Penny Lancaster is my guest today. She gives a really open account of her own story,

not just her own menopause story, but her life in general. But her menopause was diagnosed by

the team in loose women. She had been misdiagnosed as depression and thought she actually

had depression and needed antidepressants. So it was a real honour to meet her as a patient

in COVID times and help her to educate herself about hormones and also about the different

symptoms, which has really helped her to educate so many other women about hormonal health.

So Penny,

we've only met once in real life before, haven't we?

But I feel like I've known you forever because I feel like you've also changed my life.

Oh, Penny, thank you.

Yeah, I mean, that really slippery slope that I went on, you know,

when I was like 49, kind of

crying out for help in the middle of lockdown, thinking it was the anxiety and fear around

lockdown that was causing my symptoms to the point where I'm always the guiding light and the one

that people turn to for help and, you know, the answers. I couldn't even help myself and I was like

literally just on the floor in a ball of sweat and tears and just panicking.

And then my GP, who I had at the time, male, just responded to the tears with antidepressants.

And did you know then that you weren't depressed?

No, I thought I was depressed.

And I'd never felt that way before.

So I didn't recognise it.

But of course, I hadn't had any knowledge on what menopause was.

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