Campaign calls on women to share menopause symptoms
AN ELGIN woman has co-founded an online campaign which aims to highlight the symptoms of menopause.
The biological stage hits every woman, but few are prepared for anything beyond hot flushes.
This means other symptoms, such as disturbed sleep, aches and pains, heart palpitations, mood swings, anxiety and depression, forgetfulness, loss of libido and more, fail to be diagnosed, leading to needless anxiety and worry.
Karen Kenning, of campaign group Pausitivity, is calling on women to spread the word themselves with a new poster highlighting the wide range of symptoms.
She said: "We want women to see the information in our posters and feel better informed by it.
"Something as simple as being able to recognise the symptoms is a good, first step to enabling informed conversations between women and their GPs, and it would be great if women download and print the poster to share in places like changing rooms, or community centres where other women will see it too.
"We also want women to share photos of their pinned poster on social media under the hashtag #KnowYourMenopause.
"Hopefully, by knowing your menopause, we can help make life better for women around the country."
The group came up with the idea after being frustrated at the lack of information available through their local GPs’ surgeries.
Around one-third of the UK’s female population are either peri or post-menopausal, with an estimated one in four suffering debilitating symptoms that can last more than a decade.
Despite this, very few women are aware of how menopause can affect them.
Pausitivity is formed by women from around the UK and North America, all working together to make menopause a more positive experience for other women.
They hope the poster, created by graphic designer Allyson Shields, will help women recognise symptoms and empower them to seek help from their GP.
