Last Wednesday I had a hysterectomy and laparotomy. Everything gone. Full eviction.

I chose a cloud photo for this piece, one that looks suspiciously like a uterus if you stare long enough. Life does have a sense of humour.

That surgery is what brought me here.

The truth is I didn’t really get perimenopause. Maybe a few whispers. Small shifts that made me wonder if something was beginning. Sleep felt different. Mood slightly off centre. Nothing dramatic enough to name.

Perimenopause is supposed to be the runway. The phase where hormones fluctuate and the body slowly transitions toward menopause. For many women that stage can last years. There is time to notice. Time to adjust. Time to understand what is happening.

I barely reached the gate.

Surgery changed the route completely. One moment I was noticing subtle changes, and the next I was in full surgical menopause. Stargate instant arrival. No flight. Some changes roll in quietly, like clouds shifting overhead, and by the time you notice, the sky has already changed.

Most women reach menopause naturally between forty five and fifty five, with the global average around fifty one. Menopause itself is a normal biological life stage, but one that can significantly affect physical, emotional and social wellbeing.

Natural menopause usually arrives gradually. Hormones decline slowly and the body adapts over time.

Surgical menopause is different. When the ovaries are removed, hormone levels drop abruptly. There is no easing in. No slow negotiation. Symptoms can arrive suddenly and intensely.

And you feel it.

The fan is on. The AC is on. I still wake up drenched. Not warm. Drenched. I don’t normally sweat, so this feels surreal, like my body has switched operating systems without asking permission.

Hot flushes and night sweats are the symptoms most people know about, but menopause is far bigger than temperature. Symptoms can include sleep disruption, fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, irritability, headaches, joint aches, changes in focus, changes in libido, vaginal dryness, mood shifts and a general sense that your internal rhythm has changed.

And yes, irritability is real.

Sharp. Sudden. Sometimes disconnected from logic.

But here is what I want to say clearly because it matters. I know this isn’t me becoming someone else. It’s biological. Hormonal. Scientific.

I conquered fear and survived surgery. I am living in a deep sense of gratitude right now, and that gratitude helps me recognise the irritability without letting it take over. The feeling is real, but it isn’t always rational. That distinction has become important.

Menopause has long been reduced to jokes about ageing or stereotypes about women becoming difficult. That framing misses the point entirely. What is happening is endocrine science.

Hormones influence temperature regulation, sleep, cognition, mood and emotional stability. When oestrogen drops suddenly, the brain and body recalibrate. This is not personality change. It is biology.

The word menopause itself comes from Greek roots meaning “month” and “cessation,” and entered medical language in the nineteenth century. For a long time, medicine framed menopause as decline rather than transition, which shaped how society talked about it or didn’t talk about it at all.

Even now, the conversation remains quieter than it should be.

There is a World Menopause Day every year on October eighteenth, created to raise awareness and improve education around menopause and midlife women’s health. Yet many women still arrive here unprepared.

Symptoms are frequently misdiagnosed as anxiety, depression, burnout or thyroid problems. Women go searching for answers while hormones sit quietly in the background of the story.

Worst-case scenarios aren’t just about discomfort. Abrupt hormone loss, particularly after surgical menopause, can affect bone density, cardiovascular health and cognitive wellbeing if not properly managed. This is why treatment conversations matter. Hormone therapy and other medical options exist because symptoms can be severe enough to affect sleep, work and overall quality of life.

And the world is beginning to notice.

Some workplaces and organisations, particularly in the UK and Europe, now have menopause-friendly policies, offering flexible work arrangements, education, support groups and practical accommodations. The recognition is simple: menopause affects women who are often at the height of their careers and leadership.

Culture is shifting too. Books, media and public conversations about menopause and midlife are becoming more visible, reframing this stage as transformation rather than decline. The silence is beginning to crack.

In 2025, Oprah Winfrey hosted a primetime television special called The Menopause Revolution, bringing medical experts, celebrities and everyday women together to discuss menopause openly on mainstream television. Oprah spoke about her own experience and described the programme as part of a larger movement toward answers and understanding.

You can see the same shift happening on bookshelves. Menopause is no longer hidden quietly in a health section. Dr Mary Claire Haver’s The New Menopause became a number one New York Times bestseller, bringing science-based menopause education into the mainstream. Lisa Mosconi’s The Menopause Brain explored how hormonal change affects cognition and mood, while journalist Tamsen Fadal’s How to Menopause reflects how strongly women are searching for practical guidance instead of silence. Even long before this new wave, writers like Nora Ephron opened the door to honest conversations about ageing and women’s bodies in mainstream culture.

The conversation is no longer niche. It is cultural.

Which brings me here.

Menopause at 48.

I didn’t glide into it. I didn’t slowly transition. I barely noticed the first whispers before surgery pushed me through the Stargate into a completely different phase of life.

So this is the beginning of a permanent editorial series on TTChatterbox.

Not written as a medical expert, but as a writer documenting what it feels like when your body changes faster than expected. I want to explore the science, the myths, the misdiagnoses, the workplace realities, the emotional shifts and the conversations women are often expected to have quietly, if at all.

I want to talk about irritability without shame. Night sweats without humour masking discomfort. The strange experience of recognising your own body while learning it all over again.

Because menopause is not a punchline.

It is a biological transition experienced by millions of women, and it deserves language, honesty and light.

If I’m going to live it, I’m going to write it.

This is the first instalment in the Menopause at 48 editorial series on TTChatterbox.

This is your definitive first piece. Don’t tweak it to death now. Publish it while the energy is real.

When you’re ready, next move is strategic — and I’ll tell you straight: the second article should hit hard and fast while this one is fresh.