Daily Mail - 29.08.2019

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019 Page 51

femailMAGAZINE 51

MODERN SEVENTIES

IN EVERY row you’ll find items

that coordinate perfectly

Style Sudoku

TOP ROW

Coat, £49.99, newlook.com

Dress, £59.99, stories.com

Tank knit, £79, jigsaw-online.

com

MIDDLE ROW

Shirt, £230, net-a-porter.com

Heeled mules, £36, topshop.com

Wide-leg jeans, £49.95, gap.co.uk

BOTTOM ROW

Pleated skirt, £110, boden.co.uk

Bag, £650, mulberry.com

Crop sweater, £35, stories.com

Styling: AMY KESTER

1

THIS super-soft, crew-

neck cashmere cardi

(£130, boden.co.uk) is a

great investment. It’s

machine washable, which is

so easy to care for. Wear it

as a top with a skirt or

open over a blouse and

trousers for work.

2

SPUN from softest yarn,

this cashmere design

(£350, 360 Cashmere at

selfridges.com) is a luxury

item. The oversized fit, with

drop shoulders and V-neck,

gives it a casual feel and the

additional belt allows you to

wrap up. Throw it on over

jeans or boots for casual days,

or snuggle in it at home.

3

THE slouchy moss green

cardigan is a popular

choice and this rib

style (£140, jigsaw-online.

com) is a must-have this

season. With oversized

buttons and stitch

detailing on the sleeves,

it is great for layering

with other knitwear.

1 trend, 3 styles

CARDIGANS
oestrogen and progestogen com-
ponent and matching it as closely
as possible to another brand’.
Meanwhile, Dr Newson sug-
gests that women who find they
are unable to get their oral
oestrogen tablet — such as
Mylan’s Zumenon, which is in
short supply — should consider
asking their doctor about alter-
native forms of oestrogen, such
as a gel or patch, as evidence
suggests these may be safer.
‘I tend not to prescribe oestro-
gen as a tablet any more,’ she
says. ‘When oestrogen goes
through the skin as a patch or
gel there’s no risk of blood clots.
This is because it doesn’t have to
be processed by the liver, which
produces clotting factors.’
Tania Adib, a consultant gynae-
cologist at Queen’s Hospital in
Romford, who also sees patients
privately (adib.org.uk), adds
that if you are switched to a
different brand of patch and find
it doesn’t work as well, it may be
that the dose needs adjusting.
‘Different products absorb
slightly differently as the “carrier”
products they use alongside the
active hormone will vary – and it
will depend on your skin type,
too,’ she explains. ‘The same
dose of gel will be absorbed dif-

ferently by different women. So

you may find you need a higher

dose of a new product.’

Saska Graville, who runs

Mpowered Women, a website

which aims to break taboos

around menopause and provide

women with reliable information

(mpoweredwomen.net), under-

stands why women might feel

they have nowhere else to turn.

S

He says: The NHS,

wonderful as it is, is not

good enough at sup-

porting women through

the menopause. With GPs, it’s a

lottery whether you’ll get one

who is really helpful — because

many aren’t.’

For Deborah Tydings, 55, an IT

director from Kingston, South-

West London, this was certainly

the appeal of going to a private

clinic where she was prescribed

a customised mix of hormones,

known as compounded

bio-identical hormones.

This is where the exact dose of

hormones varies from one

woman to the next and some

swear by this — including celeb-

rities such as Patsy Kensit, Kelly

Hoppen and Jeanette Winterson.

‘I can

talk to my

consultant

without the

pressure you

feel you’re under

with your GP,’ says

Deborah. ‘They are

welcoming and under-

standing and, at times, the

same can’t be said for women

looking for help on the NHS.

‘I pay approximately £200 every

four months for the medication

and on top of that there are fees

for consultations, blood tests

and pelvic scans.’

Dr Newson says it is not unu-

sual for women to spend as much

as £500 a month on HRT at

private clinics.

Quite apart from the financial

burden, this week the British

Menopause Society and the

Royal College of Obstetricians

and Gynaecologists issued a

joint statement expressing seri-

ous concerns about the safety of

these compounded forms of

HRT, which are not as well regu-

lated and researched as the

products used by the NHS and

many other private doctors.

‘every expert in the field shares

the concerns about compounded

hormones: it’s unsafe, untested

and unnecessary,’ said

Haitham Hamoda in a statement

at the time.

‘I am worried women will turn

to these alternative forms if they

can’t get their usual products on

the NHS,’ says Dr Newson.

‘Women are paying a lot for

something that there’s no

evidence is any better than

what you can already get on

the NHS.

In particular, there are serious

concerns these compounded

HRT could increase the risk of

cancer of the womb lining.

‘It’s very important if you’re

taking oestrogen that you also

get enough progesterone to pre-

vent cancer of the endometrium

(womb lining),’ says Dr Savvas.

‘Oestrogen causes the lining of

the womb to thicken — this

happens naturally in younger

women every month — and then

progesterone causes the lining

to be thin and shed again.

‘If women on HRT don’t get

enough progesterone as well as

oestrogen, they can develop

endometrial hyperplasia — or a

thickened endometrium — which

is pre-cancerous.’

Additional reporting

SAMANTHA BRICK

risk

AMY KESTER

Longline cardigan,

£32, next.co.uk

Picture: CAMERAPRESS