your menopause: an online exhibition
"Just plucked this hair out of my eyebrow! WTF!!" (Submitted by Emma)
"This is me with my lovely running buddy, Fran, celebrating our 50th Parkrun this morning. Parkrun combats my anxiety and expanding waistline. It also makes me feel like I can get better at something, rather than worse." (Submitted by Kate)
"This photo represents a feeling of grey not being quite right with lower energy. Finding day to day life harder but in a way that was hard to pinpoint. The blurry window is how my brain feels, foggy, distant nothing sharp. The ‘nothing special’ scene is how it feels when you don’t feel yourself and lacking motivation." (Submitted by Caroline)
"This image sums up my menopause in so many ways for me. The butterfly is, of course, a beautiful creature who has gone through a transition and emerged to enhance the world with its charm and wisdom; the blurred background is a reminder of the time in my life when I was out of control and didn’t know what was happening to me; my hand tells the story of my life - the babies it has held, the broken hearts and souls mended, the successes applauded, hands held, the flowers touched, the work done and still to be done. The photograph was taken on a steam train and the butterfly was trapped inside a window, so when the train slowed I released it and let it fly and be free which reminded me of how I was trapped in perimenopause, but post menopause I am at liberty to be myself and whatever I want to be. The train reminds us that life is a journey, while the steam should be a warming to never cross a menopausal woman!" (Submitted by Rachael)
"This photograph is of a place I go to ‘reset’. I have discovered a love for open water swimming and have noticed when overwhelmed with difficulties and when feeling in a spiral of desperation I can plunge into the cool waters and focus only on my breathing and allow the amazing power of nature to bring me back and be grateful." (Submitted by T)
"This sculpture is called Sanna and stands in the Place de la Comédie in Bordeaux. I was transfixed by it for a long while as I saw in it a woman in a busy, vibrant place surrounded by people and chatter, yet alone in her head and her thoughts and trying to make sense of it all." (Submitted by Anonymous)
"Empty shell is all." (Submitted by Anonymous)
"Empty shell is all." (Submitted by Anonymous)
"This was the scene on Port Eynon beach in 2019 when the BBC Countryfile Diaries team came to film the Gower Bluetit open water swimmers and why their hobby helped them with menopause. It was such an uplifting day." (Submitted by Anonymous)
"On a spectacularly bad week my besties showed up and took me on a walk and this beautiful thing of nature happened." (Submitted by Anonymous)
"A reminder, if ever I needed it, that we live in a man’s world. Everybody knows what biological male genitals look like and how to name the parts. Yet very people know what biological female genitals look like and how to name the parts. Which is part of the reason many women suffer in silence with debilitating genitourinary syndrome of menopause." (Submitted by Anonymous)
"Sometimes this happens. Oops!" (Submitted by Anonymous)
"I shared this into a parenting group 2 years ago with the caption "I'm hot and hormal," I had started HRT patches 6 months prior and couldn't get hold of the make that I had been on so it had sent me backwards, I had been fighting for 6 months prior to that to get something and they were life changing for me. It then took me another year before I was settled again! I'm now a big advocate and tell anyone over about 37 to go and talk about the menopause/ perimenopause!" (Submitted by Ruth Williams)
"My partner and I are 5 years apart in age but at similar stages in our peri/menopause. We have such different symptoms, however! I have hot flushes, she has chills. My libido is playing hide and seek, hers is as keen as ever. I have the aches and pains and anxiety and brain fog, and she just gets tired and sad. The one area we do match, however, is sleep disturbance. It's hard work. I'm awake and up at 5am, she tries to get some top-up hours. We both go to bed by 10pm. Despite all of this, we've got each other. We can talk to each other. We can explain how we're feeling and what we need. I'm so grateful for this aspect of my menopause journey. I'm so grateful I'm going through it with her." (Submitted by Anna Sansom)
"Who put my keys in the fridge? Menopause affected my ability to remember where I put everyday items and sometimes they’d turn up in surprising and amusing places." (Submitted by Heather)
(Submitted by Pamela).
"For me the worst part of perimenopause and Menopause has been battling insomnia. I have taken a photograph after a restless night of no sleep. I have tried to capture the tiredness and the resignation I felt of having to face another day without sleep." (Submitted by Sara Gregory)
‘The bloom is off the rose.’ While I feel less visible - and certainly no longer meet the norms of contemporary beauty - I am liberated, and feel a great sense of possibility.' (Submitted by Trish Crawford)
"Having been on HRT for almost 2 years, a recent diagnosis of early breast cancer means I've had to stop. I have a surgery date for the end of October. This is my very last progesterone." (Submitted by Sarah Clarke)
'When the rain damaged some of the poppies growing in my garden I popped them in a glass as they were so beautiful. The day after this happened, the one on the right previously in full bloom suddenly shed all its petals at once leaving just the bare stem. When I saw it two thoughts came to mind; one was how it looked like an art installation that had been designed and arranged and secondly what a powerful reminder of how surgical menopause made me feel a shadow of my previous self. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the right information prior to or following my surgery and that had a devastating effect on my mental health for a while, but it was that experience that led me to do the campaigning and support work that I do now. It makes me sad and angry that women going rapidly into surgical or medical menopause or premature, early or natural menopause are still not all being given the information that they need to allow them to make informed decisions and this must change. We must be the generation to #makemenopausematter.' (Submitted by Diane Danzebrink)
'Exhausted, uncomfortable, confused and distracted. I left the house drove to work, started walking into my office and someone looked at my feet. I looked down….' (Submitted by Penny)
"Old! Was I really getting old? What did that mean to me? New aches and pains develop.I watch my skin change. A new wrinkle appears. I tell myself it is a laughter line. I get funny looks as a red hot wave engulfs me. Red wine, cream and roast beef encourage these symptoms so are scrubbed from the menu. I put on my positive face. I am beautiful. With age comes wisdom. Just keep a fan handy!" (Submitted by Evelynne Rogers)
"Wonder Woman Group Bolton is a women's group that meets weekly and provides a safe place where women can join in various activities from arts and crafts to projects around women's health and wellbeing...and more. The group recently had a day trip to Chester and wanted to send a group photo rather than individual ones. Most of the women that attended the group are of menopausal age. The photo shows various expressions of how menopause makes them feel. They have a session coming up soon where the topic is menopause as all have varying experiences physically, mentally and through seeing health professionals. The Wonder Woman group is a great support especially with womens shared experiences." (Submitted by WONDER WOMAN GROUP BOLTON)
The above online exhibition features contributions made by the Bolton community and beyond as part of my public-facing part of the ‘Whose Menopause?’ programme. Thanks to everyone who’s submitted their stories and photographs. Four winning photographs were selected by guest judge Dr Zoe Hodson from Manchester Menopause Hive. Each winner received a £30 high street shopping voucher. Winning contributors were notified by World Menopause Week (16 October 2023). Congratulations to all our winners and thank you everyone for sharing your photographs and stories.
You can see the winning entries in the online gallery.