A Brighton woman raises awareness for first World Menopause & Cancer Awareness Day
Rachel Bowman was diagnosed with grade two invasive ductal carcinoma in September 2022
A Brighton woman has spoken about the severe impact of medical menopause brought on by cancer treatment, urging better support for patients living with the long-term side effects.
Rachel Bowman was diagnosed with grade two invasive ductal carcinoma in September 2022.
She said: “My first sort of experience of menopause as a result of cancer treatment was when I was unexpectedly prescribed chemotherapy, and alongside it, I was prescribed an ovarian suppressant injection called Zoladex.”
Her oncologist warned she might get a few hot flushes. But Rachel added: “I cannot tell you the absolute impact. The onslaught of symptoms that I experienced overnight was incredible. I had about twenty to thirty hot flushes a day. I would find myself stripping off in the street in the middle of the winter, trying to cool down.”
She described how the sudden changes disrupted her work and confidence: “My sleep was disrupted by hot flashes, night sweats. I had brain fog, which sort of impacted my confidence because I was in work meetings… and I was then struggling to kind of find words.”
When she sought help, Rachel said she was left frustrated: “I went back to my oncologist and I said, oh, how do I navigate these symptoms? What can I do? And they said, it’s not my area of expertise. Just take a supplement. And I left that meeting feeling really quite frustrated and quite like helpless.”
She later found support through the charity Menopause and Cancer, saying: “We bring experts to our patients to provide them with all kind of holistic and rounded information… but one of the other things is we’ve built a community because actually, there’s quite a lot of benefit in speaking to other people who are going through the same kind of experiences.”
Rachel said raising awareness is vital: “We always think that menopause is the unspoken side effect of cancer treatment… it’s really important for us to be recognised, and for people to understand that menopause after cancer is much more complex to treat, it’s more complex to navigate, and you can feel quite isolated.”
She also urged healthcare professionals to integrate menopause into long-term cancer care. “We really want to call for change in terms of menopause being built into pre-cancer treatment discussions or long-term care planning… and we also want better access to safe therapies and specialist care so that everybody living with cancer and beyond can manage menopause safely and effectively.”
Her advice for others going through the same: “Don’t suffer in silence and please don’t be alone in this. We run a number of online and in-person workshops, and we are just about to launch a nationwide peer-to-peer support group. It’s really great to talk, and I think our community have been one of the best things that I’ve got out of this whole experience.”