TONIA ANTONIAZZI MP
  • Home
  • About Tonia
    • In Parliament
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Speeches
    • PubAid
    • Newsletter
  • How I Can Help
    • Get in touch
    • Advice Surgeries
    • Wider Support
    • Office Conduct

Menopause Bill

29/10/2021

 
Picture
On Friday, the Menopause Bill was debated in Parliament and some huge steps forward were made. I had a speech prepared but I didn't get chance to make it. Instead, I have written it here:
 I’d like to thank my honourable friend for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris MP) for bringing forward this Bill, and opening up a subject that for far too long has been taboo.  Around 13 million women in the UK are currently peri and post menopausal, and the fact that we are only just starting to talk about it openly is quite frankly unbelievable. 
​
This “hormonal turbulence” as Mariella Frostrup called it in an article this weekend, affects half the world’s population, but we are in a position where there is much misconception and misinformation about how it affects women both physically and psychologically.   Symptoms that women face aren’t just limited to hot flushes and mood swings, but that is what most people associate with it.  It’s much more complicated than that with a huge array of issues connected. 

I haven’t been feeling too great recently, but we always put our tiredness or sweatiness down to other factors, busy life and job and one of the ways I cope with it all, is to try and factor it into my day, knowing I have an early morning or a late night, making sure that my alarm is set even earlier, that I have remembered to put on my eye cream and that I have the appropriate clothing for a long day. Having to deal with the physical symptoms of the menopause, I can at least try to manage but the emotional side of it can really hit you like a ten tonne bus at any time. That’s the ‘hormonal turbulence’ which is so hard to deal with.

In the summer of 2020 after a number of tests and conversations with the GP I started HRT, it did take away some of the symptoms but it also gave me others which weren’t welcome either. This is a journey, HRT may or may not be what you need but we do need to work our way through it and have the information, the conversations with the medical profession and a way forward.

What worries me is that the brain fog can be really embarrassing, it takes away your confidence to speak up when as an MP, you are needed to do just that. I have to scribble notes, write down names and make light of the situation when I can’t remember a name or a word for the most simple of things. I do worry about dementia too, like many women I worry when the brain fog hits. My father’s sisters all had a form of dementia, and I know I follow in my father’s family line, so I am very keen to know the work going on in research to link the menopause with dementia. Alzheimer’s Research UK estimate that 61% of people living with dementia are women, this can’t be any coincidence.

It is such an emotional day today, my honourable friend for Leicester West has really brought home to me the journey we are all on, having just turned 50 this month, I am a great believer that 50 is the new 21, we just need to talk about the menopause more and get the help and support that all women need. When I got dressed this morning, I took out a piece of jewellery that my fellow menopausal friends and former teaching colleagues had bought for my birthday, a necklace which is called Warrior from a wonderful woman called Gill Clement in Mumbles.  I felt it appropriate for my friends and for all us menopause warriors to wear it today in the chamber.

And I fully support my honourable friends call for Hormone Replacement Therapy to be free to women in England.  As a resident in Wales my treatment will be provided free of charge thanks to the policies of the Welsh Labour Government, and I would strongly urge colleagues on the Government benches to make sure that once again it isn’t women who feel the brunt of their policies. 

Menopause typically happens between 47 and 53 years old, as happened for me.  But it can also hit at any time, and often with devastating consequences for younger women.  Around 5% of the population are affected by natural early menopause, before the age of 45.  Much better understanding of the symptoms of menopause is needed from doctors and other health professionals to make sure that these younger women are also supported through what could see the end of their hopes of getting pregnant and could lead to lifelong physical and mental health issues.   At this point I’d like to recognise the work that the Daisy Network do in supporting young women who go through early menopause for whatever reason.  They are a volunteer network and provide support and information as well as raising awareness of the condition among GPs.

 I’d also like to pay tribute to the wonderful women that work for me, for the tears that were shed in the preparation of this speech and for the determination to not let the menopause get the better of us all.

This is such an important issue for women and for society as a whole, and as my honourable friend has already said the menopause revolution is here and we’re ready to fight.  

Comments are closed.

    News Archive

    January 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Animals
    APPG's
    Armed Forces
    Assisted Dying
    Asylum Seekers And Refugees
    Banks
    BBC
    Cancer
    Charity
    Christmas
    Christmas Hamper Campaign
    Climate Change & The Environment
    Committees
    Cost Of Living
    Crime
    Culture
    Development
    Devolved Matters
    Education
    Employment
    Endometriosis
    Energy
    Energy Bills
    Equality
    EU
    Family
    Gorseinon
    Guide Dogs
    Health
    High Street
    International
    IWD
    Macmillan
    Medical Cannabis
    Mental Health
    Money
    Northern Ireland
    Parliament
    Pension Credit
    Retail
    Save Our Cash
    Sharing Table
    Shoplifting
    Speeches
    Sport
    Surfers Against Sewage
    Trade Unions
    Trophy Hunting
    Universal Credit
    Veterans
    Weekly Update
    Westminster Hall
    Women

Privacy policy
Promoted by David Evans on behalf of the Labour Party, 20 Rushworth Street, London SE1 0SS
  • Home
  • About Tonia
    • In Parliament
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Speeches
    • PubAid
    • Newsletter
  • How I Can Help
    • Get in touch
    • Advice Surgeries
    • Wider Support
    • Office Conduct