Toni Street & mum Wendy MENOPAUSE You don't have to suffer in silence'

Having both experienced symptoms in their thirties, the beloved broadcaster shares how their journeys - although decades apart - came with confusion and suffering. But in true Toni style, she embraced the change, and has even launched a new business to empower herself and others.

- SOPHIE NEVILLE

For many women in their thirties, menopause feels like a distant concern - something to think about much later, after careers, kids and the daily juggle of life settle down. But for broadcaster Toni Street, the reality came sooner than expected.

Three years ago, at just 38, the busy mum of three began noticing a host of worrying symptoms: painful joints, irritability, insomnia and brain fog. Her upbeat approach to life was slipping and at times, she struggled to recall even the most basic of information.

“It was quite confronting, actually,” she recalls. “I just didn’t feel like myself. I was irritable, exhausted and didn’t feel as optimistic as usual. I was quite unmotivated.”

While she didn’t know it at the time, these symptoms were almost identical to those experienced by her mum Wendy 25 years earlier. While both women entered perimenopause in their thirties, their stories are vastly different. Toni received a swift diagnosis and treatment, whereas Wendy, 65, was left to deal with it on her own, in a time when menopause stigma was rife. Their journeys highlight just how far we’ve come - and how far we still have to go - in supporting women through this pivotal stage of life.

“Mum was expected just to get on with it on her own, whereas I knew really early that I didn’t need to put up with it,” says the Coast breakfast radio host. “I’m incredibly grateful I was able to access help straightaway because there are still a lot of women out there who are suffering in silence or not being heard.”

Toni and Wendy are speaking to