CHANGE OF ATTITUDE CHANGE OF LIFE –


IT USED TO BE THAT THE MENOPAUSE WAS A NO-GO AREA FOR CONVERSATION. NOW IT SEEMS THAT ‘THE CHANGE OF LIFE’ IS ON EVERYONE’S LIPS…


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one are the days when ‘hot flushes’, ‘the change’, and ‘private summers’ were taboo in general conversation. Now it seems that everyone is talking about the menopause.


And talking…. And talking….


It may have been 61-year-old Kim Cattrall who started the ball rolling. The former Sex and the City star had mentioned in an interview about menopause not being ‘shameful’, but a completely natural part of life.


‘I think,’ Cattrall said, ‘one of the reasons why it’s so taboo is because we don’t talk about it - it’s too frightening even to talk to a doctor about it. I want to reach out to women to encourage them to educate themselves about this time in their lives.’


Loose Women’s Andrea McLean certainly picked up the ball to run with it!


‘The main reason for my passion of speaking about menopause is because nobody wants to talk about it,’ she says. ‘I understand why no one wants to be associated with something society has decided makes you officially old, knackered, past it, useless and pretty much a laughing stock. But why does society still use the menopause as a barometer to measure a woman’s usefulness and status in society?


‘Like anything, each one of us will experience the build-up to the menopause in our own unique way, and there are a whole host of symptoms and experiences that come under the umbrella term of menopause.’


It’s that ‘unique way’ in which women experience the menopause


46 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST


that now seems to be the major talking point – and it’s certainly a positive move in helping women to realise that, when it comes to this period in life, there is no ‘one size fits all’.


Although hot flushes and fatigue are considered ‘the norm’ in menopause, there are actually 34 symptoms including bleeding gums, body odour changes, burning tongue, tingling sensation under skin, facial hair increase and gastrointestinal problems such as wind.


While skincare guru, Liz Earle, expected hot flushes and night sweats, she instead got sleeplessness, headaches and even tinnitus – all of


the menopause, which left her feeling ‘flat’.


‘We were in Spain, and I couldn’t understand why I felt flat,’ said the TV host.


‘I mean really flat. There was no reason for it. I wasn’t depressed exactly, but there was a sense of not seeing the joy in anything. I’d lost my mojo. It’s like when you’re pregnant and you find yourself sobbing at adverts. And I was tired. I mean, bone-tired. I couldn’t understand it. Women need to talk about it, and not just sit at home wondering what’s wrong with them, getting depressed. It’s natural!’


‘I understand why no one wants to be associated with something society has decided makes you officially old, knackered, past it, useless and pretty much a laughing stock. But why does society still use the menopause as a barometer to measure a woman’s usefulness and status in society?’


which are lesser known symptoms associated with menopause.


‘I used to get a light drumming sound in my ears, which I thought I’d have to live with,’ Earle said. ‘I now know that we have estrogen receptors all over our bodies, including in our inner ear.


‘I have friends who’ve gone to audiology clinics and specialists, and nobody has ever said to them, “Oh, you’re a midlife woman, clearly you should try some oestrogen because that may well help your tinnitus.” The normally bubbly TV host, Lorraine Kelly, has also spoken about her difficult experience with


Legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey also admitted to not being prepared for the physical repercussions.


‘For two years I didn’t sleep well,’ she says. ‘Never a full night. No peace. Restlessness and heart palpitations were my steady companions at nightfall. I went to see a cardiologist. Took medication. Wore a heart monitor for weeks. And then one day, walking through the offices of The Oprah Winfrey Show, I picked up a copy of Dr Christiane Northrup’s book ‘The Wisdom of Menopause’, and the pages fell open to the heading ‘Palpitations: Your Heart’s Wake-Up Call.’ I took it as a sign.’


This new willingness to talk about the menopause is definitely being considered a positive step in removing some of the anxiety and fear that menopause causes for many women.


‘I don’t mind talking about the menopause because it’s something that every woman goes through,’ said Davina McCall, whose menopause started when she turned 50. ‘Women are embarrassed to talk about it. They feel ‘less than’ and they shouldn’t do. I certainly don’t. I’m here to say that you can get through it. Actually, the next phase of your life is really exciting. You start thinking, ‘OK, now is my time. My God, I’ve raised a family and now I can start thinking about where I want to be in the next period of my life’.


Actor Gillian Anderson has also been very open about going through early menopause.


‘How wonderful would it be if we could get to a place where we are able to have these conversations openly and without shame,’ she said.


‘Admit freely that this is what’s going on. So we don’t feel like we’re going mad or insane or alone in any of the symptoms we are having. Perimenopause and menopause should be treated as the rites of passage that they are. If not celebrated, then at least accepted and acknowledged and honoured.’


Sixty-one year-old actor, Emma Thompson, even joked about making the most of her hot flushes at the National Board of Review in 2014 while she was accepting the best actress award for Saving Mr Banks.


‘It’s such a cold night,’ she told the audience. ‘You know, it’s the first time I’ve been actively grateful for the menopause.’


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