Dr Louise Newson: Anxiety! Joint pain! The perimenopause symptoms you’re ignoring
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.7 • 15.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One in six women arriving at Dr Louise Newson's menopause clinic have suicidal thoughts. 92% see those thoughts reduce with natural hormones, so why are women still being prescribed antidepressants instead?
In this chat with Fearne, Louise explains why women are being misdiagnosed with depression or anxiety when the root cause is hormonal. Fearne admits she's the woman with her head in the sand about perimenopause, so Louise walks her through what the many (many!) different symptoms could look like, and how to talk to a GP about how you’re feeling mentally and physically.
Plus, is there any truth to the myth that HRT causes breast cancer? Why is testosterone the most misunderstood hormone in women's health? And would the contraceptive pill be approved if it was created today...?
Louise’s new book, The Power of Hormones, is out now.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and massive welcome to Happy Place with me Fern Cotton. This is the show that empowers you |
| 0:07.6 | with knowledge so you can make the decisions that are right for you. Today I'm chatting to Louise |
| 0:13.4 | Newson. If we're getting any symptoms, the first thing as women we should do is think, right, |
| 0:18.5 | could it be my hormones and could topping up my hormones in a |
| 0:21.7 | very natural way help? They affect every cell in our body, so that means every organ. So you could |
| 0:27.8 | literally list going from your head down, literally obviously so many functions in the brain. |
| 0:32.9 | Palpitations are very common. Muscle and joint pains, really, really common. There's a lot of people in their |
| 0:38.4 | 40s get diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, weak bladder, all of that can be related to hormones as well, |
| 0:44.1 | restless legs. You know, so many women are having these symptoms and just putting up with them. |
| 0:49.1 | Hey, how are you all? I hope you are well. Look, this is a chat that I've needed to have for a very long time. |
| 0:56.8 | Hands up, any women that are listening right now that are of a certain age, that have got their heads |
| 1:03.5 | buried firmly in the sand when it comes to perimenopause and menopause, because that is me. |
| 1:10.7 | I am in complete denial. Whenever anyone |
| 1:13.5 | mentions the menopause or perimenopause, I just think, oh my God, stop talking about it. I can't |
| 1:18.0 | think about it. I don't want to think about it. And mainly that's because I've been so confused as to |
| 1:22.8 | what the solutions are. And it shouldn't even be a solution. It should be like, how do I cope with |
| 1:28.5 | this? What can I marry with everything else that I'm doing in my life to feel okay? So I needed to |
| 1:34.8 | face up to this whole subject, head on and get stuck into it. And what better person to do that |
| 1:41.7 | with than the brilliant Louise. So Louise is a GP, author, |
| 1:47.6 | campaigner and the menopause specialist in the UK. She's the founder of the Newsen Health |
| 1:54.0 | Menopause Clinics and Balance Menopause app. And her latest book, The Power of Hormones, |
| 2:00.2 | is an absolutely vital read because |
... |
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