I’m anxious about menopause – Nicola Sturgeon

Scotland’s first minister has revealed she is concerned about how menopause will affect her.

Nicola Sturgeon said she’s in the “reasons” of menopause but was nervous to talk about the “intensely personal” experience.

Speaking to ITV’s Loose Women programme, Ms Sturgeon said she hoped addressing the issue would help combat the stigma surrounding the issue.

She said she thought about how she would handle it given her public role.

Ms Sturgeon said: “I’m quite nervous [talking] also about it. It’s not the kind of thing I instinctively like to talk about – I think because it’s so very personal and there’s still a lot of stigma around it.

Regarding her own experiences, the 51-year-old said: “Of course I’m at the beginning. I was quite concerned about how I’m going to deal with the fallout given the public nature of my job and how it’s going to be.”

She said she knew it was important to use her platform to speak out about her experiences and hoped women in a similar position would benefit from hearing about their experiences.

Ms Sturgeon said she wishes she could go and read about other politicians’ experiences with menopause.

“If I could read Angela Merkel or Hilary Clinton saying, ‘That’s how it was for me and how I dealt with it,’ I think that would help me now.”

She hoped sharing her experiences would help the next generation of women leaders.

Earlier this year, the First Minister spoke about menopause in a podcast.

She told The Shift that there is still “an enormous amount of conjecture” about menopause and that many women are still suffering in silence.

She said she’s already had a conversation with her doctor about hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a symptom-relieving treatment that works by replacing hormones that decrease as women approach menopause.

Ms Sturgeon added that she has not started treatment yet but is part of the generation who grew up thinking that HRT was “a terrible, terrible thing” and that it was a “badge of honor to be without it.” enforce”.

Some women report symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, and mood swings.

She said, “I’ve gotten to a point where I’m definitely getting a little hotter overnight, I can’t sleep and I have the windows open in the middle of winter,” she said.

The First Minister has not experienced any “extreme” symptoms in public or in meetings, but she said she has been thinking about what would happen if, for example, she caught a hot flash in Parliament while she was in the middle of the First Minister’s questions on the legs.

Ms Sturgeon added that she was concerned the speaking out could be used against her in any way.

In the in-depth interview with Loose Women, the First Minister was also asked if she and her husband were still considering foster care.

She said the couple talked about it, but “only scratched the surface,” adding, “It would be a really serious decision.”

“It’s for the future, but it’s something we’ve thought about and talked about, but only at an early stage.”

“You shouldn’t do it to fill a gap in your life – it should be about the young person.

“So I wouldn’t want to do it just because I don’t have kids of my own, only if I really thought I could offer something to a young person.”

Ms Sturgeon added: “Circumstances meant I never had children… and obviously I’ve had a miscarriage and I’ve spoken out about it because there’s also still a lot of stigma, so I think it’s important to have those conversations.” to open .”

The First Minister revealed in 2016 that she had experienced the loss five years earlier when she was Deputy First Minister.

Speaking previously about her loss, she said she hoped it would challenge assumptions as to why she — and other women — don’t have children.

The First Minister was also asked on the show if he was filmed without a mask at a hair salon over the weekend.

She said again that she made a “mistake” and forgot to put it on when she went to the store, saying it was a “mistake for a few seconds”.