How menopause made York woman forget her name

“I didn’t believe it could be menopause. I thought it should be a brain tumor or dementia.”

The life of Kirsty Dixon changed overnight when she started to feel an intense fog at 49 years old.

Kirsty, from York, one day looked at her screen at work, while suddenly, she did not remember what she was doing.

“I just wondered” what is my name? “, And I didn’t even remember my own name.

“I felt like I was going crazy, I thought it was only me.”

The problems continued when she tried to access support.

“I thought, why don’t people listen to me?”

“I have something really serious, but I can’t listen to anyone.”

Kirsty was informed by a doctor that what she had experienced was part of menopause.

It is estimated that one in three women in the United Kingdom crosses menopause at any time.

Kirsty, a learning and development advisor at the University of York, strives to educate the least known symptoms and the enormous impact they can have on people’s lives.

“Before menopause, I have always been a very sparkling, very social, a little mischievous person,” she said.

“The menopause has arrived and puts a big cloud of thunder above my head.

“I got lost. The number of times my husband said” I want my return from Kirsty “when he cuddled me and I was in floods of tears.”

Kirsty spent the following four years “fighting” because she could not believe that these were menopause symptoms.

Then, during locking, Kirsty found herself to seek menopause for her work.

She came across an article by someone who had experienced the same symptoms as her.

“I had this bulb moment that what I was going through was perfectly normal, I needed to understand it and know what I could do for myself,” she said.

“I went from this constant cloud and to feel useless, to have my trip.”

Now 58 years old, Kirsty leads two support groups for women who experience menopause, including a Nature walking group around York and Acomb pop-up coffee.

They are non -profit and everyone is welcome, whatever their age or sex.

She hopes groups will encourage more people to talk about less known symptoms.

“When you cross it, it can be so alone,” she said.

“You have the impression that it is only you, and you think you are becoming crazy.

“One of the most important things I tell people is to get your support network around you, and it is family, friends and groups like this.”

Sarah Mortimer, 54, came to the group since she started in 2022.

She experienced a rare symptom of self-diagnosed burning mouth syndrome during her menopause, which involves developing blisters in the mouth with a burning sensation.

“It can be really insulating, so finding groups like this is incredible,” she said.

“It makes a huge difference, knowing that there are other people who cross the same garbage as you live.

“It is this strength in the figures, and there is strength in the power to speak of menopause.”

The group is based in York, but people travel from Leeds, Sheffield and Beverley to attend.

Kirsty says that it highlights a continuous problem around the need for more support for people who cross menopause.

“No one else directed a menopause coffee in York, so it was obviously something that was missing.”

She calls for more groups like this so that people do not have to travel so far to get the support they need.

“What I’m going to say now is as a post-menopausal woman, I am the most confident, strongest and creative person.

“If someone told me that you can have your life again, without your menopause experience, in fact, I would say no, because that is what made me the person I am today.

“If I can go through it, I can go through anything.”