Anita Powell, 50
“I discovered what perimenopause was when I was probably going through it,” laughs Anita Powell. At 45, she had joint pain and insomnia; people told her she had become “extremely snappy” and at work she found it harder to empathise. “I’m a community worker, I’m supposed to like people!” Among her friends and colleagues, too, she noticed, “conversations were changing. I realised everything was changing: health, relationships, mental health …”