Hello and welcome to a Friday bonus ball edition of Offair with Jane and Fee.

Now hopefully you will recall we've had a number of conversations, certainly over the last

couple of weeks, about HRT, how you come

off it, whether it's okay to go on it when you're later in life or further on in the menopause,

or the bigger question really, which is can you stay on it for your entire life if it's working

for you? So we've put these questions and some others to one of the leading

experts in the field, Professor Anise Mukagi, who's a consultant endocrinologist, that's a hormone

expert. And here we are in conversation. I hope it brings you some of the answers you've been

looking for. So, Doctor, we've had lots of correspondence from our listeners on the podcast.

So Jane and I are just going to paraphrase some of the questions that have come at us.

Jane's initial query was the one that was most reflected in our questions.

So here she goes.

Yes.

Quite simply, Doctor, if this is all right with you,

can you answer the question, is it all right for a woman to stay on HRT for the rest of her life

once she's on it? Well, yes, it is, is the short answer. But there's also a narrative answer. It's

why she's using it. So if she's using it to sort of prevent disease for the rest of her life, we haven't got the evidence to show that is genuinely what will happen. And it's likely that different women will have different long-term effects. Some women will be benefited.

Some women won't and some women will get side effects or have risks. And so it's important to know why you're taking it and make sure that you've talked with your doctor about your rationale.

If it's, whenever it's being used for menopause symptoms, that's the strongest indication.

And is it true that if you come off HRT, whatever age you are, you will experience symptoms of the menopause?

No, that's not correct.

When women try to come off HRT, some women gradually tail off and have no problems whatsoever,

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