The invisible load JUGGLING KIDS, CAREER & PERIMENOPAUSE

Already contending with the physical and emotional changes that come with approaching menopause, women are also being set up to fail professionally and financially – despite being at the peak of their careers

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Nearly a year into new motherhood, Justine Cox thought she was ready to jump back into some of her old routines. Her breastfeeding journey was coming to an end and, while exhausted and battling monthly bleeding she describes as “haemorrhaging”, she figured that it was just par for the course for a 43-year-old new mum.

Almost immediately, her triumphant return hit a snag.

“My body didn’t want to run,” says the vibrant leadership coach and intrepid traveller. “Before I had Nash, I used to run about five kilometres a day, four to five days a week. It was the weirdest thing — it just didn’t want to run. I tried going to the gym and it didn’t want to do that either.”

Soon after, Justine learned the changes she was experiencing weren't just physical.

“I'd go to the supermarket needing three things and forget all three things — I could go for one thing and forget just the one thing,” she says of the fog that appeared to be engulfing her previously razor-sharp mind.

Things looked similar for Cathrine Mahoney, host of the podcast So, I Quit My Day Job. Sitting in a TV writer’s room, she recalls searching for story ideas when words failed her.

“And you know, it was something as simple as ‘spoon’,” she says of her sudden cognitive decline. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I cannot get my words out.”

Despite increasingly debilitating symptoms, neither woman knew what was causing these sudden changes. But as it turns out, both Justine and Cathrine were in the company of 73 percent of women who don’t realise they’re in perimenopause.

PERPLEXED & PERIMENOPAUSAL