To the Editor:
Re “Why Do We Dread Menopause?” (Sunday Review, Sept. 15):
My last few years in perimenopause and menopause (as defined by erratic and then absent periods) have been a time of creativity and connection. I’ve taken up painting and baking, had some of the most fulfilling years of my professional life and experienced transformative and newly profound intimacy with my wife of 20 years, my sister, a childhood friend and my mother.
I’ve developed just a very few choice new relationships and shed several that weren’t serving me. And had an occasional hot flash.
I happily identify with Susan Mattern’s evolutionary description of menopausal women as “an invaluable, naturally renewing resource — older, experienced women with energy to spare.” No dread here, and I’m eagerly anticipating the next few decades.
Julie Kruse
Washington
To the Editor:
Susan Mattern makes an excellent case for viewing menopause as a normal transition in a woman’s life and as something that does not need to be discussed as something wrong, as a syndrome or a disease. Many women are living, thriving and being quite productive for decades after menopause.
I write with an additional perspective to support menopause as a healthy and positive transition.
As a nurse scientist, I conducted a study of several women who had undergone menopause after being infertile. Some had become pregnant through infertility treatment, some adopted children and some chose to remain childless.
The commonality among all the women was that they described menopause as a time in their lives when they felt “normal” because, rather than being infertile and feeling different from their fertile friends, they were now experiencing a normal transition that is part of a woman’s life.
Ellen Olshansky
Irvine, Calif.
The writer is professor emerita at the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, University of California, Irvine.
To the Editor:
Having written a book about the funnier aspects of this time in a woman’s life, “Gonepausal,” I have come to realize that women of my generation, the baby boomers, were not told anything about menopause by our mothers.
I asked my mother about her menopause experience, and she said she went through it in one afternoon. There was no jocular tone in her voice, and we never spoke of it again.
No one is jocular on the subject, just in denial.
So I was ambushed except for my doctor’s telling me that I would gain weight around my middle, which is not much to go on.
In this country it is a symbol of age, and we are all running as fast as we can away from aging. In Britain, women embrace this time of life and even call it “the menopause,” which has a royal ring to it.
It is a subject that should be opened for discussion and not denied or closeted. It’s unavoidable, and the more we share, the more we will understand this sea change and help one another through it.
Gail Forrest
Chicago
To the Editor:
Susan Mattern’s historical prospective of menopause is noteworthy but there is a tangible reason beyond cultural and societal expectations that menopause is “approached with dread.” The consequences of estrogen deprivation can be debilitating, life-altering and even life-threatening, and most physicians do not discuss, validate or offer solutions.
Eighty percent of women experience hot flashes that may last 10 years or more and are not only a cause of insomnia, alteration of cognition and discomfort, but may also contribute to heart disease.
In the United States alone there are eight million women with osteoporosis that is responsible for two million fractures a year; 25 percent of women over 50 die as a result of osteoporotic hip fracture.
In spite of those statistics, only about 6 percent of women receive counseling and treatment of the consequences of menopause.
If we are to value and respect menopausal women, let’s do so by providing safe, effective solutions (hormonal and nonhormonal) for the consequences of this natural hormonal shift instead of simply saying “accept, don’t dread.”
Lauren Streicher
Chicago
The writer, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, is the author of “Sex Rx: Hormones, Health and Your Best Sex Ever.”
To the Editor:
It is hard to tell from Susan Mattern’s essay how old she is, but I went into menopause years ago. I had no idea what menopause might mean, nor did I obsess about it.
I am now into my fifth year of hot flashes. They come frequently and are extremely unpleasant, particularly in the heat of summer. But most disastrously, I get them throughout the night and consequently have very poor quality sleep. Lack of restorative sleep can ruin your life.
I am also losing my hair, my body shape has changed tremendously although my weight has not, and the quality of my skin is greatly different and not for the better.
My friends and I never talked about it. It was something expected, and there was nothing to be done about it. But the changes are unpleasant. I cannot explain why menopause hit the medical literature late, but so much about women has been badly skewed by men.
Sura Jeselsohn
Bronx
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | Talking About Menopause (Finally)
Opinion | Talking About Menopause (Finally)
To the Editor:
Re “Why Do We Dread Menopause?” (Sunday Review, Sept. 15):
My last few years in perimenopause and menopause (as defined by erratic and then absent periods) have been a time of creativity and connection. I’ve taken up painting and baking, had some of the most fulfilling years of my professional life and experienced transformative and newly profound intimacy with my wife of 20 years, my sister, a childhood friend and my mother.
I’ve developed just a very few choice new relationships and shed several that weren’t serving me. And had an occasional hot flash.
I happily identify with Susan Mattern’s evolutionary description of menopausal women as “an invaluable, naturally renewing resource — older, experienced women with energy to spare.” No dread here, and I’m eagerly anticipating the next few decades.
Julie Kruse
Washington
To the Editor:
Susan Mattern makes an excellent case for viewing menopause as a normal transition in a woman’s life and as something that does not need to be discussed as something wrong, as a syndrome or a disease. Many women are living, thriving and being quite productive for decades after menopause.
I write with an additional perspective to support menopause as a healthy and positive transition.
As a nurse scientist, I conducted a study of several women who had undergone menopause after being infertile. Some had become pregnant through infertility treatment, some adopted children and some chose to remain childless.
The commonality among all the women was that they described menopause as a time in their lives when they felt “normal” because, rather than being infertile and feeling different from their fertile friends, they were now experiencing a normal transition that is part of a woman’s life.
Ellen Olshansky
Irvine, Calif.
The writer is professor emerita at the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, University of California, Irvine.
To the Editor:
Having written a book about the funnier aspects of this time in a woman’s life, “Gonepausal,” I have come to realize that women of my generation, the baby boomers, were not told anything about menopause by our mothers.
I asked my mother about her menopause experience, and she said she went through it in one afternoon. There was no jocular tone in her voice, and we never spoke of it again.
No one is jocular on the subject, just in denial.
So I was ambushed except for my doctor’s telling me that I would gain weight around my middle, which is not much to go on.
In this country it is a symbol of age, and we are all running as fast as we can away from aging. In Britain, women embrace this time of life and even call it “the menopause,” which has a royal ring to it.
It is a subject that should be opened for discussion and not denied or closeted. It’s unavoidable, and the more we share, the more we will understand this sea change and help one another through it.
Gail Forrest
Chicago
To the Editor:
Susan Mattern’s historical prospective of menopause is noteworthy but there is a tangible reason beyond cultural and societal expectations that menopause is “approached with dread.” The consequences of estrogen deprivation can be debilitating, life-altering and even life-threatening, and most physicians do not discuss, validate or offer solutions.
Eighty percent of women experience hot flashes that may last 10 years or more and are not only a cause of insomnia, alteration of cognition and discomfort, but may also contribute to heart disease.
In the United States alone there are eight million women with osteoporosis that is responsible for two million fractures a year; 25 percent of women over 50 die as a result of osteoporotic hip fracture.
In spite of those statistics, only about 6 percent of women receive counseling and treatment of the consequences of menopause.
If we are to value and respect menopausal women, let’s do so by providing safe, effective solutions (hormonal and nonhormonal) for the consequences of this natural hormonal shift instead of simply saying “accept, don’t dread.”
Lauren Streicher
Chicago
The writer, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, is the author of “Sex Rx: Hormones, Health and Your Best Sex Ever.”
To the Editor:
It is hard to tell from Susan Mattern’s essay how old she is, but I went into menopause years ago. I had no idea what menopause might mean, nor did I obsess about it.
I am now into my fifth year of hot flashes. They come frequently and are extremely unpleasant, particularly in the heat of summer. But most disastrously, I get them throughout the night and consequently have very poor quality sleep. Lack of restorative sleep can ruin your life.
I am also losing my hair, my body shape has changed tremendously although my weight has not, and the quality of my skin is greatly different and not for the better.
My friends and I never talked about it. It was something expected, and there was nothing to be done about it. But the changes are unpleasant. I cannot explain why menopause hit the medical literature late, but so much about women has been badly skewed by men.
Sura Jeselsohn
Bronx
Source: Read Full Article