Menopause is forever
As children we reach puberty and menarche – our first period – occurs. As we got close to the expected age for that event, we were classified as “prepubescent” and we said to be “going thru puberty”. Then we got thru puberty and biologically we were “women”. But of course we weren’t. We were teenagers and still “girls”.
At some mysterious point in our 20’s, we became adults and moved from being called girls to being called women. But we got to refer to ourselves as girls if we felt like it.
As women, we get to an age when our last period occurs. It is called Menopause. As we get close to the expected age for that event, we are classified as “perimenopausal”. Once we reach Menopause, biologically we are still women.
Yet if you read the literature we are not women. We are and forever will be menopausal women. Whose idea was that? And don’t even try to say “postmenopausal” because they’ll tell you that medically there is no such word. Why? What’s the big deal? You are a girl, you get your first period and all thru it you are still a girl. You are pregnant, you have the baby and then you are not pregnant and all thru it you are a woman. You are a woman, you get your last period and all thru it you are still a woman.
I refuse to become a menopausal woman. I am going to go thru it and when it is over I am still going to be a woman. I refuse to be defined by the state of my reproductive system.
