My LGBTQ+ menopause research is finally published!

My research is NOW published online by the Taylor & Francis journal Sexual and Relationships Therapy

You can find it here: How can therapists and other healthcare practitioners best support and validate their queer menopausal clients?

I hope you find it helpful and useful. I want it to be a starting point, a building block for research into this topic and I hope other researchers and activists will run with it.

My overall conclusions

We need proper training of both counsellors and psychotherapists and healthcare and medical staff, both in menopause and in GSRD / LGBTQ+ indentities and lifestyles. LGBTQ+ people already have worse health outcomes, and are less likely to get help from practitioners, because of how they may be treated. Some of what I heard was enraging and heartbreaking.

Menopause is not necessarily terrible - in many ways it can be the opposite - and it can bring powerful change. But until everyone has equal access to education and information about what is going on in their bodies, we need to keep on shouting about it.

>>PEOPLE<< IN MENOPAUSE

If you are writing or doing any media work or activism around menopause, please remember that it is not just cis women who experience it. Let’s get people used to saying ‘people in menopause’, including everyone who experiences it. We’re stronger together.

Systemic prejudice

Menopause is associated with ageing, and therefore ageism. So many people want to distance themselves from the idea of it, even if it is going to affect them personally.

However, at the risk of repeating myself (and I know I am) - perimenopause, the first stage of menopause before menstruation stops, can actually continue for up to 10 years, and can easily start in your 30s! If you have some existing conditions, the oestrogen fluctuations that come with peri menopause can bring a lot of confusion and stress. You need to be informed in advance, so you can be prepared.

Once again, we need proper education on this

Thank you for reading and for your support. We need change. Let’s try and make things better.