So you have decided that it’s time to visit your doctor to discuss the seemingly unrelated mixed bag of symptoms you have been trying to cope with. You might have a sneaking suspicion that these could be related to the menopause but you may never have considered it and are just completely fed up with feeling tired and lifeless, anxious, tense and sleep deprived or hot one minute and chilly the next and sometimes tearful, irritable and unhappy for no particular reason.

Why is it that what seems plainly obvious to me and so many other women and men seems to evade those that have the ability to ensure change?

Every day of every week I counsel women experiencing menopause symptoms and every single day women tell me that they are being incorrectly refused or denied access to treatment due to a lack of GP education in menopause.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Jackie Doyle-Price was recently reported as saying “Women struggle to get their needs met by doctors because the profession is “overwhelmingly male”. But the Minister’s spokesman has told us she is “currently unable to work with you” on the subject of menopause.

Just nine days ago I met the Conservative MP for Redditch (@redditchrachel) in Westminster to express the concerns of so many women who are not able to access the treatment and support they need at #Menopause.

Dear Liz Jones, You might feel that your menopause has made you a superwoman; sadly, your article certainly doesn’t represent the experience of many women in the UK – including my own. Your judgemental commentary disrespects these women and their experiences, as it does for those women plunged into ‘medical menopause’ as the result of treatment for cancer.