Do we really need studies like this Dutch one looking at “the impact of menopausal symptoms on work ability”  that claims “Menopausal symptoms are negatively associated with work ability and may increase the risk of sickness absence”?

I mean what were they thinking?  That this is going to help women in the 40-60 age bracket obtain employment more easily?  Or did they think this would encourage employers to offer increased sick leave to women? Over 40?  Here have 5 more days sick leave.

How about a study on the influence of major sporting events on the sick leave taken by men?

We all know that excess exercise can stop a women’s periods.  Maybe this is nature telling us we are not supposed to have bodies like boys.

Do women really want to have babies late in life or would we prefer a society that did not punish our careers for having them early?

Our mothers called it “change of life” which is pretty much what it is.  And change is good, right?

Now they label it “menopause” and tell us that we can only use that word when we have not had a period for 12 months. Mind you, once that happens, we will always have to use that word.  Even at 90.  There’s no “post-menopause” –  just forever menopause.  It is no longer a change of life. It is a life sentence.   Not so good.

And if  that is not quite bad enough, they then invented “peri-menopause” to cover anyone remotely close to menopause.  How do they figure that out when it changes from woman to woman? Well we’re talking about science here so let’s just use a formula.  The average age of menopause is the USA is 51 so anyone within 7 years of 51 will cover it. So even if you go through menopause at 56, according to doctors you are peri-menopausal from 44 onwards even if you are pregnant to the eyeballs with baby #3.  But wait, there’s more.  They then invented ”pre-menopause” to cover the 7 years before that.  All up the menopause market is now any women over 37. 

And unfortunately, advertisers consistently project negative images of menopause in order to hawk their products since fear of the lack of sex also sells. And in doing so they perpetuate the crone myth.  The overwhelming message is that unless you actually do something about this dreadful impending thing called menopause, you will not be “slim, sane and sexy”.  No, no. You will be a fat mad old cow that no man would touch even with a ten foot pole. And it’s not just advertisers.  The media play into that message with articles such as “The Bitch is Back”.

The underlying message is that women must project an image that equates to reproductive viability in order to be of any true value to society. If we cannot attract a mate in order to reproduce we are of no true use except possibly as grandmothers. Menopause by definition means we cannot reproduce.  The horror, the horror.  We dye our hair, spend a fortune on our skin, yearn for slim bodies. But is that enough?   Will women soon be driven to faking their period in order to deny having reached menopause at all?  You think that impossible?  I urge you to watch a wonderful Lebanese movie called Caramel. It’s a great movie about love marriage and friendship amongst six women.  But when you watch it, take notice.  One of the women, Jamale, a divorced mother of teens and a part-time model,  does exactly that.

I want to blame her for being irritable but I think it is just life and not menopause at all. Just as we have discovered with heart problems! You can’t blame menopause for everything.

I tell you waiting for menopause is completely boring.  And I know I should not just be waiting, I should be “preparing”.  Exercising, eating right, taking that Vitamin D. 

But hell, they expect you to do that every damn day and that is called “routine” and how boring is that?

So I am tired of it all. I think I will skip menopause completely and move on to Alzheimers instead.

Close. She is the lead author on a research paper which basically claims that as women age they get more and more desperate to have a baby until they hit menopause of course when they have to give up. 

Interpreting the survey questions, their desperation is evidenced by increasing sexual fantasies and willingness to engage in sex with virtual strangers they have no intention of committing to. Not to mention their sexual creativity in the bedroom with their chosen mate (or should we say mates) fueled by their interest in  “erotic” literature. 

Because, as any woman in an IVF program will tell you, this is really how you increase your chance to conceive.  Sleeping around putting on an act that would make a porn queen blush.

I am sorry but who is she? 

According to her GuardTiger25 Twitter page she is a “bio-grad” and “slave” who thinks

“it’s a good sign at the end of an interview when they say we’d love to have you back anytime, right? …!”

Uh, well that kinda depends on what you said …

And what did she say?

“The study “sort of does support the idea of the cougar.”

Judith Easton.   By her own definition, soon to be come an increasingly desperate woman …

Women stop having babies so they can help look after their grandchildren.

How about we stop having babies so we can stop looking after other people and look after ourselves for a change?

Most reaction has been skepticism on two fronts:

1. that it is actually that accurate (they accept it needs a large scale trial)
2. knowing the date is really that helpful.

Testing for menopause is really a fertility test in disguise.  Women want to know how much longer they have before menopause closes the door on the opportunity to reproduce.  But we know that the door closes long before that.

Some women would test in order to put it off a little longer, others to know when to stop hoping.

Ever saw the movie TiMER?  It is about a device you could insert into your wrist that would tell you how long you had to wait to meet your one true love.   It took all the fun out of life in many ways … yet I am pretty sure that I would have gotten one. I am just not sure howI would hav e behaved while life turned into a waiting game.

“Women our age shouldn’t joke about vitamins,” Samantha says.

“Women who are not our age shouldn’t say ‘women our age,’” quips Carrie.

“Well, one day very soon you will thank me,” notes Samantha. “I am leading the way through the menopause maze with my vitamins, my melatonin sleep patches, my estrogen cream, progesterone cream, a touch of testosterone… I’ve tricked my body into thinking it’s younger.”

At 52, the character really could have been past menopause transition. Here was a chance for her to present a dignified ”been there and conquered that” face to her friends (and the audience) but instead she is cast in a rather pathetic role of clinging to her youth with a “don’t want to go there at any price” attitude.

Which leaves the underlying message of this movie, with regard to menopause, being that menopausal women are no longer sexually viable (a view oft-held by many men not that they would admit to it).  And Samantha clearly has bought into that message hence her rather desperate behavior.

I thought Samantha was supposed to be smarter than that. After all our greatest sexual organ is our brain.