Is ageing a disease process?   Who benefits from this industry?

Just as a menstrual period is a report card of the previous month’s effects on the system, the ease or distress of the menopausal time is a report card of your life to date. Unfortunately, it seems to be a recent medical notion that menopause is a disease, and we need to medicate ourselves to lessen its toil on us.

The primary reason for menopausal symptoms is our inner state of imbalance. A consequence of not looking after ourselves, the way we ensured all others in our care were.

In our 20’s and 30’s, when we were/are totally distracted making babies and money and husbands happy, we forgot to look after ourselves. How this impacts upon us in our 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s is dependent upon the strength we inherited from our parents, and the care we were raised with initially. We are all different. And we all live vastly faster, and apparently enriched lives than our female forebears, so their menstrual histories may have little bearing on our own stories.

Although we have not been through the depression, the wars, rationing and the basic survival game of having to live in a rotten marriage with no social security safety net or other options, we have our own stresses. The insecurity in the rapidity of change in all aspects of life - our mothers could not imagine how to prepare us for the ‘now’ we live in. We have had access to contraception and safe child bearing. It is likely that all children we birth will live. We have choice over how we live our lives, and yet, we seem unable to live for ourselves.

Menopause gives us the excuse to look at where we have come from — it is an inevitable marker in our lives. We can not hang onto the illusion of youth — we are heading towards wise woman status. Well, we would be if we lived in a more civilised culture. What is before us ? What we make for ourselves.

Our partners are usually a few years older than we are. They tend not to age well. They tend not to seek help for themselves. They often see the answer to their problems in the swapping of models. Old for new.

Or, by this stage of our lives, we have changed, and possibly no longer buy into the idea that all in the family have more right to our time than we do. Our parents may begin to experience real life and death issues. Ageing may bring a new dependency – theirs upon us.

The children may be exerting what they regard as their rights. On top of all of this, or because of this (remember the role of the liver energy to allow everything to freely flow), we experience the rage, long ago converted into what acupuncturist’s call Liver Qi (energy). Stuck. Pissed off, aggravated, and full of bodily symptoms. Migraines, neck and shoulder tension, digestive problems, irritable bowel, maybe colitis or Krohn’s disease, sleeping and emotional hassles — maybe palpitations and anxiety attacks, (if there is blood deficiency).

Possibly experiencing breast or uterine abnormalities/growths/cancers, as they are the tissues that the liver lines of energy run through in the body. Are we angry with ourselves, our spouses, our children, and our lives? So, in holding onto all the anger, all the experiences that less than delighted us, all the hurts from long ago, and all the irritations that appear to be there just to irk us. Cancer, arthritis, gall stones, strokes, and most inflammatory and degenerative diseases are waiting, lurking, in the form of our bottled up rage/anger (slight frustration and disappointment, if we want to be pretend still to be ‘nice’ and polite).

And they all seem to come and get us in‘menopause’ “They” have been triggered into action by the changes in the flow and quantity/quality of our blood energy, and the relative adjustments we undergo as the system recalibrates itself to the new cycle of self maintenance/ maturity involved in the post cyclic bleeding state.

Menopause: What to do?

If we have lead a life of less than diligent self care, of experiencing shocks/traumas and over worrying, and of riding the dieting roller coaster, it is likely that there may some repair work to be undertaken.

One of my teachers, an old Chinese herbalist, observed though his decades of work, that there were four stages of life where we could vastly affect our lives — far more than at any other time:

1. Puberty
2. Onset of sexuality
3. Pregnancy
4. Menopause

At each stage, we have the possibility of massively enhancing our state of being, by supporting the regular stability of our foundation qi (jing), or of weakening ourselves dramatically, by paying scant regard or respect for the fundamental alterations to our being that happens at these times. Any intensive self care programme is likely to have vastly more effect at one of these times, than others. Any sudden and shocking event that coincidentally intersects with these pivotal times is likely to impact upon us far more than at any other.

Start living your life as though
there was just one week left

In a quiet, contented and peaceful way, drop off all activities that you do not look forward to doing. Forget about the effect on others - start seeing your life as yours. Learn that the world will not grind to a halt without you rescuing and over functioning. Everyone who relies upon you to cover the gaps in their lives will either sort him or herself out, or find someone else to do what you seem to have thought was your duty.

Next step — if you have an overbleeding situation — stop it.

Whatever it takes. With a constant blood drain, no other therapy will be effective. If this means having a hysterectomy, this is a quality of life saver. However, investigate how natural therapies may assist first, or to enhance your healing after the event.

Synthetic hormones are not necessarily ‘good’ for you — the physical liver has to detoxify them, thus if you are stuck with them, having no ovaries - take at least extra Vit C ( 4/5 grams through out the day to assist this process ). Ageing is NOT a disease. If you experienced discomfort in “the change”, it is likely the imbalances that lead to these are still present, and need correction. Consult a good natural therapist, who is proficient at assisting the normal template to reassert itself.

Meditate.
Start respecting yourself.
Learn to say “no”.
Mean it.

See the natural order of things, that the cycle of life turns, and that in the post children years we have finally control over what we do with our resources – if we cut free from the ties that held us in service to all the others. Finally, a time of re-evaluating, of going after ones’ own dreams, of following ones’ own bliss, as one stops seeking the approval of the others – especially all those who have a vested interest in us staying in the box of helping them. If not now when? See ageing as a natural part of life, and enjoy being you. Our culture seems slow at valuing the wisdom gained through experience. Allow this process to be reversed in your sphere, and grow into becoming a wise, rather than a reactive, woman.