It was a cold, dark January Saturday night, I was alone at home and feeling a bit sorry for myself and no amount of Emily in Paris could get me out of my funk. I had gotten into the habit of muting my neighbours’ WhatsApp group because most of the time it’s filled with chats about cats and kids, and I don’t have either of those. But on this particular Saturday night, due to an update on my phone, the neighbours’ WhatsApp started blasting out messages. One of my neighbours was experiencing chest-related symptoms, she wasn’t sure if it was a panic attack or a heart attack. She lives ..read more

We had no choice when it came to puberty, and we have no choice when it comes to our Menopause. It’s another perfectly natural change in our bodies, the end of the hormonal journey that we started as teenage girls.  Our Menopause is a natural transition that we have to adjust to and live with, work with and accept, and if we choose to, embrace it, it’s part of who we are and it’s a milestone that deserves celebrating. Many women don’t make it this far.  But if you don’t feel like celebrating it because you’re symptomatic which might show up as tiredness, irritability, aches and pain ..read more

“Now let’s get informed, get empowered to make our own choices about our symptoms, our treatments, our minds and our bodies. And then, let’s keep talking, to our friends, to our families, to the men in our lives, to our children. Let’s spread the word so that no woman feels alone or ashamed at this stage in her life.” *Are you considering HRT? *Want to know more about HRT? *Have concerns and questions about when and how to start HRT? *Want to know more about the risks and benefits? Then join me in conversation with the awesome Dr Philippa Kaye on The Merry Menopause Bookclub Podcast as ..read more

Every time your blood sugar drops, your body releases the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Most Menopausal women don’t need any extra stress, so eating a diet that maintains blood sugar balance is the single most important thing to do during Perimenopause and Menopause to support adrenal function.  Call it “nutrition 101” because, as well as reducing stress hormones, balancing your blood sugar offers so many other residual benefits that will significantly improve your wellbeing.  How does the blood sugar mechanism work? Your body is programmed to keep blood sugar levels with ..read more

The Merry Menopause stands for Education, Empowerment and Action. If we want to have a Merry Menopause we need to Educate ourselves on how our bodies work. We need to read and listen and talk. Why do we have periods? What do they tell us? What part do our hormones play and how do we support them as they ebb and flow? What happens to our body when we take contraception for reasons other than to prevent pregnancy? The importance of the food we eat and the impact it has on the way our body functions. The benefits of exercise, the impact of stress and our mind-body connection – why how we think ..read more

I am experiencing something that I know many of you are experiencing too, the loss of a beloved parent. My beautiful Papa peacefully passed away at home at the grand old age of 88. My sister and I were with him, a wonderful last day all together. At 9:40pm on Tuesday, May 4th, my 51st birthday, he gave me the best present ever, a smile, because he knew I was there as he finally drifted off. I feel completely blessed to have been with him after months of trying to care for him from a distance during lockdowns. My biggest fear was that he would die alone in a hospital and t ..read more

Sex and the City aired in the UK in 1999. Then I was a single girl working for a Corporate, living a life of emotional ups and downs not too dissimilar – albeit less glamorous – to the SATC girls, but still very relatable. Forward 22 years and I’m re-watching, as a single woman in her 50s on her third and most fulfilling career to date as a Coach. It’s still relatable, still relevant and still thought-provoking. There are the odd toe-curling moments that haven’t stood the test of time as awareness and tolerance of behaviours and boundaries have changed over the years, testament to how far we ..read more

We spend our childhood growing, building our mind and our body, we then move into the second phase of our life when we start and finish our periods, our menses, adulthood. We spend these years outwardly doing, a need to achieve and accomplish, engaging with the outside world, for many of us feeding a need to fit in, and it is during this time we will have many different identities mother, daughter, colleague, partner, friend… We then reach the time when we go through our Perimenopause. The energy of our body changes because our ovarian function starts to decrease and the main use of our repro ..read more

Can you believe it’s September??! My word for this month is ‘calm.’ It’s only the 1st and already I am starting to feel overwhelmed with the influx of emails and WhatsApp as everybody starts to get busy again. So how do I BE a person that is calm? It’s OK saying that’s my word, but who do I need to BE to have calm in my everyday life? 1. I need to be Jo that takes daily exercise. I need to make sure I don’t let my routine slip, working out helps me to clear my mind and re-calibrate 2. I need to be Jo with Focus. I have two pages of A4 as my list of things to do for September! I’ll take th ..read more

By my calculations, I started my Perimenopause around the age of 42, nine years ago. At that time I was in love with someone who wasn’t in love with me and unbeknownst to me I had just started the delayed grieving process of losing my mum a couple of years earlier. I was equally ignorant about the impact of grief and loss on my mental and physical wellbeing as I was about Perimenopause. All of the above can explain stress, hormone imbalance, anxiety and low mood.
 I thought menopause was something that MIGHT happen to me in my 50s, I wasn’t going to think about it. Not everyone had Menopause ..read more