The world of menopause is one that isn’t widely spoken about or covered in mainstream TV. When Davina McCall released Sex, Myths And The Menopause last year, viewers were bowled over with the amount of enlightening information, statistics and stories that made people who have vaginas feel less alone.

Now, McCall is back with another Channel 4 documentary, Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, all about the mental health aspects of experiencing the menopause. As the synopsis states: “Davina explores how menopause can affect the mind as well as the body, with memory loss and brain fog decimating women at work. And the latest on hormone therapy, women and testosterone.”

The documentary – while being an informative one – also gave a voice to lesser-known aspects of the menopause, including the lack of workplace support, with many having to switch to part-time work to accommodate the list of physical symptoms, as well as the fact that many people experience increased levels of depression, not just throughout their menopause, but before it also.  

The perimenopause is the time leading up to your period stopping, and through the documentary survey, we learn that sleeplessness, lack of libido and anxiety are just some of the symptoms that affect people going through the menopause. As McCall outlines in the documentary, though, understanding around the perimenopause is still not at its best. Even a search through the NHS website brings up other related search terms but there’s no existing page about the perimenopause.

As well as this, McCall highlights the fact that over 70% of women surveyed say they’d suffered with brain fog because of the menopause. Speaking about her own journey, McCall recalls the fact that she went through a long period of time where she couldn’t remember names, read autocues and thought she may have to give up presenting.

Since airing, one of the most enlightening stories of the documentary was the focus on breast cancer, HRT medication and medically induced menopause. 

It’s a heartbreaking but very real tale and, as the show outlines, 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year.

Many of these women are of the menopausal age but for others, the cancer diagnosis means that many younger patients can have an induced menopause.

Stacey Owen didn’t give any thought to the menopause until she was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 30. She says: “I felt like I was the only person going through this – I felt very alone, it was very isolating.”

Her medically induced menopause happened at such a young and unexpected age that she often felt disoriented at the diagnosis. She chose to document her treatment with comic illustrations, which show the journey of someone lost in the world and she also found support in Trekstock, the only charity supporting 20s or 30s with and beyond cancer. 

While Stacey’s shared her story via their platform, speaking to McCall in the documentary, she expresses her frustration with the entire situation and the lack of discourse around the topic as a whole.

She says: “I was kind of so annoyed at all women. For the fact that the menopause is so common, it’s everywhere. Yet, when I stepped into the menopause world, there was nothing and I was like ‘Well, what’s everyone else been doing?’

“It’s quite sad really.”

It’s something that McCall agrees with and can only apologise for. It’s the feeling of being “ashamed”, she explains, for many women.

One of the main symptoms that Stacey has lived with because of her menopause is a dry vagina. It’s something that’s impacted her and her relationship and she says “it’s not how I should be at this age”.

But new, pioneering treatments are changing the lives of many for the better. Vaginal estrogen is a form of HRT but is safe for Stacey to use after having breast cancer. It’s a tiny dose of estrogen that goes directly into the vagina and can drastically improve Stacey’s symptoms.

After watching the documentary with its array of different stories, viewers were quick to express their praise for such vital representation:  

The documentary has started to “open people’s eyes”:  

And many who watched it felt like their own experiences were being thoughtfully reflected: 

Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause is available to watch on All4 now.

Images: Channel 4