Let’s talk Menopause!
for fearless women and men
Menopause, let’s say it out loud together
Menopause
Menopause
Menopause
Menopause isn’t like beetle juice, beetle juice, beetle juice — “it’s showtime!” Then you escape death.
If we can’t say the word out loud than I wonder how we can actually have a conversation about it?
The Science
The science of menopause is pretty straight forward . . . one year without a period. But honestly, it doesn’t always happen so easily — the 11th day on the 11th month and whammo! You’ll find yourself scrounging the bathroom for a pad or tampon at the bottom of a drawer.
Periomenopause begins before menopause. Symptoms range from missed periods to loathing children you normally would love. This stage is when the confusion begins.
Postmenopause is when you are absolutely not going to have more children. Some rather interesting things happen during this final stage . . . I will be writing about them in detail soon.
The Second Puberty
Just as girls and boys go through puberty typically in the pre-teen/teen years women and men also go through a “second puberty” called menopause and manopause.
I am so lucky to be going through my menopausal YEARS as my own kids are going through their own first puberties. When I look at my kids and how they are hormonal time bombs . . . I see that in myself.
It is like a Twilight Zone episode with me looking back in time but living out all the current emotions.
On any given day we yell, cry for no reason, demand attention, scream to be alone, eat lots and lots of ice cream and chocolate. I did follow a vegan diet but now . . . I find myself craving the exact foods I did when I was 13! It’s crazy but a good kind of crazy.
Liminality
I found the perfect word to explain both first and second puberty:
(from the Latin word līmen, meaning “a threshold” is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals,
when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete.
During menopause’s liminal stage, participants “stand at the threshold” between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes. (Wikipedia)
Yes, I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff sometimes but I also feel more alive, more beautiful, more confident, filled with wisdom and able to love so deeply I could cry at any second. And that is all typically wonderful.
Still With Me?
I’ve been writing for the last few years about mindfulness — I thought that was the common thread in my writing but now I realize the common thread is writing from the heart of a woman naturally transformed.
I intend to have the conversations about this stage of life for both men and women in a gentle, loving, kind, respectful and hilarious way. It is a fun time of life and we should all enjoy where we are in this present moment.
What’s next?
More articles, more videos, more articles based on research and life experience — being a book expert is fine but I trust people who have walked the journey before me.
We are all walking each other home . . . care to walk with me?
