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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Gaby Hinsliff

Not just hot flushes: how menopause can destroy mental health

‘I was losing the plot’ … Lauren Chiren, a senior executive, struggled with menopause symptoms in her 40s.
‘I was losing the plot’ … Lauren Chiren, a senior executive, struggled with menopause symptoms in her 40s. Photograph: Handout

At her lowest point, Karen Arthur came within a hair’s breadth of killing herself. Having been signed off from her teaching job with anxiety, which she had not then connected with going through the menopause, the 51-year-old had booked a few days away from home to try to clear her head. A long walk in the country brought her to a spot notorious for suicide attempts.

At that stage, she says, she had not considered how she might kill herself, but she had put her affairs in order for her two daughters, who were away at university. “I did think it would be easier if I wasn’t here. The kids would get the house, the mortgage paid off.”

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