'I would be very in tune with my body. I felt something was just off, and it’s in the inside and it’s not right' says Cecelia Ahern, reflecting on the start of her perimenopause. 'I started doing things like, I tried to ground myself or… What’s the phrase I heard recently that I liked ‘Balance your nervous system’. I was doing alternative things, just general wellbeing.'

'The thing that my GP said really got her was the one sentence that she’s heard so many people, women, say: ‘I feel like I’m living in someone else’s body.’ And she’s like, ‘That was the sentence.’'

Like many women of her age, Ahern describes how she had inherited the prejudices of a former generation against HRT. However, it got to the point where she and her doctor agreed she had done everything, and it was time to talk about HRT. 'Everything I was doing was striking [out]. I haven’t had caffeine for 20 years. So no caffeine, no alcohol. Just nothing. Totally clean living... I realised then, going to the gym was actually stressing me. It was more stressful because I was trying to squeeze my life in around it.'

The HRT was, thankfully, effective. 'It gets rid of the whirlwind, I think. The tornado in the mind. The only way I can describe it is it stops the whirlwind. I felt like my head was in a spin'