I'm officially OLD - really?

I’m officially OLD…..well if you take one of the common words people use to describe menopause.

Reflecting on my last year – where I have come to a huge change in my life.

As a side hustle I am a menopause ambassador for Simply Hormones and whenever I start my talks I always invite the audience (live or virtual) to tell me the first word they think of when they hear the word “menopause” ,

Hot flush, mood, end of reproduction are always mentioned but so is the word “OLD”

So when I say “post menopause” what do you now think ? Really OLD Would it surprise you if I said this is my life right now.

Skip the next paragraph if you’re not interested in my quick and personal journey to this stage.

In October 2019, I was on a trek climbing the Himalayas for the fantastic charity CoppaFeel! I hadn’t had a bleed (period) for 7 months at this time so it came as a little shock – not just because I was camping in the middle of nowhere but also because it meant I would need to count from day one again. Menopause is the year of no bleeds, so if you have a bleed after 7 months, it’s not a full year. So there I was on the 28th October 2019 – my last bleed and here I am now on the 28th October 2020 NO bleeds in the last year. I am actually going to celebrate, I am now officially POST menopause. The AVERAGE age for a woman in the UK is 51 at this stage, I am 49.

But does this mean I’m OLD? I have never considered myself old. What is age but just a number confirming how long I have been on planet earth.

The Himalaya trip last year gave me much time to think and reflect on who I am as a person, if you know me well enough, my business is as a personality profiler. An award winner too, so I understand people’s behaviours, why others do, say and react the way they do, and I also know myself but that doesn’t stop my behaving differently. The Himalaya trip helped me to understand, “it’s okay not to be okay, it’s okay not to be in the middle, it’s okay not to be centre of attention and it’s okay to sit back and be quiet.” My hormones where all over the place last year, I went to some very dark spaces on my menopause journey and not somewhere I want anyone else to travel. This time made me think about who I am as a person, who I want to be and WHERE and WHY I want to be.

My year of menopause has tested me this last year, I’ve climbed mountains, took to the stage in swimwear (I was a finalist in Ms Great Britain) and I transformed my business as Covid hit the world.

So is OLD a fair description of menopause ? Looking at the ONS (Office of National Statistics ) a hundred years ago, the average life expectancy of a woman was in her fifties, and for a women born today it’s 100, so the world menopause and OLD is, well – history.

To me, OLD is just a word, made of 3 letters:

Life’s

Drive

The destination is your choice.