Join me this time as we chat to Dr Zoe Schaedel: Zoe is a GP and an accredited British Menopause Society Menopause Specialist.  She is currently a member of the British Menopause Society’s Medical Advisory Council, the Primary Care Women Health Foundation’s Education Committee and NHS England’s Menopause Improvement Programme Clinical Reference Group. She has developed a special interest in sleep and sits on the British Sleep Society Education Committee, is the co-founder of The Good Sleep Clinic, and has published articles on Menopause in The Lancet and Post Reproductive Health.

What a great, informative episode this is: did you know that sleep disturbances are one of the most common symptoms of the perimenopause? 40-60% of women report difficulties staying asleep, and waking more during the night! 

We’ll cover:

You can find Zoe at https://goodsleep.clinic/ and www.mylahealth.co.uk and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/zoemenopausedr/ 

The CBTi based sleep apps we discuss in this episode are Sleepio and Sleep Station.

You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

In this episode I chat to Tracy Acock, founder of The Wellbeing Wisdom Club. Tracy retired from a career in breast cancer nursing and retrained as a women’s life coach with a focus on health and wellbeing. Whilst maybe not an obvious career pivot, she uses many of the same tools to work with her coaching clients - such as mindfulness, meditation and EFT (emotional freedom technique, or tapping).

We cover such a wide range of topics including:

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

This time on the podcast I’m joined by Victoria Hardy (otherwise known as @GingeUnhinged on Instagram) as she talks us through her experience of medical and surgical menopause aged just 33, the breakdown that followed, and how she has used her experiences to help others going through the same situation feel less alone. 

She has now gone one further and written a book ‘My Menopause, My Journal, My Rules’ to be the friendly guide and confidante that she would so dearly have loved 7 years ago…  

We cover:

You can find Victoria on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ginge_unhinged and the book is now available to preorder from gingeunhinged.com 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

This time we go all in on testosterone with Dr Katie Barber.

Katie is the Clinical Lead for the NHS Community Gynaecology Service in Oxfordshire where she continues to work as a Women’s Health GP and Menopause Specialist alongside her work as Clinical Director of Oxford Menopause. She’s also part of the British Menopause Society Advisory Council.

We do a deep dive on everything you might want to know about testosterone including: 

You can find Katie at https://www.oxfordmenopause.com/ and on Instagram @oxfordmenopause 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

In this episode of the podcast I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author Kirsten Miller to talk about her debut adult novel The Change – described on her website as “Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp feminist revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.” 

Kirsten spent twenty-five years as a strategist in the ad industry – an experience that inspired several memorable scenes in the book as we flash back through protagonist Harriett’s career and the events that have led her to develop some rather unorthodox new hobbies that are ruffling the feathers of Mattauk’s residents. She is soon joined by Jo, whose perimenopausal rages manifest in unexpected ways, and Nessa, who hears the voices of the dead girls who bring the trio together, sending them on the dramatic hunt for answers that puts them at odds with the powerful men of Mattauk. 

Power is the thread that runs through this book, from the new-found powers the women are learning to channel, and to live with, to the traditional male power that takes what it feels entitled to (and fully expects to get away with whatever damage it causes as it does so). 

As Kirsten points out during our interview, Gen X - the cohort of us that are now coming into our menopausal years - are the most powerful generation of women in the history of the world. We are in uncharted territory, and only really learning the full extent of that power, and how we pass it on to younger generations. As a consequence, there are many places where this has led to a backlash that will try to squash and push back those hard-won rights and powers. 

We talk too about shame, and how we absolutely need to be embracing conversations about our bodies without shame – Kirsten contrasts the experiences of her own teenage daughter’s generation, so much more fearless and so unwilling to put up with stigma around topics like menstruation. She likens perimenopause to “a wave you have to ride” – which I absolutely love. We also touch on the topic of rage: perhaps, Kirsten suggests, there are very good reasons for us to be angry, and instead of ‘treating’ the symptom, instead we need to channel and focus that anger, harness it and feel its power. 

Find out more about The Change at https://www.kirstenmillerbooks.com/

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

This time I’m joined by Steph Douglas, CEO and founder of Don’t Buy Her Flowers. I’ve been following Steph online since the early days of her blog, and then watching DBHF go from strength to strength, so was really excited to sit down with her and talk to her not just about building a business, but a whole raft of other topics. 

I’m always intrigued to hear about how people launch and grow a company: DBHF launched in 2014 with three packages for new mums, but really ‘went viral’ when Sarah Turner from The Unmumsy Mum mentioned the business to her followers. The small matter of the Covid pandemic landing in all our lives right before Mothers Day in 2020 was another enormous turning point for the business, and we discuss what it was like navigating that alongside parenting three small children (remember those heady days of ‘homeschooling’ - shudder…).

We also touch on:

Don't Buy Her Flowers is at https://www.dontbuyherflowers.com/  and you can also find Steph at https://www.instagram.com/steph_dontbuyherflowers/ where she presents her wonderfully unvarnished take on parenting three kids and juggling that with running her business with a big dollop of humour…

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Join me this time as I chat to lovely Charlotte Ellison (aka ‘Moodswings and Other Things’ on Instagram) about the hormonal roller coaster we call perimenopause! 

Charlotte (Lotti on Insta) has been assiduously documenting the physical and mental challenges of perimenopause and her mixture of vulnerability, humour, honesty and a nifty turn of phrase has won her a dedicated following over there. An introvert in ‘offline world’ Charlotte talks about using Stories almost as a sounding board…

We also talk about:

You can find Charlotte over at https://www.instagram.com/moodswings_and_otherthings

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Join me this time as I chat to Caroline Nokes, MP. Caroline is the Member of Parliament for Romsey and Southampton North and the current Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee in Parliament.

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Join me this week as I talk to writer and filmmaker Kate Muir. Kate’s book - Everything you need to know about the Menopause (but were too afraid to ask) has recently been released in paperback. She is also the producer of the Channel 4 documentaries with Davina McCall: ‘Sex, Myths and the Menopause’ and ‘Sex, Mind and the Menopause’ (with another instalment due for release later in 2023). 

Kate and I are both ‘daughters of Alzheimers’ (Kate’s mother passed away from this cruel disease and my own mother is now in the later stages) and we kick off by discussing some of the research into the impacts of HRT on Alzheimer’s risk and cognitive decline. 

Kate is a vocal proponent for HRT and we delve deep into Kate’s own experience (which included taking 5 years to get her HRT settled and stable), the various health benefits that HRT can confer, the different HRT types (including progestins vs progesterone), and the ongoing struggles of accessing appropriate treatment on the NHS. 

We talk - of course, how could we not! - about the Channel 4 documentaries, which were turned down twice “because menopause is boring and for old women” before being commissioned by Dorothy Byrne as her final project before stepping down as Head of Current Affairs. Since the first programme aired, half a million more women are now taking HRT - often dubbed the ‘Davina Effect’ - but despite (or perhaps related to) this increased awareness and uptake, there continue to be HRT shortages. 

Kate is currently working on two new books - one looking at the contraceptive pill and how this impacts on our brains, and another which looks at midlife and how we can age well. 

You can find Kate at https://katemuir.co.uk/ (including links to the book), on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/menoscandal/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/MenoScandal 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

If you're currently going through divorce, or considering it - this episode is for you.

Farhana Shahzady is a Director, Family Law Solicitor, Collaborative Lawyer and Mediator at Family Law Partners. She is ranked in Legal 500 and has practiced for over 20 years specialising in divorce, finances and children. In 2022, Farhana founded the Family Law Menopause Project, with the aim of raising awareness amongst the family law community of the significant impact of menopause on many women so that family lawyers can ensure that their client care and advice is attuned and reflective of this important issue which affects so many women and families.

According to the research conducted by the Family Law Menopause Project and Newson Health Research and Education in 2022, 7 in 10 women (73%) who took part in the survey blamed the menopause for the breakdown of their marriage with a further 67% of the 1,000 women taking part worryingly claiming it increased domestic abuse and arguments. Unsurprisingly, 80% said that perimenopause had placed strain on their children and family life. 

In this episode we cover:

You can read more about the research we talk about in the interview at https://www.nhmenopausesociety.org/menopause-puts-final-nail-in-marriage-coffin/

You can also find Farhana’s practice at www.familylawpartners.co.uk and the Family Law Menopause Project is on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/lawmenopause 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/