In this episode of On the ’Mones, Kate explores a word many women recognise instantly: difficult.

Recently Australian activist and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame was described publicly as “difficult” after speaking out politically. Whether or not you agree with her views, the label landed because women everywhere know that word — the one that appears when women stop being agreeable.

Kate reflects on her own experience navigating leadership, advocacy and midlife reinvention — including the moment she rage-quit a senior hospital pharmacy leadership role at 45. Was she difficult… or simply done?

Alongside this reflection, Kate answers listener questions from around the world about perimenopause and menopause, including:

• Anxiety, rage and crying at emails in your 40s — hormones or not coping?

• Painful sex and vaginal dryness — is that perimenopause?

• Why weight gain around the middle happens even when diet and exercise haven’t changed

• Falling asleep easily but waking at 3am wired

Kate explains the biology of perimenopause, including how fluctuating estrogen affects neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and GABA — and why life in your 40s can suddenly feel harder than it used to.

She also breaks down a new non-hormonal treatment for menopausal hot flushes, Veoza (fezolinetant) — how it works in the brain, what the evidence shows, and where it fits alongside hormone therapy.

Because menopause doesn’t care what passport you hold.

And sometimes being called difficult simply means you’ve stopped being convenient.

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