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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That doesn’t mean you have to go for a really rich moisturiser (unless your skin is feeling very dry and itchy), as something water-based can work just as well. 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.

This is the current situation for the 33 million women in the UK who, at some stage in their life, will experience menopause. 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! Until I met the menopause and its dastardly little sister, the perimenopause, I thought I’d be fine: “Periods stop.Women themselves until recently somehow felt they didn’t deserve this [HRT] and they felt ashamed of it and ashamed to ask for it. 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. As Dr Kate Pickering, a GP on the frontline in Glasgow, tole me: “If you’re 10 floors up in council flat in Easterhouse and you’re a grandmother getting up to look after a baby because the mother is looking after the other kids and you’ve got night sweats – well HRT should be bog standard to help.

At the time of listening, I am 45 and not experiencing any signs of being peri menopausal or menopausal. The Menopause Charity is a charity registered in England and Wales (charity registration number - 1191332).

During the programme, the ex- Big Brother host spoke to a range of women and professionals, including Hayley Cockman, who experienced the menopause at the age of 14, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi who suffered from “brain fog” in the House of Lords, and Zoe Ball, who described her experience of the menopause as being comprised of “terrible mood swings, anxiety, panic attacks, weight gain and loss of libido – I really thought it was the beginning of the end”. With a career spanning nearly three decades, Davina is firmly established as one of the nation's most successful TV broadcasters, with current hit series Long Lost Family (ITV) and The Masked Singer (ITV) just the most recent in a long list of hugely successful programming. Both ceramides and peptides are a gentle way to keep your skin barrier in check without being super-aggressive.

As film director Jane Campion once said, “we become invisible and unfuckable”, and there is also the shame and omertà among women themselves, particularly those in powerful positions. I want to tell my story, and that of the tribe of menopausal women, so that others don’t need to drive off the cliff before picking themselves up. Most of the book deals with the symptoms and treatments for menopause, but the last few sections address general ways to look after yourself while going through menopause and beyond, with a reminder that you are worth this and should treat yourself well.

Sounds like a lonesome raisin, but this was what Davina thought her skin looked like during perimenopause. Having said that, you don’t want to aggressively treat your whole face by throwing the kitchen sink at it. While Menopausing may not be the all-encompassing guide I was hoping for, it undeniably adds value to the conversation surrounding perimenopause and menopause, inspiring further exploration and empowering women to navigate this transformative phase of life.