On this week’s podcast, Dr Louise is joined by Dr Peter Greenhouse, a menopause specialist with 40 years’ experience in women’s sexual healthcare who is actively involved in postgraduate lecturing.

He has recently spoken out about NICE’s draft menopause guideline update, and tells Dr Louise it contains inappropriate and inaccurate statements, particularly concerning HRT and breast cancer safety, and ignores the cardioprotective effect of HRT when it’s started within 10 years of the menopausal transition.

Dr Peter challenges NICE’s stance on HRT for primary prevention and proposes a pre-emptive approach that could help reduce the amount of other medications GPs are prescribing menopausal women.

Finally, he shares his belief that women should be able to take as much HRT for as long as they need to.

You can read about Newson Health’s response to the NICE draft guideline consultation here.

Follow Dr Peter Greenhouse on X @GreenhousePeter

You can read Roger Lobo's paper, Back to the Future, which is referred to in the podcast, here.

Click here for more on Newson Health

This week Dr Louise is joined by Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, our brand-new fitness and longevity coach on the balance app. Dr Hussain is a GP who runs an NHS-based fitness and lifestyle clinic that helps patients to eat better, move more and connect with their community.

Dr Hussain is a long-distance triathlete but he hasn’t always been fit – a shock medical appointment prompted him into action after years of inertia and slowly but steadily he lost 24 kilos.

Here Dr Hussain shares what he’s learnt, including shifting your mindset from thinking about exercise as an obligation to choosing which movements you enjoy, be it a walk with friends or dancing. He explains why menopause can pose a challenge but also an opportunity to figure out what positive steps you can take for a healthier, happier you.

Finally, Dr Hussain shares three things you can do in this new year to improve your quality of life and longevity:

Get a partner in crime – someone who can support you. Without my wife, I wouldn't have made these changes.

Try to control the cues in your life - we all have cues that trigger behaviours that we're not happy with. You might need to change your evening routine, for example.

Harness self-belief. It really matters and is so powerful.

You can access Dr Hussain’s new content on the balance app, and follow him on Instagram @irondoctorhaz.

Click here for more about Newson Health

Menopause often happens at a time when you are juggling a career, relationships and caring responsibilities.

Here Dr Nadira Awal, a GP and menopause specialist, joins Dr Louise to discuss her work in raising awareness of the menopause and the importance of partners and families understanding what their loved on is going through.

Dr Nadira’s personal experience of the menopause helped drive her passion for educating and supporting other women, especially those in ethnic minority communities who may not feel able to speak openly about it. She talks about increased health risks owing to genetics, particularly with diabetes and increased blood pressure, and the challenge of treating a woman’s symptoms holistically in a ten-minute GP appointment.

Follow Dr Nadira on Instagram @pauseandcohealthcare and on Facebook at Pause and Co Healthcare.

Click here for more about Newson Health

This week Dr Louise is joined by Dr Ruth Beesley, a GP who works in central Peterborough and who specialises in working with the homeless, those with alcohol or drug addictions and vulnerable women who engage in sex work.

Dr Ruth talks about the challenges vulnerable groups of women face ­and how their trauma can act as a barrier to accessing the healthcare they need, both in general and for the menopause. Passionate about reducing health inequalities, Dr Ruth tells us about her outreach clinic and a new mobile bus clinic, both of which allow her to reach more women.

Finally, Dr Ruth shares her learnings on working with hard-to-reach groups and reflects on the three things that have made her job so rewarding:

1. Giving women the confidence to believe that they and their health really matters.

Click here to find out more about Newson Health Group

In this episode Dr Louise is joined by world-renowned neuroscientist Dr Lisa Mosconi, PhD. Dr Lisa is Director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic and Women’s Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and author of bestsellers The XX Brain and Brain Food.

Dr Lisa was studying nuclear medicine and neuroscience when her grandmother and her grandmother’s three sisters all developed Alzheimer's. Dr Lisa became interested in the cause of Alzheimer’s and why women are more susceptible. Her research has shown that, rather than a disease of old age, it starts in midlife and menopause potentially plays a part.

Dr Lisa discusses her most recent paper, which found that women who took hormones in midlife to treat their menopause symptoms were less likely to develop dementia than those who hadn’t taken oestrogen.

Finally, Dr Lisa shares three things to consider about female hormones:

1. Oestrogen, and oestradiol in particular, is the master regulator of women's brains. It really is like saying that oestrogen is to your brain what fuel is for an engine. It keeps your brain running.

Follow Dr Lisa on Instagram @dr_mosconi

Click here to find out more about Newson Health

Content advisory: this podcast contains themes of mental health and suicide.

Dr Louise is joined by her patient Trudie Jennings in this episode to talk about the complexities around HRT during and after treatment for breast cancer.

Trudie describes how she started HRT to successfully manage crippling anxiety and other menopause symptoms and a few months later she was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer.

NICE guidance states women should stop taking systemic HRT if they are diagnosed with breast cancer. However, after careful discussion with her cancer doctor and nurse, Trudie decided to continue with HRT during her treatment as, for her, the menopause symptoms were more challenging than her cancer treatment.

Trudie and Dr Louise discuss shared decision making and informed consent, and how important it is for women with and after breast cancer to be fully informed about potential risks, benefits and uncertainties about HRT following a breast cancer diagnosis so they can make the best decision that is right for them.

Trudie’s three tips for women who have had breast cancer and are struggling with their menopause: 

1. Know that as a patient you do have choices about whether to start or continue HRT after breast cancer treatment.

Contact the Samaritans for 24-hour, confidential support by calling 116 123 or email [email protected]

Click here to find out more about Newson Health

This week on the podcast Dr Louise speaks to Dr Ashley Winter, a urologist and sexual medicine specialist, based in Los Angeles.

Dr Ashley has seen the transformative effects of vaginal hormones on women – not only those who are menopausal, but also women who experience cyclical symptoms of bladder pain, UTIs and painful sex.

She shares her frustration on the situation in the US, where inaccurate and harmful warnings are included in every oestrogen product available, and her hopes of dispelling the fearmongering by talking, looking at the evidence and sharing her clinical experience.

Finally, Dr Ashley gives three reasons why women should use vaginal hormones:

1. It's extraordinarily safe. No risk of any cancer or blood clots, 100% safe.

Follow Ashley on X and Instagram @ashleygwinter

This week Dr Louise is joined by broadcaster and former international gymnast, Gabby Logan. Gabby is the host of her own successful podcast The Mid Point where she speaks about midlife challenges, and here she shares her own experiences of the menopause.

Gabby reflects on the impact of the menstrual cycle on female athletes and the positive impact of speaking about it and increasing awareness. She shares how exercise is helping her to forge and cement friendships and make time for herself, and how HRT helped her to rekindle her vigour for exercise. 

Finally, Gabby shares three reasons why we should all be exercising, regardless of our age:

1. It’s future proofing. I want to be active in my 80s, playing golf, going for long walks and getting myself out of a chair without it being a kind of a national incident. So I’m doing things now that are going to help empower me.

Follow Gabby on Instagram @gabbylogan

Leading US oncologist Dr Avrum Bluming joins Dr Louise Newson to talk about the crucial role of oestrogen in women’s health.

Despite HRT’s proven benefits in protecting against heart disease, bone fracture and cognitive decline, many women still avoid it over breast cancer fears.

It’s been more than 20 years since media headlines about a study called the Women’s Health Initiative linked HRT to an increased risk of breast cancer. In this podcast, Dr Bluming says that in fact we now know oestrogen alone decreases the risk of breast cancer development by 23% and risk of death from breast cancer by 40%. 

He also disputes the findings of the WHI study that combined progesterone and oestrogen HRT leads to a small increase in breast cancer cases.

‘It is very upsetting when such an influential study continues to misquote their own data,’ says Dr Bluming, who has spent 25 years studying the benefits and risks of HRT in breast cancer survivors.

Dr Bluming points out that oestrogen used to be a treatment for breast cancer before chemotherapy was developed, and that rates of breast cancer increase as we age, despite the fact our oestrogen levels fall as we get older.

You can read about Dr Bluming's latest paper here, and listen to an earlier podcast Dr Newson and Dr Bluming recorded here.

Raquela Mosquera joins Dr Louise Newson in this episode to talk about the turmoil, anxiety and unexplained bleeding she went through during her menopause.

Raquela is the mum of Joe Wicks, the fitness coach who kept the country moving during lockdown and who has also appeared on Dr Louise’s podcast. Joe put Raquela in touch with Dr Louise after she confided her worries over her symptoms.

The anxiety, brain fog and isolation led to Raquela leaving the job she loved, but adjusting her HRT has transformed her life. Listen to Raquela and Dr Louise share tips about how to get the right HRT dose and type to suit you to get the maximum benefit.

Raquela’s three tips: 

1. Educate yourself on the symptoms of the menopause and right down all your symptoms before seeing your GP, including when these symptoms started and what can make them worse.

Listen to Dr Louise’s podcast with Joe Wicks here