With a higher proportion of women in the workplace and working longer, we need better recognition of the impacts of this life transition. To my younger sisters, please don’t skip by, this will be coming to an ovary near you much sooner than you could ever imagine, so get informed and you too lads!
Some statistics:
I was 46 when I first started experiencing the symptoms.
{edit: I am better educated now, I was actually experiencing peri-menopause symptoms at age 41, I just didn’t know I was. I presented with increased migraine and chronic lower back pain (common symptoms in younger women). I had 4 MRI’s and months on Tramadol to be diagnosed with “it’s your age”. I haven’t had any back pain since starting HRT, I needed oestrogen, not opiates!}
As the average age of menopause is 51, I thought I was too young for it to be the menopause (or to be more accurate perimenopause. You are officially in menopause when you haven’t had period for a year). However, 1 in 100 women can start experiencing symptoms and be post-menopausal before the age of 40! Anyway, I was very bluntly put right by my GP!
With a higher proportion of women in the workplace and working longer, we need better recognition of the impacts of this life transition. To my younger sisters, please don’t skip by, this will be coming to an ovary near you much sooner than you could ever imagine, so get informed and you too lads!
Some statistics:
I was 46 when I first started experiencing the symptoms.
{edit: I am better educated now, I was actually experiencing peri-menopause symptoms at age 41, I just didn’t know I was. I presented with increased migraine and chronic lower back pain (common symptoms in younger women). I had 4 MRI’s and months on Tramadol to be diagnosed with “it’s your age”. I haven’t had any back pain since starting HRT, I needed oestrogen, not opiates!}
As the average age of menopause is 51, I thought I was too young for it to be the menopause (or to be more accurate perimenopause. You are officially in menopause when you haven’t had period for a year). However, 1 in 100 women can start experiencing symptoms and be post-menopausal before the age of 40! Anyway, I was very bluntly put right by my GP!
Some examples:
Hot flushes (usually when presenting back to senior managers about a project I was managing!), there is no way to describe the heat of a flush, but I’ll try.
It comes from the very core of your being, it’s like being a human kettle. A sweat moustache appears on your top lip, water runs down your back soaking your clothing, a bright red flush will rise from your chest and envelope your face, and your hair will instantly flatten as the perspiration ruins your big bouncy curls in under 30 seconds. Your heart starts racing, your head buzzes, the heat emanating from it could easily cook a full Scottish, you stop thinking straight because all you can concentrate on is cooling down, and fast! The anxiety of this happening during an important work situation is only exacerbated by fanning yourself faster than a demented Hummingbird with the paper copy of your presentation while your bemused (younger, usually) audience looks on. It’s embarrassing and debilitating!
And the building manager demanding that you switch off your fan as it interferes with the building’s aircon. Yes, he did that, tried to take a menopausal women’s fan from her – he doesn’t work for the company anymore and I’m sure his nose healed up in time!
Low mood, crying and being upset for NO reason – e.g., when your other half treated you to an Oyster from the ice cream van, but you really wanted a Double Nougat, selfish pig!
Women constantly get misdiagnosed with depression or fibromyalgia at the start of their symptoms, rather than with low oestrogen levels. I had every perimenopause symptom going but my bloods kept coming back with normal hormone levels. I was prescribed anti-depressants for 5 years.
Being unable to retain any information and forgetting everything. I had to keep lists, diaries, I forgot my own childrens’ birthdays and names. Never the dog’s though!
You believe you have early onset dementia because you forget people’s names, you find milk in cupboards, and tea bags in the fridge, you stand in the middle of rooms with NO idea why you are there, you spend hours looking for the glasses that are on the top of your head, you call your friend from your mobile phone then start to look for your mobile phone to check something on it, she being equally menopausal who knows you have called her from your mobile phone, asks… “Where did you last have it?” They don’t call it the ‘mental pause’ for nothing!
Your hair thins, goes brittle and breaks and then starts sprouting on your chin, growing out a MOLE!
Will it thin, go brittle and break, no it will not, it gets longer, thicker and stronger and does not turn a lovely discreet silver! I look like an Angler Fish!
The hormones that deplete during this period (no pun intended) are also vital for the integrity of your pelvic floor. My smug days of having been too posh to push, twice, and retaining a strong pelvic floor were over, along with my trampolining, sneezing, coughing, jogging, laughing days.
Tena lady is your friend, embrace her!
I put up with this for 2 years, tried every herbal, hippy remedy as I had read all the horror stories about HRT. I was ill informed and still suffering from every symptom.
Then I found Dr Louise Newson online and absorbed her advice and information.
Read up on menopause, listen to podcasts, talk to your friends and family. Everyone’s situation will be different, but you will find similarities and you will realise that you’re not alone or going daft! Don’t underestimate the power of a supportive mental-pausal tribe.
HRT has saved me. It won’t be suitable for everyone, but in my experience, it was the best thing I have ever had been prescribed.
Almost immediately it stopped the flushes which instantly improves your sleep. Skin and hair improve (except that bloody one on my chin!). Concentration and retention of information, all improve. You feel normal again! And you are normal, this is a normal transition for anyone born with a womb, a fact of life and we don’t talk about it enough. The above sounds very negative and horrible, and at times it was, because there was limited information, I had to seek out and educate myself and turn this into as positive a time as I could.
I put up with this for 2 years, tried every herbal, hippy remedy as I had read all the horror stories about HRT. I was ill informed and still suffering from every symptom.
Then I found Dr Louise Newson online and absorbed her advice and information.
Read up on menopause, listen to podcasts, talk to your friends and family. Everyone’s situation will be different, but you will find similarities and you will realise that you’re not alone or going daft! Don’t underestimate the power of a supportive mental-pausal tribe.
HRT has saved me. It won’t be suitable for everyone, but in my experience, it was the best thing I have ever had been prescribed.
Almost immediately it stopped the flushes which instantly improves your sleep. Skin and hair improve (except that bloody one on my chin!). Concentration and retention of information, all improve. You feel normal again! And you are normal, this is a normal transition for anyone born with a womb, a fact of life and we don’t talk about it enough. The above sounds very negative and horrible, and at times it was, because there was limited information, I had to seek out and educate myself and turn this into as positive a time as I could.
The menopause is associated with elderly, grey, infirm old ladies, and nowadays that can’t be further from the truth. So, bravo to my director for taking the lead and being so open.
Since then, with Pauline and I being integral to driving the change, our company has introduced a menopause guide; quarterly menopause focused colleague sessions; line manager training; a menopausal colleague network; monthly drop-in sessions; menopause friendly uniforms and absence due to menopause symptoms are not recorded towards any absence policy procedure. They’ve yet to introduce a wee afternoon Nana nap allowance for menopausal colleagues but I’ll keep campaigning.
The menopause is associated with elderly, grey, infirm old ladies, and nowadays that can’t be further from the truth. So, bravo to my director for taking the lead and being so open.
Since then, with Pauline and I being integral to driving the change, our company has introduced a menopause guide; quarterly menopause focused colleague sessions; line manager training; a menopausal colleague network; monthly drop-in sessions; menopause friendly uniforms and absence due to menopause symptoms are not recorded towards any absence policy procedure. They’ve yet to introduce a wee afternoon Nana nap allowance for menopausal colleagues but I’ll keep campaigning.
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