'How I use stand-up to cope with perimenopause'

Sarah Stenton said her first show made her realise stand-up comedy was the thing for her

When Sarah Strenton started a Facebook blog in 2017 to help her cope with going through perimenopause, she had no idea it would eventually lead to her doing stand-up comedy.

The former estate agency owner, 53, from Much Wenlock in Shropshire, now has 54,000 followers on her blog, Middle Age Madness, and travels across the UK performing stand-up about her experiences.

Her first show was in February, to a crowd of 20 women, after people encouraged her to give it a try.

"The minute I heard those ladies laughing... I caught a bug. I was addicted," she said.

"I thought 'this is what I'm meant to do'.

"I'd never dreamt I'd be a stand-up comedian, but I suppose I stand up and I make people laugh, so maybe I am one... it's morphed into something I'd never imagined."

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After the first show, Ms Strenton went on to book more gigs nationwide, including in Witney, Oxfordshire, where she grew up.

Her stand-up routines are told through diary entries and poems she wrote when she first started her blog.

She also wrote a book about her experiences.

One of which, she said, was her initial confusion over menopausal symptoms while still having periods.

"I didn't know what on earth was wrong with me," she said.

"I genuinely thought I was losing my mind."

'Lovely to hear laughter'

"It's lovely hearing the laughter - I think it's so important to laugh your way through this because it can be devastating," she told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"I almost feel like I can see a light go off above their heads when I'm talking about something that's happened to me, and I'll do it in a humorous way."

She added: "You can almost see them thinking 'oh, my god, that's happened to me, I don't feel alone any more'.

"You can almost feel the weight lifting off their shoulders, collectively, and it's just such an amazing feeling to be able to give that to women.

"The most common theme is 'you've made me feel like me again'."