supplementation. It plays such a big role. That’s why we’re here. That’s why you guys are here. For women out there wanting to find a bit more info, everything is there. They can go look on the website, phytoceutics.com.
Laura Johnston
We do have a page on the website called Hormonal Balance or Women’s Health.
Ewan Strydom
I love that. Very, very encouraging to hear indeed. A big thank you once again to Laura and Dr. Natalia for joining us today and for shedding light on such an important topic. Be sure to visit Phytoceutics online and also check them out on their social media pages.