‘Sex And Menopause? It's Time To Be Honest About It!'

In an extract from her latest book, Andrea McLean shares her experience of post-menopause sex

Andrea, 49, an author and TV presenter, is married to Nick, and she has two kids: Finlay, 17, and Amy, 12. In September 2016, Andrea had a hysterectomy after a long battle with endometriosis, and the op brought on early menopause.

“When I went back to work after my hysterectomy and talked about it publicly, the papers picked up on the story and ‘Woman Has Menopause’ seemed to be, excuse the pun, pretty hot news. I didn’t set out to be a poster girl for all this. It happened by default, because I realised there wasn’t any point pretending I hadn’t had a hysterectomy or wasn’t going through menopause. I could see by the response I got how much of a relief it was to other women that someone was talking about it.

I faced up to the fact that a big part of me was afraid to talk about what I was going through for the same reason other women now confide in me: they don’t want to be seen as ‘old’. Originally, I wasn’t going to speak about it publicly because I didn’t want to be seen as old, either. I still don’t! But I realised it isn’t about age – menopause can happen as early as your thirties and if you’re old then, what hope do any of us have? Talking about ‘stuff’ is what women do best. We share and offload, we laugh and bond over the ridiculous, incredible things our bodies go through. Hearing other people’s experiences is what makes our own bearable. So here goes...

The ‘s’ word