After her own harrowing experience with perimenopause, Katie Taylor started a Facebook Group, The Latte Lounge, to support women struggling with their menopause experience. 20,000 members later, The Latte Lounge has a website, and is a vibrant community of women, health professionals, and educators- and Katie is busy as ever.
Following a successful debut in 2021, The Midlife Festival, hosted by Katie and The Latte Lounge team, returns this year for another week of virtual talks by expert speakers, in a celebration of Midlife, Menopause, and life beyond. We sat down for a quick virtual cuppa with Katie to find out more.
Where did the idea for The Latte Lounge come from?
When I was 43, a very busy mum with 4 kids, I was coping really well with my life. But I noticed over the next 4 years that I started feeling some bizarre symptoms. Low mood, exhaustion, anxiety, heart palpitations, itchy dry skin so I went back and forth to the doctors, and they said I was probably juggling too much. I had a job I really loved, but I just had this awful brain fog, and I found it difficult to work. I didn’t feel depressed, but my doctor prescribed me antidepressants, and I was quite reluctant to take them. But over these 4 years, the symptoms got worse, my periods became really erratic, and I just became a shell of a woman. I ended up quitting my job and really just becoming a hermit.
To cut a very long story short, my father who’s a breast cancer doctor, suggested it was probably my hormones, and recommended a specialist doctor to me, who said that yes, despite the fact I wasn’t having hot flushes and still having periods, I was definitely in something called perimenopause, which was a word I’d never heard of before. I was relieved I wasn’t going mad; I’d started to worry I had early onset dementia, but I also felt really angry that nobody had put 2 and 2 together and worked out it was perimenopause.
So I turned to Facebook to see if anyone else had been experiencing something similar. All of the Facebook groups were more about parenting, talking about babies, buggies, nappy rash etc. but there didn’t seem to be any groups for women in the next stage. I started a group called Top Tips for women over 40, and I was really blown away when I had over 1000 member requests within 24 hours. I realised I wasn’t alone, and I wanted to make sure it was a safe space for women, and I wanted it to feel like a coffee shop, so I called it the Latte Lounge. I wanted to make sure we gave them evidence-based information, and were able to support them, and signpost them to the help they needed. So I put together a medical advisory team, developed a website, and now we’re at over 20,000 members.
What do you know now that you wish you knew 20 years ago?
I guess I wish I was taught at school about menopause. You’re taught at school how not to get pregnant, and where babies come from, but then the education stops. Menopause was just a whispered word by the older generation, and my image was of a grey old lady fanning herself in a rocking chair, and I just didn’t associate myself with that. But I wish my biology education at school would have included this word perimenopause. Or maybe if there was a check up in my 30s, or even mentioned at a smear test, where they’d say look, your hormones are going to fluctuate, and you could be having these sorts of symptoms 10 years before your periods stop, and there are all these other psychological symptoms that can happen.
So I think if somebody had told me what perimenopause meant, I would have been better informed. And more importantly, I wish my doctors had had that in depth education. We know now that perimenopause isn’t really taught in medical school, so I think it would be great if we could make sure GPs receive that training so they can put 2 and 2 together, and maybe ensure that all women were given a symptom checklist, which is something I do in The Latte Lounge. Then that could be a really easy and cheap way to figure out what’s going on.
You’ve done a new podcast this year- how did it go?
We decided to launch a podcast at the beginning of the year, it was a sort of natural extension of what we’re doing already, just to be able to reach more women. A lot of women don’t have time to watch Facebook or Instagram live, or spend a lot of time on social media, but we all commute somewhere, whether it’s walking the dog, going on the bus, driving somewhere or going on the tube, and it’s very easy to listen to podcasts or music at this time. It’s also quite a private way they can plug in, they can listen to my story which is the first episode and possibly relate and have their own light bulb moment.
The first series was really me taking them through the basics, what perimenopause is, what are the symptoms, what are the treatment options, and then talking about things like HRT and additional treatments, for example vaginal lubricants which are really important. You know, so many women get vaginal dryness and atrophy, but it’s probably the biggest taboo around menopause, and many women feel too embarrassed to talk about it. So we talk about the importance of not being embarrassed, that there are treatments available.
We also talk a lot about relationships, sexual health, fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing, and they’re just these short half hour episodes, and I’m hoping that by the end people will come away much more informed. One of the episodes is about how to approach your doctor, and how to get the most out of your appointment, because we usually only get 10 minutes. I always say if you can be as prepared as possible before you go, you can usually come away with what you need. We mustn’t be afraid to advocate for ourselves. Most doctors are delighted if you’ve done some research. It’s especially hard for GP’s, because so many of the perimenopausal symptoms could also be other things, for example heart disease or low thyroid, so it can be hard for them to join the dots. Really the more informed we are, the better for all.
Tell us a bit about the upcoming Midlife Festival- what do you hope attendees get out of it?
The festival is really a celebration of midlife. I think so much of the menopause arena feels like a very depressing place to be. But Midlife shouldn’t be that, so I think my message to everyone is, if you can sort out your hormones, whether it’s through HRT or fitness, nutrition and lifestyle changes, we want to feel as good as we can, so let’s sort out our health then we can get on and enjoy our lives.
I’ve brought together over 25 expert speakers and some very well-known faces, to provide evidence-based information, support, and signposting, but in a fun, uplifting and positive way. People like Davina McCall, and Nadia Sawalha talking about body confidence, we’ve got Kat Farmer Does my Bum Look 40 talking about fashion, Ruby Hammer MBE is talking about makeup, and a lot of doctors like Dr Nick Panay who will give an overview on menopause, and so much more. We’ve got breast cancer, gut health, heart health, pelvic health, vaginal and vulval health, I could go on! But it’s also things like stress management and sleep, so it’s a sort of holistic look at midlife. It’s free for anyone that wants to watch during that week, and I just hope people will enjoy it, because I want them to know that there’s lots of positives to being a midlife woman with the right support.
What’s next for Katie and The Latte Lounge?
We do a lot of corporate work, and I’m very passionate about that. We support both employers and employees to keep women in the workplace, whether it’s writing policies or hosting small educational events, and we launched a membership to give companies a lot more handholding. I think because my symptoms forced me to give up work, that’s something I’m very passionate about, so we’re trying to focus a lot on menopause in the workplace. ALSO, you’re hearing it here first- we’re hoping to take the Midlife Festival live and in person! I think with Covid it’s been a really sad and difficult time, and we’re all probably a little bit weary of Zoom meetings! You know, we’ll keep an online version so we can reach so many people who can’t get to a venue, but I am hoping that I can do both. So watch this space!
The Midlife Festival runs from 10th-14th October. It’s all online and completely free- click here to register
