Images of peri menopausal women

[ginghambingham]

I'm 47 and I'm having wonky cycles and a few other symptoms - so I've been looking them up online. All the info I've found comes with pictures of silver haired ladies looking wistfully at their pot plants, trowel in hand... Or really sinewy/wrinkly older women lifting weights. Maybe I'm deluding myself, but I don't look or dress like the women in these images.

So I'd like to add another peri symptom to the list:

• You will start to be depicted as an elasticated-waist wearing, silver-haired matron.

Harrumph!

I just tried Googling 'menopause', and in the images that came up everyone was either clutching their foreheads or fanning themselves. Mostly forehead-clutching. Harrumph, indeed! (Caveat: I don't have symptoms yet and forehead-clutching may well feature.)

I just keep forgetting stuff. The wonky cycles have only just kicked in. But no head-holding... yet :))

I agree it's depressing. Every time the Daily Fail has a meno article, the images are of women with grey hair, and they look 70s not mid 40s onwards. If they don't have grey hair then they have ash blonde, almost grey hair. Usually bobbed or cropped. I suppose the blame must go with the photographers who ask for Meno Models and have the mindset that they are all grey haired women who look 70.

Part of my job sometimes involves searching stock photos for publication. There's always an issue finding "40+" images (or at least reasonably cheap stock shots) - of men or women. So it's probably more the Shutterstock/Pexels issue. Getty's not too bad.

I also think the journalists and editors publishing these "Eat your way through the menopause" and, "What to expect when you turn 45!" articles are - at the most - in their late 20s. So they see the Helen Mirren-alike pic and think, "That's just the job..." and before you know it, we're typecast as ash-blond women whose wardrobe is full of chambray.

The facial expression in these pics also gets me. It seems to range from mild concern all the way through to deep depression. I'm guessing full-on menopause is no walk in the park at times. But neither are periods, childbirth, miscarriage or all the other gifts that female biology bestows upon us. We don't suddenly only look worried because our periods are on their way out.

What I'm trying to say is that I think these depictions are sexist, inaccurate - and somehow show women as being bereft of purpose as menopause approaches. And maybe that contributes to us feeling panicky about it - and not talking about it (Dunno about you, I don't quite feel able to walk into a business meeting and say I've forgotten something because I'm approaching menopause. It seems more acceptable to say you've forgotten something because you're "so busy".)

I want these pictures to start showing healthy, happy women who don't look massively different to their 10-years-younger counterparts. And for the love of God, not wearing chambray and doing gardening.

There. I've said it :)

Picture editors come in all shapes and sizes (I've got experience of the media)so it's not actually the journalists who choose the images.

But yes, I agree. There are probably very few who are in their 50s choosing the images!

Hiya - frequently on website it is the journalist picking the images. And subbing their own work. Hence the tremendously high quality. But not great representations either way.

There are lots of gorgeous people to see if you google "women age 50"
.. or "women age 60/40" for that matter.

It's easy to choose be defined as "50" rather than "menopausal".

I've never known any journalists choose their own images either for online or print. But if you are one, and do so, I won't argue!

Does it affect your memory? I'm 48 and going through it and my memory snd attrntion span is shocking. I sm pretty ditzy though.