Women are communication beings. They express themselves verbally 24/7. They talk about everything, to anyone who will listen, even to those who choose not to listen. It is said that women talk more than men. A study was done by a university which showed that Women speak 20,000 words per day and men only 7,000 words. Women even form groups and communities, which focuses on talking about many different subjects.
But a topic that is forbidden, even today, is menopause. There seems to be an unspoken rule that this topic is unacceptable for discussion because it seems to be taboo within the female community.
Because I was so curious why menopause is not openly discussed I questioned several women just to get their opinions on why they choose not to talk about the topic. Not only that, women tend to get quite indignant when I suggest to them that they are experiencing menopause. Most of them tend to either ignore me or they quickly brush me off.
For the mature women, it is as if I am reminding them of a time of their life which is so horrible they do not want to be reminded of its presences.
I have captured 8 reasons I believe women choose not to discuss menopause:
1. Society is still not accepting of menopause. We have been taught that it is not a positive thing to go through. If you as much as mention it you could be mocked at or ridiculed.
2. It solidifies that you are getting old. Menopause has been synonymous with old age and no one wants to admit that they are getting older or that they have become that middle- aged woman.
3. You are no longer sexy. Middle aged, menopausal woman have never be synonymous with sexiness. We have been taught that you have to be young to be sexy.
4. One main definition of menopause is no longer having a menstrual cycle for 12 months which means you are no longer able to bare children. This is an extremely difficult one for many women because they believe they were placed on this earth to bare children. So what happens when their body can no longer perform that function
5. Now that you no longer have a menstrual cycle, you lose the pheromones(sexual stimulated body order) that men are attracted to. When you no longer have that scent men believe that you lose your sex appeal. There's been studies showing that men are more attracted to women during their menstrual cycle.
6. The advertising market portrays menopausal women in a very negative light. And the only images that one sees through media is extremely negative and very inaccurate. Therefore women do not see true representations of themselves and who they really are.
7. This time of one's life is not celebrated but scorned. Women have overcome and concurred much in their lives and it should be celebrated. Instead we stop having birthdays, lie about our age, attempt to recapture our youth and deny the season we are in.
8. Lastly, it really is or was an extremely difficult time of their lives. Menopausal women had to survive depression, headaches, low libido, mood-swings, night sweats, insomnia, fogginess and forgetfulness and more. No one wants to experience this and definitely don't want to have a conversation about it. Their first choice would be to forget it all and maybe it will all go away.
My recommendation is to talk about the entire experience. Women can heal from opening up and talking about it. This is why we talk about everything else, it is therapeutic. Not only that we need to share with the younger generation so they do not have to experience what we did. Education is power and we can give them power and control over menopause.
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