Tag: Dr Louise Newson

It started in my mid-forties. A woman, maybe a decade older than me, would look around to check for eavesdroppers, then say something like, ‘I can’t drink coffee anymore. Not since the menopause.’ Nobody had prepared them for the change of life. Nobody spoke about it. For generations, everyone was blindsided by the menopause, just like that other taboo experience, menstruation. Now approaching the big five-oh, I’m a member of the first generation in recent history to have access to information on the menopause, thanks to the courage and kindness of those who walked this path before me. Dr Louise Newson is one of those women. She’s a GP, but her medical education barely covered the menopause. The symptoms of perimenopause started in her late thirties: depression, cystitis, loss of con...