One day at end of September everything went haywire with my body. Throughout the day, I had hot flashes so intense I thought I might pass out and cold flashes so debilitating I could barely control my muscles to remain standing. 12-20 times per day! I had a dull pain behind my right ear that accompanied them.
I woke up multiple times throughout the night, every night, for no apparent reason. And then I would have to start ripping off my pyjamas or adding layers to make it through the temperature flash which inevitably followed the wake-up.
During the day, I experienced odd heartbeats, on and off. My period went M.I.A. Despite continuing to be in the best shape of my life--working out three times per week and hiking on weekends, I picked up weight around my middle--without changing a thing about the way I was eating.
I saw doctors and they all said menopause. I was incredulous. Overnight? At 50? My gynecologist only 6 months earlier had said my lab tests showed I wasn't even near peri-menopause!
I was pissed. I felt like no one had educated me in advance that this was coming. Not once had a primary care physician or a gynecologist told me I should expect this kind of change. No one had suggested investigating hormone therapy, or cognitive sleep therapy in advance so I would know what options I had.
I started searching for resources. I read a book by a naturopath. I watched Halle Berry's menopause special on Masterclass. From there, I found this great book as a kind of manual to accompany all these changes that were upending literally everything about the way I lived. And I worked with my gym trainer (an amazing guru on all things health) who made me understand that this was a transition, not the end alluded to by society for so long, which the many of the older books on the subject seemed to indicate.
And so, despite living in my own microclimate, and feeling tired more often than I was used to, a shift in mindset happened. I began to see menopause as an opportunity to to celebrate "me".
Celebrating me, in my case, meant saying no to doing things I did not want to do (without feeling guilty!). It meant taking the time to clearly formulate my desires about everything from sex to what we were going to have for dinner. It meant appreciating all that I had seen, done, and learned in life thus far.
It meant fully and unabashedly wielding all of my power as the woman that I am.