In her late 20s Michelle Sutherland went for fertility tests at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy as she had been struggling to get pregnant.
But nothing prepared her for the results.
It turned out to be the worst day of the then 27-year-old’s life.
“I had been off the pill for a couple of years because my husband and I had been trying for a baby,” Michelle from Crosshill, Fife says.
“But when nothing happened I went to see my GP about it.
“I was then referred to Victoria Hospital for fertility tests.
“I had a couple of tests and my husband and I went back to the hospital for the results.
“But when we arrived, we were taken into a room.
“And I will never forget the doctor’s face.
“He told me I would never be able to have babies. He said I was actually post-menopause and as a result, I had no eggs left at all.
“It was the biggest shock and I just couldn’t stop crying.”
Michelle, 48, later found out she had gone into premature menopause at the age of 15.
This was after tests confirmed she had been through the menopause and her experience made her realise her symptoms had started when she was a teenager.
But despite seeing various doctors hundreds of times over the years, she wasn’t able to get a formal diagnosis until over ten years later.
Now she runs a support group to help raise awareness of menopause symptoms and help other women going through the ‘change of life’.
Michelle’s menopause symptoms
When Michelle was 15 she started an apprenticeship at a hairdresser’s in Burntisland, where she is originally from.
But she started noticing something unusual was happening with her body.
“The sweat was absolutely pouring from me and I was having constant hot flushes, it was really strange,” she recalls.
“I remember a lot of the ladies coming in for shampoos and sets and they were all menopausal.
“They told me that they were sure I was going through the menopause when I told them about the hot flushes.
“But we just laughed it off because I was so young.”
Michelle also had other symptoms which included brain fog, memory problems, low mood and anxiety.
She continues: “At the time, doctors assumed it was all just anxiety.
“They kept doing tests, but couldn’t find anything.”
Michelle saw her GP and other doctors numerous times at her local surgery in Burntisland.
But she felt they weren’t taking her symptoms seriously.
“I ended up going with my mum because I felt they weren’t listening to me,” she says.
“Then they put me on the contraceptive pill to stop the hot flushes.
“I think I did ask a doctor if it could be early menopause, but they just brushed it off and completely dismissed it.”
Michelle’s struggles to get pregnant
In her early 20s Michelle moved to Edinburgh and registered with a new GP practice.
She was still having severe hot flushes at this time.
Michelle recalls being given tests for her thyroid and diabetes but when they came back normal, her condition was once again put down to anxiety.
“I stopped going to my GP eventually because I felt like a nuisance.”
In her mid-20s Michelle moved back to Burntisland where she met her future husband Bob, 50.
They started trying for a baby but when she struggled to get pregnant, her GP referred her for fertility tests.
The test results finally revealed why she had been having hot flushes and why she was struggling to conceive – she had gone through the menopause.
She was then referred to Perth Royal Infirmary for genetics testing and it revealed Michelle had a chromosome defect.
And this is what had triggered her premature menopause.
She says: “In the end I did feel better when I found that out because I was finally able to get some answers and learn exactly what was wrong with me.”
After learning they would never be able to conceive naturally, Michelle and Bob, decided to try IVF treatment using an egg donor so they could realise their dream of having a family.
IVF treatment with an egg donor
Unfortunately Michelle and Bob’s first attempt in 2012 wasn’t successful.
“After the embryo is implanted you have to wait ten days to find out if it has worked.
“But it didn’t work the first time we tried it which was really upsetting,” Michelle says.
“In my head I was starting to think having a baby wasn’t going to happen for us.
“Then out of the blue, in 2014, when I was 39, I got a call to say another egg donor had been found for us to try.
“And eventually it happened.
“After the embryo was put in the second time I just had a feeling that it had worked.
“Luckily for us it did.”
Michelle and Bob’s miracle baby girl
The couple had a baby girl on July 12, 2015 and they called her Taylor-Anne.
Michelle says: “I ended up having her by caesarean section as my blood pressure was a bit high.
“But I can still picture it in my head when I saw her for the first time I was so emotional.
“I remember I did have that worry of who she was going to look like because she came from an egg donor.
“But I needn’t have worried because we are actually very alike. We both have birth marks on our hand and neck.”
Michelle said she has told Taylor-Anne, 8, that she was conceived with the help of an egg donor.
“We decided to tell her this year as we felt she was old enough.
“At first she was a bit upset.
“But now she is actually looking forward to maybe meeting her egg donor one day in the future and maybe finding out she has a wee sibling somewhere.
“We will just have to wait and see what happens.”
Fife mum helping others going through menopause
To help her combat the hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms, which she continued to experience, Michelle was put on HRT treatment.
And she has been on it for the past five years.
“I struggled for a while to find the right HRT treatment that worked for me but now I have and it has changed my life. I feel more like myself again.”
As a result of her own experience, Michelle is now passionate about wanting to help others who are also going through early menopause and menopause.
She did an online course to qualify as a menopause wellbeing practitioner and now runs a monthly Fife support group at her sensory and wellbeing art club in Crosshill.
“It gives women the chance to talk about their experiences.
“They can discuss anything that they might be too embarrassed to share with anyone else.
“I also have a checklist of menopause symptoms.
“I go through the checklist with them they know what to look out for and speak to their GP.
“These can include hot flushes, anxiety and depression, night sweats, brain fog and irregular periods.
“At times when I have been really low I have found art therapy helps – painting landscapes and seascapes.
“So we sometimes do some art therapy at the group meetings too.”
She added: “I don’t want anyone else to struggle with menopausal symptoms like I did and feel like they have no-one to talk to.
“I want to use my experience to support others going through it so they can get the help they need.”
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