I've been thinking a lot about aging lately. Aging gracefully, and secretly wanting to continue looking like I am in my 30s, was always the plan. But menopause.
Menopause, you nasty wicked thing!
It's truly not fair, you know.
Women go through the weight gain, body changes, raging hormones, and sleep deprivation during and after childbirth, so is it fair that we also have to experience similar later in life? The meno belly, hot flashes, sleep interruptions, hot flashes, mood swings, and hot flashes (did I mention hot flashes?) are the antithesis of those childbearing years, and yet here we are.
It's every guy's dream for his woman to wake him up as she throws off the covers and flings off her nightgown, but what he didn't bargain for was . . . . sweat. Maybe that is his payback for, I don't know, Adam being stupid enough to eat the apple in the Garden of Eden that got him and Eve thrown out and a childbearing curse put on Eve and all women on earth for all eternity.
Ok, forgive me for digressing there.
I try to laugh at it all, but there is nothing funny about having a hot flash in the middle of Zumba. A woman can only take so much internal heat before her face starts to melt. Before you know it, little drops of cheek and lips, eyebrows and nose start hitting the floor, making it too slippery to risk taking the next step. Oh, we are accustomed to this, don't fear. The talent of a mother to sidestep a toddler's meal that just hit the floor while balancing a baby on the hip is ingrained from conception.
Someone open the outside door! Get some cooler air in here!
It's just a part of the day - the ritual of the hot flash.
God bless our mothers, though. They fought through menopause while their teenage daughters laughed at their hot flashes, memory lapses, and diminishing eyesight. Well that came back to haunt us, didn't it?
Oh there are hundreds, if not thousands, of natural remedies for menopause, specifically hot flashes. The problem, though, is that none of them work. The doctor says that she doesn't want you to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but then as you suffer for 4 years or more, she asks if you have had enough and are ready to take HRT.
Aye yai yai.
Don't mind me, I'll just be sitting over here cooling off.
I remember those days
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until I am past it.
DeleteJulie great writing...you sure are good at writing...you have humor even going through this time in the journey of being an older woman...Erma Bombeck is who you remind me of...😊
ReplyDeleteThank you. Maybe Erma's writing will be my mentor. I will try to read some of her stuff.
DeleteYea, but where is that hot flash at 7:30 AM when the wind chill is -10 and you are cleaning ice and snow off the car.? Fun writing….and truth.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I get you. I'm lucky, though, in that when I climb in bed and can't get warm, all I have to do is turn onto my side and the hot flash will come. Every. Single. Time.
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