Menopause sneaks up on you like a thief in the night. One day, you’re going about your life, feeling like you have a handle on things, and the next, everything feels different. Your body changes, your brain fogs over, your emotions are all over the place, and suddenly, you don’t recognise yourself anymore. It’s brutal, relentless, and at times, completely disorienting. There are a lucky few who seem to sail through it, but those lucky buggers probably side stepped PMT as well!
People don’t talk about how much menopause messes with your mind. The memory lapses make you feel like you’re losing it. You walk into a room and forget why. You stare at someone you’ve known for years, and their name just vanishes. You start questioning yourself, wondering if this is the beginning of something worse. It’s like your brain has been hijacked, leaving you struggling to find the words, to concentrate, to trust yourself.
Then there’s the exhaustion. Not just tiredness, but deep, bone-aching fatigue that no amount of sleep seems to fix. You go to bed early, but wake up drenched in sweat, tangled in sheets, your heart pounding like you’ve just run a marathon. Night after night, your sleep is shredded into pieces, leaving you stumbling through the days like a zombie.
And let’s talk about the rage. The way the smallest things set you off like a ticking time bomb. You snap at people you love, feel irritation rising over things that never used to bother you. It’s like something primal has taken over, and no amount of deep breathing stops the fire. You feel guilty afterward, but in the moment, it’s uncontrollable.
Your body betrays you in ways no one warned you about. Joints ache, muscles feel weaker, your shape shifts without your permission. You gain weight without changing a thing. Your skin dries out, your hair thins, and you feel invisible in a way that stings. People stop seeing you, stop listening, as if you’ve passed some expiration date that no one told you about.
The emotional toll is just as brutal. Some days, the sadness comes out of nowhere, an overwhelming grief for something you can’t quite name. You mourn the version of yourself that felt vibrant, energetic, clear-headed. You wonder if you’ll ever feel like her again. The self-doubt creeps in, whispering that you’re no longer relevant, no longer needed, no longer desirable.
And yet, in the chaos of it all, there’s also a shift. A moment where you realise that everything is changing, but maybe that isn’t all bad. Menopause breaks you down, but it also forces you to rebuild. It strips away the bullshit, the need to please, the fear of taking up space. It demands that you put yourself first in ways you never have before.
You learn to listen to your body instead of fighting it. You start to say no to things that drain you. You stop tolerating things that no longer serve you. There’s a freedom in menopause, buried under the struggle, waiting to be claimed. It f*cks you up, yes, but it also gives you a chance to rise from the wreckage and decide who you want to be next.
Who do you want to be in this new chapter?