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.

Same!

Good point. A lot of women are having children in their 40s now so may have small children while experiencing menopause.

My mother was the type of woman who couldn't talk about periods, the menopause or mental health. She suffered from anxiety all her life and started drinking heavily in her 50s and died quite young. She always said that my grandmother went insane around the age of 50.
I'm in my 50s now and having a nightmare with really heavy periods. I've just had a new mirena fitted and been on a high dose progesterone.
I'd love to know if my mother and grandmother went through something similar. The past few years have been a struggle for me but I have a good gynaecologist, my work is sympathetic and I can talk about what's happening. I can't imagine how women coped in the past.

I am sorry to hear about your mum @AbraandCal. Less was known about how hormones profoundly affect mood. It's only in the last decade or so that we've started to understand how badly women suffer in perimenopause. If you didn't know it was chemical imbalance, you would tend to blame yourself. For years doctors just chucked tablets at middle aged women - barbiturates in the 50s, then tranquilisers, then SSRIs. We all knew the phrase 'bad with her nerves'.

It is.

On the other hand, we are not likely to starve, despite COL we still spend a smaller proportion of our incomes on food than people at any previous point in history, our parents are still alive because of the advances in medicine, we are allowed mortgages, divorces, contraception and abortion, and our children are not likely to die of measles.

So I'll take the apps, thanks.

Yep! My mum was prescribed tranquillisers when she went with (what she knows now) were menopause symptoms. She said the GP clearly she was an hysterical middle aged woman.

my sister offered the same almost 30 years later

The write-up in the OP was nowhere near as ignorant as I was expecting! Obviously stoic, but it could be argued that we've gone too far in the other direction lately and overindulge ourselves a bit in our various ailments and afflictions. I say this as a perimenopausal woman.

I knew diddly squat about the menopause until I fell across a book in a charity shop by Miriam Stoppard that explained it.

Absolutely. I remember my mother and her friends chatting in the 80s and the phrase 'suffered from her nerves' came up a lot.

Oh Dear Fellow, thank you for telling us women folk how it is to be menopausal. We really wouldn't have a clue about it all with out your words of wisdom.

SAID NO WOMAN EVER!

Yes, me too.

In addition to all of the above, women were likely to be more physically knackered in the past from hard manual work (in the home or outside the workplace).

My grandmother had one baby before WWII, and two within 12 months (when she was in her 40s) when her husband returned from the war. She also had her elderly disabled MIL living with them and needing daily care during the same period because there were no care homes or assisted living for the elderly. She had an untreated prolapse caused by carrying children/pram/shopping/laundry up three flights of tenement stairs and developed incredibly painful and debilitating arthritis or rheumatism (I'm not sure what it was) in her hands by her 50s which she blamed on all of the laundry and cleaning she did by hand over many years. And she was "just a housewife" - many women were doing all of that stuff plus working outside the home in manual jobs, or taking in washing or sewing.

I wouldn't say their lives were slower or easier than mine by any standards.

Yes, me too.

In addition to all of the above, women were likely to be more physically knackered in the past from hard manual work (in the home or outside the workplace).

My grandmother had one baby before WWII, and two within 12 months (when she was in her 40s) when her husband returned from the war. She also had her elderly disabled MIL living with them and needing daily care during the same period because there were no care homes or assisted living for the elderly. She had an untreated prolapse caused by carrying children/pram/shopping/laundry up three flights of tenement stairs and developed incredibly painful and debilitating arthritis or rheumatism (I'm not sure what it was) in her hands by her 50s which she blamed on all of the laundry and cleaning she did by hand over many years. And she was "just a housewife" - many women were doing all of that stuff plus working outside the home in manual jobs, or taking in washing or sewing.

I wouldn't say their lives were slower or easier than mine by any standards.

The doctors treating women in the early years of the health service, who had been used to treating posh people prior to that, were staggered by the awful gynaecological conditions women were living with, as pp above mentions. If women just gave birth at home, no post-birth care, stitches, surgical repair etc, was ever given. Shudder to think of how bad it must have been for some.

To be fair, hardly any health issues were widely discussed in everyday settings in days gone by, or at best whispered about. Cancer and any kind of mental health issue were unmentionable.

Honestly, these comments have made me laugh so much I've genuinely started my nightly round of hot flashes.

As a woman entering menopause I'd rather like to whack men who lecture me about dieting and drinking, and mansplain my condition to me, with my bottle of gin.

Cheers.

I wonder if our diets are making things worse for us with so the processed foods.

I don't see much wrong with what he's saying, i think he's saying it to be helpful. Why do we need to have a knee jerk reaction just because he's a man?

This thread has lead me to reflect that, oddly, two of the nicest most sympathetic doctors I ever saw, were old men of retirement age born in the early part of the 20th C. With one the reason was gynaecological too. Both were so nice it had a positive mental impact too.

😂😂 This did make me chuckle.

Is it just me or does the first photo of Dr Hills look like John Sessions?

Didnt notice that before!

Cone on now .... have you thought about applying for a job at a Menopause Clinic ?

I have been 'state of mind' ing the washing up being done all sodding evening.
It Is Still There. I don't believe in washing up...why is it still there? I am not tranquil about this.

"I dont really believe in the menopause" thats as ridiculous as me saying "I dont believe in breathing, I know I dont need it so of course I dont need it!"

As for the smug.....well.

F
I'm loving this!

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.

Is very, very important.