Menopause shouldn’t be a secret or mystery, and you shouldn’t have to put up with it in silence | Svetlana Stankovic

This week we publish stories on how to live better with menopause, the impact it has on Australia's labour market, alongside some personal experiences

When I was in my early teens, my mother went through stages of being uncharacteristically angry and sometimes tearful for no apparent reason after a lifetime of being pretty mild-mannered and cheerful. She would walk around fanning her face, complaining about how hot and stuffy it was. It was the middle of winter and we lived in the Black Forest in Germany. I put it down to just one more weird thing parents did and never thought to ask her what was going on.

I forgot all about this over the years as I had children myself. I stopped menstruating after getting an IUD in my early 40s and felt the liberation that comes with one less item of body maintenance.

We have pain on a cycle for years and years and years, and then just when you feel you are making peace with it all, what happens? The menopause comes. The fucking menopause comes and it is the most ... wonderful fucking thing in the world. Yes, your entire pelvic floor crumbles and you get fucking hot and no one cares, but then you're free. No longer a slave, no longer a machine with parts. You're just a person. In business."