List of All Articles with Tag 'p'

Mariella Frostrup said she looks forward to a future where women “stop feeling so ashamed” of their bodies. The broadcaster, author and former Observer agony aunt, who has been known for her work as a menopause campaigner over recent years, also said “the world is not changing fast enough” when it comes to awareness and support for women’s health experiences. “[There has been] centuries of misinformation and misunderstanding that’s gone on around menopause. You have to look to history to see where we’ve ended up – and then in a more optimistic vein, look forward to a future where women gradually stop feeling so ashamed,” Frostrup, 60, told the PA news agency. “I mean, everything to do with women’s bodies has been a source of shame. I remember as a teenager, I was hiding my Tampax underneath cereal packets when I went to the shops to buy them, because I was so ashamed of the fact I was having a period. “You look at young people today, and I just love it when young women will announce to a roomful of people, ‘Oh, I’m on my period’. That is a great indication of the sort of liberation we need to experience around our bodies.” Frostrup, who wrote an advice column for the Observer for a decade and joined Times Radio as a presenter in 2020, co-authored the 2021 book Cracking The Menopause and is chair of the Menopause Mandate collective, whose aim is to ‘revolutionise’ the support and advice women receive through their midlife health challenges and beyond. She has now teamed up with Always Discreet on a campaign highlighting bladder leakage. Despite affecting around half of women, many (50%) are unaware this can be a common symptom of menopause, according to a survey by the brand. Of those who do experience bladder leaks during menopause, the poll (of 1,200 women) also found more than 50% are not sure they would want to discuss it with anyone, with some (19%) citing embarrassment as the reason. Frostrup, who has a teenage son and daughter with husband, lawyer Jason McCue, is keen to highlight, however, that bladder leakage is often one of the menopause symptoms women can effectively self-manage – through pelvic floor exercise. These are simple exercises that involve squeezing the muscles around the pelvis, bladder and vaginal area. The campaign sees Frostrup and TV medic Dr Philippa Kaye encouraging women to ‘Squeeze the Day’ every day, with daily pelvic floor exercises. “It’s something a lot of women live with, a lot of women don’t talk about, and a lot of women feel ashamed about – but it is actually something you can tackle, when there’s so many other symptoms women struggle to obtain treatment for,” said Frostrup. “Here’s something you can personally take agency of, and do your pelvic floor exercises. “My mum, weirdly – and I have no idea why, because I was a teenager in the Seventies – was very vocal about the need to do pelvic floor exercises. I think probably back then, it was more to do with childbirth and making that a bit easier in the future, but I was lucky in a way, as it’s something I’ve had an understanding about – although I’m still practicing how to do them without raising my eyebrows,” she added, laughing. “With so many of these things, you need a bit of levity as well. Obviously, [bladder leakage] is not the most pleasant thing – but it’s not the end of the world, and you can prevent it and actually make a difference if you’re already suffering.” Frostrup is certain that lack of awareness and support around menopause has made it “so much more difficult” for those affected, and that there’s still work to be done. “I think for an awful long time, our ignorance around the subject has made the transition through perimenopause and menopause so much more difficult,” she said. “The discovery that one in two women are going to suffer from bladder leaks – that’s an astounding proportion, particularly when you look at it as just one of 50 symptoms around menopause that women are unaware of. “I think there’s an issue in that menopause is now presented as something everybody knows about – ‘yada, yada, why is it still being talked about? You’ve got everything you wanted, now get on with it’ – and I think that’s absolutely not the case,” Frostrup continued. “Based on the thousands of women who’ve written to us at Menopause Mandate and talked to us about their symptoms, the treatment, the support they’ve been able to access, their experiences in the workplace and so on. What’s clear is that the world is not changing fast enough for these disenfranchised women. “We don’t want to rest on our laurels and just think, ‘Oh, everything’s fine now’. We’re still at base level – we’ve still got Everest to climb, when it comes to just recognition and support for women.” Mariella Frostrup has partnered with Always Discreet on their ‘Squeeze the Day, Every Day’ missions. Find out more about pelvic floor exercises via the Always Discreet Menopause Hub. (Speak to your GP if you are concerned about bladder leakage).

In the celebratory aftermath of England’s qualification for Euro 2024, Jude Bellingham was in little mood to qualify his opinion. The Real Madrid midfielder just went out and said how Gareth Southgate’s side deserved the win over Italy because they were the “much better” team. There was no diplomacy there, just a striking stridency. It created a very different mood to the last time a match between the two teams led to a tournament qualification, amid scenes that received a new prominence recently due to the David Beckham documentary. That was the 1997 0-0 draw in Rome, which saw England qualify automatically for the 1998 World Cup. The suffocating tension of that match bore so little resemblance to the stroll of Tuesday’s game, at least for Gareth Southgate’s side. Then, Christian Vieri’s late header caused audible gasps within the Stadio Olimpico, no doubt to match those around the country. The ball went just wide, though, to bring huge emotional release and Paul Gascoigne dancing. The sense of achievement was profound. It was admittedly a different football and a very different Italy, with some of the intensity influenced by England’s failure to reach USA 94, but it was still just qualification - and that for a newly expanded 32-team event. It was also a hugely talented squad, filled by some of the most relentless winners the English game has known in so many of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United stars. And yet this England now has something more, as well as much more than just the expectation of qualification. It is more than the experience of reaching the latter stages of tournaments and so many other psychological milestones like beating Italy away. It is that assuredness, personified by Bellingham. There is something genuinely different in the midfielder, a potential missing ingredient for a team that last came within a penalty shoot-out of victory in this very competition. It is personality as much as performance. It points to an England that can be defined by “winners” at international level, that is able to rise to any given day because they are completely devoid of all the old baggage. This is something that Bellingham’s very youth represents, as well as his admirable willingness to just go straight to Real Madrid rather than feel he has to go to the Premier League. It’s similarly difficult not to think that the mood that fosters also fortifies the confidence of other players with England. That was maybe most visible in Marcus Rashford’s finish, as well as a level of display we haven’t seen so much with his club of late. None of this is to say it’s all down to Bellingham, of course. It’s rather what his mindset represents and rounds off. “He has been a catalyst,” Southgate said after the 3-1 win. “The way he carries himself and plays on the field and shows that, and he has had that since he walked through the door. Plus the power in his play, that gives us something when you are in tight situations and he can suddenly wriggle out of things… That belief, that willingness to engage with the crowd, they are rare traits in a player so young.” They are especially rare in historic England squads, right up to the recent successes. Southgate has navigated his sides through all that from fine man-management of a brilliant generation, where the Football Association have essentially become the latest wealthy western European football nation to industrialise talent production. Bellingham is the sort of player that eventually comes out of that, a final product if you like, but one that often requires a lot of patience. Putting all the pieces in place just gives you the best chance, rather than giving you a certainty of having the best player. These are of course the terms that are already framing the discussion around Bellingham. That isn’t English media exaggeration, either. It was the first question put to Southgate by Italian media. It dominated the late-night football discussion in Spain. The world is talking about Bellingham. It might yet see England dominate these Euros, in the same way they did to Italy to get there. Read More Jude Bellingham once again proves he is the key for England’s Euro 2024 hopes England have qualified for Euro 2024 — now it’s about winning it Gareth Southgate savours win and says England are ‘capable of winning’ Euro 2024 Jude Bellingham once again proves he is the key for England’s Euro 2024 hopes England have qualified for Euro 2024 — now it’s about winning it

UK inflation failed to slow as forecast in September as rising oil prices offset downward pressures from food

MILAN Shares in Italy's Nexi failed to start trading at open on Wednesday due to excessive gains fuelled

Protests erupted across the Middle East following the deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital as Israeli and Palestinian officials traded accusations over who was to blame just hours before US President Joe Biden is set to arrive in Tel Aviv.

Beijing has vigorously protested the U.S. Commerce Department's latest update of export controls to prevent exports to China of advanced computer chips and the equipment to make them

Any potential equity market rally is at risk if geopolitical uncertainty escalates further, according to Goldman Sachs Group

The pop star was in her late teens and dating Justin Timberlake at the time, according to memoir extracts.

Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, and Rickie Fowler are playing for the first time since the Ryder Cup, hoping there’s no individual hangover from the Americans’ lopsided loss to Team Europe in Italy three weeks ago

SYDNEY Australia will ask its competition watchdog to monitor domestic passenger flights in a bid to boost competition

By Laurie Chen and Yew Lun Tian BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against decoupling from China as he

At least two civilians were killed and several injured after missiles pounded Zaporizhzhia city, destroying several buildings in the area as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continued for 20 months. Russian and Ukrainian forces traded blame for the series of explosions that rang in the southeast Ukrainian city in the early morning of Wednesday. Ukrainian secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city council said a search and rescue operation was underway at the site after the Russian airstrikes destroyed buildings. "At this time, it is known that two people were killed and four were injured. Three more people are considered missing," Anatoliy Kurtiev said. Yuriy Malashko, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said that eight apartment buildings were damaged in what he also said was a Russian missile attack. Pictures of a five-storey building destroyed in the attack showed windows blown out and the entrance with rubble scattered around it. A Moscow-installed official in the Russia-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia blamed the strikes on Ukrainian forces. Vladimir Rogov, the leader of the “We Are Together With Russia” pro-Kremlin collaborationist organisation that operates in Russia-held parts of Zaporizhzhia oblast, called it a Ukrainian blunder. “According to preliminary information, one of the explosions was caused by a [missile that] hit an apartment building as a result of criminal deeds by clumsy air defense troops of the Ukrainian armed forces," Mr Rogov wrote on Telegram. The Ukrainian governor of the city said that it was attacked at least six times between 1.30am to 1.48am local time. The city of Zaporizhzhia is the administrative centre of the broader Zaporizhzhia region in southeast Ukraine, which is now partially controlled by Russia. Ongoing clashes persist along the front lines, particularly affecting the Ukrainian-held towns of Avdiivka, Kupyansk, and Lyman, which have endured sustained heavy bombardment from Russian forces in recent days. In the town of Avdiivka in the east where Russia launched one of the largest assaults last week since the war began Russian forces continued push to capture the key region serving as the crucial gateway to Moscow-controlled Donetsk. President Vladimir Putin, who is travelling to China to meet Xi Jinping, said on Sunday that his forces have made gains in their offensive, including in Avdiivka. But Kyiv said enemy forces suffered heavy forces and they continued to hold ground in Avdiivka. Oleksandr Shtupun, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern group of forces, told national television that Russia that Ukrainian forces have repelled numerous attacks, including 10 in the past 24 hours. Mr Shtupun also reported “partial success” in Ukrainian forces’ southward advance toward the Sea of Azov, specifically to the west of Verbove, among the cluster of villages they are attempting to seize. Meanwhile, in Slovyansk, a Russian attack has led to the destruction of a dormitory building, with two individuals believed to be trapped beneath the rubble, as reported by Ukraine’s emergency services. In Odesa, Russian drones that were shot down have caused damage to a yacht club and several yachts, though no casualties have been reported. Ukraine continues its counter-offensive to reclaim territory occupied by Russia in the eastern and southern regions, albeit with slow progress, marked by frequent air attacks on Russian positions in a bid to undermine Moscow’s war effort. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s forces suffer blow as Kyiv fires US ATACMS missiles for first time The US quietly delivered new long-range missiles to Ukraine. Why the sudden secrecy over aid? Israel-Hamas war latest: ‘At least 500 killed’ in strike on Gaza hospital as IDF denies blame