The year before she turned 40, two big things happened to Toronto’s Diane Hatch: she was promoted to a leadership role at a big Canadian bank, and her body began to revolt. She couldn’t sleep more than a few hours at a time. One strange symptom after another arrived: a burning tongue.
Memory problems. Heart palpitations. Weight gain.
The worst were what she called her “nuclear reactions” — heat bursts so intense that rivulets of sweat ran down her legs while she was giving presentations at work. Over 14 years, Hatch saw five different doctors and four other health professionals. They prescribed medications for anxiety and depression, sent her to a sleep clinic, encouraged her to lose weight and so on.
Nothing helped. “I was exhausted and burnt out, and I thought all my symptoms were a direct result of the insane demands of work and family,” she said. In 2022, Hatch, then 51, took a medical leave from work.
Looking up her symptoms online, she came across a list of 35 indicators of menopause. “I had about 25 of them,” she said. She saw a new gynecologist, who prescribed hormone therapy, and started to feel better almost immediately after starting the treatment.
Hatch is angry. She spent years suffering and seeking medical help. No one considered that the source of her problems was a condition that every woman will go through.
“Why did it take so long? Because, I believe, women are gaslit and told to persevere,” says Hatch. Hatch is part of a generation of .
