The theme of this years World Menopause Day is Testosterone for Women in Midlife and it really caught my eye immediately because testosterone is not licensed for women to use in the UK - and yet it can be a life-changing element of HRT and treating the debilitating menopause symptoms.  It is possible to take testosterone in the UK, you just need to know how to get it.  My research for my own hormone health eventually led me to taking testosterone (as well as oestrogen) and I have talked about my journey a lot on my blog (see below for all the links to other menopause discussions). 

​I started off a bit anti-HRT, I thought I'd be able to manage without it and I thought it wouldn't happen to me.  But it did - and I so wish I hadn't delayed making the decision. finally accepting I needed it was the best thing I ever did!

As you know I am on HRT, that wasn't an easy decision to make and I did a lot of research and soul searching first.  But HRT isn't the end of the story, we still need to eat well, move more and look after our wellbeing and overall health during peri menopause and post menopause.  So when Evie invited me along to her lunch 'n' learn workshop last week it seemed like an ideal opportunity to remind myself what I should be doing, to learn more about what i could do and to listen to the latest research on the best nutrition for this stage in my life.

And what a great way to learn, over a delicious and healthy lunch in a beautiful location.  I've met Evie a few times now, she is a very friendly and very knowledgeable.  Evie is a registered nutritional therapist specialising in gut health and with a particular interest in menopause (because she is approaching that age too so understands from a personal perspective).

Is there any difference between bio identical HRT and body identical HRT or are they the same thing?  This question has been confusing me for a while and clearly confuses others too from posts I have seen on support groups and chatting to friends.  I wrote a post about my own journey through perimenopause and my decision to take HRT (read it here) but I still felt it was confusing and I wanted to research further so that the information I share on my blog is as clear as it can be.  So this is a fairly short post but hopefully it will still be helpful.