Photography: Michelle Hyslop.
Megan and Natalie McDade always knew this would be a milestone year, with the happily married couple marking their first anniversary, both turning 50 and celebrating with tonnes of travel plans. But as 2026 marches on, the loved-up couple tells Woman’s Day they’ve found themselves in a place far different from what they’d envisaged.
Earlier this year, thinking they wanted to try for a baby together, Megan (née Cassie, formerly Alatini) and Nat visited a fertility specialist to see what their options were. Both were clear that if they decided to have a child, it would be the TrueBliss singer who would carry the baby due to former police officer Nat’s back issues.
But as Megan and Nat – who wed in a fairytale ceremony in Auckland in March 2025 – underwent blood and hormone tests, plus internal scans, neither could have anticipated the shock news they would discover. The scans revealed that Megan, who now works as an organisational wellbeing consultant, has severe adenomyosis, a condition where tissue grows into the muscular wall of the uterus, causing it to become enlarged.
“That was about 18 months ago and it was the first time I’d ever heard of the condition,” says Megan, 49.
“My uterus has enlarged by up to four times its normal mass, so I experience irregular cycles, then excruciating pain when my menstruation arrives. Before this, I’d never even had any period pain.”
Putting health first
With the gold standard for treatment being a hysterectomy, a procedure mum of three Megan will undergo later this year, the couple has decided her health is more important than pursuing their baby dream.
“I’d rather my wife was alive and healthy than to have another baby,” says mum of five Nat, who turned 50 last week.
“The specialists said we could still continue but that there would be risks involved, so we decided not to go further. “The reality is, we’re getting on a bit, we love to travel and we’ve realised we don’t want to be doing all that with a pram in tow! This stage of our lives is not based on a bond by children, but rather a desire to be with one another.”
Counting their blessings
The couple has made peace with the fact that baby time will come from looking after beautiful wee Ala, the 18-month-old daughter of Megan’s eldest Tonica, 31, and the first grandchild in the blended McDade family.
While it’s taken Megan – who is also mum to Tiara, 23, and Trey, 21 – two years to get a clear adenomyosis diagnosis and treatment plan, many Kiwi women suffer silently for more than a decade before getting diagnosed.
Megan sighs, “Who knows how long I’ve had it for? There’s so much shame and silence around this condition, especially the rogue periods and weight gain. The first thing I could see was the shift in my shape. “I’d never had a weight issue before and put it down to menopause or a lack of activity. Then suddenly each year, I was putting on two to three kilograms and hormonally my body felt out of balance.”
The sad realisation
Despite being “fairly articulate and not afraid” to stand up for herself, it wasn’t until Megan was speaking to female health specialists in her role as ambassador for Women’s Health Week that she began to click something wasn’t quite right.
“My period was coming very infrequently and when it did come, it was making up for all the times it didn’t!” she says frankly.
“One of the most embarrassing moments of my life was standing in a cosmetic studio on Ponsonby Rd, having my makeup done for an event later that night, when blood came pouring down onto the marble floor. I wanted to die!”
Germany
South Africa
Greek Islands
A blessing in disguise
A silver lining for the couple is knowing that if they hadn’t gone through all the fertility tests, Megan may have never found the adenomyosis. Looking back, the singer suspects that the migraines she experienced a decade ago, which happened just before she menstruated each month, may have been a result of the condition.
“I’d always found it hard to put myself first and I’m so lucky that, in this situation, I have a partner who supports me. We really need to make it much more okay for women to be real and honest. “Why should we have to wait until we are in our forties, fifties and sixties to start talking about menstrual health, perimenopause and menopause? “I want my daughters to know that if something is happening with their cycle that’s uncomfortable or out of the norm, to go get it checked out, ask the questions and don’t stop until you get answers.”
Thankful for Nat
As she prepares for her hysterectomy, which will end the painful cycles, bleeding and pressure associated with the condition, Megan feels lucky Nat is so understanding about riding the hormonal rollercoaster.
“Some days, I’ve been all over the place,” admits Megan.
“I get hot, then cold, then I get the sweats. I can cry at any movie or because of the tiniest little argument or hiccup. It’s so unlike me because I’m used to being strong and not letting things affect me. Life is very different now.”
Nat adds, “I knew when we met, we were going to go through menopause together, but then last year, I noticed some changes in Megan. I just thought it was because we were getting married. She started reacting more strongly to the challenges we were facing, so I just kept encouraging her to learn more.”
A fresh perspective
Megan is supporting Nat with her own health issues – a debilitating back injury, which occurred while she was on deployment in Papua New Guinea in 2024. As part of their healing mission, the couple has just spent three months travelling through South Africa, Greece and Germany to visit family who weren’t able to make it to Aotearoa for their wedding.
“Nat’s hung up her handcuffs and I’ve taken a step back from work for the rest of the year to have some fun, but most importantly, it’s so we can pause and reflect,” explains Megan.
“We’ve realised our health conditions are the way our body, mind and psyche are telling us to slow down.”
“Our new motto is adventure before dementia,” grins Nat, adding that the couple is documenting their travels online to inspire others to live for the moment.
Their new mindset also includes building holiday houses in Niue, on land gifted by Nat’s family, and in Megan’s homeland of South Africa. The couple has also been investigating tiny homes.
Megan enthuses, “It’s exciting because it means we’re going through this phase of building a home together. Even though Nat’s family has a building background, there’s no way I’m taking a back seat! “We’ve worked all our lives and we’ve learnt the hard way that health is wealth, so I can only imagine what’s going to come to fruition as we take this next step together.”
