11/09/2025
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5 Surprising Truths About Menopause Hidden in Michael Meyer Author debut Book of short stories...
Introduction: Breaking the Silence
For many, menopause is a mysterious and often silent transition, a private chapter spoken about in whispers, if at all. But its true impact extends far beyond hot flashes and night sweats, sending ripples through families, careers, and a woman's very sense of self. The full story of this profound life stage is rarely told.
A new book of fictional short stories, 'Where’s Mum? Stories of Love, Loss And Menopause' by Dr. Michael D. Meyer, offers a rare, humanising glimpse into these profound and often misunderstood realities. Born from a place of raw vulnerability, the author admits that writing the book "genuinely helped save our marriage". It turns personal struggles into powerful narratives, uncovering truths that are as surprising as they are essential for everyone to understand.
1. Most Doctors Aren't Trained to Treat It
One of the most startling revelations in the book comes not from a character's story, but from the author himself. Dr. Meyer, despite his medical background as a doctor of chiropractic, admits he had no formal education on menopause in graduate school. More shockingly, he points out that this is the norm for most doctors in various health and medical fields.
"I had no formal education about the menopause in graduate school, as is the case for most types of doctors in various health and medical fields. That is shocking, unacceptable and needs to change."
This admission reframes the struggle so many women face in getting proper care. It isn't a personal failure to find the right answers; it’s a direct consequence of a systemic blind spot within the medical community itself. This lack of training has real-world consequences, leaving women to navigate terrifying symptoms, like cognitive decline, entirely on their own.
2. The Brain Fog Can Feel Like Early-Onset Alzheimer's
The cognitive symptoms of menopause are often dismissed as simple "brain fog," but the story "Fog-Outs" reveals a much more terrifying reality. The protagonist, Cora, experiences what she calls "fog-outs", episodes so severe they lead her to believe she is developing Alzheimer's, just like her grandmother. Her experiences are harrowing. She gets completely lost on a familiar drive, finding herself on the motorway to Cork when she meant to be heading to Mayo. During a chess lecture she had delivered for fifteen years, her mind goes completely blank mid-sentence. Cora’s story powerfully illustrates that the mental symptoms of menopause can be just as debilitating and frightening as the physical ones, attacking a woman's confidence and her grasp on her own mind. Her story forces us to ask: how many women are silently terrified they are losing their minds, when in fact they are navigating a natural, treatable transition?
3. It Can Unravel a Personality and Burn Every Bridge
Menopause can do more than alter a woman's body; it can fundamentally change her personality and isolate her from her entire world. In "Marriage Counselling," we meet Maggie, who doesn't realise that a shift in her demeanor has left her angry, judgmental, and alone. Always on a rampage about something, the price of petrol, "illegal immigrants flooding the country," or politics—she has systematically ostracised all her friends and alienated her husband.
Her painful moment of clarity comes when she discovers her social media "friends" list has been cut in half because she has been blocked by people she pushed away. Maggie had to face the fact that she not only wasn’t the same, and she wouldn’t want to be friends with someone like herself. Maggie now understood that it wasn’t Facebook that had the glitch; it was, in fact, her.
It's a cruel paradox: the very symptoms of menopause can cause a woman to unknowingly tear down her own support system, leaving her utterly alone just when she needs connection the most. And that isolation doesn't just affect her; it creates a painful void for her entire family.
4. It's a Family Story, Not Just a Woman's Story
The silence surrounding menopause doesn't just affect the woman experiencing it; it creates a painful void for her loved ones. The book's title story, "Where’s Mum?", is told from the perspective of a young son, Ben, who watches his vibrant, football-coaching mother transform into a withdrawn and silent stranger.
He recalls the small, heartbreaking changes: she no longer drives his friends home after practice, sitting silently in the car instead. He feels her emotional distance, poignantly capturing the self-blaming pain of a child in this situation: "He wondered what he’d done to make his Mum not like him anymore." The devastating climax comes when she misses his cup final victory, the biggest day of his young life. As he stands on the pitch, triumphant, he locks eyes with his family in the stands and mouths the words, 'Where's Mum?'.
Ben's story shows that when menopause isn't discussed, children and partners are left feeling confused, hurt, and even responsible, leading to fractures that can tear a family apart and force those suffering to look for help in the most unexpected places.
5. Sometimes, the Best Solutions Aren't in a Pharmacy
In a culture that often looks for a pharmaceutical fix, the path to healing can be unconventional. The story "Feckin Hippies" follows Dr. Emily, a general practitioner confident she can manage her own perimenopause. However, she finds that conventional Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is a "disaster" for her, causing debilitating headaches and rashes.
Desperate, she follows a path suggested by her husband's "hippie" mother: a healing ritual using magic mushroom tea. The experience proves to be profoundly effective, allowing Dr. Emily to understand her transition and reconnect with herself and her husband. The story’s power lies not in rejecting modern medicine, but in integrating it with ancient wisdom. As the book notes, her mother-in-law learned how HRT was a lifesaver for countless women, while "Dr. Emily learned about natural healing and treatments that were once common thousands of years ago," ultimately expanding her "arsenal of weapons against the menopause." It suggests that the path forward requires a broader, more open-minded toolkit for both doctors and patients.
A Call for Conversation
Taken together, these stories peel back the layers of silence to reveal a painful cycle: a medical system untrained to help (Truth 1) leaves women to suffer terrifying symptoms in isolation (Truth 2), which can alter their personalities (Truth 3) and fracture their families (Truth 4), forcing them to seek healing in unexpected places (Truth 5).
The book's author sees his work not as a set of answers, but as a "platform of discussion" intended to break the "shrouded bubble of silence." If these stories teach us anything, it's that this conversation is long overdue.
