Menopausing: Book of the Year, The British Book Awards 2023, and Sunday Times bestselling self-help guide, to help you cope with symptoms and live your best life during menopause

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I believe the book should perhaps have been titled "Menopausing: How HRT Can Help". Okay, that's a terrible title but something in a similar vein to reflect its heavy focus on hormone replacement therapy being the be-and-end-all solution for some women. Imagine if over half the UK population was to experience the same life-changing health condition, which if disregarded would contribute to an increase in disease and illness, an increase in mental health issues, and the likelihood of losing jobs and marriages. Wouldn’t we want to do something about that? This book tells so many different, but so many similar stories of women with one common theme - we should talk about these things more and we should seek to be heard and be given help and support if we need it. Those tests were clear, thankfully, but I dumped the compounded HRT and went cold turkey until a friend recommended Dr Louise Newson, a campaigning menopause specialist with a clinic in Stratford-upon-Avon employing 40 doctors and there’s still a three-month waiting list – most of the patients are women who have been refused HRT by their GPs. Dr Newson solved my problems in an instant and prescribed plant-based body-identical hormones, made from yams. These are also available on the NHS – micronised progesterone and transdermal oestrogen gel or patches – which the British Menopause Society says have “no or lower risk of breast cancer” compared to the old oral combined pills. I just wish my GP had told me about body-identical HRT in the first place. Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said there had been an “exponential rise in demand” for transdermal oestrogen products in recent years, but the rise in women being prescribed HRT was “testament to GPs wanting to do their best for their patients”.

I really appreciate Davina McCall's dedication to breaking the silence surrounding perimenopause and menopause. She has made a significant contribution to raising awareness and inspiring women to understand their bodies better. However, while the book offers valuable insights, it fell short in a few critical areas for me.

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This audiobook has been very useful for learning about the wide range of menopausal symptoms and the treatments available. I have definitely taken away useful information for when the time comes. For example, personally, it is useful for me to know that hypothyroidism can trigger early peri menopause. And, I knew very little about HRT. The start of a movement: to get everyone talking about menopause in every home, GP surgery and workspace Harris, who is a member of the campaign group Menopause Mandate along with McCall and fellow broadcasters Mariella Frostrup and Penny Lancaster, called for a national formulary to increase availability.

Menopause affects every woman, and yet so many approach it with shame, fear, misinformation or silence. That’s how this book has come about. We are going to tell you the truth, so you can make an informed decision about your life and your body. The number of HRT prescriptions in England has doubled in the past five years to more than 500,000 a month. In previous years, shortages were blamed on manufacturing and supply chain problems, but the industry has put recent problems down to more women seeking the products. Find out how taking HRT can help you cope better at work in perimenopause and menopause by helping banish symptoms from hot flushes to brain fog and joint pain – as well as improving sleep. Also, how to talk to your employer about menopause.

The menopause gave me my voice’: designer and campaigner Karen Arthur. Photograph: Claire Pepper/That's Not My Age Menopausing will also celebrate the sharing of stories, enabling women to feel less alone and more understood and talk openly and positively about menopause. No more scaremongering: just evidence-based info,no shame: real women, real menopause stories, real empathy, real community, honest, no-holds-barred advice: Dry vagina? Zero sex drive? Hair loss? We’ve got it covered. Katie Taylor, founder of the Latte Lounge, an online platform about midlife and the menopause, said demand had increased rapidly over the past six years. For many women, the McCall documentary could be “their first lightbulb moment”, she said.

At the time of listening, I am 45 and not experiencing any signs of being peri menopausal or menopausal. However, this book was a fantastic introduction to the topic and very easy to listen to and to understand. Davina MaCall is incredibly likable and does a great job of putting the listener at ease and telling it like it is, with plenty of giggles along the way. That’s how this book has come about. We are going to tell you the truth, so you can make an informed decision about your life and your body … mic drop.’ Things are going to come up in that documentary that people are not going to believe. And we’ll have more and more women rushing to their doctor to get on HRT,” she told the Observer. “The more we find out about what happens to your body when you lose the hormones, the more we recognise that menopause does a huge amount of damage to a woman. But it’s very repairable damage.”The start of a movement: to get everyone talking about the menopause in every home, GP surgery and workspace That’s how this book has come about. We are going to tell you the truth, so you can make an informed decision about your life and your body … mic drop. One pharmaceutical company reported a 30% rise in demand for HRT products the month after McCall, now 54, made her first documentary on the subject in 2021 – and huge numbers of women are expected to seek HRT from GPs for the first time after watching the new Channel 4 show. The makers of Davina McCall: Sex, Mind and the Menopause said they expect the programme to inspire “another wave of women to go to their GPs” to ask for HRT. They also expect a surge in demand for testosterone, whose potential benefits are also highlighted in the programme. Davina McCall, presenter said: “I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project that has affected me so deeply. I get home after filming and sometimes I just sit down and cry ... from deep frustration and anger at how we are failing women. This film isn’t just for menopausal women, it’s for their partners, their fathers, their brothers, and their sons. We’re all in this together. I used to think that menopause was an age thing and now I realise it’s a woman thing. For far too long, there’s been a shroud of embarrassment, shame and fear around this topic, and this is where it stops!” But Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP for Swansea East, chair of the menopause all-party parliamentary group and co-chair of the menopause taskforce, said even more women would rush to acquire HRT this week.

Unless it’s come on prescription from a medical professional, save your money and giave a wide berth to products that promise to stop hot flushes or that will ‘fix’ your menopausal skin. Find out more about how to combat vaginal dryness with vaginal estrogen, available on prescription from your GP:McCall’s first menopause documentary, Sex, Myths and the Menopause, in which the presenter talked about her own experiences, was watched by more than 2 million people and resulted in 22,000 GPs and nurses volunteering to complete a six-hour menopause course. Menopausing will also celebrate the sharing of stories, enabling women to feel less alone and more understood, and talk openly and positively about menopause. I thought perimenopause was just the run-up to the menopause and not a treacherous passage in itself. I had no idea it would make me so furious – or give me surprise periods like tsunamis. In the kitchen at various times during my deranged perimenopausal mood swings I threw: 1) a butternut squash, 2) Nigella Christmas, 3) broccoli, 4) a full butter dish, and 5) blue poster paint at the wall. No one was injured. Indeed, the missiles actually released family tension – and at least the dog began to treat me with more respect. I had no idea that progesterone and oestrogen drained erratically but inexorably away over the course of years in perimenopause, and that symptoms could be mental as well as physical.