Welcome to Menopause

            So the gynecologist says “Welcome to Menopause" as if it were something to be celebrated, just like winning the lottery or hitting the jackpot at a Casino. Similar to when you are born and your mom’s gynecologist says “Welcome to the World”. Everyone is thrilled that the new born has arrived. It is now official, you have reached menopause.

Are you supposed to thank him? Now what does it mean to hear someone welcoming you to a new phase in your life? You have reached midlife, or supposedly, you are almost there and in your late forties. Then you ask what now?

The doctor says that if there are no symptoms there is nothing to be done. However, if the symptoms should appear intensely, then perhaps hormones are the way to go.

Hormones? Hold on now. You have heard so many stories about women who take hormones, but then again there are those who don’t or can’t.

So you ask what the symptoms are and the answer is: irregular menses, vasomotor instability (hot flashes and night sweats), atrophy of genitourinary tissue, increased stress, breast tenderness, vaginal dryness, forgetfulness, mood changes, and in certain cases osteoporosis and/or heart disease. Then he adds, however, these effects are related to the hormonal changes a woman’s body is going through, and they affect each woman to a different extent. Have you experienced any of these symptoms?

You recognize a few of them but then again you had thought that it was related to every day stress (mood changes, forgetfulness, and increased stress) and living in a hot tropical country (hot flashes and night sweats). You say yes and he asks how bad they are. Not so bad, nothing that one cannot tolerate.

You leave the doctor’s office with the clinging sensation of another rite of passage; a new phase, in which there will be something to look forward to. There will be new changes in life and  the body; along with new challenges.

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(Written November 12, 2012 – A Rite of passage for sure)

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