YOU CANNOT CHANGE THIS!

If you are a woman, I have a question for you.

What is the one thing that is definitely going to happen in your life as a woman?

Do you know the answer to this?

MENOPAUSE.

Yes, if you are a woman and have reproductive organs of a woman, Menopause is inevitable.

So, what is menopause?

If you are aged over 35 you should definitely read this.

I am sure most if not all of you reading know the answer to this question. You are probably thinking “It is the thing that happened to my mum when she was old!”

Well, yes, it was, but it is now starting to happen to us. Or if it hasn’t already, it will happen as we get to our late 40s and early 50s. This is an average. There are people who can go into premature menopause from about 30years of age.

A while ago, I learnt something very fascinating and special about the female reproductive system and I want to share it with you. Just in case you did not know it.

When a woman becomes pregnant and is carrying a female foetus, that foetus has all the eggs that she will ever carry through her lifetime. Isn’t that the most INCREDIBLE thought. This means that when I was carrying my daughter, through my pregnancy, I was essentially carrying what one day might be my grandchildren. Aww! Brings a tear to my eye every time I think about it.

How can the girl child then not be special!

So here we go, some scientific facts:

A female foetus carries about 6 to 7 million eggs.

At the time of birth, these reduce to about 1-2 million eggs.

As she is reaching puberty, about 10,000 die each month by the time and the hypothalamus and pituitary do their job to bring her period on, these eggs have reduced to about 300,000 to 400,000.

Then as the female gets her menstrual cycle every month, only one egg is released but a few die each month. It is not really known why that happens or that it is affected by anything in particular.

Each month a woman continues to lose egg cells, so at the point of menopause, a woman will likely have fewer than 1000 egg cells left. It’s a common misconception that hormonal birth control or pregnancy can pause the natural deterioration of female egg cells. These continue to deteriorate regardless.

You might wonder, why it is important to go through this science lesson. It is my belief that this information is vital in helping us understand the female body and therefore understand and come to terms with the transition that we go through as we head towards perimenopause and menopause. This information becomes the basis on which we can shift our mindset about saying bye to our eggs.

So, as you see, this reproductive egg generation chart is a downward pointing chart. From the time the female foetus has formed till the time of menopause, these eggs are leaving our body. At no stage does the body decide to generate more eggs. So, it is a completely natural transitional journey that we have essentially started from the time we are born!

One would think that if we have been on this journey since we were born, then we should be used to it by the time we get to our late 40s .. Aaah nah! It is not a journey that is boring and uneventful. It is a journey full of surprises.

Imagine this “you are sitting on a roller coaster train going through a cave full of Halloween scary perimenopause symptoms being thrown out at you.”

Ok that might be a bit too dramatic but as with a woman’s journey through life, it has emotion, misinformation, fatigue, surprise and sometimes even shame associated with it.

If you think about a woman’s reproductive journey, it is not necessarily as informed, natural and smooth sailing as it is made out to be. We are always told, well periods are the most natural thing; a gift of nature to bear children.

But there can be so many complications associated with it. So many females go through PCOS, endometriosis, irregular cycles, infertility just to name a few. Some countries young girls are still mocked or ridiculed for not having a sanitary pad or for having their period. They are made to feel impure and not allowed in certain parts of society when its time of the month. What about childbirth and motherhood. Again, it is meant to be the most natural thing that makes the world go round but tell that to a woman who is trying to breastfeed a baby who just won’t latch on. Not very natural. Similarly, this phase of peri menopause and menopause can seem full of surprises, confusing and sometimes with contradicting information.

Well, it is this misinformation, taboo and shame that is now being tackled in 2022 and that is a brilliant thing. Women of our generation are not being shy, timid, ashamed about going through this transition. We do not want to face this upheaval without knowing how to manage it better.

We want to make the most of us not having our monthly period. We want preparation, informed decisions, tools and tricks, wisdom and growth into what can be a very happy, established and content phase of our life.

We do not want to be ambushed by our body when we least expect it and if we are we want a solid plan to manage and defuse this ambush.

The more we can learn about all the aspects of peri-menopause and menopause means that we equip ourselves with knowledge and learn how to tackle the symptoms that come along on this delightful journey.

No more surprises, sudden attacks or anxiety attacks due to "what ifs". No more embarrassment or shame associated with our natural transition. No more feeling less like a woman or feeling like you are losing your identity.

I am here to help you. I am here to provide you with information that I know has helped me and also continue to research and support you on your journey.

It helps me along the way too. It has been great to learn about how and why yoga impacts these symptoms and reduces the severity of these symptoms. How yoga uses our bodily systems to manage these symptoms. Yoga has these techniques, routines, kriyas and methods that bring our body and mind into a state of balance and into sync with each other. It brings about a deep awareness within ourselves of how we are in our true form.

I will continue to share information that I think will help me and you to understand what our beautiful body is going through. It will help us become more compassionate and come to terms with this ever changing and surprising time of our life.

In return I request you to connect with me. Tell me how you feel through this peri-meno or menopause journey. What are the challenges you are facing? What are your worst symptoms? You can do this in private if you want to or add in the comments below.

If you haven’t already, click here to have access free yoga resources to address and manage symptoms.

Also become part of the Facebook group by clicking here. Join the sisterhood!

You can also follow me on Instagram here where I talk about various topics on yoga for menopause.

Remember, this is your beautiful body. You know it best. What works for me might work for you or might take longer or we might have to find something else that works. You are your own best teacher.

It is in our hands to thrive through our menopause transition not just survive it.

with gratitude,

Purnima