Dr. Louise Newson

No one uses that word.

And I said, well, okay.

If you want to publish my book, you have the word perimenopause on.

And it's really interesting because a lot of people still don't know what it is or what's going on.

Menopause has always been about stopping periods and hot flushes.

Whereas actually the perimenopause, the lead up to the menopause, is often far worse for women.

because you get these real shifts and changes in hormone levels.

And the biggest symptoms or the most commonest and most severe symptoms are those affecting the brain and mental health.

And so, so many women have been misunderstood for decades because they have been misdiagnosed with anxiety and depression and it's all in your head and it can't be.

It can't be your hormones because you're still having your periods.

So it's so interesting because I feel very strongly that women are really intuitive and actually give them the information they can work it out themselves.

But often they haven't had the information.

So what you're doing is completely just validating them, that you're allowing them to be heard and understood, which perhaps they haven't been before.

Well, this is what's interesting actually, because it's officially when people have been a year since their last period, but it's just bullshit, excuse my language, because why should we be defined by a period?

And a lot of women, if they've had, for example, a hysterectomy, they're never going to have periods, so you can't work it out.

So it's really related to our hormone levels being low and they stay low forever.

So actually, a woman is menopausal forever.

And a lot of people think it's just a transition and then you come out the other side.

And as you know, one of the things I'm very interested in is the protective roles of our hormones in our body.

So even if people don't have symptoms, they have health risks of not having those hormones because they're very anti-inflammatory in their body.