Power in the Pause! Thriving Through Menopause
Men! Please listen to this episode and understand your wife’s health! Many women feel like they are losing their minds; they are losing themselves in this transition, and men can be a critical support to women during this time if they understand what is actually happening and do not take things personally.
Ladies! Dr. Lara discusses the transition women experience through menopause. We talk about the hard facts and truths that occur in a woman’s life as they transitions through menopause, also taking into account the mental, emotional, and spiritual significance of this beautiful transition. Beautiful? You question? Our American culture has lost sight of the honor and beauty of this powerful time in a woman’s life. The culture has demonized aging, projecting a false idea of what true beauty is as women age.
She shares various cultural perspectives from around the world and in ancient cultures of the Power of the Pause, menopause. Dr. Lara will discuss the common signs and symptoms of menopause in women, not just physical, but also mental, emotional and spiritual impacts. What are you feeding your body and soul? Dr. Lara will also share some ways to thrive through menopause, including lifestyle, life decisions, identity, which tests to do to assess your hormones, and creating a safe community for support. Remember, it is okay to slow down and prioritize yourself. Ask God, “What am I being invited into in this season? What is new for me? What is my identity? How did God create me to be?”
Please share this episode with everyone who can benefit from a different perspective.
Disclosure: This content is for educational purposes; this is not intended to treat anyone medically. Consult your doctor for additional guidance.
Podcast Transcript Episode 51
Welcome to Physician Heal Thyself, the podcast empowering you to take a whole-person approach to your wellbeing, spirit, soul, and body. Join me, your host, Dr. Ana Lara, naturopathic doctor, entrepreneur, and a servant of Jesus Christ. We are not just a body, we are spirit and soul. It’s time to integrate medicine and spirituality into our healing. Let’s get started. Welcome back to Physician Heal Thyself, the podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Ana Lara, and this is episode 51. I want to dedicate this episode to a topic that’s very much in the news right now: menopause. We’re going to discuss the power in the pause and thriving through menopause, and I want to offer a different perspective on what you might be accustomed to hearing. I hear a lot of things on social media on how women are struggling through menopause and we focus on all the bad things about it. We don’t do a lot of educating for the women who are not there yet, who should be preparing for themselves for such a transition in their lives.
That’s exactly what it is. It is a transition, and so I will discuss it from a cultural perspective. I’ll speak from both a spiritual perspective and about what this transition means for women. Unfortunately, there are some very hard, known facts and truths about what happens to women’s bodies as they are transitioning through this. Once again, I encourage men also listen in on this conversation because if you’re married to a woman or you plan to be married to a woman, you want to understand what she’s going through when these changes occur. Or even better, how to do some of the preventative work upfront before women get to this age so that they have a smoother transition through menopause. So we’re going to go ahead and get started on this conversation. So many women are going to experience very common symptoms that show up as hot flashes.
This is not just feeling hot. It is an internal heat inside of her that she feels she’s burning up and she immediately will start to sweat and that will make her feel a little panicky, night sweats, and I mean, they’re leaving the pillow soaked with their sweat. Mood swings can vary from feeling irritated and angry to sad, depressed, having anxiety, and brain fog, right? They can’t remember that their short-term memory is compromised. They can’t think. They’re just struggling a lot with cognitive function. And of course, sleep issues. You’ll find that a lot of women going through menopause cannot fall asleep and stay asleep. The downside is that they’re tired all day and at night they’re wired up and they just cannot fall asleep. There’s a lot of other symptoms that go along with it. People don’t want to talk about this in the open, but women will experience vaginal dryness and because of that, they will experience pain with intercourse.
So if your wife doesn’t want to have sex, it’s because her hormones are low and there’s discomfort down there. So when estrogen is the hormone that gives the elasticity to the tissue in that area and it’s low, there’s vaginal dryness, there’s no secretions that help lubricate this area. It makes it very difficult for women to have sexual intercourse. These are adult conversations. So if you don’t want your children to hear this, then don’t have them listen to it. But the reality is that women’s bodies go through a transition. Here’s another thing that women don’t find out until they’re later on in their sixties, and that is that women in their sixties and older have a higher risk of developing urinary tract infections, UTIs. It doesn’t matter what you eat and how clean you are; you just happen to be at risk of developing UTIs more frequently.
Those UTIs can sometimes go unnoticed without symptoms and make their way to the kidneys. Oftentimes, women end up in the hospital with a kidney infection, and they had a UTI and had no signs or symptoms of it. So the reason is the vaginal bacteria changes. The urinary bacteria change, and that gets compromised. Look, women who have children are always going to have a lot more symptoms through menopause than women who’ve never had children. Women are carrying all that extra weight in their pelvic floor. Oftentimes, women are not taking care of and resolving and getting physical therapy or doing pelvic floor exercises to strengthen all those fine muscles down there. Ultimately what happens is women, because of pregnancies and childbirth, they’ll have a higher risk of vaginal prolapse, urinary prolapse, and they’ll have issues. These issues are not easy for them to deal with.
These are the silent things that women do not discuss with their husbands, rarely share with their friends, but they are happening. This is why one of my big pet peeves is seeing pregnant women running and lifting super heavy. Even if you had been working out before the pregnancy and you have a strong pelvic floor, if you’re doing any jumping motion, anything that’s pushing that uterus down, you already have a lot of weight. You have a baby inside of you. If you’re doing all these crazy exercises, you won’t see the consequences of your actions until you’re later on in life, usually in menopause. Anyone who’s listening to this, any woman who’s listening to this episode who has experienced vaginal prolapse, you know that is not something to play with. Sometimes, if it’s very severe, women have to undergo surgery to lift the uterus.
Basically, it’s a uterus exiting. Yeah, it’s very traumatic for women when they go through childbirth and they have a full vaginal prolapse, and so they’re having to do surgery to pull this organ back in its place. Unfortunately, a lot of women just don’t do enough pelvic floor exercises, which I think is very important. Many women experience a range of symptoms and physical changes. But let’s talk about just the mental and emotional changes that women are going through, where they find themselves experiencing an identity crisis. There’s this identity shift and they start to go through this emotional rollercoaster because the reality is that the end of your reproductive years, it’s coming. It’s coming to an end. The menopause is a period when the body starts to slow down. And women feel that shift. And even though they could be in their fifties, late forties and they have no intentions of having a pregnancy, but there’s that reality that in their mind and in their soul, they realize this is it.
I won’t be making any more. I’m not going to have any more children. My body’s going through a change. There’s almost a grieving process, even for this old person, this old self. There’s a grieving process of even in your youth. We see that the media constantly reminds us of what beauty is through various representations. Natural beauty is one thing, but beauty is not about injecting your face with Botox and filling your lips, or undergoing all these invasive surgeries. This is a desperate move to preserve your youth. But the reality is that the deep fear that women really are experiencing that is not talked about is the fear of aging and, ultimately the fear of dying. Because ultimately, that’s what we are all going to go through, is that transition of dying, of this physical body dying.
If you’re only pouring into your physical body and not into your soul, you’ll find yourself living a very miserable life. I highly encourage that you take a holistic approach, meaning you take care of yourself in all of these areas, but there is a real physical shift that is happening here that is not to be ignored, because as these hormones come down, women start to feel like they’re losing their minds. It’s very common for me to hear women say, ‘I feel like I’m going crazy.’ Do I need to go to a mental hospital? I don’t feel myself because your body is slowing down saying pause. It’s not saying to stop, it’s just saying, slow down. We are going to slow down. There’s a point here that we’re going to pause because there’s a rebirth that is happening in you and it really is a beautiful experience if you shift the way you think about it, if you shift the way you perceive things, you’re going to see that there’s beauty and there’s power in this pause in menopause.
A couple of things that I want to talk about. Like I said, let’s talk about that power of the pause because the worldview of menopause is that you are really slowing down, but in this phase, it’s not a passive pause that you’re having. It’s actually a very active and intentional and very powerful process that a woman is going through. During this pause, I wrote down a few things. A pause is where we reconnect. A pause is where we hear ourselves. Again, a pause is where something new begins. And so oftentimes women, as they’re going through menopause or after menopause, they report these things. They report that they have found their voice; they now have a stronger voice and a clear sense of self. Some boundaries are put in place. Now, maybe areas that you used to struggle, things you used to have a hard time saying no to, you are not setting boundaries and you’re able to say no without guilt.
Let me be clear about that because we say no, but then we feel guilty for saying no to that thing, because sometimes there are good things out there that we want to be a part of and we want to help. However, if you are overwhelmed with family responsibilities and other life situations, you may not be able to say yes to everything. It’s important to find your voice and be able to use that power and say, unfortunately, I cannot be part of that, and just say no and not feel any guilt. Also, saying no without feeling the need to justify it is a no, and that’s it. And that’s it. No, I won’t be able to make it. You don’t have to explain yourself. Why. I find that women have an overneed to explain themselves why they can’t do something. You start to live in this deep state, developing a deep desire to live authentically.
It’s not that you weren’t living authentically before, but often, women are being wives, being moms, being somebody to everybody, and they frequently put themselves on the back burner. It has been passed down through generations. I’ve had conversations with women who were older throughout my life. As a matter of fact, I was one of those peculiar kids who would prefer to sit around with the older women and just listen to their conversations. I found it both entertaining and enlightening to hear the stories of the lives of older women. That right there is the gift of women when they go through menopause; that transition turns them into something much greater. In this next segment, I want to discuss the various ancient cultures around the world and how they viewed women as they entered menopause and transitioned through it. These are world, this is world wisdom, ancient wisdom, ancient views. It’s not nothing new, but our culture has shifted things to make it seem like you’re drying up and you’re dying and you’re not beautiful anymore because you’re old. You’re an old hag.
But many cultures saw women who were going through this transition as elders, as spiritual leaders, as healers and truth tellers. Listen to this again; it’s so empowering. They were elders and spiritual leaders. They were healers and truth-tellers; these women would pass on their knowledge to the next generation. That’s what I received as a young girl, as a young teenager, as a young woman, when I was around older women. And by older, I mean in their sixties, seventies and eighties, I would hear their stories, their life, the things that they learned from the good and the bad and the ugly. That is the gift that they gave to me. Some of them were not even related to me. Let’s take a brief overview of what other cultures around the world are, and how they honor women during this transition. So in Native American tribes, they often honor postmenopausal women as spiritual leaders and believe they carry wisdom, no longer distracted by the moon cycle.
In Chinese culture, menopause is not viewed as a loss, but it’s a rebalancing of energy, a shift towards inner cultivation. In African traditions, elders were venerated and the end of the menstrual cycle for them was it marked a transition into leadership, not invisibility. In African cultures, once again, they viewed women who were going through the menstrual cycle as a transition into leaders, the true leaders, because now they’re sages, they have experience and wisdom is knowledge that you apply without even thinking about it because now it’s internalized and you know better. In many indigenous cultures, this time is when a woman becomes a wise one, the keeper of the stories, and the mentor to other women and men. In our modern culture, we’ve lost that reverence. We have lost the respect and honor that women deserve. It’s sad that we even have to have a damn debate about what is a woman?
Because if you don’t have a vagina and you don’t deal with these issues, you’re not a woman. You’re just not women who go through menopause and have these vaginal atrophy and these vaginal prolapse and have all these issues. Unfortunately, that is the price that we pay as being women and being the birth givers in this world. It is an honor. I don’t see it as a sacrifice. Sacrifice. A sacrifice is when you don’t want to do it. However, when you go through the process of being a mother and then experience menopause, it’s a devotion. Our devotion is very different than sacrifice. Women who choose to become mothers are devoted to being mothers to our children. We’re devoted to raising them, to being healthy and happy and wholehearted people.
It sends me to see social media depicting what a menopausal woman should look like. You’re not going to look like you’re 20, you’re just not going to be 20 years old. And it’s not cute. It’s not being judgmental. You don’t look cute, acting like you’re 20 years old. There’s so much more value in you when you acknowledge your identity, who God created you to be, who he designed you to be. What is your assignment in this world? And understanding that when your children, women, when your children grow up and move on and build their own lives, what are you left with? What are you left with, and who are you? This is where women go through that transition. Who am I? Who am I without my children? Who am I without being a wife? Who am I, not being a daughter to someone, a sister to someone?
These are questions that you should ask early in your life. So if you’re 20 or 30 years old, start seeking that. So, when you reach menopause, it doesn’t just suddenly happen. I have a quick story to share here. When I was going through my medical training, I was working at this clinic and this beautiful woman in her early fifties came in and she was going through that transition of menopause. A lot of people ask, well, when do you transition through menopause? That’s different for everyone. Ask your mom what age she transitioned to menopause. If you don’t know, then that makes it difficult. But usually the age at which your mother transitioned through menopause is the age at which you will as well. So typically it’s been the fifties to mid-fifties that women start to transition. The way you’re really inactive menopause is you haven’t had a period for 12 months, but usually you don’t start to have a period, but you have all these other symptoms as well, right? There is lab work that you can do to confirm if you are going through menopause. Those two tests that you want to make sure are checked are F, s, H and lh. They’ll be super high regardless of when you do them. That’s the sign that the brain is telling the ovaries to make more hormones, but it’s not receiving the signal. The body is saying, we’re slowing down. We will not be making any more. We’re done.
But that’s what menopause is. But unfortunately, we do see some women who can genetically, that’s just the way genetic makeup is, can start in their mid to late forties as well. But we’re seeing women younger and younger going through menopause, even as young as in their mid to late thirties. In my opinion, that’s too young to start going through menopause. So those hormones keep you feeling good and keep you feeling young as well. I had this woman present. She was in her early fifties, a beautiful woman. All her kids were grown and out of the house and she had what she claimed was a wonderful marriage, and everything had been happy. Then she began experiencing these hormonal changes. She wasn’t even sure it was that, but she started to, the reason she came in, because she felt unlike herself, she, she was going through an identity crisis and she alluded that to her children now being out of the home and on their own.
She tells me with such sadness in her tone, ‘I don’t even know what I like for myself.’ I’ve given everything to my family, to my husband and to my children. She was a stay-at-home mom. I never worked. I just dedicated my life to them. Now they’re grown and moved away and my husband’s always traveling for work and I find myself being alone at home and I’m trying to find things to do for myself and I don’t even know what I like. We would brainstorm ideas and we would pick something out of that list for her to go try something new. She was like an 18-year-old girl who was just leaving her parents’ home to explore who she is.
Now I’m grateful, and she was grateful to have provided and devoted her life to her family. But now what about her? Here, she feels disconnected and alone. Now these hormones don’t make it any easier. They make her feel crazy and she has no identity of who she is without those roles in her life. The reality for women, especially if your children are young, is that your children will grow up and move out just like we did. It’s just the cycle of life. This is why I encourage women to find one or two things that they really enjoy doing. Whether you’re a stay at home mom, whether you work and you take care of your kids, whatever it is, find something that you are excited about to do, whether it’s working out, whether it’s painting or drawing or writing and reading a book, whatever it is that your interests are playing an instrument, singing something, dancing, you have to have something that you do for yourself.
I know what some women are saying, yeah, but you don’t understand. I don’t have time. No, you do have time. You need to make the time. You need to make the effort and communicate that to your family by setting those boundaries and saying, ‘Hey, these days, Mommy is going to be doing these things for herself, just like that.’ And oftentimes right now, I am in my mid-forties and I do have school-aged children. I’ll tell you that. Part of the problem is that we need to be the ones who set boundaries with our children’s schools, with their teachers, and with all the activities our kids can and cannot participate in. The wisest thing I heard a family say, share with me one time, they had an annual meeting at the beginning of the school year, and they would sit their kids down and the kids had to decide on one or two activities that they wanted to do throughout the school year, and that was it.
Everyone had to agree on that. They had to review the schedules and ensure that they worked cohesively with the family, and all parties had to approve the schedule. So it was like a little business meeting where they had to okay it, and no one was allowed to add all these extra add-on activities as the school year was going on. Because that teaches children to know that yes, we want to consider your gifts, your skills, your interests, but you’re not the center of the world, honey, I tell my girls that all the time, I love you, however, I’m not going to kill myself doing all these things that are not important. So pick the one or two things that you absolutely love that you are good at, that you love and you enjoy doing and do that. But I see moms running to the soccer game and the baseball game and the basketball game and all of that, and they’re overweight and they’re like, I don’t have time to work out.
You know why? You don’t have time to go out because you’re prioritizing your children. You’re not making your marriage; you’re not making yourself the priority in that. You’re not even making God the priority in that. We need to stop glorifying our children and putting them on these pedestals. It’s okay to say no to our children as they get older. They can do all that stuff. Plus I’ve seen, I’m not trying to be mean here, but I keep it very real with my girls, my oldest dances and she’s beautiful dancer, but if she tried to sing, she sucks at it. I’m not going to waste my time on an activity that she doesn’t enjoy and isn’t particularly good at. That teaches them to be real. You got to be real with them, which is why this authenticity part through menopause is so important because you haven’t said the things you really wanted to say and you’ve been holding on to saying those things, but now you’re going through this transition and you just don’t have the ability to compose yourself through this.
I’d like to discuss a few things that will help you thrive during this transition. What are some things that you can do aside from doing the blood work? If your doctor isn’t going to do it, find someone who will check a full panel of your hormones, starting from pregnancy alone, DHEA, your total testosterone, free testosterone, estradiol, E2, your progesterone, and cortisol levels in the morning. If they can measure all cortisol levels throughout the day from morning to nighttime, that would be ideal. But you want to get an idea of where your hormones are. Then I had the previous episode on what to do, Hormone Myths and Mistakes | What Every Woman Should Know.’ So, go back to that episode and listen to it, which covers the diet, ensuring you’re getting enough sleep, engaging in regular physical activity, and managing your stress. However, there are other things that you can start taking a closer look at and acknowledging, as you go through this menopause transition. It’s okay to rest and reflect.
These hormones are coming down, and it’s slowing you down for a reason. It doesn’t mean you stop, it just means you slow down to rest and reflect. And so honor this shift journal how you’re feeling. You’d be surprised what journaling does if you were to journal for 20 minutes, uninterrupted, four times a week. You’re going to start seeing a trend and a pattern in what you’re writing about, and you’re going to start discovering a lot about yourself in your journaling. It’s also a way to purge mentally and emotionally without the fear of someone judging or criticizing. You can just journal it down, but be okay with the idea of slowing down and prioritizing things in your life. I always ask women as they’re journaling or as they’re going through this process to ask God, What am I being invited into in this season?
What’s new for you? There’s a rebirth. What’s new for you? There’s nothing wrong with asking God, Who am I? Who? What’s my identity? How? Who did you create me to be? There’s so much power in these questions and sometimes you have to sit with it. It’s not going to come all at once, but you have to sit with this question and explore it, letting God pour into you during this time. Another key to thriving through menopause is the importance of having a supportive community. Don’t isolate yourself. Other women are experiencing what you’re experiencing. That’s one thing I will say: women are, on average, pretty good about reaching to other women and talking about these issues very openly. Find your people who are your tribe. Talk to them. Laugh through this. Laughter is medicine. Some of these things that happen are, what can you do about them?
You can cry about it, too. It’s okay to cry if you need to. That’s the other thing about the emotions that are coming up as you go through menopause, because it is a wild rollercoaster. It’s okay to acknowledge those emotions and feelings you have, and just surrender them to God, allowing Him to help you and carry you through that. But if you truly do have very severe symptoms, now that you don’t have to suffer with that, there are natural things that you can do. If hormone replacement therapy is for you, do it just to maintain your sanity. So there’s a lot of power in your stories. So, once again, I’m emphasizing the importance of community. Find your community, even if it’s one other person.
The third point is to support your body. This includes everything from nutrition and herbal support to physical activity, even if you’ve never exercised before; maybe it’s time. Now, let me tell you how many 70- and 80-year-old women and men have said that if there was one age they could go back to, it would be their fifties. If you’re in your fifties and going through this transition, movement is still something you should consider, whether it’s walking, hiking, or any other activity you enjoy, such as dancing. And then sleep. Making sure that if you’re having difficulty with sleep, which most women who are going through menopause are, I’m telling you that progesterone at night is going to save you. It will help you calm down and fall asleep. And so, take care of your physical body the same way you did when you were pregnant and ate healthy, taking care of your body; it’s no different going through menopause.
It’s a season, a transition that we should support ourselves physically. Then the fourth step is to redefine your self-worth. What does that mean to you? Not what the world is telling you, but what does self-worth look like to you? Oftentimes, through menopause, many women who have not healed through trauma, unhealed trauma will surface at this time, really bringing it to the surface, making it seem like it’s really in your face now because your body is saying, Hey, hey sis, we’re tired of carrying this around. When will we face it? When will we heal from this? So honor your body and yourself to heal through those things. You will be valuable regardless of what you produce. You’re valuable. No matter whether you’re pleasing or not pleasing, you’re valuable. Even if you’re not able to reproduce a baby anymore, you are valuable simply for being who you are.
God created you with worth, and you’re valuable. What you’re able to offer to other people does not determine your self-worth. And sometimes we need to hear that from others. You need to hear that from others because you think that your value is attached to the number of activities that you’re doing throughout your day. I have had women who show me their calendars on their phones, and they’re back-to-back with activities; they see the value in themselves in how many activities they have on their calendars. So when your physical body can’t do that anymore, can’t support all those activities, you start to feel like you’re worthless. That’s a lie. So slow down, pause and reclaim your worth. Step number five is one that I love. I found that in my forties, I didn’t have to wait till 50, but that’s to claim your voice.
Claim your voice. This is the time to speak your God-given truth, to stand in your story and to lead and however that looks like for you. This is an interesting thing. We grew up in our families being told who they think we are, right? Whether it’s been directly or unconsciously, they’ve been projecting to us who they perceive we are. Schools have told us who they think we are. Religion has told us who they perceive us to be and the government and the news and the media. Numerous direct and indirect messages tell us who we are. This is a moment. Really, I don’t want women or men to wait till they’re older. You should be doing this when you’re young. Like pause, slow down, go into a meditative state and ask God, Who am I? Who am I?
Who did you create me to be? Is this part of my identity, or is this from the world? Is this identity from you, or is it from my family, from religion, from the world of what they’ve projected to me to make me believe this is who I am? It’s a beautiful time to be able to claim your voice and your identity is through this process of menopause. As I’ve said before, this pause is holy, mighty, and it’s yours. It’s for you to take it to honor that and to slow it down. So I’m not talking about this conversation on menopause. I’m not addressing whether you’ve noticed that I haven’t discussed which bioidentical hormones are better than others or other related topics. You know what? All social media is plagued with all of that. There’s a lot of noise around menopause with do this hormone and do that hormone and do this thing and all of that.
However, no one is really talking to women, speaking life into them; in reality, this is a time to honor yourself. It’s okay if you do the hormones. I’m not against it. I help many women with hormone replacement therapies. But take the time to really honor this transition because eventually, with or without hormones, you are going to go through the process of menopause. And it is a privilege to be able to go through the process of menopause because women who don’t go through menopause usually die before they go through menopause. As we age, it is a privilege to grow older. I want to refer to some scriptures about how aging is not equated with a decline, but it’s equated with honor and authority and wisdom. In Proverbs 16:31, it says, gray hair is a crown of splendor, and it is attained in the way of righteousness.
It is a rite of passage for women to enter this new season of womanhood. You should walk into it with power and authority, not like a whimpering cat, not whimpering, not being whiny, not feeling like a victim. You should be honored to be able to go through this transition because some women don’t get to go through that transition, especially when they die young. Titus 2 speaks about how the older woman is. They see older women as mentors guiding younger generations in love and self-control and godly living. What if you learned all the lessons and focused on your goals? You’re reflecting on the lessons you’ve learned in your life up to this point. What things have you learned that you can turn around and teach your daughters, your granddaughters, or other women? Let’s be real. Let’s have a very real and genuine conversation, because I’m often unsure whether to delve into this topic. Maybe it’s best to save it for another time, but I often encounter women who pretend like they’ve had perfect lives.
Not just in my clinic do I hear these conversations. But often, when I’m outside meeting people, they start telling me their life story. They start sharing with me what has happened in their lives. They make it seem like the marriage was great and raising the children was great, but I’m telling you, they end up at a point in their life where they’re less resistant and resilient to putting up with people’s nonsense. I heard it was real on social media, and the title was How Menopause is causing a Rise in Divorces. I laughed. I listened to it. I’m like, this is baloney. Menopause does not cause divorces. Menopause is not a person who’s coming in and interfering with divorce. Chances are that there were issues in that marriage to begin with, far back that were never addressed. Some women try to address problems early on, but then they give up and surrender, and they stay married.
They just go through the motions. But here’s the thing about menopause: those hormones that allow that woman to have more self-control like progesterone, keep us calm, cool, and collected. It’s not there anymore and she’s not feeling it. She is less likely to tolerate the nonsense of other people, including their spouse. If there are unresolved issues in the marriage and this woman gets through menopause, yeah, you better believe you’re going to see something come out different from her. This is why it’s not uncommon for women in their fifties to end up filing for divorce. Men and women, if this is you, take care of the issue before it gets worse, because something is happening in her brain, body, and soul that she’s just not willing to tolerate anymore. Oftentimes, women who do continue to put up with especially abusive behaviors, right from their spouse, end up developing cancers.
I’ve seen a number of women who had healthy lifestyles. They seem to have had no medical conditions. All of a sudden, they develop wet breast cancer, uterine cancer, and ovarian cancer. It’s not familial, meaning it’s not genetic in their family for women to have that condition. So, yeah, there are many components to it, but the relationships we have on a day-to-day basis significantly impact our health. So it’s not menopause that causes a divorce, it’s the lack of communication and not resolving the issues. Before you reach that point, I want to emphasize the importance of slowing down and taking time to care for yourself. I always refer to a good book that I loved. It’s called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the habits of Highly Effective People is to stop and sharpen the saw. Meaning that you can’t cut a tree with a dull blade.
You need to sharpen the saw. So if you don’t stop to take care of yourself and sharpen yourself, you’re running in life with a dull blade. You’re running through life being dull and not fully energetic. So if you’re in your forties and you’re like, I’m not in menopause yet, but I see some of these red flags, start addressing them because it’s better that you start to taking care of them sooner than later and start having those real hard conversations with your family, your spouse, your children, to ensure that you are not stressing because this stress causes excess cortisol and it’s going to steal from all the other hormones. So, I hope you enjoy this conversation. It’s very different, right? It’s not what to do, but rather how to adopt the mindset that you need to shift into the lifestyle you want to achieve.
Find what works for you; what works for you is not necessarily the same for me. What works for me might not work for you, but find what works for you. Just remember that pause is holy, it’s powerful, and it’s yours. It’s your time to slow down and invest in yourself, in your wellbeing. I hope this message has brought you some joy and shed light on the topic of menopause. If you know any woman who’s struggling with menopause, share this podcast with them. Until next time, be blessed. Thank you for listening to Physician Heal Thyself, the podcast. If you like what you’ve heard, please like, share and subscribe to help this message reach more people who may need to hear it. Leave your comments. I want to know what you think. If you’re interested in learning more about Raices, visit our website. Until next time, be blessed.
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