Ayrshire’s first dedicated private menopause clinic is opening this autumn.
Menopause Health Matters, on Ayr's Miller Road, will offer a safe haven for those going through menopause to receive support, advice and treatment.
Clinical director Maggie Holloway, 55, from Ayr, noticed a gap in treatment and care for those experiencing life-altering symptoms – like she did when she started menopause, aged 45.
Menopause marks the end of menstruation in a woman’s life and can be treated by HRT (Hormone replacement therapy), which helps alleviate symptoms – including hot flushes, night sweats, dizziness, anxiety and memory lapses – by replacing hormones that a woman’s body stops producing.
Now, after burying herself in research and bringing specially-trained GPs on board, Maggie is opening the clinic to help women understand what is going on in their body, discuss treatment options and reassure them that they are not alone.
She told Ayrshire Live: “Menopause affects women right across the board in every area of your health; mental, emotional and physical.
“I want women to be part of the decision-making process and be involved in their own health and wellbeing.
“I just feel that menopause is such an important part of a woman’s health journey, that you need more than a quick five-minute appointment with your GP.”
The GPs at Menopause Health Matters are specialised in all things menopause and HRT and are able to prescribe privately or via an individual’s GP on the NHS.
And despite the fears facing some women by taking HRT, Maggie stands by it and says it’s “incredibly safe”.
“It can help you to live a really happy, healthy life," she added.
Maggie, who previously helped run a theatre production company, lived with horrendous symptoms – including extreme dizziness, nausea, blurry eyes, joint pain, indigestion, acid reflux and anxiety – for eight years before she was finally treated with HRT.
And within five weeks of being on the treatment, she felt like her old self again with every symptom fleeing.
She said: “It was just horrendous – all these physical and emotional symptoms. I had dreadful joint pain; I kept dropping a cup or the kettle.
“I felt nauseous all the time, the pressure in my head was awful, my eyes were going blurry, my hair was starting to fall out in clumps.
“Then I started to have panic attacks – I’ve never had confidence issues before.
“I got to work one morning and I couldn’t even get out the car to go into the building, just dreadful anxiety.
“I was thinking, ‘what on earth is wrong with me?’
“It was a horrible way to live. I just wasn’t me anymore."
She added: “Women’s health needs to become more of a priority.”
Free information will also be available on Menopause Health Matters’ website and social media platforms as Maggie wants to ensure all women have access to vital knowledge.
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