Welcome!

I’m Madeleine Collins, a journalist and former senior magazine editor of 20 years, a busy mom of two young daughters, a wife, and yes, a 50-year-old woman!

I’ve created this health and wellness platform for women in midlife by combining my professional background with my own personal experiences, to help others demystify the physical and emotional challenges we face during this very significant time of our lives.

I was inspired to start the website because for the past 5-ish years it feels like one puzzling physical and/or emotional change after another has occurred. From debilitating hormonal migraines to shifting teeth and severe gum recession, a crackling knee that’s never gone away, foggy brain and weird anxiety, lingering family issues that still bother me (aren’t we supposed to have all that stuff worked out by now?), nagging neck pain, and of course, the onset of menopause.

It’s easy to attribute a lot of the physical aspects to getting older but I found that I was using my age as an excuse too often, and I’m only 50, after all! We’re all different of course, but the reality is that a lot does change for women around this time of our lives.  

This website is for all women trying to navigate the highs and lows of life in their 40s and 50s, and I know ‘midlife’ isn’t the most fun word but it’s better than middle-aged, isn’t it?!

Some featured articles are inspired by my own questions and challenges, many have and continue to come from conversations with friends, while others are instigated by news stories that I want to dig deeper into.

I’ll be focusing all areas of womens health, with a particular focus on menopause issues, as well as parenting, spirituality, relationships, caring for ageing parents, finances, and much more. With the advice of board-certified medical professionals and various other wellness experts in their fields, I’ll be breaking down the challenges and offering answers, support and solutions that can hopefully help in your life.

And while we all experience midlife in various ways and with different struggles, women are often more interconnected than we think. The words of strangers can be so powerful when they resonate, and that’s why a special part of the website is dedicated to your own personal stories for the Your Stories page, if you would like to share. Not just about what the doctors tell us, but how you’ve met with a challenge and found a way to deal with it and/or overcome it.

If you’d asked me years ago what life would look like at 50, I’d have probably thought I’d be well on my way to having all the answers. But that’s not the beauty of this journey of twists and turns that we call life!

I’ll be employing a lot of keyboard courage writing about certain articles that might make me seriously blush if said in person over coffee! But these are conversations that I know have to be had.

And I would love to hear from you. What stories would you like covered? What are you struggling with that I can help find answers for? Do you have a personal story you would like to share? If you’re not comfortable writing it, I can interview you, write it up and you get full editorial approval. It’s your story! Please email me here any time. And please do leave comments at the end of articles in case your advice or experience on the subject can help others.

Thanks so much for being here,

Maddy x