Look at me NOW!

Sue Sykes found that losing over 9st had several surprising benefits 

Asurge of overwhelming heat rose upwards rapidly from my chest, until I felt as if sweat was dripping off my head. And all it had taken to trigger my hot flush was reading an email at work about a tricky situation I needed to tackle as part of my job as a university student placement coordinator. Flustered and embarrassed, I quickly untied my silk neck scarf and pulled off my cardigan, then nipped outside the office, trying to compose myself. Eventually I sneaked back in, hoping nobody had noticed, but I knew it wouldn't be long before the same thing happened all over again. Aged 49, I was experiencing between 15 and 20 of these hot flushes every day, along with night sweats, and I was at my wits' end.

Exhausted from night after night of broken sleep, and racked with anxiety and low mood, I'd endured three months of this before I finally admitted to myself that it was time to do something I'd been dreading bring up the subject of menopause with my GP.

Walking into the surgery, I expected my symptoms could be relieved with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) tablets.

When I stepped onto the scales, though, and 20st flashed up, my doctor shook her head.

'I'm sorry, I can't prescribe you oral HRT at your weight,' she said.

You'll need to lose 5st to be eligible for treatment.' I left her office feeling doubly  down disappointed not to be heading to the chemist with a prescription for HRT, and upset that the reason for that was my weight. I knew something had to change - the problem was, I didn't rate my chances of slimming down. I'd struggled with my weight all my adult life and had tried all sorts of diets. I'd also been to Slimming World, but had just weighed in and never stayed for the support part of the session. A pattern developed where I'd start really well, then leave the group and slip back into my old eating habits.