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Hello and welcome to the conversation from the BBC World Service,
the show which puts women in the spotlight and allows us to hear the most incredible stories and insights from all around the world.
I'm Dashiani Navanaiga.
Menopause and the associated symptoms that come with it often affect women at a time in their lives when work,
family and caring responsibilities are at their peak.
For those in the workplace, discussing this can still feel taboo,
with many choosing to suffer in silence or leave work altogether.
Today I'm speaking to two women about this important topic.
Grace Malloy is a registered nurse and CEO of Menopause Friendly Australia and in the studio with me is Madhu Kapoor,
who resigned from her job in the British government department where she'd worked for over two decades when she went through perimenopause.
She went on to found M for menopause.
Grace, Madhu, welcome to the conversation.
Thank you.
Hi Dashie.
Grace, let's start with you.
When did you first hear about menopause?
So for me it was quite a shock to hear about menopause in my 30s because
as you just said I'm a registered nurse so I did a nursing degree in midlife and my father was an obstetrician and my mum was a midwife.
So when I first learned about perimenopause it was in my late 30s when I was exploring how to stay healthy after having children and what would be the best way to set myself up for a healthier midlife and decided to talk to some of my friends about this and we discovered something called perimenopause.