Menopause - It was this all along

Menopause changes a woman’s body, her sleep, her mind, her face. And yet, it remains one of the least discussed transitions in a woman’s life.In this episode of Menopause: It Was This All Along, Roshini Sanah Jaiswal sits down with Ruchika Mehta, a veteran editor and fashion and lifestyle voice, to talk about experiencing menopause in an industry that has long placed youth, beauty and perfection at the centre of how women are seen.From unexpected weight gain, bloating, puffiness and acidity to body image, ageing and the pressure to keep looking young, Ruchika speaks candidly about the changes she experienced, and the process of learning to accept her body rather than constantly fight it.The conversation also looks at why menopause education needs to extend beyond women themselves. Ruchika shares how openly discussing menopause with her son helped him understand the physical, mental and emotional changes she was experiencing.Roshini and Ruchika also unpack ageism, the fashion industry's obsession with youth, comparison between women, body image, weight training for bone health, HRT and menopause supplements, and the complicated relationship between wellness, longevity and our desire to resist ageing.At the heart of the conversation is a bigger question: What if ageing isn't something to defeat, but something to understand, and live well through?

What really happens to our hormones during perimenopause and menopause, and why does it affect so much more than our periods?In this episode of Menopause: It Was This All Along, Roshini sits down with Dr. Sukhpreet Patel, an HRT specialist, to unpack the hormonal changes that happen during perimenopause and menopause, and what they can mean for women’s health beyond the reproductive years.From estrogen and progesterone to HRT, bone health, cardiovascular health, sleep, mood and sexual health, this conversation looks at menopause as a whole-body transition — not simply the point when periods stop.Dr. Sukhpreet also breaks down some of the biggest questions and misconceptions around hormone therapy: what the evidence actually tells us, how to understand relative versus absolute risk, what the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study really found, and why not all estrogens, progesterones or hormone therapies are the same.The conversation also explores bioidentical hormones, individual risk assessment, shared decision-making, lifestyle, weight, supplements and why there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to menopause or HRT.Most importantly, Dr. Sukhpreet explains why women need to understand their “why” before making decisions about hormone therapy — and why menopause care should be built around the individual woman, her symptoms, her risks and her quality of life.

Sometimes it begins with crippling body pain. Brain fog that makes you fear Alzheimer’s. Exhaustion that no amount of sleep can fix. Symptoms that send women from one specialist to another—without anyone connecting the dots.In this deeply honest conversation, renowned journalist Shoma Chaudhury shares her personal experience of menopause for the very first time. She speaks candidly about years of unexplained pain, memory loss, thyroid issues, fibromyalgia, emotional changes, family, intimacy, and why even someone with access to the best doctors didn’t realise menopause was at the root of it all.

You wake at 3am, soaked. You forget a word mid-sentence in a meeting. You cry at things that never used to touch you. You are 46 and you are wondering whether this is menopause, ageing, or the beginning of dementia.Dr Sarah McKay is an Oxford educated neuroscientist. In this episode she explains what is actually happening.Estrogen regulates the neurons in your hypothalamus that detect body temperature. As your hormones start to fluctuate, that thermostat narrows and becomes hypersensitive. A tiny rise in body temperature now reads as an emergency, and your brain fires the sympathetic nervous system to cool you down. Asleep, you cannot act on it, so your brain wakes you. Do that for months and the rest follows. Fog. Wired and tired.

When menopause is surgically induced, there is no gradual transition. Your estrogen goes to zero overnight. Mahua Moitra describes it as falling off a cliff, and she fell off it eight weeks before fighting a Lok Sabha election."I had lost my house. I had lost my membership to the Lok Sabha. And I had also lost my uterus."On Menopause: It Was this All Along, she gives Roshini Sanah Jaiswal the account she never got from anyone: what surgical menopause actually does. Night sweats soaked her through for months. She didn't sleep properly from January to October. And like many women, she refused HRT at first, convinced she could push through it, until her sister told her to stop acting like she knew everything and get help.They also talk about why menopause has no word in our languages, why it remains a privilege of the rich to even discuss it, and what it would take to reach the women going through this alone. Her message to the 45-year-old listening in fear: you are not alone, and you are not going mad.

Indian women hit menopause 5 to 6 years earlier than Western women. Most have no idea it has already started.Dr. Duru Shah, Director of Gynaecworld - The Center for Women's Health & Fertility, and founder of the PCOS Society of India, with over 40 years in practice has lived through menopause herself. In this episode she gives us the conversation most Indian women never got.What we cover:•⁠ ⁠Why the age gap is genetic, not lifestyle•⁠ ⁠The flawed study that put hormone therapy under a black box warning worldwide•⁠ ⁠What estrogen actually does: brain, bones, heart, skin•⁠ ⁠Why Indian women report joint pain while women abroad report hot flashes•⁠ ⁠What hormone therapy lowers the risk of: dementia, osteoporosis, cardiac disease•⁠ ⁠The HRT window: 50 to 60, started within the first year of menopause•⁠ ⁠Why your annual gynaecology checkup doesn't end after childbirthHosted by Roshini Sanah Jaiswal: @roshinisanahjaiswalFollow us on Instagram: @itwasmenopauseallalongPresented by Justhuman India: @justhumanindiaExpert Guest: Dr. Duru Shah, OBGYN. Email ID: [email protected]

She had access to the best doctors in the country. She still didn't know.Seema Kiran Sajdeh — television personality, fitness advocate, someone who has spent years in the public eye talking about health and wellness — had no idea her body was going through menopause. Not until she shattered her wrist in seven pieces and was told she had borderline osteopenia. Not until her lows became unbearable and she couldn't explain why. Not until she started connecting dots that nobody had ever given her a map for.In this episode, Seema talks about what perimenopause actually felt like from the inside. The acid reflux that came out of nowhere. The running routine that was making things worse, not better. The supplements nobody prescribed but she had to figure out herself. The moment on a turbulent flight where she thought: you're dealing with menopause, surely you can deal with this.This is not a medical episode. It is something more useful than that. It is the conversation most women are having in private, finally said out loud.If you have ever been told your symptoms are stress, age, or imagination — this one is for you.Menopause: It Was This All Along is a podcast about the conversations Indian women deserve to have. Hosted by Roshini Sanah Jaiswal, founder of Justhuman — India's first luxury neurocosmetics brand.