Menopause misery drove wife to suicide

A lady shot herself dead after having suffered depression triggered through the menopause, an inquest heard yesterday.

Louise Chetwynd's husband Robert came home from try to find her laying in the backyard together with his shotgun nearby. Earlier, she'd told him: 'I really wish i could disappear inside a puff of smoke.'

That morning he'd left her inside a happy mood, he stated. However, the 52-year-old mother of two was suffering severe depression and mood shifts triggered through the menopause.

Mr Chetwynd stated she'd transformed since its onset 2 yrs earlier. "Before that, she was really a very lively and bubbly lady," he added.

"The change of life triggered my spouse to possess severe mood shifts and her attitude would change just about every day.

"Mostly, she'd stare in the television. After I would speak with her, she'd hear me without listening."

At some point, she grew to become so depressed that they told him: "If only I possibly could disappear inside a puff of smoke", the inquest in Salisbury, Wiltshire, was told.

But around the morning of her dying on March 17 this season, she was at a contented mood. The pair had just came back from the sightseeing visit to Exmoor, where they'd spent your day walking along a river. "She appeared happy and calm," stated Mr Chetwynd.

Because he left the household home in Warminster for work, 'she even requested me things i wanted for tea that night'.

However when the engineer came back at 5.15pm, he couldn't find his wife. "I sought out her everywhere after which I saw the attic hatch open. It was very unusual, as Louise hated rising towards the attic."

He rose the ladder determined certainly one of his three shotguns missing in the gun cabinet, this was locked.

Mr Chetwynd rushed towards the backyard, where he found his wife dead in the backyard. Bursting into tears, he stated: "I could not consume things i was seeing."

She'd loaded the shotgun having a single cartridge and placed it aside of her mind. A neighbour heard the shot at 2.45pm.

Mr Chetwynd stated: "My spouse would be a very gentle lady who previously was happy. "If only more and more people realized the harmful effects the menopause might have on women."

His wife, a component-time shop assistant, have been recommended mao inhibitors, but wouldn't bring them for days at any given time because she didn't like drugs.

She was afraid to consider hormone alternative therapy because she'd high bloodstream pressure.

The inquest was told Mrs Chetwynd have been "very good' at hiding her depression and her GP didn't believe her to become suicidal.

Recording a suicide verdict,coroner Nigel Brooks, stated: "It is extremely obvious this wasn't a cry for help. I'm believing that Mrs Chetwynd was conscious of the immediate effects of her action which she required individuals actions under your own accord while depressed."