Research 2
Celebrating Menopause and Perimenopause
Coping With Hot Flashes and Other Menopausal Symptoms: What Celebrities Said | Everyday Health
Cynthia Nixon
“The freedom that comes from no longer being fertile is huge,”
Gillian Anderson
“How wonderful would it be if we could get to a place where we are able to have these conversations openly and without shame,” Anderson says. “Admit, freely, that this is what’s going on. So we don’t feel like we’re going mad or insane or alone in any of the symptoms we are having.”
Angelina Jolie
Premature menopause due to having her ovaries removed. “Regardless of the hormone replacements I’m taking, I am now in menopause. I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes. But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared."
Daily Telegraph in an interview in November 2015, “I actually love being in menopause,” she said. “I haven’t had a terrible reaction to it, so I’m very fortunate. I feel older, and I feel settled being older. I feel happy that I’ve grown up. I don’t want to be young again.”
Bette Midler
“I don’t suggest that anyone obsess over menopause or aging. Still, it is true that in this culture, they throw you out when you get older.
Kim Cattrall
“I realized I still had questions. But the more I learned and listened to what my body was telling me, the more I relaxed, adjusted, and realized I could manage this by working closely with my doctor,”
Cheryl Hines
“It is helpful to talk about it with your friends, so you know other people are dealing with it. The reason a lot of women don’t talk to their healthcare providers is because they think they are alone with this,” says Hines.
Gwyneth Paltrow
“I don’t think we have in our society a great example of an aspirational menopausal woman.”
Michelle Obama
her personal experience with menopause and shared that she once experienced hot flashes aboard Marine One.
“What a woman's body is taking her through is important information. It's an important thing to take up space in a society. Cause half of us are going through this.”
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Michelle Obama Spotify Podcast on Menopause
Sharon Malone: There is so, there is so little information that people know to really access. Because, sometimes with menopause, and the perimenopause, and I'll, just for definition's sake, perimenopause, is the years leading up to menopause,
Michelle Obama: Which, what, when does that start?
Sharon Malone: Anywhere, starts, usually in your mid forties, sometimes in your early forties, but it goes, and menopause itself is your last period, you've had your last period, that's it.
Michelle Obama: Hallelujah [laughs]
Sharon Malone: That's it, and, plus, and then you are postmenopausal, for sure, when it's your last period plus a year. And why it's so confusing, is because it, cause, it happens to you before you're even thinking about it, that's the problem. And so you're forty three, forty four, and you start to be irritable, or you've got hot flashes, or your periods get screwy. And that's why you kind of, need to know what to expect. So you don't think that, again, that there's something terribly wrong, or what am I gonna do about this, because women complain a lot about, I just can't sleep. So, the range of symptoms is huge.
And then there are some women, those few, lucky women, who don't really have any symptoms, they're kind of like oh, yeah, and then my period stopped. Those are the same women who, Oh, yeah, I just went into labor, and I just had the baby, OK, they, they exist, but, I,
Michelle Obama: Right, [laughs]
Sharon Malone: You don't see many of 'em, you know.
Michelle Obama: But we're living like it's not happening. Our power as women, our power and our voice, comes from, it also comes from our ability to value our, our health. And the vessel that we exist in.
Michelle Obama: If we can't acknowledge what's going on with us, we can't, we can't fully celebrate, just how amazing we are. We got a whole channel dedicated to men throwing a ball in a hoop, and I love sports, I love watching men play sports. I get it. But there should be like, some, birthing channels, [laughs] just some, Did you see what she did, did you see that little woman push a ten pound baby out, let's give here a, where's her ESPY?, or there should be an award ceremony!
Michelle Obama: When you think, of all that a woman's body, has to do over the course of her lifetime, going from, being prepared, to give birth, to actually giving birth, and then having that whole reproductive system shut down in menopause, right, the changes, the highs and lows and the hormonal shifts, there is power in that. But, we were taught to be ashamed of it. And to not even, seek to understand it, or explore it for our own edification, let alone, to help the next generation.
Sharon Malone: Right, right. And then, after you go, from that, after you've given birth, then your children become your priority, so you know, still, there's still this point at which, you kind of say, alright, when is it my turn? And this is, I think the good news, about menopause, is that, even though getting there, is complicated, you know, it may be the first time, in a lot of women's lives when you're not tied down by the other things that are, that are just part of your day to day life. The notion of, trying to present yourself, to someone, other than your truly, authentic self, kind of fades away. You know?
Michelle Obama: I have changed, and tried to adapt, and I've been accommodating, I've accommodated my husband, I've accommodated society, I've accommodated my children, now I'm done. Whew.
Sharon Malone: When I turned 60, I said to myself, you know, I'm going to give myself this gift, and the gift is, I'm going to say yes, to everything I want to say yes to, and no to everything I don't. And I don't think I have ever, in my life, given myself permission to do that.
Michelle Obama: And let's stop there, so that the men that could be listening to this, hear this, because, they [men] start doing that, when they're 20. They adopt their, that philosophy much earlier in their lives. Men, it takes us, until we're 50 or 60 to feel free enough, physically and emotionally, to say, I'm going to think about what I want, and say yes and no to the things that bring me joy, or turn me off.
Sharon Malone: Right.
Michelle Obama: It takes us a lifetime to get there.
Sharon Malone: It does. And some people unfortunately never get there, you know, we are, accommodating because that is how, that is what is required of us, you know,
Michelle Obama: To get through,
Sharon Malone: Right. You say, you know, sex, for a woman, you have to have another person into your body, another person. Pregnancy means you've got to share your body, with another human being, for nine months, and that is a, a level of accommodation that you realize that that's why we're always second, because there's always like, I've got to keep this here, got to keep, you know, this pers-, then you get this baby, I've got to keep this baby alive,
Michelle Obama: [laughs]
Sharon Malone: Because it's a lot harder than it looks, but, you know, I look at it now, and I think about it, and I say hmmm, first time, first time, that we are not having to accommodate other people. And I think that's a beautiful thing, and I think that's how, women should really, look at menopause. Don't think it, think of it as the end of things, it's the beginning of things, it's the beginning of your new chapter, or as I like to call it, we're entering our third, trimester, you know, of life.
Michelle Obama: It is an exhausting way to have to live, and so many of us are doing it. Women of a certain age, we, we lose our value in society, unlike men, who gain value the older they get. You know, and those images are propagated in, on television, where you see the frumpy, funny old guy, with the young, vivacious, or even if she's our age, she is perfect.
[laughs] you know. Hair laid, you know, the woman always looks a lot better than her husband in the movies, and it's like well, how is she with him? You know, so that, you know I've heard a lot of women my age, feel like, as, with each age, they feel less seen in a public place. You know, no longer do heads turn, because heads only turn, in your twenties or thirties, or maybe forties, if you, keep up that, bod, you know, in order to be noticed. Women are rewarded for not looking their age, you know, it's like, oh, she snapped back, she doesn't even look like she ever had a baby, she doesn't, so that's essentially saying, she doesn't look like she's maturing,
Sharon Malone: Exactly.
Michelle Obama: And so, wow, that's the goal.
Sharon Malone: People need role models, and they need someone to look, to say, because they don't have, whatever you have in your mind, of what, fifty looks like, or what fifty five looks like, it might be based upon something that is really, not, you know, the way that you would aspire to be, but that's in your head. But the more women that they see, who are, fifty five, sixty, who are out there living their best lives, and being, you know, active, and, physical, and beautiful, you know, but beautiful in a fifty year old way, not in a twenty year old way
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Celebrate menopause as the start of something great! — Lisa Health Blog
For far too long, menopause has been discussed in hushed tones with an air of taboo shame. As we approach midlife, the body, mind, and even our environment, send a message that it's time to adapt once more so we can make the most of the years ahead. Menopause is the response, a natural way of making the physical changes necessary so we can continue to live a fulfilling and healthy life.
Celebrating menopause isn't about brushing unwanted symptoms under the rug or slapping a pseudo smile on your face during an unexpected hot flash. In fact, you have every right to feel discomfort, vulnerability, and frustration.
choose to focus on the wonder and strength of a body that's served us resolutely through times of sickness, health, and physical challenge. We've had a solid companion that's hung with us through the roller coaster of our ages
what awaits on the other side is revamped creativity and a new sense of purpose and focus. Throwing a party to celebrate menopause is all about creating a safe space to share feelings and speak freely.
> Parties celebrating menopause
> Gifts menopause really want
> App or website that suggests ways to celebrate menopause?
>> Focusses could be on menopause at work and how to help with this, but would going into specifics mean not fulfilling the brief requirements?
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Menopause factfile | Local Government Association
- It’s estimated that there are around 13 million women who are currently peri or menopausal in the UK (Wellbeing of Women) – that’s equal to one third of the entire UK female population.
- Whilst a minority of women will experience little or no menopausal symptoms, a significant number will experience debilitating symptoms that can last up to 15 years.
- Menopausal women are the fastest growing demographic in the workforce (Professor Jo Brewis, co-author Government Report on Menopause). According to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, almost 8 out of 10 of menopausal women are in work.
LACK OF EDUCATION ON MENOPAUSE AND THE IMPACT OF THIS
Identifying the Educational Needs of Menopausal Women: A Feasibility Study
Similarly, a survey of over 58,000 women by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA, 2001), which used Healthplan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) performance ratings, found the management of menopause in HMOs to be inadequate: e.g., results showed that the mean of the amount of information that the average woman in the study received was less than half the recommended information about personal characteristics that could affect her experience of menopause (a score of 47.3 out of 100), and only a third (33.2%) of these women thought they received quality menopause information (rating of 8 or more on a 0–10 scale).
More recently, millions of women have turned to the Internet for health information and support (e.g., Fox, 2007). In a summary of a multiyear market survey of online health consumers, those users identified as “eHealth Innovators” (proactive healthcare consumers), found that menopause was one of the top five conditions that have a disproportionate share among this segment of online users (Manhattan Research, 2004).
Clearly, there now exists the possibility for Internet-based education and support as a reasonable and expected modality for health interventions. Given that women are proactive health seekers and that millions of women experience the menopause transition, the need to develop an online health education program is great.
Menopause is often described as ‘the change that no one talks about'
Added to UK school curriculum 2019
Benefits of this
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