Welcome to my website!
Here you will find reliable information about Women’s Health, especially about symptoms and treatments for Perimenopause and Menopause, such important phases, but unfortunately, often misdiagnosed by some health professionals.
Due to the challenges of our daily lives, we know how difficult it is to prioritise our physical and mental health. Nothing is better than having specialised professional support to help us on this journey. Therefore, I’m offering my support to help you achieve your goals for a healthier and more fulfilled life.
Establishing this direct connection with you is an honour, and I hope to help you through the information provided on this website and professional contacts.
But, first of all, I’d like to introduce myself and tell you a little more about my story as a doctor, mother and, above all, as a woman.
Personal challenges
I’m Dr Alba Pereira, and I currently work as a General Practitioner for the NHS (National Health Service) in London, UK. I moved to England more than 15 years ago, leaving Brazil, where I studied Medicine, Residency as General Surgeon, and started my specialisation in Plastic Surgery. Around this time, I decided to come to London to live with my fiancè. I left my job, my financial independence, my English was very basic, and I was seven months pregnant. The frustration of not understanding the healthcare system associated with the language barrier was enormous.
I remember taking my newborn daughter to receive her first vaccination with the GP nurse (General Practitioner), and I couldn’t understand any instructions. The feeling of powerlessness, exclusion, and not belonging to that society was enormous and negatively affected me, as my basic needs were unmet.
I wasn’t happy in general. My marriage wasn’t going well, and I had no money or family support to help me with my daughter. So I decided to reorganise my life, and the first step was to improve my communication by improving my English and trying to understand my environment.
It wasn’t easy, but it was possible. Today, I work as a General Practioner (GP), a Family Doctor, at Imperial College in Central London. I am passionate about diversity, social inclusion and women’s health and will gladly share information about it.
Regarding new info for this blog, we can start by discussing in general about NHS. I am open to suggestions on medical topics, answering questions about how the NHS works or giving health and wellness tips.
What is NHS?
The NHS (National Health Service) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world, after the Brazilian Unified Health System.
It’s a complex system that has continuously changed since its inception. These changes are happening at an accelerated pace lately because of the ageing population, the emergence of expensive medicines, Brexit and due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19. All parts of the NHS are being overhauled, making it difficult for employees to understand the new rules.
Requiring the patient to understand these steps automatically would be unrealistic for a healthcare professional. Even the native English patient needs to be guided through the system. When a patient requests clarification of doubts or questions about the options offered by the NHS, he is not showing weakness but rather maturity. These clarifications will provide security for making informed decisions. But for that, the patient has to be open to understanding a system different from the model he was used to.
This system could be better and is in urgent need of reform. On the other hand, the NHS is a public health system that offers quality care on a non-profit basis to people of all social classes, a system that survives in a capitalist world bombarded by a highly developed pharmaceutical industry.
I’m sure that our journey on this website will be enriching, especially for me, an immigrant who went through difficulties in the same way as most readers. Educating yourself about the environment we are living in, including the health system, will open the way to a healthier life with better quality of life in every sense.
I look forward to suggestions for the following blog topics and will try to include how the NHS works according to the chosen topic.
Thank you so much for your attention and engagement.
Dr Alba Pereira