Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon — or the Upside of Menopause
Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon — or the Upside of Menopause
Heard on the street: Your life is over when you go through menopause. Menopause morphs you into a dried-up old lady. Menopause makes you lose your mind and your hair; your sleep, your zest for life and your confidence.
Menopause is hell.
Not so fast.
While there’s no denying that menopause brings change, it’s neither an illness nor a syndrome. Nor is it something to be feared. If we’re lucky enough to live long enough to experience menopause, it is a natural part and rhythm of the life cycle, along with puberty, adulthood and middle age.
Yeah, but…
Yes, it’s true that many women will tell you otherwise. They decry hot flashes, curse belly fat, shudder at the sight of once-lovely locks and mourn loss of youth. They rail against this thing that takes away our fertility. They rage against husbands (or even complete strangers) while changing soaked sheets in the middle of the night or ripping off now-suffocating nightclothes.
And yet.
Believe us when we say you will get through it. We all do. And research shows that we emerge from this important life transition stronger and more resilient, equipped with the knowledge that we are still vital and important, attractive and anything but invisible.
Menopause is here to usher you into a new phase of life: one that is critical to the future of life as we know it and one that should be valued and respected.
There will come a day when you look at the woman in the drugstore with a box of tampons in her hand and think of her as a “girl” — a girl you grateful not to be any longer. Instead, you are a woman free to be completely yourself, capable of anything you put your mind to.
Whether juggling lovers, spouses, children, siblings and parents; building a career (or two); dealing with loss, disappointment, tragedy and death, you’ll have earned a depth of knowledge and understanding that truly astounds. In this new opportunity at life, you’re equipped and able to separate the minutiae from the urgent — and can make every day count.
But first…
Take a Pause. As you would be for embarking on a great challenge, let’s take a deep, cleansing breath together to clear our collective mind.
Feel better? We do too. Because we’re here for you.
WHAT WE'RE READING 📚📚📚
The Science of Self-care However you choose to do it, self-care is a must, not just for yourself but for the other people in your life as well. If you need any more reason to make time for yourself, the National Alliance of Mental Health has got you covered.
Hot-Flash Help Stick your head in the freezer? Stuff your pillowcase with an icepack? Dress in layers? Check, check, check. Take hormones? Maybe. The National Institutes of Aging rounds up your best options to fight back.
Scaling Up Gaining weight? Yeah, us too — but it doesn’t have to be a losing battle. You can lose weight, and you can do it while boosting your health.
Deep Dive Looking for the definitive guide to all things menopause? Or maybe just a little light reading? The North American Menopause Society has got you covered with its Menopause Guidebook. #NoSpoilers
PRODUCTS WORTH A PAUSE 👁👁
Remember when “comfort shoes” meant “ugliest shoes ever”? No longer. Cole Haan has joined with biomechanical geniuses from the University of Massachusetts to create Grand Ambition Pump, a sleek heel you can actually walk to work in.
ONE MORE THING...
"I've been misunderstood for all of my life But what they're sayin', girl, just cuts like a knife 'The boy's no good.'"
— Neil Diamond, Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon
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