Last night, Davina McCall posted a video message about HRT on Instagram, and it's got a lot of people thinking – myself included. The TV presenter's New Year message was aimed at women who have been struggling with perimenopause symptoms, and open to taking HRT, but who are putting it off, for whatever reason. And it really resonated with me.
I will soon turn 44, and in the last year have been to my GP more than once to discuss why I just don't feel 'right', for no apparent reason. Neither time has the subject of perimenopause come up, and asked directly if it could be a possibility, I'm met with vague answers and an obvious lack of desire to explore it. Instead symptoms are put down mostly to stress, and I've been sent away after being told to monitor what I believe to be perimenopause symptoms. Each time I've left feeling frustrated that the diagnosis is wrong, and eventually it will be found I could benefit from HRT.
McCall's message, which you can watch in full below, has already had thousands of likes and comments, including one the Menopause Expert Doctor, Dr Naomi Potter, which read: "Thank you Davina ❤️. What is still astounding though is the number of comments here from women who still say they can’t access the help they need for reasons that are not the case; too young, still having periods etc."
Listening to and reading all of this has given me the push I needed to research HRT benefits and risks in more detail, and return to my GP to ask for my symptoms to be explored further.
McCall says in her video: 'taking it as soon as you get symptoms as that is when it will have the maximum positive effect on things like your bones, and blood vessels and brain'. If that's not a reason to look into it more, I don't know what is.
Davina McCall is a patron for the Menopause Mandate, an organisation dedicated to revolutionising the support and advice women receive from the health service and wider society on perimenopause and menopause. The missions of the Mandate are to educate, stop HRT scaremongering, prescribing right and making HRT accessible and affordable.
Another Instagram post from McCall yesterday highlighted her on a visit to the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) headquarters to deliver guidelines for GPs and health practitioners.
'Measured and factual, it aims to simplify what is a very confusing document. We want to make it as easy as possible for our busy GPs to give us the correct help and support that we need. Please, this year, let’s make a real difference for peri and menopausal women… and help GPs help us,' she says.
