'Perimenopause cost me my job and family life'
Over three years Sally Williams left her finance job, was separated from her teenage son and was repeatedly admitted to hospital, with the doctors she saw initially treating her for depression. Nobody joined the dots, so she eventually did it herself, and says that starting HRT after her self-diagnosis was transformational. Perimenopause, the years leading up to menopause, commonly begins in the mid-forties and can bring anxiety, mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes and irregular periods while a woman is still menstruating. Williams now calls this stage the danger zone, and wants other women to recognise it before it costs them what it cost her.
For you: Worth knowing that anxiety, brain fog and mood swings arriving in the mid-forties can be perimenopause rather than depression, even while periods continue.
What it shows: Reported by BBC News (health) and not verified by us: we could not trace this story to a published paper, so treat it as news rather than evidence we have checked.