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Menopause exercise clinic

Posted By HotMess22

"Menopause exercise clinic"

About: Royal Hospital for Women / Physiotherapy Department

(as a service user),

I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes beginning of last year and also hit hard with perimenopausal symptoms.

Feeling quite low in myself I was referred to the menopause clinic at RHW. I entered a survey displayed in the waiting room regarding menopause symptoms. I met with Julia one of the physio therapist and started to attend the Monday exercise class.

I am very grateful that this service is available. I've met other women going through similar struggles and gained more confidence in myself. I have learned valuable information, exercises to fit and help to maintain my lifestyle changes.

They physios that have ran the sessions are knowledgeable and adjusting the exercise to each woman's need and fitness level.

Being able to exercise with physios specialised in the changes we are enduring has been extremely helpful to us.

I am feeling so much more comfortable in my own skin and more empowered than ever to take back a bit of control over my ageing and changing body.

Overall my symptoms have improved and I feel that I am much stronger and confident in myself to be active and maintain my exercise. We were shown many exercises one can easily do at home. It is a great service and I am very glad to have been able to access it.

I hope that many women will be able to have access to this service as it is a great stepping stone into the right direction to make nessessary chances, be confident, feel like a person again

I am highly recommending this service.

The only downside was that it only runs once a week.

Towards the end of the year the classes became quite busy with more women attending making it a bit difficult for the physios to run the session and attending to newcomers assessments.

Perhaps a weekly or second weekly class could be beneficial for women trying to exercise at home but would like a check in/guidance ever so often?

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Responses

Response from Hannah Graetz, Manager, Physiotherapy, Royal Hospital for Woman 11 months ago
Hannah Graetz
Manager, Physiotherapy,
Royal Hospital for Woman

Submitted on 8/01/2024 at 9:39 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:12 AM

Dear Hotmess22

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your recent experience with The Royal Hospital for Women menopause service, physiotherapy & our exercise clinic.

I am thrilled to hear how you feel the exercise clinic and help of the physiotherapists have made a difference to your health and experience of menopause symptoms. I'm impressed by the variety of ways you describe that the physiotherapy exercise clinic has helped you, from connecting with other women experiencing similar symptoms, learning about the menopause and exercise and building and maintaining lifestyle habits, through to improved symptoms, physical fitness and confidence in yourself. It sounds like you have done a remarkable job to improve your health at this really challenging time in a woman's life.

We are fortunate to have a team of dedicated women's health physiotherapists at The Royal Hospital for Women who set-up this new and exciting exercise clinic. So it is also pleasing to hear you were able to link into the service via the survey in the waiting room. The physiotherapy service is working to expand on this work, to be able to provide 1:1 appointments alongside the doctors in clinic. We hope that with this change, more people attending the menopause clinic will have access to the range of ways that physiotherapy can improve menopause symptoms and its consequences.

Thank you too for thoughts about the frequency of classes. I agree, exercise clinics like this, supervised by physiotherapists are even more effective when provided twice and even three times per week. We hope to be able to make the improvements you have suggested as part of the roll out of the Menopause Hub for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District over the coming year, which may include more physiotherapy and other allied health staff.

I have forwarded your kind comments and feedback to the Menopause Clinic staff and Physiotherapy team members, including Julia.

Thank you again for sharing your story and insights so generously, which go a long way to improving the services we provide and inspiring others to access support.

Kind regards

Hannah Graetz

Acting Manager, Physiotherapy

The Royal Hospital for Women

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