To share this gem about the menopause with you all!

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Taken from a book I found today in a charity shop. So much to say that its hard to know where to start!

The Radio Doctor's Dictionary of Health by Charles Hill, published in 1952.

There may or many not be seven stages of man. There are certainly three phases in the life of a woman. The first is the phase of childhood which passes with the physical and mental changes occurring at puberty into the second or middle phase of womanhood.
The third phase begins, usually between the ages of forty and forty-five, with the so-called menopause or change of life. Puberty, which may begin at the age of twelve or thirteen, come on with amazing quickness. The menopause on the other hand, develops slowly and deliberately. It marks the end of menstruation which first becomes irregular and later disappears. The change of life completed, there can no longer be childbearing.
The menopause is marked by both mental and physical changes. The warmth of physical feelings gives way to the calmness of serene affection, and quite often to a wider interest in the affairs of the world. The change may take one or two years, varying in length in different people. The reproductive organs, no longer functioning, become smaller. There may be symptoms which for a while unpleasant. For example, there may be sweating and giddiness, heats or flushes. These sensations may come on without warning. For most women, this is all that happens. Occasionally, however, there may be trying headaches and uneasy sensations, particularly in the breasts. At this time some women begin to put on weight. Much more rarely there are nervous troubles, particularly amongst those whose days are too leisured.
What can be done? For the most part, nothing need be done. It is best, though this is not always easy, to ignore what is happening and to carry on a normal life. The sympathy of others is no good. Giving in is a mistake. The less notice is taken of the change of life, the more quickly it seems to pass.
It helps to cut down diet, although nowadays our rations do that for us. Alcohol affords no relief. Indeed, it may make matters worse rather than better. The change of life, it must be remembered, is a normal, natural thing. It is not an illness or the beginning of an illness. It's a milestone, not a millstone.
The change may bring with it a release of energy, a need for activity in many new directions. Occasionally it makes a woman appear a little too managing, because she is filled with a desire to reform the lives of other. But most women suffer little or nothing. Eighty-five out of every hundred women pass through the menopause without being troubled by it. This is the occasion for an important warning. If the periods, having stopped, should appear to start again, a doctor should always be consulted,. There may be something wrong.

The third phase of life is sometimes the richest phase, the one in which to find tranquillity, and a full peaceful happiness.

Absolutely I managed without HRT for 12 years but when those tissues atrophy and you get all the awful side effects that a million kegal exercises can't fix the the estriol cream is essential.

Couldn’t possibly be related, the real
issue is too much leisure 🙄

Some will. Why are you being a dick about that?

TBH, I thought the same!

Though I eye-rolled at "nervous troubles, particularly amongst those whose days are too leisured."

My GGM too: last at 45.

I've not yet gone through it, and wouldn't say I agree every word, even without having hit the worst of it, but there were some sentiments that I think are helpful.

I remember my mother telling me it doesn't last and you feel good afterwards. That is true.

As with most things menopause related, it's not universally true. Certainly not for all symptoms. My DM is still getting hot flushes well over 2 decades on from menopause.

Almost certainly something in this I'd say.

I started watching The Change on Channel 4 today. Much more realistic portrayal of menopause. This bloke is an ass

Well I'm feeling less sanguine about this extract ...😳

I thought that too. And it didn't even say they were clearly lazy or living on upfs!

Hahahahaha, this was the part I chortled at too! Seems to have missed out feeling quite st@bby with a worrying frequency!

I could do with some more comfortable sitting down apparatus. Mine has become even more bony. The boob fairy took back most of what she loaned me in pregnancy, though. So much lighter.

I drink way less than I used to and notice I don’t need to eat quite as much. The flushes seem to be getting else frequent and I’d say I feel pretty much the same as I have done all my life so am hoping that’s it over with. Have been going to the gym regularly as have found one I like and taken up running again, I do quite a bit of hill walking. I didn’t notice much, but I mainly WFH in a non-stressful job, kids are late teens/20s and parents are some years gone - agree that life circumstance at the time is probably a massive factor.

'a more comfortably upholstered sitting-down apparatus' is the most joyous euphemism for a fat arse I have ever read!⭐😂

Come to think of it, a lot of that advice about fighting middle-aged spread is pretty much bang on the money, isn't it?

We can't ever distinguish what is a later birth and what's a cover up for a pregnant unmarried girl, in the family. People around knew, my GM would talk about it. Because they were keeping quiet about who the Mother was, of course the birth had to be at home.
I think that the research shows the more pregnancies and breastfeeding, the less hormonal imbalance and that might make menopause easier. In the days when birth could mean death for both the Mother and baby, the menopause probably did bring a sense of relief. I prefer that article to one I read from that era, which said the bad temper came from envy of younger women, especially her daughters.

This really irritates me!

Yes it happened, but no where near as often as people these days seem to think.

Mum has a baby at 40 (considered perfectly normal these days) but also has a 16 year old DD, MN decides that it must have been the DD's child.

In the days before women could control their own fertility, late pregnancy was very common. My father's family was strict Catholic, having a child and a grandchild the same age was considered so usual as to not raise comment, its just how it was.

As I posted above, my Great Grandmother gave birth to twins when her only DD was already three months pregnant (Grandma was 17). "Change" babies were very very common!

Agree. I find it bizarre how MN seems desperate to disavow late pregnancies (yet we KNOW they are natural; they are happening all around us).

ETA I think it is just that the contraceptive generation who had their babies earlier then prevented, prevented, prevented forgot about late pregnancies, and it is now becoming an issue again as, despite contraception possibilities, many women are now wanting to start families later. My GM seemed far less discombobulated by the career women in their 40s having babies than my DM and MIL are. I think once it was quite accepted. For a period thereafter, it was less age and more choice that was making it less heard of.

What disgusts me even nowadays is most male general practitioners know next to nothing about the menopause or they’ll sit and make sympathetic noises at you, suggest HRT as a cure all but don’t look at the whole person. It happened to me with PMT too back in 80s when I was a teenager. But then little was known about it although I got some help. Rewind back to post WWII and my German great grandmother who’d moved to London to live with her son and granddaughter apparently used to suffer terrible mood swings which her son thought was due to menopause. She’s lucky really she wasn’t committed to a psychiatric hospital back then.

Menopause, peri menopause and pmt and periods all still seem to me to be a dirty little secret that women must grin and bear with. I like Davina McCall (find her slightly annoying though) but have to say she’s (and others) made great progress in bringing peri menopause and menopause to the general public’s attention.

in which to find tranquillity, and a full peaceful happiness.

Yeah...that is EXACTLY how people describe me.

A friend asked me which seats I'd prefer in the cinema. I suggested she book the whole cinema because I Do Not Like People anymore.

Quite a few of my friends and Dh's friends or associates had babies in their early 40s. Every single time, my DM and my MIL would say in slightly pinched-mouth tones "Well she's very OLD to have a baby isn't she..."

And my GM would pipe up and say casually "well she's several years younger than your grandmother was ... and my friend so and so ..." and so on. It always amused me to see my dear old GM taking it all in her stride and making my DM and MIL look rather out of date in their attitudes!

Less funny now seeing my DM do it to me with technology!

😂

Refreshing, and reflects my experience of the ‘third phase of life’, thankfully.

That Dr Hill excerpt definitely has 'Women: Know Your Place!' energy! Imagine having to go and see him for menopause issues as a woman back then. And there were very few female doctors so not much of an option other than that paternalistic attitude.

On the other hand there wasn't much to be done medically in those days so putting up and shutting up was probably the only option. There was no HRT and his advice on alcohol is annoyingly correct when it comes to hot flashes. Our grandmothers' lives were full of just silently putting up with shite that we no longer have to deal with so much. Well, we still do have to deal with periods, childbirth and menopause but now at least we have birth control, epidurals and HRT!

This is brilliant. I love the wise words of men. I remember being given an anthroposophical book on giving birth and mothering when I was pregnant the first time in the 90s. Written by a man (of course), it was full of gems like a woman’s body is a cosmic envelope for the embryo. Baby is basically a space invader! Oh and that we should make sure to nap naked in the middle of the day and not listen to recorded music.