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L<\/span>adies! Are you tired all the time, sweaty and hot, or headachy? Do you have a range of the vague complaints (laziness, hysteria, dissolute habits, general languishing) that would have seen you committed to a 19th-century asylum? Are you lacking in joie de vivre? Maybe you\u2019re perimenopausal!<\/p>\n Or maybe you\u2019re not: being tired, hot and over everything are also symptoms of simply being alive in spring 2026. That\u2019s not what the internet wants you to believe, though: last week, experts issued a warning about the deluge of perimenopause and menopause misinformation online and the risks that can pose to women, including unwanted pregnancies and a failure to seek a diagnosis for serious health conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone thinks they\u2019re menopausal,\u201d said Dr Paula Briggs, a consultant in sexual and reproductive health . She\u2019s citing the unwanted pregnancies she had seen, working in abortion care services, in \u201cgobsmacked\u201d women who thought they were no longer fertile. \u201cI look at things like Instagram \u2026 and I am horrified,\u201d Briggs added. Dr Channa Jayasena, a reproductive endocrinology expert, said there was \u201ca risk that some women are being mislabelled as having perimenopause when they have other things that are wrong\u201d. It\u2019s something the campaigning gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter has also warned against.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the worst case; it might just hit us in the wallet. In the US, doctors recently warned about the \u201cvery aggressive\u201d marketing of meno-washed products and supplements that make big promises without good scientific evidence.<\/p>\n I barely notice this stuff now, I realise. It\u2019s the online water in which I, a midlife woman, swim: dire warnings about depleted bone density and \u201cmenobelly\u201d; surprising symptoms; targeted ads for collagen and creatine; influencers flogging supplements; \u201csupport\u201d services offering hormonal testing and online testosterone prescriptions; menopause \u201ccool moments\u201d tea; menopause chocolate; \u201cmoisture-wicking\u201d meno-friendly nighties. A frustrated menopause specialist pharmacist posted her own, only slightly more absurd, version on LinkedIn: a meno-pen; meno-tape, for when your life is falling apart; meno-water (\u201csame product, higher price\u201d).<\/p>\n But all that meno-messaging can influence your appraisal of what\u2019s happening in your brain and body. Things I have attributed to hormonal depletion recently include repeatedly losing my keys and headphones, an inability to focus on an article about the US political adviser Stephen Miller, hiding pecan nuts from my husband, aching hips and a pervasive sense of: \u201cWhat\u2019s the point?\u201d Maybe it\u2019s perimenopause; maybe I\u2019m just human?<\/p>\n The thing is, women are used to having to help ourselves when it comes to our health. Centuries of medical misogyny (the kind that saw women put in asylums for \u201cuterine derangement\u201d) meant our health concerns were dismissed and minimised, and, dismally, that continues. Endometriosis sufferers struggle, often for years, to get a diagnosis and report feeling they are \u201cgaslit by doctors\u201d. The recent \u201crebranding\u201d of PCOS as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) sought to address a history of poor support, confusion and struggles with diagnosis for sufferers.<\/p>\n Women\u2019s postnatal health concerns are neglected by \u201cdangerously underfunded\u201d services in the UK and elsewhere (a doctor recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about struggling to find treatment for serious postpartum issues). A Mumsnet report drawing on a decade of users\u2019 posts from the site paints a picture of a system where women fail to get the healthcare they need, with symptoms \u201cbrushed aside, treated as psychological, or simply not believed\u201d; in a survey published with the report, 64% said they had been explicitly told pain or symptoms were \u201cnormal\u201d or \u201cin their head\u201d.<\/p>\n So women become, by necessity, detectives and DIYers, relying on word of mouth, tipoffs, trial and error, and alternative remedies when the medical establishment fails them. Maybe the fatigue and pain your overstretched GP doesn\u2019t seem worried about, or particularly interested in, is perimenopause? It might be; you can see why women decide it\u2019s at least worth investigating, maybe trying a supplement or shelling out for an online consultation.<\/p>\n And for unscrupulous or at least unbothered online entrepreneurs, that also makes us easy marks. This menopause gold rush is capitalising on women\u2019s health not being taken seriously \u2013 at best it\u2019s cynical and at worst, actively harmful. It\u2019s enough to make any woman hot under the collar \u2013 though of course, there\u2019s a \u00a315.99 \u201cMenopause & Me wearable neck fan\u201d for that.<\/p>\n Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n