You may well wonder why, only two months away from my 76th birthday, I’m planning an appointment with my GP armed with persuasive tactics to get her to prescribe me HRT. In fact, I’m going to insist she add some testosterone in for good measure, too.

Yes, I know I had breast cancer 20 years ago and was told by my oncologist to immediately stop the HRT I’d then been ­taking for ten years. Oestrogen can feed certain types of breast cancer and mine was one of them, he said.

I was very reluctant to give up the daily tablets that made my skin glow, my hair shine and filled me full of an energy the like of which I had never enjoyed before. I’d sailed through my 40s taking oestrogen and progesterone and felt so much better than the friends and colleagues who’d struggled through without them.

When the cancer was diagnosed, I was still a relatively young woman but I was forced to let them go. The doctor’s advice made perfect sense back then – if the cancer had been caused by an excess of oestrogen, why pump your body with more of the stuff?

I worried at the time that taking HRT had caused it.

About two cases of breast cancer in every 100 are linked to HRT – and the risk rises if you take it for ten years, which I had.

I was furious I’d fallen for the idea that HRT would make me seem younger and had perhaps lost a breast as a result of my ­vanity. But coming off the HRT at 55 hit me like a brick.

The menopausal symptoms I experienced were undeniably horrid: I had hot flushes, night sweats, depression, brain fog and generally felt like death.

However, now I’m in my 70s, I’m rethinking. I doubt I have any residual oestrogen left after a particularly efficient menopause. And I think I deserve a little hormonal assistance to get me through my final years.

I have to confess this is not entirely my own idea. This week one of the most active, energetic and successful women on the planet, Prue Leith, spoke about her love of HRT. At 86, the former Bake Off judge has embraced her old age fully, even claiming to have learnt to love it.

She’s written dozens of books, run a Michelin-starred restaurant in London and taught hundreds of young people how to cook and work in the food business. After she was widowed in 2002, she fell in love and married again at 76, the very age I am now.

Most impressive of all is her openness about one of the major benefits of adding testosterone to her HRT regime – a new spiciness to her sex life.

It’s unusual for older people to talk about sex at all but she says she’s hoping to spend more time with her husband now she’s left Bake Off. Good on you, Prue.

It’s not her interest in boosting her libido that excites me, however. It’s the idea that, combined with the female hormone oestrogen, the male hormone testosterone can do wonders for your energy and getting about.

Prue also claims it’s the combination of the two that helps keep her looking so young, with an amazingly bright smile. I’d definitely like some of what she’s having. My recent months of ­lethargy since the dread dose of Covid, which left me with post viral fatigue, have been awful and most unlike me.

I need energy and cheerfulness again, and if oestrogen and ­testosterone can give me back the older woman I always wanted to be, then I’m prepared to take a little bit of a risk.

I talked to a GP quite some time ago about whether ­oestrogen late in life might be just what ageing muscles and bones needed.

She assured me she didn’t think there’d be a problem. But it’s not without risk.

It is generally assumed that women beyond the age of 70 have no dangerous risk of breast ­cancer because mammograms stop at 71 – unless you make a special request.

In fact the national screening programme ends then because it’s generally thought the risk of overdiagnosis and over-treatment of slower-growing ­cancers in older women outweighs the benefits.

I’ve had no scan for six years and merely do the ‘give it a feel’ test. No great difficulty when there’s only one remaining breast to check.

And I really do feel any risk would be worth it to give me a chance to combat the current slump I find myself in. There’s no doubt Prue is benefiting greatly from her dose of drugs.

She has energy, she’s cheerful, she’s out and about – and she’s ten years older than me!

I’m increasingly convinced it’s better to live a shorter life to the full than a miserable half-life stuck indoors.

No wonder William isn't 'calm'

How lovely to see Kate and William out together for a night at the Baftas – but what a shame to hear Wills admit he wasn’t ‘in a calm place’. I can’t help feeling immensely sorry for William. Uncle Andrew is a shameful disgrace, his dad is getting older and isn’t well, so the future of the monarchy depends entirely on the Wales family. They must never dare to put a foot wrong.

That’s a lot of pressure – even before you’ve factored in the shenanigans of your one and only brother.

GPs are to get an annual bonus of £3,000 to prescribe patients weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro. Some may think this a waste of money but I’m all for it. Jabbing myself was the only thing that cured my weight problem and there’s no doubt helping the obese become healthier will save the NHS money in the long run. 

Trust me, you don't want to WFH

I wish the Government were not so keen for employees to work from home. A new Work Life Balance Bill will make it a legal right. I spend far too much time working from home when I’d much prefer the company and inspiration of colleagues. I’ve missed my Woman’s Hour gang terribly and cherish a new set of workmates who work with me on my new podcasts I do for Saga.

It’s one of the few things that stops me feeling so lonely and depressed. With 1.4million workers already claiming mental health benefits – surely the last thing we need is to encourage isolation.

Is Fergie a magnet for wrong 'uns?

Couldn’t stop watching The Lady on ITV.

Mia McKenna-Bruce is mesmerising as the deadly Jane Andrews, Sarah Ferguson’s dresser who was imprisoned for murdering her lover.

Seems the Duchess of York’s bad judgment of character started way before Epstein.