A British mother has described how menopause symptoms left her drenched in sweat, struggling to recall words mid-conversation, and compelled to reduce her working hours to just 90 minutes a week. Emma McCaffrey, from Winchester, Hampshire, began experiencing night sweats, memory lapses, vertigo, and sudden hot flushes in her early forties, leading her to believe something was seriously wrong.
Overwhelming symptoms
The 48-year-old online personal trainer saw her symptoms become so unmanageable that she slashed her weekly workload from 15 hours to a mere 90 minutes. "I got really intense night sweats and I thought it was cancer," Emma said. "It was very unnerving. Then it was brain fog, forgetfulness, vertigo, and rage moments where I had less tolerance." She added that joint aches from low oestrogen made her think she was overdoing squats. The cognitive effects were particularly challenging for her profession. "Teaching is like a performance so you need to be on it. You're stood in front of people and you're the expert then you forget what you're saying," she explained. "It was frustrating and stressful. I get hot flushes and my skin goes really red and that's not a nice feeling."
Impact on work and life
The exhaustion eventually forced Emma to drastically cut her hours. "I've already got so much to remember: have the kids got everything? Is it World Book Day? I've got my own business. The mental load is huge anyway and then you lose it and drop balls because of the lack of oestrogen," she said. "I get tired and it was too much." Despite the difficulties, Emma chose to be open with her clients about her experiences. "It's so important to talk about. There are so many symptoms but still so many women don't know that menopause is having an impact on them," she noted. "Women aren't tying the symptoms together."
Seeking treatment and support
Emma is now taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to manage her symptoms. She believes workplaces need to develop a better understanding of what menopausal women go through. "I think employers should be understanding. Women are the ones who go through it but what about the people around them: sons, fathers, and brothers. It's important to educate the workplace and it's important not to patronise," she said. "Some people sail through menopause and different people need different things. People should be able to feel like they can be honest about what they're feeling." She emphasised that employers should ask what employees need and check in to see if they are okay. "The workplace and the economy are losing talent if women are alienated. Women in their forties, fifties, sixties have so much to give. Women in midlife have so much learned and lived experience, you don't want it walking out of the workplace."
Advice for others
Emma encourages women to educate themselves about menopause. "Menopause is half of the population's experience. I encourage women to inform themselves, track what their body is going through, take a friend or a partner to the doctors for support, write down the questions they want to ask, and have an idea of what they want," she said. "Why should we suffer? We're managing so much as it is and dealing with so much at once. It's about the quality of every day and being able to enjoy those little moments."
