The Menopause Show With Sue Moxley – Amanda Azzopardi, Health And Beauty

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hi, this is Sue Moxley. (0:04) This is Women's Radio Station. (0:07) This is the Menopause Show. (0:09) And if you would like to follow us on any of the socials, we are on Instagram at Women's Radio Station, STN, and Facebook and YouTube. (0:20) And today I have a lovely guest, her name is Amanda Azzapardi. (0:24) Hope I said that correct. (0:27) So, hi, Amanda. (0:28) Could you tell us a bit about your clinic and what it is you do? Speaker 1 (0:34) Hi, Sue. (0:34) How are you? (0:35) I'm good, thank you. (0:37) So, I've got three clinics, one in Liverpool, one in London, and one in North Wales. Speaker 2 (0:44) Okay. Speaker 1 (0:44) The flagship one in Liverpool. (0:46) It's called Amanda Azzapardi Aesthetics. (0:48) And we specialise in women's health and wellness and the pro-ageing journey. Speaker 2 (0:53) Okay, fantastic. (0:55) That's just what we need, Amanda. (0:58) So, what would you say are your top treatments? Speaker 1 (1:03) So, when I see a woman, I bring them in for a consultation. (1:08) We talk about everything from skin to gut health to menopause or symptoms, hormones to intimate health, anything that's affecting their life and their pro-ageing journey. (1:20) We're moving through the journey together of ageing and we're supporting the health and wellbeing of the woman. (1:27) We're looking at nutrition and exercise. (1:30) We're looking at their menstrual cycle. (1:32) Women of all ages are affected by hormones, pre-menopause, post-menopause. (1:38) They're all going through the symptoms. (1:41) They may know the signs and symptoms, but may not actually know what's causing it. (1:46) And we're removing all the taboos so that everybody feels open and happy to speak about the symptoms and the impact that it's having on their lives. Speaker 2 (1:57) Okay, so that's amazing. (1:59) So, you kind of do like a whole package, really. (2:01) It isn't just facial aesthetics. (2:05) It's the whole thing. Speaker 1 (2:07) Yes, absolutely. (2:08) It's true skin innovation. (2:09) We take a pro-ageing approach and we focus on supporting and optimising the skin and the woman's health. (2:18) And giving their ageing process and progression a more balanced approach, we work with their body, their mind to optimise their health journey. Speaker 2 (2:30) Okay. Speaker 1 (2:31) And we work with women of all ages. Speaker 2 (2:34) Okay, does that have a name? (2:36) You know, like did the whole thing, what do you actually call it? (2:38) Is it like a well woman thing? Speaker 1 (2:41) For us, it's just approaching the ageing journey as a pro-ageing journey rather than an anti-ageing journey. (2:50) We used to look at the ageing process as a process of eliminating chronic health problems and anti-ageing is more resisting and trying to reverse the ageing process whereas pro-ageing, the approach focusses on supporting and optimising the natural ageing progression. Speaker 2 (3:12) Okay, so do you think that's going to be a new thing? (3:14) Because I write for a magazine and the other day they said to me they want to stop using the word anti-ageing. (3:22) Do you think this is a new thing that people are going to go for, you know, pro-ageing rather than anti-ageing? Speaker 1 (3:31) Yes, I think ageing well is what people want to do. (3:36) They don't want to just be ageing. (3:39) They want to optimise every part of the journey. (3:42) They want to have healthy balanced lifestyles. (3:46) They don't want to be eating properly. (3:50) They want to be reducing their stress levels. (3:53) They want to be having a positive impact on their work life, their home life, their social lives and they want to be optimising every part of the journey. Speaker 2 (4:04) Okay, that sounds amazing. (4:06) So if for example someone couldn't get to you in say Liverpool or London or Wales, do you have any online things that any online consultations or things they can do as well? Speaker 1 (4:20) So the journey often begins with a virtual consultation of some form. (4:26) We spend 15 to 20 minutes and we have a conversation. (4:32) We mostly talk about the woman's concerns and how it's affecting her life, the impact that the reason why she's come to me, the impact of that and how it's impacting the rest of her life and what it would mean to her if we could correct something or improve her concern and then put steps in place to move forward. (4:59) It's never a one step or one fix solution. (5:06) It's always the ageing journey is multi-faceted and we need to move through a lot of different components of it to often fix or address the concern that they've come to us with. (5:19) But most of the initial consultation is virtual. (5:23) It may embrace the skin part of it. (5:27) It may be to do with intimate health. (5:30) I think everything about the women's journey that I do address, even though I do treat a lot of women in their 20s and 30s, most of it is based on menopausal health needs of women aged 40 plus. Speaker 2 (5:48) Yeah, okay. (5:50) I know you said it's not a one size fits all and I know that, but what are the most common issues that women come to you with? Speaker 1 (6:01) If we look back, I think a lot of the most common issues that people come to me with are often related to the gut. (6:11) A lot of skin concerns revolve around inflammation. (6:17) A lot of this inflammation is related to either disease processes or dietary concerns or exercise or stress or lack of it all. (6:33) Some of the most common things that people come to me with sort of superficially involve a downturn smile or they feel like they look older than they actually look in the mirror. (6:49) A lot of women may have a photo taken at a party or an event and not actually think that they feel like the woman in that photo. (7:00) Sometimes they think they've aged quite rapidly and they've aged overnight. (7:05) This is some of the concerns that people come to me with. (7:08) They feel like their pores are very large and open and their skin feels inflamed. (7:16) They may have a lot of sun damage from young ears and it's starting to come to the surface of the skin so they come in with brown spots or discoloured uneven skin tone which they get quite upset about. (7:31) A lot of time when you're going through the hormonal years or skin related issues with menopause, you may get brown spots or red flushing and that makes them feel uncomfortable and they seek help for those sort of skin concerns. Speaker 2 (7:50) It's sad because we don't feel any different when we might feel a bit different but our feelings haven't changed since we were 20 or 30 but our bodies have changed so much. (8:05) We don't feel any different but our body doesn't kind of you know stay up with it. (8:11) Why do we get red flushing by the way? (8:14) Why does that happen? Speaker 1 (8:17) Sometimes it's all different reasons. (8:19) Sometimes there's underlying inflammation in the vascular layer of the skin. (8:24) Sometimes the external lipid barrier is breaking down and you're losing the protective layer as the skin thins a lot during menopause when our hormones begin to change. (8:34) The hormones have a big effect on the skin. (8:39) It can make it more sensitive. (8:41) It can thin the external layer of the skin. (8:45) You get a lot of little spider veins on the skin which become unsightly. (8:49) Some women get upset about them around the nose so they start to seek help for that. (8:56) Other women go through hormonal acne breakouts when they've never had acne before and they get quite upset about that. (9:05) It's quite a distressing time and I think it's nice for them to have somewhere open to come and sit down and talk about all these things. (9:15) We also discuss women's health issues and we have an intimate health service where we talk about vaginal dryness, vaginal mucosal thinning, vaginal laxity and all of these things occur with the ageing body, with the ageing woman. (9:37) It's just the same as you have skin laxity on your face and you start to develop jowls and women become unhappy about that. (9:47) They feel like their face is sliding. (9:49) That happens in all areas of your body because the same collagen and elastin is lost and depleted with the ageing process and at certain stages in your life you lose more oestrogen and the collagen and elastin depletes rapidly when this hormonal shift occurs. Speaker 2 (10:09) Just gets better and better doesn't it Amanda? Speaker 1 (10:16) It does get better and better Sue because there's a lot of support out there for us now and we're talking about it more and the more we talk to other women the better it's going to get for everybody because education will flow and other women will talk and we will all become aware that it's okay to seek help, it's okay to talk about things. Speaker 2 (10:37) I totally agree that's why I have this show and I work for a menopause mag. (10:43) We're all getting it out there now which it needs to be and it should have been done many many years ago but as we all know doctors didn't really have much menopause training did they? (10:57) In their six or seven years of training they had like eight hours or something but anyway so let's go through some of the things. (11:08) So what's your solution then for the vaginal dryness and I hear that you have a treatment for that? Speaker 1 (11:17) Yes absolutely so I provide a full consultation first and I get to know a bit more about the woman's history and why they've come to see me. (11:28) Some people it is dry, painful, uncomfortable intercourse, (11:36) other times they've lost a relationship with their husband because of the intimacy part (11:44) and there's a lot of embarrassment there or there's it's just too uncomfortable to talk about (11:50) so they stop talking about it and it affects their lives and their relationships so they become (11:56) upset about that and come to speak to me about it to see if there's anything that they can do (12:01) or if there's any treatments available. (12:04) So the amazing answer is yes (12:09) and there's a lot of different pathways depending on how you want to approach it and what you feel (12:15) comfortable with so if it is just purely vaginal dryness we have skin boosters like we have skin (12:21) boosters for our skin and our face like they are internal moisturisers that are injected (12:29) we have a lot of different ones for our skin our face our hands as the inside of the vagina (12:37) is exactly the same so we can inject skin boosters around the vaginal introitus to provide hydration (12:45) and two sessions of this four weeks apart is very successful. Speaker 2 (12:50) Oh wow that's a new one on me I mean obviously I've spoke to quite a lot of people about the menopause and I know there's machines etc but I didn't actually know that people you know clinicians used skin boosters in the joiner area so that's a new thing. (13:06) Are there some that are especially for that area then? Speaker 1 (13:10) There are some skin boosters made especially for the area and they're very very successful in their outcomes obviously as the area ages and the hormones continue to kick in that it you will require maintenance sessions and these come about every six to twelve months and that is just like the skin on the face as well you always require maintenance sessions. (13:36) There is (13:36) also machines that we can use quadrupolar radiate frequency machines I have the EVA device in clinic (13:47) and there is an internal handpiece and an external handpiece so the external handpiece (13:55) is used for vaginal laxity around the labia majora and this is the protective (14:03) part of the anatomy of a woman's anatomy so increasing the volume as we lose it to the (14:10) ageing process and hormonal process with vaginal atrophy external vaginal atrophy will protect the (14:19) urethra is only very short so as we age as the labia majora shrinks then we become more susceptible (14:29) to having urinary tract infections so if we can bring that over again then it protects (14:36) all the internal structures it also helps with symptoms such as dryness itching burning (14:43) and the intercourse pain if there's a little more cushioning (14:48) so the external part can be the the collagen and the elastin can be improved (14:54) with up to six sessions say 10 to 15 days apart and the this stimulates the collagen elastin (15:02) production it's it's just a warm treatment there's no pain with it there's no downtime (15:10) and it feels quite comfortable the the internal part of the EVA device is a quadrupolar (15:19) radiofrequency device so it heats the tissue up and this can also help stress related urinary (15:26) incontinence sort of stage one and it helps to tighten the pelvic floor muscle and helps with (15:33) function and strength and that sort of reduces annoying urinary leakage so it helps to improve (15:43) the aesthetic appearance and function and it also helps the medical atrophy of the vulva vaginal (15:52) symptoms it reduces all the symptoms by stimulating cell regeneration okay and how often does that (15:59) need to be done so about every 10 to 15 days and then you have about six six to ten sessions (16:09) depending on the severity of your symptoms and then you would have maybe one every six (16:15) months or one every 12 months depending on how it was progressing okay that sounds amazing (16:20) i'm on my way down amanda it's an effective non ablative treatment for female internet health Speaker 2 (16:28) i think we should all be aware that it's available yeah you're right i mean lots of people still don't (16:34) understand that there are there are treatments like that out there you know but it is becoming (16:39) more common knowledge um but you know you told me something to say that i didn't know i didn't (16:44) realise you could use skin boosters um in that area so so when you're injecting the skin boosters Speaker 1 (16:51) going back to the skin boosters is that painful it's like a tiny little bee sting that lasts Speaker 2 (16:59) about 10 seconds okay so there's no and you know you don't anaesthetize the area or anything like Speaker 1 (17:06) that no not at all it's it's a very comfortable procedure i haven't had anybody sort of complain (17:12) about it any pain or um long-term symptoms that it's completely comfortable by the time you leave Speaker 2 (17:21) the clinic okay so they're your two main treatments that you do you use the you know vaginal atrophy Speaker 1 (17:29) and um those kind of problem so we have another couple of other treatments one um regenerative (17:38) medicine is on on the up and rise yeah and giving women confidence to effectively support their (17:46) demanding lifestyles we want to be regenerating every cell in our bodies so that we can have that (17:53) um you know refreshed feeling everywhere so the labia majora as well um can have (18:02) injectable treatments such as poly nucleotides which are very good for skin cell regeneration (18:10) they've got amino acids and peptides in them and they can be based on lots of different things (18:16) replicating trout dna and and similar features but basically they um they're bioregenerators of (18:26) uh cell regeneration and collagen and elastin improvement so you can also hydrate the labia (18:34) majora the external vaginal um appearance with dermal fillers so hyaluronic acid based (18:41) products will plump up the skin and provide the support and um it also provides comfort Speaker 2 (18:50) during intimate times as well so that's not just something that looks better it actually helps as Speaker 1 (18:57) well if you have fillers there absolutely every part of us loses volume with age why would the (19:06) vaginal area be any different you want to feel positive about yourself as a woman when you're (19:12) having intimate times with your husband or even just for yourself you want to feel that (19:17) there's no pain in the area you feel confident and a lot of women go through traumatic times (19:23) having child like in childbirth and things like that um and the area can be restored just like (19:30) any skin on our face or our hands or our bodies okay yeah i totally agree um yeah that's going Speaker 2 (19:39) to become much more common knowledge so amanda um what else do you do in your clinic then so you (19:46) talked about diet uh do you give diet plans or is it just advice or what what is that how does that Speaker 1 (19:53) work so so we talk about nutrition and how this affects health um the way we're sleeping the way (20:01) the stress patterns we have in our lifestyle we talk about foods um that we need to maintain (20:08) our energy levels um we also have a semionic device that increases um the lymphatic system it increases (20:17) your immunity it increases your metabolism um and speeding all up this this will help (20:23) to eliminate toxic waste and fat fat waste um it's it's all about the health and wellness (20:31) journey if a woman is having snacking or eating um you know fast foods they're not going to maintain (20:41) the energy or have the health healthy skin that they or have the nutrition to support the healthy (20:48) skin that they are seeking if that makes sense yeah so all along the way if women are breaking (20:56) out in later stage acne or have inflammation such as rosacea we we do look at nutrition and (21:04) lifestyle and stress during um you know certain times women um take more alcohol or their diet (21:13) is and it's good and their skin will flare up so this is a very important thing to recognise all (21:18) the triggers because everything's connected everything's related it's all sort of vital (21:24) and liberating information for them um so we talk to them about their their whole health the amount (21:31) that they're exercising um and it it all adds to the resilience and their happiness and their health Speaker 2 (21:37) journey the pro-ageing journey for them so what foods would you are you know pop favourites i know (21:44) everyone says vegetables and fruit and things but is that the same for you is that what what you Speaker 1 (21:49) recommend to to women yeah i mean sometimes it's all about convenience you've got got to find (21:55) what works for you it's not all about um you know vegetables or um meat or proteins it's (22:03) sometimes it's about the way you're preparing them and the way you're cooking them and the (22:07) way you're eating them so if you know you can have vegetables that are fried that's not going (22:13) to be very healthy for you um but even women have very healthy like sometimes unhealthy demanding (22:21) lifestyles so maybe even preparing the food at the beginning of the week is um going to be beneficial (22:29) in their lifestyle if they or maybe they can get some food prep in so that they are still getting (22:35) the right nutrients that they are required because at the end of the day it doesn't matter (22:39) what skin products they're on or what treatments they're having in clinic what what they're putting (22:44) into their body their hydration and their nutrition is going to be optimising their skin health Speaker 2 (22:50) eventually yeah you just made me think of um a radio that i was listening to the other day (22:58) and um the fish and chip shop are now doing deep fried brussel sprouts oh my god (23:06) which i have to admit there's no right to it but you know and the guy and i've got you Speaker 1 (23:14) know and yeah so there you go none of those well we took our grandchildren to the polar express (23:21) the other day and they absolutely loved it and he said the main ingredient in the hot chocolate (23:25) was brussel sprouts no so we're even trying to get our children to eat brussel sprouts by putting Speaker 2 (23:32) it in the hot chocolate really i'm not sure you might give me a round of thumbs up to that then (23:40) i'm as far i'm as gullible as the children so um oh wow yeah that's a good one right okay so exercise (23:49) wise um how would you know everyone says that as you get older your exercise should be more Speaker 1 (23:56) gentle really what do you think so walking up a hill yes um you should be exercising every day you (24:08) you burn fats by breathing out carbon dioxide um a woman who is ageing and um is becoming prone (24:16) to osteoporosis or any kind of problems with the ageing process needs to be lifting heavy weights (24:23) as well um this is this is all part of the muscular health bone health um cardiovascular health you (24:32) need to be doing some form of cardio and some form of weight lifting to strengthen your bones (24:38) and to strengthen your muscles some form of strength workout needs to be in in your Speaker 2 (24:47) weekly routine okay but does that not affect the joints if you're you know is that does that not put (24:55) pressure on the joints i was just wondering thinking about weight lifting and joint pain (25:00) really um yeah you know like they run it like you're bashing on the concrete floor for a long (25:06) long time it's not good for the knees and the hips etc sure so you need to have proper shoes Speaker 1 (25:13) that you're wearing which will minimise this impact that you need to also be maybe maybe (25:20) joining a gym or whatever the person feels comfortable with i think it needs to be taken (25:25) on a case by case basis i talk to the the women and i see what they're comfortable with (25:31) see what is local to them you need to make it convenient and so that it can fit into their (25:36) lifestyle see what they like some women like to do yoga some women like to do swimming (25:42) some people like to run or they like to walk if you can if they're walking and they're saying (25:47) they're not losing weight then i say can you push it a bit further can you walk up a hill can you (25:52) add in some resistance can you add some small hand weights when you're walking there's also (25:57) always something that you can do to push it that little bit further um it does get harder (26:03) and harder and your metabolism slows down as you age so it does get harder to lose weight (26:07) and women maintain the weight around their hips and their thighs most of the time (26:12) and that's a very common complaint but that's what we have the slim yonic for so i say come (26:19) into clinic and use the slim yonic device that will increase your metabolism and that will increase (26:25) the to work the slim manic how does that slim yonic slim yonic is a pneumatic compression (26:33) therapy suit so it has 11 chambers in it which compress and relax so it's like 24 (26:42) hands massaging you all at once and it helps with taking away inflammation from your body (26:48) which will help all of your menopausal symptoms it will increase your lymphatic system improve (26:56) your immune system which will help with your hair growth which will help with your skin (27:01) which um you're also um breathing in through nasal cannulas purified air which is increasing (27:10) the oxygen to every cell in your body which will also help with hormonal shifts and detoxifying (27:19) waste products wow just get into the suit do you you get into the suit and you relax for half an (27:28) hour or an hour it helps with cellulite it helps with brain fog it helps with cramps all of the (27:34) things that regulate and affect or impact our lives it will improve okay so that's the second Speaker 2 (27:42) treatment i need to come down and have um uh and then you talk about uh so then we go to our faces (27:52) and um you said that that one of the most uh common complaints you get is that people get (27:59) the downward smile when everyone says you know you look miserable you're actually quite happy (28:05) but you know um so how you treat do you treat that with fillers and stuff or Speaker 1 (28:12) yeah so it it depends what um the sort of client needs and and wants and is open to (28:20) some people are quite afraid of fillers because they have over the years developed some negative (28:29) connotations around them so i i talk to them about a lot of things if it if it's sort of open pores (28:37) around the area or skin texture that's causing the downturn smile we can have um laser treatments (28:44) to begin with and build up the trust improve the skin quality um in in improve some sort of lines (28:52) and wrinkles that are affecting the area um we can use skin boosters we can use (28:58) radio frequency microneedling with heat and energy to tighten tighten the skin um there's also (29:06) wrinkle relaxing treatments you can use to stop the muscle of the chin contracting and the muscle (29:13) of the corners of the mouth from pulling down that can just release and put the smile into (29:18) a neutral position again so it it it is very patient specific but it there's a lot we can (29:26) do to improve the situation non-surgically very naturally um it's all about um (29:33) sort of the way women relate to the actual um treatment and putting in actionable ways that (29:42) we can promote um positive body confidence with the woman i think is what i'm the words (29:48) that i'm sort of looking for step by step that there's a lot of different dermal fillers out (29:53) on the market um going back to dermal fillers and if the practitioner uses a very