FEELING the HEAT

FOR MANY WOMEN THE FIRST SIGN OF PERIMENOPAUSE MIGHT BE SOMETHING THAT FEELS QUITE RANDOM.

You could, if you were so inclined, call it a design flaw: females of most other species can, and often do, bear young until they die. But not women, who live years after their procreative function has ceased.

Instead, we get to experience menopause – the period that psychologist Sigmund Freud charmingly claimed made women “quarrelsome, vexatious and overbearing”. And that writer Simone de Beauvoir believed meant she had to “say goodbye to all those things I once enjoyed”.

Menopause, we were led to believe, equals drab, unsexy and dull as a wet Sunday afternoon.

Thankfully, the conversation is changing. Millions of women around the planet currently sliding into menopause are refusing to buy into that narrative: they’re at the peak of their lives, holding down successful jobs, families and interests. And they’re determined to swat away the myths and demand answers to what’s happening to their bodies, what they can do and what works.

Niki Bezzant is one of those women. The respected Auckland journalist (and editor of our sister publication ) is the author of , a “no crap, must-have guide to perimenopause and menopause for every New Zealand woman”, which turns the spotlight onto everything from hot flushes and insomnia to mood changes, weight gain and low libido. Niki, who has more than 20 years of experience writing and speaking about health and nutrition, shares her own account as well as those of well-known Kiwi women such as Robyn Malcolm, Carol Hirschfeld, Michele A’Court and Theresa