Lives in Brighton
Age 56
Psychotherapist, yoga teacher, mother and partner
On beach in Brighton
Pointy feet in ballet shoes
I don’t think I really noticed it hugely. My periods stopped 7 years ago. I don’t think I was particularly grumpy or difficult, but maybe my husband might disagree!
I coincidentally started retraining as a psychotherapist so there was another sort of transition and a change of life in a different way. It really changed how I perceived myself and how I was perceived by other people.There was a lot of introspection through the course. I had six years of therapy around this time that supported me through a whole load of things and probably it was at peri-menopause that I really did have a crisis in my marriage (which did survive) and life.
I remember a massive physical hormonal surge and sexual surge as well, like a last hurrah of masses of sexual energy and that being very confusing and throwing up questions around my marriage.You shift into a completely different gear with the menopause and issues around sex because you've got to be lubricated. If you do have those dialogues it’s amazing, but if you find it difficult to discuss it, it must be really hard to say that intimacy doesn’t work in the same way That was difficult but then it was negotiated, and is good now