DR Jeff Foster is The Sun on Sunday’s resident doctor and is here to help YOU.
Dr Jeff, 43, splits his time between working as a GP in Leamington Spa, Warks, and running his clinic, H3 Health, which is the first of its kind in the UK to look at hormonal issues for both men and women.
Dr Jeff Foster is The Sun on Sunday’s resident doctor and is here to help you
See h3health.co.uk and email at [email protected].
Q) I’M 42 and have always had regular periods, but over the last three months they have come at different times and are sometimes so heavy for the first two days I can barely leave the house.
I have no symptoms of perimenopause, so why is this happening?
Laura Newton, Liverpool
A) The average age of menopause in the UK is 51. This varies from woman to woman.
Perimenopause symptoms can start up to ten years earlier.
Common symptoms of perimenopause include mood changes, trouble concentrating, drop in libido, headaches, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, aches and pains, and trouble sleeping.
Few women will have all of these and for some it might simply be a change in their periods.
When considering changes to your periods we should look at other causes, such as thyroid disease, fibroids, adenomyosis, and many more.
Leaving heavy periods untreated can lead to anaemia, which will make you feel much worse, and other health issues, so speak to your doctor and find the underlying cause.
Q) I’M 64 and up until eight weeks ago I had a stoma due to a fistula caused by diverticulitis.
Since then I have been extremely unwell and had to return to hospital with a high temperature.
I feel fatigued, light-headed and nauseous.
I was told that my white blood cells were extremely high but they didn’t explain why.
In hospital I was given huge amounts of antibiotics and fluid replacement.
I don’t really have an appetite but I’m eating and sleeping well and drinking two litres of water daily.
Do you have any idea why this could be happening?
David Potter, Stourbridge, West Mids
A) Diverticula are small pouches in the large bowel/colon and are common in older people.
Most of us will have some by the time we are middle-aged, but the majority have no symptoms and never know they have them.
In a few cases they can get blocked and cause a secondary infection.
This is diverticulitis. If untreated it can result in abdominal pain, change in bowel habit, bleeding, perforation and even the risk of sepsis.
Although most cases can be managed with antibiotics, surgery is performed in rare cases.
If you are slowly improving I wouldn’t be concerned but if you have temperatures and a high white cell count it is very important that you get a follow-up appointment with a surgeon urgently – not a GP – to check for infection or complications.