STILL HOT!: 42 Brilliantly Honest Menopause Stories

Every menopause has its own story. It's time we told them . . . The menopause. What even is it? One big theme unites Still Hot!'s 42 stories - that, somehow, the world doesn't ready us for this. The menopause - let alone the perimenopause - simply isn't talked about; instead, it's reduced to a comic hot flush. More and more of us are proudly stepping free of the menopausal closet, but the Big M is still a conversation whispered below the radar. No one tells you it will be like this. No one prepares you for it. That silence is lifting, slowly. So let's be bold, let's overshare. Let's find solidarity among Still Hot!'s myriad voices - wise, rebellious, measured, fierce, upfront - telling how the menopause is not just one story, but many. Telling, in fact, that this is not the menopause, it is YOUR menopause. FEATURING Sahira Ahmad Belcher Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Shalini Bhalla-Lucas Sharon Blackie Erica Clarkson Marie Louise Cochrane Bunny Cook Tracey Cox Jody Day Paulette Edwards Felicity Everett Helen FitzGerald India Gary-Martin Tania Glyde Julie Graham Angie Greaves Shahzadi Harper Michelle Heaton Yvonne John Lorraine Kelly Jane Lewis Pinky Lilani Andrea Macfarlane Danusia Malina-Derben Nimmy March Alison Martin-Campbell Pippa Marriott Val McDermid Sharmila Mehta Louise Minchin Louise Newson Susie Orbach Penny Pepper Miranda Sawyer Carol Smillie Anthea Turner Melissa Wall Kirsty Wark Sayeeda Warsi Denise Welch Trinny Woodall Xinran Xue "There's a menopause club. Once you've been through it, you go, That's it, I can do anything now." KIRSTY WARK "Once we stop bleeding, once we stop having children, once we go through the menopause, it's not over. In fact, it can be a very empowering time." JULIE GRAHAM "We mustn't be scared of the menopause . . . I always say, Don't suffer in silence. Get help. There is help out there. There is understanding." LORRAINE KELLY "Many women, when they go through menopause, happen to be going through things in their life anyway. You wonder, does one galvanise the other?" TRINNY WOODALL "There is no one-size-fits-all for menopause." DENISE WELCH "It's not THE menopause. It's YOUR menopause." KAYE ADAMS