MILLIONS of British women are struggling with increased anxiety and sleepless nights as they go through the menopause during the Covid pandemic, research has shown.
Experts have now warned that growing anxiety in menopausal women is a “mental health catastrophe waiting to happen”.
New research states that seven in 10 women over the age of 40 believe coronavirus lockdowns have increased anxiety in those going through menopause.
An estimated 13million women are currently peri – or menopausal in the UK – equivalent to one third of the female population.
Nearly a third of women over 40 reported getting only an average of six hours of sleep a night and one in 10 over 55-year-olds are waking up at least five times a night.
The NHS recommends that adults get between seven and nine hours sleep a night.
The survey of 2,000 people revealed that 73 per cent of 45-54 year old women said the menopause had had an impact on their sleep pattern.
One expert described the findings, from research commissioned by wellness brand CBII, as “a mental health catastrophe waiting to happen”.
Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, who blogs at 50Sense.net and is the co-founder of the Pausitivity #KnowYourMenopause campaign said: “The lack of sleep some women are reporting is a particularly worrying aspect.
“Nobody functions well without sleep – I was like an extra from The Walking Dead when I struggled to get sleep in the early years of my menopause.
“But now menopausal women are caught having to juggle lack of sleep and other menopause symptoms with working from home, home-schooling, the stress of having children at university and not being able to see elderly parents and relatives, as well as all the general concern around coronavirus.
“It’s a mental health catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Symptoms include chronic insomnia, night sweats, anxiety, racing thoughts, restless and disruptive sleep, due to the decline of oestrogen and progesterone.
Even post-menopausal women, in the 65+ age group, are still suffering, with 71 per cent saying their sleep is adversely affected.
But despite celebrities like Loose Women’s Andrea McLean and Meg Mathews being vocal about their menopause experience – and how CBD has helped them with sleep issues – the research also revealed that it is still a taboo subject in the UK.
