Myriam and Suzie, both 50, created their own supplements after they struggled with menopause symptoms (Picture: Myriam Djellouli)
Myriam was 39 and Suzie was 44 when they first noticed changes to their energy levels, quality of sleep, weight gain and mood.
Neither knew what was happening: the menopause was not something they had ever discussed or been taught about, and the word ‘perimenopause’ wasn’t really in their vocabulary.
‘I didn’t think about the menopause at all until it happened,’ says Myriam, 50, a makeup artist from South-East London. ‘It simply wasn’t on my radar. It seemed to be a taboo subject. I was aware that some women in midlife suffered with hot flushes, but that was all.’
Suzie, 50, a tech PR firm owner also from South-East London, says: ‘Being Gen Xers, no one spoke to us about the menopause when we were younger. It was just assumed by most girls that you got a year of hot flushes when you hit 50 and then normality resumed.’
Myriam recalls how when she was 42, she began feeling more severe symptoms that she now knows were the signs of early menopause: Sleep deprivation, fatigue, brain fog and changes to skin, hair and nails.
During that time, she visited Suzie to do her makeup for a celebrity event she was going to that evening and they instantly hit it off. As their friendship grew, they shared their respective struggles, including Myriam’s symptoms. In turn, Suzie told her new friend that she struggled with low mood, weight gain, hot flushes and anxiety.
Both Myriam, left, and Suzie, right, found that ‘lethal tiredness’ and brain fog had a major impact on their jobs, Myriam as a busy makeup artist and Suzie as a PR (Picture: Myriam Djellouli)
‘Both of us found that the lethal tiredness and brain fog had the biggest impact on our work,’ says Myriam. ‘As a makeup artist, I am constantly on the move, meeting clients and brides-to-be. I found I would get much more tired than normal, which would make lugging big cases of makeup on trains and Tubes far more physically draining. I also had to be extra organised, as the brain fog would make me second guess myself.’
Suzie agrees. ‘As a PR, my work is a balance between high energy and extreme focus, so when crippling fatigue and a hazy brain took hold, it was harder to concentrate for long periods of time and I would struggle in presentations as my brain would go blank, which is highly frustrating. It also made me feel self-conscious that people might think I’m losing my edge.’
Both women found that their spiralling symptoms affected their family lives too, leading to them becoming withdrawn or short-tempered.
Suzie, a single mother to two teenage daughters aged 18 and 19, says: ‘I found myself feeling quieter and less involved, somewhat of an outsider and more reclusive, which is the absolute opposite of my normal self. My energy and mood were low, so it was hard to join in fun …read more
Source:: Metro
