By Natalie Bloomer

Jo Blackwell, 60, from Brixworth in Northamptonshire knows all to well the impact the menopause can have on women who don’t have access to the right support. 

She first experienced symptoms around 12 years ago and says she was ‘totally confused and anxious’.

“I had this feeling all the time that something bad was going to happen, I’d keep ringing my children to check they were okay - I was driving them mad. I went to the GP and they just prescribed antidepressants, that wasn’t what I needed, there was much more to it,” Blackwell says. 

She has now come out the other side and says she can tell other women that ‘it’s going to be ok’ and that the menopause can mark a new beginning rather than the end of something.