Learning my way through menopause, work in progress

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I never seriously considered taking hormones for perimenopausal symptoms until my hairstylist encouraged me to: “Don’t hesitate — ask for them.”

I told my yoga teacher that I first realized I was entering menopause after Googling “menopausal rage,” and she pointed to me a divot in her studio wall where she’d thrown a piece of furniture.

I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in over ten years, and the first thing she said after we embraced hello was, “Just to let you know, I’m going to talk about menopause on this whole walk today.” And she did.

Despite menopause having entered the mainstream media, with articles in The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, and an upcoming PBS film “The M Factor,” many of us are still dependent on one another to open up the conversation, to listen to one another’s experiences, and to ask questions and share what we’ve learned so far. Menopause has entered the public conversation, but it also remains deeply personal and relational.

I recently started drafting a written piece about menopause as a health equity issue for nonprofit leaders and the work of our organizations and movements. It started out as a totally subjective hypothesis that the challenges and strengths that emerge from experiencing menopause can help us be more effective in taking on health disparities in our communities. After a bit of research…. well, the research snowballed.  

  • I learned to expand my view of who is impacted by menopause.

  • I learned how it is experienced as a universal but in entirely diverse ways.

  • I learned about how some amazing individuals and collectives are talking about it and resourcing one another.  

I learned how little I knew… and how much I want more people like me to know.

I’m still in the process of writing, learning, and writing some more — but I don’t want to sit on some of these resources. So please, don’t wait to check out:

The more we share with each other, the better we can be there for each other.