Introduction
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a menopausal woman who wears many hats in life:
Wife
Mother
Sister
Daughter
Friend
Business owner
Nurse
Menopause champion
Having just entered my 49th year (HOW!!) reflected over my own journey to make it this far and thought about my life in general. Where was I heading.. what do I want to do with my life and what do I want to be when I grow up???
I qualified as a nurse in 1998 and went on to work in various sectors of the NHS mainly in Accident and Emergency departments in Sheffield and Stockport.. I loved it, having the variety of issues to deal with day to day.. not knowing what was coming next.. however I realised early on in my career that i had an interest in Women's health. Taking on the role of increasing awareness about Domestic violence and how to ask those questions that are difficult and make us feel uncomfortable.
After a fantastic 14 years in A & E I moved to community based nursing and worked with my local Health visiting teams working with new mums and babies, looking at post natal depression, women's general health and well being.
Having worked the last few years as an agency nurse in various settings I decided to set up 'Our Menopause'. This has been mainly influenced by my own journey and questions as to why is this happening to me and what can I do about it to make myself feel better.
Honestly Perimenopause snook up on me... I started feeling anxious and worried about the slightest thing.. I've always been able to sleep well and this started to be interrupted. I didn't want to go out and socialise which again is not me.. and felt generally out of sorts. I went to see my GP and was prescribed antidepressants, which at the time I thought was the right route to take, however having become a menopause champion, researching and listening to women I realised that this is common practice and that many GP's don't have the training to recognise Menopause symptoms or as women ourselves we are not educated on the signs and symptoms..
Yes as a Perimenopausal woman I will probably experience hot flushes, brain fog, urinary symptoms, anxiety, exhaustion, insomnia, dry skin, thinning hair, The Rage, and many more .... BUT WHY ?? What is the cause of all of the above and how can I navigate this time without losing the plot !!! And so 'Our Menopause' was born... To try and educate Women, Men, Employers etc about the Meno's and how we can progress through this time together... staying sane !!!