Menopause 101: is this the end of the road? ... No way!

Menopause 101 –  Full Stop? No Way!

Menopause 101: is this the end of the road? ... No way!

YES ... typically what follows the arrival of the menopausal cycle in a woman, is a Full Stop.

Life apparently stops as we know it: sensual life has been drained from a woman, the last vestiges of all that youth had to offer have ceased to be and what she is to expect from here on is a slow, dehydrating decline into a withered state of unattractiveness, invisibility and vaginal dryness.

Not to mention that her youthful exuberance and sweet personality will be replaced with what is commonly reposted on the internet as, ‘The 7 Menopausal Dwarves’ – yes, she should expect to experience or to be labelled: ‘Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Bloaty, Sleepy, Forgetful and Psycho’. This sure is one ugly image of an inevitable cycle that every woman will enter.

So how did it get to be so ugly when it could be so far from the truth, if we just allowed ourselves to see what is really happening?

If you’re still ‘young’ and still menstrual then you likely clicked away after the first mention of Menopause ... or quite possibly avoided this page altogether. So if you’re still here – well done you – because what follows from here, and the pages that follow, is relevant to every woman, no matter the age and no matter the stage of a woman’s cycle you are experiencing right now.

We live in cycles and there’s no getting around it. The earth spins around the sun, morning rises, evening falls, winter comes, summer goes and around we go again and again and again ... yes a bit like ‘Groundhog Day’. It can be depressingly repetitive or an amazing opportunity to grow.

Women are particularly connected to this via the arrival of our menstrual cycle every month or thereabouts. In fact, depending on how keenly aware you allow yourself to be, it is a monthly cycle that involves far more than the actual menstruation – it encompasses the whole month if you take into account your time of ovulation, the lead up to and moving on from it, as well as the pre and post menstruation phases. For more on the relevance of cycles in a woman’s period do read Women's Periods 101 and The Phases of my Menstrual Cycle.

So what does all this talk of the period cycle mean for women who no longer experience this monthly clearing in their body?

  • Is it really signalling a Full Stop?
  • The End?
  • The loss of your womanhood?

Within the pages that follow you will hear from menopausal women at varying stages of this cycle, from peri-menopause to post-menopause and how the natural transition from the recurring cycles of menstruation release a woman to enter a very powerful stage of wisdom – coupled with a fundamental responsibility for giving back and sharing her increased awareness with women who are still cycling through the ongoing cycle of discarding and building offered to them throughout their menstrual years.

"We live in cycles and Menopause does not happen because it is an age, it happens because it is a certain cycle."

Serge Benhayon from 'The Menopause Explained' presentation

Filed under

MenopauseWisdomWomen's healthAgeingEldersCycles

  • Photography: Dean Whitling, Brisbane based photographer and film maker of 13 years.

    Dean shoots photos and videos for corporate portraits, architecture, products, events, marketing material, advertising & website content. Dean's philosophy - create photos and videos that have magic about them.