WHO ARE YOU CALLING HORMONAL?

The good news... you suddenly feel like a teenager again. The bad? It’s for all the wrong reasons. Midlife hormone hell is a very real affliction – but there are ways to take back control

Overwhelming anxiety, intense mood swings and mental fog… as hormone levels fall, you can find yourself in a whole new world of disturbed sleep, hot flushes, memory problems, irregular periods, low mood and joint pain. This second stage of hormone hell can kick in at any time from your mid 40s (earlier for some) and take you unawares as you suddenly find yourself weeping for no apparent reason, floored by cotton-wool brain or waking night after night in sweat-soaked sheets.

If it all sounds horribly familiar, you’re not alone. Some 13 million women in Britain – one in three of us – are going through or have reached menopause; 80% experience symptoms, with one in four saying they are severe enough to affect their quality of life. For 10% of women, things are so bad that they seriously consider giving up work. Symptoms typically last for around four years after your last period, but for one in 10 women they can last up to 12!

For Karen Callow, 49, it was an inexplicably low mood that sent her to the GP. ‘Everything in my life was fine – I had a good job, was in a happy marriage and had no financial problems, but on my worst days I envisaged myself taking the car and driving off a bridge. It was as though a light had been switched off.

‘Blood tests showed anomalies in my hormone levels but the GP suggested I see how I got on. Things didn’t improve. I knew my symptoms were due to the menopause so I went back to the GP and asked for HRT. She gave me a list of reasons why I shouldn’t take it and sent me home with a prescription for citalopram, an antidepressant.

‘After five weeks I felt incredibly low. I stopped seeing friends, my libido had disappeared, my energy levels were at rock bottom and my hair was falling out, but when I went back to the GP I was told to continue with the antidepressants.

‘In desperation I went to see someone privately who looked at my blood results, listened to my symptoms and asked me why I wasn’t taking HRT. I’m now on it and I’ve had a coil fitted to protect my womb. Physically, emotionally and mentally I finally feel like me again.’