This is officially a fantastic time of life. I have a huge sense of liberation. This is awesome. The menopause rocks. Truly.
I know it's an individual response and for other people the hormonal changes are an entry into an alien body, but for me it's freedom.
From the age of 15 up until 45 the monthly cycle was unspeakably unpleasant. For the first ten years of it, as a young girl initially and then a young woman I had debilitating pain 24 hours every four weeks. We're talking the kind of stomach cramps which make you immobile, accompanied by a delightful mix of simultaneous puking and diarrhoea. You become a master of use of the toilet. Any attempt to take pain killers after the cramps had started was rewarded by further puking and zero pain relief. I was not organised enough at 15 to recognise when things were getting going and take pain killers. Besides which, as a school girl, figuring that out during the school day was hellish. And when I say every four weeks, well, give or take 4 days either way. It was not predictable. Add to that the hormone related skin break outs of zits and the greasy hair phenomena, the smell of the menstrual flow and the horror of old fashioned sanitary products. It was a pretty miserable experience, this burgeoning womanhood.
Then early twenties, as the pains became at least manageable with experience, the mood swings made themselves known. The change in mood for 3 or 4 or 5 days (again completely unpredictable) prior to the start of the period were not just miserable for those around me, they were miserable for me. All the feelings and thoughts during those few days were real, they felt real, I'd try to be logical and ask myself is this the hormones talking and every time I would convince myself that no, what I was feeling was real. A few days later I'd come out of the clouds and find uncertainty as to whether it had been "real" or not.
So menopause begins, periods are behind me, mood swings are gone. I'm free. And none of it relates to reproduction or to contraception, but freedom from pain, from moods, freedom not to have to put in place slightly odd plans to deal with spending days hiking or cycling. Freedom. It feels good.
