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Article is copyrighted and posted with permission from Marcia Jones at Tides of Life PMS & Menopause Center. The article was originally posted at https://www.tidesoflife.com/menopause.htm
At the turn of the century, women who experienced menopause knew that not only was ‘the end’ approaching…it was very near. What your mother, grandmother and great-grandmother learned about going through the life of a female, from previous generations of women, was that post-menopausal life offered most only depression, fatigue, forgetfulness, incontinence, senility and, finally, death.
In the same time period, American culture became increasingly youthcentered. The idea is that everything that is exciting and of value is done by or happensto young people. So, what life a woman had left to live after menopause came to be seen assexless, unproductive and dependent. One had only two choices: Become either a quietlittle old lady or a crotchety little old lady. Menopause became associated not only withthe fear of death, but the newly manufactured fear of not being young.
At the same time all this was going on, the American woman’slifestyle and diet were changing. Automobiles meant less exercise, washers and dryersmeant less exercise, vacuum cleaners meant less exercise. Canned and frozen foods meantmore convenience but less nutrition. And, acceptance into the workplace meant moreeconomic freedom but also more stress in addition to maintaining a home and child rearing.
The result of all this is generally less physically active, more poorlynourished and highly stressed women facing a turning point in their lives that they havebeen taught is not only difficult but the beginning of the end. Menopause, a natural partof a woman’s life like puberty and childbearing and rearing, came to be viewed withextreme negativity like a disease that needed to be ‘cured.’ Without gettinginto gender politics, it’s no surprise that menopause came to be widely viewed as ahealth problem…a hormone deficiency problem. The logical response is a pill to makeit go away. Menopause? Estrogen!
Another view: In some cultures, menopause is celebrated. It is ajoyous event. Just like adolescence is seen as a transition from being a child to becomingan adult, menopause is seen as a transition from the binding responsibilities childbearingand family care to the emergence of a completely evolved individual with a unique treasureof accumulated wisdom. Another way it’s been explained is that a pre-adolescent girlis a flower, a woman in her childbearing years is the fruit, and a post-menopausal womanis the seed…she contains the essence of all the preceding life-experiences which shecan plant in upcoming generations.
And curiously enough, in many of these cultures, women experience farfewer and less severe symptoms of menopause. Asian women report far fewer hot flashes thanwestern women do. In some castes in India, depression, dizziness, incontinence and othersymptoms are almost unknown. Only 5% of Chinese women report menopausal symptoms. Mayanwomen in Mexico report no menopausal symptoms except irregular periods. In Africa, womenin Botswana report no menopausal symptoms except increased sex drive. In Australia, 70%felt good natured and only 4% felt depressed.
The above is depiction of the mind-body-spirit condition of women intwo different cultural perspectives…one menopause-negative, one menopause-positive.The question is how to get from one to the other.
A Holistic Approach to Menopause: Here in the United States in the1990’s, the average life expectancy of a woman is 84 years. That means she has justabout as many years of life ahead of her after menopause as she had before menopause. Italso means that today’s adult American women have the opportunity to create anew image and experience of menopause, for themselves and for generations yet to come.American women can culturally transform menopause into the positive transition in lifethat women experience elsewhere. They can do it by making it a positive transition forthemselves and by their example transform the old stereotypes. Since menopause is amind-body-spirit transition, its character can be transformed positively by nurturingmind-body-spirit.
Women can nurture their minds by dissolving negative myths withinformation. For example: the myth that post-menopausal women are sexless. Fact: about 50%experience no change in sexual appetite and pleasure; over 30% experience an increase;and, less than 20% experience a decline in sexual appetite and pleasure.
Women can nurture their spirit through new activities. Women canreplace the time spent caring for children with pursuing activities they have beeninterested in but never had time to explore. Or, rededicate themselves to their careers orto new careers. Or, pursue spiritual activities through the church, the community, or withdevelopmental disciplines like meditation or yoga. As a counterpart to thisspirit-enhancing activity, avoid spirit-draining experiences like exposing yourself tonegative views and opinions of menopause and post-menopausal life.
Lastly, women can nurture their bodies in three ways: As a preparationor response to menopause through lifestyle changes such as physical fitness and nutrition.Just as a child needs good nutrition and exercise to grow into a healthy adult, a womantransitioning from her reproductive years to her self-productive years needsgood nutrition and exercise.
As menopause progresses, women can nurture their bodies by addingnatural therapies to the base of nutrition and fitness. Nutritional supplements, herbs,massage and relaxation techniques can do much to prevent or alleviate hot flashes andother menopausal discomforts.
Lastly, there is hormone replacement, synthetic or natural. A good ideais to have a salivary or serum hormone profile of your base levels of estrogen,progesterone and testosterone as soon as you first experience skipped periods or changesin menstrual flow. Then, as menopause continues, any hormone replacement therapy (again,synthetic or natural) can be carefully adjusted to your own natural levels and notadministered on a one-dose-fits-all approach. Here at the Tides Of Life PMS & Menopause Centerwe advocate women trying natural approaches before accepting synthetic hormone replacementwith proven health risks. We advocate women taking responsibility for their health anddoing so by learning what contributes to and detracts from good health so they can makeinformed, intelligent decisions.
Perhaps the most important body-nurturing step of all is establishing apartnership between yourself, your physician, and your holistic care providers in yourapproach to menopause. This can keep you out of the trap of accepting menopause as ahormone deficiency disease.