25 February 2024 , 12:12
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A woman who was forced into early menopause at the age of 33 after surgery has bravely spoken out about her experience.
Simmone Dunn, 34, a recruitment consultant, had to have a hysterectomy last year due to severe endometriosis and adenomyosis. This put her straight into surgical menopause.
She explained: "I had to have a total hysterectomy last year at 33, due to severe endometriosis and adenomyosis, which put me in to an immediate surgical menopause. Surgical menopause is different to a natural menopause, in the sense that there's no gradual decline in hormone levels - it's immediate.
"It can have a huge impact on someone's mental health as well as physical. I ended up in a really dark place and some days couldn't see a way out. Along with my sister-in-law, Tash, we realised that there wasn't support in our area for early and premature menopause, which is why we started Too Young To Pause, both as an online Facebook forum and in-person meeting.
"Everything was quite generic and targeted at the older community. I just felt out of place with all the info that was out there.
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"We have face-to-face meetings and we have talks and sessions on various topics. Things like nutrition, hormonal health as well as skin and hair care.
"It is definitely not talked about enough. Those people in their 20s and 30s who may be going through it may be having a really difficult and hard time. I really struggled when I was at rock bottom.
"Menopause isn't recognised enough, early menopause even less, so I wanted to start something that made me feel less alone, but also, if it helped one other lady from feeling how I did, it had done it's job."
Simmone has since set up the group 'Too Young To Pause' to support others under 45 going through menopause.