Hello, I'm Dr Louise Newsome. I'm a GP and menopause specialist, and I'm also the founder of the Newsome Health Menopause and wellbeing centre here in Stratford-Pon-Avon.

I'm also the founder of the free Balance app.

Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause

and menopause. We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments,

and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories.

This podcast is brought to you by the Newsome Health Group,

which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women.

Today on my podcast, I've got another guest from the other side of the world. So in Melbourne,

Australia, I've got with me Professor Cirkey, who is director of Women's Healthy

Aging Project. And she is also an author. She's very active, academic and incredibly clever.

So I feel very honoured that she's agreed to join me on the podcast today, even though it's very late at

night for her. So thanks ever so much, Cassandra, for coming today.

My pleasure.

So I don't know whether you know, but some of my listeners know that I've got a pathology degree as well.

And I spent a good nine months with a professor of biochemistry, actually.

Sadly, he's died now.

I wish I could go back in time and ask him even more questions

because he spent a lot of time talking about monocytes and macrophages, which are types of

white cells. I'm talking about how important they are to fight infection. But when they go wrong,

they can become pro-inflammatory, so increase inflammation. And there are various circumstances in our

environment that make our body become more against us, really, and increase inflammation. And I was

sitting there thinking, oh, what's this got to do with helping people with heart attacks, or what's this

...