What’s your favourite drink? I love a gin and tonic and I’m very fond of a glass or two of malbec.

Now we all react differently to alcohol.

Your height, weight, what you’ve eaten and even how well you’re sleeping all make a difference as to how you feel and behave when you drink.

But there’s one universal truth when it comes to alcohol and that is if you’re a woman of a certain age it will trigger hot flushes, night sweats, and disrupt your sleep.

Now I’m not suggesting you give up alcohol completely – I certainly haven’t.

You simply have to make a choice as to whether the fun in drinking outweighs the discomfort of flushes or the stress of a bad nights sleep.

And learning to control your menopause symptoms is all about making a series of choices and decisions that will give you back control of your body, your mind and your career.

And one of those decisions has got to be looking at the impact alcohol has on your menopause symptoms and you can only do that by spending some time without it.

So if you currently drink every night of the week try say 3 days without and see how you feel. Are your flushes less intense? Are you sleeping better? Are you less forgetful at work?

If you tend to just drink at weekends, try a weekend without booze and see how different you feel on Monday morning. Have you got more energy? Are you making decisions faster? Are you actually looking forward to the week?

So what do you think? Are you prepared to go without?

Do you choose to act on my advice and solve your problems or do you choose to ignore what I say and continue to struggle?

It’s totally your choice.

So if you choose to go without alcohol on a night out – what’s that going to look like for you?

One of the tricks to surviving a night without booze when everyone around you is drinking is to work out what you’re going to drink instead.

A very simple trick I’ve used in the past is to drink my non alcoholic drink even if it’s only water out of a wine glass.

And that’s really helped!

It’s all about making the drink you’re choosing to drink instead of alcohol special in some way so it still feels like a treat.

So drink out of a fancy glass or choose something you wouldn’t normally drink. Pop an umbrella in it or if you’re at home drink out of your finest crystal. But do something to make it special, so it feels like a treat.

You already know alcohol is a trigger for your hot flushes and night sweats but what’s really interesting is how it can make your brain fog worse.

Alcohol really disrupts your REM and it’s during REM your brain transforms your short term memories into long term memories. So if your memory’s getting worse and worse there’s another good reason to go without a drink for a while.

Cutting back on the booze is going to help shift your menopause middle too. Did you know your body can’t store the energy or calories that come from alcohol because it doesn’t recognise it as a food source.

So, essentially, when you drink you’re stopping your body from being able to burn fat until the alcohol’s out of your system.

On average it takes around an hour to get a standard unit of alcohol out of your system.

So if you have 2 or 3 or 4 standard drinks in a night then for 2 or 3 or 4 hours your body is NOT burning fat.

Now, if you enjoy a drink like I do normally, I’m not suggesting total abstinence. Just try a few days without and see if your symptoms improve.

I choose to drink occasionally and accept the consequences and I’m ok with that.

What are you ok with? It’s your choice.