Enough already. At 46, and having been awake for an hour or two from 3am almost every night for the last couple of years, too hot to get back to sleep, brain totally wired travelling down every single dark path of every single thought I have ever had about anything that is remotely good in my life and the catastrophic change that feels imminent being completely logical, I’ve had enough. I know I don’t need to explain this to you. There is every chance you are nodding your head right now, either because it is you and of course this is normal, or because it is someone you share a bed with.

This is normal. Right? Is it? Does it have to be?

According to my mum, yes. She was the same. Also sans uterus, (so no cycle to act as a guide), also waking up hot in the night and awake for hours, only drifting back into a deep, comfortable sleep a split second before needing to wake for the day; Dad sleeping soundly next to her, albeit needing to keep a distance from the furnace beside him in summer, thankful for the extra warmth she provided in winter.

See, normal.

My doctor said this was normal, too. So back home I went, deflated.

I wondered if I had those who had come before me to blame, but in speaking to my well-post-meno neighbours, they were angry and frustrated too. They also had to fight to be heard and understand what was going in their ‘normal’ bodies.

And with, what are we up to now, 53 (?) menopause symptoms on the list, and barely whispered about in public for decades, perhaps it’s no wonder this is where we find ourselves.

But seriously, enough already.

Sure, it would’ve been super helpful for more than half the population if ‘that’ HRT report didn’t scare pharmaceutical companies to pull much needed research dollars from women’s health, if all doctors were educated in how to support their peri and meno patients, if women weren’t completely terrified of HRT, but here we are.

I don’t know if I’ve been bathing in too much Let Them Theory lately, but enough already. I’m done being angry.

I’m done being hot.

I’m done with my wrists no longer holding me in a plank at Pilates like they used to. Pilates is my escape. I can’t not have Pilates!

I’m done with sore joints.

I’m done being awake at 3am and only drifting back to sleep when it’s time to get up.

I am really done with my unrecognisable stomach, that hasn’t been this size since it had a human growing inside it.

I’m done with being told this is normal.

I’m done, and so are you.

That’s why we find ourselves on this page.

For a solution.

We are here to share the wins, to laugh at the ridiculous states we have found ourselves in and told it’s ‘normal’, to find a solution and share it with our sisters.

Because, after all, we are enough, already, and deserve a bit of hormonal cushioning … of the not multiplying cells variety!

Oh hello meno xx