KERRE GETS CANDID

KERRE DISCOVERS JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE WANT TO TALK ABOUT MENOPAUSE

‘Menopause and me’

Afew weeks back, Mark (my co-host on Newstalk ZB) and I were asked if we’d like to interview a doctor on the subject of menopause.

Endocrinologist Dr Anna Fenton was travelling the country talking to different media, trying to get a discussion going around the symptoms of menopause and how they can be treated.

My team is mostly boys. Young boys at that. They wrinkled up their noses when they saw the email and wondered how on earth we could turn a discussion on women’s health – reproductive health – into radio that people would choose to listen to.

I have yet to go through menopause – although surely at 52 it must be imminent – but I was very interested to hear what lay ahead for me. Some of my friends have been there and done that, but just as it is with pregnancy and childbirth, there seems to be no one universal experience. Everyone has to do it their own way.

So Dr Fenton arrived for her interview and very soon after she began talking, the lines started lighting up. What really surprised us was that the first four callers to the show were men, all interested in finding ways to alleviate the misery of their wives.

It was extraordinary. We had allotted Dr Fenton 15 minutes, but when we saw that the switchboard was full of people wanting to talk to her – equal numbers of men to women – we asked her to stay on and she ended up spending the entire hour talking to callers, and responding to as many of the questions that flooded in via email and text as she possibly could.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Half of the population will go through menopause at some stage in their lives – one in a hundred women hit menopause before they turn 40 – and if they have a difficult menopause, then life for everyone else in the household will probably be tricky too.

Dr Fenton recommended a variety of different treatments and advised women to discuss their options with a sympathetic doctor. She was not averse to hormone replacement therapy given that the most modern studies show it to be helpful in many cases, with no additional risk of cancer, but she also talked about hypnotherapy, and other natural remedies as a way of alleviating sleeplessness and hot flushes.

It was interesting, enlightening and ultimately, for me, uplifting, knowing that when menopause hits me, I’ll have a range of options available to me. Even my offsider, who has only just entered his 30s, found the conversation fascinating.

But the very best example of why it was worthwhile radio was receiving this message on our Facebook page:

“I just wanted to say thanks so much for having

Dr Anna Fenton on the show last week. I’ve been struggling my way through menopause thinking I just had to suck it up and put up with whatever was thrown at me. After listening, I made a doctor’s appointment and am now off to see a gynaecologist at Waikato Hospital tomorrow as I’m classed as priority one. So thanks guys. It’s good to know that what I was going through isn’t normal and

I don’t have to suck it up!”

We received a couple of messages like that from women and men who were so grateful to know that they weren’t alone, they weren’t supposed to spend the next six years in misery and that there was help out there.

I know some people find it hard to talk about their health and their reproductive health in particular – especially in public. But knowledge is power and it’s important to normalise what is a very natural part of life. If you passed through menopause without a moment’s bother, lucky you. But if you’re suffering, don’t suffer in silence. Because I sure as heck won’t!

‘ If you’re suffering, don’t suffer in silence because I sure as heck won’t!’

As well as reading her column, listen to Kerre on Newstalk ZB, weekdays, noon to 4pm.