Let’s rebrand Menopause

Ladies we need to rebrand menopause

Table of Contents

Menopause still feels like a word that should be uttered under your breath in polite company (along with gusset, merkin and moist). The phrase ‘Middle-age’ makes me feel depressed and doesn’t gel with my personal experience of my 40s and 50s. And don’t even get me started on “Autumn Queen” … I don’t wear long, flowing brown garb and I’m not about to shrivel up ready for winter!

I think we need to re-write what it means to be a woman in these middling years. And I definitely think we need to shift the focus off it being ‘crazy lady time’ and rebrand menopause as a time where step into our power, experience and queenly energy.

Menopause can be a time of really positive change

Yup there are heaps of really challenging physical, mental and emotional symptoms of menopause. It’s not easy. I had my share of those and as a counsellor I support women through the mental and emotional symptoms (find out more). But it can also be a gateway to a new phase of your life.

The hilarious feminist author, Caitlin Moran, points out that as our ‘lady helpfulness hormones’ (oestrogen and progesterone) decline, we become less inclined to give a flying eff.

What if this could be a time where you start standing up for what you need (instead of putting others’ needs first)?

What experience and knowledge can you bring to the world?

What do you want to do in this next phase of your life?

What do you want your legacy to be?

You don’t have to suffer the medical symptoms of menopause

A UK TV presenter called Davina McCall has helped start a menopause revolution in the UK. Everyone in my peer group was talking about menopause and the help they were getting to manage their transition.

Davina created 2 documentaries on Channel 4 called “Sex, Myths and the menopause” and “Sex, Mind and the menopause” which you can watch on Channel 4 in the UK or SBS On Demand in Australia.

Research is now showing that there are benefits of starting HRT even during perimenopause. Ask your GP. And if you don’t get any joy with them, have a look at these people:

Find a GP through the Australian Menopause Society
Get more information on the symptoms of menopause through Australian Menopause Centre

We have rituals for most life stages but not menopause

Birthdays, hens nights, weddings, baby showers, wakes. We have celebrations and rituals surrounding those life transitions. But there’s nothing for menopause. Personally, I think we should celebrate the end of period pain with some form of really positive celebration.

Menopause is marked as 12 months after you last surfed the crimson tide. Perimenopause is everything before that when your ovaries slowly splutter out like a car running out of petrol. What will you do to mark the date of 12 months since your last Code Red?

A long weekend away with besties?
An overseas vacation?
Buy yourself an un-engagement ring?
Or perhaps it is something quieter and more spiritual like a ritual under the full moon in your back yard.

Whatever you do… make sure you celebrate the end of the crimson tide! I’m doing them all!