Hot Flush started as a creative concept in 2023 while I was walking along the South West Coastal Path. Originally envisioned as an art project exploring the menopause transition, fast forward to 2025, where it evolved into a desire to write about menopause support services, news, and stories in North Devon. This led me to create an online newsletter, which is where I am now.
My name is Sharon Gale, I’m 56, and I spent my forties wandering around in a daze, often getting caught on door handles (it’s more common than you think), with clumsy-itis, misplacing stuff, forgetting names and what things were called. I didn’t know who I was anymore, I mean, what was the point of me? I was unaware of fluctuating hormones, and so it seems, were the healthcare professionals I visited, when constant UTIs, sleepless nights with night sweats, were as common as rain on a bank holiday. This was back in Hertfordshire before I moved to Westward Ho! in 2020 (where the hubby was born). By 2021, I felt like a 95-year-old, joints hurting with brain fog; it was time to learn about what was happening to me.
Having watched Davina McCall’s TV programme Sex, Myths and The Menopause, and prompted by my Mother-in-Law, I went to see my GP to talk about HRT (luckily, he was very sympathetic). I was doing more research and joined a menopause support group on Facebook, It is here that I was truly shocked to read how women were being fobbed off by their GP, not listened to, and patronised by the healthcare system. Some women were leaving their jobs, partners, and families. Some were so broken that a post on the group was a cry for help to talk them out of doing something awful to themselves.
I read these posts and felt sad and angry at how women’s health has been the poor relation for so long. As an artist, art educator and Director of Community Engagement at Studio KIND. (a contemporary art gallery and project space in Barnstaple), I had collaborated with local support groups, charities, and individuals advocating for well-being in the community. After a few conversations, it was clear that education around menopause was sparse in the locality, so I decided to write a proposal for the gallery to host a Menopause Information and Support in-person event. I’ve never done anything like this before, and believe me, the anxiety spiked at the thought of it. But here I am, as I write this first post, we are only 5 weeks away from it happening on June 5th 2025, 7-9 pm.