It’s great to be asked to write about the menopause, just as it’s great that there are actually TV programmes about it, podcasts about it, and conversations happening about it all over the public spheres.
At long last – because there’s a lot to sort out for women going through it, and we can’t do that in silence.
Many women have spoken about how they have been incorrectly diagnosed with anxiety and depression and placed on antidepressants – something they may need – but have failed to be diagnosed as perimenopausal and given treatment options to support them alongside this.
Parliament has started to talk about it, with two specific debates in the last two years, and I myself have called for a menopause workplace policy. We know that, despite the debilitating symptoms women experience, often they worry about the impact on their jobs when speaking up.
We also have the groundbreaking appointment of a minister with “women’s health” in her title, and the architects of the Women’s Health Plan, whose top lines are to improve menopause treatments and services. Significantly, every health board area in Scotland will have to create a dedicated menopause service, and every GP surgery should have one doctor for whom menopause is a particular area of specialism.
That’s just the start, but I am convinced that none of that would have happened without women deciding that menopause is no longer a taboo subject, no longer a thing to just get through and not make a fuss about.
It’s like your body starts to defy you
When I think back to the women in my life who suffered in silence, I can’t help but remember my own grandmothers who would never have mentioned their menopause to anyone because it was, along with periods, simply shoved into a box and never talked about. In particular, it would never have been mentioned in front of male family members or children.
If you can’t sort out your hormones, you can forget about having a good, uninterrupted night’s sleep, and it’s here that I think HRT has made the biggest impact for me
There would also not have been access to treatments such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or much in the way of support from GPs. It must have been isolating and miserable.
I am pretty much past the perimenopause stage and well into menopause, and it’s been tricky getting things right. I certainly didn’t realise how many things about my body it would affect.
The more research I do, and the more women I speak to about it, the more I realise that hormones affect just about everything in the human body – your skin, your blood, your bones, your joints, your organs and your brain, in particular.
The menopause is not just about feeling hot and sweaty. It is like the body you have become used to being in and think you know how to operate suddenly starts to defy you.
The way you eat might have worked for you for a good 40 years with no problem but, in menopause, you start to pile on weight. Certain things don’t agree with you anymore and, in my case, I have suspicions that I’ve even developed food intolerances. Certainly, I can no longer eat what, when and the way I used to.
My skin has lost its elasticity – so much so that I go between despair and fascination at the pure speed of the transformation.
As for sleeping, if you can’t sort out your hormones, you can forget about having a good, uninterrupted night’s sleep, and it’s here that I think HRT has made the biggest impact for me. If you can’t sleep properly, it can quickly impact your mental health and your ability to function during the day.
Arm yourself with information (and HRT)
My biggest piece of advice to women thinking that they might be heading into menopause is to start reading everything you can on it, start listening to those podcasts. Know your enemy!
Don’t worry – fusses have been made at UK and Scottish Government level by a good few female elected politicians
Get on HRT if your doctor recommends it. I’ve ever looked back, and actually have the fear that one day someone might suggest I should come off it.
Solidarity with women in UK parliament trying to get action on menopause treatment – we’ve just had a debate on menopause in @ScotParl led by @CStevensonSNP . We are with you- HRT shouldn’t be for people who can afford it. Thankful we have free prescriptions in Scotland
— Gillian Martin (@GillianMSP) November 2, 2021
This year has seen a bit of that anxiety, as the supplies of oestrogen gel have plummeted and pharmacies are finding it very hard to get hold of. I have unfilled prescriptions from February and have had to change my type of HRT medication three times as the supply crisis impacts.
Don’t worry – fusses have been made at UK and Scottish Government level by a good few female elected politicians for whom menopause really matters and aren’t afraid to talk about it. At long last.
Gillian Martin has been MSP for Aberdeenshire East since 2016 and has served as convener of the health, social care and sport committee since 2021
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