‘Put up a front’: Pip Edwards reflects on going through menopause at 39

The fashion designer has reflected on her experience, saying she “never thought it would happen” to her at 39.

Pip Edwards has reflected on her experience going through menopause, saying she “never thought it would happen” to her at 39.

The P.E. Nation co-founder – now Ksubi creative director – was in “denial” when she first started getting “extreme” hot flushes and struggling to sleep five years ago.

Rather than take her symptoms into consideration, Edwards, now 44, told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday she felt she had to “put on this brave front and not talk about what I’ve just experienced overnight”.

“I never thought it would happen to me at 39, so it wasn’t even on my radar,” she added.

“I would turn up to work obviously a bit frazzled, very drained, quite tired, emotional … Well, you can only put up a front for so long.”

Pip Edwards has reflected on her experience going through menopause, saying she ‘never thought it would happen’ to her at 39. Picture: Richard Dobson

A new Dove Menopause Insight study of 1030 working Australian women aged 35 to 60 found more than half struggling with menopause symptoms – which can include sleep disorder, memory lapses, muscle and joint pain, headaches and hot flushes – have either quit their job, taken time off or are considering cutting back due to a lack of workplace support.

Forty-five per cent of those experiencing symptoms felt they weren’t performing their best at work.

“As a woman, you kind of have to piece it together yourself,” Edwards said.

“There’s no one road map and I’m letting other women know that it is a bit of a hard one to tackle. At the end of the day, you just want to know that you’re not doing this alone.”

’As a woman, you kind of have to piece it together yourself.’ Picture: Instagram

‘At the end of the day, you just want to know that you’re not doing this alone.’ Picture: Supplied

The mum-of-one has been candid about her “exhausting” struggle with perimenopause in the past, first revealing the health battle in March 2023.

In an interview last September with Phoebe Burgess on her podcast, Under The Gloss, Edwards said the hot flushes she experienced were so “debilitating” they made her “want to cry”.

“I have about six a night – they really ramp up at night. I’m literally in a state of (feeling) so hot and wet, clothes come off, bedsheets wet, and then I get really freezing so my clothes come back on, and it’s like that all night,” she explained.

“And now it’s started to happen in the mornings, in the day. So, I’m not sleeping. I wake up crying.”

The mum-of-one has been candid about her ‘exhausting’ struggle with the condition. Picture: Instagram

Edwards, pictured with son, Justice, has also spoken at length about the condition’s impact on her fertility. Picture: Instagram

She’s also spoken at length about the condition’s impact on her fertility – “robbing” her of the option to freeze her eggs and one day “potentially” have another baby.

“It was more of a selfless (choice), because it wasn’t about my option – it would be the option of my (future) partner. Because I have a beautiful child and I love him, and I always would’ve potentially wanted more, but it’s not anything because I love him and I’ve got him,” Edwards said, referring to her son, Justice.

“But if the love of my life is around the corner and the deal breaker for him is (having) a kid, then I’d want to give that to him. It’s (about having) the choice.”

When Covid hit, however, and the procedure to have her eggs frozen was deemed an elective surgery, it was no longer possible.

“My eggs, they’re gone. I’ve not even gone back to check. I just know,” Edwards said.

“I’m not getting my period. Can’t even get the eggs. We’re (hot) flushing like it’s the 80s.”