Mental Health Awareness Week 2022. Menopause & mental health.

It happens to all women.

Regardless of ethnic heritage the menopause comes to all women. Some are ready for it, some start early, some start late, but one thing is for certain & that is that each menopause experience is different for each woman. This means that although there are a list of general symptoms & a rough age for the onset of menopause; no two women will experience the same menopause journey.

Davina McCall’s menopause documentaries ‘Sex, Myths & the Menopause’ & most recently ‘Sex, Mind & the Menopause’ have got people talking again about a subject which as little as 40 years ago was still taboo. Speaking with my Mother, she has assured me that her generation & those before her had little information about menopause & had to battle their way through this change of life alone & unsupported.

Thankfully things have changed. The British Menopause Society acknowledges that whilst most women attribute hot flushes & night sweats to the menopause, many do not associate other symptoms (such as tiredness, low mood, anxiety, poor memory & concentration or sensation of brain fog) to the menopause & worry about the cause of these symptoms or may fail to understand why they are experiencing them. (1)

Menopause is a major life event, marking the end of the reproductive life cycle, & many women may experience troublesome symptoms related to the menopause for a number of years. This can have a detrimental impact on their quality of life, wellbeing & may also have a significant impact on their personal relationships & work. (1)

With around 5.1 million women in the UK aged between 45 & 55 years, a large range of women are potentially menopausal. With the average woman starting the menopause at around 51 (NHS), many women feel the affects of the perimenopause in their early 40’s.

Despite knowing that the menopause is part of every woman’s life, for a lot of women it is not obvious when they are experiencing menopausal symptoms & although the more common symptoms such as hot flushes, sleeplessness & tiredness are relatively obvious to spot; it is the mental health symptoms which are often missed, with thousands of women assuming there is something very wrong with them & not joining the dots.

One of the most misread clusters of menopause symptoms are directly linked to mental wellbeing. For many women they are aware of heightened anxiety (often accompanied with palpitations) loss of memory or commonly described as ‘brain fog’, lack of confidence & in some extreme case, suicidal thoughts.

However, as these symptoms creep up on you, there is no real understanding that they could be linked to the menopause. With life being relatively stressful most of the time, working women & mothers who juggle many life balls at once, generally just put it down to trying to do too much & being overworked & or over stressed.

I can look back at the past couple of years & now I know & understand what my body has been doing, I can see that I have been stumbling through perimenopausal symptoms for about 2 years & the biggest indicator for me has been heightened anxiety, lack of confidence & brain fog.

As a former Secondary School English Teacher, I have noticed for some time now that simple actions like recalling a favourite book title or character has sometimes eluded me, or the information has appeared a few hours later, out of context for the original search. I had put this down to being stressed & over tired as I now run a business with my partner & it is all go, all of the time.

However, my anxiety levels are what I have really noted. Lack of confidence in my ability to do anything, saying sorry for literally everything, palpitations & just a general sense of anxiety a lot of the time (not me) has been slowly eating away at me, affecting my work & my relationships with those closest to me.

I am lucky that a close family member is about 2 years into the menopause, as I am able to talk to her & we can openly share experiences. Coping mechanisms are all very well, but at the end of the day they will not address the white elephant in the room & that is menopausal hormones & how they are affect every aspect of life.

I am very grateful to live in a time whereby for the most part speaking with a GP about menopause is not met with “we’ll prescribe antidepressants & see how you are in six months” scenario (although I am aware some women are still met with this archaic way of treating menopausal symptoms) I am lucky that the GP I have recently spoken with listened to me, understood my concerns & in her words “You don’t have to suffer, we can help you”

Although antidepressants have their place in the treatment of mental health issues, for a woman they do not address the source of the problem & that problem is the enormous hormone imbalance caused by the onset of menopause. Although in some extreme cases antidepressants are prescribed, these are alongside HRT treatments & not as an alternative.

However, there are still many women who either do not realise their mental health is being affected by menopausal symptoms or who are still met with an out of date attitude from some GP’s. There are many women whose mental health is so affected by the huge life change the menopause brings, that they do feel that they cannot go on.

Suicide rates for women aged 45 to 54 – the most common age for perimenopause & menopause – have risen 6% in 20 years, according to the Office of National Statistic (ONS). (2)

Adding to this, it was recently announced that a certain type of HRT gel was in short supply, with some women reporting that had only had access to one or maybe two batches in a year. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has now issued Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) to limit the dispensing of the products. (3)

It means that Oestrogel, Ovestin cream & Premique Low Dose will be given out in limited supply to each person to “even out” the distribution. (3)

Intermittent use of HRT can play havoc with a woman’s menopausal body & mind & many HRT gel users have been baffled by this lack of supply & lack of support.

As I mentioned before, I am lucky to have spoken with a very positive GP who had no qualms about prescribing HRT & I am now in the first throws of HRT patch treatment. It can take some time to get the levels right, but for me, just knowing that I have that patch stuck to my leg & that my body is starting the journey towards finding balance, has already helped my mental health.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not feeling super positive & my anxiety has disappeared overnight, that will take time, but with the right treatment & the right lifestyle choices, I am striving towards a more even keel.

Written by Katy-Jane Mason for & on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd.