Janet Ellis: 'HRT wasn't right for me'

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In the final of a 3-part video special, Janet Ellis explains why she decided not to take HRT when she hit the menopause - and what lifestyle changes she made instead

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We know thinking about the menopause and what treatments you can have can be a bit overwhelming - so we've got loads of information to help you make an informed choice.

We've even teamed up with our sister magazine, Woman, to bring you this exclusive series of interviews with Janet Ellis on her own experience of the menopause.

She's already told us her menopause story, and shared her top 3 tips for dealing with it. In this final video she explains why she wanted to avoid HRT and what lifestyle changes she made instead.

'In my family history there's a lot of breast cancer so I already knew that I wasn't a particularly good candidate for HRT.

'I think if things hit you really badly you should take whatever's necessary because that's why it's been developed. But I just thought if I can do this naturally in the way that I've luckily had children and had my periods then I won't actually be hit with the double sledgehammer of having to take something too.

'But I'm also aware that western women aren't particularly good at dealing with it, our diet isn't particularly well set up for it. So with a bit of research I found that soya and linseed were an obvious thing to include - and easy too.

'Everybody's aware of the chemicals that are available to women going through this entirely natural process, but I was determined to do it as naturally as possible which means incorporating any changes into your diet into the way that you already eat and live. I'm a big fan of toast in the morning and one of my girlfriends said: 'There's this stuff called Burgen Soya & Linseed', which I'd seen on the supermarket shelf - there it is, freely available wherever you want to buy your bread normally.'