'Brain fog' and broken sleep: the unfiltered truth about menopause

Women usually begin perimenopause in their 40s and it can last anywhere from 1 to 10 years.

Transcript

00:00Perimenopause is a beast. It's very hard to control and very unpredictable.

00:05Phones have gone into meltdown here. We're talking menopause.

00:08Menopausal women, damn it, we want to talk about it.

00:11It's like puberty, essentially. You're going through puberty again.

00:17There's libido covered, there's snacking covered.

00:21Yeah, the insomnia, incontinence. I mean, it really is a smorgasbord.

00:26Sucking times. Menopause, it's a musical, it's in your social media feed, your podcasts,

00:32and the big topic among your friends. And yet, for a significant time, this life chapter has been

00:39a taboo topic. Never talked about it with my mum, and most women I know of my generation didn't,

00:46but it happens to us all. Menopause marks the end of women's fertility,

00:51and yet we're still learning so much about this stage in women's lives.

00:56It just means the last period, and a little bit sadly for some, the last egg. The usual age

01:02is 45 to 55, but the median age in Australia is 51 to 52 years.

01:08Before menopause, women experience a season of perimenopause, which usually begins in their 40s

01:15and can last anywhere from 1 to 10 years. Symptoms include irregular, heavier or lighter periods,

01:22hot flushes, sleep problems, aches, sore breasts, mood changes, anxiety, depression, and brain fog.

01:31The symptoms fluctuate, and there's no one-size-fits-all. Some women, 20% will not have

01:38any symptoms. 20% will have severe symptoms, and everyone else will have something in the

01:45middle. It's a time when symptoms and hormones fluctuate very widely and wildly.

01:52As women run out of their eggs, their hormone levels can change dramatically,

01:56in particular, estrogen. But in perimenopause, it can be normal levels of estrogen, very high levels

02:03of estrogen, or very low levels of estrogen, and it's sort of a dog's breakfast. It's all over the

02:09place. In some cases, a doctor can assist with managing perimenopause symptoms using MHT,

02:17menopausal hormone therapy. There's lots of ways of giving hormone therapy. There's gels,

02:22there's patches, there's tablets, there's vaginal estrogen products as well. Dr. Davison advises

02:28women to visit a trusted GP or nurse practitioner to discuss their symptoms. Do a little bit of

02:34research, look into telehealth, and look carefully at the education online to start with. It used to

02:41be a taboo topic. We didn't used to want to talk about menopause and perimenopause, and women sort of

02:47just got on with it. But now there's a lot of conversation, there's a lot of chat, there's a

02:52lot of celebrities talking about menopause and perimenopause and hormone therapy. But then again,

02:58there are other people talking about their own agendas. So it's important women get some really

03:02good advice from places like Jean Hales for Women's Health or the Australasian Menopause Society.

03:08While fertility is much lower for women in their 40s and 50s, Jean Hales for Women's Health advises

03:16women to continue using contraception until they've had one year without a period if they're older than

03:2250, or two years without a period if they're younger than 50.

03:38two years without a period of time.

03:46One year without a period of time that had been called a period of time for them, the

03:51last year was a group called a period of progress.

03:53And now there's a group of people who might be working with them now, who might be

03:56a leader in their 40s and they need to be an entrepreneur.

04:00And I'm not sure if this is another group of people in the 40s and they must be able to