Medicine · Dr Siân West

This Meno Life

by Dr Siân West

Perimenopause arrives without an announcement. Night sweats, words that ghosted you mid-sentence, a rage that arrives before you do, jeans that betrayed you overnight, and a sex life that used to be uncomplicated and now requires a strategy meeting. You pay your copay. Your labs come back normal. You leave empty handed. This Meno Life is a weekly show for women in perimenopause and menopause. I'm Dr. Sian West, board-certified OB-GYN and menopause specialist, and I spend my days on the questions a short appointment never reaches. The hot flashes and the sleep that fell apart. The weight that arrived without a single change in your habits. The rage that shows up out of proportion to whatever caused it, and the moods that swing hard enough to scare you. Painful sex and vaginal dryness, which not only did nobody warn you about, nobody likes to talk about, and far too few clinicians are trained to treat it. And the bigger one underneath all of it: the woman in the mirror who you do not entirely recognise anymore. We'll talk about MHT, what the evidence actually supports and where it's honestly thin. It's also a show about the rest of it. The mental load. The career still in progress. Being awake since 3am and still being the one everyone needs. What it isn't: a supplement pitch, a fear campaign, or a soft place to land. You will not be told to embrace this chapter or navigate your journey. You're an adult with a busy schedule, and a limited tolerance for nonsense. We say it out loud here. Dismissal is not a diagnosis. Follow along so it's never yours.