The Shelley Tasker Show

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Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 7:00p.m. uk time on Radio Soapbox: http://radiosoapbox.com

In this candid and refreshingly human episode, I’m joined by my co‑host Mallifficus Scott and his sister, Janet, for an honest conversation about perimenopause and menopause—what it really feels like, why it’s so misunderstood, and how partners can better support each other. We swap stories about brain fog, hot flushes, restless legs, incontinence, anxiety, and intrusive thoughts, and Janet shares her brilliant workplace-style analogy that makes the hormonal chaos instantly understandable. We also touch on practical support: HRT myths and benefits, diet tweaks (protein, veg, healthy fats; watch seed oils and refined sugar), strength training over high-impact cardio, the role of the vagus nerve, and why soy and palm oils are everywhere. Along the way, we chat about school attendance pressures, ‘flu vs COVID’, media trust, and a dash of BBC/Trump headline-watching—plus a few laughs at our own expense. If you’re approaching “the change”, living with someone who is, or just want a grounded, compassionate primer with humour, this one’s for you. And yes—Janet’s analogy is in the show notes so you can share it with the men in your life!

Resources and references (mentioned in conversation)
- Janet’s menopause analogy: “Drastic Changes to the Workforce” (included below)
- Topics to explore: HRT (modern body-identical oestrogen), strength training for midlife women, vagus nerve breathing/stretching, seed oils vs olive/coconut/butter, soy as an oestrogen mimic, menopause symptoms list (NHS), perimenopause vs menopause timeline
- Practical tips: lift weights 2–3x weekly, prioritise protein/veg/healthy fats, reduce refined sugar/alcohol/ultra-processed foods, consider yoga/Pilates/mobility for cortisol control, read labels for soy flour/palm oil

Drastic Changes to the Workforce – by Janet
Two sisters, Susan and Janet Ovary, down tools with no handover after years prepping the reproductive suite. Enter Bob from the adrenal department—king of cortisol—who now must keep the peace with oestrogen he’s not built to make. He recruits chaotic ‘minions’ (fat cells) that stockpile everywhere, clog corridors, and build an unsightly front extension while trying to eke out oestrogen. The thermostat’s broken (hot flushes), a loo leaks (bladder changes), and the whole workforce can’t find balance. The Hazard Response Team (HRT) may stabilise things, but it’s now about damage control and adapting to the new normal. It’s messy, maddening—and strangely liberating when you finally name it.

[00:01:04] Unknown:

Good evening you beautiful people out there. You are listening to the Shelley Tasker Show coming live from radiosoapbox.com.   Also being re aired on Clear Air FM, Sound of Freedom. It's good to have your company.  

[00:01:33] Unknown:

Yeah. It's great to have your company, folks.   Coming up, we have   coming   up, we   coming up, we have   when is COVID worse than COVID?   It's the new era of flu, folks.  

[00:02:03] Unknown:

I forgot to say hello good evening to the awesome mister Scott, my co host.  

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Oh, thank you.  

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I don't keep  

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crying.  

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And yes, it's official. If you vote, you live longer.  

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And dry vaginas.   Did you hear that right? Yes   you did. It's gonna be fun.  

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I must admit I've got some trepidation about this show.   And running the BBC has become an impossible   job.   Oh, what tangled webs we weave when first we practice   to deceive.  

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And the Filton twenty four, who are they? You really do need to know.  

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All that and much more coming up on the show.  

[00:04:32] Unknown:

Good  

[00:04:36] Unknown:

evening. Sorry. My fault.  

[00:04:38] Unknown:

Get it right one way. Never mind. Good evening, dear listeners. As I said, you were listening to the Shelley Tasker Show coming live out of radiosoapbox.com   and being aired also on Clear RF Clear RFM, The Sound of Freedom. It is Wednesday, November 12.   I'm joined by my amazing awesome co host, mister Maleficus Scott.   And we do have a guest come in this evening.   So   good evening, mister Scott.  

[00:05:07] Unknown:

Good evening, missus Tasker. How are you this week?  

[00:05:10] Unknown:

Oh, do you know what? I don't wanna moan.   I'm not gonna moan, but you know, I was so looking forward to my week off work.  

[00:05:18] Unknown:

Yeah. You had eight days off. Oh, yeah. I remember.   Last last time I even sent you a message the next day. Did you? Eight days off. Woo hoo. Woo hoo. And  

[00:05:27] Unknown:

I have been   poorly the whole time.  

[00:05:32] Unknown:

What what is it about stopping? It's like when your body almost like when your body knows it's allowed to slow down, it just gives up fighting off all the nasties that you've been putting up with all that   time. It just goes into remission.  

[00:05:45] Unknown:

Well, it's mental actually because you remember I said to you I'm gonna go and watch the Dolly Parton show, which I did. Yes. And it was really good. How was it? It was really good. And on that day, I, you know, I do support work. I supported a gentleman   and we were out having a little day out and I was thinking, 'Right,   I've got five hours tomorrow and then I'm done for eight days'. And,   basically, we went out and I was in the car with him for an hour, we got to our destination, we was there for about half an hour and   he became a little unwell.  

And I had to assist with, you know, I work with people with learning difficulties and stuff like that. Anyway, it wasn't pleasant.   So we weren't there very long and we had to leave and then I spent another hour in the car driving back   and I believe at the time, well now,   I know that I obviously caught what he had.   And literally I went to that dolly thing in the evening, I was absolutely fine, yeah, I had a few drinks and I woke up Friday morning   and I just felt horrendous and I thought I was hungover.   So I phoned in sick,   feeling really guilty, thinking oh my god, I never phoned in work with a hangover and Darren's like you only had a few glasses of wine but I was retching. I was just like oh no no no. And then two days later, I was still feeling horrendous.  

And I was literally on the couch all weekend.   Today is the first time I've been out. I still can't stomach a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. That's when you know things are bad.  

[00:07:14] Unknown:

So What a waste of a week off. I know.   I know. You're an absolute waste. I'm so sorry. I was so looking forward to the fact that you'd come back all bubbly and refreshed, and  

[00:07:24] Unknown:

you've come back all bubbly, but obviously, you're not refreshed. Well, I still needed that break. It's alright because, like, I'm I'm due to do a sleep on Friday, and I'm kind of, like, I've had a week off. I don't you know, it's it's not   so dreaded. Not that I hate my job or anything, but just you need that break to be at home. But then, Purim this evening, he's just popped off with his dad for the evening like he does on Wednesdays and he's like, I really don't feel well mum. I'm like, oh my god. Go on off your pot. I know. I know. Anyway, it's just one of those things. It's that time of year, isn't it? But apparently, there's some quite nasty bugs going around at the moment to to be honest with you. Well, yeah. I mean apparently flu. Flu. Flu this year is worse than COVID. Really? I mean who would have who would have ever thunk? Are you not sure? Are you sure it's not COVID though?  

[00:08:08] Unknown:

Well,   I see I get confused because I don't you know, what it's it's kinda like which came first, the chicken or the egg, isn't it? Exactly. Exactly. You know, are they   Which came first, the COVID or the flu?   Yeah. And and does one give birth to the other? I'm not sure. You know, I just yeah.   It's it's almost like they've relabeled the flu season with flu.   Who would have called me? I can't get my head around it. I know. I know. I can't get my head around it at all.  

[00:08:34] Unknown:

It it is just crazy though because I'm thinking now like, right, the secondary school, they really push attendance and last term, Piran had a 100%.   Crikey, well done, Piran. First time ever.   And they make you feel bad. But it's good going, yeah. But I was speaking to somebody today that said that they've had to take their child out twice from the same school to go to the dentist and they don't drive. So they had to go to the bus, get a bus to trot and what have you.   And even though she's proved letters from the dentist for dental work, she's still got a meeting at the school. And all these people that they have like a couple of days off, like the school were texting them how's your child, when are they due back in? It's just, I'm just thinking now, oh my god. If he is poorly,   I'm not gonna send him into school if he's unwell.  



[00:09:19] Unknown:

But you literally got a fight on your hands now because even if they get fight Isn't it funny? Because if you sent him into school with a stomach upset or something Yeah. Yeah. They'd be dealing with a whole load more attendance problems.  

[00:09:30] Unknown:

But that is just key at the moment. Attendance is just it's I'll tell you what. The amount of emails for so long, Shelley. Well, it's not It's been key for so long. And I've always, like, kind of not worried about it, but I notice it now, all the emails, you know, if they miss a day, yeah, who cares?   But, yeah.  

[00:09:48] Unknown:

So anyway No. It's it's so frustrating. I mean, look. The thing is, it's it's not about your child's welfare even. It's about their funding, and we've covered this a few times on the show. So   if their attend if you if their children's attendance drop below a certain percentage, they don't get the same funding that they would as if they were above a certain percentage, which is why they always aim for a certain percentage   because that's their funding.   Yeah. So and all these and this particularly when primary schools went to academies, I mean, we had trouble with our kids' primary school.   But, you know, going on, you know, as you well know, we we homeschool both our daughters.  

But at one point, my daughter actually my eldest actually wanted to go back to school.   And the the battle we had,   it was just ridiculous. And we we got you know, because   of various different reasons. She wasn't able to attend for, you know,   full time.   And they they took her back on knowing that and then just turn the thumbscrews on because no no, well, it's our funding. Yeah.   Yeah. They don't care about the kids. It's about their it's about their finances. That's what they're looking at. They don't they couldn't care whether you you, even if your kid's got leprosy, just send it   in. Just send it in. You know, it's it's our funding. It's our funding. That's how it feels anyway. Oh, yeah. Yeah.  



[00:11:11] Unknown:

Yeah. I think if they have they keep sending out charts of, like, 98%   doing okay, but, you   know, be careful.   Ninety five percent, that's too low. Crikey.   Every everybody's like it at work. Like, I mean, I'm not contracted, but I I'm one I very rarely phone in sick because I don't like to leave anybody in the lurch. And I'm just not like that. So I felt guilty as hell phoning in on Friday, especially when I thought it was a hangover.   I was like, I don't think I've ever done that before. And I'm glad really it's a bug. Pretty disgraceful behaviour.   Wow. Not at this age.  

Crikey. Darren was like making faces behind me as I phoned and I was like, I can't go to work. No way.   Anyway. Oh, man. But hey, I mean, you know, we're on day, what,   six? Day six.   No. Day five. Like I said, I still can't stomach a cup of tea or coffee. So   never mind.  

[00:12:05] Unknown:

Oh, that's dreadful.   Yeah,  

[00:12:08] Unknown:

I'm all right now, I was pretty miserable at the weekend as you can imagine, I don't do being ill and I still wasn't sure you see, I had some sort of bug, I just kept thinking oh you're depressed, you've had a hangover and I was like come on Shelly, you don't have a hangover that lasts for three days.   And I think it was Monday, oh my stomach,   yeah. And I've not been physically sick or anything, it's just that buggy feeling, you know, and sleeping all day and still managing to sleep all night.   So anyway, enough moaning onwards, upwards. The show must go on as they say.  

[00:12:42] Unknown:

Yeah. The show must go on. Well, we've had our Shelley moan for this week. That's great. Yeah. Well done. Yeah. Thank you. I like it. I like it. Good. So you need to tell us about the weather.   Oh, well, the the weather. On? Yeah. I've got I've got soaking wet all week. I bet you have. Well, actually, no. To be honest, I've actually been really lucky. Really lucky in the respect that I haven't got too soaked. There was one day we we got rained off halfway through the day.   But other than that, we've been quite lucky, really.   And today,   I have spent today, I have mainly   been picking up leaves.  

Because it's that time of year, isn't it? Yes. Yes.   Just every like, one of the gardens that we look after, it's like three acres.   And it's all trees.   So you can imagine at this moment in time, like, most most of the lawns are, like, at least four inches under leaves. Yeah. Yeah. It's like   and and after a little while, a leaf blower just doesn't cut it. It just can't pick anything up because it's too heavy. So it's a lot of physical work. So I've had a really, really good workout this week, actually.   Feeling fit and strong. And, I don't like to rub anyone's face in it, but, yeah, I'm feeling fit and strong. It's been   it's been a been a successful week, I suppose. Been doing a little bit of jamming.  

Written   well, I've had a mate round who I've been doing guitar with, well, since we started doing guitar. Remember, I said I had my mate round the first time really in twenty years. And he's he's still at the same level I am with guitar, so I was kind of happy about that. He's not, like, flown past me, and I haven't flown past him. You know?   But,   the last jam we had,   a couple of weeks back, he pulled out some of the tunes that he'd been writing. So he came around on Sunday evening, and I was like, right.   I've got the computer out out in the studio. Right. Let's let's   get some of your tunes down. So we actually got, only on basic format, but got four of his tunes down, on the PC to mess around. And it's always good when you're making music to have some someone else's   thoughts to mess about with, you know, someone else's thoughts and feelings to mess about with,   in the nicest possible way, obviously.  



[00:14:53] Unknown:

So, yeah, that's been good. It's been quite productive, actually, this week. Well, I should say, I listened to that song you sent, and I was like, wow. I mean, I know you can sing, but it was really good. I was really impressed.  

[00:15:05] Unknown:

Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Also, it was a bit of a rough one, but it's, yeah. It it's getting there. I wrote that tune   a long, long time back for   kind of like my granddad and my journey.   Oh. So listeners listeners all get to hear it at some point when it's a bit more polished. No. No. It's a bit have you played it to Shar?  

[00:15:25] Unknown:

No. I haven't. Do you not even, like, get your guitar out and say, Shar, I'm gonna sing you with Tombo. She's not interested in any of that, mate. Oh. Just like I wish Darren would do that. Just go, I'm gonna sing to you now, babe. Get my guitar out.   I'm a bit of a sad, hopeless romantic.   Yeah. Obviously, it's never happened.  

[00:15:44] Unknown:

In in essence, it's a nice idea, but I think I'd get partway through, and and she plays over.  

[00:15:51] Unknown:

Oh,  

[00:15:52] Unknown:

that's not very nice. Yeah. That's that's that's that's one one place that we don't have any sort of, like,   if you if you as you like to say that we're so romantic, we don't have any romantic interminglings   when it comes to music. We enjoy our music on a on a Friday evening. We'll take it in turns in putting tunes on and things like that. But,   no. She's not really that interested in, you know,   she's not really that interested in my in my musical prowess.   So  

[00:16:20] Unknown:

There is. It's funny, isn't it? Because, like, Darren never listens to the radio shows. Never. He's not interested.   Doesn't bother me. No. Not interested. That's my thing. You know? So I think he's good for asking for things. Yeah. Yeah. He still loves me. So that's okay.   And do you know, funny enough, it popped up early on my memories on Facebook.   Because I like my memories. Oh, not face pests. Face. And you bring out face pests. Every week, like you do. Look at our phones.   But, do you know, twelve years ago today, I did my first ever proper, like, radio interview.   It was, a little radio show called The Paper Girls and it was done locally in Madrid. And I was a guest on someone's show.  

I took Piran with me because he was literally like two months old and it was a real girly chat.   But anyway that popped up in my memories. I thought twelve years ago is uncanny isn't it? And then it's like five years ago last week that I did my first ever show of the Shelley Tasker show.  

[00:17:16] Unknown:

So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Time is I remember listening back in days of old. Days of old. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You should get your chat room back up and running again so that we can I I was thinking that because I missed that? That is the the only thing I know  

[00:17:33] Unknown:

I might ask my dad if he might be able to do that,   Because the only reason we don't stream on Rumble now is because I was thinking this the other night. It's nice to have people's comments and a little bit of feedback but it's the whole hoo   And obviously you produce the show and everything at the moment which I love. And I just can't think. I can't imagine that, like,   six months ago, I was doing it all by myself,   two shows a week,   all of that, like, producing on Rumble, Pod Home, YouTube, all that sort of stuff. Yeah. And the thought of that now would  

[00:18:09] Unknown:

different bits of software and all sorts to to sort of get that accomplished. And so so, you know, that's kind of what I was having a conversation with Paul English last night, and that's one of the nice things   about   radio   is, you know, because we're talking about the Radio Soapbox website,   and that it's very simplistic and there's not much to it. But I said, well, you know, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Most people that are gonna tune into the radio station,   you know, whether it's radio soapbox, you know, radio clear air,   whatever,   they're gonna it doesn't matter what's going on on the screen because most of the time, they'll switch it on on their mobile phone   or whatever device it is   or whatever device it is that they're using. And they won't look at it. They're just listening to it. So the fact that it's it's   simply a functional web page, I think, is perfect. Yeah.  



[00:18:58] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. But it would nice be nice just for that chat because it was nice, like I say, in the early days, it was quite a simple one, but and I think more people were listening then and chatting because of what was going on.  

[00:19:10] Unknown:

Yes.  

[00:19:11] Unknown:

Yeah.  

[00:19:12] Unknown:

Because the world was certainly in a state of They were all looking into answers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, I I listen to Paul's show Well, you didn't need to because it's just turned out to be flu all over again. So it's alright.  

[00:19:24] Unknown:

All over again. Yeah. Yeah.   I know. It's just absolutely nuts. And there's still people out there, still testing,   still wearing masks, you still see those poor people. And Oh I know. I've got COVID. Oh go away, you've got flu.   Go away.   You know now that you're breathing it back in then. Yeah. You know it's yeah. It's weird. And they're pushing like all of the all the flu jabs now. It's that time of the year, isn't it? And you're not just your flu jabs, your COVID jabs, and all the flu mist.   I've had an email about that from school. But it's good because you have to opt in before you used to have to opt out because obviously, parents don't have any of that. So I don't have to do anything.   But they just made it harder, you know? But I think overall   they're pushing it so much as well because general immunizations   have just gone right down.  

And they blame it a lot of it since COVID,   on the COVID jabs because people knew about those jabs. And if they didn't know, they certainly know now. There's still quite a few people having them, but lots of people have seen the results of them and they're like, oh, let's put them on vaccinations   altogether.   So it also  

[00:20:32] Unknown:

Oh, I speak to more yeah. Yeah. About other jabs as well. So Well, I speak to more people since since that time. I speak to more people that won't go near a needle now   than people that would   that would happily volunteer. Whereas before, it was very, very much the other way around.   Yeah. Yeah. Half makes me wanna hear I I touched on the fact that the the the head of the BBC has just stood down.   You know, I I don't know whether they've been called into the COVID inquiry, have they? But, they've certainly got some questions to answer. Well, that was that was on one of my lists actually as well because  

[00:21:08] Unknown:

it was all brought up about TV licensing going up last week as well.   Because so many people are refusing to pay now.   I wonder why?   But, yeah, and Trump has set out, you see, to sue the BBC because of a panorama   that went out last week.   And basically,   which I'm thrilled about because lots of these things are coming out and and interestingly,   I, you know, I listen to radio too and I like the debate and everything and it was one that it was subjected all about the BBC and panorama and I was like crikey. They're actually   they're actually listening to other people. You know, they just I mean, I know it's radio. They're not it's managing BBC. It's  

[00:21:48] Unknown:

it's managing a reaction. The cat's out of the bag. Yeah. You know, it's it's so there there this is damage control at this point, I would say. And also, you know, let's not forget, come, you know,   Trump is   simply good cop, you know, part of good cop, bad cop routine between the leaders of the world so that we all think that, you know, you know, so he's what's what's the one of the richest men in the world gonna do when he sues the BBC? For what? This is this is, of course, just a matter of principle now. Yeah. Yeah. But do you know what it was called? Who's gonna pay for it? Do do you know what it was called? They because they edited one of his speech.  

[00:22:26] Unknown:

Speeches. So it made it sound like basically he was saying we're going to walk down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you and we fight we fight like hell but they stitch it together. But by that coming out has surely given some of those people now like oh   perhaps we ought to be   distrusting.  

[00:22:43] Unknown:

This is but this is what this is this is what makes me laugh. Right? Because   Trump's at the he's there on camera. And part of the speech that he's complaining about is part of the speech where he said, and I'll be there with you. Well, he wasn't, was he, on January 6? He was out playing golf, and he told everyone to stand down after the damage was done. So this is what people should actually be looking at, and nothing to do with,   you know, who stitched what together. They all know that they're, you know, in the public eye and that they, you know, they're heavily edited and   and messed about with all the time.  

The BBC will probably turn around and say, well, it was just the end of the speech and we cut out part of the speech, but it was part of the same speech.   Again, this is just muddying the waters for everyone. And,   and, you know, I I've actually got maybe later on in the show, if we get a chance, I've got,   a clip that revolves around this whole   nonsense, if you like, and the resignation of the the head and the deputy head of the BBC. So we we can get into a bit of that   later on if you like. But,   before we go to the bottom of the hour and all that kind of stuff, because we've got a fantastic guest coming up,   as I say, double trepidation for me, not only the subject matter, but I've never had one of my siblings on air before. So,  

[00:24:00] Unknown:

we'll we'll see how this goes. And to talk about the content that we're going to talk about.  

[00:24:05] Unknown:

Yes. Exactly. Yes.   So anyway,   before before we get to that,   before how can you tell? Is the mic warmed up or something?   Do I sound warmer over the mic? The the menopause,  

[00:24:17] Unknown:

which we joked about last week because you said you were going through a male menopause and I laughed at you.   And we got into a bit of conversation   about that. But   it's it's one of those subjects like sex that everybody does, everybody goes through, but people don't talk about. And it's a bit like, oh. But actually, we are all at that age, and I'm sure we can have an open discussion   and talk about it. An open diet. Try vaginas.   Yeah.  

[00:24:44] Unknown:

Well, actually, well, look. Before we do, before we get into that, the one of the bullet points that I brought up at the beginning of the show is that,   how voting can be good for you. Right? Right. That this is Spell it to me. Straight out of this is this is this is straight out of   that,   amazing sort of font of knowledge that is the Daily Mail. Right?   People who don't vote are significantly more likely to die earlier   than their voting peers.   With experts suggesting voting behavior is a stronger determinant of health than than education is. Over the past decade, industry experts and policy programs   have increasingly   highlighted the relevance of voting as a social   determinant of health.  

The non medical factors that influence health and well-being.   So previous research has even found that people who vote in elections tend to enjoy better health than nonvoters.   I mean, how can they possibly sell it to you? This is right. This is no different to selling COVID vaccines to teenage girls by saying, oh, my boobs got bigger. You know, who would want to take a vaccine that did that to your body? I just yeah.   Yeah. But it's not gonna convince me to vote. Sorry.   It's not. I'll   die early. That's fine.  

[00:25:58] Unknown:

Yeah. It's it's a hard one, is it? Because I think every time it comes up and I know you're very I I get your argument. I do. But I think every time you think, yes. It's gonna change. My vote is gonna count.   And locally,   I have been voting,   but I think this year I might just  

[00:26:14] Unknown:

spoil my ballot paper to make a point. Yeah. Your vote counts. Isn't that one of the Barnum statements listed? Yeah.   He's working for you. Your vote counts.  

[00:26:25] Unknown:

We've gotta bring this country together.   Yeah. Yeah.   Yeah. Oh, dear. Well, look. We we are coming close to the bottom of the hour, shouldn't we? We best push on with a song, missus Scott, because we have an awesome guest.   And it's a great awesome guest. Yeah. As,   are are you gonna say who it is?  

[00:26:44] Unknown:

It's it's my sister.   Lovely.   Yeah. My sister Janet. She'll be on in just a sec. So I've I've chosen a song for this interlude. I don't know,   I don't know how apt it's going to be, but it's a beautiful version of a lovely song. Okay. So,  

[00:27:02] Unknown:

anything goes See  

[00:27:04] Unknown:

see what see what you think, folks. See what it's saying. Here we go. This and you can look this guy up on YouTube, under the name Pedro Sings. He's got an amazing voice.   And   I said, brother,   won't you help   me? But he just winds up   knocking me.   I'm glad I thought. I wouldn't last   alone. But now I think I may go   to carry on   What a voice,   What a voice. Very nice. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Welcome back, folks. You are listening live to the Shelley Tasker Show,   coming live out of radiosoapbox.com.  

[00:30:56] Unknown:

And welcome to part two   and we have a wonderful guest for you we have mister Scott's awesome sister she must be awesome because she is his sister.   I'd like to welcome on the show, Janet. Good evening, Janet.  

[00:31:10] Unknown:

Hi. Thanks for having me on. I'm not sure, my brother will think so after this conversation.  

[00:31:17] Unknown:

Do you know what? I love a good lady chat. And I'm just looking at your screen picture now. I must read the mug. Menopause,   when the hairs fall out   oh no! I'm gonna read it, this is the mug. Read it, read it. When the hairs fall out of your fanny and start growing on your chin.   Wow, what an introduction, I like you already.   Obviously your lovely brother has told you about our conversation last week because apparently there is a male menopause   and I beg to differ in ideas.   But it said it's kind of sparked a conversation with you.  

[00:31:57] Unknown:

Yeah. We had, a few drinks the other evening. We were listening to some music   and we were talking,   of just   everyday stuff that goes wrong in my life because of my brain fog and, you know, I just accept it now. I thank you. Yeah. And and there and there is a male menopause.   I had a colleague go through male menopause, and it's just it can be just as distressing for   men. But I don't know enough about male menopause really to have much of a comment, but it does affect them quite   severely sometimes. Yeah. Yep. Crikey. They go through all menopause.  

[00:32:33] Unknown:

Sorry. You've gone a bit  

[00:32:35] Unknown:

are you there? No. Sorry. They go they go through hormonal changes too. And Right. Yeah.   Unlike us, it can affect them in different ways. So everybody has a different experience of it. But  

[00:32:45] Unknown:

Oh, I'm not happy about this because I want it to be all about me and I can't cope now for him to say I'm going through the change too.  

[00:32:55] Unknown:

Yeah. But they won't admit it.  

[00:32:58] Unknown:

They wouldn't have missed it. Yeah. I I will elaborate.   If you go to Google   AI overview, it will tell you that the male menopause   or andropause   is a misleading   term for the gradual decline in testosterone   that occurs with age, leading to symptoms like reduced sex drive, fatigue,   mood changes, and erectile dysfunction.   If your colleague was suffering that,   I'm not surprised he was pretty low.   But, yeah.   As I said last week,   it happens over a much, much   slower,   a much, much longer time period. So,   it says here a more accurate accurate term is late onset   hypogonadism,   gonadism.  

Gonad. Late onset hypogonadism.   No. It's true. That's what it says here. Or androgen deficiency   in the aging male, a d a m. Adam, isn't that funny?   While symptoms can be managed through lifestyle changes, and in some cases, testosterone   replacement   therapy,   TRT,   they are not caused by a sudden hormonal drop like in the female menopause. So that was the point I was making last week. And I did actually say, I'm assuming that it just generally means that you don't wake up with morning wood each week,   being a guy,   or each day.  

Maybe it just goes to a weekly thing. You know? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not not not quite there yet, so,   I'll let you know as time goes on. So so out of interest,  

[00:34:39] Unknown:

Janet, how old are you?  

[00:34:41] Unknown:

I am 54.   Right. Okay. Okay. So And I think I've been going through perimenopause   for probably   about ten years.  

[00:34:53] Unknown:

Right. Right.   And   you're struggling, I take it. No. That's alright. It's it's nice to have somebody that wants to come on and talk talk about a subject. It's like I said to Maleficus,   it's one of those things that everybody's going through, but nobody talks about.  

[00:35:10] Unknown:

Oh, I talk very openly about it in open office and everything with my friend in the workplace and,   you know,   the shock factor sometimes, you know. But I think what it's done is educate a lot of the, guys that work in our office as well,   Right. Who actually under you know, a couple of guys have gone, oh my god. I think my partner's going through that.   So it it has raised awareness and guys are aware of it and how best to support someone. But we do it with humor. You know, you've got to have a sense of humor about these things. We all go through it and, yes, it can be really difficult.   But, you know, I think if you can maintain a sense of humor about it because we can't change it.  



[00:35:49] Unknown:

The fact of life. No. You can't. You're right. And, I think it's I'm on a couple of these Facebook groups. I have to say that because your brother hates Facebook.   But it's very handy for all these groups, Maleficus. And actually, I will look later to see if there's a male menopause group.   When I see what some of these women are going through   and I've obviously hit that age now where quite a few of my friends are really struggling. I had a friend actually call me up, what, a few nights ago in tears for about an hour, just had to offload. She's just going nuts.   And so many of these women feel that they're going nuts.  



[00:36:28] Unknown:

Yeah. I remember phoning up my husband   one afternoon from work to say, don't worry about picking up our daughter from school. My mom's going to do it   because we were both stuck at work.   And   he went really quiet.   And I said, are you still there? Can you hear me? And he said, yeah.   I said, well, did you hear what I said? You don't need to go and pick her up from school because mom's going to do it. And he said,   yes. I know, but you've already told me that.   I said, when? And he he I said, when? And he said, about five minutes ago, you rang me five minutes ago.   That is worrying, isn't it? Because I And I had no recollection of the phone call, the conversation, nothing.  

And in that moment, I just burst into tears and went, oh my god. I've got dementia.   It was an awful feeling, lack of control, and I, you know, it was it was awful. And that's when I realized   that, you know, I had,   a problem.   And I wanted to go to.  

[00:37:27] Unknown:

I should get mad at the problem for a long time.   Yeah.   But, crikey, that that would my first thought would be, oh my god. I've got dementia.   And Yeah.   And then I suppose what did did I mean, are you taking supplements?   Are you on, like, the dreaded HRT and that sort of stuff?  

[00:37:44] Unknown:

I am. I am. I play around with it. Like, I play around with doses and I just, you know, I have this,   oestrogen stuff that I rub on my legs every morning after a shower and   it's it's like a bit of a ritual now. It's like, oh, lovely estrogen.   But I probably won't be able to go because it's trying to get the ghost light. Just like looking for a fix almost.  

[00:38:09] Unknown:

But I guess in some ways, it is.  

[00:38:11] Unknown:

Oh, yeah. You don't wanna see me on days when I've forgotten to put it on   at all.   My husband doesn't wanna see me when I put it on.  

[00:38:22] Unknown:

Give me a special cream.  

[00:38:25] Unknown:

Oh, god. When we were,   Janet, when we were chatting the other night, you you've got this like, you had this wonderful anecdote which helps explain things away in a I'm I'm just gonna ask you to   run with it at some point when when you feel feel like it. But Oh, I can do it now if you like.   Yeah. If you could if you could run through it because it it sort of it it helped put everything in in perspective because you were using analogies for everything.  

[00:38:50] Unknown:

Yeah. It's a metaphoric kind of thing about   changes in the workplace, if you like,   and,   the fact that we've got no control over it. And it was just a fun way I did to try and explain some of the things that women go through when they go through,   perimenopause.   So the perimenopause, obviously, is the run up to menopause. Menopause is basically, you know, the point at which you've had no period for a year and you're then postmenopause.   So, anyway, it's called drastic changes to the workforce.   The two sisters,   Susan and Janet and by the way, I should say that I go by the name Janet because I think it suits my menopausal brain.  

I'm a bit like a Karen,   but just I don't lose my shit as often, and I store it up for when it really matters. And I just,   yeah. I'm a cantankerous old cow. So, that's where I get the name from.   Susan and Janet Overy   literally just walked out of their jobs a few months ago and left no instructions and no real backup plan.   They cited poor working conditions   and little reward in a lifetime of perpetual cycles of estrogen production   that only bore a couple of fruits.   A lot of effort in preparing the reproductive suite for years and years and only two fruits to show for it all.   It was, in their words, a bloody mess and an extremely painful period of their lives. They're tired and they've had enough.  

Since then, everything has been left to Bob, and he is so pissed off.   To be fair, Bob is always pissed off, angry, and stressed.   He spent his entire life based in the adrenal department   and spends his entire day   reacting badly to anything that is even remotely negative.   He just spends all day sending out cortisol packages   and often throws in some adrenaline just to kick the rest of the workforce up the ass and get a reaction.   He hasn't got time to be making anything else, and now he's expected to package up the estrogen and send that around the workplace too just to keep things calm. He doesn't do calm.   He's absolutely fuming, so you can expect some extra cortisol packages to be sent out just to prove a point. Bob has recently decided without permission to recruit the help of millions of minions   to help do the job, and they're problematic and chaotic at the best of times   and extremely untidy.  

They do not appear to have understood the job description   and is clearly no substitute for Janet and Susan,   and they don't actually give a shit.   They are also multiplying at an alarming rate and inviting their friends to the party.   They are stockpiling   fat,   and it's starting to cause a breakdown in productivity throughout the workplace.   Things are really slowing down, and the fat stocks are even starting to clog up the corridors, which is now a health and safety issue.   The stockpiles have taken up so much space.   They've now built a large somewhat shabby extension right at the front and it's a real eyesore.  

When summoned to a meeting and asked for an explanation,   the minion stated it was the easiest way to produce the estrogen needed to keep peace in the workplace,   and it's clearly not working, and things are getting out of control.   To top it off, someone's turned up the heating, and the thermostat appears to be broken.   One of the toilets has sprung a leak, and so it is no surprise that water is running down the main corridor when things get particularly busy and when the entire workplace manages to find something funny to laugh about.   Nothing looks the same anymore, and nothing feels the same anymore. The entire workforce has fallen out and no one can strike a balance.  

It may be time to call in the hazard response team to restore some kind of order, but everyone knows that everything has already passed the point of no return. And it is now just a question of damage control   and adapting to new norms.  

[00:42:49] Unknown:

That is brilliant.   And do do you know why I know that I'm menopausal as well? When you read that first couple of lines that they've done their job and they've only produced two, I could have cried. I felt it.   Tada.   But, you know, I produced three fruits, but yeah.  

[00:43:08] Unknown:

And so,   Janet, if you could you elaborate on some of the analogies you're using that? Because I thought it was so clever about, you know, like, obviously, the fat cells and the and the the, you know, the new extension upfront, which is unsightly and all that kind of thing.  

[00:43:23] Unknown:

So yeah. So the you've look. Your ovaries, they just kind of, they've done their bit, really. They stopped producing the estrogen your body needs,   and they've just fucked off on holiday. They're having a cup couple of cocktails by the pool, and they don't really care anymore.   So your adrenal glands, which produce your adrenaline and your cortisol,   they are meant to produce a bit of estrogen, but, obviously, they can't. I mean, modern day world, we're all still working. We've all still got, you know, mobile phones and the screens and all the things that go on around us. So we're always in a heightened state of stress.   So,   the only way really our body produces the estrogen   now is through fat stores. So fat cells produce estrogen.  

So that's why a lot of women of a certain age will start storing fat around their middles.   And it's not you know, to lose weight, it's not a case of   calories in versus calories out anymore. You're battling with your hormones. It's what do I eat,   which I can come to if you like.   So that's pretty much in a nutshell what happens, but   your whole body   has got estrogen receptors.   So things like an overactive   bladder or an underactive bladder   is because   your estrogen receptors are not getting the estrogen they need.   So there's lots of things. And your your brain fog, you have you've got estrogen receptors all over your body. So if you're not producing the estrogen, this is why you're getting all these different physical   issues because you don't have the estrogen there.  

And   that's pretty much it, really. I mean,   the heating, we all have hot flushes.   You know, the thermostat's broken. You can't do anything about that. There was one, evening I was stood in front of the fridge freezer out in the garage   in my bra and knickers just with the door open.   And my husband came out and he went, what are you doing? I went, hot flush, hot flush.   I just you can't cool down.  

[00:45:27] Unknown:

I'm just going to go out and make a cup of tea.  

[00:45:31] Unknown:

Oh, god. Yeah.  

[00:45:32] Unknown:

I'm shitting myself now.  

[00:45:35] Unknown:

I'm not No. No. No. No. No. You might be one of   you might be one of these really smug people that just goes through   menopause,   perimenopause,   and just doesn't really experience it. I've got a friend who said, oh, I didn't really have any symptoms.   I'm like, really?   Really?   I think I've had every single   symptom virtually.   You know, I'm still waiting to turn into the Christmas turkey, you know, the dry old bird with the dried up vagina. I haven't got that far yet. But  

[00:46:06] Unknown:

the dried up vagina.  

[00:46:08] Unknown:

I love it. Yeah. It's a Christmas turkey that nobody wants, isn't it?   Oh, crikey.  

[00:46:18] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. You're further along than me. But I think probably for the last few years. I mean, the last few months, definitely. And I I want to avoid   ideally in an ideal world, I want to avoid all this HRT and stuff. But to be honest with you, I'm not gonna put up with the stresses and strains.   Why fight it if there's help out there? You know?  

[00:46:40] Unknown:

Well, the new research shows that actually because the HRT the the old HRT that, like, our mums or whatever are on,   there were always concerns about breast cancer and that kind of thing. And I think people who do have a family history of breast cancer, obviously, they need to speak to their GP. And I I'm I'm not a GP, and I wouldn't be able to advise anybody.   But they're saying now that there is such a low risk with the new,   eight car team. Natural with the ingredients, hasn't it? Contains a lot of Yeah. Great. Yam. Wild yam and stuff like that. And that's that's sort of more natural in in in tune with this of, you know, your body.   And it does help, and they say that actually offsets dementia   going on HRT.  



[00:47:23] Unknown:

Oh, okay.   Yes. So that was a bit weird moment.  

[00:47:28] Unknown:

I tried to do it through diet. I tried to do it through clean eating and,   you know, but I still really struggled with that.   I mean, I went through a whole  

[00:47:39] Unknown:

Sorry. I was just gonna say, isn't soy   soy as in soybeans an estrogen mimic for the body?  

[00:47:45] Unknown:

It is. But I have,   unfortunately,   I have a really bad reaction to soy, so I can't take that. My my body has,   like, I I don't want to go into detail, but it it just,   I get really bad stomach cramps with that.   So,  

[00:48:02] Unknown:

I have quite an allergic reaction to Is it I mean, maybe we can touch on some, like, health stuff and and ingredients in things and all that kind of thing in a little while when you've Yeah.   Covered the subject. But, you know, I've noticed that there's soy flour in absolutely everything now. Oh, it's a cheap bulking agent.  

[00:48:22] Unknown:

It's a cheap what? Sorry. It's a cheap bulking agent. So if you go into because, obviously, I can't have anything with soya in it because I just have a a flare up and everything. So I've noticed when I'm checking labels, there's so much stuff. Bread,   everything has got soy flour in it. It's a cheap bulking agent.   So, you know, just  

[00:48:41] Unknown:

it's alright if you, you know, you're not a man out there. All all you men out there who are actually going out and buying all these cheap loaves of bread that aren't, you know, just have a quick look at the label,   folks.   Particularly you guys out there that have managed to stay listening.   Oh,  

[00:48:59] Unknown:

I'm sorry. I'm like, what's wrong tonight?  

[00:49:03] Unknown:

I did tell everyone I was I was facing this show with some trepidation.   But,   yo, take take a look at the label, guys,   of your of the bread that you're eating. Has it got soy flour in it? That's that's really not good for guys, man, to be having an estrogen mimic in the body. So I'm just so sorry. I just thought I'd throw that in there just because Well, that's all good for her, isn't it? Supplement.  

[00:49:25] Unknown:

Yeah. Well, actually,   soya is not a great, is hailed as this, you know, health product, but it's not. I mean, the the the Chinese have been using,   soya, but   fermented soya for hundreds of years.   But they don't it's it's not easy for your body to break it down. And, actually, if you look at the back of, labels,   make a tade soy,   or any allergens are highlighted in bold print.   Soya is highlighted in bold print on everything because it is an allergen, and your body doesn't break it down very easily.   So it's not the health   the healthy sort of, thing that, you know, it was hailed to be.  

It's an allergy for a lot of people.  

[00:50:08] Unknown:

So, yeah, buyer beware. And what was the analogy you use for HRT in your story? Sorry. Because I picked up on that. Oh, the hazard response team.   The hazard response team.  

[00:50:20] Unknown:

Did you write that, Janet? Or is that something you've found and read? Oh, yeah. I wrote it. I wrote it because I That's amazing.  

[00:50:28] Unknown:

That is amazing.   That should be published.   No. It should. It's absolutely   brilliant.  

[00:50:36] Unknown:

Well, there's no way I can add a copy of it. Maybe we we could get a copy of it to put on the show notes under the show, Shelley.  

[00:50:43] Unknown:

Yeah. You can do that.  

[00:50:45] Unknown:

That would be good.   Yeah. I wouldn't mind posting that into some groups. I mean, that's just, like, such a good explanation.   I think I know bits and bobs, but you've just, like, put it down on a level that I understand.   Because I think that's the thing, we don't realise, you think, oh, it's just my body stopping but you don't think   deeply into it, like you say, about, you know, not having estrogen anymore and things like that and how they make the adrenaline suffer and stuff like that because I've woken up in mornings in like a state of panic.   And I'm like, God, I've got anxiety. Why have I got anxiety? And this is only recently and I know this is all part of the change, part of the next phase of my life.  

But you know people don't like I went to a party in summer, I was having a great time playing rounders   laughing and I wet myself.   I cannot laugh and run or bounce,   when it was Piren's birthday, I went to a trampoline   park and it was outside and I was like, oh my god. I've just wet myself. And he said, well, why have you done that? I said, because I've got three children now. I'm going through the change. Alright?  

[00:51:54] Unknown:

Do you know, I got on the trampoline in the garden with our young daughter a few years ago now when she was smaller.   Oh, mommy, mommy, come on the trampoline with me. So I got on the trampoline, did two bounces, got straight back off it, walked past my husband in the kitchen, and he went, you've pissed yourself, haven't you?  

[00:52:13] Unknown:

At least you'd be open about it.  

[00:52:17] Unknown:

He sounded he sounded very concerned. Bless him.  

[00:52:21] Unknown:

Oh, he just laughs with me. I mean, what's the point of getting upset?   I mean, I do get up don't get me wrong. I do get upset sometimes, but it's not like a moan fest. You just I mean, there were mornings before I went on HRT that I couldn't get out of bed.   The,   the pain in my legs and my hips was so bad   that I felt like a 70 year old woman climbing   crawling out of bed.   And it was it was pain that I felt. It felt like it was deep within the bone, like, within the within,   my thigh bone.   But, actually, it's a muscular thing. And, actually, since I've been on HRT,   those aches and pains have gone.  



[00:52:59] Unknown:

Crikey. So, I mean, is there hope though at some point you'll be over all of this or is this forever now?  

[00:53:06] Unknown:

Oh, I don't know.   I'm just riding this wave at the moment.  

[00:53:11] Unknown:

But in general, do women, like, get through it and it's like, yeah. I'm over and done with that now. That's all done with or does it just go on forever because you've not got estrogen anymore?  

[00:53:20] Unknown:

I don't know. I mean, I know people who are post menopause now who are still on HRT because they feel that they need that.  

[00:53:30] Unknown:

Crikey. How did they manage many many years ago?   There must have been crazy women everywhere.  

[00:53:37] Unknown:

Well, do you know what? I have a theory.   I think that our   our food was healthier,   wasn't mass produced. I mean, let's   look at who manufactures   our food and who pushes the narrative about what we eat,   and who makes us better   when we get poorly.   So,   I think there's a lot to be said for a healthy diet, for natural food,   organic food. So that's the other thing.   I've started eating organic eggs, and they're a bit more expensive like organic food is.   But there are less,   hormones apparently within,   like, organic eggs.   There's I mean, our meat is pumped full of hormones.  

Yes. You know, talk about people going as onto vegan diets. I can understand. I mean, I wouldn't wanna go vegan because I enjoy   a steak.   You know? But,   you need to focus more on protein   and vegetables and have a you know, really focus on the the vegetables, the nuts, the healthy fats,   and the proteins and really reduce you know, you don't need as many carbohydrates.   But,   yeah,   in terms of managing your health care.   Yeah. Oh, I do. I love a big bowl of pasta, but,   yeah, it seems to get stored in the extension I've built out front.  

[00:54:59] Unknown:

Oh, I love it. I love it. Excuse me.  

[00:55:04] Unknown:

So we'll definitely we'll definitely post the story in the show notes because I think it it work it does work very well. It does. As I say,   for for the males,   that, you know, as you said, rightly said last week, Shelley,   don't ever show up to a menopausal   meeting   moaning about male menopause. And I think you are actually   quite right in many respects because it's such so much of a more gradual process for men. And as I say, you know, I'm not saying that it doesn't go to extremes with, you know I mean, obviously, erectile dysfunction for men is probably just like the end of most men's world.   You know?  

And it probably I I don't know. It'd probably be the end of my world, I think, if I were you know what I mean? I don't know. Oh, it feels it feels very odd hearing you say erectile dysfunction.   Yeah. But again, it's something nobody talks about, but it happens to people. Yeah. Oh, crikey. It does. Well, you know, there's a booming Viagra business for a reason.  

[00:56:02] Unknown:

Oh. You know?  

[00:56:04] Unknown:

Yes. I suppose there is.  

[00:56:07] Unknown:

There's now a boom also.   There's now a booming trade in, anything to do with menopause because everybody's jumped on the financial bandwagon.  

[00:56:17] Unknown:

Yes.  

[00:56:18] Unknown:

Yeah. You know? Yeah. Everybody makes money on menopause.  

[00:56:23] Unknown:

Yeah. And all, you know, all the supplements and, you know, all these supplement people and yeah. I I get it.   And how much of it actually does work? I suppose it's just down to the individual, is it? Or, you know, are there are some are there some set things that will definitely work, like you say, with diet and that kind of thing?  

[00:56:40] Unknown:

I think clean eating, being careful what you, you know, you eat. And there's,   there's some general sort of rules around   refined sugars like alcohol.   Well, basically, we'll take all the fun stuff out of your diet. So alcohol, sugar,   wheat, and what was the other thing? Dairy,   apparently. But then that's probably to do with all the hormones and stuff in it.   But I just think eating clean and just   not just being sensible about the amount of sugar and and alcohol, really,   you know, refined sugars,   cakes, biscuits.  

[00:57:14] Unknown:

Anything tastes good. Anything nice.  

[00:57:18] Unknown:

Anything nice. Just the boring stuff.   But that I mean, I feel a lot better when I eat things like,   fruit and some nuts for like, roasted nuts for breakfast and some honey. I have that with a sliced banana, but, like, a massive bowl of fruit and nuts,   which is really nice. I really enjoy that. It keeps me full.   And then I'll have sort of salad or veggies or I'll make a nice soup.   And then I just have a high protein dinner, you know,   like a steak or some chicken with some green veg.   And that's quite   a quite a healthy day for me, really.  

[00:57:54] Unknown:

Do you say it's not No no no bottle of wine in the evening?   Well, I'm sitting here doing glass.   I know. And it's nearly 08:00 and I've told myself tonight, you know, I can't stomach tea or coffee with this bug I've had but I've managed to, stomach a couple of glasses of wine. I was like, I'm gonna hold off till 08:00 tonight. So,   so I suppose we are coming to the top of the hour. We ought to play Oh, it's time to crack open the wine then, shall we? Yeah. I'm running. I'm running. Get a song get a song on now.  

[00:58:26] Unknown:

Alright. Well, look. Yeah. You'll you'll have a bit of time on this one. So, this is a a wonderful cover I found   online.   Man, you'd never guess this was a cover. The only reason you know that this is a cover is because you can actually hear the lyrics, and on the original, you can't. But this is so close to it. This is Ballpark Music   doing their own cover of Paranoid Android by, Radiohead.   Enjoy, folks. You can look these guys up on YouTube as well. Ballpark Music.  

[01:05:10] Unknown:

Well,   welcome back listeners. You're listening to the Shelley Tasker Show live out of radiosoapbox.com   and also airing on clear air FM, the sound of freedom.   Welcome back mister Scott and his beautiful sister Janet.   Menopausal Janet.  

[01:05:26] Unknown:

Menopausal   Janet. Menopause  

[01:05:28] Unknown:

Janet.   Menopause ovary.  

[01:05:32] Unknown:

Janet Overy. Yeah. I love it. I love it.  

[01:05:35] Unknown:

You've seriously gotta do some writing with that,   that I I I think that is amazing. That is so good, Janet.   I'm not just saying that, it, it really is such a great analogy of it.   I think women would love to hear that. And actually, they're partners. Imagine that printed out as a leaflet.   Here, men understand your woman.  

[01:05:58] Unknown:

But, yeah.  

[01:06:00] Unknown:

Because There is so there is so many more weird, like,   symptoms as well that Come on. Why do you know everyone?   Well, okay. So there's everybody has, you know, the hot flushes, the headaches, the mood swings,   the anxiety, the depression,   and the,   what else? We sort of leaky bladder, dry vagina.   But some of the more strange ones are things like tinnitus,   the ringing in the ears.   Oh, okay. And the other one which I which I had was,   I still get it from time to time. It's like my legs feel like they're crawling with ants. Like, it's a really weird sensation on the skin. Restless leg syndrome.   Oh,   it's it's that restless leg syndrome. It's it's it's like ants crawling all over my skin. Have to keep  

[01:06:52] Unknown:

keep moving your legs.   I get, I feel like,   somebody's tickling my feet and I'm constantly, my legs jumping   and quite often and it's always powered by my cycle actually,   where I'm at, I'll know I'll get a few nights where I actually have to take something because my legs will jump. And I know it's hormone related because I literally had it in my last pregnancy from twelve weeks and   I didn't sleep. I was begging to have,   see what you call it? What's that word? A caesarean. This is what I'm like all the time and I think people must think I'm just stupid   because I can't remember anything.  

But I had it. Yeah. I it was unbearable but I get it regularly and other people describe it. A caesarean. Do  

[01:07:32] Unknown:

when you say cesarean, do you mean hysterectomy?  

[01:07:34] Unknown:

No. I mean cesarean. When you had a bay you know, when you have a baby and they cut you open.   Yeah. Yeah. I'll just say when I was heavily pregnant,   I I was not sleeping. All of my best I mean, obviously, it wasn't menopause then, but it's a hormonal   problem, I'm sure. But I would be out shopping at Tesco's at 03:00 in the morning. I didn't sleep from about four months of pregnancy.  

[01:07:56] Unknown:

And one day Sorry. I missed I missed a trick there. I missed I missed I missed part of the conversation. My fault. Sorry. Oh, no. That's alright. That's alright. But now I just The man the man should just butt out of this conversation. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. But but it that is pretty horrendous,  

[01:08:10] Unknown:

and other people will describe it as, like, ants crawling over their legs and stuff. Yeah.   Yeah. Weird but true. Weird but true. And I think as well, I mean, I get lots of intrusive thoughts, lots of them. And I'm like, it's just an intrusive thought, Shelley. Don't pay attention to it.   But more than often these days, it's like any pain or sensation is like, oh, it's that to do with a heart attack. Oh no, that's in the wrong arm. You get it in the other arm. I'm very anxious about any sensation because I think at the moment I get so many sensations everywhere that are just like they've been there the last year or so. You know?  

[01:08:46] Unknown:

Yeah.   It's a good one, isn't it? Because you don't know what's, you know, what becomes normal for you. And, actually, should you accept that as normal? I can remember going to the GP about a year ago to see their menopause specialist.   And at the end of the conversation,   she just kind of concluded that, you know, some people breeze through menopause.   Some people, you know, take HRT and it sorts them out, and some people just have a really rough ride of it. And we concluded that that was me. And I I left there thinking,   there's not there's no hope for me. You know? And then I started having, like, really intrusive thoughts after that.  

And I'm laughing about it now,   because you do have to find the humor in it. You know? You do and it's only you know, some of these intrusive thoughts, they're a temporary thing.   You know, today tomorrow's another day.   You just gotta get on with things, really. And there I always remind myself there's somebody always worse off.  

[01:09:45] Unknown:

Can you can you define an intrusive thought for me without actually giving away the actual thought process itself?  

[01:09:51] Unknown:

An intrusive thought is a really negative thought. A really I can go to the really dark places in my head. Really, really dark places.  

[01:09:59] Unknown:

And I think the thing is, like, I can remember   when I was very I'm I am protective of all my children really, but having a bath with my son when he would have been about two   and I was thinking   about that dreadful murder of that toddler Jamie Bolger   incident many, many years ago now and he was kidnapped by those, by a 10 year old and 11 year old and they, I knew   the things that they had done to him and I suddenly thought about me doing that to my son. That's an example   of an intrusive thought.   It's, you know, you're never gonna do it but these random thoughts come in your head.  

[01:10:38] Unknown:

Yeah. I suppose it's like how we process, like, you know, like, you get weird dreams and you and that's just your mind processing things, isn't it? You know?  

[01:10:46] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can put yourself in a position where you imagine  

[01:10:50] Unknown:

what something must be like or why would somebody do something. I mean, I studied criminology years ago,   and I had this morbid fascination with, you know,   serial killers and, trying to wonder I think trying to make sense of it, trying to understand it.   And I found that quite a fast fascinating thing. But I used to have all kinds of weird thoughts. I mean, I I don't I don't even read criminological book books now or crime novels anymore because I just find it a really dark place for my brain to go.  

[01:11:19] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. I understand where you're going that. I I suppose I suppose, you know, like, when you let these things in, they become a part of you. I think that's biblically speaking, that's why they say you are the fools you associate yourself with or maybe just the information you associate yourself with, you know. Yeah.   It it it it you you can't unsee or unread things, you know. Yeah. It's Be careful what processing.  

[01:11:44] Unknown:

Be careful what you what you,   what you bring into your life. It's like, be be careful what you watch.   Be careful what you you listen to. Be careful who you surround yourself with. It's like our dad used to say, didn't he? You lie down with dogs. You get up with fleas.  

[01:12:01] Unknown:

He said Have I heard that one before?  

[01:12:03] Unknown:

Lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. He also said kids are like fleas. You never really get rid of them.  

[01:12:11] Unknown:

Oh, yeah. We ought to get our dad on the show. He would be,  

[01:12:14] Unknown:

He's been he's been on the show,   about a year and a half ago. We did a recorded   thing of, about when he used to hang around with Ralph McTell, the film. Yeah.  

[01:12:24] Unknown:

Yeah.  

[01:12:25] Unknown:

Oh, the stories. We should replay that interview at some point. But it was a good little interview,  

[01:12:30] Unknown:

actually. I imagine mum's been on the show. She was on Women's Hour.   Great little chat.  

[01:12:36] Unknown:

Oh, so you've had the whole family on. What about our older brother?  

[01:12:40] Unknown:

I've not really Not had the older brother yet. No. This is my first sibling experience on air, so I'm just I want it. Just take it gently, shall we? Yeah.   Because yes, it's been That's right. It's been a baptism of fire for me.  

[01:12:54] Unknown:

Oh, bless you. So, I mean, I understand you're a fitness instructor as well, Janet. Am I right?  

[01:13:00] Unknown:

Yeah. So I worked in I worked with a lot of people over the years with complex needs,   you know, drugs, alcohol,   offending,   and   mental health issues. And I ended up working in mental health for a while.   And I joined a gym because I had my own,   mental health stuff going on at the time.   And I started to find that   lifting weights especially gave me a sense of strength   physically and mentally.   And I was always that person who would welcome in all those new timid members who looked terrified   walking into the gym for the first time.   And I just kind of used to take my time and make them feel welcome. And I I I realized that I had a real   interest   in helping   people with   anxiety,   through fitness.  

So I retrained,   became a personal trainer, specialized in   women's health. And,   since then, I've been on a mission to kind of learn all things about menopause as well. So the whole thing has come   I'm able to help my friends out, you know, despite the money I've lockdown completely destroyed the business I was building.   So I kind of reinvented myself a little bit. And I just I just use my knowledge now to help people around me,   get fitter, get health healthier,   eat right, look at what they're eating,   tweak things,   don't change things overnight. Because I think if you if you   I have one girl said, are you really proud of me? I've stopped my fridge up with lots of salad.  

And I said, do you like salad?   Well, not really.   I said, well, why have you bought it? And she went, well, because it's healthy. And I thought you'd tell me to eat salad. And I went, you're not gonna stick to it. Three days in, you're just gonna sack it off and start eating cake again.   Like, what's the point in doing that that to yourself? You don't you don't stick to something. You have to go at these things  

[01:15:07] Unknown:

more steps in time. After three days after three days, she'll feel she's earned the cake, I guess. Well, exactly.  

[01:15:13] Unknown:

Exactly.  

[01:15:15] Unknown:

And I don't believe it. It's all psychology, isn't it? It's all psychology.  

[01:15:19] Unknown:

It is. And I hate it when I hear people's talk about, oh, I had a cheat meal last night.   I cheated.   It's like, what what do you mean you cheated? I had pizza. It's like, what's normal, isn't it? I mean, as long as you're not eating pizza all the time and that, like, 80% of the time you're eating,   you know, healthy stuff, veggies, lots of protein, and things like that. Like, the odd pizza here and there really isn't gonna make much of a difference.   And, actually, if you're moving more but in terms of well, we can come back to menopause.   You know,   there's there's so many stress hormones going in your on in your body. You don't wanna be throwing yourself into things like circuit training, which the sort of classes I used to run.  

You wanna be doing something a little bit more like yoga, Pilates,   things that aren't gonna send you cortisol spiking in your body,   because that that's working against you trying to lose the fat.  

[01:16:17] Unknown:

So  

[01:16:19] Unknown:

Interesting. You've been great. So how does how does Listen, wait. Resistance training is absolutely key because as you get older and you're losing muscle mass and that's part of your   the wonderful perimenopausal   journey, you're gonna be losing muscle mass, sarcopenia,   and,   also, your bone density starts to   lessen. So if you're if you're   using weights,   using resistance training,   your the tendons will be pulling on the end of your bones. You'll be creating more,   osteoblasts, building more bone density.   So it's really important that you carry on doing some weight. You could do you can do resistance training with your body weight,   but, actually, it's really good to get into the gym and just go for, you know, building that up,  

[01:17:07] Unknown:

getting heavier. I've I've been going for the last couple of months, actually,   mainly   to lose weight   and I've been doing, like, strength training and fascinating actually. I mean over two months I've got my selfies like all these gym people do, like, at the start and it isn't the end of my journey. Obviously, I haven't been for a week   week because I've been unwell but I can see the difference, I can see a waistline forming and I'm chuffed to bits.   I've got that bug for it. You know people talk about oh running and the   I can't remember the word again,   that euphoria they have, the adrenaline The runner's high!  

Yeah! The runner's   high! I was getting that but you see my people here I think I usually give up after two weeks because I think oh I don't look any different'   but this time I've stuck acid, and   I'm really enjoying it. Really enjoying it. I never thought man, I know lots of women worry, don't they, that if they do strength training, they're gonna bulk up or it's just not the case.   Not as if they become too big.  

[01:18:12] Unknown:

It's not the case. I think if you think in terms of,   so how do I explain this in really easy way?   If you if you were to consume 2,000 calories a day   and   you just trained every day,   or, you know, give yourself rest days or whatever. And you're building muscle mass. So what you're doing is you are changing   the structure of your body. So   people say,   oh, muscle weighs more than fat. It doesn't. A pound of fat is the same as a pound of muscle.   It's just that muscle takes up less space.   So if you're eating   enough calories   to maintain your   your daily output   and perhaps lose a little bit of weight. If you're constantly taking this you're you're not gonna get any bigger. That's what I'm saying. You're not gonna get any bigger. You've gotta eat   an excessive amount of food. You've gotta eat more calories than you're burning   to gain weight or to gain size or to gain muscle mass.  

Right. But if you   yeah. So   to give you an example, I went from fourteen stone   down to twelve and a half stone,   But   in terms of what I looked like, completely different person.   I was really slender and toned in one picture at twelve and a half stone.   And fourteen stone, I was I was big.   I was, you know, really quite overweight and fat.   But twelve and a half stone, although that's probably quite a lot for some people. I'm I'm, I suppose, I'm quite high. I've always been quite muscular anyway, quite a muscular build.   But 12   was really slim for me.  

And I was a size   on the small side of twelve.  

[01:20:12] Unknown:

Right.  

[01:20:15] Unknown:

And I just kept   increasing the weight that I was lifting,   and just eating well, to be honest with you, I didn't really concentrate much on what I was eating at the time.   You can still, you know, you can still change your your,   your body   just by training,   you know, lifting.  

[01:20:36] Unknown:

Yeah. Well, like like I say, I can't believe the difference in two months.   My other half said the other night, I said, God, you've actually got gums coming, haven't you? I was like, Wow, proud!   Yeah,   and that's who I wanted to be. It's not about being a skinny size eight or anything like that. I just wanted a waistline again.   But I'm fascinated with the facts like,   that when you go to the gym and you do a session and particularly weights or strength training,   that your body continues to burn fat for, like, the next twenty four hours or so. Is that right?  

[01:21:09] Unknown:

Depends what kind of training you're doing. I mean, I don't know. There's lots of different, research will tell you lots of conflicting things.   There was this thing that if you went and indeed, like, a high intensity training, the the the HIIT workouts   where you go in and you do, like, all out interval training,   high intensity interval training, that you would continue burning   fat for the next twenty four hours.   And there's other people that say you don't. I mean, I think I did   because I was always in the gym, and I was just always burning fat. I don't know. You don't burn more calories at rest if you've got more muscle,   If you carry muscle and and,   than fat,   just sitting down, you'll burn more a little bit more in terms of calories.  



[01:21:57] Unknown:

Right. I know when I joined, she was like, what sort of workouts do you wanna do? And I'm like, well, I've not really been,   excuse me, I need to get my throat.   And she said, do you want to do the HIIT training? And I'm like, no, absolutely not. I don't do like cardio things like that. But she did add to one of my workouts to do like 33 locks of 10, where you like,   somebody said they're called burpees. I'd only touch the floor and do a star jump as well.   Oh, I could only manage two sets of 10 last time and I just, I was in the doorway hanging out. I felt like I was gonna faint.  

[01:22:29] Unknown:

I hate burpees.  

[01:22:31] Unknown:

Yeah. But they reckon they're the best thing for losing calories.  

[01:22:36] Unknown:

Well, I don't know. I think I I think it again it depends on your age and it depends on where you are in life and I wouldn't   I wouldn't recommend   HIIT training for somebody going through, menopause.   I'd be saying, make sure you're lifting weights,   do something for your mobility. So something like yoga.   Make sure you're stretching and actually have a look at, things like your vagus nerve,   and look at exercises you can do   for that. I think it's about keeping   sorry. Keeping yeah. Keeping supple, keeping flexible,   keeping, you know, and building strength.  

But, yeah, not going all out cardio. Not not at at menopause.   You know, cardio is important, but going for a good brisk walk,  

[01:23:23] Unknown:

you know, for twenty minutes half an hour. Yeah, get your heart rate up that way. Yeah, I still want to be,   I do the old circuits class and I quite enjoy it just for a change but, no I'm into the whole weights thing. And it's funny because I've had sorry, missus Scott, did you want to interrupt? I was just gonna say what what were you gonna say about vagus nerve? Yeah. What what is the vagus nerve? Sorry.  

[01:23:45] Unknown:

Oh,   it's basically the nerve that,   I've got a I've got a book on it. Actually, I would say rather than getting into that, there's there's different exercises and stretches you can do to open all that up.   But it's, I would I,   I've got a book of exercises that I do and I understand it's really important,   but I would suggest that people go and have a have a look at that and get some, help.  

[01:24:16] Unknown:

Okeydokey.   Oh, lots to look into. Crikey.   So, do you find now that, like, the gym helps you?  

[01:24:26] Unknown:

I'll be honest. Mentally?   It does help me mentally,   and I feel a lot.   It clears my head, I think, is the most important thing.   Getting in there,   it just helps to clear my head and keep me focused.   But I'm not training as much as I used to. I'm not training as much as I did. I had a few injuries so that's kind of put me back a little bit.  

[01:24:50] Unknown:

Yeah. And it's it's all these little things actually. I've just had my I'm just coming out of my second frozen shoulder   and a lady said to me, That's the menopause. She said, Because you're not getting enough estrogen. It's, one of those things that happen.   What do you think of that? Rubbish or?   Do you want to believe everything everyone tells me?  

[01:25:11] Unknown:

Oh, I don't know.   Frozen shoulder. I know I had a couple of ladies that came to my classes that had frozen shoulder, and we had to adapt a load of, exercises.   But,   also, I'm having a bit of a hot flush at the moment.  

[01:25:25] Unknown:

Quick. Get out of the garage. It's right. We were talking we  

[01:25:29] Unknown:

were talking about a vagus nerve, and my mind just went completely blank   because I started to heat up.   And, yes. I'm sitting in fine with you.   So sorry.  

[01:25:41] Unknown:

Oh, thank you.  

[01:25:43] Unknown:

Oh, crikey. Oh, dear. Well, right right on topic. At at least your body's, you know, in gear with the show. That's great. I love it.  

[01:25:52] Unknown:

Yeah. Alright. Complete So I've missed the sympathy here. No. That's a good point. I'm just total brain fart,   and going completely off topic now.  

[01:26:03] Unknown:

No, that's alright. Story of my life.   Yeah. I don't I don't recall anything. I don't know if I've always been like it or anything. You know when you research things in great detail and you think that was only a few months ago, I knew loads about that And then I just can't remember it. But then I think it's just an age thing anyway. But   yes,  

[01:26:23] Unknown:

regularly Oh, I think it's definitely the most thing.  

[01:26:25] Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. Walking into the room, forgotten what you've got to. And I was just literally saying to Maleficus last week, I was setting alarms for certain times to remind me to do something. And then when the alarm had gone off, I'd be like, what have I set that for? Just   yeah.   Oh. I'm supposed to be doing something.  

[01:26:44] Unknown:

I plan stuff, and I remember for weeks and weeks and weeks, and when the day comes, I completely forget.   So I booked my car in for an MOT,   and I had to take it off the road because it was actually out of MOT. And three weeks, and I kept telling myself October 29 October 29. October 29, I'm lying in bed having breakfast in bed thinking, oh, I might just have a snooze.   I'm off work today.   And then literally last second remembered and, like, oh my god.   So I literally dragged on, like, a pair of leggings. No no underwear, t shirt, ran out the house,   drove down to the garage, and I walked I had to walk back,   like, just contemplating my life in the rain thinking, like, my brain fog is just  

[01:27:30] Unknown:

Yeah. It's it's fun. I've had one, like, real disaster like that. And I mean it wasn't a disaster at the end of the day, but my daughter was due to have a second baby and,   she'd had like a sweep the night before   and she seemed to think that she might be having contractions.   And I woke up the next day about 05:00 in the morning   and I was just lying there for about two hours, couldn't go back to sleep. But it didn't even entertain my head   of anything about her, that she might be having the baby.   And then, later on, I looked at my phone   and it was a message at like half five saying Can you look after Theo? I need to go into hospital.  

I was awake. It was probably that message that woke me up but it didn't even entertain my head that my daughter might be in labor and then I get a picture a few hours later of her holding a baby.   Oh. Oh, well congratulations.   Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't in her good books.   But, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. We I think we do crazy things anyway. Don't we? We do we can't blame the menopause for everything. But,   I am a bit scatty but, yeah, it's, it's really coming out lately.   Anyway, I suppose, we're coming to the bottom of the hour.   Have you got a place where anybody can find you, Janet?  

I mean,   do you wanna give out an email or anything? You don't have to?  

[01:28:54] Unknown:

No. Because I'm not actually practicing as a personal trainer or anything at the moment.  

[01:29:00] Unknown:

Okay. But soon you should have something because yeah. Brilliant information there. That that start was great.  

[01:29:08] Unknown:

But do feel free to stick around after the bottom of the hour because I would like I'd like to ask you why I have   palm fat and palm oil in every loaf of bread or product I want to buy.   Well, look. I've got another wonderful cover for you guys. This would normally be a tune   that,   probably most people wouldn't listen to. It's by a band. Well, the cover isn't, but the tune is by a band called Tool, and it's called Schism.   This is by a band called Elephant Revival,   and you can find this live version of Schism   on YouTube.  

Have a listen, see what you guys think, and we'll catch you after the break. You are listening live to Radio Soapbox   and probably on the back foot,   on radio   what is it? Clear FM. Clear  

[01:30:00] Unknown:

FM. FM. The Sound of Freedom.  

[01:30:03] Unknown:

Sorry sorry folks over there at the light newspaper. I keep messing that up. I've just got this obsession about air should be free.   Anyway   See you in a second. Here we go. Elephant revival,   their version of Schism. Enjoy.   You won't hear it done like that anywhere else.  

[01:35:34] Unknown:

No. I like that.  

[01:35:36] Unknown:

Yeah. Cool tune. Cool tune. Right. Well, I'll come back. The original is amazing, but that is, amazing. If you can go on to YouTube and and pick that one up, just put in Elephant Revival Schism.   Brilliant performance.   Fantastic. Love it.  

[01:35:52] Unknown:

Okay. Thank you, mister Scott.   Right. Welcome back to the last part. We are here with myself, mister awesome Maleficus Scott and his beautiful sister Janet. Menopause all Janet.   Welcome back, guys.   That's gonna be your new name.   Or Janet Overy, like you said. Yeah. I like it. So, Maleficus, you had a couple of questions you wanted to ask about palm oil or oil? Yeah. Why why the hell? Right?  

[01:36:21] Unknown:

Obviously,   the government cares about our health and and all that kind of thing, which is why they lock us down and and give us, like, COVID vaccines and blah blah blah and make us wear masks unnecessarily and all this, that, and the other. So why are they putting probably one of the worst substances on the planet in virtually allowing it to be put in virtually   every single product that you can buy off the shelf, from bread   to chocolate.   Why is that?  

[01:36:50] Unknown:

Because it's cheap.  

[01:36:52] Unknown:

Because it's cheap. Is that is that the only answer?  

[01:36:55] Unknown:

Well, I I don't know. Is is it poisonous and make us dependent on medicines? I who knows?  

[01:37:03] Unknown:

So   what   do you know what, like, palm fat does to the body or palm oil does to the body?  

[01:37:11] Unknown:

No. No. I mean, I'm I'm not, I'm not   a scientist or a, I mean, I I did do nutrition. It's part of my course,   and   I am very interested in, obviously, what we eat is and how it affects us.   My husband has ulcerative colitis,   which is really, really unpleasant,   and we've looked looked into lots of alternative things. One of the things that I did   reading up on it was and and and understanding that vegetable oils, which basically are veg seed oils, which are,   produced at such a high temperature changes in molecular structure, and they cause   vegetable oils, as the so called vegetable oils,   produce,   inflammation   within the body and within the gut,   and they're not good. And you get vegetable oils and palm oils in pretty much everything you buy. So like cakes, biscuits,   chocolate,   all the things that we love eating.  

But the combination of that and processed sugar, refined sugar is really really bad for the body and it causes so much inflammation within the body. Your body just end up starting attacking itself. So,   I won't have anything in the house other than coconut oil,   butter   and olive oil and that's all we use.  

[01:38:41] Unknown:

Yes. Same as me. Oh, well, to be fair, I was religiously having butter   daily   until coming in with neuroglow. Yeah. Oh, yes. I remember.   Yeah. I was Tell the story. Oh, I've had horrendous   reflux for years. Taking every medication. I think half the world is on Omeprazole anyway.   But I was literally   going off my head because the pain, the feeling like you've got something to swallow all the time and   it's that heartburn, the whole in your throat thing, you know. And   basically, I went to hospital, I had appointments, blah blah blah and I went to see   a dietitian, nutritionist, person   who did a bio resonance   test   for any allergies and things like that. And basically he said that I was allergic to butter.  

Well not just bread, anything from a cow.   And   interestingly,   this, I've, I've suffered with this acid reflux on and off for years   but interestingly,   it started getting worse   when I went on to raw milk and butter   and I'm actually intolerant to it. As soon as I stopped eating the butter   and the milk,   I've just like put my life back.   It's crazy. And I've said to the doctor, I said, you know, all these years of taking tablets and actually, if somebody has just done an allergy test,   which I find crazy anyway because it's like the only reason I went on to everything like that because I was trying to be healthier.   But for me it wasn't meant to be. So I'm afraid  

[01:40:15] Unknown:

Is it the lack is it the lactose within the milk?  

[01:40:20] Unknown:

I'm not sure. It's more butter than milk.   I certainly know   because I had to do a gradual regression over a few days. Like, I went to goat's milk. It was horrendous.   And   after writing well, it's just the thought of it, isn't it? Just the thought of it. Anyway,  

[01:40:37] Unknown:

as soon as I Is it because they bleat different? They don't bar, they bleat. Is that right? Is that the problem?  

[01:40:43] Unknown:

No. Like my friend said, and he was a chef, the nickel was just too close to the   ground.  

[01:40:48] Unknown:

Oh, okay. Alright. Fair enough.   I don't fancy it.  

[01:40:54] Unknown:

But I think this is the thing. It's like, you know, I know it's milk, but we're used to having cow's milk. That would be like me now saying, I'll have breast milk.  

[01:41:03] Unknown:

You know? Take it. Don't you find it fascinating, though, that,   we're we're happy to drink   milk from another species.   Yeah. The mere mention of, I mean, there was a chap when I was breastfeeding. There was a neighbor came over to see if we had any milk to spare, and I said, I've got a scud load in the fridge if you want it.   It's breast milk.   And he was like, oh my god. And he he literally gagged at the idea of it. And I said, but not, you know, without trying to sound, like, funny or weird,   why would you drink milk from another species that you won't drink from your own?   That to me is really,  

[01:41:41] Unknown:

I mean, yeah. It is it is to me as well and it's trying to get your head around it. It's crazy.   You know, drinking any milk really   and we know that's for their babies but even breast milk, you know, but we know as well the goodness of it. I mean, the amount of people that well I knew one person in particular that started medication again to,   to create breast milk so she could give it to her son who was older but on cereal and things like that because he had cancer.   But just trying to get some goodness   into him. And people try and buy it online and everything, don't they?  

Well So many benefits.  

[01:42:16] Unknown:

I was producing that much milk. I was gonna donate it but the ridiculous thing was there was no way of transporting it, I think, up to Bristol or something. I don't know.  

[01:42:25] Unknown:

Right. And and you see women doing that. Yeah. It's it's mental but it's not back in the day like I know my sister-in-law used to say that if her mum went out, she would leave her with her auntie and her auntie would feed her.   You just don't hear of anything like that now really do you? That's a bit like, oh, hippie ish.   Yeah. That won't bother me at all.  

[01:42:45] Unknown:

Did you ever try any of your own breast milk?  

[01:42:48] Unknown:

Do you know, I don't think I did. No. I didn't.   You did, I take it?  

[01:42:56] Unknown:

No. I I did. I did because I was just interested to know. Yeah. I just didn't fancy it. Just like the goat's milk.  

[01:43:02] Unknown:

Oh, it's drink cow's milk.  

[01:43:06] Unknown:

Are you telling us, Shelley, that your nipples are too close to the ground?  

[01:43:10] Unknown:

Well, I told you that where you are now.   Oh, I love it. I love it.  

[01:43:17] Unknown:

Sorry. Sorry. That was a bit below the belt. Ka ching. It's alright. Well, my darling.  

[01:43:25] Unknown:

Well, you're 56, and this is what I think. No. Are you 56? They're 54. 54, Shelley. I don't want to age you. Sorry, darling.   Because I do these little online quizzes about, like, your weight and stuff like that. And I'm ticking those boxes that are, like, age between 40 and 49. And I'm like, crikey, a couple more years I'm gonna be in the 50 box.   Not that it matters but you're not gonna look now, are you? I mean you're not gonna look like you did when you were 25.   Unfortunately   And I don't think having three children and breastfeeding them that they are ever going back to where they were, you know.  

[01:44:01] Unknown:

Let's let's put another   let's put another point of view on that. So there was a young girl that came to my classes   who'd had three children and   literally stood there and said, I I effing out my body.   It's disgusting.   And I'm like, what what, you know, what is it you want? And she said, well, I want to I want to have a slim figure. I want this. I want that. And I said, so basically, you want to look like you did before you had your kids. And she said, yeah. Pretty much. And I said, well, you're gonna have to accept the fact that that's never gonna be the case.   I said, but, you know, I said, but I could get you   fairly close,   but it would require you to   eat lots of protein and vegetables, so like turkey and broccoli and and boring stuff. You wouldn't be going out with your friends. You won't be going out having dinner. You won't be drinking.  

I said, we'll be exercising a lot. And I said, and   the the the you've got three beautiful children,   and your body is basically   a diary, if you like, of that achievement.   If I get you to where you wanna be and you look like that Instagram supermodel   that you see,   when that day you stand in front of the mirror, is that the day that you go, oh, I'm I'm happy now?   And then the pressure to maintain that is immense.   I think you just kind of have to accept the fact that we go through chapters in our life and our body changes and tells a story of where we've been. And and it's actually an amazing I mean, our body is actually an incredible   piece of equipment, really, to produce life,   to carry and produce life like it does and to be able to push that life out   as painful as it is   but how amazing is that?  



[01:45:46] Unknown:

It is pretty amazing.   Yeah.   And so commenting on that last piece, what you said there, you see my third child,   I had a,   I did hypnobirthing and things like that. And he was born in his bag. And because I wasn't,   having to push him out, I had a doula, I, I was very hippified with it all. And the registered midwife there on duty, she was like, you can push now. And my doula, she was saying, just breathe the baby out. And you know, I didn't do any push in or any of that and it wasn't painful and I believe that because his waters were still intact,   sorry Maleficus but there's too much information but there was none of that fuel burning or anything like that. It was uncomfortable for a few seconds.  

And I often think, do you know what, I could do that for a sport.   And it's like, you're walking up and down the ward all night, going for a wee constantly, because all the adrenaline and stuff. And it's like, I just had a baby, I've just had a baby. Like you're the only person that's ever given birth in the world but it's an amazing experience.   Yeah I liked it.   But no I'm done.  

[01:46:55] Unknown:

Maleficus was actually there when my waters went.  

[01:47:01] Unknown:

Wasn't embarrassed? Look. You you you no. Listen. You you keep saying, oh, I'm sorry this. I'm sorry that.   I've had three kids myself, not personally, but I've been there for three kids. So, you know, I'm   I'm a man of the world, should we just say. So it's nothing you guys have said. This this has actually been a really insightful show. I I know we're coming, you know, we're we're a quarter to the top of the hour now, just past.   This has actually been a really insightful show in in many,   many ways. And, yes, I've stayed quiet for a lot of it because I I gotta be honest, guys. I'm our our girls, I'm a little little bit out of my depth with it, but   it it's been insightful and informing. So, you know, it's you don't apologize   by any means. Okay. I I hope I genuinely hope that the usual Shelley Tasker crowd have not sort of gone,  

[01:47:50] Unknown:

oh my god. They're talking about menopause. I can't listen to this and just switched off because they've list they've lost out if they have. So Absolutely. I hope that it's been a bit of an eye opener in in the you know, there's lots of things that, you know, partners might go, oh my god. That sounds like my other half.   You know?   And get the right help. I was treated for anxiety and depression. I was put on medication for that, and I actually think I was menopausal.   Yeah. So it's getting the right help.  

[01:48:17] Unknown:

Yeah. Well, it's asking the right people as well, isn't it? And and also relying on these, as as Blackbird nine would call them, these white coats of Baphomet   to cycle through their little black book and go through a tick box exercise to tell you what your symptoms mean isn't always the best way to go.  

[01:48:35] Unknown:

Oh, I hate tick boxes.   Yeah. I do. It's a shame it's a shame we can't make our decisions in this life, you know, on, like, services or,   you know, the government or or whatever the thing might be based on tick boxes. No. You don't tick all the boxes. You can do one.  

[01:48:56] Unknown:

That's a good good point indeed.  

[01:48:58] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We all need our own little black book of tick boxes just to, you know, to well, in actual fact, I think we all carry one of those with us, don't we? We do. I do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and look, anyone that doesn't make the grade in my mind, as far as I'm concerned, this whole government nonsense, it's a mindset. Are they gonna have any influence over my life? As little as possible,   as as far as I'm concerned. You know? I mean, these I didn't vote any of these people in. I'm not responsive. As Paul English would say, I never voted. I'm not responsible.   You know? It's it's you bunch that went out there and voted. It's your bloody fault.  

So, you know,   you   as with all these things, like, going back to, like, the palm oil and and and all this stuff that's supposedly done for our health. And then when you look at, actually,   what's been done   to   our supposed national health service since the seventies, I mean, I you know, I I've said so many times on this show that, you know, the the NHS pay at least   £5   for a packet of pills that I can go to the shop and pay 28 p for? Who's making these stupid decisions?   Who's and and it's just, you know,   it's got to be some kind of money laundering from the public thing, surely.   How else could it be justified? How else could you you round you know, square that circle? You you can't.  

So, yeah, I've kind of digressed it. See, this is look. I I just I don't know anything about the menopause, so I've kind of digressed a little bit. But That's   okay. You guys carry on.  

[01:50:36] Unknown:

That's okay. I had a I had a total brain fart because I was have I was overheating when I was talking about the vagus nerve, and I couldn't I couldn't recall   basically who I was in that   thirty seconds fast.   But,   so yeah. Sorry about that. But it's it's it's the biggest or the longest nerve you have from from your your head down to your abdomen, and it's actually responsible for a lot of functions within your body. So your digestive system and your,   your immune system and, lots of things basically.   And   if it becomes affected   in a negative way, there are exercises   and things that you can do even just gentle massages that you can do that open it up.  

So things like you were talking about your acid reflux,   that might be something to do with your vagus nerve,   you know.  

[01:51:29] Unknown:

I'm glad you just said vagus nerve again because, see, I've just been like, what nerve are we talking about again? You just said it.   Yeah.  

[01:51:37] Unknown:

So I'm sorry about that. Is  

[01:51:39] Unknown:

there a way to reset the vagus nerve?   Put it back to where it was?  

[01:51:46] Unknown:

There are there are exercises and breathing techniques that you can do. So, like, deep belly breathing can help, but the you can get there's all sorts of things. If you look it up on I'm sure if you went onto YouTube, you could probably find loads of things on,   you know, opening up   your body and,   the breathing techniques and the stretches and things that you can do in the movements,   the gentle movements you can do that will help open it all up.   You'll find that on YouTube. There's books on it. There's there's all kinds. Just Google it. There'll be all sorts of stuff on on Google, I'm sure, about the vagus nerve, but it's really important. So just wanted to throw that in there before I left everybody going, what the hell was she talking about when she had a hot flush?  

[01:52:29] Unknown:

Sorry.   No. It's interesting because I presume actually doing the the sort of yoga exercises, they would I can see why they would kind of help with the stretching of those sorts of muscles and things.  

[01:52:41] Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. Really good. And the breathing?  

[01:52:44] Unknown:

Yeah. The breathing.  

[01:52:45] Unknown:

There's all circulation   as well. So  

[01:52:50] Unknown:

yeah.   There we are. There we are.   Right. Wow. We've got a few minutes left.   Was there anything that you wanted to hit on, mister Scott?  

[01:53:01] Unknown:

I don't know how I'd follow that show. I've got to be honest.   No. No. Seriously. I  

[01:53:06] Unknown:

don't know what this means weather.  

[01:53:10] Unknown:

Now onto now onto mister Scott's rant of the week. Yeah. No.   Yeah. Well, I could I could get I could give you a bit of a rant of the week. Go on. Do it. This nonsense all this nonsense   about flipping,   Trump   suing the BBC and this, that, and the other. And,   you know, he's just   he he's also been urged to involve himself with the COP thirty summit.   President Trump will not jeopardize our   President Trump says he will not jeopardize our country's economic national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries, a White House spoke spokesman said.   You know, so you've got this whole good cop bad cop thing going on.  

And then you've also got the whole thing of oh, where is it here?   Oh, just the fact that   Epstein   alleged that Trump spent hours with one of his victims as thousands of documents are released. So then you've got the other hand. You know, this this whole and look, it's across the board with medical advice, political advice, any you can't trust flipping   any of it. So there you go. There's my rant of the week, if you like.  

[01:54:28] Unknown:

Well, very good. Thank you, Maleficus.  

[01:54:32] Unknown:

Well, I've just I know it didn't really contribute to the show. I'm sorry. No. But it doesn't make me pay any My mind is out of the way. Popcorn and then see what happens with Trump and, the BBC now.   Well, you'll be paying for it. So if you buy a TV license, you'll be paying for it. So you may as well get yourself some popcorn at the same time.   I'm dropping for it. Unless you don't pay for a TV license, in which case you are sitting pretty and you're you're only gonna suffer through your tax that you pay instead. Because, obviously, the BBC being the the   the the service that it is and the household name that it is is obviously gonna be subsidized by the British government if it can't meet its bills because it is essentially   the biggest propaganda out there for the British government spokespeople.  



[01:55:17] Unknown:

Oh, I heard on the news today. It was independent. You know, the the Oh.   Yeah. It was well, no. It's it's a state owned, but, you know,   it's the only place you can rely on to have,   Oh, traffic to date.   And through to yeah.  

[01:55:37] Unknown:

Unbiased. Yeah. Unbiased. That was the one. That was the phrase they used. I had a little clip to play.   Yeah. I had a little clip to play, but,   we won't get around to it now because there's not time to play it. But Oh,  

[01:55:50] Unknown:

talk too much about dry vaginas tonight. I do do apologize.  

[01:55:54] Unknown:

That's fine.   It's fine. I've I've managed.  

[01:56:00] Unknown:

We   out there.  

[01:56:03] Unknown:

I'm in the Oh, Shelley Shelley, you're breaking up, darling.   Start again.  

[01:56:07] Unknown:

Is out.  

[01:56:10] Unknown:

Just Oh, dear. The second.   My sister Oh, I think we might have lost Shali a little bit. This is for You're you're back now. I think My sister Your connection's dropping a bit. Oh,  

[01:56:31] Unknown:

vagina's.   Are you sure people will want to hear it?   So thanks for that Janet. But yes, I was laughing at just,   reading that and why not? Because I want to talk about things like this. And I know we've said before, we want inspiring stories.   Doesn't have to all be doom and gloom, does it? About new world order and stuff going on like that. It's nice to change it up a bit and get some real life stuff and this is something that I think the information is actually been, it's been bloody brilliant. Janet Overy.  

[01:57:02] Unknown:

Janet Overy.  

[01:57:03] Unknown:

Yeah. Don't cry.   Oh, bless you. Bless you. No. It's been, it's been different. Yes. And different is good.  

[01:57:14] Unknown:

Absolutely. No. No. Thank you, Big Sis.   No. Thank you, Big Sis, for coming on. It wasn't, you know, the the half the trepidation wasn't warranted, let's just say. At least Shelley didn't ask you what I was like to grow up with.  

[01:57:30] Unknown:

Oh, that's a whole other that's a whole other show. That I haven't asked you any questions about your brother.  

[01:57:36] Unknown:

Crikey.   How much older are you, Maleficus?   Oh, there's there's a kick in the butt. Oh, no. You're younger. You're younger. You're my age, aren't you? Sorry.   Was he was he annoying   was he annoying Janet Overy?  

[01:57:52] Unknown:

No. No. I don't think he was really.   No. We were a bit me and my older brother were a bit mean to him, I think. So  

[01:58:00] Unknown:

I think that's what It's what toughened me up. Oh, is it? It's what toughened me up. It's like, you know, everyone's heard the Johnny Cash song, the boy named Sue.   That that was me as a kid. No. It wasn't.   Yeah. Get get out your small violins, people. I I can't hear them. I can't hear them.  

[01:58:20] Unknown:

Brilliant stuff. Brilliant.   No.   It's I think it's just a younger sibling thing, isn't it? You know, Kieran's a lot younger than Maddie and Wesley and he says they always pick on me. It's like, well, that's their job.   But,   yeah.  

[01:58:33] Unknown:

Oh, well that's my job. Toughens you up? Toughens you up. Toughens you up. I I think I've I think I've ended up tougher than both of them to be honest. So there we go.  

[01:58:42] Unknown:

So wind her up unless she's having a good moment. Oh, no. I'm at a point in my life where I didn't give a shits anyway.  

[01:58:48] Unknown:

About anything,  

[01:58:49] Unknown:

literally. No. I don't.   I don't. And that's the great thing, actually. It took me until I turned 50 to not give a shit about people's opinions.   If somebody's on my shit list, I'm done. I walk away.  

[01:59:07] Unknown:

And thank you, mister Scott.   And dear listeners, we will be back the same time next week. Have an awesome week.  

[01:59:15] Unknown:

Take care, folks.   Thanks, sis.