There is a lot of fear-mongering and negative language out there about menopause, and people have a vested interest to do that. Some of it is about keeping women in their place, and some of it is the obsession with ageism that we have in our society – but it’s wonderful! Suddenly, we’re liberated. It comes at a time when we come to the end of the hormonal changes. Whenever we have a big change in our life it will always come with some challenges. Some of these challenges are telling you, ‘get your house in order,’ ‘start thinking about what are you eating,’ ‘how are you exercising?’ ‘How are you caring for yourself and standing up for yourself?’
It’s the perfect opportunity to really take a look at yourself and say, ‘who do I want to be? What do I want to bring to the world in the next 30, 40 years?’ That’s a lot of time to live. Some women may live 50 years or more. So, let’s make those years great. Let’s not talk about it as “hell” or “the end.”
Tell us about your journey! What brought you into doing what you do?
I had a horrible menopause journey; a really horrid one with lots of anxiety. Suddenly I’m thinking, ‘how can I be two dress sizes bigger?’ I had a lot of issues with my sleep, my blood pressure – that’s 20 years ago or more. I didn’t know that all this was linked. I sort of knew about menopause – that it was something your mom and your grandma had gone through, but I didn’t know about all the different things that could happen to you. There I was, not knowing and I just got told, ‘well, that’s it! Here’s some blood pressure meds.’ I had no support.
