Let’s Celebrate, Not Medicate!

One of my biggest frustrations is that menopause is generally viewed as a disease state - something that needs to be cured or fixed - rather than what it actually is: an event, simply a marker along the path that every woman must trod.

I heard something beautiful the other day, someone called menopause the ‘Second Spring,’ and I love that.  Menopause is a moment in a woman’s life when she has permission to step back, let go of what isn’t working, and plant new seeds for a future entirely of her own design. 

Have our bodies changed?  Yes, and thank God!  We make less estrogen, but we don’t need it anymore – we are done with the baby-making business so our bodies can wind down production of the stuff, which not only protects us against certain cancers, it frees up a whole bunch of internal resources that used to be consumed by processing hormones for things like, I don’t know, fueling your brain to birth your Big Idea?? 

Think about it – we are done with the reproductive phase of our lives, but we have never been more fertile.  Women in this chapter – our ‘Second Spring’ - are more creative, productive, and powerful than ever before.  Why would we want to ‘fix’ that with medical interventions of any kind?

Menopause is an amazing opportunity: to tap into the wisdom of our bodies, to sow new seeds, to become who we always meant to be: I think it should be celebrated, not medicated.