“I haven’t finished my menopause journey yet, and I can’t tell you exactly when it started either, but I think this is probably true for most of us.

For me, it began 6 years ago when I was about 43. I started having thoughts and feelings I’d never had before. Insecurities, doubts and some unsettling thoughts led me to start questioning my mental health for the first time in my life. All the previous issues that normally rumbled along in my marriage became huge insurmountable problems and I thought we were doomed. The scariest thing for me was the rage that would come out of nowhere and run my mouth for me…leaving me deeply regretting things I would say in some of my outbursts.

I read that a Mirena coil could sometimes cause mood changes, particularly in the first few months, so I partly put it down to recently having a new one fitted, and I also started having some counselling to help make sense of my thoughts and understand whether I was being rational or not.

As the months went by, new symptoms emerged like extreme tiredness and terrible achy joints and muscles. I would stiffen up within minutes of sitting down and by the time I stood up it felt like my body had aged 20 years!

It was these physical changes that made me finally realise it was probably all connected to my age and changing hormones. After doing an online symptom check that screamed PERIMENOPAUSE, I went to see a doctor and decided to try estrogen patches. The almost immediate relief I felt to my body and the gentle stabilising of my thoughts and emotions over the coming weeks confirmed to me that I had made the right decision to seek help.

This was about 4 years ago. Things definitely haven’t been smooth sailing since then. Even on the HRT, I still get ups and downs but I can more confidently put it down to other factors like stress or tiredness now, rather than hormonal swings that felt out of control before.

Now I know a bit more about what my body is going through, I feel much more motivated to look after myself in other ways too, in terms of getting enough sleep and trying to make healthy choices when it comes to what I eat and how active I am.

I wish I had known in my 30s that these kind of emotional issues could strike in my early 40s – without any changes to my periods or a hot flush in sight! I would tell my younger self, “You’re not going mad, your body is changing. You can do something about it and you will learn to live with it and feel like the real you again.”