Like many others |I am watching the new Davina McCall sex, mind and the menopause. The reason, I believe I am in perimenopause. However as I am just turned 40 I am struggling to get help.
My mental health is struggling, I am not depressed, but I get low easily, I lose my temper quickly and struggle to manage my moods and temper. The brain fog is overwhelming, I do not want to admit that sometime the anxiety overwhelms me and causes me to not want to talk to anyone.
So why can I not get help from this condition? Because statistically the NHS do not believe that anyone can suffer from this under the age of 50. They would rather believe there is something wrong with me - internal scans, blood tests etc. Now do not get me wrong I am glad that has been checked but all they ( a female doctor I may add) was just concerned about my bleeding heavily, not that I do not want my girls to think that this is normal. not that I was saying I am struggling. She offered me contraception, I stated that contraception always escalated my symptoms and that my husband had ensured more children were not going to occur, No offer of information, no further follow up except a referral to my gynaecological clinic which is massively overwhelmed and delays for appointment of at least 6 months. That is 6 months of 21 day cycles (10 days of which I am bleeding heavily) severe acne, aching muscles and tired mind.
My grandmother completed the menopause by the age of 42, my mother suffered for 10 years. My grandmother never received any help and died from a heart attack after spending the last year of her life fighting cancer of the uterus.
Maybe if she had had the support of a menopause clinic and had had treatment and encouraged to seek help when she first started with symptoms she may be alive today who knows. What I do know is that none of this history is being put forward, the fact that both maternal mother and grandmother went through the menopause in their 40s.
Girls & Women with CP experience ageing and age-related health problems earlier than non-disabled women (Turk et al, 1997) - musculo-skeletal and neurological , puberty and menopause
Throw into all of this that I have cerebral palsy and as we know research into ageing with cerebral palsy is limited and I feel lost.
The weight gain ( and not being able to lose the weight as easily as I did ten years ago) is making me struggle.
I hope that Davina's campaign will begin the motion to get women listened to. Its funny how my husband walked into his Gp and asked for a vasectomy and was not questioned yet I ask for help and have to wait. As they say if the menopause was a mens problem it would have results in treatment by now. We have no autonomy over our own fertility and health.
I have noticed that since I have gotten older my condition has gotten more pronounced. More pain, more stiff… And I have to do the things I usually do differently now... I try not to complain about the pain or even ask for help. Being the Leo that I am, I am very prideful. Lol. I want to do it for myself. But sometimes I just can't. It is just frustrating. I just wish my body was like it was in my 20’s!! (Sasha, age 50)
OLDER WOMEN (55+) – MENOPAUSE & POST MENOPAUSE • Early onset of menopause • Increased pain, risk of osteoporosis/bone fractures due to reduction in estrogen, coupled with inactivity, likelihood of falls • Greater risk for developing a number of other bone, muscle, and joint-related diseases as they age, such as scoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine) and spinal stenosis (neurologic problems associated with narrowing of the spinal canal) • Lifetime of barriers & adversity → high unmet health needs • Mortality from breast cancer 3 times higher than non-CP (Grono, 2016) • Low mammography participation: (Nandam et al, 2017) • Lack of education around need for/availability of preventative treatment • Environmental/attitudinal barriers – lifts/ramps, • GP’s focus on underlying conditions rather than preventive health care • difficulties interacting with HCPs/technologists due to speech impairments • the mechanics of the mammogram procedure
ETERNAL: healthcare for girls and women with cerebral palsy (CP) across the life course Dr Sonali Shah, Dr Caroline Bradbury-Jones, Prof Julie Taylor School of Nursing, Institute of Clinical Sciences University of Birmingham
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