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Welcome to Generation Exceptional, the podcast for Gen X women navigating midlife like pros! Hosted by Bev Thorogood, a late-diagnosed ADHD entrepreneur who knows a thing or two about embracing life's twists and turns, this podcast is your go-to source for stories, teachings, and conversations covering everything from career transitions and business ventures to managing ADHD, health, wealth, and overall wellbeing. Join Bev and her guests as they share their experiences, insights, and lessons learned along the way in a relaxed, conversational format. Whether you're looking for inspiration to kickstart a new career path, strategies to manage ADHD, or tips for finding balance in midlife, Generation Exceptional has something for every Gen X woman. Tune in for a mix of solo episodes with Bev and engaging discussions with special guests who bring their own unique perspectives to the table. Get ready to feel empowered, inspired, and ready to conquer midlife like the exceptional woman yo...
Episodes
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
Ep 89 - MenoChat No 5 with Lea Campbell
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
In this MenoChat I'm joined by Lea Campbell who is another lovely member of my Facebook Community, Your Best Midlife.
Lea and I chat about some of the positive elements that sometimes get overlooked when we focus on the menopause. Even having been hit by some of the many disruptive symptoms of menopause, Lea proves that there is another side to this journey. One where we get to step out of the old and into new, exciting and sometimes scary new adventures.
One of those new adventures included putting herself out there and joining a writing course, which led to Lea becoming a published author.
She's the co-author of the recently released book 'Beautifully Broken' - a compilation of stories written by 16 heart-led women, sharing their inspirational stories of working through tough times and the resilience they found to come out the other side having made peace with their past. You can grab your copy HERE and if you're a Kindle Unlimited subscriber you can get the book for free right now, or just 99p for non-subscribers.
Story sharing is an important part of how we can figure out what the right way forward is for us as we navigate menopause. There's no one size fits all, and often hearing other people's experiences allows us the chance to take a different perspective.
So I'd love to invite all the women listening to come and join our amazing community in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook where you'll find over 1000 women sharing experiences, cheering each other on and building each other up so we can all thrive through midlife and beyond.
Saturday Oct 22, 2022
Ep 88 - MenoChat No 4 with Ruth Jones
Saturday Oct 22, 2022
Saturday Oct 22, 2022
There are some symptoms related to perimenopause that we just don’t like to talk about. Let’s face it, it’s personal and embarrassing.
But maybe we should. Maybe it’s time to take any embarrassment and shame away from being a woman and acknowledge that our bodies don’t always behave the way we want them to and it’s not our fault!
In my 4th MenoChat I’m talking to Ruth Jones, who candidly and without apology shares the impact of her symptoms.
She shares the story of having to tell her male supervisor she needed to go home to change because she’d flooded and how she felt forced to miss a weekend break with her husband because they couldn’t risk being away from home when her periods were so heavy.
Ruth also shares her frustration at not being able to find the words she wanted, her bouts of anger and snappiness with her family and her dilemma around whether to choose to have her insides burnt or a coil fitted to stem her excessive bleeding. (between both of our menopausal brains we couldn't recall the word for cauterising the uterus – ablation).
Ruth’s story is raw and it’s real and it’s what we absolutely need to be sharing.
We need to make it ok to talk about these symptoms so that we don’t feel embarrassed or alone in dealing with them.
Story sharing is an important part of how we can figure out what the right way forward is for us as we navigate menopause. There's no one size fits all, and often hearing other people's experiences allows us the chance to take a different perspective.
So I'd love to invite all the women listening to come and join our amazing community in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook where you'll find over 1000 women sharing experiences, cheering each other on and building each other up so we can all thrive through midlife and beyond.
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Ep 87 - MenoChat No 3 with Lyndsey Byrne
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Friday Oct 14, 2022
How do you know if what you're experiencing is menopause related? What if you're not ready to hear that it is menopause?
What if you don't have a womb so you don't have those obvious signals that your periods have ended?
That's how it was for my 3rd MenoChat guest, Lyndsey Byrne.
Having had a hysterectomy with very few symptoms, Lyndsey was convinced that when hot flushes and other symptoms started with a vengeance a few years later, there must have been something other than menopause going on, especially since her blood tests told her she was definitely NOT in menopause.
Going to some pretty extreme measures to manage her symptoms including wrapping herself up in plastic and exercising hard to literally 'sweat' the hot flushes away, Lyndsay finally began to accept that menopause probably was at the core and decided to take a functional medicine approach to manage her symptoms.
I'm a huge believer in finding your own way through this transition. Every one of us will approach our symptoms differently and there's no 'one size fits all'. And that's why it's so helpful to hear different approaches, different stories and different experiences.
Story sharing is an important part of how we can figure out what the right way forward is for us as we navigate menopause. There's no one size fits all, and often hearing other people's experiences allows us the chance to take a different perspective.
So I'd love to invite all the women listening to come and join our amazing community in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook where you'll find over 1000 women sharing experiences, cheering each other on and building each other up so we can all thrive through midlife and beyond.
PS: the book that Lyndsey referred to is called Easy Way to Control Alcohol by Allen Carr
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Ep 86 - MenoChat No 2 with Ruth George
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
One of THE most controversial areas of menopause is around whether or not those who have been treated for breast cancer should be 'allowed' to take HRT or not.
Often there is a blanket no from medical practitioners, but what about personal choice? What if an individual decides that it's their body and therefore their decision about whether or not they feel it's a risk they're willing to take in order to have a decent quality of life.
My guest today is Ruth George. Ruth was treated for breast cancer but found that the medication she was given after her surgery, intended to stop her natural production of oestrogen, was creating a whole host of other symptoms that were ruining her quality of life.
She went on a personal quest to find out as much as she could about the actual risks, the benefits and the longer term implications if she did choose to go against her GP's advice.
Story sharing is an important part of how we can figure out what the right way forward is for us as we navigate menopause. There's no one size fits all, and often hearing other people's experiences allows us the chance to take a different perspective.
So I'd love to invite all the women listening to come and join our amazing community in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook where you'll find over 1000 women sharing experiences, cheering each other on and building each other up so we can all thrive through midlife and beyond.
PS: the book that Ruth and I referred to is called Oestrogen Matters by Dr Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris PhD.
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Welcome to the first of my Meno Chats where, in celebration of World Menopause Awareness Month, I'm going to be joined by some of the lovely women from my Facebook group, Your Best Midlife, as they share with me their personal menopause journey.
There's something hugely inspiring and reassuring about hearing the stories of normal, everyday women, sharing their personal experience of the menopause. We all have a different story to tell, but knowing we're not alone in this is enormously comforting.
Today I'm joined by Sue Ladbrook. We're discussing how difficult it can be to know what to expect when you don't have your mum or any female relatives to ask. Having lost my own mum in my early 20s, I can totally relate to Sue's experience.
October has been designated menopause awareness month with the 18th October designated by the International Menopause Society as World Menopause Day.
Menopause should be a time to be celebrated. A time when women move into a new and exciting season in their lives. So often we get bogged down in all the negative messaging about menopause (and let's face it, for many of us it can be a pretty messy time) but there is most certainly life after menopause and I would even go as far as to say, ladies - THIS IS OUR TIME.
So I'd love to invite all the women listening to come and join our amazing community in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook where we cheer each other on and build each other up so we can all thrive through midlife and beyond.
Monday Aug 22, 2022
Ep 84 - GENX Shorts - Staying Visible through the Menopause Transition
Monday Aug 22, 2022
Monday Aug 22, 2022
How do you deal with the feeling of becoming invisible as you move through the midlife transition?
It's a story I hear all the time from women who feel they're withdrawing, stepping back, shrinking into themselves.
Looking back I think I tried to combat it by losing a load of weight and becoming obsessive about exercise. I went back to teaching exercise classes and trained to be a personal trainer and a nutrition coach.
I think I was inadvertently trying to over compensate for feeling like I was past my prime. So I was outwardly looking confident and in control but it was a cover for feeling incredibly lost.
But I'm so glad I didn't allow myself to shrink away.
I'm glad that whatever it was inside me that pushed me forward (even if I did feel like a fake at times, especially being the oldest PT on my course!) was strong enough to overcome the inner voice telling me I was too old.
Those feelings of becoming invisible are a narrative of our own making.
We can listen to them and act on them or we can stick a middle finger up to them and push through anyway.
Maybe we won't be seen in the same way as we were when we were younger and maybe we have to make ourselves shout a bit louder to be heard but we can always choose whether to shrink or shine.
You have to step into the new you and be seen for the amazing, talented, unique, beautiful woman you are.
For more support for women over 40, around menopause and thriving through midlife, come and join my Facebook Group Your Best Midlife
https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourb...
For more resources head over to https://linktr.ee/Bev_Thorogood
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
The Women and Equalities Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Government Equalities Committee.
The Committee has just published it's First Report of Session 2022-23 in July this year, and I'm joined today by my colleague Helen Hutchings who has summarised the report for us today.
You can also read Helen's summary HERE
The report focuses on 3 key areas that need to be addressed to ensure that those experiencing perimenopause/menopause are not lost from the workplace and are looked after appropriately both from a health and legal perspective.
You can check out the full report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee HERE
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
Ep 82 - Using the Vaginal Microbiome to Diagnose Perimenopause
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
We're all pretty familiar with the idea that we have bacteria in our gut called the microbiome and that a healthy gut leads to better health.
But did you know that we also have a vaginal microbiome and that it's possible to detect changes in hormone levels by monitoring the relative number of different microbes in the vagina?
My guest on the podcast today is the Joint CEO of Agile Life Sciences, Jan Rogers.
Jan is a scientist and, along with her colleagues, has developed a test that uses the vaginal microbiome, rather than the traditional measuring of hormones, to diagnose and manage the perimenopause/menopause transition.
In this fascinating episode Jan explains how the test works, how it can be used and why it is so much more reliable than current testing protocols.
Jan is currently (as of July 2022) looking for 1000 volunteers to help with their trials. To be eligible to help you must have been assigned female at birth and be over 38 years of age. You'll simply be asked to provide a urine sample using their testing and sampling kit, and a small number of volunteers may be asked to continue with the trial.
For further details of how to apply to be a volunteer visit https://www.menoguide.co.uk/
You can find out more about the work of Agile Life Sciences at www.agilelifesciences.com or follow Jan's work on LinkedIn
And don't forget if you're looking for support and help during your menopause/midlife transition come and join me in my lovely Facebook Group Your Best Midlife
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