Interview by Sam McMurdock
Endocrinologist Dr. Mary Ryan is a senior lecturer, international speaker, podcaster and musician. In 2013, her husband died suddenly, leaving her to raise their three children, aged between five and eight, alone. Despite battling grief and “going through the motions” for the next two years, Ryan lobbied to put menopause on the national agenda.
Ireland’s Big Issue: Many mistakenly believe that hormones are an exclusively female issue. What is the reality?
Mary Ryan: We all have a hormone control centre that controls all our muscles, organs and immune systems, testosterone being the main male hormone and oestrogen being the main female one, so they are a lot more important than any of us give them credit for, probably because we don’t think about them.
This article first appeared in Ireland's Big Issue, a magazine sold on the streets of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by people who have limited other ways of earning an income.