Menopause hits women in different ways - but for Amanda Fuller it had an unfortunate effect. Amanda first began to experience symptoms when she was 48 and in the middle of a traumatic breakup. “I didn’t know what I was going through was actually the menopause,” she says.
“I didn’t have some of the most well-known symptoms like hot flushes or dryness, so I thought I was just having a bad few months. I felt very angry, but I was going through a stressful time. I’ve never been a crier, but I started crying at everything. When my partner left, I was in the depths of despair and very emotional. My mood was just so up and down. The doctor put me on an antidepressant but I knew I wasn’t depressed.
“I knew there was something else going on. It wasn’t until I watched Davina McCall’s TV programme that I realised I was actually going through menopause.”. The moment of realisation gave Amanda, from Portsmouth, a new sense of resolve, and despite being single, was determined to revive her libido. “I saw the programme over the weekend, and I marched straight to the doctor on Monday morning to ask for help”, says Amanda. “They put me on HRT, and I started to feel better in about four days. I wasn’t so anxious, and I certainly wasn’t so angry. However, my libido was gone.
“I had always loved sex, but now I felt completely dead from the eyebrows down. I thought it was the antidepressant that had killed my libido, or the heart-break I was experiencing when my ex left me. But in hindsight, my interest in sex was gone years before. I became a needy, empty shell of a person. It was a perfect storm – menopause, coronavirus lockdown and a relationship breakdown.”.
