Welcome back to Fannying Around... Season 2

This week we're kicking off with a cracker! Our guest is Sarah. She's 52, works in the NHS, raised her son as a single mum and spent years putting everyone else first before deciding it might finally be time to put herself back out there.  

What followed was a journey into the wonderful world of online dating.

And by wonderful, we mean being catfished by a man who claimed to be 5ft 11, receiving more unsolicited photos than anyone could possibly need, navigating married men masquerading as single, and placing a Deliveroo order containing condoms, lube, a loaf of bread and a pint of milk... just to make it look less suspicious.

But beneath the laughter and Tinder horror stories is something much more powerful.

Sarah talks openly about how perimenopause affected her confidence, her anxiety and her sense of self, how HRT helped her feel like herself again, and why she now feels more confident in her 50s than she ever did in her 20s.

This is a story about second chances, friendship, resilience, finding your spark again and proving that life doesn't stop at 50.

So whether you're happily coupled up, newly single, dating, not dating, or simply here for the stories, settle in.

Let's Fanny Around with Sarah!

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So for this final episode of Season One, we're opening the case files.

The Fanny Files.

We're looking back at the biggest themes that kept cropping up again and again. Why so many women struggle to access good information. Why we're all so bloody tired. Why so many of us ignore our bodies until they start shouting. Why women still have to fight to be heard. And how menopause somehow became a marketing opportunity for every supplement company on the planet.

Most importantly, we're asking what we've learned from the women and men who have joined us this season and whether any of us are actually any wiser than we were when we started.

So grab a cuppa, pour a glass of wine, put your feet up and join us as we open The Fanny Files.

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Today we’re fannying around with Melissa and Steve Wall.

Melissa is a Team GB powerlifter, strength coach and all-round force of nature. Steve spent 42 years serving in the Army and somehow found himself becoming not only Melissa’s biggest supporter, but her coach, teammate and partner through menopause too.

What starts as a conversation about hormones quickly becomes something much bigger.

We talk about what menopause really looks like inside a relationship. The mood changes, the confusion, the exhaustion, the identity shifts and the moments where both people can end up wondering what on earth is happening.

Steve speaks honestly about watching the woman he loved change and not understanding why. Melissa talks about navigating perimenopause while training, working, competing and trying to hold everything together.

There are conversations about strength, ageing, HRT, lifting weights, protecting your energy and why getting older doesn’t have to mean becoming less.

Mostly though, this is about doing it together.

Because menopause might happen to one person, but it affects relationships, families and everyone around us.

Also featured: Tesco trolley incidents, "fanny magnets", Army life and why every woman deserves a Steve.

Right then.

Let’s fanny around with Melissa and Steve

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Midlife, Anorexia and Learning to Listen to Your Body

This week on Fannying Around, we are joined by Marina, a 50-year-old mum and businesswoman living in Jávea, Spain. Marina's story explores body image, hormones, burnout, nourishment and what it really means to reconnect with yourself.

Marina speaks openly about growing up around restriction, developing anorexia as a teenager, using alcohol to cope, becoming a mother, and the long journey back to feeling safe and comfortable in her own body.

The conversation moves through perimenopause, exhaustion, brain fog, stress, weight changes, fasting culture, nutrition, alcohol, hormone health and the moment Marina realised her body wasn’t failing her at all… it was trying to protect her.

Katy also explains why so many women feel disconnected from their bodies in midlife, how hormone changes affect everything from cortisol to energy levels, and why listening to your body might be the most important thing we’re never taught to do.

This episode is honest, emotional, funny in places, and full of the kinds of conversations women rarely have out loud.

Topics include:
• Perimenopause and hormone changes
• Anorexia and body image
• Alcohol and coping mechanisms
• Brain fog and burnout
• Nutrition and fasting culture
• Motherhood and identity
• Learning to trust your body again

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Jodie is 41, works in a secondary school with teenagers… and is tired.

Not just end-of-the-week tired.
Not just “I need an early night” tired.
The kind of tired that’s been quietly building for years.

After heavy periods from her teens, 20 years on the pill, a difficult experience with the copper coil, and managing an underactive thyroid, Jodie has always just got on with it.

Because that’s what we do, isn’t it?

But recently something shifted.
The overwhelm felt bigger.
The anxiety crept in.
Things that used to feel manageable suddenly… weren’t.

So she asked the question so many women find themselves asking in their 40s:
Is this just life… or is this perimenopause?

In this episode, we talk about what happens when you’ve spent years adapting to how you feel, and then something changes.
We get into “normal” blood tests that don’t tell the full story, starting HRT without really knowing what to expect, and that strange in-between phase where you don’t quite feel like yourself… but can’t quite explain why.

We also talk about being happily single, making peace with not having children, and what it actually looks like to start putting yourself first.

This one will resonate with so many of you.

Episode 6. Out now. 🎧

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Michael is an American author now living in Alicante, who left the US during the first Trump administration with her young daughter, built a new life in Spain, and is now figuring out empty nest life while writing books in the mountains surrounded by dogs, which, if we’re honest, sounds pretty bloody perfect.

But before that came years of awful periods, relentless bleeding, a brutal struggle to get proper healthcare in the US, and eventually a hysterectomy that felt less like a choice and more like the only way out.

We talk about what it means to try and get help in a system that makes women fight for every answer, the huge contrast between having agency in some parts of your life and absolutely none in others, and how hormones, healthcare, motherhood and politics can all collide in one woman’s story.

We also get into Michael becoming a mum through donor conception, the very practical business of choosing sperm from what is essentially a catalogue, and why she knew she wanted a child even if she did not particularly want a man.

Honestly, this episode has got everything.

Periods. Politics. Hysterectomies. Empty nesting. Spain. Dogs...Lots of dogs! 😍 🐶

And underneath all of that, a really powerful conversation about choice, bodily autonomy, and what happens when women are forced to become their own best advocate.

Right then.

Let’s fanny around with Michael.

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Is It Perimenopause… or Do I Just Hate Everyone?

In this episode of Fannying Around, we chat with Katie — global events boss, mum of three, and a woman juggling a big career, teenagers, school runs and the creeping suspicion that something hormonal might be going on.

Katie is almost 42 and loving life… most of the time. But like many women entering perimenopause, she’s started noticing some strange shifts. One minute everything feels overwhelming and everyone is annoying. The next minute she’s fine again. Sound familiar?

We talk about the slow creep of perimenopause symptoms, mood swings, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and why so many women don’t recognise what’s happening until they’re already deep in it.

Katie shares how she’s approaching midlife with a positive mindset, from taking small “micro moments” for herself (sometimes hiding in the car for five minutes of peace) to learning how to say no without guilt.

Along the way we also discuss:

•  Why perimenopause often starts earlier than we think 
•  How symptoms can creep in quietly 
•  Why women are often misdiagnosed with anxiety or depression 
•  The importance of understanding your hormones 
•  Practical ways to look after your body and mind during midlife 

This is an honest, funny and reassuring conversation about navigating perimenopause while still living a very full life.

Because menopause isn’t the end of anything — it’s just another chapter.

And sometimes… yes… it might explain why everyone is suddenly so annoying!

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

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Rachel was the woman who didn’t have time for menopause.

International marketing director, travelling the world, running a side hustle, and somehow still finding time to compete in ballroom dancing. Life was busy, exciting and very full.

So when the early signs of menopause crept in, Rachel did what many high-achieving women do — she powered through it.

She was wary of HRT, decided to go the “natural” route, and told herself she’d just get on with it.

Then life changed overnight.

Rachel suddenly lost her father, and grief collided with everything else already going on in her body. Headaches worsened, weight crept on, confidence dipped, and the energy she once had, both for work and the dance floor started to disappear.

The turning point didn’t come from a doctor. It came from a coffee with a friend who gently told her something she hadn’t quite admitted to herself yet:

“You’re not yourself anymore.”

In this episode Rachel talks honestly about career pressure, grief, weight gain, body confidence and the strange moment when the life you’ve carefully built suddenly feels harder to navigate.

And we also tackle a question many women quietly wonder about…

When does menopause actually end?

(Spoiler alert: it doesn’t exactly work like that.)

A candid conversation about pushing through, asking for help, and rediscovering confidence when your body and life, change at the same time.

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Horrendous hormonal headaches everyday since her 20s. Doctors. neurologists and rheumatologists… Finally a gynaecologist.

Lisa’s story is what happens when you go in search of HRT….and get a stage 3 cancer diagnosis.

Fu*k a 🦆

Lisa’s story is one of clarity and courage and what happens when you don’t take any shit, arm yourself with the right info and ruddy well hope for the best! 🤞🏻

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Our very first episode! This week we’re fannying around with Taz, whose story doesn’t begin with menopause… it begins with puberty.

From the very start, Taz felt like something wasn’t quite right. What followed was years of hormone sensitivity, misdiagnosed mental health struggles, PMDD, fertility challenges, and a long, complicated journey with HRT that ultimately led to her making the huge decision to have a hysterectomy in her late 30s.

"I always thought I was just a bit bonkers!" 

It’s funny in places, brutal in others, and painfully relatable for anyone who’s ever felt dismissed, misunderstood, or like they were “just downright crackers!”.

We talk libido, diagnosis, treatment roulette, radical decisions, and what happens when you finally say: enough.

Let's Fanny Around with Taz then!

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