My physio, a young woman called Lucy, was simply making conversation. She wanted to distract me from the serious discomfort she was about to inflict by massaging the nerves around my painful posterior tibial tendon, an ankle injury I assumed I had brought on by running too much. \u201cMy mother\u2019s post tib has ruptured,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really common in menopausal women.\u201d This definitely worked as a distraction. What did all this have to do with the menopause, I asked? She looked surprised, because to her the answer was obvious: \u201cCollagen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly something clicked, and not just in my ankle. For about a year, the skin on my hands had been peeling, monthly. I\u2019d seen GPs and pharmacists and been given various remedies, from \u201ctry thick hand cream\u201d to \u201cdrink more water\u201d. Lucy\u2019s comment made me research more: oestrogen is related to collagen production, and when oestrogen levels start to change in women who are in the stage approaching the menopause (the so-called perimenopause), all sorts can happen.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I should have known this. I\u2019ve already had one menopause. It was chemically induced as a treatment for my endometriosis, a condition where the cells that line the inside of the uterus (the endometrium) grow elsewhere in the body. I was given a course of injections of leuprorelin, a drug that blocks the production of oestrogen. Leuprorelin is not fussy: it can block testosterone in men and oestrogen in women, hence it\u2019s used to treat prostate cancer and chemically castrate paedophiles, as well as to calm down inflamed female pelvises.<\/p>\n