Midlife, Menopause and Me

By Shiona Johnston

Midlife, Menopause and Me is the 'must have' book to sit on your bed-table and share with your girlfriends. 

Specialist midlife coach and speaker, Shiona Johnston, has been creating a storm and transforming the lives of menopausal women. Empowering them with the knowledge and strength

• Language: English
• Publisher: Midhaven Publishing
• Release date: Sep 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781838142117

Book preview

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Midlife,

Menopause

and Me

Shiona Johnston

Published in 2020 by Midhaven Publishing

Copyright © Shiona Johnston 2020

Shiona Johnston has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-8381421-0-0

Ebook: 978-1-8381421-1-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

A CIP catalogue copy of this book can be found in the British Library.

Published with the help of Indie Authors World www.indieauthorsworld.com

This book is dedicated to all you gorgeous women out there on your own midlife journey! Empower each other and together rise strong.

Reviews

This is the book for everything you need to know about midlife and menopause. Shiona not only shares her expertise and knowledge on the evidence base, giving us practical and easy to digest advice, but more than that she also reminds us that this is our time to thrive, to be connected, to live midlife magically.

Senga Cree Business Coach and Strategist

Having worked with Shiona for many years and witnessing the work she does supporting and coaching women through menopause, I knew this book would be full of good advice, compassion, and fun. But this book is so much more than that. It’s an invitation to join a sisterhood of wise women, doing what women do best, supporting each other, sharing stories, offering kindness and compassion, and finding ways to lean into what comes next. I will certainly be recommending this to the women I see who are finding their way through midlife and menopause.

Amy Simpson, Specialist Fertility and Hormonal Health Coach

This book is exactly what every woman needs, embracing nutrition the best way you can, to feel the best you can. Shiona explains how we can eat well through our midlife in a way that’s easy to manage, easy to do, and with beautiful stories told by wonderful women. I think this book is a must for every bookshelf.

Carolyn Paton, British Society Of Dietetics RD

In her book midlife, menopause & me, Shiona’s empathy for women really shines through, and this warmth and sensitivity, along with her deep understanding and knowledge of midlife and menopause, makes this book a great resource for women as they navigate this transition.

Alexandra Gilmartin, Women’s Health Acupuncturist

Foreword

Message from a Doctor

It is a great pleasure to be asked to welcome this wonderfully honest and informative book to our bookshelves. It is a resource which I will use again and again with the women I see, to help them to understand their journey, and to realise that they are not alone.

Shiona has got the storytelling in this book just right, not only combining her professional, personal knowledge, and experience, but also sharing the very individual experiences of the wonderfully honest women who told their stories.

Not only is the book written by someone who has a huge wealth of experience in working with menopausal women, but is also written by someone who has been through the transition herself. The menopause can have such significant effects for women both socially and in their worklife, but with proper help and advice, so many problems can be overcome.

The wonderful thing about this book, is the way it talks about using an integrative approach to menopause – the connection between the mind and body. Shiona and her ‘muses’ describe so beautifully how women can, and do, approach the physical, emotional, and psychological symptoms of menopause, and also looks at the role of other therapies to help manage this time. Shiona also addresses the use of Hormone Replacement Therapy in an evidence based constructive way, helping to debunk some of the myths out there.

I really think this book is going to be a wonderful resource for all women approaching their midlife, and I would like to congratulate Shiona and her ‘muses’ on a wonderful piece of work.

I know that this book will be on my shelf and recommended to all the women I see as a great resource to read.

Michael Dooley

Consultant Gynaecologist

Introduction

Woman-to-Woman

‘You can tell who the strong women are. They’re the ones building each other up instead of tearing each other down.’Anon.

At last, I have the opportunity to live my dream and help support women through midlife and menopause, and all by doing the thing I love the best – using the art of conversation!

This book has been bubbling away inside me for three years now – way back when I started my work with women experiencing menopause. Over the course of these last few years, I have met so many women with similar stories; all of them feeling very much alone, isolated, and invisible, struggling in silence, too scared or embarrassed to share some of the symptoms – physical and emotional – that they’re suffering with. But I never really thought that when I started talking about my own personal journey – of coming to terms with midlife, the menopause, and finding the path back to being me –that it would resonate so intensely with so many women.

I mean, who am I to write a book? And, I hear you ask, how did Shiona Johnston become the expert on all things midlife? Well, as a registered nurse, and with a background in midwifery and health visiting, women’s health has always been my passion. And I came to the realisation that if sharing the stories about my own journey proved to be helpful, then the experiences of other women probably would, too.

The next stage for me in my journey of transition, was to throw in the power of the Universe! Now, I don’t know if any of you ladies out there are great believers in the Universe and the law of attraction, but I can assure you there is definitely something in it. Whatever I was attracting – along with listening to the invaluable advice of my bestie’s mum – certainly guided me to take my next step. And in May 2016, I was gifted the most awesome opportunity – to lead the very first integrated Menopause Programme in the heart of Ayrshire in Scotland.

At the point of writing, we have seen over 200 women and run 20 programmes in the last three years. Added to working with midlife women within my own private practice, I’m definitely doing what I love and loving what I do. And although I definitely don’t profess to have everything sussed, I have certainly increased my knowledge, experience, and understanding, and have met some fabulous women along the way. This book is my way of sharing some of these incredible, and helpful, aha! moments with you all.

I was incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to develop and run the Menopause Programme and it has allowed me to work with the most wonderful professionals, clinicians, and therapists, and some pretty amazing women. It has also shown me why much more information and support are needed for us women (and men!). After all, there are 5.1 million women out there who are perimenopausal or menopausal, and many desperately need more help and support!

So, let’s go back five years – to when I turned 50 – and I began to experience my own menopausal symptoms. You would have thought that I would have recognised the tell-tale signs – night sweats, horrendous anxiety, huge confidence issues, brain fog. But in fact, I ended up having a trip to Accident and Emergency, due to incredible palpitations, and was told by a lovely consultant that my symptoms were most likely menopausal! As a typical nurse (and, therefore, practically a qualified doctor myself really!), I knew that my symptoms were much more severe than simply menopause. I mean, surely I was having a heart attack at the very least? Or the onset of Alzheimer’s, or a brain tumour? I mean, I had checked every symptom with Dr Google as I sat on the couch every night – awake for hours – piling up the orders on my Amazon account, and never once had menopause been mentioned! At that time, I thought menopause was simply hot flushes, periods stopping, was totally overhyped, and not worth getting worked up about.

At that time, I was employed in a senior corporate position in the NHS, working condensed hours – so really doing the same job and more, but over less time. And, not surprisingly, we were going through yet another very complicated reorganisation. So I was happier to accept the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, panic, burnout, and take six months off work with endless medication (which had no real benefit at all) than to be told I was menopausal, which (as that would have had me facing my inevitable aging.

And there began my transition into Midlife!

I know from the many women I have met in recent years that my symptoms and story are not unusual by any means. But as I write, I can say, thankfully, that times are slowly changing. There is an ever-increasing awareness of menopause in the media, and a growing amount of information on the plethora of symptoms and treatments now available. But, unfortunately, but there is still not enough information out there – especially from our Primary Care teams – and it’s certainly not there soon enough.

Throughout my journey I have come to realise that the term menopause alone does not completely describe the transition that women go through at this time in their lives. There are so many other things that are all connected, leading to the perfect storm – kids leaving home, ageing parents needing more support, reaching the top of your career at work, and all just at a time where your body just doesn’t work the way you want it to. Your confidence is shattered, your memory lets you down, and suddenly stepping outside the house to meet your best friend becomes a major drama! But while each woman’s journey is unique – and something we each travel alone – hopefully this book will give you the opportunity to make some wonderful new friends along the way.

Midlife, Menopause & Me is a book about women, for women, supporting women to tell their stories about midlife, menopause; its effects on them as awesome females; the challenges, triumphs, and celebrations we have had or overcome, as we transition into midlife. It doesn’t dwell on the clinical treatments of menopausal symptoms – I’ll leave that to the amazing menopause experts out there. What it does do is to allow women to share what has worked for them throughout their own journey, and to use their advice and support to help us to accept and be empowered to face the next stage in our lives.

I invite you to think of it as a bit of a chat, a sit-down in a big comfy armchair with a hot drink or a glass of vino with your best friend, spilling your heart out. You know the kind of conversation? It goes something like, ‘I’ve never told anyone this before but…’ And before you know it, two hours have gone past! I just love times like that. It’s when we know someone has our backs and will be there for us, no matter what.

Midlife, Menopause & Me is not a traditional self-help book, and it’s not a book offering professional, clinical treatments for menopause symptoms. There are plenty of those out there, written by people much more expert than me about the biological processes and medical treatments for menopause. This book is a journey of self-discovery for women. It’s a book about women, for women, with every story there to help you as you journey through this time in your life.

I have divided the book into three parts to help you think about your transition through this life stage physically, emotionally, and psychologically, so I won’t only focus on the biological changes that happen to our bodies during menopause. It can be argued, however, that these changes, along with our own cultural and societal connotations about menopause and ageing, can bring about the perfect storm.

Part One –- to think about midlife as a transition, a journey, and how we continue to manage our lives whilst meandering along its path;

Part Two – to think about the physical symptoms of menopause and some of the best ways women have found to manage these;

Part Three – and actually the most important – to talk all