Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
“Steph is 47 years old, married with a son who is 18. She is a project manager for a multinational company; her job is stressful and involves a lot of multitasking. Today, she is leading a big presentation to the board which she and her team have been preparing for weeks. She has been working long hours to pull it all together, and drunk more cups of coffee than she can count! This isn’t helped by her night sweats – every night she wakes up, sometimes several times, drenched in sweat. She throws the covers off and opens the window, then half an hour later is freezing and has to get up to close the window again. Her husband has taken to sleeping in the spare room, and has given up asking her if she slept well in the morning because he knows the answer will be no. She is getting hot flushes during the day too. They come over her with no warning and in seconds she feels hot and sweaty. She is horrified at the thought that one might happen in the middle of her presentation, as she feels overwhelmed when they happen and very self-conscious. She knows the (mostly male) board members won’t understand and will think she looks ridiculous – bright red like a tomato, sweating, and forgetting what she was saying mid-sentence.”
“Juliet is 51 years old, she is a single parent to two teenagers, and works for a charity which provides care to people with learning disabilities. She absolutely loves her job and her clients, but recently has found herself struggling. She started waking up in the night hot and sweaty a few months ago. Now she is getting hot flushes during the day too. In addition, her periods have become unpredictable – sometimes light and scanty, but sometimes heavy and flooding, and totally irregular. Last week, her period came on unexpectedly at work and bled through her uniform onto the chair she was sitting on; she was mortified. She’s also experiencing brain fog, frequently forgetting what she went into a room for, and last week she even forgot a colleague’s name. She is absolutely exhausted. When she wakes up at night, she can’t get back to sleep, lying worrying about whether she can carry on like this at work, how she would cope financially if she gave up, and what would happen to her children if this is the start of early dementia.”
Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, then cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could help you. CBT helps you to develop practical ways to manage some of the symptoms of the menopause, and has been shown to help reduce the impact of these symptoms for at least 6 months*. It is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as a treatment option**. CBT looks at how your thoughts, emotions and behaviours impact on each other and how this affects the severity of your symptoms. CBT can be delivered to individuals at the clinic, or to small groups (usually around 6 people), in sessions which last about 1 and a half hours on a weekly basis for 6 weeks via Let's Talk Menopause. Bespoke sessions for specific groups – such as women who are experiencing menopausal symptoms as a result of treatments for breast cancer – are available. Sessions can be face to face or virtual. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking part in a CBT course.
* Mann E et al MENOS1 trial. Lancet Oncology 2012 13 (3),309-318; Ayers B et al MENOS2 trial. Menopause 2012, 19 (7), 749-759; Duijts SFA et al EVA trial. J Clinical Oncology2012, 30 (33), 4124-4133.
** National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Menopause: diagnosis and management, Nov 2015.
“Juliet is 51 years old, she is a single parent to two teenagers, and works for a charity which provides care to people with learning disabilities. She absolutely loves her job and her clients, but recently has found herself struggling. She started waking up in the night hot and sweaty a few months ago. Now she is getting hot flushes during the day too. In addition, her periods have become unpredictable – sometimes light and scanty, but sometimes heavy and flooding, and totally irregular. Last week, her period came on unexpectedly at work and bled through her uniform onto the chair she was sitting on; she was mortified. She’s also experiencing brain fog, frequently forgetting what she went into a room for, and last week she even forgot a colleague’s name. She is absolutely exhausted. When she wakes up at night, she can’t get back to sleep, lying worrying about whether she can carry on like this at work, how she would cope financially if she gave up, and what would happen to her children if this is the start of early dementia.”
Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, then cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could help you. CBT helps you to develop practical ways to manage some of the symptoms of the menopause, and has been shown to help reduce the impact of these symptoms for at least 6 months*. It is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as a treatment option**. CBT looks at how your thoughts, emotions and behaviours impact on each other and how this affects the severity of your symptoms. CBT can be delivered to individuals at the clinic, or to small groups (usually around 6 people), in sessions which last about 1 and a half hours on a weekly basis for 6 weeks via Let's Talk Menopause. Bespoke sessions for specific groups – such as women who are experiencing menopausal symptoms as a result of treatments for breast cancer – are available. Sessions can be face to face or virtual. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking part in a CBT course.
* Mann E et al MENOS1 trial. Lancet Oncology 2012 13 (3),309-318; Ayers B et al MENOS2 trial. Menopause 2012, 19 (7), 749-759; Duijts SFA et al EVA trial. J Clinical Oncology2012, 30 (33), 4124-4133.
** National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Menopause: diagnosis and management, Nov 2015.