Amanda Delaney's Real & Refreshing Menopause Journey

This week on the Menopause Uprising Podcast, we’re joined by the inspiring Amanda Delaney. Amanda shares her powerful story of attending the Menopause Success Summit, where she realized that her struggles weren’t “all in her head” and began her journey to find real solutions for her symptoms.

With over 20 years of experience, Amanda is a business coach who helps coaches and therapists build thriving, authentic businesses. Known for her unique blend of mindset work and practical mentoring, she’s guided hundreds to “Stand Tall and Proud.

To learn more about Amanda click HERE

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Transcript -Automatically Generated

Amanda, I had the great pleasure of getting to know you during COVID and I know we're both very vocal and open when it comes to sharing our menopause conversation and I know your own story, you know, has inspired many women that you've worked with and I think a lot of women indirectly as well. Um, I think at the moment I'm getting a little message from the universe I'm in a bubble sometimes, and I think we've made great progress in relation to shattering the taboo around menopause, but I'm getting so many reminders at the moment that actually, we've a lot of work to do, and that there are still many pockets where people are still uncomfortable to talk about menopause.

And I firmly believe that A great starting point is always where we're open and comfortable to share our stories, but only it's very individual. Some people may not be that comfortable, but I'd love you to share with my listeners your own journey and story. Oh, come here. Thanks for inviting me. And I, and I'm like yourself, I can't stop talking about it because I think once I found out what it actually was, what was going on for me, it was a relief.

So I just, and every time now I realize what's going on for me, I get that relief all over again and I get a real sense of gratitude that I'm living in 2024. And you know, when I think back of the generations that went before us, how robbed women were, you know, what they went through. Um, horrendous things that they went through.

So that keeps me beating the drum and telling everybody, because, you know, it's not that I'm telling everybody that my story is not your story, but I think if we share our story, they may see something in our story that they can relate to, or they may pick up on or learn something or identify something.

within them or a family member and that's all it is. It's just sharing it. My own journey began, oh gosh, in the middle of COVID. So COVID came in 2019. I had a phenomenal year in business. I think it was one of my best years. So everything was, I was touching was just, you know, being fantastic. So that was 2019.

Then going into 20, uh, COVID came. So after having a fantastic year, was it 20 or 21? I don't know. I'm no good with numbers. Anyway, I'm going to talk about feelings and emotions in the story. It doesn't really matter what year it happens, but it was early. It was a January and I started to do a lot of inner work on myself.

So that was the starting point. I did a bit of inner work on myself. I knew my mom wasn't well at the time, so I wanted to be in a good emotional state. It got a bit unhappened to my mom. So that was January. About six weeks in, so the middle of February, I started to experience what I can only describe, Catherine, as a strangulation.

It was like somebody had their hand around the right side of my throat and was literally pressing on it. So I was experiencing this and it was really uncomfortable. And I didn't, like, I didn't know what it was. And then at night time, now I teach fitness and I hike and I'm really fit. But I'd sit down in the evening at about 8 o'clock and the minute my arse had hit the chair I'd be GASP GASP Felt this, I can't breathe.

Now my mam was really sick with a lung disease and I was smoking heavy at the time. I'd been smoking since I was 14. So I'm thinking, oh my goodness, I'm getting, there's something wrong with my lungs. And I'm in that state. That's what my mind was telling me. There's something going on here. So, fast forward to the 6th of March, my dear mam passed away, and at that time she told me, on a side note, she said, all he has to say is stay positive.

So we all got COVID at the funeral. We got a different type of positive. So that brought me to the conversation, the first conversation I ever had with the doctor. So, when I was on looking for the COVID test, I mentioned it to her about this strangulation, this uh, breathing that I was struggling with and I was really struggling with sinuses.

So she mentioned to me, Oh, you should know, she wasn't very pleasant by the way. She said, you should go and get a cognitive behavior therapy really abruptly and just bluntly told me that's what I should do. And of course, you know, I, I teach sales and marketing, so I'm like, I got me back up. I was like, didn't she think she has, does she not know who I am?

I'm doing all this inner work and I know, you know, I work with it. What does she mean by that? So I put resistance up to that suggestion immediately. She never mentioned anxiety. She never mentioned perimenopause. That's all she said. So I pushed against her. And anyway, fast forward the next couple of weeks, I'm in, in A& E for 15 hours waiting for an x ray on my chest.

The doctor there gave me sinus, uh, steroids for my sinus infection. He did an x ray because he said your lungs are clear. So all this is going on, all this overthinking, analyzing myself, what is this? And the biggest fear was, I'm going to get emphysema, how am I going to tell my sisters and brothers that I'm emphysema after passing, my man passing away with this.

I need to stop smoking. So I got myself into such a tizzy and such fear of the cigarettes and lung disease and all the stuff that was happening that I did. Over a month of crying and everything else and I found a, a Hitler therapist and I went to him and anyway, that whole month was absolutely the only way I can describe it was horrendous.

And that brought me to the 13th of July where I gave up the cigarettes. Okay. So I gave up the cigarettes. Strangulation is still there. The out of breath is still there. And I'm thinking, Oh my goodness, what is going on with me? And all I wanted to do at that time, and my business is digital. I teach online.

I had a huge network of people, business owners. You know, I had built this community. I am known for high energy. I'm known for leadership. I'm known for all that. All I wanted to do was hike, clean the house and cry. I really didn't have the capacity within myself to hold space for anybody. So over that time, I ended up only minding the few clients that I had because I can't put a face on and go, Oh, everything will be okay.

Everything was not okay. I was not, I didn't have the bandwidth to mind people and nor could I bring myself to invite them to buy from me when I couldn't hold that space. I closed down the We Can and We Will community that I'd spent five years building. I made a decision to close it. Um, I'm getting emotional now.

God, I didn't expect to get emotional. But it was a really difficult time because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, why all this was happening to me. So then I said, right, I need to learn, I need to understand. I was seeking, seeking. Now at this time, we hiked every Saturday, myself, my husband and my sister.

My sister's 18 months younger than me. So back then I was probably 47, she was 45, months between us. She was going to her GP with night sweats and, Couldn't sleep and all this, and I'm saying, ah, that poor cow. She was getting patches and she was telling me what her doctor was telling her. And she was trying out all this stuff.

So I'm listening in the ear, but not thinking that this is having to do with me. This is her story. My story was I'm losing my mind here. And you know, I really don't know what's going wrong with me. There was little signs along the way that maybe the strangulation could be emotional stuff, like I remember my niece was practicing her hairdressing course and I sat in her chair and she was stripping the colour and oh, my scalp would be sensitive and when the pain of the chemicals hit my scalp, the, the strangulation wrapped itself around my neck and the pain of that actually overtook the chemical burn on my head.

It was so profound. That kind of gave me an indication, maybe there's something emotional in this because when I got pain, physical pain, this started up again. There was another time I went into my sister and I was like, I don't know what's wrong with me. And I ended up blurting out there was a stressful situation that I was kind of blocking out.

And that was another indication. That this was maybe not had to do with a physical ailment in my health, but it may be an emotional. There's something going on here. Then I decided, right, I'm going to learn why, why am I feeling these feelings? And I went down to Limerick and I retrained. As a quantum thinking transformational coach more to understand myself, that was understanding emotions, behavior patterns, why we do what we do.

And I still remember vividly. And I think I'll always remember the first day when I got to Limerick was 25 women and amazing Moira Geary, who was teaching the courses in the room and halfway through the day. This strangulation was so unbearable like I'm sitting in a room putting a smile on my face And I feel like somebody has their hands wrapped around my neck And we had talked about what we're gonna learn in this course over the next few months and by the end of the day Tears welled up on my eyes, and I just remember saying to Myra.

Please don't let me go home with this I can't go home with this It was coming up to Christmas and I thought if I have to experience this all over Christmas It's going to deplete me of any sort of fun that I can have with my family. It was so debilitating, it was horrendous. And she did an emotional release on me and it literally left my body.

It left my body for about six weeks and by the time we went back to the next weekend, it had come back again and we did another release. So the releases were working. So when I was doing tapping or different things, it was working temporarily. So I finished that course, Catherine, and I learned so much.

There were so many tools and techniques. And when I got to the end of that, so this is now I'm well in. Well in a year of experiencing this over a year, probably about 18 months. And when I finished the program, I remember thinking to myself, maybe. I still didn't want to work, I still didn't want to do social media, I still didn't want to do anything apart from exercise and hike and I was after putting on two stone, I was eating biscuits, I just wanted sugar and comfort.

And I remember saying to myself, because I felt very zen, I'd learned all this new stuff, I was understanding myself a lot more and I remember thinking, is this it now? Maybe this is the new you. Maybe you're just going to be the zen version of yourself and maybe that high energy, excited person is just forever no more.

This could be just you. And that's where I was at. Kind of trying to accept that the buzzy me, the energetic me, the me that wants to start projects and do things is kind of forever gone. And I kept saying to Ian over that time, I think I'm going to get a job. And he's like, what? I just wanted somebody to come and give me stuff to do so that I wouldn't have to think of stuff to do and you know that kind of, this is where I was at.

And it was at that time you started to talk about your menopause summit. Myself and two of the women that I teach in the mornings, we do fitness together. And we said, Asha, the crack. We'll go and have a laugh. Do you know why we go? We're not partaking in that menopause thing. No, it's not for us. We're not doing that.

We go because I'm sure some of our friends or our sisters do. We'll need the information. So we, uh, the goodness of our heart will go to the summit. We pick up all this information and we can share it with other women, when lo and behold, the three of us were sitting there that day. And do you know what I loved about that day, Catherine?

I went, I didn't go with any expectations except for to learn and went with an open mind. And what I loved about that day and what was different from my GP, that conversation I had with her, and what was different about one or two people who had tried to. Shove HRT at me while there was none of that. I was able to sit around that table and absorb the information and take what I needed from it and make up my own mind and hearing all the symptoms.

I was able to go, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is all making sense. And from that day I was able to make an informed decision about HRT or what I wanted to do for me. And go to my GP and tell her what I needed based on what I had learned at the summit. Within seven days, and I know this is not for everybody, within seven days, I kid you not, I was like, there is a man's back.

There was the, I could feel the energy. I could feel the energy. The voice had stopped telling me you're brutal. You can't, you know what I mean? Everything just starting to fill back up again. And I'm starting to feel like myself. And I remember that day somebody distinctly said at the summit, you don't feel like yourself.

That was probably me. I probably said that.

And I think that is the I always say, Amanda, that, um, menopause, it's a deeply psychological chapter in our lives. And I think you get that, I get that, because we've, we've, we've gone through it. I think you, you, you, you get everything thrown at you, like you get the hot flushes, the physical symptoms and everything, but my Lord, you get all the psychological stuff thrown at you as well.

You get the past trauma, you get the anxiety, you get the worry. You know, that feel of where you don't feel like yourself. And I mean, I think like thousands of women have said that to me where, you know, and it's the saddest it's, but it's the saddest thing to hear. But I get it. I, I remember when I was at that stage where it's just kind of like, what is going on with me?

I just didn't feel like myself. And I think sometimes what can happen is we can probably just get caught up in the whirlwind of life. And generally for the majority of women going through menopause, you're in the sandwich years, right? Where you've, you're juggling a lot. And sometimes we don't have time to stop and think about ourselves, or maybe we're just spiraling.

Um, In a place of anxiety. It was coming there though. You know what Catherine, I'm very intuitive so I get sometimes I get something and what we're saying I didn't feel like myself. I wasn't acting like myself. Because you know what? Sometimes we're not always good at identifying the feelings because that's just bad.

But I wasn't acting like myself. I couldn't be myself. Yeah, yeah, I get that. And I think Like that's where, that's where, like, I'm so glad you came to the summit. And I do remember you, I can, even as you're talking about it, I can, I can remember you, you were second table back from the stage, and I do remember you being there with some friends.

And I think that's probably the first time we met in person was at the summit, or maybe it was up the mountains, actually somewhere along the line. Um, but I, I, I think. Like being informed is so important and I think the, the, one of the challenges we have now is there's so much information out there and that can be overwhelming.

And when you're in that stage of menopause where you're feeling overwhelmed, when you add in another layer of complexity where all this information, I don't know where to look, you know, it can be so beneficial where you just have a source and you know that it's evidence based information and you can rely on it.

I chose not to join all the million Facebook groups because I taught, I can't go down the rabbit hole. I don't need that much information. I just need to know what I need to know. And I didn't go back to the summit last year because I felt I was in a good place. I was, you know, holding my own and everything was okay.

But then this year what happened was I, um, I started to experience and the strangulation again. And I was like, well, the difference this time was like, I know what this is. Okay. I know what this is, so I took myself to the GP. Now, unfortunately, this, I had my ticket booked for the summit, and I needed to see the GP just falling short of a week or two.

So I had to put my faith back in her again, because I, I, my gut was telling me I just needed to increase what I was on. But I said I'd trust her to know what to give me and unfortunately she changed my, my estrogen to a different type of estrogen She's doing her best and within a week, not only was the strangulation there I started to hear this voice telling me who do you think you are working with them clients?

How dare you charge them? You're no good at this. And that transported me back to the 18 months. No wonder I couldn't work because that voice was relentless. But after four days this time, I remember looking up in the corner of my head going, I know who you are. You're no intrigent and you're a liar. And I rang the doctor, eight o'clock in the morning, and I said, can I come back in?

And in I went and I said to her, you might as well have given me holy water with that stuff you gave me. Can I have more of what I was on please? Cause I'd been to the summit then and I felt a little bit more empowered again. And she went in and I, okay. And again, straight away, once I got that estrogen into me, that voice went quiet within a few hours.

It's it's phenomenal, isn't it? And just before we talk about that in a sec, but before we do, were you changed to a different type of estrogen because of supply issues? No, she decided, she said that, um, she, just in case I wasn't absorbing the gel, she changed me to a spray. Ah, right. Like, I had an increase, I was on two pumps of, of gel and my gut told me I just needed an extra pump, but I'm not a GP.

So we changed to two sprays or three sprays at the same time. spray on my arm. And then when I went back, I got three pumps. Actually, a friend of mine gave me a patch to stick on me today because I was literally hopping and the doctor couldn't see me for another week. And within two hours of that patch, my voice, that little voice went quiet.

It's, it's phenomenal. The impact of menopause on anxiety and the how, how we actually feel, isn't it? It just is phenomenal. Yeah, like it's unbelievable and I was sharing this yesterday, I was teaching, um, I was facilitating a program yesterday in LinkedIn head office to 40 business owners, men and women.

And you know, we were talking about imposter syndrome and stuff like that. And I just said, look for women of a certain age. Sometimes it mightn't be imposter syndrome and I shared that story with them. So if nobody shares the stories then you could be thinking, oh this is imposter syndrome. This was not imposter syndrome I was experiencing.

It was lack of estrogen. And like only because I'd been through that 18 months and I'd been on that side and I'd been on the other side was I aware that that's what was actually happening for me. Yeah, but I think, and that's the, that's kind of, I guess, that's the journey, isn't it? In terms of being able to recognize, cause you only know that now and hindsight is always hindsight's a great teacher, you know, like I was in a very privileged position for those 18 months.

My husband was able to afford for me to not do the business or go out and get a job. And not everybody is in that position and that's another reason why I'll continue to tell my story. Because, you know, you do need to understand what you're going through that, you know, if I'd have had HRT 18 months beforehand, now I'm very grateful for the lessons that I learned over those 18 months and I'm still smoke free.

And that has only gone on an amazing impact on my health for the rest of my life, which was a 20 year goal to stop smoking. So that's been a positive. And then the other thing is I go to Limerick and learning what I've learned has opened up a whole new avenue of work and it helps me to help my clients even more.

So there's lots and lots of positives and the downtime and the hike and all the good stuff I did in the 18 months, which is great. But if we don't need to, if we can keep talking and my story helps one person to maybe just, because I didn't have hot flushes Catherine, that's the thing. I didn't have hot flushes, I still had periods.

Um, you know, they were a little bit off, but nothing major. That's why I kept, I was adamant. This was long stuff. This was. And I think that's really important Amanda, because I always talk about the fact. I'm 54. I've never had a hot flush. Like, you know, not everyone. gets hot flushes. Yes, the majority of people will, but not everyone does.

And the more and more, there's more and more women that I'm talking to who have all the other symptoms or many of the symptoms, but they've never had a hot flusher. I definitely had night sweats, particularly, you know, kind of coming up to periods and stuff like that. But as for the full on hot flush, Flush.

I'm hot. I'm definitely hot at nighttime. I used to have to always have something over my shoulders. Now I wake up, I go to bed with that, but I wake up. And I'm nothing and I am hot, but I'm not having hot flushes. There's a funny story. I love telling this story because I always get a good giggle. I was sitting at the summit, right?

So we'd got a hot tub during COVID and I loved the hot tub. And I was in the hot tub most night. And then I started to experience about 8 o'clock at night again. Things happen to me at 8 o'clock at night. This unbelievable itch. I mean, really, really itchy down there. So I remember saying to my husband, I can't get in the hot tub anymore.

We're going to have to buy different pH tests and test the pH. It's making me itchy. I won't be able to get it in anymore. So that's what I taught. I taught that the pH was off in the hot tub. And then I'm at the summit. And somebody is speaking on the stage and they talk about dry vagina and I said well who knew my itching was a dry vagina.

I had no idea that that was a symptom either and like dry, you're not expecting an itch with dry. Like if I'd have read that on a card, I wouldn't have understood that that's what that was happening to me. And that has been a game changer, getting delocalised. Delocalised, yeah. And I think that was probably me, again.

Because that's one topic. I feel we can't talk about enough is vaginal dryness, vaginal atrophy. And it is, it is quite conflicting. Because dry, you know, for one, You can have a discharge. So often people are thinking, well, if I'm dry, how am I having a discharge? But that is a symptom of vaginal dryness, as is the itch, the inflammation, painful sex, spotting after sex, and you know, so many women have vaginal dryness.

And it, as you see, it's so easily treated by using local oestrogen. And it's, it's certainly one of the symptoms that there's no benefit whatsoever. To holding off on this one, the sooner you get treatment in there, the better. It's the same as, you know, think of your cheeks. They're lovely and, um, plump, um, and we moisturize them every day.

In theory, we should be doing the same internally to the vaginal walls, but that doesn't happen. And, you know, we know the impact of, uh, the loss of oestrogen really, really impacts. And again, that's the subject that I remember. I can remember it was in Kikeni. Years ago, before COVID, I was, when I was doing talks around the country and I remember, I was like, okay, I have to start talking more vocally about vaginal dryness.

Well, the heads that went down in the room, Amanda, and I'm like, you know, and I'm like, we have to talk about this, you know, because We're really helping each other, you know, if you have the symptoms of, um, vaginal dryness and you're treating it as trush, it's probably going to be, you're using the wrong creams.

It will also be that you'll result in UTIs and it becomes I've got my first UTI in 20 years and that's because the estrogen was so low before I got back on my three pumps. That's my first time ever getting one of them. I was like, Oh no, what's this? Yeah. Yeah. And that's what, unfortunately that happens so many women and then it's antibiotic after antibiotic.

And of course that impacts your digestive system. It impacts, it impacts everything. So it's like, you know, it's in ways like hormonally that there's, there's a lot to consider. But I think I always kind of say, if you can just break it down and come at it, you know, very practically, um, then it's not as overwhelming.

But certainly I think in those earlier stages, you know, when you do feel lost, you don't, you do wonder, God, you know, what's going on with me. I think that's really scary. It was terrifying. It really was. And, you know, I remember thinking to myself, God, I feel like I didn't have, uh, I didn't sail through my teenage years, let's put it that way.

I had a difficult hormonal teenage years. And I remember at one stage thinking, Oh my God, this feels like, cause I was, I would have been overweight as well as a teenager. I was like, this feels so like I did when I was in my younger teenage years. Like it felt very similar. The, the, the thoughts, the, You know, the black thoughts, the weight gain, the whole lot.

And I, you know, now even with my own teenage, even with the last one as a teenager, I'm going, Oh God, it's just so hard. Because I now remember what it was, how hard it was to balance hormones and understand why am I feeling this way. And here's a key thing though. You automatically are looking at your youngest and you're like feeling empathy and you're feeling sympathy.

But we don't tend to do that for ourselves when we're going through menopause and menopause is reverse puberty. In puberty, the hormones are coming up in menopause. They're going down, but we're not compassionate enough with ourselves as we go through these years. And it's something I talk about a lot is compassion because You know, we can be women, we can be really hard on ourselves and I think it's just being nice, being kind, um, to ourselves goes a long way and just not being, you know, so critical.

One of the first things when I told you I was seeking, I was seeking, seeking, seeking. And one of the first things when I tuned in and I came up with compassion, and I remember finding a podcast by Jack Kavanagh and he was interviewing somebody about compassion and kindness. That was the, I asked for wisdom.

That's what it was. I was seeking. I said, just give me the wisdom to find what I need to know. And the first podcast I came to was about compassion and kindness. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we can never, we can never talk about that enough, but I think it's, we can talk about it, but it's to actually really, really take it in and just, just be nice to yourself, even for anyone listening.

It's like, it's just do something nice for yourself today or, you know, even, you know, whenever you listen to this, it's just take a few moments. To be kind to yourself, you know, it's, that's where it's those little nuggets. Like I find now, um, and you know yourself, Amanda, being self employed, there's all this work to do, right?

All that to do list is endless. Never ending. One of the things that I'm really trying to do at the moment is just, you know, I do go to the gym and everything, but I'm trying to make sure that, um, I'm getting my breaks during the day. So, you know, um, this afternoon now I'm going to go for a walk before I go home.

And, you know, get all enmeshed in kind of the family life and all that kind of stuff. But I'm just making it a priority to carve that time out so I have this head space. And that's my kindness to myself. It's also I understand that I need to have that little bit of downtime where I just have a space between work and home.

And it's not every day I can manage it, but when I do, I'm the better person for it, you know? Yeah, no, definitely agree. There's, there's something that I picked up a couple of years ago and I, and I continuously share it. I think it's a crucial point and it's called, you're the CEO of your life or your business, right?

And that's the chief energy officer. Yeah. So if you know what gives you energy, for me, that's the running, you know, more than running. I think I get really innovative and creative and, you know, out walking or running movement gives it to me. And if I don't get that, my life is going to get a lot harder. So if I'm in business and I'm trying to deal with clients or do marketing or sales or anything I'm trying to do.

It's harder when our energy is depleted. So even in life, so if you've got family and you're juggling work or, you know, all the stuff that you have to do in your to do list, and you are not looking after your energy. You're going to struggle no matter what you're going through, you know, menopause, whatever you are, whatever stage you're at in life, just remember this, you are the chief energy officer.

It's up to you. It is up to you. You are in charge. And like for some people, you may already know this. I know when I'm after having a few events, I'm an extrovert, but I'm an introvert. I know my energy can only sustain so many networking things or so many crowds before I have to say, okay, next week, don't put that in the diary.

And that's. Being the officer of your energy, you're minding your energy. So as women, we tend to think that we can do it all. And we can keep giving and giving and giving and giving of ourselves. Where if you start to say, okay, what do I need in terms of what gives me energy? And prioritize, that's your non negotiable.

There's nothing getting before that. Yeah. 100%. I know. There goes your walks, your gym, goes in the diary before anything else. Yeah, I love that because energy, like it's so important and like that, I mean, I prioritize, I put, I put my gyms in the diary. So kind of, you know, that comes first now it's early in the morning, but it does come first and it's kind of, that's the sustenance, you know, going up to mountains, going for the walks, all that kind of stuff.

So it's kind of knowing what refills. your tank. Do you think, given, you know, your own experience and, you know, the many, um, people that you work with, do you think menopause is different for when you're self employed? Um, yes, yes, I do. And I tell you why I do, Catherine, because I haven't been employed and self employed.

When you go into a job, if your role partakes, like somebody, you go in, you've got a job description, somebody's put some stuff on the table for you to do. So, you're not having to, you know, you just take that and you're to do. Depends on the job, really. It depends on the job. If you haven't go into a job, I'd just say, done.

You're in, you know your job, you're sitting at the checkout. And you're going through the motions of doing your job. Yeah. And then you go home, you go home, you leave the job in the office and you can go home and do the menopause from somebody you, me and my business. I work from home. I'm the marketing department.

I'm the accounts department. I'm all I'm every department. And I have to hold a space for the clients. What I just found was it all became too much and I am the face of it all. So I needed to, there was no to-do list. There was a to-do list, but it was all about me promoting marketing. There was that some people can probably put a smile on.

I can't, I could not fake that. I didn't have a to give it, so I couldn't. That's why I kept saying to Ian, I'm getting a job, I'm getting a job. I'm getting a job. Now, what I have done different since going through all that. Because I don't want to be in a place again where I can't go to work if something ever happened again like that.

So what I've done different is I really thought about my day, my income, how all that works as a self employed person. So now what I've done is I am contracted or I'm working in under the umbrella of other companies. So they give me the audience. And I do what I love to do, which is create the workshop and deliver.

So I'm not having to do it all. So, and I'm actually loving it. I'm loving the different stream to my boat. Yes. I am relaunching my academy that I had to close in January. So I will be Having that again, but it's not the only thing that I'll have now. I have other things set up that therefore, if this ever, God forbid happened again, that I have got a job, you know, and I can show up and, you know, just do that hour, that two hours.

and get paid and still be, you know, myself. And I think that kind of, I know it's unsettling as it was, um, but I think for me, I, I love to focus on the opportunities of menopause and I think it can be It's very unsettling, but I think sometimes in the midst of being unsettled, we can actually see new avenues.

We can see new pathways, or maybe we're brought down new pathways. I certainly was. And if you, if you said to me 10 years ago, I'd be doing the work I'm doing today, I would have been like, yeah, go on. If you told me 10 years ago, I would have ran a marathon and been running so much and all of that. I'd be like, yeah, right.

You know, so I think. It's, it's, life is continuously changing anyway, but I think menopause, the only constant in menopause is change. And I think part of that change is opportunity. So let's say for example, you know now that your, uh, supports are the hiking, are getting up the mountains, the walking, whatever.

But I look at that and I kind of think, but there's the opportunity of menopause, but because you have done two things straight away. You're doing the movement, which is going to support your bones for your later years and your heart. But also you've made a monumental change that is going to support your long term health as you stop smoking.

And that's another. Opportunity of menopause because we look, we look, we, the mirror comes up. I'm always talking about this mirror. I must buy one. The mirror comes up and it's kind of like, you know, Hey, O'Keefe, what are you at? Where, what are you doing with your life? Where are you going? Are you looking after yourself?

Um, and I think. That's the opportunity. So everything you're doing now, Amanda, is future proofing your health for healthier 70s, 80s, 90s, and 100. We're all living longer. Um, and I think that's where we can change the narrative with, with, I guess, look, the caveat is always about it's, it's when you get a handle on the symptoms because that could be There we have it, we've got it straight.

Yeah. And, you know, it's kind of just fine. It's finding your way. It's finding there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is light through the trees, you know, so it's just kind of coming to the other end of that. What would you say for anyone who's listening to who's kind of like, you know, um, is in the midst of, you know, is struggling, is kind of feeling, gosh, that's me.

I really don't know what. What I'm at, where I'm at, what's going on with me. What, what, what advice would you give? Well, the first thing I say to people is because again, like me, I was, I know I resisted when people told me. You know, friends or whatever, or the doctor told me. So I would say, get a menopause tracker.

I think you have one in your website that they can download. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have a look or get the book and have a look and do a little bit of research yourself just to find out what, what is this? Could it be this, you know, just rule it in or rule it out and just get some knowledge behind you. This is taking back your own power.

You know, you're not relying on someone else. Then have a read or have a look and see, could this be it? And then. The experience I've had with the GP, and I have given her the benefit of the doubt, but I strongly believe that I need to go to her with the information. I, she just doesn't. They're general practitioners, um, and it's handy.

She's around the corner and all there's loads of, there's loads of pros and cons, but you may want to look at going to maybe a wellness center or, um, you know, somebody who is specific in this, or you've got a good GP, but whatever it is, educate yourself, find yourself, start with the tracker, start looking at those symptoms.

Like I didn't know that dry vagina was, That was what the itch was. I didn't know that the strangulation was anxiety, and what I was feeling that night was panic attacks because I had nothing to panic about. So how could it be that? Yeah, the logic brain was trying to make sense of what wasn't sensical like.

You just couldn't make sense of it because there was nothing logic in it. Lack of estrogen would just show up in so many different ways. So that's where I would start, Catherine would be, look at those symptoms, look at all your experience. Because they, I got a rupture in my shoulder. So I thought I'd frozen shoulder.

Like there was loads of different things that just didn't seem to match up. Whereas if you've got a tracker in front of you, you might be able to join the doctor. It's like bingo, menopause bingo.

You touch on an important point there. I'm, I'm a huge believer in your community doctor. I really But I'm also, I also do understand that not all doctors are. up to date on menopause. Many of them are doing great work in terms of, you know, they're going, they don't get the training in medical school, they're going there, they're, um, learning outside of, um, their work and all of that, which is fantastic.

But I think right now the demand, the, the, the demand is too high. Just doesn't match the supply of those doctors who have the knowledge. But I think that's why it is important to be informed and understand what your choices are. Because straight off, like you were talking earlier about two pumps, I mean, that would be a lower dose.

So increasing it to three pumps, that would kind of, you know, that would, that would make sense. So it's really kind of. understanding perimenopause through to postmenopause, which is just as important. It's really important to, to have a doctor on board who is with you for the full journey and that it's a collaborative relationship, you know, has to be, has to be.

Has to be, you know, like when, when I came back with that sprain, it didn't work. I felt so let down. I felt angry, frustrated. I was like, she didn't hear me. She did like, you know, I felt that, but I just had to, you know, look at that and go, it's not her fault. She's the general practitioner. I now know that if I'm going to stay with that doctor, I need to do the research and go and tell her she's the keeper of the prescription and the keeper of the drugs.

I just need to go with that treatment and tell her what it is. Uh, you see the other side of it is though Amanda, there's many women who do very well on the spray. So like everything with HRT, it's so individual because you know, some would do great in the patch, some of the gel, some of the spray, et cetera.

So you know, it's, it's, that's, that's where menopause is not straightforward because we all have a very unique, thankfully we're all different and that means that our management options will be different as well. Yeah, so that's why the education regardless of who you're going to as a doctor Understand and your summit Catherine.

I haven't read the book yet. I must get the book Actually, I meant to get out of the summit. The summit for me was just a lifesaver like it turned everything around It was like a ship that was heading for the iceberg just turned around

I'm glad it wasn't the Titanic anyway

Very good analogy. Amanda, thanks. Thanks so much for joining us today. And I know many of my listeners will really enjoy your story. And, you know, thanks for the honesty, because I think it is really important that we keep it real when it comes to menopause. So