Off Air... with Jane and Fi - OFF AIR…EXTRA (with Lisa Snowdon and TENA)

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

In this special bonus episode brought to you by TENA, Jane and Fi sit down with model, author and women’s health advocate Lisa Snowdon.As part of Menopause awareness month, Lisa joins the ladies to talk about all the ups and downs of being a woman over 40 - and hopefully break down some of the stigma and encourage open conversation around women’s health.For more information, visit TENA.co.uk to explore expert advice and product solutions tailored for women experiencing bladder sensitivity during menopause.If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] us on Instagram! @janeandfiPodcast Producer: Eve SalusburyExecutive Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special episode of Offair is brought to you by Tenor. We've been talking to model, radio presenter and author Lisa Snowden about the menopause, perimenopause and just what it's like to be a woman over the age of 40. As some of you might know, it's not always easy. There are ups, there are ups, there are a few downs. And it can be quite a challenge. period of your life. Now, what we loved about Lisa was that she was honest, plain speaking, but still has a proper zest for life. She's well worth listening to. Don't forget, you can visit

tenor.co.com. UK to explore expert advice and product solutions, tailored for women, experiencing bladder sensitivity during the menopause. So let's hear our chat with Lisa Snowden. Lisa, it used to be the case that nobody talked about the menopause. Sometimes I think now everyone's talking about it, but that's a good thing. Are you, someone who knew a lot about what it might involve or did the whole thing come as a bit of a surprise to you and not a very nice one? Yeah, absolutely. It was back in 2014. So this is like over 10 years ago when I first started experiencing what I now know to be premenopausal symptoms. And I hadn't, I didn't even know that word existed. That's how not on my radar the kind of

menopause and premenopause was. I obviously had heard about the menopause, but for me, I thought it was going to happen so much later on in life and not when I was in my kind of early 40s, when I was looking and feeling the way I was. So, yeah, it was something that I identified with being maybe a very frail, older lady with white hair and a zimmer frame. I mean, that's how ignorant I was to it. So it did come as a big, big surprise.

What do you think are the pieces of information that would have been really helpful to know when you first started experiencing? the menopause? Well, I think for me, the menopause was your period stop and you get hot flushes. They were the only two symptoms that I remember sort of identifying with the menopause. So I think if I had known that, A, it started earlier to maybe start expecting it in my 40s and just a few more of the symptoms to have been told about those. I mean, I speak about this a lot in school you just you talk about puberty pregnancy and periods and there's no word of premenopause

there's no education surrounding menopause and there really needs to be because that was the loneliest part for me was trying to navigate it alone and understand what was happening to me um so yeah that was the tricky that was the tricky time and i think when you don't know what's happening it's a very scary time you just think you're going mad or i did at least i was very over-emotional didn't want to leave the house some days and it was a very scary time. So everybody's different and you've described brilliantly your mental health symptoms which absolutely exist and a lot of people will recognise them. But can you tell us about a physical change that you noticed relatively early on?

Some of the physical changes were aches and pains, weight gain, pelvic floor issues that was something that you know I was trying to get the key in the house to the door and I was trying to get in and I was like literally dancing on the spot so those changes I used to get bladder infections

from time to time lack of libido so yeah there was there was a lot of and they varied throughout my 40s they weren't all coming on at the same time you know it's sort of like a roller coaster So as one symptom finishes, another one kind of rears its ugly head. So it was a sort of juggling act of all these different symptoms.

And I didn't know what was going on. I mean, looking back now, I probably wasn't moving enough. I wasn't eating as well as I should be. And I was definitely drinking too much. So I can kind of put that down to some of the weight gain that was happening. And some of the sleep deprivation that I was also having, because obviously if you're eating too late and drinking too much, that obviously impacts it as well.

So yeah, it was all of those symptoms really, which are really unpleasant. But I know that if anybody is listening who is entering their perimenopause years, I don't want people to be scared, I just want them to be prepared. Because there is so much more talk about menopause. And I think the younger generation is freaking out about it a little bit because there's, you know, 60, 70 symptoms and counting. And people are like, oh, my God, I'm going to get them all, which you obviously won't. Yeah. And it's not a life sentence.

It's something that you can travel through. But you're absolutely right. we all need the information and I think you're also right to point out what so many women do which is to think uh you know my body is no longer able to cope with the things that I used to be doing so you've said you weren't eating right and you were drinking too much and all that kind of stuff but there just comes a point doesn't there where you can no longer do that whereas literally six months earlier you were fine to do all of those things and it's acknowledging that our bodies are telling us something isn't it which is not always a negative

thing. It's sometimes saying, hang on, loves, you know, you're on Amber here, but you can go to greed instead of going to red. Yeah, absolutely. It is, our bodies are giving us these signs and these little signals. And, you know, I've always said that as well. We always get this gut instinct to women's intuition. We kind of know what's going on. We get our body's here to protect us. And we don't often listen to those signals or those signs. So it's really important to have those moments of reflection and to be like, hang on, what, you know, take some accountability for. What did I do yesterday? If you're lying in bed at night and you're having those palpitations or you're having those hot flushes, you know, did I maybe drink too much coffee? Did I drink

that extra glass of wine? It's kind of take an agency of what you're doing. It's a, it's responsibility. We know what we need to do, but it's just in those moments. Say, for example, you've had a horrible night of tossing and turning and running to the loo every five minutes and hot flushes and night sweats, you know, the next day you are more inclined, or I was more inclined to reach for an extra cup of coffee, which then kind of exacerbated my anxiety. And then at the end of the day, when I got there, I was like, yes, I'm going to drink a glass of wine, but maybe not just have a glass, have half a bottle. So, yeah, I think we need to take, I need to take more responsibility for what I was putting

inside my body and what I was doing. I'm really glad you've talked about the nights and the really peculiar anxiety. I seem to remember waking up a lot at the really weird time of 17 minutes past three in the morning. And you start catastrophizing, don't you? Then it's just before you know it, it's 20 past five. And you've got to get up. The alarm's going off at a quarter past six. And it just makes you feel really, really rough the next day.

Yeah. sleep is so gosh like I mean I love my sleep so much it's one of my favorite things for me a win is getting into my kind of pajamas early and like eating early being in by by 830 is just is just like a joy for me and yeah getting a good eight hour sleep if I can those early mornings when like you said you wake up and your heart's like pounding and you just start everything is just crushing you your brain and you just can't focus and you're just like everything's going wrong. And then as you say, you keep looking at the clock and the hours are ticking by and you're still not resting. And then you're like, how am I supposed to get through the day? So it's really challenging. I think the three o'clock thing, it happens to a lot of us girls, actually. Some people say, I think in the Eastern kind of medicine, they say that's the liver.

And that kind of makes sense to me because it's like if you have had a glass of wine or something, it's your liver processing in the middle of the night. But it's also definitely your hormones going haywire. Yeah. We shouldn't ignore the enormous positives about the menopause, Lisa, should we? I mean, let's just cheer to the rafters. No more periods. No more periods. No more pain. It's been five years for me and it's just so liberating not having, because towards the end I had very heavy periods. I'm sure you both can appreciate how erratic they are and you never knew when it was going to happen. So it was always sort of on red alert with spare underwear and lots of.

sanitary products with you so that was always quite a bit of a challenge so yeah no periods i think um what's also really beautiful is it again going back to kind of eastern medicine and eastern culture is that they see this as your second spring so it's like this new kind of rebirth and reconnection with yourself so all that energy that was kind of in your uterus to procreate for fertility is now free to kind of travel up to your heart and you're able to have this lovely reconnecting with yourself and this kind of yeah just this gorgeous time for you um and are you enjoying it yeah absolutely enjoy your life and maybe do all those things that have been maybe you've been quite fearful of especially due due to the perimenopausal or the menopausal symptoms um the anxiety

that some people do experience and that sort of a lot of people want to leave work so it's like having this new sense of self and this kind of new empowered um time for you to step into something that maybe you've been too scared to do before, making more time for you, traveling more, maybe a new career. It's like it's a time to celebrate. When you were feeling rubbish physically and mentally, did you go to the doctor, Lisa? I did go to the doctor. I went to the doctor very early 40s and I literally had a breakdown in the appointment and he was just like you're clearly depressed. and I did feel depressed. I just felt very odd, very unlike myself. I felt fed up. And I just thought, really, is this it? Is this my lot?

And I'm not really that kind of person. I'm pretty positive. And obviously, as you know, very short time in the appointment to get your kind of what's going on across to the doctor. And I just burst into tears. And so he did prescribe me antidepressants. And I just knew that that wasn't what I needed.

that's not to say that there is a place for antidepressants that sits alongside HRT, but it was definitely HRT that I needed. But because it was early 40s, it's not seen as a sort of, it's not, I think 45 and over is when the doctor will take you seriously to consider that this could be perimenopause. So in my early 40s, that wasn't considered, and so I was prescribed antidepressants, which I did take for a very short while, but they didn't really do anything. I think one of the things that we should also celebrate, Lisa, is exactly this. It is the fact that we can all talk about the menopause in society now, can't we?

And we can have open conversations about our symptoms and we can sometimes display our symptoms at work and in places that our mothers definitely, definitely would have had to hide their change. And that's what it used to be called, it wasn't it? The change. They'd have to hide the change away. And we should sing to the rafters about this. shouldn't we because it's just so helpful it's so helpful it's that's and that's all we need at this time it's education it's support it's a little like empathy from your work colleagues from your members of your family and and your support group whoever that is is your friends um your loved

ones so yeah we're thank goodness that we're able to talk about this it's no longer seen as taboo and as a shameful thing like you said it was like like, oh, don't talk to her. She's going through the change. It was all very hush, hush. It was all very, oh, gosh, no, she's going to burst into tears. It was always, it seemed like something that was infectious, you know. So luckily now we can talk about it, and it's not judged in the same way. It's just taken with support and care and love, and that's all we need. Yeah, and you can still have fun.

I mean, those of us who have been through it, I don't spend every night. working on a tapestry and then, you know, wearing a very thick wincey nightdress and then going to bed at nine. Actually, some nights I do. But there are still laughs to be had. And you can, for example, I was never much good at processing alcohol. I'm still not much good, but I enjoy the occasional drink. And that is okay, isn't it? Absolutely. It's okay. Yeah, totally. I mean, that's like, I love going to bed early. Don't get me wrong, but I've just got back from a weekend with George and we had a great time. We stayed out late. We went out. We had tequila. It's like, you know, I'm not, I'm not, don't, do you know what I mean?

I still want to go out and have a lot of fun and I want to have a nice date night and I want to go out with my friends. But it's just, I'm a bit better when I have routine. That's the only thing. That doesn't mean I'm at home knitting or, yes, like you said in my, in my granny knickers. I still want to have a bit of fun and have, you know, nice underwear and feel good and feel empowered and definitely have the odd drink every now and then. I just think pick your poison, stick with one drink if you're going to go out. Don't mix drinks. We've learned that from a young age. Definitely not as you go into hormonal issues. And yeah, absolutely. Life's for living and life's too short. So 100% go out and have fun. Yeah. I was just going to say I would make the case as tequila being the late life drink for women because I don't make that. No, I think it's easy. I like a margarita. And I find I can process that better than anything else. I wrote about this and I did a bit of research. It is 100% the best drink for us ladies.

Firstly, it's natural. It's from the agave plant. And it's a happy drink. It's an upper. So you have a margarita and my gosh, it's just you feel fabulous, don't you? I don't think you have too many though, because I think two might be the max. Three, you get sloppy. No, I had three once and I lost my freedom pass. So we don't want that to happen again. Do you know what? I just enjoy the fact that being on HRT means that I can go to the loo when I choose instead of for when it chooses me. The lovely Lisa Snowden talking to us about all things, how can I put it? Mature life? I think that probably covers it. And if today's conversation resonated with you, head to tenor.com.uk to learn more about how tenor is supporting women through the menopause, with expert

advice, community stories and products designed to help you feel confident every day. Congratulations. You've staggered somehow to the end of another off-air with Jane and Fee. Thank you. If you'd like to hear us do this live, and we do it live, every day, Monday to Thursday, 2 till 4 on Times radio. The jeopardy is off the scale. And if you listen to this, you'll understand exactly why that's the case. So you can get the radio online on DAB or on the free Times Radio app. Offair is produced by Eve Salisbury and the executive producer is Rosie Cutler.