The one lesson I’ve learned from life
Meg Mathews
For Mer music industry Pr-turned entrepreneur Meg Mathews, 53, runs a menopause information website. single, she has a daughter, Anais, 19, from her marriage to former oasis frontman Noel gallagher.
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE
Age 49, I thought I was losing it. I had awful anxiety, I was overwhelmed, I had a foggy brain, aching joints, night sweats. I couldn’t drive. I lost my libido. I didn’t want to leave the house. I felt like an old woman.
I didn’t tell anyone. Anais would get an Uber taxi to school, my then-partner would leave and I’d just go back to bed.
I had never been ill. Never had period pain. I just thought, embarrassingly, that my party lifestyle from the Nineties had caught up with me. Maybe I had dementia. My gP gave me antidepressants.
eventually, I was talking about it with friends and someone said: ‘Meg, I think you’re going through the menopause. You’re not going mad.’
I think I’m quite a woman of the world but, to my shock, I didn’t even know what perimenopause was. All of a sudden I was learning about HRT and bioidentical hormones. I was shocked at the lack of information out there for women and decided to make it my mission to break the stigma.
I launched Megs Menopause in October 2017 as an open source of information and advice to empower women through frank discussion. Within four months, the website had more than a million hits, so I knew I was doing something right.
I was a party girl. Now I don’t drink, I exercise, eat a clean diet, meditate. I’ve been single for three years. There’s no shame in not being in a relationship at this age.
I prefer to talk about ‘desire’ rather than libido. I don’t want to rip my clothes off for rampant sex after a glass of wine — those days are over. I need a connection with someone. I want someone to cuddle up and watch movies with.
My plan was to retire to the countryside with my dogs. But now I’m flying around the world talking about the menopause. I want to be of service to other women. Finally I have a purpose in my life.
Meg’s MM products are stocked in superdrug, Tesco World Beauty stores and online at Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy and megsmenopause.com