Navigating menopause with Jean Kittson

Written by Pip Harry for Australian Seniors

Sydneysider Jean Kittson might be best known for her witty TV appearances, but behind the camera she’s an active health campaigner; the inaugural chair and current ambassador of the Australian Gynaecological Cancer Foundation, and recently appointed the patron of Palliative Care Nurses Australia.

Jean also joined host James Valentine on the fifth season of the award-winning podcast from Australian Seniors, Life’s Booming: Is This Normal?, discussing the stigma and misinformation attached to menopause with celebrity GP Dr Ginni Mansberg.

Given that over half the population goes through menopause at some point, Jean was amazed at her own lack of information when a hot flush hit her onstage at a corporate hosting gig. “The first time I had a hot flush I was talking to all these young Czech guys from Ericsson or something. I’m standing on stage in a gold silk top, and then I’m going, ‘Is it hot in here?’

“I started mopping my brow, and then I looked down, and my whole top had turned like camouflage. I had rings of sweat under my boobs. I thought, I have to do something radical about this. I had to keep being a fully functioning woman. I had kids at home, elderly parents, and a full-time job. I couldn’t stand on stage perspiring and mopping my brow.”

Overcoming the stigma of HRT

Jean’s experience with menopause was not helped by the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study stating that women who had used combined HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) had an increased risk of breast cancer, compared with women who had not used HRT. The study has since been found to be flawed and that the increased risk is small and will depend on the type of HRT and for how long it’s taken.

“Some of my friends said, ‘I’m on HRT’. Other people were saying, ‘HRT is deadly, you’ll get breast cancer’,” Jean remembers. “So, I went to a gynaecologist, I talked about HRT, I realised there was a lot of fear that women suffered; leaving their jobs because they thought they weren’t coping with work, but they actually weren’t coping with their menopause symptoms.”

Jean’s doctor prescribed HRT and she was on hormone therapy for 12 years. “It was fantastic, I couldn’t have managed without it and I felt really good,” says Jean. “And now they’ve discovered it’s good for your bowels, heart, brain, skin.”

With the right support, menopause can be a blessing, says Jean, noting that post-menopause she’s living her best life: “It’s a great time of life. It’s wonderful not having to fork out all this money on sanitary products, you can wear white jeans again, go swimming without fear of attracting sharks, it’s brilliant! The whole thing is very, very liberating, but take control over it. Get the right information, get the facts.” 

Supporting elderly parents

Using her high profile, Jean has supported many charities over the years, including Taldumande Youth Services and Carer Gateway. She’s passionate about the rights of older Australians, having been a carer for her parents for more than 20 years. “We need to stop talking about elderly people as if they are a burden. That will be all of us in the blink of an eye,” she says.

With her mother experiencing vision loss and her father falling ill, Jean and her siblings put strong support services in place, allowing their parents to live happily and safely in a retirement village well into their 90s. “People can manage for a long time,” says Jean. “There are simply compromises and adjustments.”

Sadly, Jean’s beloved parent’s Roy, 96, and Elaine, 99, passed away earlier in the year – within four weeks of each other – after going into respite care. Despite their age, the sudden loss of her parents was devastating, she says. It was Jean’s parents who encouraged her to seek out laughs during difficult times. “My father and mother had a great sense of humour, so they always turned anything that happened into hilarious stories. Anything that was difficult for us ended up as a funny story. That was our therapy.”

What the doctor says

Dr Ginni Mansberg

Technically, menopause itself is a single day 12 months from the first day of your last period, says Dr Ginni Mansberg. “But it’s not like once you hit menopause on that day, everything changes.”

“In fact, the treatment is fairly similar whether you’ve gone through menopause already or whether you’re in that lead up, but your [fluctuating] hormones are still giving you hormone hell.”

Symptoms vary, the GP adds, and include “everything from palpitations to shortness of breath to itchy skin, a whole lot of stuff that goes on below the belt”. Hot flushes are really common, and very visible, Dr Mansberg says. “So 75% of women will experience those hot flushes. They’re not always dramatic, like Jean’s. Some women just run hotter and a lot of women experience heat at night, so that interrupts their sleep.”

About 80% of women will experience brain fog, she adds, and one in three will experience mental health problems, largely anxiety and depression. If you’re struggling, Dr Mansberg urges you to head to the Australasian Menopause Society website to find a doctor with a particular interest in this life stage, and remember you can have a normal life. “In fact, sometimes life gets a lot better on the other side of the rainbow after menopause.”