Let’s Chat: Puberty’s evil older sister

By Linda Tooth on April 24, 2024.

Ladies, do you wake up sometimes thinking, ‘I am not sure I can give this day 100 per cent of my energy?’

I have been feeling really tired lately and it has been a concern for me because I am used to giving each and every day 100 per cent of my energy and attention, but lately I am not even sure I have been able to give 50. Bedtime on any given day is between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. I do get regular B12 injections so I know that is not the problem.

What is going on?

I think it is the dreaded M word – menopause.

Menopause, according to the National Cancer Institute, is a “time when a woman has not had a period 12 months in a row. Symptoms of menopause include hot flashes, mood swings and trouble concentrating.” Click the boxes, I am there.

I have noticed lately that I cannot eat the same foods or portions I was enjoying in my 20s, 30s and 40s. Maybe that is not a bad thing. Goodbye, poutine, it was nice knowing you.

I recently ordered the book The Menopause Reset by Dr. Mindy Pelz. She is promising I can get rid of my symptoms and feel like my younger self again. Boy, I hope she is right.

To top it all off, I recently went for a haircut and told my hairdresser that I had seen four to five grey hairs. She correctly informed me it was more than four or five, it was more like 20. Yikes. At first I thought things might get physical, but once that passed I felt like vomiting. Oh my god, I am getting older.

Oh, and let us not forget that I have a 40-year high school reunion this summer. How did that happen? Do I go or do I not go? I was never part of the popular crowd but it might be fun to see how they have manoeuvred this thing called menopause. Can I lose 50 pounds by July? Probably not. But if I do go, I will get a new outfit and possibly colour my hair.

Right now it is 730 a.m. and I am feeling pretty good, though I am sitting in a hotel room in Calgary waiting for a work conference to start at 830 a.m. I hope today does not see me wanting to get physical with people. Stay tuned to hear how I manoeuvre this part of my life.

Have a Meowtastic Day.

Linda Tooth is a communications instructor at Medicine Hat College

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