Seven Pillars of a Healthy Menopause

Acceptance

It’s going to happen

It’s happened to women down the ages. And in a world that gives us control over so much, we don’t get to chose this.

Menopause can feel like an interloper — an invader even. We don’t invite it in, but it happens anyway. The thing is it doesn’t happen to our body. It is what our body does. And you can’t fight your own body. Not without sending your whole body and mind into conflict and firing off all your fight or flight responses.

We can take HRT — and there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the benefits of that particular treatment far outweigh the risks. But that doesn’t replace our lost hormones. It doesn’t put our bodies back to where they were. It treats our symptoms — often very effectively.

We are growing older

Perimenopause can take a decade. Why would we be the same when it ends as when it starts? We weren’t the same at thirty as we were at twenty. And we were probably glad we weren’t. Because we also keep on learning and growing.

There are all sorts of emotional and social reasons why women might not want to accept growing older, but it happens anyway. And it comes with advantages as well as disadvantages. We do grow wiser. We do understand our own…