Guardian perimenopause explainer

I've just written to the readers editor as well and pointed out that it's unlikely that an explainer on prostate cancer wouldn't say that it affected men.

I have this feeling it is easier to say men don't get the menopause than it is to say women get menopause.

Hmm... female health care messaging is going to start targeting men to tell them what does or doesn't affect them. The messaging for women will target everyone. And this will be seen as normal.

To come so far in healthcare for women and then to go so far backwards

Though TikTok algorithms being what they are, I worry that many of those already converted* will not see such material.

But there may be hope for those not yet on the slippery slope.

*Do posts get deleted for using terms related to cerebral laundry?

@Chersfrozenface I do keep hearing that tiktok is experiencing a backlash though.

This particular tiktok is lovely:

twitter.com/hatpinwoman/status/1626364096210673664?s=46&t=22jA6eZn6-YJiCFz-lW4fw

So true. A vulnerable teen of a friend thought you just had a second puberty and then..voila!!! She was 15 FFS - plenty old enough to learn the actual facts were she not being told so many lies.

Sadly I doubt that last bit.

Many teenage girls who get their "information" from the internet and a captured education system think they'll actually become male. Oestrogen, menopause, female health matters in general will no longer apply to them.

And for gods sake guardian, women who think they're men who take cross sex hormones and pbs are plunging themselves into menopause.

My only weak hope is that the increased discussions around meno may help to point out to girls that oestrogen is bloody important to your healthy body!

It's also a rather shite explanation.

No mention of dryness too much made of hot flashes which I only got towards the end. The years before were much worse

'Scuse typos.

'Transition' is a word used in biology, if memory serves. You get it in descriptions / discussions of larvae becoming pupae for instance

That's one of the reasons, IMO, that gendersists use the word (spuriously) to try to make "changing sex" seem like a normal natural biological process.

'Perimenopause is when the body starts the transition to menopause.'
What or whose body is that? Any body?
Also has the word 'transition' been shoehorned in here? I don't think it's usual to say we (women) transition to menopause....

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I agree Sample is usually great which is why this is extra baffling. Even if he knocked it up from the internet in an hour, he could still type the word "woman". If he did indeed include "woman" (It does read like the word got simply taken out ..."some ..." for example instead of "some women") & it got butchered by an editor later, & I had written it, I would be raging, & having words. It makes him look deranged, as science editor.

Yes, though of course it's also the only reason the piece is there. The police mentioning Nicola Bulley's perimenopausal symptoms has been the prompt for commissioning editors everywhere to demand "800 words on the perimenopause, please" from their journalists. It's fairly clear that Sample's piece was based large on stuff taken from the internet and knocked off in under an hour. That's not to denigrate Sample, who is usually a very good science writer, but it's just how this stuff works unfortunately.

I've called him out on Twitter, fat lot of good that will do. I'm a journalist myself & used to write for Graun regularly, I'm appalled at what's happened to the paper. I will complain to reader's editor. It seems pointless, like complaining to the BBC, but I do think the more women call things out and make our voices heard the better. We're not going away & we're not taking this shit!

I also think the weird link to the very recent disappearance of a woman at the beginning felt both forced and tasteless

As I always say, it is worth complaining and or asking. 😉

Also loving that they say one of the ways to help the person’s symptoms is to get a good night’s sleep. What were those symptoms again? Awful piece in general as well as the failure to mention it’s women who are affected by menopause.

Couldn’t write “woman” but managed to force their stubby little fingers to write “people”…….

You could complain to the readers' editor, but it probably is a lost cause.

I wrote a lengthy complaint about their reporting of the Wii Spa case, and never heard back.

I'm of the opinion it's a lost cause, but really this stuff should be challenged every time.

I wonder if it varies due to which country the article is aimed at eg US, Australia or UK

Maybe Ian Sample did use the words 'woman' and 'women' originally but one of the Graun's sensitivity editors took a bladed instrument to the piece.

I see the word "female" snuck in there at one point. Perhaps they couldn't find a way to remove it and still make sense.

Ian Sample is, as mowly77 pointed out, the science editor. He's usually pretty good. Such a disappointment. And yet I've seen other articles where the Guardian has used "woman" throughout, so perhaps it varies from journalist to journalist, or editor to editor. They're a complete mess.

Science EDITOR in fact. I just can’t believe this level of nuts from The Guardian.