I gave birth at 42 when I was in perimenopause | HELLO!

Everyone knows how exhausting those first few months of motherhood can be. Now imagine adding crippling anxiety and (even more) disrupted sleep to those emotional and physically draining first few years? This was the challenge facing Colette Courtion, the CEO of intimate wellness brand Joylux, who fell pregnant in her 40s while experiencing symptoms of menopause. "I gave birth at 42 - when I was in perimenopause," she explains to HELLO! "While I was caring for a child I was also dealing with [perimenopause symptoms]."Menopause is not something that many women in their 30s think about, yet a new study has found that over 50% of women may experience symptoms of perimenopause as early as 35 - a period of life when many women are also welcoming babies for the first time. © Shutterstock / Natalia DeriabinaAt 38, Emma Smith began experiencing unexplained exhaustion, anxiety and disrupted sleep, which she initially put down to the demands of raising her energetic two-year-old daughter. But as...