UK Edition
Liz Earle on menopause, midlife diets... and finding herself pregnant at 47
She’s written 35 books, launched an eponymous beauty brand, has five children and now runs a magazine. But Liz Earle doesn’t want to dwell on all that. Next, she wants to reframe the conversation about the menopause. Anna Magee reports.
In 1991, when low-fat was practically a religion, Liz Earle, a magazine writer not yet 30, wrote a book called Vital Oils about the importance of olive oil, nuts, seeds and avocado for health and skin. It became a bestseller. A few decades later, we’re now obsessed with healthy fats. It’s not the only time Liz has lit a spark that went on to became a megatrend.
Her botanical brand Liz Earle Beauty Co launched in 1995, at a time when natural skincare meant a jar of neem cream from a health food shop. She (and its other stakeholders) sold the company to Avon in 2010 for an undisclosed sum; when it was sold on five years later to a group including Boots, it went for a reported £140 million.
Liz now divides her time between a farm in the West Country – where she lives with her husband, film-maker and photographer Patrick Drummond, and her five children aged eight to 28 – and her south London studio, the headquarters of her newest venture, a bimonthly magazine called Liz Earle Wellbeing, which launched in 2016.
The team sit upstairs in a loft, while downstairs in the meeting room there is a gigantic fuchsia sofa, family photos everywhere and Basil – a terrier belonging to Liz’s daughter Lily – bouncing around. Then Liz appears, dressed head-to-toe in magazine-editor black, already animated. But she doesn’t want to talk empires and beauty oils. She wants to talk menopause.
2010 was a momentous year for Liz. In her late 40s, as she prepared to sell her business to a multinational, she became pregnant with her fifth child. ‘It was an unexpected blessing,’ she says with a giggle. ‘I was 47, I’d been told my hormone levels were fluctuating, so I took my eye off the ball and didn’t even realise I was pregnant until about 20 weeks in.’
The menopause and its lead-up (perimenopause) similarly wrong-footed her. ‘Pregnancy and then breastfeeding meant my hormones were all over the place, so I put it all down to having a small baby.’ But in hindsight, the sleepless nights and headaches were actually perimenopausal symptoms.
She had assumed that menopause would simply involve her periods stopping and hot flushes. ‘In no way did I think these were perimenopause or menopause symptoms. I was quite stressed because it was when the beauty business was being sold and we spent a lot of time on transatlantic flights. Later, I had a new baby and then was breastfeeding, which obviously affected my hormones – so the whole experience was very blurred.’
The average age for the menopause in Britain is 51, but symptoms can start up to a decade before, during the time known as the perimenopause. And, according to Liz, it’s not just a question of suffering from hot flushes – sleeplessness was a big issue for her, especially as she had always slept well until then.
While writing The Good Menopause Guide, Liz contacted numerous experts. ‘They said, “Obviously... your low levels of oestrogen will be interfering with your sleep cycle.’’ It wasn’t obvious to me, nor is it obvious to other women because people rarely talk about it.’
She also experienced splitting headaches, as well as tinnitus. ‘I used to get a light drumming sound in my ears, which I thought I’d have to live with. I now know that we have oestrogen receptors all over our bodies, including in our inner ear. I have friends who’ve gone to audiology clinics and specialists, and nobody has ever said to them, “Oh, you’re a midlife woman, clearly you should try some oestrogen because that may well help your tinnitus.”’
After receiving her first prescription for HRT, she slept through the night for the first time in ages. ‘I don’t think women realise that oestrogen works instantly on many symptoms.’ The headaches disappeared too. Her other – rather more unusual – weapon to tackle symptoms is her ‘menopause cake’, packed with phytoestrogens (plant oestrogen) found in foods such as tofu, sunflower seeds, linseeds and soya flour. ‘It’s kind of an icebreaker,’ says Liz.
‘You can bake it for friends, family, colleagues and it starts the conversation.’ These days, she is a proponent of intermittent fasting. ‘I tend to finish my supper by 8pm and won’t have my next meal until around midday the following day. It’s been drilled into us for so long that we must have breakfast,’ says Liz. ‘But how much of that is being pushed by a food industry that wants us to buy its cereals and granola bars? I realised I wasn’t hungry until 11am, 12pm or even 1pm.’
She follows a protein-rich diet and is suspicious of eating plans that suggest reducing or removing fat in midlife. ‘We need cholesterol and good-quality fats to make hormones, so the last thing you should be doing as a midlife woman is going low-fat. You also need good-quality oils, such as olive and rapeseed, and avocado, nuts, seeds, whole milk, as well as meat from animals who have been grass-fed if you can, as it contains more omega-3 fats than intensively farmed animals.’
A few years ago she also started running, and now she regularly goes for short – and slow – jogs. ‘I think my shape is better now, but then I’m running and am more active.’ Back to the menopause, and Liz says she is astounded by how unaware many women in their middle years remain – they don’t, she points out, know what to expect other than periods stopping and hot flushes.
‘We’re being let down by the lack of information from so many GPs who haven’t been taught and don’t understand it. And I don’t blame them, they haven’t had the resources.’ She has also been working with MPs, discussing menopause provision in the workplace.
‘If you ask any head of HR, “What’s your maternity or paternity policy?” they’ll produce a document. If you say, “What’s your menopause policy?” there’s silence.’ She adds, ‘You may need to have flexible working, you may need to have access to proper GP provision, you may need to have a fan on your desk… just an awareness for employers that there may be someone in your midst who may be needing extra support.’
Liz Earle will appear at Stella Live, a two-day event at the Saatchi Gallery, London, from 10-11 May. Tickets from £50 (plus booking fee). Visit stellalive.co.uk or call 0800 316 6977