Team GB’s Desirèe Henry: the Olympics, hormones and body positivity

This week Dr Louise is joined by sprinter Desirèe Henry who is representing Team GB at the Paris Olympics this year.

Desirèe is no stranger to the Olympics – she was one of seven young athletes who lit the Olympic caldron at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Games, plus she took home a bronze medal in the 4 X 100m relay at the 2016 Rio Games.

And she’ll be heading to Paris on a high after being part of Team GB’s gold medal-winning women’s 4x100m relay team at the European Athletics Championships in Rome in June.

Desirèe talks about the challenges of competing throughout the menstrual cycle and coping with heavy periods, plus the importance of talking openly about these issues, maintaining a healthy weight and body positivity.

Finally, Desirèe shares three tips to help you lead a happier and healthier life:

Set one goal every day. It doesn’t have to be anything big, it could be drinking water or having a piece of fruit every day, but it’s something that will add up over the week and benefit your lifestyle in a positive way.
Try to incorporate exercise into your lifestyle. It could be watching a YouTube yoga video or anything that just allows your body to move, that increases blood flow around the body and helps you get in some extra stretching.
Check in on other people more often. Just find out how they are and show them that somebody cares – you’ll be appreciated.

You can follow Desirèe on Instagram @desiree_lh

Click here to find out more about Newson Health

Transcript

Transcript

Dr Louise: Hello, I’m Doctor Louise Newson, I’m a GP and menopause specialist, and I’m also the founder of the Newson Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre here in Stratford-upon-Avon. I’m also the founder of the free balance app. Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause and menopause. We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments, and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories. This podcast is brought to you by the Newson Health Group, which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women. So today I’m really very excited to have somebody who’s currently training in Houston. She’s making me feel very old and very unfit, but she’s someone who’s really inspirational and someone we’re going to be hearing about more and more, I’m sure. So Desirèe Henry is a world-class athlete and a runner, and she’s training for Paris and has just been forging ahead in ways that lots of people would love to do. So I’m really delighted that she’s agreed to come onto my podcast. So welcome today.

Desirèe: Oh no. Thank you. I feel like you’re the celebrity in this situation. I’ve seen quite a few of your podcasts, especially the one with Joe Wicks. So, just to be able to have the opportunity to speak with you, I’m so, so happy. So yeah, thank you for this.

Dr Louise: So I’m really interested in so much. And we’re going to have to talk quickly because it’s only half an hour. But as a woman, I’ve often said to people, if I was doing the work I was doing as a man, I would probably be given like red carpet wherever I went and people would really treat me in a very different way. No one would ask me how I manage with juggling three children and a husband who works abroad a lot. It wouldn’t come into the conversation.

Desirèe: Yeah.

Dr Louise: And as I’ve got older, I’ve become more feminist and more cross actually about the gender inequality.

Desirèe: Yeah, yeah.

Dr Louise: But you’re still young, but you’re nodding away. So, you know, it’s very hard still. And we’re talking in 2024. We’re not in 1984 or 1884. In 2024. We’ve got so much gender inequality in many things, but not in everything. And so I’m really keen to hear from you. Have you had any experiences where you think this is frustrating being a woman, and how have you managed to keep going ahead? Because I know you’re really good at keeping focused and I’m not. I get distracted and then I get overwhelmed and then I get really sad and I want to give everything up. But…

Desirèe: That’s literally me. But you’ve literally hit the nail on the head. Even though I’m an athlete and I’m a professional athlete, some of the questions that I get asked in comparison to like some of my male team-mates, I’m just kind of thinking, how come you haven’t asked them that question in the sense of, you know, what do I eat, not from a performance perspective, but to maintain your figure, to look nice and strong? These are the kind of questions that I would get in comparison to some of my male team-mates that will get asked, well, what is your training regime look like? You know, what are you doing in the gym? What kind of weights are you lifting in the gym? And I kind of sit there and I’m thinking, I lift almost just as much as them. I work out just as much as them, and I’m sure that other women will be interested to hear about my lifting journey, about these sessions and running sessions. So it is very, very difficult. But I feel like education has been like the biggest thing for me. It’s just educating myself on what it means to not just be a woman, but a woman in sport. But not to limit myself with the stereotypes that, you know, we just run for image, it’s like, no, I actually run to be able to be the best athlete that I can be. You know, there’s the stigma about how much a woman should lift in the gym. More specifically, more upper body exercises as there’s a fear of looking too manly. And I’m just like, what you mean my biceps and triceps, can we call them what they are, they’re amazing muscles. They’re kind of like a medal, a vision or a visual look at what it means to be training hard, what it means to actually put in some sacrifices. And I kind of like embrace my body. And I would just want more women to feel comfortable. That’s why even today, I’m just wearing a no sleeve. Because again, it’s just all about embracing what I look like and loving myself for it, rather than, you know, looking online and feeling bad because I have muscles. I’m just like, no, let me create my own kind of standards. And if muscles is looking good for me, then I’m going to embrace it.

Desirèe: See, that’s wonderful, isn’t it? Create your own standards. And I think as women, we almost can’t expect to have the same standards almost. Or if we do, it’s like, oh, you’ve done really well. Like, gosh, you’ve done really amazing. How did you manage to do so much? Like it’s really patronising, isn’t it?

Desirèe: Very, very patronising. And I feel like as women, I know it’s tiring because we didn’t ask to be women, but we’ve been given the job and responsibility and it’s tiring to have to explain yourself. It’s tiring to have to prove a point in every way. But what I would say to women is, don’t stop. Because especially in my environment where the majority of my team are males, it’s important for me to speak about women issues, whether I’m, you know, I’ve experienced a sexist system, experienced outside of the track or whether it’s body issues, because I also think that these men are also parents, these are uncles, these are male figures in women’s lives, and I want them to be able to feel confident, to be able to speak positivity into the other females that are in their lives. And if it means starting with having a conversation with myself, I’m all for it. So yeah, the male athletes in my group know I’m always talking.

Dr Louise: But it is so important and it seems so wrong that there has been such a difference between men in sport and women in sport for such a long time, and it still is there. I mean, you know, I’ve been doing some work with the Football Association and it’s still a real problem. But also I’ve been doing some work with WADA and some of the other athletic associations because there’s a big problem, I don’t know if you know, about women being able to have testosterone for medical purposes. So I, for example, I’m a menopausal women. I take testosterone because without it I have no memory. I have no concentration, I can’t sleep, I can’t do yoga because I have muscle and joint pain. I have optimised my oestrogen and progesterone, but I’m testosterone deficient, age 53. No surprise because levels decline as we age. I am not a professional athlete, so I can take testosterone and I can carry on working as a doctor. I have quite a few patients who have the same story as me, but they are professional athletes. They’re not allowed a medical exemption certificate, so therefore they can’t take testosterone. So they’re having to choose between their career and their wellbeing and their quality of life. And that’s a really difficult decision. But also if I was 22 and had a condition, maybe endometriosis, and I have my ovaries removed, my testosterone would plummet overnight with the operation, but I still wouldn’t be allowed, I’d be allowed to have oestrogen back, but not testosterone back. So it’s just seems so unfair. Whereas if I was a man and I had my testes removed and my testosterone level plummeted, I could get a certificate. So this is just talking about physiological replacement. I’m not talking about having super physiological doses. This is just to replace what’s missing. And we’re doing some work to try and make it more aware and more equal. So if men are allowed a medical exemption for a missing hormone, why can’t women? And it does just seem wrong in lots of ways, really.

Desirèe: It does. This is like I say, the first I’m hearing about this in comparison to like a man’s experience in comparison to a woman’s. And again, it just seems wrong. It’s just like, OK, what point do we consider health? You know, if it means that someone’s going to be suffering or increased pain, etc. Why are we not allowing certain things to be able to help people just live a normal life, let alone the performance aspect of it. But like you said, it’s like the people have to make a decision on what one’s more important, it shouldn’t be the case.

Dr Louise: Which is not, and I’m very much for equal. You know, I’m not saying that women should have more than men, but it is this equality. And I think the other thing is, is that sometimes not just in sport, but in work and various other things, it’s a lot easier for men to just stay in their lane and keep really focused and not have as many distractions. Whereas if someone is asking you things that may be a bit undermining or you feel inappropriate, or they’re wanting you to do something or wear something or be something, it must be a lot harder to be focused on what you want to do, which is train and be a really good athlete.

Dr Louise: Yeah. No, exactly. And I feel like I’ve had both experiences because prior to this year and being able to like focus full time on preparing for the Olympics, I was working and I was working in a tech job before, and it just made me kind of realise the dynamic difference between men and women that, you know, me going from an individual athlete that’s always around sportsmen and women to now going into a normal workplace and field, it made me feel self-conscious, I’ll be honest, about what I was wearing, and in the back of my mind I would be conscious, you know, in the summer, you know, if I have my arms out, what are they going to think? Is it going to even warrant questions? And I feel like it got to a stage for myself where I just started to wear whatever I wanted, and it just kind of made me feel like this needs to be accepted as a new normal, to the point where you don’t need to ask someone, well, what’s your workout routine? You know, of course there’s compliments here and there, but as time goes on, you kind of, myself anyway, I kind of felt like there’s that underlining either interest but kind of concern, or I’m not really a fan of this, but I’m going to ask you questions anyway, which is, yeah, it was a different experience, but yeah, that’s what I would say.

Dr Louise: So how have you managed to change your focus to how you are now, especially with Paris coming up, you know, to stay focussed and not be distracted? And somebody once said it’s like monkey chatter just like this noise that happens and, you know, how do you get rid of those thoughts and, you know, comments that could otherwise take over and change your direction?

Desirèe: I honestly, I’m grateful that I’ve at least gone to one Olympics. And so in my head, it’s not necessarily trying to do the same thing again, but it’s having a clearer idea of what it potentially takes. But when it comes to like other thoughts of other people, I would say that I’m mentally stronger now than I was a few years ago. Whereas, you know, the opinions of what a female would look like would really get to me when I was working out, you know, 21, 22 and those are like my peak years in a way. I was so self-conscious. Whereas now I openly and vocally, you know, try and put away some of those negative words when it comes to a woman’s image and I feel like I’m more focused than ever, I’m clear and I understand who I am as a woman. I’m again, I’m embracing myself and the goal that I have, yes, it’s a huge one, but I just think I just need to make the most out of every single day, whether it’s making sure that I’m giving it everything that I’ve got at training because I ultimately know come June, July, August, I’ll be able to look back and think and I would say to myself, I did it or I didn’t, and why did I make it or why didn’t I make it? And it’s more so, just again, making sure that I’m making the most out of every single day. Like I’m just so focused. I don’t think there’s anything anyone would say at this point that could really deter me. Like, yeah, I’m more focused and driven than ever.

Dr Louise: That’s amazing isn’t it because I often say to my children, especially if they’re worried about a particular event, just focus on the journey. You’ve got to enjoy the journey. And I think that is really important, isn’t it? Because I sometimes get frustrated with longer term goals that I want to do, but then you’re not in the here and now. So actually what you’re saying is what we should all be doing really isn’t is, you know, focus on every day.

Desirèe: Exactly. And I tell my friends and family, even if their goal is not to, you know, make an Olympic team, it could be a short-term goal if they’re willing to like, wanting to do lifestyle changes. It’s a case of, OK, well, just drink water every day, you know? But have you done that for one day? And then it adds into two days and then it adds into three days, and then you look back and you’re like, wow I was actually consistent for a week. So that’s why I like to just really enjoy the day, in the moment. What did I do? Did I help myself get even 1% better? Because eventually those percentages add up.

Dr Louise: Yeah, and do you feel a bit of a responsibility being a, because you are a role model. People are looking at you and going, wow, like how did she do it? This is incredible. And, you know, to be in a position where you can influence how people think in a very good way that’s, I mean, it’s enjoyable, but it has a bit of responsibility as well, doesn’t it?

Desirèe: It does have some responsibility because you kind of go from, you know, I’ve got this goal and dream for myself, but then suddenly you’ve got thousands or millions of people watching this dream and how you do it. And so I think very early on I kind of realised, oh, wow, like people are going to be watching the journey, meaning that they’re going to be watching how I interact, how I try and make it, and it does make me a little bit more conscious. But then it also makes me happy to know that I can speak about issues that I wish I heard as my younger self. And if I had heard, you know, a young teenager at the time I was a teenager, speaking about body image, speaking about body positivity, speaking about all these different things, it would have just given me that more confidence. And so that’s why I hope to be that person that, you know, is inspiring the young girls and just giving them that confidence just to really believe in themselves, whatever their background is, whatever their journey looks like. I’m just like, no, no, no, you can make it.

Dr Louise: Yeah. And I think that’s so important that people don’t just feel failures because it’s so easy and I think before social media, social media is obviously a double-edged sword, but even reading articles and everything else, in that, people only talk about the good things. You know, I’m the perfect boss, I’m the perfect mother, I’m the perfect whatever friend to, and I’m the perfect, I do the best exercise every single day. And every day is wonderful. Whereas when there’s some honesty threaded through that actually there are days that are difficult or there are people that say certain things, or there is a lot that you have to tell yourself and big yourself up because others aren’t always going to do it. Those little things are really making a big difference, I think, to how people live their lives as well.

Desirèe: I agree, I agree, and it’s that level of vulnerability that you have to be open and willing to open up and share with others because you can continue to fit in the mould of, you know, life is great, life is good. But that moment where you’re just like, that’s actually not fully true. Let me be honest and truthful. It actually reaches more people, and I feel like it resonates with so many more people than, you know, the fake style. [00:15:36][21.2]

Dr Louise: Yeah. And I think it’s I think it’s really important. I’m very open about, you know, all my faults and things that worry me because it makes us more human. And I think that is really important, having some humanity, which I don’t want to talk out of turn about men, but I do think they are so honest actually. If you get a group of women together we’ll all talk about struggles or things that we’ve done wrong or things that we could have done differently, whereas men, it’s like, no, everything’s perfect. And you know, that’s quite hard, isn’t it, when you’re growing up and nobody’s life is perfect. I really don’t believe them if they have a perfect life.

Desirèe: Despite what others may think no one’s life is.

Dr Louise: Yeah. So the other thing that I’m really interested in is not just menopause. I’m interested in hormones, as in only, well I’m interested in all hormones but the three hormones are oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone. So they’re, as I’m sure you know Desirèe, they’re hormones that are produced from our ovaries, but from our brains and actually our muscles and bones produce them as well. So they’re really important. But I’m really interested in how younger women perceive their hormones or misunderstand their hormones, because when we’re having regular periods or irregular periods, our hormone levels are fluctuating all the time, and we know that our hormones are really good at building muscle, they’re good at building bone. They’re also good at our mood and concentration and memory and personality. So when they’re fluctuating, especially before periods when they’re low, a lot of women feel quite flat. They feel quite low, they might feel irritable, they might not sleep as well, but also their stamina is not as good and they can’t exercise as well. Now, certainly I’m not an athlete, as I’ve said, but certainly just growing up at school, I was in a boarding school and often our periods seem to work together quite a lot, so we all had quite a few days of just feeling rubbish, then our period just come and then we carry on and we’d often skive our PE lesson, or because we just didn’t feel like it or whatever. Whereas you can’t do that when you’re an athlete, you have to be top of your game all the time. And is this something that this must affect athletes? I can’t believe that you don’t have hormones that are affecting your body the way that everyone else.

Desirèe: Oh yes, this affects me greatly. I even just think back to the 2016 Olympics where I was able to get a bronze medal. I was on my period during that time and it’s just like you don’t plan for it. Obviously there are different things now with technology. There are different apps that you can use to help track your periods, but at that time it was just me making a note in my calendar when it was going to start, or I couldn’t see how far in advance because I didn’t know if it was going to be, you know, seven days’ or nine days’ long. But it’s just one of those things where as a professional athlete, I’m still expected to perform, despite going through these hormonal phases that really affect my energy, that really affect my speed. You know, the way that my muscles contract, I feel like more female athletes are more prone to cramping during their period, especially during competitions. And it’s just one of those things where I’m still learning. I’m still trying to figure out what’s the best way to get the best performance of myself whilst I am on my period. And you know, that’s going through different experiments such as, you know, increasing my iron vitamin intake as I know that I’m going to be losing a lot of blood during that time, but ultimately it’s still even difficult to prepare building up to a competition, because there are some days where, you know, I don’t have the strength. I could lift the weight that’s extremely nice and easy in the gym and then in the build-up to my period or during my period, I can’t even lift half of the weight. And it’s frustrating because we somehow feel weak. Weak in every sense. You feel weak physically, it’s that thing in your mind where you’re telling yourself, is it just my mind that’s telling me that, you know I’m not as strong because it’s not making any sense. But the reality is hormonal changes make a huge impact on my body. So again, I’m still trying to figure this out myself, and I’m sure a lot of other female athletes are.

Dr Louise: Yeah. And it’s really interesting. So PMS, premenstrual syndrome, affects about 90% of us. So most of us, I think. And some people think, well, it’s only a day or two that you feel like that and then your period comes and you start to feel better. But actually that’s a lot. That’s a real… And if it comes on the day where you are… But actually, as clinicians, we see a lot of women with PMS. And when they have symptoms that are interfering either physically or psychologically with their life, we often give them a very small dose of hormones, usually oestrogen and progesterone, or maybe just sometimes progesterone because that drops more and it can be transformational. And they can suddenly, you know, they feel better, they feel a lot differently. Or some people have a low dose of hormone throughout the cycle. So it’s just topping up what’s needed. And it can really make a huge difference. And it’s been well documented for many decades. But lots of people, as in clinicians, don’t always understand hormones and think hormones are for women who are menopausal or older. Or if you’re younger, you have the contraceptive pill. But the contraception can be synthetic, so it can sometimes cause side effects. It doesn’t have the same natural biological processes that go on in the body that our normal hormones do. So we’re very lucky we can give the natural hormones so biochemically they’re exactly the same as your own hormones. But I’m sure there are a lot of athletes that don’t even realise that that is something that’s a possibility, and I don’t know how it would happen if men’s testosterone actually dropped for a few days a month. I’m sure it’d be a lot easier for them to see somebody and just get it fine tuned a bit, because all you’re doing is topping up to what it’s like the rest of the cycle. So you’re not giving more but it can be a massive difference to people who I see in the clinic and I’m just wondering why it’s not spilling out to allow others. You know, you’re saying, you know, it’s not a psychological thing. It’s not like, oh, I feel a bit tired, so I can’t lift this weight. Actually, it’s a physical thing because these hormones affect the way our cells work. They affect the energy that is taken up by your muscle cells. They help the mitochondrial function. They affect all these chemical reactions in our muscle cells. And so it’s not just, oh, I’m feeling a bit flat, I don’t want to exercise. It’s a very different thing. And I feel very strongly that it should be addressed so that women have equal opportunities throughout every day of their cycle if they’re noticing a difference.

Desirèe: See that’s fantastic, because I didn’t even know that the option to be able to have something to, like increase your oestrogen exists. Like even if it is a top up, the only forms of like help during the period that I’ve been aware of is just either taking paracetamol, ibuprofen, or just being put on birth control. It was very like, you know, here are your limited options. There you go. And I’m one of however many athletes that you know, I didn’t want to go through the contraception route only because, again, I didn’t know how it was going to affect my body, I’ve got other athletes, you know, explaining some of their symptoms, whether it’s increase of acne, etc. And it’s just like, why must we continue to suffer for something that’s, you know, natural.

Dr Louise: Yeah. And it’s very interesting because as an athlete, you’re allowed contraception aren’t you, you’re allowed to have contraception, which is great, don’t get me wrong. But all contraception contains synthetic hormones. So actually what they do is they block our natural natural hormones working. And the combination oral contraceptive pill will block your natural testosterone in your body. Now some people don’t notice it. And if they’re fine, they’re fine. But some people will notice. And so they might find that they have some mental health symptoms, but they also might find that they’re less physically strong as well. And so there is a big movement really to think about our natural hormones being replaced rather than synthetic hormones. And the other thing I see a lot of women who have heavy periods and they’ve had them for years and they go, oh, do you know what, it’s just me, I’m always but it’s like if you’re having heavy periods and you’re performing as an athlete, the last thing you want is to be leaking or having a problem. Like, how do you do it?

Desirèe: I was going to say, I feel like you’re speaking to myself right now, and other people are surprised, especially the other female athletes that I talk to, when I say that I have heavy periods. And I think it’s just the assumption that because I’m fit and healthy, you know, it’s going to affect what my periods are like. I bet, I’m sure they say that you barely have a period or it’s very, very light. And I’m just like, no, it’s very, very much so the opposite. And I got to the stage where I even went to go to my local GP, just to find out if there was like any underlying issues, whether it’s polycystic ovaries or anything like that, because I personally felt like this was not normal, you know, having to change almost every hour during the first couple of days of my period or something like that. In regards to, you know, all I want to think about is training and running fast and lifting my weight. And during that time I felt like and even feel like now, that’s when I’m most vulnerable to so many different things, because now I’m conscious about, you know, if I’m going to leak, that’s a period of time where I’m only wearing black. I’m not willing to, you know, take the risk of wearing bright colours because of worrying of leaking, etc. You know, there’s the stomach cramps, despite being and having access and knowledge to so many different things that are going to help me. The reality is, sometimes it works for one person well, but it doesn’t work extremely well for the other. So that’s why I also say I’m still in the experimental space to be able to figure out what really works well for myself during that time.

Dr Louise: Yeah, and it’s so important. I was actually down in Cambridge University last night talking about this very topic with Kate Muir, who’s written a book about contraceptives. And my daughter, I’ve got three daughters, my oldest one’s 21, and she uses a Jaydess, which is like a small coil which contains progestogen in it. It lasts for three years. And actually then it means she doesn’t have periods at all. And her periods were really heavy. She was flooding the beds, you know, horrible. And she had PMS. So she’s done a podcast with me so I’m not breaking any sort of confidentiality talking about my 21 year old. But she uses this coil so she has no periods at all. It works for contraception. And then she adds back with some oestrogen patches. So she has no fluctuation of her hormones. She has no PMS. She’s like pretty much the same every day. So she’s great and a lot of her friends are going I want that.

Desirèe: Exactly.

Dr Louise: So you know, but it is an option because also the other thing is, is that there a lot of people, it’s wonderful, the best thing about being menopausal is not having periods. There’s very few women who really want to carry on having periods. But there are some women who try not to have periods by changing their weight. And there are some people if they are extreme athletes, and certainly if their metabolism isn’t quite right or the nutrition isn’t quite right, and I’ve seen it with some of my patients that they stop their periods and they’re going, do you know what Dr Newson, this is fantastic. I’m not having my periods. And I’m like, hang on a minute. That means if you’re not having periods and you’re not having any contraception, you know, it’s just switched off. That means you’re not producing those hormones. So you’ve got a risk of osteoporosis and stress fractures. You’ve got risk of future health problems. So I don’t know whether that’s anything that you’ve seen with any of your people that you work with at all.

Desirèe: Definitely. I feel like there’s been a few cases amongst like distance runners and distance runner friends that I’m aware of in the sense of that their weight has significantly dropped to the point where they don’t have periods anymore. But I think not only was that the alarming thing, what was more alarming was how common it was. And given how young some of these female athletes are, you know, it’s just like that shouldn’t be the recipe to be able to be a great athlete by not having a period doesn’t mean that, you know, you’re carrying extra weight that’s gonna, you know, not allow you to perform as well. And I just feel like having conversations like this and just bringing awareness to the fact that it’s important to have a period and, you know, if your coach or whoever is advising you to lose weight to the point where you have stopped your period or even if you have noticed that your period has stopped, I feel like that’s the time to bring attention to it. Speak to whoever, because that’s not normal in the sense of in the long run. Yes, you may think performance wise, oh this is great, but again, you mentioned osteoporosis, etc. These are things that are going to be essentially damaging to your body. And that’s not what we’re trying to do right now. [00:28:16][67.6]

Dr Louise: We’re all different. Like, as you know, our body shapes are different. Even if we were doing all the same exercise, we would all look different. And we have to accept that as women that some of us will have bigger busts, some of us will have bigger bottoms. That’s just life, unfortunately. But if we go below a weight that’s good for us, because we’re all different, then it means that our body is saying we won’t want to get pregnant because it’s not healthy for us. So the weight when I was your age and the weight, of your, you know, would be very different. Because we’re metabolically different. We’re built differently. We’re different races. It’s so much that’s different. But actually we need to be thinking, well, where are those hormones? Because I’ve already said that biologically active, they work in our body and our brain, but also if they’re helping us, we don’t want to be without them. But there are ways of having hormones without having periods as well. And that’s something that, again, is really important for people to realise.

Desirèe: Very, very important to realise. And I think it’s also for the parents to even, you know, be educated because as your child or teen enters that phase where they are going to start to have their periods, etc, I feel like it’s just important to be able to be clued up on what’s normal and what’s not normal. And then again, I always just think long term, we’re never going to be swimmers forever. We’re never going to be professional athletes forever. And by the time it is the end of your career, if you want to have kids because, you know, not everyone wants to. But if you physically want to have kids, you just want to know that you put your body in a position that allows it to do so. So that’s what I’m also conscious of.

Dr Louise: Which is so important. But it’s also looking at your future health. You want your bones to be strong, you want your heart to be strong. And I think, well, you know far more than me, but athletes are looking more long term than they ever were before. So I think in the past no one really thought probably what people ate or what vitamins or whatever. So, you know, so I think people are looking more, mental health is obviously really important, which never was done before, but also what they’re eating, everything else is… But it shouldn’t just be for the race or for the training. It’s looking beyond that. And like you said before about how we can improve our lifestyles, anything that you do that makes you feel better, yeah, you’re more likely to do it aren’t you as well, which I think is really important.

Desirèe: 100%. You don’t want to go for anything where you find it exhausting or draining or, you know, just doesn’t add any positivity to your life. But I’m sure if you find the right balance, as you know, I’m still a professional athlete. So I’ve found a balance to an extent. And it honestly just makes life so much easier. And I want more people to be able to experience that.

Dr Louise: Yeah, it’s really amazing. I could talk to you forever, but we’ve covered quite a lot in a short space of time. It’s been really, really inspirational. But before I end, I’m not going to let you end without asking for three take-home tips. So three things. It’s going to be hard because I want you to help everybody who’s listening. So, three tips where people are going to listen and think, yeah I can do that. Whether it’s a mental thing or a physical thing, just come away from this podcast and go, yeah, she’s right there. I’m going to do that.

Desirèe: Yeah, I would say the first thing would be to set one goal every day. And that one goal, like I mentioned before, it could be drinking water. It could be having a piece of fruit, but it’s one goal that’s ultimately going to add up to a week. And I feel like everyone can do that. Again you don’t have to be training for the Olympics or anything big, it’s just one goal that’s ultimately going to help or benefit your lifestyle in a positive way, and that you can also think back and thank yourself in the future. I feel like that’s the first one. The second one would be to try and incorporate not necessarily a space, but incorporate exercise into your lifestyle. This doesn’t mean going out of your way to go to a gym, or putting yourself in an environment that’s honestly going to make you uncomfortable. It could mean watching a YouTube video at home. It could mean you’re watching a YouTube video that’s yoga. It’s something that just allows your body to move. You know, getting it will increase some blood flow around the body, getting in some extra stretching. And I would say the third thing, because I’m also all about other people, is just checking in on people more often. You know, there’s a thing of asking someone how you are. Like, if I was to ask you, how are you today? You know, there’s that thing that somebody cares and more times than none, someone is going to appreciate, you know, you just doing a normal check in and finding out how they are, not as a colleague, not as, you know, an athlete or whatever, but just personal, human to human, just checking in on someone and asking how they are. So those would be my main three things that I think everyone is capable of doing.

Desirèe: It’s so important. I absolutely, totally agree. And they’re all achievable as well. And they will all also make you feel better about yourself. Definitely, because as I’m older and I’m a lot older than you, I am getting very selfish and thinking self-care is crucial because then I can help others more. So doing those things for ourselves but self-care is crucial. But checking in with others is so important in a real way. Not just a text, but a verbal.

Desirèe: Verbal way, meet up, plan that brunch or whatever, but yeah, spend some time and really check in with someone.

Dr Louise: Excellent. Thank you so much and good luck as well.

Desirèe: No, thank you so so much. I’m like really really excited. Again I’m just like so grateful that I get to train towards this Paris Olympics and for myself none of this would be possible in the sense of being out here in Texas training if it wasn’t for Domestic & General, they’re one of my main sponsors that have helped me get here and then will be continuing to support me for the rest of the season. So, yeah, I’m just looking forward to the rest of the year right now.

Dr Louise: Wonderful. It’s been real privilege. And maybe one day we’ll meet in real life as well. Who knows, so thank you.

Desirèe: When we’re both back in the same country.

Dr Louise: Indeed. So take care and thank you very much.

Desirèe: Thank you for having me. Take care.

Desirèe: You can find out more about Newson Health Group by visiting www.newsonhealth.co.uk, and you can download the free balance app on the App Store or Google Play.

ENDS