The video highlights the profound impact hormones have on the female body, emphasizing the complexity of the menstrual cycle and the varying roles of hormones throughout. It suggests that while women naturally possess significant societal influence, there is a disconnect in health and wellness, particularly during the menopause years. Many women face challenges due to unmet societal expectations and the declining physiology that comes with menopause, thereby highlighting the need for proactive health management.

The video stresses the importance of individual healthcare journeys and collaboration with healthcare providers. It discusses how women's health is crucial not just for them, but for their societal roles, underlining the necessity of understanding one's body, especially through phases like perimenopause and menopause. Women are encouraged to educate themselves about their bodies, to learn how to interpret, manage, and optimize their health to counter the contemporary stressors and metabolic challenges they face.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. infobesity [ˌɪnfəʊˈbiːsɪti] - (noun) - An excessive amount of information, often overwhelming and hard to process. - Synonyms: (information overload, data glut, information traffic)

We have been in the midst of an infobesity epidemic.

2. menopause [ˈmenəˌpɔːz] - (noun) - The natural decline in reproductive hormones when a woman reaches her 40s or 50s. - Synonyms: (climacteric, end of menstruation, change of life)

Given that the age of the menopause in the UK is 51, it's also important to know that women occupy the vast majority of health and social care sector roles.

3. hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis [ˌhaɪpəˌθæləmɪk pɪˈtuːɪˌtɛri oʊˈvɛəriən ˈæksɪs] - (noun) - A system of hormone regulation involving the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and ovaries, coordinating female reproductive hormones. - Synonyms: (hormonal regulation system, reproductive system regulation, endocrine axis)

At medical school, when I learned it used to refer to just a hypothalamic pituitary ovarian axis, how the brain talks to the ovaries, and vice versa.

4. neural pruning [ˈnʊrəl ˈpruːnɪŋ] - (noun) - The natural process of removing unnecessary neurons, often occurring after puberty or during aging. - Synonyms: (neural trimming, synaptic pruning, neural refinement)

Then follows a natural decline in our hormone profile, where nature really designed us to gather our thoughts, undergo some neural pruning...

5. metabolic flexibility [ˌmetəˈbɒlɪk flɛksəˈbɪlɪti] - (noun) - The body's ability to adapt fuel oxidation to fuel availability. - Synonyms: (metabolic adaptability, fuel utilization adaptability, metabolic plasticity)

By the time a woman enters the perimenopause, which, by the way, can be as early as 35, she loses metabolic flexibility.

6. socioeconomic input [ˌsoʊsioʊˌɛkəˈnɒmɪk ˈɪnpʊt] - (noun) - The influence of social and economic factors on a given outcome. - Synonyms: (socioeconomic impact, economic contribution, social influence)

They require high levels of care and socioeconomic input.

7. nutrigenomics [njuːˌtridʒɪˈnɒmɪks] - (noun) - The study of how nutrition and genes interact to influence health. - Synonyms: (nutritional genomics, nutritional biogenetics, gene-nutrient interaction)

nutrigenomics shows us that food is fuel, but it is also deeply coded information for your cells about your environment.

8. symbiotic relationship [ˌsɪmbaɪˈɒtɪk rɪˈleɪʃənʃɪp] - (noun) - A mutually beneficial relationship between two different organisms or systems. - Synonyms: (mutualism, cooperative interaction, interdependent relationship)

By using these pillars and recognizing patterns, you will build a symbiotic relationship with your cycles.

9. comorbidities [koʊˌmɔːrbɪˈdɪtiz] - (noun) - The simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient. - Synonyms: (coexisting conditions, concurrent diseases, multiple disorders)

These all carry significant comorbidities and suffering, and they are diseases that sadly kill very slowly.

10. upregulate [ʌpˈrɛɡjʊˌleɪt] - (verb) - To increase the response or number of receptors, typically in a biochemical context. - Synonyms: (enhance, boost, amplify)

to eat and move our bodies in a way that will upregulate metabolism and support our brain as it's busy with its menopausal topiary.

Are you real world health-ready? - Dr Mayoni Gooneratne - TEDxCroydon High School GDST

Hormones weave their magic on virtually every organ of the female human body. And yet, do you know what each part of your menstrual cycle means? How each hormone dances within your body differently at various time points in your cycle, and what each phase is leading to?

I truly believe that women have a huge influence over societal health. And yet here we are, the unhealthiest. We have been in the midst of an infobesity epidemic. Are we really living the life that our foremothers intended for us all those generations ago? Did we get it wrong? Did they help us and encourage us, and fight for us, and lead us to believe that actually we could achieve anything, when in fact our bodies and society have not caught up with this ideal?

We are currently the only sex that will carry and bear children, and everything about our physiology is designed to do this. Then follows a natural decline in our hormone profile, where nature really designed us to gather our thoughts, undergo some neural pruning, and then focus on sharing our acquired wisdom with our nearest and dearest in an advisory role.

Yet we want more. And I truly believe we can deliver so much more. How do we achieve this? Well, I also believe our health journey is very much a collaborative process with our healthcare provider. However, a collaboration is a two way street. How are they going to help us if we don't know what our body is telling us?

Our health is important. If we want to have the life we desire beyond retirement age, we must invest in our health pension more seriously than ever before. And now is the time to do it.

48% of the current workforce in the UK is female, and the most rapidly growing sector is composed of women in their fifties. This will be composed mostly of menopausal women. Given that the age of the menopause in the UK is 51, it's also important to know that women occupy the vast majority of health and social care sector roles, and we contribute to the huge unpaid care provision in this country, such as looking after our children or elderly parents.

But ironically, poor health and caring are actually the two main factors that drive older women out of the work sector. And with birth rates falling rapidly, we must know who is going to care for the carers of today and tomorrow.

So whilst population medicine is important and it's out there, we must consider the individual women's health. At medical school, when I learned it used to refer to just a hypothalamic pituitary ovarian axis, how the brain talks to the ovaries, and vice versa. Yet we now know it's so much more complicated than that the external environment is assimilated and hormones then transduce this data into creating a complex impact on the brain, the gut, the adrenals, the thyroid, the pancreas, with metabolism happening in the liver and the gut, all in the face of inflammation hanging over our body systems like a spectre, our body is actually a giant tuning fork.

By the time a woman enters the perimenopause, which, by the way, can be as early as 35, she loses metabolic flexibility. Which, combined with high stress levels of living in 2024 and dropping neuroprotection from progesterone, produces the perfect storm for loss of brain and body resilience at a time when she really needs it the most.

Women are also more prone to diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer's, as well as autoimmune diseases in their post menopausal years because they've lost that protection of their hormones. These all carry significant comorbidities and suffering, and they are diseases that sadly kill very slowly. They require high levels of care and socioeconomic input.

But hang on, I've just said that we're potentially looking at a deficit of carers of the future. Does this worry you? Well, we can certainly turn this into something more productive.

Remember, health is precious, and it's not the opposite of disease. It is an active pursuit of wellness, often daily. It is not just for the elite, but for everyone. It is also a joint effort, a collaboration with your health carer.

A woman's health journey actually begins the moment she was conceived from her own mother's pregnancy. What was her mother's mental state? How did she carry her pregnancy? How much stress was she under? How was that baby girl birthed and fed? Was she exposed to antibiotics through her childhood, right through to how she works and plays now, and who she keeps company with.

So whilst the time ahead of you, before you reach the menopause may feel like an endless stretch, I'm here to urge you to start to think about how you are going to experience the perimenopause beyond. There may be a time when women look back at the studies around disease in the wonder how metabolic health was so poorly managed. But this does not need to be your story.

I would say it is your responsibility, and not anyone else's, to be educated about what your body is telling you. Learn how to safeguard it into the future so you can truly live the life that you deserve.

How do you do this? Well, my advice would be to start finding out what your periods mean. They will become your barometer, educate yourself on how you best function at various points through that cycle. The kinds of food to eat, the best ways to revise the specific exercises you need to do at different parts of your cycle.

Because guess what? Your sex hormones are not just for reproduction. They act on every single organ of your body, directly or indirectly. Begin to tune in. Listen to what your body is telling you, and start noting how you feel, not just before your periods, but all the way through your cycles.

Thinking, exercising and socializing can feel very different for you throughout your cycle. And at certain points these activities can feel very enhanced. So start to notice, because, and this is the best bit, you can start to make your cycle work for you in a positive way.

This is our superpower. Knowing when to really focus and revise, as well as when to rest, bringing your body and your mind and your spirit back into alignment. This way you can go way, way further and for much, much longer.

I'd like to introduce the six pillars of health to you, which can act as a guide. A set of structures, if you will, that hold up your ability to perform. These are the right nutrition, joyful movement, sleep, stress management, avoiding or minimising toxic substances, and nurturing relationships. nutrigenomics shows us that food is fuel, but it is also deeply coded information for your cells about your environment.

And this makes ultra processed food, I'm afraid, truly sit really high up on that high alert category. Joyful movement means you're moving and exercising in a way that brings you joy. It's not punitive or to compensate for life's excesses. It could be javelin throwing, or open water, swimming, or walking your dog.

Ensuring you are resting and allowing that download of incredible information and filing away every day is also important. Learning how to navigate external stress so your body doesn't see this as internal stress. With the release of cortisol really important to your health, it underpins most of what truly causes many chronic diseases.

Reducing exposure to toxic substances such as alcohol and smoking is critical to health. And I would suggest that the final pillar, relationships, houses the most important dynamic of all, the relationship you have with yourself.

By using these pillars and recognizing patterns, you will build a symbiotic relationship with your cycles. Instead of one of fear, or worse still, indifference. You will really then notice when you have problems with your cycles, such as heavy bleeding or pain. And then you'll begin to notice how it feels in your body.

And this is important. Ask for help. We don't always ask for help. As women, our healthcare system is evolving and developing into something that is more collaborative, you will be able to say, please help me, because my periods have changed, I've been tracking them and my body doesn't feel like it should right now.

And whilst you may not get the answer you want from that healthcare professional, you will have the confidence to keep asking until you get the help you need. You will become an advocate for your own health. And this is how the system changes.

It is our collective responsibility as women to create the environment we want to work in, where we are not made to fit into a model that does not suit our physiology, to reduce the inflammatory impact of stress, to eat and move our bodies in a way that will upregulate metabolism and support our brain as it's busy with its menopausal topiary.

Do you see? It's not just about waiting for society to change for us. We have to create the society we want to live in. We can create an environment that facilitates health. It supports us to support our bodies, a totally different health ecosystem that becomes our way of life and not the exception.

Because when we know what our body is telling us, when we have the tools for changing our own personal health story, we will have our brains and our bodies available to us in this moment and into our menopausal years and beyond, we will thrive.

And when women thrive, and I have seen this as a surgeon, as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife, as a friend, and all these other many roles that we have, we can achieve anything. We are truly limitless.

Women'S Health, Hormones, Menopause, Education, Societal Influence, Healthcare Collaboration, Tedx Talks