You may not be thinking about menopause yet, but it’s already affecting your life. Women begin to experience physiological changes and symptoms related to menopause as early as age 38—which means that your mother, aunt, teacher, friend, colleague, or customer service representative might be dealing with a different deck of cards than she is used to.
For example, she might be having a difficulty sleeping and/or thinking. Imagine the inconvenience caused by the disruption of such functional fundamentals.
Now imagine living in a society where nobody wants to acknowledge—much less talk about—the challenges associated with menopause. Considering its universal nature, you’d think that basic human understanding would be more prevalent. But it’s not. Why has menopause become so taboo? Why don’t women (and their supporting cast members) know more about it?
Not so long ago, women's emotional needs were regarded as irrational by the medical and scientific communities. A woman who expressed severe changes in mood and behavior was more likely to receive a lobotomy than a lily, contributing to a rich inheritance of silence and fear. Mom should always be “just fine;” managing the demands of the household, comforting the sick, cooking, cleaning, ironing, and folding. She should have a nice hair-do, too.
Times are changing. According to Ellen Dolgen, author of Shmirshky: the pursuit of hormone happiness, “reaching out is in, and suffering in silence is out.” The Shmirshky website provides a comprehensive community of support and a wide range of resources, empowering women to embrace themselves from within–which in turn, strengthens relationships.
Communication and awareness are the most powerful tools of the human trade. If a woman you care about is struggling with a prolonged series of bad days, give her the gift of understanding: it’s not personal, it’s physiological. Break the silence barriers and open the information lines. Midlife doesn’t have to be a crisis!
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