I have just read a couple of your books, the perfect couple and Am I guilty. Great reads, I really enjoyed them. They kept me guessing and the endings surprised me.

I have just started reading the happy family

I have started a book club with my work colleagues and have recommended ‘the perfect couple’

Looking forward to more of your books

Sarah

Hi, thank you so much for sharing this experience – I’m sure it will be incredibly helpful for lots of people. It really shouldn’t be this difficult, should it? I really do feel that things are changing now – even if slowly – and so hopefully it will be a little easier for the women who are going through it after us. I’m so glad you’re feeling better now – long may it last. Thank you so much for getting in touch.
Jackie x

Hi Nicki, gosh yet another one of the many symptoms of menopause that so many people don’t know about! I’m so sorry you have suffered like this and thank you so much for sharing – we are gathering notes on issues that people would like us to talk about in the next series of shows so I will add this one to the list!
Take care,
Jackie xx

I certainly kept my menopause a secret – I was going out with a man nine years younger than myself and was so worried he might think I was now too old to date! My first symptom was passing out in a supermarket at the age of 51. I went to my doctor and after a few false starts with different HRT settled happily into one brand which pretty much made me feel ‘normal’ again. However. At the age of 65 my new doctor said I had to come off HRT as I was now too old… It was a horrible shock to find most of the unpleasant symptoms returned. Horrible night sweats, feeling funny (about to faint) at odd times during the day, brain fog meaning I would start a sentence and not remember what the end of it was supposed to be. Urinary incontinence became a massive problem. The NHS GP refused to give me a prescription as it was “too dangerous”. Eventually I went to a private Hormone specialist in Harley Street. I only have a tiny pension so that should tell you how desperate I was. I have now been on HRT for about eighteen months (I’m now 74) and feel almost back to normal. I’m hoping I can stay on it for the rest of my life. I told my doctor I would rather live a shorter happy life than a longer miserable one!

I’d prefer my name not to be mentioned as I also want to add that I was at one point a union rep. It seems a lot of women in the middle years get into trouble because they are not coping with their jobs. Some even become the subject of disciplinary action and are told to “pull yourself together”! Menopause isn’t something men or male bosses take into consideration – mostly to do with the taboo of talking about it, or some fear of being sexist in reverse.

I have sent this message as I would like people generally, and the specialists in particular, to consider what happens when you get older and are told to come off HRT.