The Lowdown launches perimenopause & HRT reviews

You can now share your perimenopause experience and/or leave an HRT review on The Lowdown!

Share and compare perimenopause experiences

• If you’ve been following our journey over the past year, you may know that you can share your experience of endometriosis, PCOS, and fertility on The Lowdown. Now, that includes your experience of perimenopause!
• You can share as much or as little information as you like about symptoms, treatments, and what’s helped or not worked for you. That includes treatments that aren’t HRT like diet, exercise, CBT, other medications, and more. Think about what you’d wish you’d known and want others to know. This perimenopause experience is a great example.
• Have a browse of all the experiences that have been shared so far. They’re insightful, they’re emotional, and they’re bloody helpful.

Search HRT reviews on The Lowdown, and leave your own

• The HRT reviews work just like our contraception reviews. You’ll find medically reviewed information about a method of HRT, plus reviews left by women who have used it, all on the same page. You can browse all HRT reviews here, or search for a specific HRT method in our navigation bar. This HRT review and this one are a couple of great examples.

Why we did it

So you can make informed decisions about your health 

Like contraception, when you seek help from your GP for menopause you often have to do your own research on different solutions, like the type of HRT that might be best for you, complementary therapies, and other lifestyle changes. We are THE platform for you to do that research. You can find real perimenopause experiences alongside medical explanations of how different treatments work. Plus all the data in one place for you to review your HRT options.

Because we’re here the whole way 

We want to be a helpful resource from your first period to your last. Being the OG contraception review site, it was a natural step for us to launch HRT reviews (in some cases, the two are related).

Our doctors have created free resources on how to prepare for your first perimenopause appointment with your doctor, including a symptom checker to take with you.

It’s yet another space that needs more information — especially honesty about side effects 

For some, HRT is life-changing, but just like contraception it can take a few to find one you like, and there’s not much information about the side effects of HRT. Especially which methods are the biggest culprits for certain side effects, and how to manage these effects at all. Some people try a method of HRT hoping it will be the magical cure for perimenopause symptoms, but the side effects can even make them feel worse! And what do you do if you can’t have HRT at all? 

We’re here to fill this knowledge gap.

Perimenopause is misunderstood and not recognised 

We spoke to multiple women who said they were surprised to get menopausal symptoms while they’re still so young in their 40s, as they associate menopause with women in their 50s. Many also didn’t realise so many symptoms they experience were associated with perimenopause, or realised later on and wished they’d had that information available.

There’s a real lack of understanding around this stage of life, and the information that’s out there can be littered with lots of clinical terminology for healthcare professionals (our graph explaining your hormones during the perimenopausal stage got people talking).

It’s no surprise that perimenopause is so misunderstood. We weren’t taught about it at school, or even in later life. The symptoms can feel isolating, leaving you unsure who to talk to and feeling left to deal with it on your own. We’ll all go through this life stage, so why does no one really prepare us for it?

With the help of our medical team, we’re here to explain what it all means in an easy-to-understand way, answer your burning questions, and help you find the right treatments for you — just like we’ve always done.

It’s not all about drugs 

To clarify, we’re not pushing HRT over other treatments. We’re a balanced platform, believing all women should have a right to choose what routes they take to manage their menopause symptoms. This is a very similar approach to what we’ve taken in contraception.

How do I leave my own review or experience? 

• It’s just one form to fill in, but it has two parts. The HRT section is optional, and you won’t fill this in if you select that you haven’t used HRT.
• At the beginning of the form you are asked if you have used HRT. If yes, complete your HRT review first, then move on to your perimenopause experience.
• If no, you go straight to the perimenopause part of the form.

Where will my submission go? 

• Your perimenopause experience will live on our perimenopause experience hub.
• If you complete a HRT review, it will show up on our HRT reviews area and on the individual HRT page for the method you left a review for, just like this one.

Who’s this platform for? 

• If you’re perimenopausal or postmenopausal. Share your story whether it’s in the past, currently going through it, or if you suspect you’re beginning perimenopause.
• If you’re not yet perimenopausal. We think it’s important to learn about perimenopause earlier in life, so we can be better prepared for when we go through it ourselves.
• If someone you know is perimenopausal. Some women we spoke to said they’d like to share this with their family or colleagues to help them understand the myriad of symptoms and how if can affect you.

Sounds great, how can I share it? 

• Share the form on WhatsApp with this link 💬
• Copy this link to the form and send it however you like 🔗
• Send this blog so they have the lowdown 📩 and ask them to tap the image below to share their experience 👇

Got more questions about perimenopause? We got you covered

Alice set up The Lowdown in 2019 with a mission to help transform the minefield that is  contraception. She’s spent the last four years talking to thousands of women about this problem – and leads on the delivery of our product, brand and overall proposition.