Blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research

Medical Training for Menopause? Wishful Thinking.

May 23rd, 2013 by Heather Dillaway
Medical Training for Menopause?

Photo by Ctorrear via Wikimedia Commons

OB-GYNS receive little to no medical training about menopause. Or at least that’s what recent research results show. Results of a web-based survey of 258 OB-GYN residency training directors across the country suggest that about one in five doctors receive any training on menopause, but that as many as seven in ten would like to receive that training. Residency training directors were asked to forward the survey to their residents, leading to a sample of 510 residents responding to the survey. Of the residents who responded, only 20% (100) reported any formal curriculum on menopause and only 78 residents reported participating in a hands-on “menopause clinic” as part of their residency. News articles reporting on this study suggest that this is a major problem considering how many women (as many as 50 million by the year 2020) are entering menopause in recent years.

My reaction to this is simple: of course there is little to no medical training on menopause. Of course. Anyone who has ever been to the doctor (for a simple cold, for a reproductive reason, or anything else) knows that doctors are easily stumped and that their training is often surface-level. If you present anything besides a “normal” case, the likelihood is that doctors will not have in-depth knowledge of your condition (regardless of whether that condition means you’re “healthy” or “sick”). In addition, if your body or your reproductive system represents something besides the norm then you should just brace yourself for doctors’ lack of knowledge about your body. Individual doctors are not necessarily at fault for this since they do not get training on aging bodies, disabled bodies, reproductive bodies that do not behave according to textbook info —  let alone the fact that the male body is really the norm and so women are already at a disadvantage since their reproductive bodies already represent an abnormal case. I’ve interviewed menopausal women who’ve talked about going to the doctor and having those doctors not really know much about their symptoms. I’ve also interviewed women who have had hysterectomies but then are not told anything about what effect that hysterectomy might have on long-term health or menopause. I have a student who just completed a dissertation on the reproductive experiences of women with sickle cell disease, and it is clear from her study that doctors have no idea how to deal with the reproductive needs of women with a congenital disease. I’m also working on a project about women with spinal cord injuries who can’t even find a doctor who will give them a proper pelvic exam because doctors have no idea how to handle a body that does not neatly fit on an exam table.

Women who really want answers learn to strategize about how to cobble together knowledge about their health or illness by seeing multiple doctors, going to alternative doctors as well as mainstream doctors, consulting others who have the same health or illness, doing their own research outside of medical institutions, and to some extent just putting up with their bodies and life stages without medical help. Women learn these strategies over time as doctors remain unable to help them. This is not a new situation by any means, rather it is just what women have learned (or have to learn) to expect over time. As much as biomedicine would like to declare doctors as the experts on women’s health and health or illness in general, in practice we know that doctors are not these experts. They are probably trying the best they can most of the time, but just have little training and knowledge in anything specific. Unless an individual doctor becomes extremely proactive and wants to seek out extra knowledge by themselves, the likelihood is that they will only have cursory knowledge of specific women’s health conditions or life stages. This means that women have to be ready to be their own experts and know their own “normal” in any life stage, because we cannot rely on doctors to have any training that might help us. Yes, on one level, this is a serious problem but, on another level, this is just reality.

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Posted in Health Care, Menopause, Menstruation, New Research, Reproduction | No Comments »

The Last Snowflake

April 24th, 2013 by Heather Dillaway

Photo by Heather Dillaway, April 2013

My kids and I read a book about “the last snowflake” a few years ago. The book was a story about how the last snowflake felt as it hit the ground each winter – lonely because his friends were ahead of him and probably melted already, or maybe carefree and floating on the wind to say the last goodbye to winter. This year my kids and I keep trying to wonder when that last snowflake would fall. Was it a few weeks ago? No. Was it last weekend? No. Well, here it is snowing again today so will I see the last snowflake tonight? At some point this snow has to end – it’s late April! When WILL that last flake fall?
Plenty of people have written and sang about the “last snowflake” (do a web search and you’ll see). It’s a great thing to philosophize about: when will it come, what will it look like, will I miss it, am I ready for what comes after it, and, in general, how do I feel about the transition it represents? Am I glad to see that last snowflake of the season, or am I melancholy about it? Am I ready for the warmer weather, or did I like wearing warm sweaters and fleece pajamas? Do I like winter after all, even though it’s hard and long and seemingly never-ending, until it’s over? I like spring a lot but it’s always so short in Michigan and we head right into hot weather, there’s really not much in-between. Plus spring and summer mean the ramping up of activities and a busier schedule – am I ready for that? A part of me is already missing that last snowflake even though I don’t know if I have seen it yet….but then again, I’m pretty ready for winter to be over. Can I feel two things at once? Can I be sad and glad to see that last snowflake?
Why am I writing about snowflakes? Because I read a piece on the Red Hot Mamas website the other day about a menopausal woman’s last period that reminded me that of my thoughts about last snowflakes. In “A Gentle Good-bye,” Christine Merser talks about how she did not get to say goodbye to her last period at age 42, that it came too fast and she mourns (at least in part) the idea that she’ll never menstruate again. She acknowledges the hardships menstruation sometimes caused and the hassles that were part and parcel of it, but also reminisces in its life-giving qualities and feels a sense of loss. She feels her last period was a “benchmark moment” and suggests that in not knowing that her last period was indeed her last, she did not get to say that “gentle goodbye” that she wanted to say. She also talks about menopause as representing the “October” of her life, signifying ends rather than beginnings, but at the same time wants it to mean new and better things. The idea that the last period cannot be predicted but is hoped for, but then may be bittersweet when it’s finally reached is something that I’ve heard from so many women. Menstruation is hard, especially when it is unpredictable in perimenopause or before, but a part of it is also safe and representative of a kind of stability and identity that is hard to give up. Merser proposes that cessation of menstruation is the “first thing she can’t fix” about her body. Regardless of the freedoms that you might get when it’s over for good or the things about it that you will gladly give up, women aren’t always quite sure they really want to be done with menstruation forever once they sit back and think about its meanings. So they ask, Am I glad to see that last period, or am I melancholy about its passing? Am I ready for the midlife and beyond, or did I like being younger? Am I ready to give up my monthly reminders of womanhood? Do I like menstruation after all, even though it’s hard and long and seemingly never-ending until it’s over? I might like midlife a lot but it seems like it might be short and it might head me right into aging for real, so how long will I really be in this good midlife stage? Does a part of me miss my period before I’ve seen my last one?
Like snow, menstruation can be unpredictable, uncertain, burdensome, and a hassle, and we might all be very happy to say goodbye. BUT, for those of accustomed to the seasons and the good parts of each season, we might also be somewhat sad to see snow and menstruation leave us. Especially if we don’t get to say a chance to say goodbye.
Disclaimer: This analogy probably only works for those who live in Northern climates and are used to the good and bad things that come with snow. And yes, I’m sort of making light of menstruation here, but my feelings about the last snowflake this year are noticeable to me and I thought it might be fun to play with this analogy.

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Posted in Menopause, Menstruation, Perimenopause | 2 Comments »

The Physical Body and the Lived Body

March 28th, 2013 by Heather Dillaway

I’ve been writing about disabled women who engage in reproductive experiences, and have been inspired by some of the ideas in the disability literature and literature on the sociology of the body in the past few weeks. Some scholars of the body argue that we should pay attention not only to the physical body and its functions, but also we should pay attention to the “lived body”. That is, we are in the world through our bodies, and therefore our bodies are what allow us to engage in the world and make sense of the world. Thus, the more subjective body, the one that forms our personal experience, is as important as any physical body or bodily function we may have. (For example, what does our first or last menstrual period mean to us?) We can also look at the “governmentality” of bodies – that is, all the rules that surround bodies, all the norms that suggest exactly how our bodies should be and behave. We can think about how those rules affect our experience of our own bodies. (For instance, what if we have a hot flash in public and people see us sweat, or we leak during our menstrual cycle and people see the leak? What happens to us in those instances, and how do we respond to these bodily happenings in the face of societal rules?)

Photo by Matt Wootton // Creative Commons 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattwootton

Disability scholars suggest similar things, arguing that to truly understand disability we must separate out physical impairment from the “subjectivity of disability” or the actual experience of living with an impaired body and society’s rules about which bodies are “normal” and “abnormal”. To truly understand something like menstruation then, we would need to separate out the natural, normal bodily function from the actual lived experience of menstruation and the societal rules that affect menstrual experience. We cannot comprehend menstruation until we separate the physical body from the lived body and also pay attention to the social constraints that shape physical and lived bodies.

All of this makes me think that we have a long way to go before understanding menstruation, or any other reproductive process for that matter. Not only do we need to understand the physical body but, even more importantly, we need to understand the lived bodily experience. What’s it like to live with menstruation? What are the issues that arise day to day? What are the rules that really conflict with women’s day to day experiences? What are the parts of the physical experience that take on meaning? What are the meanings that are created? And then how do women live in the world through menstruating bodies? How do women make sense of menstruating bodies as both physical and lived entities?

This blog entry is more conceptual, and it really is just me thinking out loud. I’d love comments though on how readers think about their physical versus lived bodies. When we really think about it our physical body is only one dimension of our much more comprehensive and complicated bodily experience.

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Posted in Menstruation, Philosophy | 3 Comments »

Menopausal Junk

February 28th, 2013 by Heather Dillaway

In response to my last blog entry about Helena Bonham Carter, Paula Derry commented that we treat menopause as a “junk category,” tossing in any symptom we can’t explain or don’t want to attribute to anything else. So true. In fact, Anne Fausto-Sterling said this long ago about menopause – that tons of symptoms were attributed to menopause when in fact only hot flashes really had a link to this life stage. BUT, we keep on attributing anything and everything to menopause.

    Photo by Flickr user Caterina // Creative Commons 2.0

  • Gaining weight at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Sad or angry at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Hairy at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Dry at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Blurry eyes at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Headaches at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Big boobs at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Constipated at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Have a symptom you can’t explain at midlife? Must be menopause.
  • Turned 50? Must be menopause. (Yes, see, it’s ridiculous.)

And the list goes on. And on. And on.

Okay, so, yes, menopause is a junk category because symptoms (junk) are just thrown in and declared “menopausal” (“perimenopausal”) at every turn. Just like when women go to the doctor and are given pregnancy tests no matter what their symptoms (“must be pregnant”). Ah, the fun of the reproductive life course.

BUT, I would say that there is another kind of “junk” that I see at menopause. I’ve interviewed menopausal women for 12 years now, and one of the hardest things is separating out menopause from all the other things (junk) going on in women’s lives as they make this transition. It is so hard to figure out what menopause really is and what it really means for women because it is surrounded by so much other “junk” at midlife. When you ask women about how they feel about menopause, they tell you but they also contextualize how they feel by telling you about:

  • their kids (the kids that live with them and the ones that have left)
  • their partners (current ones, ex-partners, and ones they wish they had)
  • their jobs (the ones they hate and the ones they care about)
  • their friends (the ones who support them and the ones who don’t)
  • their aging parents (and how hard it is to take care of them)
  • their worries about future aging
  • their doctors (good and bad)
  • their youth
  • their aches and pains
  • their bodies (the parts they like and don’t like)
  • their history of menstruation and other reproductive experiences…

You get the picture.
You have to wade through all of this to understand menopause. Sometimes it feels like junk clogging up their lives and clogging up the path to figuring out what menopause is really like. At the end of the day menopause is such a narrow part of most middle-aged women’s lives, but it is tied in with so much other midlife stuff that it’s hard to separate out. When you ask women about menopause, it’s sort of like asking someone, “How are you?”, on one of their busiest days. The answer you get back is surrounded and dictated by the junk in their lives and, unless you understand that going in, it might seem like menopause itself is a junk-filled process. But maybe it’s not. Despite all the news articles that predict new symptoms and conditions at menopause, and despite all of the midlife contexts that surround menopause, maybe menopause itself is very simple if we can weed out everything that’s not really menopause… What do YOU think?  Continue reading...

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Posted in Menopause, Perimenopause | 4 Comments »

Big Breasts, Menopause, and Helena Bonham Carter

January 31st, 2013 by Heather Dillaway


Another sign of menopause to add to the list: big breasts. Or so Helena Bonham Carter suggests in a recent interview. She suggests that she did not have big breasts until menopause and that it is “the one benefit of menopause.” But before this comment, she said that she wished they “didn’t stick out as much.” Apparently menopause and big breasts are a mixed blessing.

I’m fascinated by celebrities mentioning menopause these days. Actresses from the UK recently seem to be much more outgoing about their menopausal statuses than actresses from the US (see my previous post about Sinead O’Connor), at least from my followings of celebrity gossip (which, admittedly, is not very thorough). The idea that they are talking about it in passing, in simple conversation, is illustrative of the fact that menopause is not as hidden as it once was.

On the other hand, in this particular case, reading between the lines, Helena Bonham Carter says very directly that larger breasts are “the one benefit” of menopause, inferring that there are many more negatives. Further, the idea that the only benefit is appearance-based is not only interesting but also problematic in its reaffirmation of gendered norms about the necessity for women to look good for others. Finally, it is also clear from her comment that having big breasts – something that is often sought after in our highly sexualized, male-dominated culture – is maybe uncomfortable for women in public and that women’s bodies are indeed on display and women know it. Sure, she could have said that she wished her breasts didn’t stick out as much because they got in the way of her physical movement through space, but I doubt it. I think she made this comment more because of her discomfort with others’ gazes upon her body.

So, what does this all say about menopause? Or about big breasts? I think Helena Bonham Carter’s comments confirm the following: First, menopausal women are definitely still thinking (for better or worse) about their appearances. Second, women are intimately aware of the size of their breasts and understand that they are for public viewing (whether they like it or not). Third, big breasts are seemingly better than small ones, at least according to our various and intersecting gender norms. Fourth, Helena Bonham Carter doesn’t think there are any other benefits to menopause (a dismal thought), and we know she’s not the only one. (But aren’t there plenty of benefits? Come on….Sinead O’Connor thinks so…) Fifth, and despite some of the above conclusions, women aren’t necessarily hiding their menopausal status anymore.

I know, I’ve taken two sentences out of Helena Bonham Carter’s mouth and inferred lots of things, but am I that off base? I don’t think so, but feel free to comment!

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Posted in Celebrities, Communication, Menopause | 10 Comments »

Bored by Research Updates and News Headlines

January 3rd, 2013 by Heather Dillaway

"— Allons, à ton tour, ma petite... vas-y ! — Non, Papa ; si on devient si vilaine que ça en un an, j'aime mieux pas entrer".

By Achille Lemot (1846-1909) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes I think biomedical researchers and media spokespersons are just searching to find the pathology in our lives. Not that we don’t know this already, especially when it comes to women’s health. Because of how medicalization works, of course anything that veers from the defined “norm” for women (here, a young woman who menstruates every 28 days like clockwork) is pathological. Thus, menopausal women are pathological by definition. But, sometimes this gets pretty depressing, and really, it’s not very accurate considering that the vast majority of women go through menopause at some point during the midlife (so doesn’t that make menopause pretty normal and non-pathological?). In my Google alerts last week, here were the “menopause” headlines:

Diet, Exercise Post Menopause Help Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer
Medical Daily

Menopause linked to higher brain aneurysm risk
abc7.com

Healthy lifestyle during menopause may decrease breast cancer risk later on
Medical Xpress

Weight-y menopause
The Star Online

Diet To Overcome Menopause Problems
BoldSky

I do understand that there are many more health risks in middle age and beyond, and that changing/waning hormone levels at menopause induces different concerns/risks than women might have faced before menopause. Researchers, doctors, and media spokespersons have made it crystal clear over the past few decades that this is the case. But, as feminist and social science researchers have urged us to get beyond the “menopause as death” or “menopause as problem” perspectives, it seems that we’re not making much progress in thinking differently or more broadly about this transition. As I read the articles on menopause leading to more breast cancer risk, risk of brain aneurysm, and risk of weight gain, it is reaffirmed in my mind that we’ve made very little progress in broadening the dialogue (at least the published and mainstream dialogue) on this important life stage.

Sure, this life stage is filled with problems, risks, and interesting situations, but what life stage isn’t? Isn’t there published research coming out on ANYTHING ELSE about menopause? I want to read about something different! Readers, feel free to comment about any other interesting stuff you’ve read about menopause recently because I for one am searching for new takes on menopause. Seriously, people, was there nothing else new last week on menopause? As we head into 2013 I’m hoping for something new.

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Posted in Communication, Media, Menopause, Menstruation, New Research | 7 Comments »

Useful Gifts to Buy this Holiday Season

December 6th, 2012 by Heather Dillaway

The other day a Huffington Post article crossed my desk, titled, “Gift Guide 2012: What To Get The Menopausal Women In Your Life.” According to this article, here are some of the things menopausal women (read: perimenopausal women) might want this December:

  1. Coldfront cooling palm packs (to relieve sweaty palms)
  2. A personal desk fan (for those hot flashes at work)
  3. A “menopause gift basket” filled with healthy treats and goodies, maybe also including vitamins, and alternative remedies for relief, “to stabilize mood and help the body adjust to hormonal changes.”
  4. A Feel Cooler Cooling Mattress Pad or Cooling Pillow that interacts with your nightly body temperatures to cool you down (for night sweats)
  5. Cool Sensations Moisture Wicking Bed Sheets (reportedly for those floods of night sweats you might get)
  6. Hot Girls Pearls – cooling beads to wear around your neck (for hot flashes) – apparently these have even made it onto Oprah’s Show
  7. Tickets to Menopause the Musical
  8. Sweat-wicking pajamas (there are lots of different brands, again to deal with night sweats)

Clearly the theme here is that menopausal women get hot and need relief. Fair enough, for many menopausal women this would be true. But this list got me thinking: what might I add to this list? Here are some I thought of:

  1. Humorous gifts, such as books of jokes about menopause and aging?
  2. Books about menopause
  3. Cookbooks that specialize in natural eating?
  4. A yoga gift certificate? Or other exercise certificate?

I’d love to hear from readers about other ideas for menopause-related holiday gifts.
Then I got to thinking again: If my daughter had reached menarche already, what kinds of holiday gifts could I get her that relate to her life stage? Here are some of the ideas I thought of, and I definitely need help from readers to expand this list:

  1. Pretty reusable (washable) maxi pads (e.g., Lunapads)
  2. A cool bag to carry maxi-pads around in
  3. A cool tampon case (like the ones that Uncommon Goods sells)
  4. Cool new (extra) underwear
  5. A special calendar for her to use to track her periods
  6. New Moon Girls’ magazine (or just an online membership to New Moon Girls)
  7. The book, Our Bodies Ourselves, or other books on puberty and menstruation

So, readers, what else belongs on this list? Those of you already buying for Hannukah and Christmas might have some great ideas…..please chime in!

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Posted in Girls, Menarche, Menopause, Menstruation | 4 Comments »

Early Menopause Caused By Makeup?

November 8th, 2012 by Heather Dillaway

It turns out that phthalates – chemicals found in cosmetics, hairspray, packaged food, household cleaners, and other common plastic items – are causing early menopause. At least according to one new study that is getting a lot of hype in the past week or two. A team of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, studied phthalate levels in blood and urine for over 5,000 women, and those women with the highest levels of pthalates apparently went into menopause an average of at least two years before others.

This study is definitely making news. British news sources are reporting on this study as much as U.S. news sources. Women’s reactions to online news stories about this study are mixed. Women hearing about this study are quick to comment online, saying either (1) how quickly they’ll be running out to buy more makeup (to launch themselves into menopause) or (2) discontinuing their use of makeup (to ward against the effects of pthalates). What I find interesting is how divided women are about whether early menopause is good. Reactions to reports on this study definitely show attitudinal differences among women in that women do not think uniformly about menopause or about the importance of using cosmetics. Women are not  thinking uniformly about how damaging phthalates are to our bodies either.

Of course, by all news reports of this study, phthalates also cause cancer, diabetes, and even feminization of boys (really?), so even if you think early menopause is a good thing you might want to hold off on consuming more phthalates.

What this study (and people’s belief in the study) also reiterates is the fact that our bodies are affected by what we eat, use, and do, as well as what we come into contact with, where we live, etc. Some of the articles reporting on this study focus in on the natural, healthy choices we can make when picking beauty products, household cleaners, prepared food, and other common household items. Who knew there was vegan makeup, for instance? This is all worth a second thought. Sure, we might all want to be done with menstruation sooner than later but phthalate-induced menopause should probably not be our goal.

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Posted in Communication, Internet, Media, Menopause, Menstruation | 1 Comment »

Applauding the “Second Talk”

October 11th, 2012 by Heather Dillaway

In an effort to continue positive conversations about menopause, this blog entry is about Poise’s new “2nd talk” campaign. I was watching TV the other night and an advertisement for Poise’s menstrual pad came on. For once, I was actually happy to see a TV ad on menopause. The ad featured a video of a woman talking about how confusing menopausal symptoms are and what menopausal symptoms can be like, and how women need to talk about them. Menopause talk, then, is the “2nd talk” to which Poise ads are referring. Poise has developed an entire collection of “unscripted” stories from women experiences perimenopause, and it is well worth watching them. Visit the website! The premise is that while we do talk about menstruation (apparently the “1st talk”), we do not talk about menopause and we should. We should share, and we should inform, and this will make women feel better at menopause. Poise is trying to fill the gap by creating a forum for “2nd talk” on their website and in TV ads.

What a wonderful idea. Research has already shown that talking and sharing makes menopause (and any other reproductive health experience for that matter) better, and I’ve blogged about this before. We could debate Poise’s stance that the “1st talk” (menstrual talk) actually happens, but I think we do need to praise the writers of this ad campaign for prioritizing “2nd talk.” It reminds me somewhat of the Dove campaign on what women like about their bodies and while we can find plenty of ways to critique the writers of these campaigns, we can’t deny that they are moving in the right direction.

I hope we see more of this Poise ad campaign! Perhaps we ourselves can also all try to encourage “1st talk” and “2nd talk.” Lately it seems like a lot of the entries on re:Cycling are about opening doors for talking and sharing, and Poise may not be that far behind us.

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Posted in Advertising, Communication, Internet, Media, Menopause, Menstruation | 2 Comments »

Menstrual Variations…

September 13th, 2012 by Heather Dillaway

To follow Alexandra Jacoby’s recent post about talking more about menstruation (especially about the things we’re not allowed to talk about), I’m finally going to write about something that has been bothering me for a long time. Here it is:

Why don’t we talk about the important variations in our menstrual cycles?

In puberty our periods are all over the place, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, sometimes crampy, sometimes not.

If we have babies and have vaginal birth, we can bleed on and off for over a month and it’s totally normal.

Even in a normal month, we can have spotting for a day in the middle of the month.

Sometimes our periods are shorter or longer than normal, seemingly for no reason. (Although there’s probably always a reason.)

Then you hit your late 30s and – boom! – your periods might get heavier, or come faster. I was at lunch the other day with a friend and we started talking about the “late 30s gush” (her phrase, I can’t take credit). How come nobody talks about that when it’s totally normal?

As you age, it’s normal for periods to get shorter or longer or heavier or lighter, and even to come at different times than they did before.

Some women have terrible cramps and PMS, some don’t have any pain or bloating or other signs.

Some women who use hormonal birth control methods (e.g., the Pill, the Patch, Depo, etc.) don’t even know what their “normal” periods would be like and, rather, get used to whatever normal is on that method. Some menopausal women don’t even know they’re officially menopausal since they’re still on birth control or another hormone therapy (thus, don’t know whether they would have had their last menstrual cycle by now).

What we think of as a “heavy” period in puberty is different from a “heavy” period in young adulthood or midlife. Our definition of “heavy bleeding” changes as we experience the variations in our own menstrual cycles.

Some people are comfortable with pads, some with tampons, and some with menstrual cups. Some use a combination of all three. All of us switch what we use across our life course.

The meanings of monthly menstruation are variable too. If you’re trying not to conceive, it is welcome. If you’re trying to conceive, it’s unwelcome. If you’re not thinking about fertility at all, you could be indifferent, positive or negative about your period when it comes. If you have a disability or you are older or younger you might feel very different about menstruation. Perhaps your culture allows you to rest during menstruation and that could be good or bad for you. Perhaps you hide it, perhaps you don’t, perhaps you don’t want it on vacation but you do want it before vacation. Perhaps you do want your heavy days on the weekend, perhaps they come in the middle of the week (or vice versa). Bottom line, every month we could all feel differently about it.
Some people hit menopause in the early 40s, some not until their late 50s or even early 60s. Yet still totally normal.

Even if you have a partial hysterectomy, you could still get signs of your monthly cycle even if you aren’t officially bleeding.

And our own “normal” (what we are accustomed to) inevitably changes as we go through our life course, and we are often caught off guard by the menstrual experiences we have (as Alexandra discusses in the blog post I mention above).  Continue reading...

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Posted in Communication, Menstruation | 9 Comments »

An Apple A Day . . .

August 24th, 2012 by Heather Dillaway

My most recent apple!

Everybody knows “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Or at least we teach our kids this saying.
It turns out now “an apple a day keeps menopause woes away,” at least according to the Red Hot Mamas’ website, and some other recent news posts. Apples (along with many other fruits and vegetables) apparently help us fight (lessen) menopausal symptoms, and other websites advocate apple cider vinegar to help with menopausal symptoms. Not to mention these things help with weight gain and other chronic health conditions as we age.

 

Apples help alleviate PMS symptoms too, apparently. A “PMS Comfort” Website even has a Cinnamon Baked Apple recipe for women to make when they need to relieve PMS symptoms. From a perusal of these websites, it seems one of the things apples can do is reduce bloating and swelling.

 

To some extent I’m skeptical: what makes an apple better than a blueberry or a nice cold glass of water? I guess this simply reminds us that diet definitely matters at all stages of our reproductive life cycles. This also harks back to Paula Derry’s recent post about how the environment affects our bodies and what we put our bodies through matters, and Kati Bicknell’s latest post about the impacts of eating meat on fertility. What we put into our bodies matters too.

I guess it’s true that an apple a day is a good thing. But, how did the apple get some much hype anyway? Seriously, if there is one fruit that has become part of our daily lexicon it is the apple. . . . Adam and Eve’s apple, Johny Appleseed, Mom and Apple Pie, the Big Apple, the poison apples from from Snow White, you’re the apple of my eye, you’re sweet as apple pie, an apple for the teacher, an apple a day keeps the doctor away …. I guess it was a matter of time before apples made it to PMS and menopause.

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Posted in Media, Menopause, PMS | 1 Comment »

“Excited” to Reach Menopause? Really?

August 16th, 2012 by Heather Dillaway

Big news this week: Sinead O’Connor announces she is excited to be reaching menopause and looks forward to her first hot flash. News stories in the Daily Mail and a celebrity gossip magazine called Female First characterize her as ready to “embrace” this new life stage, unafraid of aging or bodily changes. They also make sure to tell us in the same breath that most other women dread this life stage. It is almost as if the reason that this is news is that it is absolutely amazing that a woman can feel positively about menopause. Comments on this article reaffirm the fact that this is absolutely amazing and that most women hate it, with one person even suggesting that menopause is “God’s revenge on women for being the superior race.”
Really?
I find plenty of women telling me they are happy to reach this life stage. Sure, the symptoms suck sometimes (maybe even for years). But, this doesn’t mean they dread all of the changes in their bodies or that they hate their bodily changes. And it doesn’t mean they dread aging. I think Sinead O’Connor is probably more representative of the ways in which many women are thinking about menopause than not. Or at the very least there is a sizable portion of the female population who feels like O’Connor as they reach this life stage. To characterize menopause as normally terrible and O’Connor as “outlandish,” “eclectic” and “quirky” in the same breath as telling us that she is excited about menopause just reifies negative cultural discourse on this reproductive transition. This does nothing positive for women.
What IS positive, though, is that we are even hearing about Sinead O’Connor’s take on menopause. And I argue that she is not as weird in her views on menopause as she seems.

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Posted in Celebrities, Communication, Hormones, Language, Media, Menopause | 2 Comments »

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