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It was with some interest that I read about Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, wanting to make the Houses of Parliament more menopause friendly. Perhaps the fat, middle aged men in grey suits that stalk Parliament had been taking the piss out of people struggling with hot flushes, fatigue, loss of libido and mood swings?

I say ‘people’ with hot flushes, fatigue, loss of libido and mood swings rather than ‘women’, as after working for 7 years in a hospital department dealing with patients’ pain issues, the problem of menopause is definitely not only experienced by females. Lo and behold I discovered after one of the consultants had completed a study on low hormone levels, that hot flushes, fatigue, loss of libido and mood swings happen to men too who have low testosterone levels caused by years of taking opioid pain medication, or medication for prostate cancer, or just plain due to old age.

So when some of those fat cat MPs have one fried breakfast too many and their joints begin to creak, they’ll want to alleviate their pain. As they get fatter and fatter and their joints wear down more, they’ll increase their opioid pain medication and discover to their horror that they’re getting hot flushes, low libido, hair loss, fatigue and mood swings, the very same symptoms they’d been mocking in their female colleagues, who of course were far beneath their own superior level of intelligence. All I can say is… bring on the opioid pain patches…

As for me, after ten years of enduring menopause symptoms but deciding not to take HRT due to the number of middle-aged women I know who have taken it and got breast cancer, I am now happily post-menopausal. Strangely enough I now feel much better than I ever did when I was younger. There is light at the end of the tunnel for all those ‘people’ who are good at enduring.