Menopausal Highlights: Carly Tate Fights Over Diagnosis

Premature menopause is estimated to affect 1% of women under the age of 40, equivalent to nearly 350,000 women in the UK. British wheelchair athlete Carly Tate is ready to share her battle for diagnosis and raise awareness about what is medically known as premature ovarian failure.

Menopause is often described as the time when a woman can no longer conceive, and while this is true, hormonal changes can lead to serious health problems if left undiagnosed and unmonitored. Wheelchair athlete Carly Tate, who was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, often referred to as premature menopause, in 2020 at age 34, now talks about the challenges she faced getting diagnosed and supported. increase.

missed chance

Carly has been suffering from irregular periods since she was 14 and started taking birth control pills when she was 18. After her two years into the sport at the age of 29, she became more conscious of what she was putting into her body and decided to stop taking her.

“It wasn’t regular, but I didn’t expect it to be so I wasn’t worried, but every time around day 60 I started panicking and I took a pregnancy test and it was always negative,” says Carly. explains. “I raised it not only to the GP, but also to the British team. They said it would be expected because of your intensive training.

The idea that Carly wasn’t menstruating regularly because of sports was something she’d been told time and time again, but her concerns remained.

“All I knew about menopause was that I didn’t have periods, but I didn’t know about transition and what it entailed,” Carly emphasizes. was 100% perimenopausal.”

After Rio, Carly wanted to compete for another year. She started her sporting journey as a spectator at London 2012 and she wanted to end it in the same place as the athletes. As her symptoms worsened and her anxiety increased, her performance as an athlete did not improve, and she decided to retire in the summer of 2017.

Investigation

After retiring, Carly and partner Matthew decided to have a baby. At this time, she began tracking her ovulation, with her 28-day cycle lasting her four, but not having another menstruation after that.

“To date, my last period was in November 2017. This was my last period of four. I haven’t had anything since,” Carly reveals. “I remember the last time vividly. It lasted for weeks. I remember that

Instead of seeing a regular GP, Carly was told to see an on-call doctor and begin researching polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition that affects the functioning of her ovaries.

“I had a scan to check for PCOS and they said everything was normal, but in reality I was 6 weeks pregnant at this point and had no idea. I hadn’t had my period in 3 months. I got pregnant,” Carly explains. “They were looking at my ovaries, not my uterus, so they were missing the baby. They decided to refer me to a gynecologist and said it would be 70 days before my appointment.

“Fortunately, I was on private health care under my partner’s plan, so I called my partner and told him I hadn’t had my period and needed an investigation.”

These doctors performed the same tests again and confirmed that Carly was pregnant and not PCOS. By this time, Carly was on her 13th week.

“At this point we were still trying and I was shocked. I had taken pregnancy tests before and they were negative,” Carly says. Within weeks it was like falling off a cliff, my brain switched off and it was malfunctioning.”

Carly experienced extreme depression and anxiety that began to affect all her relationships. Combined with being a new mother to her, she was told this was postpartum depression and took antidepressants.

“I turned in to A and E because I needed help and didn’t know what was going on,” says Carly. “Still at this point, no one had said the word menopause, everyone thought it was postpartum depression, but I knew it wasn’t.”

devastating

After receiving comprehensive support as new mothers, Carly and her partner began looking for a second child, but this time they didn’t want to wait to see what would happen.

“I went over my partner’s plans again and made an appointment in six weeks. Had two sets of blood tests and the gynecologist said this was menopause. You’re going through menopause soon.” says Curly. “I asked her to scan me. There were only one or two follicles that a woman my age should have 15 on each side of her. I had all my hormones completely turned off. exhausted.

“We were about to conceive our second child and it was such a shock. This was the worst news I could ever receive. I also had to get a scan to check and they said I had osteopenia.

A diagnosis of osteopenia is a concern for Carly. She was already at risk of falling due to cerebral palsy, and this condition now means she is likely to maintain her fracture.

“It crosses me, but what crossed me is that there were so many opportunities for someone to connect the dots,” Curley emphasizes. I didn’t find it either.There were major private institutions around me,the NHS.How many times else should I have said it?

“As a result, the eggs could not be frozen, so there is no biological opportunity to have another child.”

consciousness

Carly will be on HRT for the next 30 years and the treatment has completely changed her life. Now she is healthy again and is focused on raising awareness about her premature menopause.

Better knowledge about women’s health across society would help people avoid missed diagnoses and the stress Carly had to go through.

“It’s important that people understand the effects. Not only do they not get their periods, they are more prone to heart attacks, their brains are not the same and they don’t have the chance to have their own children,” emphasizes Carly. “We need more discussion about women’s health and menstruation than how to not get pregnant.”

With the correct diagnosis, Carly connects with other women through The Daisy Network (www.daisynetwork.org), a charity that provides information, advice and support to women with premature ovarian failure.

Every year on October 18th, World Menopause Day is held to help raise awareness about menopause and the support options available.Click here for details www.themenopausecharity.org

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