femalegp

10/10/2026

Building on the kōrero from yesterday…

In honour of Mental Health Awareness Week, I’m extending my Mahi Tahi Expo offer to the wider community for 48 hours!

One thing I’ve seen time and time again is just how much hormones can influence our physical and mental health, and how many people simply don’t realise they might be part of the picture.

But I also know how overwhelming all the information can be!

I’ve developed some resources to help you make sense of it all, one step at a time. Understanding hormonal patterns, how they might affect how you feel, what hormone treatments can (and can’t!) do, and how to have those conversations with your GP.

There’s also my Hormonal Hīkoi workbook and the opportunity to ask questions. Just dip in and out, take what is useful. No pressure to do it all!

Why am I doing this?

Well, I’m a complete geek! I love learning, and I’ve spent almost two decades reading about medicine. I can’t expect everyone else to have done the same!

I’ve learnt so much through my private clinic, but I don’t want that knowledge to stay there.

My dream is to build a community where wāhine and whānau can better understand their health, feel more confident talking with their healthcare professionals, and get the right support. And hopefully make things easier for my GP colleagues too!

Because I shouldn’t be told I’ve changed someone’s life simply by helping them understand their hormones. But I am. And I want that to change.

So for 48 hours, my online resources are 80% off - normally $140, now $28.

Drop MAHI in the comments and I’ll send you the code! There are free lessons and contents to get a feel of my art!

And I’d love you to share this post too. You never know who might need this information.

Let’s keep the kōrero going.

Dr Sam

10/10/2026

Today I was invited to share my kōrero about hormones and mental health at a health expo.

I had a stall. Not many people came.

I ran a free workshop. The room held 50. Ten came.

And perhaps that says something about how far we still have to go in recognising the role hormones play in women’s mental health.

Often, I’m preaching to the converted. Today, I wasn’t.

But those ten people came together, connected, shared and learnt. And I hope I made a difference to their hormonal hīkoi, and perhaps that of their whānau too.

Then I put my big girl pants on.

Twice.

I stood up in a room full of people talking about improving mental health, collaboration and doing things differently.

And I spoke up.

Because women’s mental health matters. And hormones need to be part of that conversation.

Did I feel uncomfortable? Absolutely.

Do I slightly regret standing up? Maybe!

But I would regret staying quiet more.

Because I’ve seen what happens when we recognise hormonal patterns, listen to women and get their treatment right. Lives change.

And afterwards, people came up to thank me. Some because I’d helped someone in their whānau.

That meant more than they probably realised.

But I will keep saying this.

As a GP, I shouldn’t be told that I’ve changed someone’s life simply by recognising their hormonal symptoms and prescribing hormones (or de prescribing!).

But I am. Again and again.

And while it means the world to hear that I’ve made a difference, it also makes me sad.

Because this shouldn’t be extraordinary care. It should be everyday healthcare.

And that is what needs to change.

Not just for the women who find their way to me, but for all women and their whānau.

Sometimes advocacy isn’t about filling a room. It’s about making sure a conversation happens in the first place.

24/09/2026

23/09/2026

“Just stop it.”

That was one of the things women were being told when patches became difficult to find. And I kept thinking: would we casually say that about someone’s antidepressant, or their blood-pressure medication?

For many people, getting stable hadn’t been simple. It had taken months or even years to find the right dose, preparation and balance of hormones that allowed them to sleep, think, work and feel like themselves again. Then suddenly their patch changed, their dose changed, their preparation changed, or they had to stop altogether.

And the assumption seemed to be that another estrogen was simply interchangeable, or that a short interruption wouldn’t really matter.

But that wasn’t what people were telling us.

For some, the change was psychological: anxiety, low mood, overwhelm, feeling profoundly unlike themselves. For others it was unmistakably physical: migraines returning, pain, insomnia, hot flushes and fatigue. Often it was both.

This was never “all in their head”.

And there is another group we cannot forget. Some people using estrogen have premature ovarian insufficiency, surgical menopause or other conditions where their ovaries are no longer producing the hormones expected for their age. For them, this isn’t about adding something “extra”. It is hormone replacement.

So when we say, “It’s just an estrogen patch”, what do we actually mean by just?

Just their sleep? Just their mental health? Just their migraines? Just their ability to work? Just being able to care for their family?

The survey gave us numbers, but the stories showed us what those numbers meant. People had often fought hard to become well, and then a medication shortage destabilised them.

And two years later, hearing colleagues overseas describe the same shortages brings it all back.

This is why we share our experiences. Why health professionals and hormone users need to speak together. Why we collect the data and listen to the stories.

Because both matter.

Our 2024 New Zealand survey was a community advocacy survey, not peer-reviewed research. It describes experiences and cannot establish cause and effect.

But when 2200 voices speak. It’s loud. Listen…

21/09/2026

This is exciting!! Thanks for the opportunity!! Let us know if your community has any specific questions!

Join Sarah Connor (advocate, changemaker, Menopause Over Martinis*) and Dr. Samantha Newman (FemaleGP) in conversation about the various stages of menopause.

19/09/2026

Some things I learned.
A lot was consolidation.
Some of it was hearing familiar science reframed in a completely different way and suddenly seeing how it might apply differently in practice.
Most made me feel very validated that I’m on the right track.

And some made me think.. I am not alone: Watch this space: mental health deserves a hormonal lens too.
Not because every mental health symptom is hormonal. But because reproductive hormones can influence mood, cognition, sleep, anxiety, ADHD symptoms, PMDD and vulnerability at major reproductive transitions. Sometimes (often) that piece of the puzzle is missed.

And I think this is also why menopause doctors sometimes get labelled as people who are “just giving out MHT”.
But good menopause care is so much more than a prescription.
Sometimes it is prescribing estrogen. Sometimes it is increasing the dose, adding testosterone, checking absorption or looking at the v***a.

Sometimes it is asking about your pregnancies, gestational diabetes, blood pressure, periods, mental health, family history or what happened after you stopped breastfeeding — because your past health can help us understand your future health.
Sometimes it is figuring out how someone with a more-than-full-time job and a whānau is realistically supposed to fit in resistance training, sleep, protein, appointments and everything else we tell women they “should” be doing.

What are your priorities? What is actually achievable for you?
Sometimes it is thinking about bone, cardiovascular risk, metabolism, autoimmune disease, pelvic health, ADHD or PMDD.

That is the nuance.

Because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It means knowing what we know, understanding what we don’t know, listening to the person in front of us, and continuing to bridge the gap between emerging science and real life.

That, for me, is where medicine gets really interesting.
Come on this journey with me.
Hormonal hīkoi.. together xx

18/09/2026

Sometimes someone comes into my room with what feels like a shopping list (sometimes… I mean most of the time… 😜)

Hot flushes. Low libido. Vaginal dryness. Weight gain. Poor sleep. Struggling to exercise. Borderline blood pressure. A history of gestational diabetes. And then: “Actually, this flatness feels a bit like I did after I had my baby.” (These symptoms come as a ‘package… a puzzle… especially when they have been dismissed/ignored)

So we go through it.

One by one.

Very occasionally, someone tells me afterwards that the amount of information felt overwhelming. And I do understand that.

But if you have waited months for an appointment, paid a lot to be there, taken time away from work or family, and finally have an hour to talk about everything that has been bothering you, I want you to tell me.

And if you ask, I will usually answer.

If there are options you may not know about, I will usually tell you about them too. Not because you need to do everything at once, but because you can’t ask about an option you don’t know exists.

I don’t always know which symptom matters most.

Sometimes you do. Sometimes I can work it out. Sometimes we figure it out together.

That is why I write a plan.

What to do first. What can wait. What to watch. And what we might consider next if things don’t improve.

One of the biggest privileges in my job is being trusted with the whole story.

So bring the shopping list.

I’ll listen.

And we’ll work out what matters most first.

This is how I practice medicine, and menopause. And how I teach too.

16/09/2026

A little context for the “put your estrogen patch on your buttock for better absorption” advice…

The studies commonly quoted are not new.

One was published in 1996 and found higher estradiol concentrations when a 7-day patch was applied to the buttock rather than the abdomen.

The other was published in 2000 and, using Climara, found estradiol exposure was around 17% higher overall from the buttock than the abdomen.

Useful pharmacokinetic information? Absolutely.

But these were specific 7-day patch systems, studied in postmenopausal women. They do not mean that everyone should suddenly move a patch that is already working well.

If you feel well, you may not need more estrogen.

And if you don’t feel well, the question is not automatically “how can I absorb more?” It is: what actually needs changing?

Sometimes more estrogen helps. Sometimes it doesn’t.

And that is why your GP may have said the most important thing of all:

Come back if you’re not feeling well.

For more info:
Boyd et al. Pharmacokinetics of a 7-day 17 beta-estradiol transdermal delivery system: effect of application site and repeated applications on serum concentrations of estradiol and estrone. J Clin Pharmacol. 1996 Nov;36(11):998-1005
Taggart et al. The effect of site of application on the transcutaneous absorption of 17-beta estradiol from a transdermal delivery system (Climara). Menopause. 2000 Sep-Oct;7(5):364-9

16/09/2026

Sometimes a “helpful tip” on Instagram can create a whole new problem.

Yes, patch placement can affect estradiol absorption.

But more absorption is not automatically better.

If you were feeling well before, you may not need to change anything at all.

Hormones are about balance, symptoms, side effects and the whole person, not simply chasing a higher estrogen dose.

And if you do change something, ideally change one thing at a time.

Perimenopause is already enough of a rollercoaster without accidentally giving it another push.