There comes a point in perimenopause when getting out of bed stops being one fluid movement and becomes a small administrative process. You wake up, swing your legs over the side, put your feet on the floor and immediately wonder what the hell happened to you during the night. Your feet hurt, your knees would like a meeting before agreeing to straighten, your hips seem to have developed opinions and your fingers need several minutes to remember that their primary purpose is b

When You Love Him, But Don't Want Him Touching You Sarah was 48 and had always been quietly proud of the fact that she still fancied her husband. Not proud in an unbearable Facebook-anniversary-post kind of way, with photographs of champagne glasses and captions about marrying her best friend, but genuinely grateful that after all those years together, they still had that. The honeymoon period everyone assured her would eventually disappear had somehow lasted the best part of

Jess had always considered herself a fairly patient person. Not endlessly patient, obviously; she was a registered nurse and a single mother, not a saint, and there were limits to the amount of human nonsense she could absorb before privately thinking something uncharitable. But kindness came naturally to her. She had spent most of her adult life looking after people when they were frightened, ill, confused or having some of the worst days of their lives, and nursing had taug