History definitely hasn't always been kind to older women, words like hag, crone and witch weren't uncommon, and women were described as hysterical, "bleare eyed, pale and fowle", although always, it would appear, by men. Dr Helen Foster is a historian and a creative writing practitioner working at Leicester University, and in this episode, recorded for The Generation Exceptional Podcast, she shares how she got involved with recording the real life testimonies of women and their personal stories of going through the menopause transition to create 'A Silent Archive'. The Silent Archive You can ..read more

If you've ever wondered what it's like to stand on the famous TEDx red dot to share your ideas with an audience, I'd love to share with you my own experience of how I got to give my TEDx Talk in Sep 2022. You might be surprised at how long the process can be and you might also be surprised to know that you don't have be all that special to get chosen either! I actually recorded this podcast as a YouTube video for a brand new channel I've just launched called 'My Butterfly Years' where I'm basically sharing my thoughts, ideas, experiences and adventures as a post menopausal woman with ADHD. I'd ..read more

My guest on the podcast today is Social Worker and Activist Maria Rooney. Maria worked for Leicester City Council for 12 years before taking them to Tribunal for menopause discrimination including constructive unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and disability discrimination. It's been a long and stressful journey, but Maria has already won her appeals at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (high court in London) with her 14 day employment tribunal final hearing in October 2023. She has made legal history as her case was the first menopause case/appeal in the Employment Appeal Tribunal relating to ..read more

In this MenoChat I'm joined by Lea Campbell who is another lovely member of my Facebook Community, Your Best Midlife. Lea and I chat about some of the positive elements that sometimes get overlooked when we focus on the menopause.  Even having been hit by some of the many disruptive symptoms of menopause, Lea proves that there is another side to this journey.  One where we get to step out of the old and into new, exciting and sometimes scary new adventures. One of those new adventures included putting herself out there and joining a writing course, which led to Lea becoming a publish ..read more

How do you know if what you're experiencing is menopause related?  What if you're not ready to hear that it is menopause?  What if you don't have a womb so you don't have those obvious signals that your periods have ended? That's how it was for my 3rd MenoChat guest, Lyndsey Byrne. Having had a hysterectomy with very few symptoms, Lyndsey was convinced that when hot flushes and other symptoms started with a vengeance a few years later, there must have been something other than menopause going on, especially since her blood tests told her she was definitely NOT in menopause. Going to ..read more

One of THE most controversial areas of menopause is around whether or not those who have been treated for breast cancer should be 'allowed' to take HRT or not. Often there is a blanket no from medical practitioners, but what about personal choice?  What if an individual decides that it's their body and therefore their decision about whether or not they feel it's a risk they're willing to take in order to have a decent quality of life. My guest today is Ruth George.  Ruth was treated for breast cancer but found that the medication she was given after her surgery, intended to stop her ..read more

We're all pretty familiar with the idea that we have bacteria in our gut called the microbiome and that a healthy gut leads to better health. But did you know that we also have a vaginal microbiome and that it's possible to detect changes in hormone levels by monitoring the relative number of different microbes in the vagina? My guest on the podcast today is the Joint CEO of Agile Life Sciences, Jan Rogers. Jan is a scientist and, along with her colleagues, has developed a test that uses the vaginal microbiome, rather than the traditional measuring of hormones, to diagnose and manage the perim ..read more

What if everything you've been told about how to look after your pelvic floor was wrong, and all those endless kegel exercises were actually doing you more harm that good? I'm joined today by Caroline Carty, lawyer turned somatic yoga teacher who very candidly shares her story of struggling with a pelvic prolapse.  Despite spending many years teaching her class members all about the benefits of pelvic floor exercises the research suggests that this may actually not be the best solution. Caroline is an experienced yoga teacher who is passionate about the potential of yoga to heal bodies an ..read more

You know what it's like if you don't get enough sleep. You end up grouchy, stressed and struggling to concentrate.   We all have times when our sleep is poor, but when it goes on for an extended period, it can have a massive impact on quality of life.   Whilst good sleep hygiene can help, sometimes we need to get to the root of what's interrupting the sleep behaviours.   What's our relationship with our bed like! How much is the anxiety around not sleeping causing us not to sleep?   Well, I got these any many other questions answered when I had a virtual coffee with Tracy H ..read more

How would your friends and family react if you told them you were going to give up your well paid corporate job, at the age of 48, in the middle of a global pandemic, to start a company, without any experience of running a business? Well for my guest today, Katy Walton, the director of the training and coaching company MAKE REAL PROGRESS, that's exactly what she did - and yes, most people thought she'd gone stark raving mad. But despite everything, she's now built a successful and highly respected business delivering creative leadership and talent development solutions and supporting HR and L ..read more