Welcome to the Newsome Health Menopause podcast.

I'm Dr Louise Newsome, a GP and menopause specialist,

and I run the Newsome Health Menopause and wellbeing centre here in Stratford-upon-Avon.

So today I'm delighted to be able to welcome to you, Kirsty Lang, who is a well-known and very well-respected journalist. So hi, Kirsty. Thank you for coming today. Hi, Lou. So I was just

reflecting before I press record that I first met

you at a conference in London at the Royal Society. And it was a very interesting conference. I was

really privileged to be speaking there. The main reason for the conference was, I think it was title

patient choice. And Avran Blooming, who is a very

respected oncologist from America, had come over and he gave the main presentation in the

morning. And it was based around his book called Estrogen Matters, which is an amazing book

that I think as many women as possible should read.

And you were chairing the session.

And what really I found sad when I listened to you was you were talking about HRT

and you said, yes, I used to take it and those were the good old days.

And I thought, oh, I wonder what's going on. And then I thought, I'd love to

talk to you, find out more, and then you left at lunchtime. And that was it. I thought, oh dear,

poor lady. Well, it's funny. For me, it was a quite sort of life-changing moment. Two years prior to

that conference, I had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

And I had been on HRT.

And because it was an estrogen-related breast cancer, I was told to stop immediately, the

HRT, which is, you know, normal practice.

And two years on, I was on a drug called letrosol,

...