Similar to all medicines, the hormones used in hormone replacement therapy can cause side effects. The NHS has a helpful page providing all the information you need about HRT, including its potential risks and benefits.
Prue Leith has offered a glimpse into a particular corner of her residence that her husband describes as the "Red Room of Pain." Following last month's announcement that she'll be stepping down from The Great British Bake Off after joining in 2017, Prue, who previously mentioned needing "more time to do stuff", has provided a peek into the cosy lifestyle awaiting her.
The culinary expert revealed details about the domestic life she enjoys with fashion designer John Playfair, her spouse of a decade, disclosing that their property contains a space she intriguingly calls the "Banishment Room." In her latest publication, Being Old...and Learning to Love It!, she described how the residence boasts an "enormous copper slab" serving as the front entrance—what John terms the "cat-flap"—alongside a white-walled atrium and a modern yet "mostly yellow" kitchen. The South African-British restaurateur further revealed the couple possess a drawing room, featuring sofas enjoyed by their two Cavalier King Charles spaniels, charmingly named Tattie and Teasel.
On the upper floor, they have two bedrooms, reachable via lift when necessary, though they've endeavoured to avoid using it thus far as the staircase provides health advantages. The upper level also houses John's so-called "Red Room of Pain".
Prue wrote: "In our green and blue bedroom, one wall is given over to my obsession for cheap necklaces. Then there is the room I call the Banishment Room, and John calls the Red Room of Pain (he should be so lucky!)
"In fact, it's John's dressing room and bathroom, painted maroon-red to offset his Indian miniature paintings and furnished with a four-poster bed."
She added: "I would name separate bathrooms and dressing rooms as my dream luxury, after a good larder."
The revelation follows the 86-year-old recently disclosing the "secret" behind her youthful appearance, highlighting one particular factor.
She said: "I asked a doctor, 'What's normal?' She said there are no studies because it's just imagined people my age don't. I don't think I'd be active in every sense without hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
"When people ask, 'How do you look so young? How are you still working?' Well, that's the secret."
Alongside progesterone tablets and oestrogen patches, she also applies what were described as "dabs" of testosterone gel, which she maintains is "great for libido."
She told Saga Magazine: "It's great for libido. You feel better and younger and..." At this point, the publication noted that Prue offered a "suggestive wink" and "broad grin."
Similar to all medicines, the hormones used in hormone replacement therapy can cause side effects. The NHS has a helpful page providing all the information you need about HRT, including its potential risks and benefits.
