Break the myths of menopause to help celebrate this natural change
Menopause is a phase of a woman’s life that has been medicalized, and for many years been touted as a disease with accompanying symptoms. This has caused confusion and controversy for many women seeking to age well with vitality and optimism. The truth is, menopause is a completely normal event that will happen to every woman who is lucky enough to live long enough. Most of the unpleasant things that you experience during menopause is merely your body telling you it needs some assistance and attention to be in balance. It is important to understand what is really happening to your body so that you can live healthy and empowered.
Do
- identify and treat the cause
- embrace and celebrate this time
- understand normal variants and communicate
- find a good practitioner
- be well informed
Don't
- believe it’s a disease
- try to replace without restoring function first
- simply rely on hormone tests
- feel hopeless
- perpetuate the myths
Do identify and treat the cause
It is very common for women to blame menopause on almost anything they are experiencing during this time from weight gain to hair loss. Since menopause is not a disease and carries no direct symptoms, it is imperative that you view any signs or symptoms you are experiencing as your body communicating to you that something is out of balance and needs attention. Going through menopause does not mean that you will lose your memory or that your heart will fail you and your bones will become paper thin. It is a huge shift and change always provides opportunities to heal and grow when we gently take up what is getting our attention, instead of pathologizing our bodies.
Do embrace and celebrate this time
Menopause is a shift, a transition and metamorphosis into a period of your life no longer oriented primarily towards the biological prowess of reproduction and caring for family, but rather time when you move deeper into your own. A time where intuition is heightened and creativity is sharpened. Respect this change and the growth that comes with it with gentleness and curiosity.
Do understand normal variants and communicate
Menopause does mark the end of natural fertility, so one very normal finding is to have a lull in your libido. Just like there were certain times while menstruating that your libido was heightened, around ovulation. This is a purely biological truism. Another normal experience during this transition is to be more contractive and introspective. When you understand these facts and communicate with your loved ones, this transition can be more powerful and respected.
Do find a good practitioner
Find a good menopause practitioner to work with. Many conventional, Western medical doctors who you might have depended on and had a relationship with, may not be equipped or informed to help guide you through this process without making it a disease or something to be medicated. There are wonderful practitioners who can inform you about the spectrum of options available and listen, educate, and empower you. Naturopathic Doctors often lead with this approach.
Do be well informed
When you are informed, you are empowered. Be well informed about the process of menopause and the spectrum of options to help ease symptoms associated with this time. Also, know that what you decide initially, is not permanent; you can change your mind and health care decisions based on your changing health, understanding, and newly available research. Menopause and aging are processes that evolve over time and when you honor and follow your body’s cues, that is the best information possible.
Do not believe it’s a disease
Menopause actually carries a diagnosis code, 627.2, and is known as “ovarian failure”. That would be like puberty being called “ovarian success” it just doesn’t make any sense. This has sent fearful messages to millions of women over the years. Menopause is not a disease and therefore can’t have symptoms attached to it. Symptoms you might experience after you stop menstruating like hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, irritability and mood swings need to be identified as symptoms “associated” with menopause, and need to be respected individually and addressed comprehensively.
Do not try to replace without restoring function first
Hormone replacement therapy has reached celebrity status as a first line “treatment” for menopause. But if this is a normal and natural time for each woman, what is there to replace? Truth is there is a built in backup system for postmenopausal hormone production when your ovaries take a well deserved break. It is your adrenal glands, which also happen to be your stress glands, that are weakened over the years due to chronic modern day stressors. Restoring function to your adrenals by using stress modulation, adrenal nutrients like vitamin C and B5, and glandulars can be very powerful step in having healthy menopausal years.
Do not simply rely on hormone tests
Although it is a popular recommendation in some consumer menopause books, hormone testing at the time of menopause is not routinely recommended and offers limited help in knowing how to manage symptoms associated with menopause. The onset of menopause is an important time for a comprehensive health and lifestyle evaluation done by a qualified practitioner who will marry your clinical presentation with your history and life story. Health will exist when the conditions for health are available, and it is important that you are treated as a person with a multitude of factors affecting your health not a lab test.
Do not feel hopeless
Women live over half their lives after menopause. It is the not the end of anything. It is the beginning of one of the most powerful and enlightening times and should be filled with a sense of renewal and hope.
Do not perpetuate the myths
It is vitally important that you mind your vocabulary and cease the chatter that perpetuates this time being anything but normal, natural, and very powerful. There are many women over the years that blame her forgetfulness on a “menopausal moment” or talk about their sexual health by saying “I am all dried up down there”. These types of statements can enable the continued messaging of disease and disorder when it comes to menopause. A more honest and empowering statement might be “I have been more forgetful lately, I need to see what might be contributing to that.”
Summary
There are symptoms that many women get at this precarious time in life, but they must not be blamed on menopause or the natural decline of hormones. Menopause is a natural, once an honored and celebrated, time of a woman’s life. Due to the development of hormone drugs and the medicalization of a normal phase of life it became an industry and the women lucky enough to live long enough to reach this phase became a market. This has created so many myths about the female physiology, and it is vitally important that we dispel these myths and return to the honoring and nurturing of this metamorphic process.
