Welcome to the Newsome Health Menopause podcast. I'm Dr Louise Newsome, a GP and menopause specialist,

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

So to Menopause and Well-Being Centre here in Stratford-upon-Avon.

So today on my podcast I have with me, Lindsay Lester, who's known as the hormone pharmacist.

So she works down in Essex near London, and she is a pharmacist who has a special interest in the menopause. So welcome today, Lindsay.

Thank you, Louise. Hi. So we connected, I'm not quite sure how really, but we connected over the internet and we've been liaising quite a lot recently. And I'm really interested in your work,

which I'd like to talk to you about and also the

role of pharmacists because as you know with healthcare professionals it's really important for me

I certainly feel very strongly that women should receive very individualised care and advice about

their perimenopause and menopause and they should be given evidence-based information.

And whether that's from their own GP, whether it's from a hospital doctor, whether it's from a

nurse, a nurse prescriber, and also from pharmacists as well. I think any contact women have with

healthcare professionals should be evidence-based. and certainly we're doing a lot of work

behind the scenes to improve that. So before we talk about your role as a hormone pharmacist,

talk to me about what you've done in the past and also actually what a pharmacist is because

some people don't really even understand what a pharmacist does. Yes, of course, right. Okay, so I have been

qualified for almost 30 years. That makes me sound like a dinosaur. Hopefully I'm not. I don't feel

like one. And I started out working for boots. And in boots, if they like you, they, in those days

anyway, they pushed you towards the management section.

And I was quite adamant that actually I'd been to university to do pharmacy.

I wanted to help people.

I was more interested in clinical.

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