Hello, I'm Dr Louise Newsome. I'm a GP and menopause specialist, and I'm also the founder of the Newsome Health Menopause and wellbeing centre here in Stratford-Pon-Avon.

I'm also the founder of the free Balance app.

Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause

and menopause. We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments,

and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories.

This podcast is brought to you by the Newsome Health Group,

which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women.

So on the podcast today, I've got somebody who's been on the podcast before, actually,

and somebody who works incredibly closely with me is very highly regarded as a clinician and

menopause specialist and full of enthusiasm for the work that we're doing. So Dr. Claire Crockett has

worked with us for a little while and like all of us actually who work in the clinic, really

keen for individualised choice and working closely with patients to understand their needs and what they want

out of their consultation, but also treatment choices as well. So welcome again, Claire,

coming today. Thanks, Louise. Thanks for inviting me. Pleasure to be here. So we thought today,

actually, we will talk about menopause and perimenopause, of course, because it's, you know,

that's all I think about. But actually, we wanted to talk about contraception. And that might feel a bit

strange for some people because a lot of people think menopause is loss of fertility. And indeed,

for many years it's been defined as loss of periods. and some specialists will say it's loss of fertility as well.

Now, of course, our ovaries stop working or don't work as well during the perimenopause and stop working in the menopause.

But our ovaries don't just switch off overnight unless we have them removed in an operation.

And so if our ovaries are still functioning, they're still producing some

hormones, not enough for our body's requirements often. But if our ovaries are still working,

...