Motherhood to menopause - why the gap is getting smaller...
What that means, why it happens and what you can do about it. Our Founder, author and women’s health advocate, Clio Wood, talks to Liz Sergeant, women’s nutrition expert, about this big life stage.
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Liz Sergeant - wellnourishedclub.com
I first wrote about the motherhood to menopause gap in 2019 in one of my first articles for The Telegraph, and since then, the conversation around menopause and the perimenopause has blossomed into the public consciousness. It’s glorious to see women taking ownership of this phase, rather than shrinking away from it as we have been traditionally taught by society to do.
The thing is, that our entryway to motherhood (that tricky learning and change period called matrescence) is tough, and it can take months and years to get used to our new identity and get motherhood to work for us. And I don’t just mean keeping the baby alive, I mean keeping us as parents (but above all, mothers) alive and thriving too. It’s why I created my first &Breathe postnatal retreat after all.
Women are choosing to have babies later: first time mums over forty years old is the only consistentaly growing birth demographic in England and Wales over the past five years. This means that the time between becoming a mum for the first time and entering your perimenopause years is getting shorter.
The reason I became interested in this journey (I am yet to become perimenopausal) is because my good friend, Jo, went through her menopause at the age of 37 years, and with an 18 month old son, her second child.
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Jo was floored at the lack of empathy and information out there, the dearth of honest writing or experiences shared that she felt she could relate to.
Menopause was seen as something for “old women”. Not pre-40 years olds. And the literature reflected that. Whilst Jo was lucky to get blood tests to confirm her menopause, then her choice of HRT quickly and was listened to by her GP, it’s not always the case. And besides, the support she needed was far greater than that.
She needed a community of support and to understand what is now much more appreciated: that women’s hormonal changes towards the perimenopause can start as early as 35 years old and the perimenopause phase (the run up to the actual menopause) can last for as many as ten years: so there are far more of us affected by the menopause that you think.
And that’s how we started &Breathe’s Menopause retreat together - specifically created by our experts for midlife women.
The trouble is that we’ve been pushed into the shadows as we grow older. A woman has to hide her ageing after all, whilst a man is considered a “silver fox”. Once the menopause takes hold, we’re shrivelled up and useful. This is grossly unfair - and I’m passionate about changing that!
I had a wonderful conversation with Liz Sergeant, who is both our &Breathe Resident Expert Nutritionist and owner of Well Nourished Club, functional medicine for high-performing women, over on Instagram a couple of weeks ago which covered exactly this. It was glorious, and we revealed all sorts of wisdom. Have a watch below.
Are you feel overwhelmed and in need of a break? An &Breathe Family/Postnatal or Menopause retreat will sort you out. Drop me a WhatsApp to chat.
At &Breathe we’re passionate about wellbeing for postnatal, families, and peri-menopause. Click below to learn more about our RETREATS and my BOOK: