Menopause gets pictured as hot flushes – for many people, it’s really about the mood. Why the swings are real, not imagined, and what actually helps.

Most people don’t feel like the age on their birth certificate – until a mirror or a stranger’s assumption reminds them the body’s been quietly disagreeing for years.

A diagnosis doesn’t just tell you what’s wrong – it interrupts the future you were expecting, and that shock deserves to be felt before anything else.