Caitlin Moran - a bit more interesting than usual today

[ErrolTheDragon]

Usually her Saturday times columns are quite fluffy, but ... well, I guess judging by what she's written the real Caitlin is emerging.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/caitlin-moran-me-drugs-and-the-perimenopause-mpzn2cdh2?shareToken=733c91e33db6941fbd7927e96de18904

I agree there are plenty of things for women to be angry about. Then there are hormones.

I know that the fluctuation in my hormones, and I’m a woman so in this females hormones, cause significant mood changes. These mood changes are linked to my menstrual cycle or the biological reality of being pregnant, child birth and miscarriage.
I’ve had breast cancer linked to high oestrogen levels-see being pregnant, child birth and miscarriage-that was a fun year...
I’m upset that I’m doing feminism wrong because I acknowledge I’ve it hormones.
I’m pretty sure some things DH dies or doesn’t do or has and hasn’t done are linked to Male hormones but Caitlin didn’t write about Peter Paphides. And it’s unlikely that Pete will ever write about being a man because he doesn’t need to, he’s just doing it. No dig there and I’ve not kept up with his writing as much as with hers so I’m happy to be proved wrong. Or just tell me I’m wrong, that happens a lot, I’ll believe it.
There is no shame in being a coward of doing the opposite would lose you your income, your kids their friends and potentially put your life at risk. And maybe she’s slowly changing her mind?

@WeetabixBananaHipsterFFS

If we are discussing this woman’s hormonal goings-on (a bit personal but she brought it up) it would be helpful to know whether she has used hormonal contraception and for how much of her life.

I doubt the experience of women who have natural cycles (with ovulation and proper periods) is the same as that of women who take the combined pill (no ovulation and a withdrawal-bleed ‘period’) and I’m not convinced everyone realises there’s a massive difference, because ‘period’.

It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to learn that synthetic hormones take the edge off a person. And how fucking convenient that would be for the menfolk.

Exactly this. So many women use hormonal contraception in their reproductive years that I don't think we are seeing the full picture what women really are. Apart from lesbians, who don't use anything (well not unless for medical reasons), and who by strange coincidence, appear to be among the most grounded and forthright of women.

She's not suggesting hormones make her angry. She's suggesting hormones kept her placid. As they abate she's becoming more aware of her anger.

Seeing this title will make Caitlin's day

Slight tangent but I've no idea why her new column has been designed to cover two pages. Her writing is always great but these new columns need pruning. I really don't want to buy journalism by the foot.

"I doubt the experience of women who have natural cycles (with ovulation and proper periods) is the same as that of women who take the combined pill (no ovulation and a withdrawal-bleed ‘period’) and I’m not convinced everyone realises there’s a massive difference, because ‘period’."

Yes to this ^^

I stopped the pill after having children. And used it on and off before that.

" She's not suggesting hormones make her angry. She's suggesting hormones kept her placid. As they abate she's becoming more aware of her anger."

Okay, I get that. I might have interpreted her point incorrectly but partly because it does not speak to my experience. But many of us were angry decades prior to perimenopause and she doesn't acknowledge that.

It's all very interesting and I am stillvmulling over my thoughts.

Gosh, talking about bcp taking the edge off sets me off thinking about the housewives on valiun 'mothers little helper' In also someone who has taken ADHD - diagnosed in my 40s. There are connections made about estrogen and adhd in females. And Menopause making adhd symptoms worse. All adhd meds do to me is 'takethe edge off', they quiet my thoughts. Perhaps I'd have been better off on bcp or hrt.

Adhd meds that should say

@picklemewalnuts

She's not suggesting hormones make her angry. She's suggesting hormones kept her placid. As they abate she's becoming more aware of her anger.

This is what I thought she was saying too

Ifonlyus, I agree about 'mother's little helper'. I was thinking the same thing.

A heads-up to the younger women on here - be alert for perimenopause and getting suddenly angry in a way you weren't before (if you've always been angry, as you were but it might just get worse).

I'd absolutely no idea that perimenopause existed - I thought you hit menopause, your periods stopped and that was it, apart from a few hot flushes for a few months.

It was with the benefit of hindsight that when my periods did stop (I was 52 and they stopped suddenly never to return at all) and I Googled 'menopause', I discovered that I'd entered perimenopause some years previously and could track its advent and progress with the sudden RAGES that came out of absolutely nowhere.

I went from calm, collected, could cope with any old crap to Ms ANGRY at the drop of a hat.

So, yeah - Caitlin made sense to me.

Seeing this title will make Caitlin's day

It's kind of damning with faint praise.

I hit 40 and evolved into a rather cross 'I'm fed up with being little miss don't rock the boat.'

It was a mix of hormones and trying so hard for 30 years.

Having a child was a pivotal moment.

Yet more judgement handed out left right and centre.

It's not menopause that makes us stop being 'nice' (I'm nowhere near it myself) it's realising we don't give a fuck any more. I have never been more angry than when I was breastfeeding and on maternity leave. The unutterable shitness of being a woman was inescapable.

@valencyredfern exactly!

I find CM completely insufferable. She finds herself totally fascinating and I'd be very surprised if she backtracks on previous spoutings supporting the TRA agenda. Must find some links.

I’ve always loved her.

Theory: could it be that the mood change we experience during perimenopause is a stronger version of our pmt? I’ve never got particularly angry with pmt but very sad and helpless feeling, and that’s what got massively worse in the perimenopause.

Am on the pill for it (not for contraception), and it’s working really well. Qlaira it’s called. Also boobs regrew (was experiencing breast atrophy, they were very small to begin with)

There comes a time in every woman’s life when she gets irritated by the writers she used to like banging on about the menopause like they’ve just discovered it
Jenny Eclair discovered HRT and Jamie Oliver recipes ffs. And knitting.

It's not menopause that makes us stop being 'nice' (I'm nowhere near it myself) it's realising we don't give a fuck any more. I have never been more angry than when I was breastfeeding and on maternity leave. The unutterable shitness of being a woman was inescapable.

Missed this, yes that did it for me. I enjoyed my babies and breastfeeding (when it was easier) but I was angry at the same time.

And I've been experienced a similar thing during lockdown as the children haven't been at nursery and school and I've been working from home. However Dh hasn't as much at all and when he has he's not used to it useless So it's been me trying to juggle everything and feeling completely royally fed up at times.,

Please can someone recirculate the article with a share token?

I think we have to accept that hormones affect women differently. I never suffered from PMS, and I used to think that women who did were probably exaggerating or imagining it. I didn't suffer from "preg head" or "baby brain". Similarly, since menopause I haven't become more angry - I always was pretty angry one way or another. (The trans stuff now makes me very angry but that's very specific and nothing to do with being post-menopausal.)

I've come to accept that some women are affected by their hormonal cycle. It's just that I'm not.

I really enjoyed this article, and think she was nailing her colours to the mast, by using the word sex where another author may have used gender.
I am perimenopausal and related to almost every word.
I wondered as I read it whether it might make it onto a discussion here.

This is a slight tangent, and I might start a thread on it someday, but did anyone experience D-MER? A pronounced feeling of desperation/sadness specifically when breastfeeding.

It's fascinating, fairly common, and I wasn't told about it by any of the many breastfeeding people I saw (midwives, NCT, BF mentors), but that's the only time when I've actually felt my feelings go on-and-offable, if that makes any sense. Like flicking a switch on and off when I fed. It's when I realised how much mood really is linked to something tangible like hormones, brain chemistry, (and I wondered if everyone using the word 'dysphoria' experienced something like this very specific feeling).

I've been on and off hormonal bc and other treatments without noticing too much change to my mood other than general PMT, but I'm really interested in how much hormones are responsible for, even within just my own body/mind let alone the rest of society.

Yes! I’ve always thought it was to do with the traumatic birth experience and post natal ‘care’ I had, particularly trying desperately hard to breastfeed the ‘right’ way in hospital as I felt my body had done everything else ‘wrong’. It never lasted beyond the start of the feed and I ignored it.
Interesting, thank you.

does this work?
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/caitlin-moran-me-drugs-and-the-perimenopause-mpzn2cdh2

ahh, no I can see it doesn't. I have a subscription but no idea how to do a share token. Maybe someone could pm me?

Yes, I’ve seen that breastfeeding phenomenon described as feeling like you’re ‘staring into the abyss’. No idea why nature in her wisdom would create that?? For me I only felt it once or twice, and it was a sudden feeling of wanting to cry.

This’ll make me sound such a weirdo but if I concentrate hard I notice a tiny hint of the same feeling immediately before I wee