Menopause & Age

Menopause & Age

Though perimenopause symptoms and the signs usually take place in our mid 40’s (unless surgically induced by hysterectomy or through illness), the average age in the UK for Menopause is 51. Menopause literally means the last period. Once you have 12 months consecutively without a period, you are usually considered to be Postmenopausal at that stage. Another thing to remember is that we are menopausal (postmenopausal) until our expiry date (which no one knows!).

Twelve Interesting Facts About Menopause & Age

(Beware they may shock you)

Menopause and age over the years have been seen in various ways, none of which have been particularly helpful to us poor women. So what do you think of this? Menopause treatments during the 1800s and early 1900s varied from the gruesome to the downright dangerous and included:

 

• Mustard hip-baths (not sure we fancy one of those)
• Pediluvio (foot bath, yes we could use that one!)
• Frictions with stimulating embrocations (Ummm, It depends where I guess, but not entirely sure what this means)
• Electric therapy (nope, would rather not!)
• Opium (I like the perfume, but perhaps not the drug, though I dare say compared to all the others, women probably opted for this one!)
• Cold water directed to the abdomen (only when sunbathing on the south coast during a heatwave please!)
• The filtered juice of guinea pigs’ ovaries (OMG)
• A vaginal plug and iced injections on its removal (Double OMG)
• Arsenic (What? getting ridiculous now, lol)
• Thyroid gland extract (hey hang on a minute, did men design these treatments do you think?)
• Golf (yes definitely men designed these treatments, I could do golf though…)
• Orgasm (Ahhh at last… a sensible one! The only thing is we have gone off sex quite a bit!)

Anyway, just a bit of fun, it seems we may have come quite a long way after all.

Luckily we’ve moved on a bit

Perhaps the Edwardians, if they had the time capsule (that you invented earlier, or did I just make that up?) and could look into the future, would read ours this way?

• Audio Books
• Automatic Cars
• WhatsApp Group for ranting
• Gin & Tonic and relaxing bath with bubbles
• Spa weekend with the girls
• Soothing massage followed by afternoon tea
• A weekend break with hubby down in Poole
• Netflix, catching up on Breaking Bad
• Incontinence knickers for small leakages

Oh, and we might as well keep orgasm on the list, just to show willingness!

We think the Edwardians would think we were rather strange! We are so pleased that there have been plenty of women since Edwardian times who have refused to drink Guinea Pigs ovary juice! Bless you, ladies!

Some Food for Thought

We can’t actually ‘be’ any younger than our actual age, or turn back time. Unless of course you have a time machine in your shed and haven’t told anyone about it yet? If so, please email us directly, we promise not to tell anyone! Promise…

It’s true, we do actually feel younger than perhaps our Mothers or Grandmothers did when they were our menopause age. This has much to do with modern society;

• We do less physical work
• We have much more choice

And although we carry more stress, our lives should actually be much easier, and so the aging effects should essentially feel slower.

The Media are Finally Starting to Catch on

Menopause at last is getting recognition, thanks largely to loads of menopausal women campaigning for many years through parliament. Now thankfully, and somewhat amazingly, the UK Government has decided it is a worthy topic to have integrated as part of the sex education & relationships module forming GCSE education.

It is no longer seen as something that old ladies experience. We want to prove our point now. Think of all the celebrities that look amazing, but who are actually perimenopausal or in fact full-blown menopausal! Let me just give you a starter for ten… Tess Daly, J-Lo, Jennifer Aniston, Kylie, Sandra Bullock, Lorraine Kelly, Amanda Holden…Are these old ladies? INDEED not!

We are pointing this out because menopause should not carry any age shame. Aging is a privilege denied to many, so embrace your life, even the bits you feel you would rather live without! We know there are symptoms associated with menopause that are unpleasant and sometimes downright embarrassing, and for some women they are debilitating. But for most of us, we can keep them under control with some gentle exercise like Yoga, plus take better care of what we eat as well as look after our mental health.

“Yes I’m a Menopausal Woman, Get Over It!”

So ladies we encourage you to say (gently, not in a screamy voice, we don’t want to undo all the hard work, LOL) ‘YES I am a menopausal woman, get over it!’ Learn to love that word, it no longer conjures up images of little mad old ladies, but rather powerful midlife women who know what they want. Take courage, you are not alone. Feel proud and be loud (not too loud), join us by taking charge of this life phase, and turn it into something amazing!