Where were you the moment that Joe Biden stepped out of the race for president? Laura and I were hawking menopause at the Summer Sundays in the Alley fair in West Seattle, behind Carmelia’s. It was a crowd of mostly women, incredible artist vendors and customers. The vibe was crackling with existential hope. 2 queens showed up in self-made Kamala garb and reassured us all that, of course, this makes perfect sense. Menopause will be our next president! It’s time for us to follow the orca whale lead. Who knows better how to navigate these bizarre, treacherous times than a woman who has swum through racist, misogynistic, reactionary waters to forge joyful identity, vision and determination. And all while managing wildly fluctuating hormones!
There was a rush on hot flash tattoos, and conversations about perimenopause and menopause experiences from a wide range of ages. One woman shared how much she knows now, post-menopause, about the relationship between stress and inflammation and perimenopause. She wishes that someone had helped her see the connection when she was in her late 30s. She now can see that any stress response in her body — “Oh! I forgot to send that email!” “Do I have my keys in my bag??” — triggers a hot flash. She noticed the impact of alcohol on her hot flashes too, and how in her 50’s all red wine started to taste like vinegar.
Another woman in her 30s has just started having migraines, which was a harbinger of hormone change for me when I was turning 40. A funny couple of friends wanted to know what Launch Your Pause is and what we do. When I started to describe how we host periodic menopause health events, one of the women said, “Did you just say “periodic”??, and we all laughed at the awesome irony.
I had just been to see a nutritionist last week and was sharing information that I learned about how when our ovaries stop producing estrogen, our body adjusts by making more fat, or adipose tissue, especially around our middle, because adipose tissue produces estrogen! A certain amount of fat is therefore protective to women because of the estrogen producing capabilities. But how much?? Because this fat is complicated, of course, and as visceral fat it also triggers metabolic dysregulation and can lead to cardiac disease and a host of other diseases. WTF?!
These questions and insights are the magic of Launch Your Pause, the moments that we spend together at farmers’ markets and “periodic” community events. It’s like a Menopause Coming Out, a space to say, “I’m important and I have these needs and experiences that are changing.” Last week at the Columbia City Farmer’s Market I was putting a hot flash tattoo on a woman who works for the markets. She had been helping me set up and she was curious. She took a question from the question jar and talked about her brain fog and the struggle with multi-tasking in her late 40’s. It felt like this might be a new experience for her and she was moved. “So this is what the retreat would be like? A bunch of conversations like this with other women?” Yes. Exactly. It’s so simple and totally mind-blowing.
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