Yahoo News 'Menopause made me a monster' says Hull woman who waited two years for a diagnosis
A woman has claimed severe menopause symptoms ruined her life but she couldn't get a doctor to take her seriously.
Louise Farey, from Hull, suspected her extreme mood swings were caused by menopause but claims she was told she was "too young" when symptoms began in her forties. Her story comes as a Freedom of Information Request by Savage Cabbage showed women in England and Wales waited 30.6 weeks (seven months) on average for a referral to an NHS menopause clinic last year.
"Going through the menopause was horrendous, it turned me into a monster, and I still worry to this day about the impact it had on my children growing up," said Louise, the customer relationship manager at Savage Cabbage.
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She added: "In the two years it took for me to get treatment, menopause ruined my life. My marriage broke down, I was having daily anxiety, I even had a panic attack so bad I was put on a 72-hour ECG because I thought I was dying.
“I lost who I was. The anxiety and pains took over my life. It was unbearable. I’d sit in my car, after work, for hours, not daring to enter the house as my emotions were a mess. I was so angry, upset, and anxious. I was in ruins."
Louise said she noticed a pattern with her symptoms and went to her doctor for help. But her symptoms were dismissed as anxiety and depression and she was put on medication which she said didn't help.
She said: “It started when I was in my early 40s and I just knew something was changing in my body. I started getting bad anxiety, extreme mood swings, and aches and pains that would keep me stuck in bed – I was in absolute agony.
“I remember going to the doctors, telling them how I felt, and them just saying I was depressed, but I knew they were wrong. Every time I went back to the doctors, I was told the same thing: it’s some sort of anxiety or depression, take these tablets and things will be ok, but I just knew that wasn’t the case because everything I was experiencing was on a 4-week cycle, but each cycle I’d experience something new.
“Thankfully, I got lucky, I ended up seeing a nurse who was a friend of mine and she listened properly. We filled in a questionnaire, and in less than five minutes she’d diagnosed me with menopause and offered me specialist treatment.
“I’d suffered, badly, for two years up until this point. That’s two years of being told I’m 'too young' to be going through the menopause, two years of absolute pain and suffering, and it was all sorted within five minutes because somebody listened and took my concerns seriously."
Louise was then given hormone replacement patches. "Within 24 hours, I was a completely different person," she said.
The FOI by Savage Cabbage shows waiting times nationally for referral to menopause clinics are going up. In 2022, the average wait time was 27.8 weeks (about six and a half months).
In 2023 it was 30.6 weeks (about seven months), and now, not even halfway through 2024, it’s 31.9 weeks (about seven and a half months). At present, at least 5995 women are on the waiting list to be referred to a specialist menopause clinic, with some expected to wait up to 65 weeks (about one year, three months).
In 2023 the waiting time was 30.6 weeks and in 2022 it was 27.8 weeks. Louise said menopause is "100 times worse" than the mood swings that occur in teenage years and believes women's lives could be at risk if they are not offered treatment.
She said: “People need to know more about menopause, it’s like reverse puberty. Everyone goes through it as a kid. You start having periods, your body becomes mature, and it takes its toll on you.
"But menopause, or older person puberty, is ten times worse, if not 100 times worse because you’re losing all those abilities your body developed all those years ago.
“The figures are disgusting, it's horrendous. The anxieties and low mood these women will be feeling is a lot to cope with, and it genuinely makes me fear for their lives. Things need to change."
A spokesperson for NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on individual patient circumstances. However, we sympathise with all patients who are waiting for assessments and procedures.
"We would welcome the opportunity to speak with Louise and her GP practice to understand more about her experience. The NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB Experience Team can be contacted on 01482 957760 or via hnyicb.experience@nhs.net."
