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There's a lot more to menopause than hot flushes! We're here for all of it, for everyone...

The Legal Bit…

Any information or guidance we provide is not a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of your doctor or healthcare provider. You must not rely on any information or guidance we provide you with as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or healthcare provider and we expressly disclaim all responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any

damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered by you or any third party as a result of your reliance on any information or guidance we provide you with. If you have any specific questions or concerns about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or healthcare provider as soon as possible. If you think you may be suffering from any medical condition, you should seek immediate medical attention from your healthcare provider. Do not delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice or discontinue medical treatment because of information or guidance we provide you with. Nothing in this disclaimer will limit or exclude any liability that may not be limited or excluded by applicable law.

13/01/2025

IMPORTANT STUFF!

If you're using 'Meno-formulas', or other 'natural' stuff for menopause symptom relief, please do yourself a huge favour and have a good read of this article.

Ordinarily we'd pick out some pertinent points, but there are so many in this that it was impossible to choose!

If nothing else and you don't have time to read it, please understand that (without any/many exceptions) these products are an absolute rip off, with no clinical evidence of safety or efficacy, and anyone pushing these is unlikely to be trustworthy when it comes to advising you about anything. Important to note that some menopause support groups allow these products to be recommended and receive freebies from these companies too. M-brace The Change do not, nor have we ever!

We're pleased to note that many of the companies we've reported are named in this article, and that the Advertising Standards Authority project to stamp out these false claims is ongoing.

Be very careful out there.

❤️🙂

The link to the article is in comments below.

08/01/2025

Hello you 🙂

During the stages of menopause, it’s common to experience mood changes such as irritability, sadness, aggressiveness, heightened anxiety, loneliness, and depression and these can all cause emotional strain. Add into the mix, that you may be feeling that you’ve ‘lost yourself’, and/or have a perceived need to make some drastic life changes, it’s no wonder that the mental effects of peri/menopause can sometimes be even more devastating than the physical. With all this going on, it comes as no
surprise that relationships can suffer and sometimes break down.

The good news is that there are lots of different approaches that can help. Whilst Hormone Replacement Therapy is the first-line treatment for peri/menopause, it's best used as part of your menopause toolkit rather than the ONLY tool in your kit 🙂

Taking better care of yourself with improvements to nutrition and exercise, and staying hydrated (yes, it's true!) are really great ways to help manage your symptoms. (And yes, we know you might not feel like doing it, so just try little steps rather than a great big overhaul!)

If you’re not comfortable with a pharmaceutical approach, you might find that a therapy such as hypnotherapy or CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) is the right fit for you.

Relationship and/or family counselling can help put things into perspective and give an
important opportunity to let off steam without being confrontational and making a bad
situation worse.

You may feel like you’re alone, and you might feel as though things are never going to improve. But it isn’t ‘just you’, and you don’t have to be on your own with these challenges. Those fluctuating and falling hormone levels can be replenished and rebalanced with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), and you can further support your mental wellness with other things too. You just need to ask, and find the right fit for you to feel more like you again...

We provide support and guidance in our private M-brace The Change Menopause Support groups too. Our main peer-to-peer support group, and our special smaller group with individualised support from our team, and access to our library of factsheets and handbooks 🙂

You'll find us Monday-Friday in our lovely corner of the Internet ❤️

07/01/2025

Happy New Year everyone! ❤️

It's that time of year again, isn't it? When all the
"BE BETTER!" "PUSH YOURSELF!" "DO ALL THE THINGS!!!" posts pop up everywhere, and we do a little shudder... 'tis the season for big dollops of toxic positivity 😬

Yerp, it's sometimes going to be the right thing to do. Give yourself a little pep talk. Have a little chat with yourself. Give it a go and see.

But some of the time it isn't, too. Some of the time you DO need to stay in bed and write off the day. Sometimes you just can't go to the gym. Some days EVERYTHING is terrible, and no amount of someone telling you to do stuff (not even you!) is going to be helpful or constructive.

So when you see this kind of thing, please don't feel pushed, please don't feel uncomfortable or inadequate or that you're failing in some way because you can't get your s**t together.

Please just listen to yourself, what your body is asking of you, and just be nice to you 🙂

❤️

23/12/2024

🥳🎄IT'S THE LAST ADVENT CALENDAR WINDOW! 🎄🥳
..and it's all about what the jiggins to do if you mess up your HRT over the festive break...

☃️ If you forget a dose and are just a few hours late, don't panic! Just take your usual dose when you remember. If you're a bit late it shouldn't make much difference.

🎄If you totally forget and miss a day, DON'T double up on the next day. Just pretend you didn't forget and carry on as normal. That relates to oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone!

🥂 If you forgot to change your patch when it was due, change it as soon as you can. A little bit late should be fine. Just carry on with your normal patch change schedule as usual. Patches slow-release hormones, so you won't have a 'peak and trough' situation cos of a slightly late change.

❄️ If you run out of HRT (in the UK) or you've gone away and left it at home, don't panic! And don't think you've stuffed it and will have to wait till doctors surgeries reopen after Christmas. Pharmacists will generally help with an emergency supply...

Either go online at NHS 111 and follow the link for emergency prescriptions, who will link you up with a local, open pharmacy, or drop in to a local pharmacy and ask for help. Take any packaging from your medication or old prescriptions along to the pharmacist if you can, this will help confirm the details of what you need.

Have brilliant and jolly Festals, whatever and however you celebrate, and remember that no matter what, the Duvet Cocoon is always there when you need a little breather 💕

Our private support groups are closed over the festive break to give our team a rest. We'll be back in the new year 🙂

☃️🎄💖

20/12/2024

🥂Cheers! And also, maybe bleurgh...

You might have already found out that alcohol doesn't seem to agree with you anymore. That said, many people find their alcohol consumption creeping up when they’re trying to cope with menopause. Put these two things together, and it's potentially a cocktail recipe for disaster.

Alcohol tolerance decreases as we age, and it takes the body longer to break it down. Alcohol also has an impact on the body’s ability to metabolise oestrogen, and those levels are already fluctuating during peri/menopause.

Some risks of certain conditions can also be increased by drinking more than a moderate amount of alcohol, including breast cancer, osteoporosis, and depression. It can also make menopause symptoms worse, particularly vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and night sweats).

To keep a check on your drinking, it can be helpful to 'think and drink' in terms of alcohol units. The general advice from the UK’s Chief Medical Officers is not to have more than 14 units of alcohol each week. That’s about a bottle and half of wine or five to six pints of standard-strength beer or cider. It’s a good idea to spread that out over the week and to take a few days off alcohol each week too.

So by all means, do enjoy a festive tipple! But bear in mind that you will have better sleep, more energy and improved health through drinking less alcohol... 🥂🎄🙂

16/12/2024

🥳🎄M-BRACE ADVENT CALENDAR 🎄🥳

Today's Advent Calendar window is a bit bleeuurgh 🤮

Nausea and sickness is a fairly common symptom in perimenopause, ranging from full on psychedelic shouting to gagging if a toothbrush goes anywhere near your mouth 🫣

It's caused by fluctuations in hormone levels, and does often improve with HRT, but there are other things that you can do to alleviate it.

Making sure that your blood sugar stays stable often helps - so if you can eat something quite 'carby' in the evening that may make a difference. A little bedtime biccy might also help.

Staying hydrated is always a good idea, and it does make a difference to nausea symptoms for loads of people - so please do drink enough water if nausea is a problem!

In the morning, try not to rush, and give yourself enough time to come round when you awake. Some peeps find that ginger biscuits help at this point, and some peeps find that smelling fresh cut lemon can be helpful too...

We know from experience how difficult and stubborn this symptom can be - holding down a demanding full-time job with a long commute is not fun if you struggle with this symptom. If you have an understanding employer (or indeed if you are the employer!) you might want to arrange more flexible working hours to allow for the mornings/days when you're feeling wretched...

Through the festive period, avoiding fatty and/or spicy foods at night might be helpful, and try to avoid too many egg nogs of an evening! Anything heavy on your stomach and digestion is more likely to have you running to shout at Baby Jesus' dad on the porcelain phone...

You can see all of our Advent Calendar windows over in our private support group, just for those who will be/are experiencing menopause first-hand.

🎄❄️🎄

16/12/2024

Hello you! 🙂

Our private support groups are now reopened 🥳 If you are/will be experiencing menopause symptoms first-hand, pop over to M-brace The Change Menopause Support for evidence-based information, peer-to-peer support, and fun times* 🙂❤️

* really, we do actually have fun times in there y'know! 😃

12/12/2024

Hello everyone! 🙂

You may already be aware that Facebook (and other Meta platforms) have had a few issues in the last 24 hours. Some of those issues are persisting and making things a bit tricky.

As a result, our two private support groups are in 'limp mode', and we hope to have things fixed soon (come on Facebook Pixies, get a wriggle on!). We've only just got back the ability to post here!

Anyhoop, please bear with us, and hopefully normal service will resume shortly 🙂❤️

09/12/2024

🎄🎅9TH DECEMBER 🎅🎄

Today's Advent Calendar snippet has some good news for you 😊 You can catch up with all our M-brace Advent Calendar posts over in our M-brace The Change Menopause Support group...

Most of us are here in this lovely corner of the Internet because our peri/menopause is a bit of a nightmare - or at least it has been! Yes, it can feel horrible and it can be flipping scary, but for most people, symptoms tend to improve a lot once you reach postmenopause and hormones settle down a bit 🙂

The average age of postmenopause beginning is 51. You can check out the definitions and explanations of the different stages of menopause in one of our previous Advent Calendar posts.

Adding things like a good nutritious diet and exercise to your toolkit also helps with feeling more on top of things, either with or without HRT.

Some people's symptoms do continue, but for most things become more manageable, and you may eventually find that you can adjust and perhaps reduce HRT accordingly. You can also stay on HRT for as long as the benefits outweigh the risks: there is no set time limit, contrary to what a good number of people still mistakenly believe!

Many of us will spend almost half if not more of our lives in postmenopause: It *can* be the best time of our lives!

🎄😊🎄

08/12/2024

Hello you 🙂 It's that time of year again, when a seasonal reminder wouldn't go amiss...

'Tis the season to be jolly, apparently. But what if you're really NOT jolly, and you're feeling decidedly under the weather and overwhelmed by *gestures at everything*?

The festivities at this time of year can be tricky to deal with for all sorts of reasons, but for some of us going through peri/menopause they can be even more challenging.

While the menopause isn’t a mental health condition as such, it can affect your mental health. Hormone changes during the menopause can sometimes make existing mental health conditions worse, as well as seemingly hastening new challenges.

Depression and anxiety and all their little goblin friends are really quite common, and some may find that using an antidepressant alongside other treatments (including HRT) is helpful.

If you're finding yourself affected by these types of symptoms, it's really important to consult a properly qualified healthcare professional on the best course of action and treatment. Please don't be tempted to buy unregulated 'over the counter products' as a supposed 'quick fix'. You really should talk to someone who's properly trained and qualified to help you.

We often talk about the importance of self-care and going easy on yourself, so take this as another reminder to do that, particularly at this time of year!

🙂☃️❤️

04/12/2024

🎄❄️M-BRACE ADVENT CALENDAR❄️🎄

For today's window, here's a hormone thing:

As our ovaries shut down and we go into perimenopause, three main hormones are affected. Although most peri/menopause symptoms are due to fluctuating and declining oestrogen levels, progesterone and testosterone are affected too and this can also cause symptoms.

Progesterone is the first hormone to deplete as we go into perimenopause. Oestrogen levels start going all over the place, and Testosterone levels drop too.

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh levels are unaffected...😀

You can see all of our Advent Calendar windows over in our private support group, just for those who will be/are experiencing menopause first-hand.

🎄❄️🎄

02/12/2024

Over in our M-brace The Change Menopause Support group, it's...

❄️🎉🎄DAY ONE OF OUR M-BRACE ADVENT CALENDAR! 🎄🎉❄️

We'll be posting snippets here, but to see all of our tidbits, tips, and tipples, pop over to the group. So, to get us started here's some basic information about the different stages associated with menopause status:

PREMENOPAUSE - From puberty until hormones start to decline

PERIMENOPAUSE - Hormone levels fluctuate/decline. Symptoms start in this stage

MENOPAUSE - One year since your last period (if you have them). This refers to a single day

POSTMENOPAUSE - Everything after that (from one year and one day after your last period if you have them), symptoms might settle, or they might continue...

In our M-brace groups, we often use peri/menopause when we're referring to either/or, or the whole process of menopause.

If you don't have periods, then you might not really know where you're at. So long as your symptoms aren't troublesome and you're protecting your future health on your chosen treatment path, it doesn't really matter y'know...
🙂❤

11/11/2024

Hello you 😊

We're not one of those menopause support types who do the whole "DO ALL OF THE THINGS! GET UP NOW!! GO TO THE GYM!!!", and in fact, and because reasons, we find all that stuff a bit 😬 Call it toxic positivity, if you like.

It's great if you're full of beans and energy and aren't feeling like a bedraggled carrier bag stuck on a twig mournfully flapping about, where your only movement is due to weather. But for those of us who are that carrier bag, the constant 'whooping up' and GO GET 'EM in some quarters can frankly just get on our t!ts.

So instead, we subscribe to the "do what you can, when you can" school of thought, and as it's a Monday and coming up to a busy and potentially stressful bit of the year thought it was timely to post about this as a reminder:

If you can, do some exercise, whatever it is: just waggle your legs about a bit if that's what you can muster. Go outside on the days it's as pleasant as November can be, and touch some grass and some trees. If you feel like a hibernation duvet day (and you can sidestep commitments for a bit), flipping have one! If you can, have a tidy and a clean - sort out a cupboard or a drawer that's been getting on your nerves, it can help with feeling satisfaction in a job well done. If you can't be bothered showering, just wash your face. Little steps get you just as far as big steps, even if it takes a little bit longer...

We hope that's helpful, M-bracers. Do what you can, and look after yourselves 🩷

08/11/2024

Hello again 🙂 Here's the British Menopause Society Statement on the newly published and updated NICE guidelines:
https://thebms.org.uk/2024/11/bms-statement-in-response-to-the-publication-of-the-updated-nice-menopause-guideline-ng23/

Please do give it a read - it raises some *very* important points! ♥️

08/11/2024

Hello you 🙂

They've been a long time coming, but after a degree of controversy and rewrites they're finally here!

We've reviewed them and they're a bit of a mixed bag. There are a few articles about this doing the rounds, some of which in themselves contain inaccuracies and misinformation about menopause and HRT 🙄

So, if you read any of those, please look out for duff stuff! The Guardian's article seems to be less woolly and provides useful comment and information, if you fancy a read...

Here's the link to the updated guidelines themselves:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng23/chapter/Recommendations -care

There are loads of links to other documents/guidance notes in this 👆, and it's probably not as easy to understand as the previous 2015 guidance that this replaces, in our opinion.

Speaking of opinions, there are already loads of those Out There, so we don't feel the need to add any more to those. These updated guidelines are what we have to work with, so here we all are!

🙂♥️

28/10/2024

YES YES YES!!! 🎉

At last, a decent mainstream article on something we've been banging on about and battling for years!

If you've been with us for a little while, you probably know how we feel about the exploitative practices and marketing/advertising activities around menowashing products.

We're actually pretty flipping proud of the number of companies that we've called out, reported, and who've blocked us as a result! So many companies use the tactics described in this ITV article to sell products, and it's encouraging to see that this is now finally been picked up by news media and highlighted to more people...

We've reported numerous companies' ads to the Advertising Standards Authority, and have highlighted those who continue to flout regulations - even though the ASA have 'banned' their ad. We join the calls to increase penalties for these companies and organisations, and to stop the exploitative and misleading stuff they're putting out to increase their profits at our expense.

If you need a hand, come and join us over in our M-brace The Change Menopause Support group (Monday to Friday)

🙂🧡

(Read the article linked in comments below 👇)

04/10/2024

OCTOBER IS MENOPAUSE AWARENESS MONTH! ❤️

In case you weren't aware of it enough, all of October is Awareness Month 😃 So by way of celebration, we're giving free access to all M-bracers to our Symptom Handbook for the month 🎉

It's thirty pages or so of useful stuff, including:
❤️ What menopause is/isn't
❤️ How to handle it
❤️ Symptom checklist
❤️ Information on each of the symptoms used for diagnosis
❤️ Easy stuff to help you

To get yours, join us Monday-Friday in our M-brace The Change Menopause Support group, where you'll find it in our Files.
You might also notice loads of other really useful evidence-based information there too 🙂❤️

01/10/2024

Hello you 🙂 Here's a thing about...

❤️ HRT DOSES ❤️

👇 Here's a table taken from a British Menopause Society document* showing licensed doses of oestrogen products, and the required doses of progestogen where it is needed (it must be used if you use HRT and still have your womb).

If you have any misgivings about your own prescribed HRT regime, please contact your prescriber for a review.

We're not going to join in with the comments/statements/other stuff following the recent documentary. There's enough of that already! What we *are* doing is continuing to give clear evidence-based information and helping our support group members to find the treatments that work for them.

You can join us in our M-brace The Change Menopause Support group if you'd like some if that too...

🙂❤️

*Full document link in comments

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