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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Winner of The British Book Awards 2023 Overall Book of the Year‘We can’t wait for this.’ RedMenopausing is more than just a book, it’s a movement. An uprising.Menopause affects every woman, and yet so many approach it with shame, fear, misinformation or silence. The start of a movement: to get everyone talking about the menopause in every home, GP surgery and workspace

The more I found out, the more I got incensed by the ignorance, discrimination and disregard for older women’s quality of life. I’m now helping Dr Newson launch The Menopause Charity, and it turns out the safer body-identical HRT isn’t available in all parts of Britain. Micronised progesterone isn’t licensed on the NHS formulary in Scotland, Darlington, Doncaster and most regions in the north, while it’s much more easily available in London. It’s yet another injustice tossed on the pile. 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.Again, look for products with ceramides and peptides. Think gentle and reassuring products that aren’t going to throw your skin into a hissy fit. For daytime, menopausal skin will often respond well to cleansing milks and creams, facial mists and a good moisturiser – and don’t skip a good SPF to protect your skin! The general rule of thumb is that if you can read a book outside in natural light, then you need to use SPF. At night, repeat your daytime routine, without applying the SPF.

For women of a certain age this is a godsend. It’s a wonderfully informative coffee table book (Yes! Put it on there! For far too long we have kept quiet about this subject!) that you can dip in and out of. It’s frank, it’s fascinating and it debunks so many of the horror stories around HRT. It covers the peri menopause in detail too, so the minute you get a hot flush, experience brain fog, feel like you’re going crazy, then you need to read this - you won’t feel so alone. Inequality is coupled with medical sexism, which fails to take account of the latest science, and leaves women to keep calm and carry on. While researching my book, I discovered the grim toll of oestrogen deficiency in the second half of every woman’s life, and the latest research on HRT’s extraordinary long-term health benefits for osteoporosis, diabetes and dementia, which women are twice as likely to get as men. Everyone’s skin reacts differently – you might have no issues at all, but for many women, perimenopause means being prone to redness and spotty skin. When I turned forty, I developed adult acne out of nowhere. I had what I would call the ‘heavy-duty’ spots that never come to a head and linger like a volcano that just wouldn’t erupt, especially around the chin area.Katie Lander, Executive Producer at Finestripe Productions said: “The menopause can be so much more than the occasional hot flush and it can last for years. Unless women can access help and support, so many will be suffering through no fault of their own. Davina and our contributors reveal the truth about their symptoms and their strategies.” 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.

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. The menopause gave me my voice’: designer and campaigner Karen Arthur. Photograph: Claire Pepper/That's Not My Age Dr Nighat Arif, the BBC Breakfast GP and menopause specialist, tries to reach out to her underserved community by doing TikToks in Urdu. The #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign is aiming for 150,000 signatures on a petition to parliament demanding mandatory menopause training for all GPs, and menopause policies in every workplace. 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.

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. For too long, women have had to keep quiet about the menopause—its onset, its symptoms, its treatments—and what it means for us. Menopausing will build an empowered, supportive community to break this terrible silence once and for all. By exploring and explaining the science, debunking damaging myths, and smashing the taboos around the perimenopause and menopause, this book will equip women to make the most informed decisions about their health…and their lives. I also find that I’m not good with active products anymore, like retinols. My skincare barrier is permanently depleted because of menopause, so it doesn’t like a really strong retinol that I would have been able to tolerate five or ten years ago. The main thing is to listen to your skin and what it can cope with. 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”.