Read More: Hot flushes and HRT: everything you need to know about the menopause explained
Abu Dhabi Health Services (Seha) has opened its first clinic in the emirate dedicated to helping women going through the menopause.
Menopause could potentially be one of the most stressful stages in a woman’s life if not managed correctly.
It is the time that marks the end of a woman’s menstrual cycles and can happen when a woman is in her 40s or 50s.
Menopause is commonly marked by an onset of hot flushes and night sweats.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that menopause means that you are getting old, that it is end of the fertility and the beginning of ageing
Dr Alia Al Dhaheri,
Ambulatory Healthcare Services
To help ease the transition, Seha’s Ambulatory Healthcare Services has opened a dedicated menopause clinic at Al Zafaranah diagnostic and screening centre.
Seha said the clinic gives women the privacy needed to go through a period of their adult life that for some can be distressing.
“We wanted to offer standardised and exceptional, high-quality care to women in Abu Dhabi,” said Dr Alia Al Dhaheri, acting chairwoman of AHS’s obstetrics and gynaecology department and consultant family physician.
The clinic offers women multidisciplinary care with a range of specialities and doctors under one roof.
Since opening earlier this year, they have treated more than 50 women.
“This would benefit patients as they receive a comprehensive range of care in one destination rather than having scattered and fragmented care at several clinics,” said Dr Deepti Kansal, obstetrics and gynaecology specialist.
“Previously the patient would visit a physician for a medical condition but would also have hot flashes for example. This might not be fully addressed and the patient may continue to live with it.”
The clinic also has a psychologist and a psychiatrist on board to support women experiencing the mental health challenges of menopause, such as anxiety and depression.
They also offer hormone replacement therapy to help balance the disruption of hormones caused by menopause.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that menopause means that you are getting old, that it is end of the fertility and the beginning of ageing,” Dr Al Dhaheri said.
"I see menopause as a natural phase of a woman’s life which means that she has become more mature and does not mean that she has aged.
"We are here to listen to her concerns and help improve her quality of life and ease their journey."
Life-changing
For one Emirati mother of three, the clinic changed her life.
The 45-year-old has perimenopause, which means her body is making the natural transition to menopause. Her cycle started becoming disrupted a few years ago.
“I don’t know how to describe it but you don’t feel feminine anymore and you lose all emotions. I felt hard emotionally,” she told The National.
The hot flushes, she said, were confusing.
“I hated myself and found no pleasure in anything. I was anxious and fed up and angry at times," she said.
"It is a whole range of negative emotions that I find hard to describe. It felt like there was no joy in living and I was just going through the motions.”
She was prescribed hormone replacement therapy at the clinic.
“That helped balance my hormones and I did all my checks and tests there and for the first time I feel like a woman again," she said.
"The clinic literally changed my life. I feel young, energetic and like a woman again.”
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She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
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March 4-8: First Test, Rawalpindi
March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi
March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore
March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi
March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi
April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi
April 5: T20I, Rawalpindi
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3.45pm: Jebel Ali Sprint by ARM Holding – Listed (TB) Dh500,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Khuzaam, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Shadwell – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Tenbury Wells, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
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All persons admitted to Poland are verified by the Border Guard. In relation to those who are in doubt, e.g. do not have documents, Border Guard officers apply appropriate checking procedures.
No person who has received refuge in Poland will be sent back to a country torn by war.
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Soft power was first mentioned in 1990 by former US Defence Secretary Joseph Nye.
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Soft power is, at its root, the ability to convince other states to do what you want without force.
This is traditionally achieved by proving that you share morals and values.
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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
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Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
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Sector: Technology and home services
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