Understanding Menopause
Understanding Menopause
Informing yourself about what to expect when you begin experiencing menopausal symptoms and how you can more effectively handle this new stage in your life. Every woman needs to know more about menopause because it will help you deal with the severe changes in your life. Entering the stages of menopause brings on all kinds of changes and emotions. You may feel a sense of loss since the reproductive years are ending. There will no longer be an opportunity to give birth to children. There may be a loss of identity and feeling of uselessness to your family or society. It is normal to grieve. It is normal to feel this way. It is important to recognize that menopause is a stage of life to pass through and not a disability. My menopausal friends and I talk about we are free at last! After thirty or forty years enduring the discomfort, tension, and inconvenience of menstrual cycles we couldn’t wait to get off the rag. No more super absorbent, super big, or heavy-flow pads! No more super thin sanitary napkins with super absorbent crystals that never super absorbed anything. No more super absorbent tampons that were never enough by themselves. And best of all, no more cramps! Unfortunately, not all of us celebrate our middle years. My mother told me that all women go through menopause, your experience will be uniquely your own. Most women, when they learn that they are going through menopause, go through a very difficult time emotionally. It’s a devastating experience. Often you feel as if someone or something had died. And, in many ways, something has died: your youth, or at least my image of it. My hair is turning gray. People compliment me on it. I don’t mind the gray hairs at all, but the wrinkles are hard. I understand why aging actresses go in for plastic surgery. They have to look in the mirror all the time. I feel like I’m a young woman inside. The wrinkles are kind of a shock. Oh yes,
Informing yourself about what to expect when you begin experiencing menopausal symptoms and how you can more effectively handle this new stage in your life. Every woman needs to know more about menopause because it will help you deal with the severe changes in your life. Entering the stages of menopause brings on all kinds of changes and emotions. You may feel a sense of loss since the reproductive years are ending. There will no longer be an opportunity to give birth to children. There may be a loss of identity and feeling of uselessness to your family or society. It is normal to grieve. It is normal to feel this way. It is important to recognize that menopause is a stage of life to pass through and not a disability. My menopausal friends and I talk about we are free at last! After thirty or forty years enduring the discomfort, tension, and inconvenience of menstrual cycles we couldn’t wait to get off the rag. No more super absorbent, super big, or heavy-flow pads! No more super thin sanitary napkins with super absorbent crystals that never super absorbed anything. No more super absorbent tampons that were never enough by themselves. And best of all, no more cramps! Unfortunately, not all of us celebrate our middle years. My mother told me that all women go through menopause, your experience will be uniquely your own. Most women, when they learn that they are going through menopause, go through a very difficult time emotionally. It’s a devastating experience. Often you feel as if someone or something had died. And, in many ways, something has died: your youth, or at least my image of it. My hair is turning gray. People compliment me on it. I don’t mind the gray hairs at all, but the wrinkles are hard. I understand why aging actresses go in for plastic surgery. They have to look in the mirror all the time. I feel like I’m a young woman inside. The wrinkles are kind of a shock. Oh yes,
Cited: Trien, Susan. Change of Life: The Menopause Handbook. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1986 Rao, Shobha., et al. "Health Maintenance for Postmenopausal Women." 2008 1-9. 7 March 2009. . Wingert, Pat, and Barbara Kantrowitz. Is it hot in here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause. New York: Workman, 2006