Dr. Louise Newson

Well, there aren't any side effects of having the dose that people need.

The risk is not having adequate amounts.

As you probably know, Estadal is very anti-inflammatory in the body.

So it reduces inflammation.

But if our levels of oestrogen are too low in the body, either because we're menopausal or we're putting on a patch or gel that's not being absorbed adequately into our bloodstream, then our inflammatory system worsens and there's more inflammation in the body.

So there's harm if people are not on the right dose.

Some of the confusion has been the risks of synthetic hormones.

So if someone is on ethanol estradiol, which is an all but one combined oral contraceptive pill, that dose is so much higher than any dose that we give as estradiol.

But it's a synthetic hormone which is associated with risks.

But I don't prescribe synthetic hormones.

So the risks are not there that they are with all contraceptives.

and synthetic hormones that, like I say, were in old types of HRT.

But we do that all the time in medicine.

If you meet people with underactive thyroid gland, they're often on different doses of thyroxine.

People with diabetes, type 1 diabetes, they'll all be on different doses of insulin.

Medicine is an art, it's a science.

And what's wrong, actually, is if we individualise care.

And about half of the women we see in our clinic are on HRT, but it's not the right dose or type.

And so we do that a lot in medicine.

To personalise medicine is really important so people can be, you know, as healthy and as well as possible because that's what everyone wants out of their patients.