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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics

I welcome Kelly Holmes’s honesty about the menopause

Kelly Holmes Menopause
Kelly Holmes
Kelly Holmes has spoken about her struggle with menopause insomnia. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

I’m so grateful to Kelly Holmes for her honesty about menopause insomnia and to the Guardian for some refreshingly candid supporting information (‘It’s not a nice way of living’: Kelly Holmes on her struggle with menopause insomnia, 8 October).

I know I am not alone in being frustrated by what I term the new “menopause orthodoxy” – a preponderance of happy-ending stories, the mantra that women need to “embrace” the menopause, that it is “empowering” and marks a positive new phase in their lives.

I’m glad for women who find it so, but with stories like this outnumbering more nuanced accounts, this orthodoxy piles feelings of inadequacy and even guilt on those who, for all their best efforts and those of health professionals, find their symptoms debilitating. Thank you, Kelly.
Janet Fraser
Twickenham, London

• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

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