Perimenopause Better Come Correct!
There comes a point in a woman's life when she looks at her hormones, her inbox, her bank balance and the people testing her patience and thinks, "One of us is going to have to change and I have already changed enough!"
Welcome to the Menopause Fight Club Challenge, where the hot flushes are uninvited, the brain fog has misplaced the agenda and your patience has apparently taken early retirement without consulting HR.
Remember puberty?
We survived the spots, the mood swings and the mystery of our changing bodies. Then came decades of periods, careers, relationships, responsibilities and keeping everybody else's world turning. Now perimenopause arrives without an invitation, a timetable or the courtesy of explaining exactly what it's doing!
The irony?
Just when you have finally developed the confidence to speak your mind, set boundaries and stop apologising for taking up space, your hormones decide to start their own revolution.
Suddenly, the duvet is too hot, the office is too cold and you have walked into the kitchen three times without remembering why.
The real plot twist?
Your body is changing the conversation and it is time somebody listened.
For Black and South Asian women navigating careers, businesses and family responsibilities, there is another consideration. When you have spent years establishing your competence in environments where it may already be questioned, admitting that you're struggling can feel professionally risky. Yet needing flexibility, understanding or medical support doesn't diminish your capability. It challenges the expectation that capable women should manage everything silently.
A 2023 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, involving more than 4,000 women aged 45–60, found that menopause symptoms were associated with missed workdays and adverse work outcomes. Researchers estimated approximately $1.8 billion in annual lost work time in the United States.
That is a considerable price for something workplaces still too often treat as a private inconvenience. Perhaps the real issue is not that women are becoming less patient. It is that they are becoming less willing to tolerate arrangements that were never particularly reasonable in the first place.
Your Menopause Fight Club Challenge
This week's assignment: Become your own hormone detective!
For seven days, make a quick note of your sleep, energy, concentration and any symptoms that interrupt your day. Notice when things feel manageable and when they don't. Symptoms vary and not every difficult day is caused by perimenopause, but recognising patterns can help you identify what needs attention.
Then choose one practical adjustment. Protect your lunch break, reconsider an exhausting commitment, discuss workplace flexibility or speak to a healthcare professional if symptoms are affecting your wellbeing.
The objective is not to diagnose yourself. It is to recognise patterns, understand your changing needs and stop treating exhaustion as a personal failure.
Remember, ladies. We survived puberty without a manual, periods without enough pockets and payroll without enough zeros. Perimenopause may have entered the ring, but nobody told her she was getting the championship belt!
Over To The Fight Club!
What is the one thing you have stopped tolerating since perimenopause entered the chat? Unnecessary drama? Being everyone's emergency contact? Meetings that could have been emails?
Give us a LIKE if you have earned your menopause survival badge, COMMENT with your funniest experience or most useful survival strategy and SHARE with a sister who needs a laugh and a reminder that she's not fighting this round alone.
The hormones may be changing the rules, but we are still running the show. Gloves on, boundaries up, ladies!
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