Inverness Courier journalist presents BBC Radio 4 Menopause Matters documentary after going through ‘the change’ at 15
A 21-year-old Inverness Courier journalist has created a documentary as a part of BBC Radio 4’s new series called Menopause Matters.
In this 30-minute programme, Annabelle Gauntlett looks into the history of HRT, why there was a halt in prescribing and taking it in the early 2000s and the importance of women supporting women.
Annabelle first started experiencing hot flushes when she was just 13 years old, in addition to cognitive issues like anxiety, but it took her two years before she was officially diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI).
“I saw my mum having hot flushes, so I identified what was happening to me, but I never connected the dots to menopause,” she said.
During the documentary, Annabelle speaks with numerous specialists in the field of menopause, a fertility specialist, another young woman who experienced menopause in her 20s and her mum, who talks about watching her daughter endure ‘the change’ as a teenager.
Annabelle’s mum Amanda clearly remembers the day her daughter was diagnosed with POI. She said: “I remember picking her up from school and I had already had the news because we were given the confirmation from all of the stringent tests that she went through.
“I sat on the sofa with Annabelle and told her that the results had come back and they weren’t good. We just held each other and cried.
“It was a bitter pill to swallow. She was diagnosed so young.”
Annabelle discusses the hurdles she has faced along the way as she said: “It’s not a simple diagnosis, as you have to continuously advocate for yourself.
“Still to this day, some doctors think I’m crazy when I say I have menopause.”
From Dr Hame Lata, who is a registered menopause specialist with the British Menopause Society, to doctor’s Emma Rushworth and Beth MacFarlane, who run the Menopause Health Highland Clinic, this programme covers all things menopause and attempts to answer some of the big questions Annabelle has been asking in recent year.
One in 100 women in the UK experience menopause before the age of 40, but for most the reasons are unclear as 90 per cent of women have no reason for their diagnosis. Most of those women experience premature menopause in their 30s - cases like Annabelle’s are rare but extremely upsetting.
Morven Kinnear-MacLennan, who is a fertility nurse specialist, talks in the programme about the lack of education in this sector of women's health. She said: “Our NHS is an incredible machine, but lack of education trips up professionals all the time when it comes to this subject.
“There’s definitely a lack of education. We are starting to see things improve with menopause, but with POI we are just that little bit slower.”
Annabelle opens up about the “daunting realities” of her condition as POI can cause greater health implications further down the line, like osteoporosis, heart disease and dementia.
Today’s programme was the first episode of three in the new series of Menopause Matters with BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
Next week, Tom Whipple, science editor of The Times will investigate the ‘manopause’.
