IMAGE Book Club: Read an extract from ‘All You Need to Know About Menopause’ by Catherine O’Keeffe

Described as a friendly, helpful and much-needed guide to navigating menopause, Catherine O’Keeffe’s newly released book serves as a reminder that your symptoms are real, you’re not alone, and help is available.

Aiming to help women feel empowered, informed and ready to embrace menopause as the inevitable life change that it is, Catherine is the founder of Wellness Warrior and a self-confessed health geek who has helped countless women to embrace their menopause.

The book covers everything from gaining control of physical, mental and emotional symptoms to the pros and cons of HRT, alternative therapies, and negotiating menopause in the workplace.

Please enjoy the below extract…

So how did I end up here, sitting in my garden typing furiously on my laptop about hot flushes, throbbing vaginas and Wuthering Heights-style depression? Certainly, that eight-year-old girl in Carnegie Library, Kilkenny, had no notion or knowledge of the term ‘menopause’. But our lives bring us on a journey, none of us knowing where we will end up or the pitfalls and joy we will experience along the way.

So here is what I can tell you: menopause is a journey, a deep physiological and psychological rollercoaster ride that will cause anxiety and tears and reveal a depth of character you may never have expected.

I certainly didn’t.

If you talked to my friends or family, they would tell you I have always been interested in health and well-being. But I honestly had no idea that my life would take this path. After studying business in college, I started working in investment banking in London. Over the next twenty years, I built a successful career. During this time I also took some time off to travel. Nearly two years later, after many narrow escapes, adventures and new friends, I returned to London two stone heavier and, for the first time in my life, experiencing severe stomach issues. I knew the lunch at a rest stop outside Bangkok was the culprit – a week of horrendous food poisoning was evidence of that – but my stomach did not recover. That was the start of my next journey.

The menopause journey is different for every single person, and that can make it unknown territory. When we understand what may happen, it helps reduce the fear and anxiety that can arise around this inevitable life stage. A key starting point is knowing what menopause is and why it happens.

I have had numerous conversations over the years with clients who are puzzled as to what is happening in their bodies – why, all of a sudden, intense emotions are a daily feature of life, why the thought of going out with friends makes them anxious or why they feel a churning belly before regular daily events. With not a hot flush in sight, the subtle and not-so-subtle changes that signal the start of perimenopause can take women by surprise. It’s sneaky, perimenopause. From sometimes slight changes in the early days, it can build to a crescendo with the arrival of the first typical symptoms – perhaps an intense hot flush or a drenching night sweat – leaving you wondering what’s happening to your body.

It’s normal, it’s menopause, it’s inevitable.

And it doesn’t just happen to humans – female whales and giraffes also experience menopause, albeit in a very different ecosystem. Whales stop reproducing in their thirties and forties and live in a non-productive state for many years after, mirroring the human experience of menopause, and becoming a wise matriarch within the pod. Giraffes spend 30 percent of their lives post-menopause.

Right now, more than one billion women are experiencing menopause. So what is it all about and where does it come from?

’All You Need to Know About Menopause’ by Catherine O’Keeffe, €19.99, is on sale now.