Ulrika Jonsson reveals how to stop your marriage ending in a menodivorce

Last weekend I opened my heart to readers of this paper about the terrible impact the menopause has had on my physical and mental health, and how my husband — from whom I’m now separated — seemed unable to grasp what I was going through, adding to the pressures on our relationship. I’ll admit I was nervous about that piece. I fully expected to be ridiculed for making such a fuss; that mistaking menopausal brain fog and forgetfulness for early onset dementia would be dismissed as an exaggeration made for dramatic affect. And that my upset at feeling my husband didn’t care would be scorned as ‘woe is me!’ complaining. I shouldn’t have worried. Five days on I’m still being inundated with messages from women telling me how they have suffered. Ulrika Jonsson, pictured, said she was nervous about her earlier piece on the menopause but has been inundated with messages from women telling how they have suffered Ulrika Jonsson, pictured, said she was nervous about her earlier piece on the menopause but has been inundated with messages from women telling how they have suffered Most humbling of all have been those from women who said the piece provided the impetus for them to sit down with their partner and tell him: ‘We have to talk about what the menopause is doing to me, and I need you to do more to help me through it.’ Many came from women who considered splitting from their partners because they felt so disconnected from them. ‘He thought the menopause was only about hot flushes and moodiness,’ one told me. She made him read my piece, in which I described the memory problems, anxiety, insomnia and crippling exhaustion that made life hellish. ‘Afterwards, he admitted he had no idea the symptoms could […]

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