Medics helped me beat cancer but they can’t help my crash menopause

When Kat Denisi was diagnosed with breast cancer at 32, she went through medically induced menopause to stop the hormones feeding the tumor.

The production designer also underwent radiation treatment, which left her with burns on her body, and chemotherapy, which caused severe nausea.

When her white blood cell count dropped dangerously low, she had to spend time in hospital, but she says doctors did everything they could to treat her symptoms.

Kat, now 35 and cancer-free, lives in Edinburgh and hopes to feel much better.

But she had no idea that the “menopause crisis” would affect her so much.

“Sometimes menopause feels worse,” she said.

“When you have symptoms of cancer, doctors throw a book at you to try to solve the problem.

“They take really good care of you during chemotherapy, after surgery and radiation, and you get regular checkups.

“But when it's all over, you'll be thrown off a cliff.

“They were like, 'OK, bye.' Nobody told me about menopause at all, and you don’t know what’s going on with your body,” she said.

Every woman experiences menopause, the process of stopping periods due to decreased hormone levels.

Most of them go through a transition period between 45 and 55 years, with the average age being 51 years.

Symptoms can vary greatly and affect almost every aspect of physical and mental well-being, from common effects such as hot flashes and mood swings, to lesser-known ones such as joint pain, bloating and brain fog.

While natural menopause results in a gradual decline in hormone levels, medically induced menopause can occur overnight.

The symptoms occur so suddenly and so intensely that they are sometimes called “sudden menopause.”

Kat, who has now been on menopause injections for four years, has since suffered loss of libido, anxiety and severe hot flashes.

“I had a lot of problems with vaginal dryness, fissures that were bleeding, and it was very painful,” she said.

“It’s so terrible, the hot flashes you feel spread throughout your body and then spread all over your face and then your cheeks turn into bright red apples that burn and then I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“It really sucks because I got married and you're destined to live the best years of your life,” Kat said.

Instead, she feels bad all the time.

“When you go through chemotherapy, there are so many side effects that I don't think you really notice menopause until you come out the other side,” she said.

One way to combat menopausal symptoms is hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but Kat is unable to take this option because estrogen, a key component in many HRT products, can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells.

“The difficulty with menopause is that doctors don't have many solutions to address it,” she said.

Kat said: “The day I had my first injection my ovaries immediately shut down. It's not a slow transition to abrupt menopause, it's literally the next day, whereas normal menopause is very long.

She said she was put into emergency menopause to protect her ovaries from chemotherapy, which could have destroyed all her eggs.

Medically induced menopause can be temporary or permanent, depending on treatment and individual factors such as age.

“The longer you are in medically induced menopause, the less likely you are to get your periods back,” Kat said.

When she comes off emergency menopause medication after a year, she will know in six months whether her periods will return.

“It would be a shame if it were forever, but I’m hopeful because my body is strong and can heal itself.

“If I stay in menopause, I expect I'll have symptoms forever because I hit menopause so early that my body will be confused.”

If her periods return, she will have to go through a second natural menopause in the future.

“It really isn't fair to miss out on some of the best years of your life due to sudden menopause and then have to go through it all again. Hot flashes, memory loss, brain fog and joint pain.

“It really upsets me to think that I might have to do this again.”

Dame Laura Lee, chief executive of cancer charity Maggie's, said sudden menopause can be “brutal” for many women with cancer, “yet awareness is alarmingly low”.

“Menopause used to be a taboo topic that no one discussed, but now we have a lot of celebrities shining a light on the topic – we need to do the same with 'sudden menopause' – we want people to know we are here with them through cancer treatment and all that it brings, including emergency menopause,” she added.

“If we keep the conversation going, more women, their friends and families will be able to recognize the signs and symptoms and get the help they need. Whether that's psychological support or helping them understand what this could mean for their fertility, or protecting their long-term health.”

Kat says she believes young people going through medically induced menopause are suffering in silence.

“People expect you to go back to normal after cancer treatment and ask, 'Are you okay now, are you okay now?'” she said.

“And you're like, 'Oh yeah, I'm completely cured and back to normal,' but inside you're screaming into the void because you're not back to normal.”

“It’s crazy how many people don’t know that many young women who survive cancer go through artificial menopause,” she added.

“I just want to shout from the rooftops what it is because if your family doesn’t know, they can’t help you.

“Now my husband knows about it, and his parents know about it, so they can help me become a better version of myself, instead of saying, 'You're okay, everything's great, right?'”