Perimenopause & Menopause Archives - Page 2 of 2

Sex: It’s Good For What Ails You

by Dr. Barb Depree

Who has time for sex any more? That’s a question I hear from women whose plates are full with working, caring for parents, caring for kids, even caring for grandchildren. With all of the demands on our time and energy, why not just let sex fade into the background? Beyond the intimacy sex brings to our relationships, research continues to document how and why regular sex improves both our mental and physical health. These effects are significant enough to feel as good about an active sex life as about taking our daily vitamins. […]

Make Your Own Love Potion

by Dr. Barb Depree

“I just want to want sex again.”

I can’t tell you how many of my patients have expressed — in one way or another — this simple desire for the desire they experienced in their 20s and 30s, when their bodies were flooded with procreative hormones.

Wouldn’t it be great if I could mix up a love potion to send home with them and to share with you here? Some powerful concoction of roots and herbs perhaps, a magic elixir guaranteed to bring it all back? […]

In Honor of World Menopause Day – October 18th

by Valerie Gillies

I was probably the only person alive who wasn’t aware that October 18^th is World Menopause Day. World. Can you imagine?

It took me back a bit. Who on earth would have thought this was something to commemorate? What am I missing? I suppose it could be the contribution hot flashes make to global warming, the hormonal swings, perhaps the amazing determination the female body can show in hanging onto every single calorie it ingests and instantaneously storing it as fat on what used to be a waistline. But no, although those features of ‘the change’ are truly awe inspiring, I will take it that it is about finally saying goodbye to a not so wanted friend, that sweet feeling of relief upon closing the door after a houseguest has overstayed her welcome. […]

The Changing Body

by Peg O'Neill

Like many women of various ages, I have an old pair of jeans in my closet that no longer fits. Why I haven’t donated them to some anonymous, younger, lithe woman who shops at the Goodwill store is complicated, and not entirely clear even to myself. But I think it has something to do with a belief, or hope, that I’ll be able to fit into them again, no problem, with just a subtle tweaking of my activity level and eating habits. […]

The Queen Mother

by Donna Henes

Excerpts from her book, “The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife:”

Sometime, usually between about forty-five and fifty-five, we lose our monthly blood and hormonal balance. No matter how much we might have minded the fuss and muss of our periods, there is an alarming awareness of irrevocability when they stop. It is, after all, the end of a thirty or forty-year way of being in the world. Menopause marks the termination of our participation in the bottom-line, bigger than we are, biological imperative of our species. Our reproductive potential is now no longer an option. Whether or not we chose to use it when we had it is not the point. What is crucial is feeling that our choices have narrowed. […]

I Wanna, Wanna, Wanna

by Cyma Shapiro

I want to have a baby. The problem is that I’m over 50, am in that “time,” have two young children and two older stepchildren. I have, as they fondly say, a “full plate.”

But, something has stirred in me so deeply that I can’t just ignore it. In fact, it isn’t going away. My desire is even greater than it was 10 years ago when my husband and I tried, and tried, and tried to have children. […]