I felt like I was laughed out of the surgery

Janine Sim, 44, is a yoga therapist from Bury, manchester. She’s married to ewen, a police officer, and they have four teenage children. She says: THRee-and-a-half years ago, when I was 40, I hit the menopause. I knew that was what it was as my Mum had gone through it at the same age.

Rather than going to my GP and asking for HRT, I tried alternative therapies first, which worked for a while.

Then my symptoms started getting worse. I was angry and tearful from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed; I felt like the life was being drained out of me; some days I couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed.

I went to see the GP in late 2016 and asked for HRT. she took one look at me and smiled. ‘You can’t be menopausal,’ she said. ‘You’re my age.’

I went through my symptoms and told her the family history, but she refused to listen. I felt like I was laughed out of the surgery.

For two years, I went back again and again, begging for help. every time I saw a different doctor, and every time they said no. My family despaired. I could just about summon the energy to get up and go to work, but when I came home I’d slump on the sofa and weep.

I was only sleeping for around two hours a night and when I woke up the sheets were drenched in sweat. I didn’t clean the house for 18 months.

after my second GP appointment, I was asked if I wanted to go on antidepressants. No one would listen. I felt like they were treating me like a mad woman. They just wanted to tick a box and get me out of their surgery.

It took four separate appointments, a letter of complaint — and for me to bring my husband into the surgery with me, to act as my advocate — for the GP to listen.

within a few weeks of getting HRT last september, I was back to my normal, happy self. I feel like I’ve woken up from a nightmare.