Alice in weight-loss wonderland
Our weight-loss columnist Alice Dogruyol, who has type 1 diabetes, shares her recent experience of having a midlife MOT with WomenWise, and what it revealed.
I’d been so busy with work, family, travel and trying to lose weight that I almost forgot my 46th birthday this summer! Perhaps I’d been subconsciously trying to forget it. Whilst I do feel and see changes in my body, skin, energy, and mood – and not for the better – Itend to attribute them to diabetes rather than perimenopause. And while all my girlfriends seem to be constantly talking about their menopausal symptoms, I have completely ignored mine, and I think I know why…
Not only do I go to the hospital and my GP regularly for diabetes-related check-ups, and never once have the words perimenopause or menopause come up, but also, I have been in denial that I must be perimenopausal because I still have a regular menstrual cycle and I still want to have a baby. Controversial, I know.
I have had multiple miscarriages, completed six rounds of IVF, and had five embryos frozen about four years ago; I’ve been waiting for the right time to attempt a frozen embryo transfer. I am acutely aware the clock is ticking but I have never felt the time was right, health-wise, to put one in. I have been dreaming that a surrogate will pop up out of nowhere and offer to carry my embryos, or that I will win the lottery and be able to afford to pay for one.
Given that I don’t play the lottery and a miracle is unlikely, I am continuing to gather as much information as I can on my own body, and get as healthy as I can, in the hope that one day I carry those embryos. I am a big believer in arming myself with as much knowledge as possible and advocating for my own health. After all, I saved my own life by diagnosing myself with type 1 diabetes when doctors kept telling me it was type 2.
SIMPLE AT-HOME TESTS
So, when a friend recommended WomenWise, which supports women through perimenopause and menopause with extensive testing, analysis and tailored plans, I jumped at the chance to see what it would reveal. My friend showed me the bespoke reports she’d received, and I was transfixed – I had never seen anything like it; it is the next frontier of women’s health.
The company was founded by Sarah Williamson, a nutritional therapist and researcher. She graduated from the Institute of Optimum Nutrition with distinction in 2003 and has run a successful private practi
