“Menopause” is really a point in time – the last menstrual period – though the term gets used to describe the whole process.

Typically, in Britain, the average age for the last period is 50 years old, but this can vary quite a lot from individual to individual.

It is generally stated that a normal range of ages would be between 45 and 55 years.

Earlier than 45 is considered a “Premature Menopause”. This can come about naturally, or can be precipitated by medical treatment such as surgery in or around the ovaries, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

For most of us this is the time to say “Welcome to the rest of my life”! Our periods have stopped, we don’t have to worry about getting pregnant any more and hopefully, we can now concentrate on enjoying the rest of our lives.

However, there’s obviously a bit of a cross over between the perimenopause and the post menopause because of confirming that your last period really was THE last one and letting those last few hormones settle down.

The menopause is a perfectly natural event - even though many experts make it sound more like an illness which somehow needs to be “cured”. As you go through the stages of the menopause you are likely to experience a variety of symptoms - some more common than others.

The most common symptoms seem to be:

• Menstrual cycle variations
• Hot flushes and night sweats
• Emotional lows
• Aches and pains
• Lack of libido
• Weight gain
• Reduced bone strength

During the Perimenopause the pattern of your periods will change, becoming more irregular and erratic. They may also become heavier than previously.

Because the biological processes controlling the hormones which trigger periods developed in a time when few people lived beyond middle age, our fertility starts to reduce after our twenties. Some variation to the menstrual cycle thereafter is not uncommon, although not always noticeable.

However, some women can carry on right up to the point of their Menopause with little change to their cycle, but for others their periods may be erratic for a few years.

The conclusion is that its difficult to judge exactly when a change to the menstrual cycle means you’ve entered into the Perimenopause.

The majority of women experience these at some time during the menopause. When we were thinking about setting up this website, we asked an independent research company to run a survey of 200 menopausal women, and 70% of those who reported symptoms had experienced these daytime hot flushes as well as night sweats.

There’s no telling when they’ll happen or how frequently. Some women experience mild symptoms, but others have reported quite distressingly severe hot flushes. They start in the core of the body and rapidly spread out to leave you hot, flushed and sweaty. In extreme cases you can end up with uncomfortably wet clothes.

At night you can awake, heart thumping, finding yourself with soggy pyjamas and unpleasantly damp and cold bedding – and an unhappy partner!

This can affect your life greatly, leading to a feeling of not being in control, with the general listlessness and lack of energy that goes with lack of sleep. It doesn’t help that we may be going through the menopause at the time of great turmoil in our domestic lives – children may be leaving home, decisions have to be made about our future lives and our partners may also be going through a form of male menopause, questioning their own futures etc.

We may be going back to work after a career break, having to share a workplace with much younger people – it can all lead to lack of confidence and unhappiness.

This is what got me started on this project – I tried to find clothes, bedding and products that would help me cope and it wasn’t easy. But with much research and help, we’ve come up with a range of products all aimed at specifically relieving the symptoms of the menopause experienced by so many women.