Menopause
Societies have made impressive progress but menopause, the stage through which every woman goes after the age of 40. Women dread it and the situation proves neardevastating for families who suddenly realize how important the healthy presence of the homemaker is to the family.
Some women adjust to the changes easily and ride over the issues related to it but many, in fact the majority, panic as they believe that they won’t be able to lead a normal life once they cease menstruating.
This is a stage when a woman needs a lot of emotional support from people around her, especially from her partner. She needs to understand why she is behaving in a particular manner and why her body or physique seems to be undergoing changes that seem irreversible.
But menopause is actually a period of liberation where the women’s self-knowledge and self-esteem blossoms. Also, since it marks the end of the menstrual cycle, it is a cause for celebration too. Women no longer have to worry about tampons, pads, leakages or menstrual cramps. It is an end to the guessing game of when your periods would begin or stop. Hence, it is incredibly liberating for many.
It is also a stage when women don’t have to worry about wearing their whites any more. They can flaunt them and feel safe and easy about it. It is a time when many decide to take a fresh look at their relationships, their professions, how they care for their health and how they want to expend their energy.
Also sharing and talking openly about the events that happen during this stage, whether good or bad, can give women the courage to face the world and they can be clear that the unwelcome symptoms will not last forever.
Ayurveda has much to offer here, without being too interventionist. It tries to address the physical and emotional transition through changes in diet and lifestyle and preparations that are in tune with life’s natural rhythms. These are not ‘remedies’ in the conventional sense, for Ayurveda does not view menopause as a malady that needs to be treated.
Everything that Ayurveda offers to support the woman in transition can be done at home, with the least impact on the normal life of women, and men too. Apart from a proper diet and lifestyle changes, Yoga too can be of immense help to make the transition smooth and relieve the aches and pains associated with menopause.
We have featured over a dozen articles on the subject by experts, to enlighten both the informed and the uninformed about the changes and their manifestations in women as they enter menopause, a subject that is seldom discussed in the open or seen as a natural phase in a woman’s physiological life cycle.
Snippets of information gathered from often unreliable sources can be counter-productive. There has to be proper awareness among the women entering menopause about the diverse connected issues so that the impact of the transition does not have any negative consequence for the woman in question or her professional and personal life.
