For Kelly Hoppen, the key to menopause mind and body wellbeing has been her private hormone prescriptions from Dr Martin Galy. Describing him as “amazing”, she reveals how his tailor-made hormone prescriptions (which are different to the NHS prescriptions, and are not licensed) restored her to feeling her very best self.
How old were you when your symptoms started?
I’m 60 next year so I must have been 12 or 15 years ago, and they came out of the blue. I had overheating and also anxiety. And not sleeping, actually.
How did it affect your day to day life?
I would say it didn’t impact at work or relationships because I’m very strong willed and so I just got through it. What I learnt to do was, as I got really hot, I would count to 10 – once I knew what it was, then I would just wait. I would be absolutely soaking and then I would just come out of it.
My symptoms came out of the blue. I had overheating, anxiety and not sleeping.
What did you do to help your symptoms?
Noone was talking about it then. It really annoys me that it’s such a taboo. I was very lucky because my oldest friend Vicki Edgson is a nutritionist, and she told me about the Marion Gluck Clinic (Editor’s note: a private clinic in London, mariongluck.com). I tell you, within a week I was better. Although Tash (Editor’s note: Kelly’s daughter Natasha Corrett) would say to you, ‘she was a fucking nightmare for a year’!
How did a private clinic help?
I met a doctor working there called Dr Martin Galy (Editor’s note: Dr Martin Galy now practices at 23MD). He’s a wonderful man. Since then I have sent, and I’m not joking, probably 200 women to Dr Galy, and every single one of these women has come to me and said, you have changed my life. He’s been amazing to everyone, I don’t know what we’d do without him to be honest.
What did the clinic prescribe?
Hormone capsules that have been tailor made to meet your individual needs. You’re balancing out your oestrogen and progesterone to its absolute perfection. (Editor’s note: These are called bio-identical hormones, as opposed to body-identical hormones, and are not licensed by the NHS.)
I don’t really drink, I never really have and I feel healthier now than I did 20 years ago.
Did the bio-identical hormones work?
I took a quarter of a lozenge every morning when I woke up after I brushed your teeth, and that was it. Now, I sleep well, I’m not tired, my weight is less than it’s ever been and I’m fit. It’s just brilliant.
I get my blood tested every six months. I don’t really drink, I never really have and I feel healthier now than I did 20 years ago. As a woman you always think, oh god, what time of the month is it, how am I going to feel. I used to get really swollen and bloated, I never have that any more.
Do you still take a daily lozenge?
I never leave home without it, it’s on me at all times. Literally. It never goes in a hold if I fly! There’s only one place that makes this, it’s called The Specialist Pharmacy.
How do you feel today?
Now, years and years later, I literally go once a year and have my blood test. Dr Galy says he’s never seen anybody more perfectly balanced. I literally take this tiny little lozenge and put it in my mouth. I do it in my sleep in the morning and I have never felt better. My weight is perfect, I train every day, I sleep well, I have no anxiety, I have nothing.
What do you say to other women?
My whole voice, and what I want to tell you today, is I think it could make your life the best it’s ever been. Because women – and I’m one of them – suffer terribly from PMT every single month. It got to a point sometimes where I would have one week out of four that was good. It just became a spiral.
Your menopause was…
A time in my life and I was lucky enough to find something that worked immediately and it became a way of life. If anything, it enhanced my life because I felt more balanced. I felt really lucky to have been able to find this and have something that was so easy. I can’t imagine having never done this, I think my life would have just been horrendous.
