Paula Rastrick brings a perspective to women’s health shaped by both professional expertise and personal experience. She hit perimenopause and spiralled. Since then she has come to realise she had been stuck in survival mode for most of her life, with a dysregulated nervous system that could no longer sustain her “just soldier on” attitude to difficult life events.

“You can’t just slap on a patch and expect it all to be fine. Every woman is different. You have to look at the whole person; their mind, how they process the world, their lived experiences. All of this shapes the body’s response. The physical and the mental are inseparable, and for women with a sensitive nervous system, no pill on its own is going to fix that.” says Paula.

Paula believes women like herself who react in a strong way to their environment “sensitive women” need a more holistic, multi-layered approach to health across key transitions such as puberty, childbirth, perimenopause, and menopause.

Her work now focuses on the overlooked connections between trauma, neurodiversity, the nervous system, and hormonal health.

In the past year, she has built a highly engaged community of more than 36,000 Instagram followers, offering education, support, and evidence-based insights. She advocates for a personalised, holistic model of menopause care. One that moves beyond a one-size-fits-all reliance on HRT and empowers women to make fully informed choices about their health.