6 Approaching menopause has definitely given me motivation'

TV doctor Zoe Williams wants to help more women understand the changes menopause can bring, and make them feel empowered to face them with confidence

- By LAUREN TAYLOR

She may not be experiencing any menopause symptoms yet, but at 45, Dr Zoe Williams is making big changes so she's ready to tackle it head on.

‘As a woman in my mid-40s myself, the time to start preparing for menopause is before it happens,’ says ITV’s This Morning’s resident TV doctor. ‘I think inevitably, I’m in perimenopause. I’m not having symptoms, but I know with certainty that at my age, my oestrogen levels are lower than they used to be. It’s imminent.

‘Even as a doctor, I’ve gone through a stage of not having enough knowledge, being a bit oblivious, and being like “I’ll deal with that when I get to it”, all the way through to almost dreading it and having too much knowledge and [hearing] all the horror stories. Now I’m very much in a place of acceptance that this is going to happen and it’s not all doom and gloom.

‘I think approaching menopause has definitely given me motivation. I feel informed, I feel empowered. But I do also feel that women, many women, are more fearful than they need to be.’

She has seen so many women go through her surgery (as a practising GP) that she is now keen to speak out about the challenges to support other women, especially around the subject of mental health.

‘So many women have come to me with mental-health symptoms which may or may not be as a result of reaching the menopause,’ she says. ‘Symptoms can affect their whole life and it can have a huge strain on their mental health in particular. Relationships are often impacted and sometimes they experience problems at work too. It can be very distressing if you don’t understand what’s happening to you.