Edenderry native bids to raise awareness of early menopause

Edenderry woman Mary McHugh is hoping to make a difference for women by increasing awareness around menopause across Ireland by holding informative meetings.

Mary, who is also known as Mary Menopause, held an event for women in Killeen's Pub in Rhode on Tuesday, June 27 last to educate women about the changes they can expect during the menopause and supports available to them.

“I went through perimenopause when I was 34 years old. I had a medical procedure in August 2018 as my periods were coming two or three times a month,” Mary explained.

Following that Mary had her tubes tied and a procedure to help hold off her period. “I was only 40 at that stage and two years after I had a smear test and I was two years without a period so they put me on HRT.”

“When the results came back they said I was in the menopause and I was 42 years old.”

Then the local woman discovered that she could go to see a menopause specialist and they changed her HRT.

After talking to a friend and being unhappy about the lack of information available to women experiencing early menopause, Mary decided to set about educating women herself. Her daughter helped her to create a TikTok account to inform women of the supports available to them and has received 73,000 views on her videos to date.

Over 100 people attended the recent information event in Rhode and Mary spoke about her struggle with her mental health while on HRT.

Speaking in the Seanad on Wednesday last, Minister Pippa Hackett applauded the work that Mary is doing to raise awareness around menopause care in Ireland.

The Minister said she noted an "outpouring of support and similar stories from the other women in the room, each with their own accounts of the difficulties associated with menopause and for some women these difficulties lasted over a decade. That is no way to live" at the meeting in Rhode.

"Menopause will affect 50% of our population, yet many are suffering in silence. Women have stopped working because of menopause symptoms, women in their 40s, their working lives cut short."

While December marked an important milestone for menopause care in Ireland, with the opening of the first of four publicly funded specialist Menopause Clinics, Minister Hackett said that the rest needed to be rolled out as quickly as possible and that access to specialist advice and proper treatment is essential.

"Women need to know they are not alone, that’s why all of us in that room last Monday night were so grateful to Mary for her courage and her relentless determination to rectify this situation. You are a true champion Mary" the Minister concluded.

Dr Kerry Ann Traynor was a guest speaker at the event and answered questions sent in to Mary by the attendees in advance.

According to Mary, she has been inundated with messages from women asking her to hold events in different counties. “I'm just a girl in the Midlands going through the menopause but I was chatting to women and found that I could talk to them. It's been taboo for too long. There was an RTÉ programme on a few weeks ago but it was just an hour long. We need more.

“Everybody should be educated on what happens to a woman's body and what happens when she's going through the menopause. One of my goals is to help women understand what HRT is available.

Mary feels that cost is a huge factor for women when it comes to HRT as someone have to do without it for a few weeks at a time if they cannot afford it.

“I'm going to keep going with the meetings. My voice is now their voice. I'll go to every community hall in the country until everyone has enough information. People need to learn about bodily changes, weight gain and insomnia. I, for so long thought I was the only woman going through it so young,” Mary concluded.

Mary will also hold a meeting in Tullamore next month with details of the location and date to be confirmed.