There are some health awareness weeks that feel particularly close to the work I do every day, and Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week is certainly one of them.
This year’s theme is wonderfully simple:
Do it anyway.
Don’t wait until life is less busy.
Don’t wait until you have more energy.
Don’t wait until Monday, next month or when everything else is finally sorted.
When it comes to your health, sometimes the most important thing is simply to start somewhere.
And after years of working with women in my clinic, I think that is a message many of us need to hear.
The Woman Behind Women’s Health Week
I also think it is important to recognise Dr Dorothy Jean Hailes AM, the remarkable Australian doctor whose work helped change women’s healthcare.
Jean became concerned about how little attention was being given to women during midlife and menopause. In 1971, she established Australia’s first dedicated menopause clinic at Prince Henry’s Hospital in Melbourne — one of the first clinics of its kind in the world.
At a time when women’s symptoms were not always openly discussed or adequately understood, she believed women deserved information, choices and the opportunity to be heard.
Jean died in 1988, but her colleagues continued the work she had begun. Jean Hailes for Women’s Health was later established in her honour, and that legacy eventually gave us the Women’s Health Week we recognise across Australia today.
I love knowing there was a woman behind the name who was prepared to say:
We need to listen to women differently.
Why This Week Matters to Me as a Naturopath
Women make up such an important part of my clinical world, and they don’t always arrive saying, “I know exactly what is wrong.”
More often I hear:
“I just don’t feel like myself.”
It might be her energy, periods, menopause, fertility, digestion, skin, weight, sleep, stress, hair or simply a collection of little changes that don’t seem to make sense together.
This is where I believe naturopathy has something valuable to offer.
I have the opportunity to look at the whole woman — her nutrition, sleep, stress, hormones, digestion, skin, lifestyle, pathology, medications, supplements and the different systems of her body — and ask one of my favourite questions:
What changed?
Because sometimes understanding when and why things began to change helps us understand what the body may need now.
Five Days — Five Simple Reminders
I particularly love the way Women’s Health Week has been structured this year:
Monday — To Fuel
Nutrition and food habits.
Tuesday — To Move
Movement and physical activity.
Wednesday — To Rest
Sleep and rest.
Thursday — To Breathe
Mental wellbeing.
Friday — To Connect
Relationships, community and connection.
Over the five days of Women’s Health Week, I will be exploring each of these individually because they are all things I talk about in naturopathic practice.
But there is something else I want women to notice.
None of them say “be perfect.”
You don’t need the perfect diet.
You don’t need the perfect exercise program.
You don’t need eight perfect hours of sleep every night.
You don’t need to have your stress completely under control.
And you certainly don’t need to have your whole life sorted before you begin looking after yourself.
So What Could “Do It Anyway” Mean for You?
It might mean eating breakfast.
Taking a ten-minute walk.
Going to bed half an hour earlier.
Booking the health check you keep postponing.
Getting the blood test.
Talking about the symptom you’ve been ignoring.
Calling someone.
Asking for help.
Or finally saying:
“Something has changed in me, and I would like to understand why.”
That counts too.
Women’s Health Week doesn’t need to be about completely changing your life in five days.
Perhaps it can simply be the week you decide that your health deserves a place on your own list.
Fuel. Move. Rest. Breathe. Connect.
Choose the one your body needs most.
Start there.
And if life isn’t perfect?
Do it anyway.
— Charmaine D
Naturopath & Skin Aesthetician
Adelaide & Virtual Consultations