Speaker 1: I'm Patrina Jones, and this episode Maybe I'm a Chronic
Speaker 1: OVI Sharer really cuts to the core of the sometimes
Speaker 1: awkward symptoms of menopause for some women. I promised you
Speaker 1: a frank, no holds barred series, and this is exactly
Speaker 1: what my catch up with Sarah Patterson is, completely unfiltered.
Speaker 1: We've been made since we're teenagers working in regional radio
Speaker 1: together as cadets, and have shared all of life's ups
Speaker 1: and downs and have been a constant support to one another,
Speaker 1: none more so than right now as we tackle head
Speaker 1: on our menopause journeys. So pull up a chair and
Speaker 1: let me introduce you to one of my BFFs, Sarah Patterson.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome to this episode a very well
Speaker 1: renowned radio journalist thirty plus years experience, Sarah Patterson Radio Today,
Speaker 1: a reporter, former TV reporter, news director, podcaster.
Speaker 2: If you might have caught her podcast Food.
Speaker 1: Bites and a woman taking on and winning hopefully at menopause.
Speaker 1: How are you very well, Patrina, Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for having me on. We have been dear friends for
Speaker 1: a very long time, so.
Speaker 2: Much so that we call each other by our pet
Speaker 2: nicknames Ethel and Beryl. That's right.
Speaker 1: And I have known Beryl now since I was I
Speaker 1: reckon seventeen or eighteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I still remember the day I met you out
Speaker 2: the front of three and eight in Wangaratta. You had
Speaker 2: a floral dress on and Doc Martins AND's you know,
Speaker 2: white ankle socks and you had corkscrew curls.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, No, that's traumatic that you bring that up yet. No,
Speaker 1: we've known each other a long time and quite most
Speaker 1: days we do chat absolute days, and it's usually centered
Speaker 1: around menopause. And I thought we need to bring this
Speaker 1: to the podcast because you helped me so much cope
Speaker 1: with what I'm going through.
Speaker 2: As you deal with me. And it is. It's a
Speaker 2: bit of a head fuck at absolutely is. There's no
Speaker 2: other description for it is there. And I think the
Speaker 2: thing I feel most is ripped off that I didn't
Speaker 2: know that this is what it was going to be like.
Speaker 2: I think so many of us hear about the warnings,
Speaker 2: oh you'll have a few hot flushes, but otherwise, you know,
Speaker 2: my mother would say it's the change of life. I
Speaker 2: hate that expression change of life because it doesn't go
Speaker 2: anywhere near to describing how shitty it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what are you struggling with most at the moment?
Speaker 1: Do you think or does it ebb and flow?
Speaker 2: I think well, speaking of the hot flushes, I think
Speaker 2: they are driving me nuts, especially at night, because they're
Speaker 2: impeding my ability to get a good night's sleep. And
Speaker 2: they're not just you know, feeling a bit hot. They're ferocious.
Speaker 2: I can feel it starting in my ankles in the
Speaker 2: middle of the night, and it'll slowly rise up through
Speaker 2: my chest and eventually feel like my head's about to explode,
Speaker 2: and like almost like a Boeing seven four sevens taking
Speaker 2: off from my scalp in the middle of the night
Speaker 2: when you've got your husband next to you. Who my
Speaker 2: husband is. He's quite a cold sort of person who
Speaker 2: likes to keep worn. Here I am on the other side,
Speaker 2: red hot. It's not a great combination.
Speaker 1: No, it's the sleep I reckon I had. I was
Speaker 1: telling you earlier about four hours sleep last night, no
Speaker 1: particular reason why. And when you're sitting sleeping there, laying
Speaker 1: there trying to sleep, and you know you've got to
Speaker 1: get up at three am, it just makes it worse.
Speaker 1: And then you have all these thoughts in your head.
Speaker 1: It's like you can't wind down because I think the
Speaker 1: anxiety is something I'm struggling with. It's like it all
Speaker 1: feeds off each other.
Speaker 2: I agree, I agree, I think it's all connected.
Speaker 1: It is what sort of stuff have you tried? Have
Speaker 1: you tried herbal or are you doing exercise, meditation?
Speaker 2: What's working for you. I had somebody recommend a cream
Speaker 2: to me, I think a progesterone based cream which you
Speaker 2: just put on the crook of your elbow or you
Speaker 2: can put it on your chest. This was a few
Speaker 2: months ago, and I thought, well, I'll give it a
Speaker 2: red hot go because you know it can't hurt.
Speaker 1: Why the hell?
Speaker 2: And this friend of mine ordered it, I think from
Speaker 2: the United States and sent it to me. Wasn't cheap,
Speaker 2: but she swore by it now. I tried it for
Speaker 2: no couple of weeks and then I don't know whether
Speaker 2: it was related to the cream or what, but I
Speaker 2: started to feel quite sick in the guts, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 2: this isn't a good reaction. I didn't feel like it
Speaker 2: was really helping me with the hot flushes, so I
Speaker 2: gave that up. But at the moment, and I've mentioned
Speaker 2: this to you, I've been taking what are called Tranquil
Speaker 2: night tablets. They're blackmors. I think the brand is just
Speaker 2: get them from the chemist and they look they take
Speaker 2: the edge off the hot flushes. But like you say,
Speaker 2: it's the anxiety that really messes with your head.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's just I mean, you're like me. You've
Speaker 1: worked decades in the media, frontline media, where you've been
Speaker 1: reporting on scenes.
Speaker 2: Like you're used to.
Speaker 1: You're no stranger to adversity in the workfront, on the workfront.
Speaker 1: Yet some days just doing one thing is so overwhelming.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. It's just I think
Speaker 1: it's that stage of your life where you have elderly parents,
Speaker 1: you've got a teenage a teenager in the house, you've
Speaker 1: got a teenage son.
Speaker 2: It's like you try to.
Speaker 1: Spin all these plates and everything just sort of converges
Speaker 1: in one and it's really really overwhelming some days.
Speaker 2: What are the things you think that people don't understand
Speaker 2: or misunderstand? You know?
Speaker 1: What I find most debilitating is the zero to one
Speaker 1: hundred in split second sort of mental shifts where you
Speaker 1: just fly off the handle and you're very aware that
Speaker 1: you're doing it, and then the extreme guilt you feel.
Speaker 1: This is when you're home and your snap at your
Speaker 1: partner or your child, and it's the guilt that you
Speaker 1: just are you for days after and you know it's
Speaker 1: like totally out of proportion. But how do you I
Speaker 1: guess it feels like it came from a different person. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: you feel like you standing in the room looking at
Speaker 1: yourself doing it and it is just completely and you
Speaker 1: know after it how unreasonable it was, and it could
Speaker 1: be over the smallest, slightest thing, yep.
Speaker 2: And then then you feel like the stereotypical menopausal woman saying, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I really fit the bill here. I am
Speaker 2: screaming like a banshee for no apparent reason.
Speaker 1: Just snap. But you know what, I think we need
Speaker 1: to be kinder on ourselves because we're the ones going
Speaker 1: through it, and of course obviously those in the household
Speaker 1: as well, because they're living through it with us. But
Speaker 1: I think we're so harsh on ourselves as women and
Speaker 1: so judgy, and we need to just take a step
Speaker 1: back and think about what you're doing. You've got a career,
Speaker 1: you're a mum, you're going through this massive hormonal shift
Speaker 1: in your life. Don't be so sort of judgmental of
Speaker 1: how you're coping. Some days are better than others, and
Speaker 1: other days are shit, aren't.
Speaker 2: They really well? And the proportion of shit days tends
Speaker 2: to outweigh the proportion of good ones. When you have
Speaker 2: a good days, it's really good. But then it literally
Speaker 2: comes up and bites you on the ass, and sometimes
Speaker 2: in ways you don't expect, in really unsavory sort of ways.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've talked about the anxiety, and I've always
Speaker 2: had a tendency towards anxiety. I just thought, as you
Speaker 2: got older, anxiety eases off and you start you know,
Speaker 2: you get older, and you know, you just relax, you
Speaker 2: know how, you retire and you wander off into the sunset.
Speaker 2: For me, it doesn't work like that. For me, the
Speaker 2: anxiety gets worse, and I feel like menopause and all
Speaker 2: this hormonal shit flying around is exacerbating my anxiety absolutely,
Speaker 2: you know, to the point where, look, and this is
Speaker 2: this isn't a nice topic to discuss, But I was
Speaker 2: doing breakfast radio like you, and getting in the car
Speaker 2: at three o'clock in the morning to drive into work.
Speaker 2: And after I started perry menopause, I started to get
Speaker 2: this anxiety that I wouldn't make it to work without
Speaker 2: having an accident with my bows. So I would I
Speaker 2: would pack, I would pack tissues, I would pack wipes,
Speaker 2: I would pack plastic bags, towels in the car. And
Speaker 2: I think it's almost perpetuated in my head, you know
Speaker 2: that this was going to happen, that I would be
Speaker 2: seized by this overcopwhelming urge to ship myself basically in
Speaker 2: the car stop anywhere.
Speaker 1: I've had that too, though, like I actually have a
Speaker 1: couple of times. And when it happened the first time,
Speaker 1: luckily both times I've been home.
Speaker 2: But when it.
Speaker 1: Happened the first time, you know what it is. It
Speaker 1: wasn't so much sudden the first time. It was more, Okay,
Speaker 1: I do need to go to the bathroom, but I'll
Speaker 1: just hang out a load of washing because I've got time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and your body says, actually, no, you don't. You can't
Speaker 1: actually put me off, or no, you can't go and
Speaker 1: collect the mail or put the bin out.
Speaker 2: You actually you need to go to the bathroom. Yes, now, yes.
Speaker 1: And I thought that's really weird because when I had
Speaker 1: who won't wait for you?
Speaker 2: That's it?
Speaker 1: When my daughter I didn't have a vaginal birth a
Speaker 1: cesarean section, and I thought, stupidly, I thought, well, nothing's
Speaker 1: really nothing has been too bent out of shape down there,
Speaker 1: so why.
Speaker 2: Why are my bows?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: What's going on? But I think it's more common than
Speaker 1: perhaps than we think, and if everyone was honest, it
Speaker 1: happens to a lot of women.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to know that it happens to a
Speaker 2: lot of other women. So that just makes you, it
Speaker 2: doesn't well, it makes you a prisoner of yourself. It
Speaker 2: makes you withdraw from work, from society, and you know,
Speaker 2: makes you fearful of even just going out and doing
Speaker 2: social things that people take for granted.
Speaker 1: Do you find that with bladder control as well?
Speaker 2: Very much? So. I always like to plot my if
Speaker 2: I'm going out anywhere, I like to know where the
Speaker 2: nearest toilet is. And I'm one of those people who
Speaker 2: goes to the toilet just in case.
Speaker 1: Before I ye, empty the tank, Yeah, empty the tank.
Speaker 1: There's a lot they can do for that now, Like
Speaker 1: I know, my physio has done a special course that
Speaker 1: helps with pelvic flows, so I haven't.
Speaker 2: I haven't done it yet. Apparently you can do it
Speaker 2: at the traffic lights.
Speaker 1: Apparently, But you know what, my kindecologist who's been practicing
Speaker 1: in Melbourne. Lionel Steinberg a vaginal line, they call it.
Speaker 1: He's wonderful. His name just demands that.
Speaker 2: He's just amazing.
Speaker 1: He said once that you should actually be doing it
Speaker 1: from the age of light twelve or thirteen.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So I've said to my daughter, this is what you need.
Speaker 1: She looked at me weird, like, yeah, right, whatever, And
Speaker 1: I think, no, you'll thank me when you're on because
Speaker 1: I honestly I don't do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I may. I don't do it. I try to,
Speaker 2: and then then I figure and then you forget. You
Speaker 2: might do it one day, yeah, and then it's like,
Speaker 2: oh damn, it's been like a week since. Oh well whatever. Now,
Speaker 2: how do you go with overall dryness, not just your skin,
Speaker 2: your hair, your eyes?
Speaker 1: Do you do you just feel dry down there? I
Speaker 1: haven't got that yet. I haven't got that yet. But
Speaker 1: skin prickly and itchy and ears the other thing. For me,
Speaker 1: I've got dermatitis in my ears, which is probably related
Speaker 1: to menopause and drives me batty. The itch like ants
Speaker 1: crawling over your skin.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Hair is the other thing. Not so much skin, probably
Speaker 1: as hair. It's just manky initially, probably when I was
Speaker 1: at the start of perimenopause, maybe I don't know, eighty
Speaker 1: months two years ago. It just wouldn't sit right, and
Speaker 1: I'd think it was the hair dress or all the
Speaker 1: products I'm using, so I change the products and think,
Speaker 1: oh this, or you know, said nah, it was like
Speaker 1: no amount of fuss over it would fix it. And
Speaker 1: it gets greasy, very like it's just not my hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Mine feels like it's gone back to being baby hair,
Speaker 2: almost almost baby fine, with no life or body yes
Speaker 2: in it, limp, very limp.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had Imagen crump on and she was saying she's
Speaker 1: had straight hair her entire life, and her hair has
Speaker 1: gone curly, curly, like she's had a perm Yeah, like insane.
Speaker 2: These are all the things we don't hear about. It's
Speaker 2: so far beyond the old hot flushes, isn't it.
Speaker 1: But don't you think that's the frustrating thing of it
Speaker 1: that it's just so random? There are so honestly, dozens
Speaker 1: and dozens and dozens of symptoms.
Speaker 2: Doesn't mean you'll get them.
Speaker 1: All naturally, but just weird stuff. Speaking of image, and
Speaker 1: I did want to get your opinion on this.
Speaker 2: Now you haven't heard.
Speaker 1: This audio before she was speaking on the OBC. I
Speaker 1: think she has helped change the narrative of menopause and
Speaker 1: makes kind of helped normalize it.
Speaker 2: You the audio.
Speaker 3: Let's move on to the Australian. It has the latest
Speaker 3: time the Prime Minister to visit the China.
Speaker 4: Yes and not a pardon Michael, big chill. But the
Speaker 4: PM doesn't pander yet. So the bilateral meeting between Australia
Speaker 4: and China, Anthony Albert easy and Chinese. I'm so sorry
Speaker 4: I could keep stumbling through this, but I am having
Speaker 4: such a perimoral perimenopausal right.
Speaker 2: Now live on air. It's so soften.
Speaker 5: The point about this is that we need to make
Speaker 5: it normal. You have these kinds of conversations, and I
Speaker 5: love you for even saying it, because we interview people,
Speaker 5: We talk to people about this and this is the reality.
Speaker 4: I don't think all bones respect to national television.
Speaker 2: It's the furthest of the sun.
Speaker 3: Sorry, listen, we'll let you take take a breathe, thank you,
Speaker 3: thank you for being honest about it. We can and
Speaker 3: while Imagen takes in some deep press, listen, we want
Speaker 3: to throw.
Speaker 1: What do you think about that?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I just want to cry for her
Speaker 2: because that I can. I think we've all been we've
Speaker 2: all been there, and she was just so refreshingly honest
Speaker 2: about it, just the whole menopause fog and menopause brain
Speaker 2: under And I found it interesting that one of the
Speaker 2: interviewers was saying, yes, we need to we need to
Speaker 2: talk more about this, we need to get it out
Speaker 2: in the open. It's it's menopause fog brain, whereas the
Speaker 2: gentleman interviewer basically said, well, we'll let imagen just collect us,
Speaker 2: collect herself and but no image. And you are a
Speaker 2: champion just for being honest enough to make us all
Speaker 2: feel you know how it would to me feel. I
Speaker 2: actually wanted to scream it from the rooftop. So I thought, Wow,
Speaker 2: you've just done such an amazing service to your sisterhood.
Speaker 1: But also it made me want to do better with
Speaker 1: the whole conversation around menopause, because there's been so many
Speaker 1: times I've talked to you before, how I've been on
Speaker 1: air and I'll be going on a spiel and my
Speaker 1: brain fog will hit and it's like to stop, sign
Speaker 1: I look like an absolute idiot because I've got as
Speaker 1: It's like the rug is pulled out from under you.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just you can't remember names, you can't
Speaker 1: remember what you were talking about.
Speaker 2: It's horrible. It's terrible. I mean, and we you know,
Speaker 2: I reckon. We we're pretty eloquent kind of people. Sometimes
Speaker 2: we are depends how many drinks we've had alcohol. That's
Speaker 2: another subject to get onto. But you're right, it is
Speaker 2: like a huge stop sign or a handbrake gets pulled on.
Speaker 2: You think, what was I talking about? Where was I
Speaker 2: going with this? And it's embarrassing. You feel embarrassed, you
Speaker 2: feel inadequate, and you just feel like a laughing stock
Speaker 2: sometimes and you can't explain it. But Imagen has explained
Speaker 2: it perfectly. And it's menopause. It's your brain, it's your hormones.
Speaker 2: It doesn't they don't work the same way anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if she realizes just how amazing
Speaker 1: that was. And I'm sorry to play it again. She'll
Speaker 1: be listening and she'll be probably hiding under a table.
Speaker 2: But I think she's done a service to so many people.
Speaker 2: She really has.
Speaker 1: There's some really interesting stats from HCF, the Health Fund
Speaker 1: on menopause. Just one in four twenty six percent of
Speaker 1: women's surveyed say they'd feel comfortable speaking about periminopause and
Speaker 1: minopause with their pharmacist or chemist, even six percent the
Speaker 1: equivalent of three hundred and ninety thousand women, So they
Speaker 1: do not feel comfortable speaking about it with anyone. Wow,
Speaker 1: that stigma is still.
Speaker 2: Why is it? Why do we still feel at it?
Speaker 1: I think it's ageism, and I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's that stage of life in inverted commas where you
Speaker 1: sort of feel that you can't procreate anymore, so what
Speaker 1: good are you to society? Shove you off into the
Speaker 1: top paddic And it's so ironic because I think you're
Speaker 1: at a point in your career where you're absolutely smashing it.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been working decades to perfect our craft,
Speaker 1: and we are, you know where finally, I think, finding
Speaker 1: both ourselves in our sort of within ourselves, not making
Speaker 1: apologies anymore, but also really you know, hitting six in
Speaker 1: our careers yet.
Speaker 2: And I totally forgot what.
Speaker 1: I was about to say that you go, there's a
Speaker 1: brain fop for you. But so so on one hand,
Speaker 1: you doing so successfully, but then on the other it's
Speaker 1: kind of like, well, yeah, you kind of have this
Speaker 1: feeling that you're a bit of a has been you're
Speaker 1: getting older now you're not kind of with it, you.
Speaker 2: Know, and that's where the anxiety kicks in again. And
Speaker 2: like you say, it's all interrelated. It's like this this
Speaker 2: circle and it just keeps it just keeps going on
Speaker 2: and going round.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand it. I just that's that's as
Speaker 1: you know. I want to do the podcast because I
Speaker 1: want to open the conversation and you know parts of
Speaker 1: it you talked about bells before. But that's what I
Speaker 1: want to do. It's not going to be a podcast
Speaker 1: where don't listen. If you just want to clean and tidy.
Speaker 2: It's going to get messy.
Speaker 1: That's what we have to do to make other people,
Speaker 1: other women feel supported and know that this is a community,
Speaker 1: and feel supported with what you're going through because so
Speaker 1: many other millions of women around the world are going
Speaker 1: through the same thing. There is an element of menopause
Speaker 1: that I have discovered that that's a bit of a positive,
Speaker 1: but it outweighed by a negative, and that is hair growth.
Speaker 1: You'll find that you look on your face, that you'll
Speaker 1: find that hair grows and in the strangest of places.
Speaker 1: But what I have discovered and that I am into
Speaker 1: menopause now, so I have been twelve months without a period,
Speaker 1: so I'm on the other side. But I have found
Speaker 1: amazingly I've not had to shave my legs or wax
Speaker 1: my legs.
Speaker 2: All the hair on my legs is gone. They're smooth
Speaker 2: as a baby's barm. Yeah, but I think all the
Speaker 2: hair from my legs has migrated to my chin and
Speaker 2: you're getting these. I remember when I was a little
Speaker 2: kid in a grown up in Curranborough. I was in
Speaker 2: the newsagent. I clearly remember this old woman. She was
Speaker 2: standing at the stationery area picking out a birthday card
Speaker 2: and she had a beard. She had a coarse black beard.
Speaker 2: I mean Ned Kelly would have been proud of this beard.
Speaker 2: And I remember as a little kid looking up thinking
Speaker 2: that's that's most odd, what's going on there? And until
Speaker 2: I started sprouting these coarse, coarse black hairs out of
Speaker 2: my chin, not to mention the white whiskers that start
Speaker 2: sprouting in my eyebrows.
Speaker 1: That laser will not will not fit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I started to see, Okay, I get how this
Speaker 2: could happen. And I know you have told me off
Speaker 2: on several occasions about this. But I'm sorry I've kept doing.
Speaker 1: It because you're not still doing it.
Speaker 2: Well, I have it once or twice. I did this
Speaker 2: morning actually before I came in, Yes I did. I
Speaker 2: just shaved my chin. I know you're not.
Speaker 1: If you go and do a laser as a follower
Speaker 1: my fine with hair. It grows places where you don't
Speaker 1: want it and not in the places you do, yes
Speaker 1: want it. See, hair is not new to me because
Speaker 1: with polycystic syndrome, I always had.
Speaker 2: So that's why I got onto the laser. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2: You have been telling me for years about las. I
Speaker 2: need to do it.
Speaker 1: Ever done.
Speaker 2: But in sheer desperation this morning, I just grabbed my
Speaker 2: husband's bit grazer and I just over the chin and
Speaker 2: feels nice and feels nice and smooth.
Speaker 1: Now, why are they so black? And course, why can't
Speaker 1: they be like fair fine exactly so you're not overly dark?
Speaker 2: No, how does that work? I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's it's very unjust.
Speaker 2: And the white John Howard type whiskers.
Speaker 1: Oh that's the other thing odd, like talking John Howard eyebrows,
Speaker 1: like really crazy out of control eyebrows.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Ye can't tame them like mensies. Yeah, it's although then
Speaker 2: they'll start to taper off and they'll be really smina
Speaker 2: quite sparse. Yes, yeah, everything feels like it's getting sparse.
Speaker 2: My hair feels like my eyebrows and thankfully my legs
Speaker 2: are devoid of any that's a bonus. Well, yeah, I
Speaker 2: just I have to look at things to look forward to.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Another stat that I quite was surprised by those who
Speaker 1: are currently in minopause or post menopause are more likely
Speaker 1: than those who have not yet started perry or are
Speaker 1: unsure if they have to say they feel comfortable talking
Speaker 1: to friends female friends about the topic seventy four percent
Speaker 1: and seventy two percent compared to fifty two and forty nine.
Speaker 1: What does that say that I don't know. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: chronic overshare, but I.
Speaker 2: Just think as we get older, I do think our
Speaker 2: care factor diminishes. Yeah, I think we we learn what
Speaker 2: is important in life. We become aware of our own mortality,
Speaker 2: and we think, if not now, when are we going
Speaker 2: to talk about it? You know, we're not going to
Speaker 2: be here forever. No, our parents' generation didn't talk about
Speaker 2: this stuff, which is exactly why my mother would call
Speaker 2: it the change of life, not to menopause. But our
Speaker 2: generation thankfully is describing it for what it is.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping we're turning the boat, and certainly for other
Speaker 1: girls after us, I'm hoping they won't have to have
Speaker 1: the conversation to have the conversation. I'm just hoping that
Speaker 1: it's hey, yeah, I'm going through menopause, going back to
Speaker 1: menopause in the workplace, how toility like You've got a
Speaker 1: great setup, your sort of flexible and writing from home.
Speaker 1: Did you think that helps you or is it still
Speaker 1: just a.
Speaker 2: Bloody I think it's helped me a lot in terms
Speaker 2: of anxiety and especially that matter we talked about before
Speaker 2: having to go in a car anywhere, especially early in
Speaker 2: the morning. It's given me much greater flexibility because I'm
Speaker 2: in my own home. Before I was in actual menopause
Speaker 2: and I was still perimenopause, or I was having incredibly
Speaker 2: heavy periods revolting just and oh my goodness, it almost
Speaker 2: it felt like it's sat the laughing out of me.
Speaker 2: And I was glad for that reason that I could
Speaker 2: actually just pick myself up off the office heare go
Speaker 2: and just sit on the couch in my own home
Speaker 2: and just chill out and deal with it. I feel
Speaker 2: that that's given me a lot more flexibility being at home.
Speaker 1: What like if it got any worse, or you say,
Speaker 1: now you're fully through menapausal because you haven't had a
Speaker 1: period for twelve months, at what point do you think,
Speaker 1: and we've discussed this as well, at what point do
Speaker 1: you think you would try like an HRT patch or
Speaker 1: something like that, Because that's always my question.
Speaker 2: We've been Yeah, we've been talking about this, haven't we
Speaker 2: for a month. I don't know what some and I
Speaker 2: don't know what honestly we're hesitating for, to be honest,
Speaker 2: or the only thing I can think of is that
Speaker 2: you say HRT and people will immediately associate that with
Speaker 2: a cancer risk, Whereas if you do read up on it,
Speaker 2: and you know, Jeene Hale's Foundation will tell you that
Speaker 2: the risk of cancer is absolutely minute. Whereas if these
Speaker 2: things are available to us and are going to give
Speaker 2: us relief, why the heck aren't we just using them?
Speaker 1: I think that's the thing again, there's a stigma around
Speaker 1: breast cancer and that, but you know, it doesn't help.
Speaker 1: I had my very when I turned fifty I had
Speaker 1: my first bowel no, no, no, mammogram, mammogram, that's right,
Speaker 1: I had my first mammogram, you'll remember. And the first thing,
Speaker 1: and I've got a cancer history. The first thing the
Speaker 1: nurse said when I sat down, and I was already
Speaker 1: like my anxiety, yeah, as you know, it sky high
Speaker 1: after my I had kidney cancer.
Speaker 2: I didn't have breast cancer, I remember, you know, so
Speaker 2: that was a terrible time.
Speaker 1: In that setting. First thing she said when I sat
Speaker 1: down was are you on h And you know what
Speaker 1: my inner monologue said was, well, that's it. That's just
Speaker 1: made my mind up on that because if there was
Speaker 1: any risk of that ever happening again to me, forget it.
Speaker 1: But that's really not the right, Yeah, not the right
Speaker 1: attitude to have, because, like you say, look at the stats,
Speaker 1: speak to your GP, and you know what, it works
Speaker 1: for someone women, maybe not everyone, but I think they've
Speaker 1: changed the name of it. They don't call it agent anymore.
Speaker 1: But there's also these patches are great, but you can't
Speaker 1: get them. Apparently it's like a worldwide shortage. You can't gosh,
Speaker 1: you can't get them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I had a discussion with my eighty nine year
Speaker 2: old mum about this. My mum had a radical hysterectomy
Speaker 2: at the age of forty eight and she went straight
Speaker 2: on to hormone replacement therapy. And when I discussed with
Speaker 2: her about the possibility of me going down that route,
Speaker 2: she said, well, look at me. Hasn't held me. She's
Speaker 2: eighty nine, She's in an incredible nick And so I
Speaker 2: think it's something we really really need to, you know,
Speaker 2: stop questioning, go to your GP, like I get to
Speaker 2: get advice. Yeah, and then just do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Information is power. So would you consider yourself as postmenopausal now?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So you're out out of the desk my life.
Speaker 2: You know what my last my last period, I was
Speaker 2: do you know what I was doing? And I had
Speaker 2: a mega, absolutely full on flow period. Unexpectedly, I was
Speaker 2: eleven months without a period, and there I was going.
Speaker 2: Happened to me?
Speaker 3: There?
Speaker 2: I was in the middle of the Elvis exhibition and Bendigo,
Speaker 2: you know, admiring Priscilla's Brenan Love, and the gates opened
Speaker 2: there in the exhibition, and what's the most at eleven
Speaker 2: it's like playing monopoly. Then I had to go back
Speaker 2: to go and start again.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. It's almost like a rude joke. Is
Speaker 1: it like around hot day? It's like, what back? Just
Speaker 1: that happened to me as well. It was just before
Speaker 1: Christmas and Chris and I were going into my husband
Speaker 1: and I were going into the city for a couple
Speaker 1: of nights for a mini break, and he hadn't even
Speaker 1: put the suitcase down. And I went to the bathroom
Speaker 1: and you are not believe, like seriously, and I thought
Speaker 1: I was. I could see the sunshine on the other
Speaker 1: side of the hill. It's like I'm MILLI there and.
Speaker 2: Then it was taken away in one felloped out from you.
Speaker 2: And usually it's done with gusto too, I don't know
Speaker 2: in your situation, but it was. It was literally you say,
Speaker 2: the flood gates over, Well, there was a flood. Horrible,
Speaker 2: absolutely awful.
Speaker 1: Did you get the heavy heaviness of that for a while.
Speaker 1: I really only got it for like one or two months, Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably just the last few I reckon. It was almost
Speaker 1: like period wanted to have a last last so I'm
Speaker 1: really going to put you through the mill, Sarah, and
Speaker 1: it did.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh.
Speaker 1: Words of advice from one woman to another, What would
Speaker 1: your advice be to women who are embarking this wonderful journey.
Speaker 2: Well, I would say strap yourself in and be prepared
Speaker 2: for anything, because you you just can't can't predict where
Speaker 2: this journey's going to take you. Be prepared for it
Speaker 2: to impact you mentally, is what I would say. I
Speaker 2: had no idea how much it would affect my moods,
Speaker 2: and I've had some incredibly, incredibly confronting mood swings. I'm
Speaker 2: a fairly you know, easy going person, I would like
Speaker 2: to think, but I turned into a monster and continue
Speaker 2: too at different times of my life with my family,
Speaker 2: and I've got a much shorter fuse than I used
Speaker 2: to have. So just be kind to yourself, Just see
Speaker 2: what alternatives don't like. Just don't sit there and suffer
Speaker 2: through it. Try and find try and find a remedy.
Speaker 2: Well there's not a remedy, but try and find something
Speaker 2: that will help you get through it.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the thing. What works for one
Speaker 1: woman won't necessarily work for someone else. It's a bit
Speaker 1: of trial and error. Patience, I think is a big thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So what's your what's your overriding piece of advice?
Speaker 2: Do you reckon whine? The problem with wine is you
Speaker 2: just stayed time makes your honor process it the same way,
Speaker 2: which is a real it's really bloody. Feels ripped off
Speaker 2: about that too, because all it does is give you
Speaker 2: a red face and make you feel like shit. Yes
Speaker 2: the next day, Yes takes.
Speaker 1: Not that I drink, as you know, I don't drink
Speaker 1: actually that much because of my kidney. But I actually,
Speaker 1: if you were to ask me like you did, what
Speaker 1: what is it that helped? I actually don't know. I
Speaker 1: actually feel like I'm stabbing around in the dark most days.
Speaker 1: I think trying to keep a positive attitude and understanding
Speaker 1: that what is happening to me is completely natural. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be enjoyable, but it's completely natural, and
Speaker 1: that it's not long term, that this too.
Speaker 2: Shall pass yep. And you're not on your own.
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, and that's why we need to talk as
Speaker 1: much as we can about it, Okay, to help other women.
Speaker 2: Thanks Pad, I love you lot, I love you two.
Speaker 1: I really hope you felt episode five maybe I m chronic.
Speaker 1: Oversharer was like evesdropping on two best es at your
Speaker 1: local cafe.
Speaker 2: And I also hope.
Speaker 1: It's given women struggling with the symptoms some solace. We're
Speaker 1: all here to support one another on this journey. If
Speaker 1: you want to share your experiences, reach out, follow and
Speaker 1: message me on Insta Petrina Jones Newman. We've touched on
Speaker 1: the impacts of menopause in the workplace and I want
Speaker 1: to investigate that further. The Bureau of Stats has found
Speaker 1: women are retiring seven years before men on average, and
Speaker 1: twelve years before their desired age of retirement, with the
Speaker 1: Institute of Superannuation Trustees estimating menopause may cost women age
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty four more than fifteen billion per year
Speaker 1: in lost earnings and super Clearly we need to do better.
Speaker 1: Unions in our campaigning for ten days paid reproductive leave.
Speaker 1: My next episode features Michelle O'Neill, President of the Australian
Speaker 1: Council of Trade Unions. I wanted to find out a
Speaker 1: little more about what it is poising
Speaker 2: I