A local Menopause specialist is calling for health education in schools to include information on how the condition can affect women later in life.
Dr Deirdre Forde is a GP and medical expert who believes that many women can struggle to accept that they have begun to experience the condition.
Today is World Menopause Day, a day to raise awareness of the menopause and to support options to improve health and well-being for women in mid-life and beyond.
The specialist based in Ceile Medical in Athlone says that while young people are taught about their reproductive health, what happens later in life can be left out:
"Children are taught in school about the facts of life, and about their periods and all of that. They're not taught about what happens when it all ends. There needs to be some sort of system education, whether it's when you're in college and you're an 18 year old who might not be able to deal with the fact that she's going down that road of potentially having children in the future. You've got to address what happens when it all ends because nothing prepares a woman for this".
