This article is an excerpt from Ada Calhoun’s book, “Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis”. There are several important themes.
First, the suffering women experience, caused by not having anticipatory guidance about the menopause transition, or as she puts it, “being badly prepared”. Everyone can deal better with things they expect and understand. The lack of education around the menopause transition makes women feel much more overwhelmed and concerned.
Second, the difficulty discussing this topic generally. If you can’t discuss your unnerving new irritability, mood swings or feelings of overwhelm, it makes them so much worse.
And third, the confusion about what to do to feel better. Can you mitigate symptoms with better sleep, better diet and more exercise alone? Are there safe over-the-counter remedies or supplements that really work for sleep, night sweats? Is hormone therapy safe?
Each of these three things make this time of life particularly challenging. We at Women Living Better do our best to give the needed guidance, make this topic discussable, and share what is known about various remedies – so we are grateful for an article that highlights these important themes.
Oh, and one more thing – the lack of data about what women experience. We partnered with leaders in women’s health, both on the research side and the healthcare side, to create a survey that gathers this much-needed information.
Update May 2021: Our first paper with data from the WLB Survey has been accepted by the journal Menopause from the North American Menopause Society and will be in the September 2021 issue. We are excited to share it with you when it’s available. It will validate many of our experiences and hopefully change the way we, and our healthcare providers, view this normal life transition.
Here are our favorite quotes from the Guardian piece:
We haven’t talked about symptoms, says Ada Calhoun. No wonder this hormonal upheaval is so confusing.
We change a lot during these years. And, as we may remember from puberty, transitions can be awkward. Our bodies and our moods frequently betray us, but one of the worst parts of perimenopause and menopause is that no one talks about them.
Gynecologists I spoke to said they weren’t surprised that women were casting around for exotic fixes to their perimenopausal woes. Jacqueline Thielen, who works at the Women’s Health Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, said she sees many women in their 40s and 50s who tell her they’re scared of hormone therapy, but made miserable by symptoms and being swamped with responsibilities.
Dr Minkin does not believe women should grin and bear it. Here is some of her advice for us: get daily exercise, especially weight-bearing exercise; a good diet; plenty of sleep. For hot flashes, she advises layering clothes and keeping a dry set of nightclothes next to the bed so you can change quickly if you wake up in the night. She recommends keeping the bedroom cool and getting your partner an electric blanket if he or she complains.
You can buy “Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis” here (amazon affiliate link).
