“ The freedom to not apologise or people-please any longer might be one of the best things about second puberty” – Lara Briden
Mother of us All by Anna of the Meadow www.annaofthemeadow.com
“I missed out on having people around me talking about the subject and I didn’t have the wise female elders to guide me. In the end, menopause was an initiation to my own inner wise woman. An initiation is something that we have to do alone, such as the first and the last breath of our human journey.”
Lara Briden, the author of Hormone Repair Manual: Ever y Woman’s Guide to Healthy Hormones Af ter 40, addresses the stigma surrounding menopause, noting the reluctance of women to discuss these changes in our bodies as societal shame, and yet she speaks of the “menopausal zest” akin to a rejuvenating second wind that comes once our brains have rewired and our hormones have settled. Despite cultural and scientific misconceptions, Briden emphasises that life doesn’t diminish but rather flourishes after menopause. In her book she uses the Japanese word konenki to describe this new wave of energy and vigour that comes once you’ve passed through the transition. She says: “I’m 54 now, years after my final period. I feel stable now the neurological rewiring of the brain is behind me.”
As a naturopathic doctor, Briden believes that there are old narratives in the medical world that are scientifcally inaccurate, one of which is that oestrogen deficiency puts our health at risk. “Whilst it’s true that certain health risks can begin during perimenopause, it’s not causal, because in every society across the globe women have lived and do outlive men without hormone therapy. The hormone deficiency narrative flies in the face of biological reality,” she tells me.
According to Briden, the most important thing to do is trust our bodies, because “women’s health is not as mysterious or as complicated as we’ve been led to believe. The body knows what to do given the right support”. In her book she writes: “You have permission to feel what you feel and not apologise or feel the need to explain yourself. In fact, as we’ll see, the freedom to not apologise or people-please might be one of the best things about second puberty.”
I believe that we are entering a generation that is beginning to see menopause in a different light, and that’s thanks to the work of already post-menopausal women such as Briden and those I’ve included in this article, who are unravelling old narratives, sharing information and debunking the myths and stereotypes around what it means to be a menopausal woman.
If only we honoured our own inner elders, our grandmothers, like our old forests and ecosystems, as the knowledge bearers, lifekeepers and guides in the ever changing, ever diverting, ever re-routing rivers of our lives…
Yasmin Dahnoun is a member of the Resurgence & Ecologist editorial team. She is also a freelance writer. You can find more of her work at www.yasmindahnoun.com
40 Resurgence & Ecologist
March/April 2024
