When the system stops listening, women must become the voice of their own health.
This episode is for every woman who has ever sat in a doctor's surgery, heart pounding, trying to explain that something is wrong with her body — only to be told, "It's just a bad period." It's for the women who have doubted themselves because the people meant to help them kept dismissing their pain. It's for the mothers who watched their daughters suffer and fought for them anyway. And it's for the women who are still suffering in silence, still carrying a rucksack full of spare clothes, still cancelling plans, still sleeping on bathroom floors, still convinced they are weak when the truth is they have been profoundly let down.
Paula spent over thirty years — from the age of twelve — being told her excruciating pain, relentless bleeding, and exhaustion were nothing more than a heavy period. She was gaslit by a medical system that refused to investigate, refused to listen, and refused to take her seriously. She rearranged her entire life around her symptoms: missing school, lying to friends, hiding the reality from her husband, sitting on plastic bags in car parks watching her son play football because she couldn't join in. She was put on the pill, given tranexamic acid, fitted with a coil, underwent an ablation, and put into a chemical menopause — each treatment a temporary fix that never addressed the root cause. It wasn't until she changed her doctor's surgery that she finally found a GP who said the words she had never heard before: "I want to help you." Even then, the road was long. A hemorrhage on a family holiday in Cyprus, a desperate flight home, cancelled surgeries, and a system that still dragged its feet before finally scheduling her hysterectomy.
Only after the surgery did a letter arrive confirming what Paula had known all along: she had adenomyosis, a condition where the tissue lining the womb grows into the muscular wall, causing heavy bleeding and severe pain. She had been right for over three decades. The validation was both a relief and a source of deep anger.
But this episode is not just about what went wrong. It's about what happened next. Paula got her life back. She runs. She wears white jeans. She goes to the cinema without checking herself constantly. She makes plans and keeps them. She started a walking group that grew into Keep On Talking Menopause, a peer support group with branches in Govan and Cambuslang where women of any age can show up, sit down with a cup of tea, and be heard — no obligation to speak, just an invitation to listen, learn, and realise they are not alone. If you have ever been made to feel that your pain is an inconvenience, that your questions are a nuisance, or that you should just accept what you're told, this episode is a reminder that you know your body better than anyone. Use your voice. Ask for a second opinion. Stop apologising for phoning the doctor. Keep talking — and don't shut up.
Connect with Paula:
Instagram: @keepontalkingmenopause
Facebook: Keep On Talking Menopause Support Group
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