Meet Mark

I never expected to become an advocate for menopause awareness, but life has a way of taking you in unexpected directions. I met Bea when she was dynamic, vivacious, and outgoing—living her best life between jobs.

She was on a high, and little did I know that she had left her previous job because of the onset of her perimenopause symptoms. But symptoms started to reappear, and I watched helplessly as things began to unravel. It felt like witnessing a slow-motion car wreck from the outside, powerless to intervene. Her emotional responses seemed disproportionate to situations, and I couldn’t help wondering: is this our new normal?

The turning point came when a doctor diagnosed perimenopause—shocking, given that just weeks earlier, another doctor had categorically ruled it out. This experience opened my eyes to the alarming lack of knowledge and outright misinformation among medical professionals about perimenopause.

Once we started researching, everything clicked into place. We could tick so many boxes. For me, the relief came from finally understanding what to expect and learning to distinguish between genuine issues and hormonal overreactions. It’s not easy—the differences are subtle—but that knowledge changed everything.

When Bea realised she could have known this was coming, she felt shortchanged. That anger became fuel: first, to manage her own symptoms, and second, to ensure other women wouldn’t be blindsided. Too many women think menopause is something that happens “sometime in my 50s,” not realising symptoms can start in their 40s.

That’s why we created The Pause Hub—to forewarn women, their partners, and families about what’s ahead. We’ve found that many partners are very keen for the site to have resources they and their families can use, not just resources suitable for the women concerned.

My advice to partners and families: when something feels like an overreaction, it may well be hormone-related. Listen, offer support, and talk it through rather than just addressing the surface issue.

Recognising perimenopause for what it is takes the sting out of these moments. Remember too that symptoms come and go—they’re attacks with lifetimes, not permanent states. Understanding this together makes all the difference.