From my female perspective the term and the cliches are everything negative when it comes to the transition of "the change".
Perimenopause, menopause, post menopause, symptoms, side effects and hot flashes, Oh my!
It's real and it's uncertain and a different experience for every woman.
Natural menopause can take years to d e c a d e s. Forced menopause, which is what I did on purpose began when I was 39 years old and had my uterus yanked for 40's & fabulous and quality of life purposes.
Best. Decision. Ever.
Menopause begins after you've gone one year without a menstrual cycle and as I am about to turn 47 years old I have lived through those unknown menopause cliches and have reached the other side at a young age.
Most women struggle and I've always only heard of the horrors of menopause from women throughout their 40's, 50's and through their 60's dealing with never-ending transitions that make life uncomfortable.
I remember my own experience with the grand finale and crescendo of the end of my own menopause transition. I remember mood swings that kept me at zero tolerance and hot flashes that hit me every 20 minutes I swear for one month. No exaggeration.
All day and all night I would break out into full sweats. Showering constantly, I was scared to death believing I was transitioning into blue hair and massive wrinkles on the other side and searching the internet for relief to squelch symptoms and side effects praying I didn't have another decades of hot flash hell yet to go.
My eyes reading what to expect on the other side scared me worse than hot flashes!
My menopause experience lasted seven years.
It's been seven months since that awful crescendo and for every woman who is fearful of the process and what life looks like on the other side, let me tell you, it is GORGEOUS!
I am living a Caribbean blue life with sunny skies and the horizon has never looked brighter.
I no longer fear my 50's and 60's being miserable years of suffering before I enter old age of tiredness, mood swings, hot flashes, cravings, vaginal dryness, blah, blah, blah, everything old.
E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. intact and working like a champ.
The best tip I can share that I had heard and worked was exercise! That if you sweat during exercising, hot flashes will cease. I found this to be 100% true. When I was super active from spring to autumn I never hot flashed. Those slow winter months were miserable flashing constantly. Once I started getting active and I mean really active, the hot flashes completely stopped. For years this was my routine.
I had full control of those until the end of last summer. The grand finale and crescendo of menopause was untouched by exercise. Nothing worked, I was hormonal raging and it was miserable.
Then is stopped ...
... and I began assessing the damage. Am I whole? Is everything working correctly? Still no crows feet, my hair isn't white, is it truly over?
It's over.
Life on the other side is far more beautiful than I ever expected.
I have nothing to dread and perhaps I am one of the lucky ones, blessed actually.
For my girls ... in case I forget, this was my experience and I hope it will be yours. xo
