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[Night_Owl]

Documentary in which Kirsty Wark sets out to find out the truth about the menopause.  Featuring personal accounts and expert advice.



Maybe worth watching.

[CLKD]

Did U watch, I'm going onto 'catch up' thingy at the weekend.

[MammaG]

I just watched it. Not sure I learned anything but then I guess there are a lot of women who know a lot less and just suffer.

I really feel for the generation who arent familiar with the internet. We are very fortunate

[Peacegirl]

Did U watch, I'm going onto 'catch up' thingy at the weekend.

Same here - hope it isn't depressing 

[Justjules]

Well I watched it. Just wish these meno programmes would not concentrate so much on the hot flushes and joint pain so much though. Yes, the hot flushes can be dreadful for a lot of ladies but no mention of the awful anxiety, feelings of utter doom and awful problems for ladies who go down the HRT route and have reactions to that and the problems getting it right. It's portrayed as the panacea for everything when it is clearly not. Also, not much emphasis on the appalling lack of knowledge of our GPs either. Shame, as my DH was 'tentatively' watching and so I would have had the chance for him to understand how utterly exhausted I feel and how my anxiety is not just 'all in my head' 😡

[Dee46]

Justjules I agree all the programme seemed to cover was hot flushes, at this moment I would rather swap the awful anxiety for the flushes, my DH doesnt get the anxiety either as it just came out of the blue as I have never been like this in my life, it is a shame they didnt show the depression & anxiety that a lot of us women suffer daily which yes your right is exhausting, it is the not knowing how you are going to feel tonight let alone in the morning, women already think the menopause is just hot flushes & periods ending but there is a lot more to it than that which I have found out having hit me like a steam train!

How it affects everyone in the family would also have been useful to point out

[dahliagirl]

I thought it did not concentrate on any particular symptoms - it was more about menopause and beyond and the long term effects of lack of oestrogen.  I think that is because they are still trying to turn the tide from the after effects of the studies that condemned hrt.  It is a long and hard job.

If they did a programme concentrating more perimenopause symptoms, it would go on forever with all the bleeding problems, flooding, flushing plus all the post meno symptoms.  It is the lack of confidence that has hit me hard - one day I am fine, the next everything is too scary and I want to just get on with it and die.  I was talking to someone who had to give her job up because she was physically shaking before she went in.

No one seems to know what is going on in perimenopause.  The doctor I saw who said 'anything goes in menopause' was probably right.  It would be good to have more and better information out there.

[Peacegirl]

Just watched. I really enjoyed it. My sense was it was it covered societies attitude to hrt and meno more than symptoms and treatments. I found it reassuring but agree that more programmes covering other aspects of meno are needed. Interesting that Kirsty Wark regrets coming off hrt and at 61 is considering going back on it. I learned a bit from it but then I have been in the dark a long time prior to finding this forum 😉 

[Evelyn63]

I found it quite good, and interesting to put faces to names such as Prof Lumsden.  On a purely superficial level, and slightly off topic but did Kirsty Warke wear the same clothes every day of the course of the film ?

[Night_Owl]

Overall thought it was good, excellent for raising awareness - however it would have been helpful to mention the HUGE RANGE of symptoms that many women experience - and those who can no longer work or function because they feel too ill.  HRT can be very helpful for many women but it is still not the cure-all solution - there are others that it only helps partially or who cannot tolerate it at all.  Guess I'm viewing it from the minority though, ie. the Truly Hideous Menopause sector.

[Tempest]

Oh, was Professor Lumsden on it? She's my Consultant (seeing her again in 2 1/2 weeks to tell her I had to give up on HRT - that should be interesting. I've been waiting for a call back from her for 6 weeks now)......

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies.

I thought the programme presented a reasonable overview but didn't tell me anything I didn't know and certainly didn't cover all the horrible symptoms I have experienced!  Perhaps we should consider it a good introduction  and hope for more in depth documentaries in the future. It probably takes a female journalist of a certain age to want to cover the subject and the only one I can think of is Mariella Frostrup who said she suffered terrible despondency when her menopause hit.

Evelyn63 -  Presenters make sure they wear the same outfits during filming to provide continuity so it's odd that it distracts some viewers lol. David Attenborough said he would take several identical shirts and pairs of trousers to wear when making his films and I'm sure others do the same, I've even noticed crease marks suddenly appear where a new shirt has clearly just been removed from the packet!

All in all a worthy programme I think but hopefully they'll be more to follow.

Take care ladies.

K.

[Evelyn63]

Thank you Kathleen for clearing that up,    I obviously have a very superficial mind to be even noticing it !!  I  have noticed it on other female presenters, Dr Gabrielle Weston who does some health programmes is one, it just seemed a bit strange to me .  Overall the programme content was good, especially for women new to the whole meno thing.  I agree it didn't focus so much on issues such as insomnia and anxiety, though it did touch a bit on anger and mood swings !  We could have our own programme , we discuss so much on here , and some of you ladies are experts in the field of menopause and counselling !

[dangermouse]

It's a shame because I used to think meno was just about hot flushes and so it took years (and desperate months when very ill) to realise it was hormones. This programme's content seems to just compound this further. Some of the radio programmes mention anxiety but all in all without this site I would still be putting some of my symptoms down to a secondary problem (as would my GPs)!

[MicheleMaBelle]

Agree Dangermouse- I watched it several weeks back and although I thought it was interesting, it didn't tell me anything I didn't know already and I don't think that it covered enough about the range and severity of symptoms. But given that it's just starting to get talked about and is out there, it did a good job. Given the stats on % of women not affected or some symptoms but not severe enough to badly affect their day to day lives, if they had gone into this, it would probably have scared the living daylights out of people...
Small steps I suppose but I was hoping it would have conveyed a stronger message about the struggles that some women face, especially from an employment perspective.

This site though has been a godsend to me and to countless others- I now know that I'm not some loopy nut job who needs to " man up" . I'm not lying down to it but there have been times were I have felt so ill so the information and support available through MM has been invaluable.THANKS LADIES AND DR CURRIE X