I didn’t realise I was going through perimenopause until I actually reached menopause — the point where my periods had stopped for 12 months. It was only then that I looked back and realised the previous five years (or more) had been full of symptoms I didn’t recognise. Two frozen shoulders, anxiety and panic attacks, depression, night sweats, thinning hair falling out in clumps, skin issues, loss of confidence, loss of identity… and a feeling that I was slowly becoming someone I didn’t recognise.

As a health professional, there was also a level of shame — I couldn’t work out what was wrong. At the same time, my relationship was falling apart, and I felt increasingly isolated and overwhelmed. It wasn’t until someone casually suggested, “Maybe it’s perimenopause,” that things started to shift. I had no real understanding of what that even meant. Like many women, I thought menopause was just hot flushes later in life and because I wasn’t experiencing that at the time, I didn’t question anything. Looking back, I can see I had even stepped away from the work I loved, trying to find my place elsewhere, all the while feeling like I didn’t quite belong anywhere. ​Everything came to a head when I left the relationship and ran away to Queensland, thinking that was the answer, it was the 'situation' not me. My body ached, my joints were stiff, and I was waking night after night with panic attacks. I didn’t feel like myself and it was getting worse.

When my GP told me my hormones were “normal for my age,” I remember thinking, there is nothing normal about how I feel. That moment pushed me to start researching everything I could about menopause — and what I discovered completely changed my understanding.​ Armed with knowledge, I went back to my GP and asked for support. Together, we explored hormone therapy, and I began using oestrogen gel and progesterone tablets. It took a couple of months, but the shift was profound and it’s something I still feel the benefit of today.​ That experience changed everything for me. I realised how little we are taught about something that every woman will go through. Now, as a menopause coach, I combine my clinical experience with lived experience to support women through this stage with clarity, practical education, and targeted fascial massage treatment. It’s become my mission that women don’t have to feel as lost, confused, or alone as I once did.