The big 4-0
by Lisa Sealey, Founder, AfterShock
Forty. I was divorced after 10 years of marriage and in love again. I was active and healthy, learning to ski, race Triathlons and complete a Half Iron race in my early 40’s. I had an interesting job with a nice title and paycheck. Life was pretty good save for some sticky blended family dynamics (maybe someday I’ll write a long post on that!). I had never felt better in my life. I thought that all the hype about middle age was just that – overblown drama for people that didn’t focus enough on their health and goals. And then, late 40’s and the effects of burning the candle at both ends visited me for real. I had spent more than five years during this period waking up at 4AM to get to the gym where I did heavy cardio workouts fueled by Starbuck’s lattes (loaded with honey, because I thought that was better for you than sugar).
After a quick shower, I ran to the train station for an hour+ commute into NYC. If I could find a seat, I started my workday on the train, furiously answering emails and responding to various issues to try and get ahead and to show my workplace of mostly all-male colleagues that I could in fact be a mom and a productive professional. After a full workday, and thanks to an understanding boss who encouraged me to get out “on time”, I endured the same hour+ commute home during which I mostly prayed the train wouldn’t be late (and worked on my laptop) so I could pick up my kids from daycare on time. Then, it was into the “2nd shift” at home: groceries, cooking, laundry, homework supervision, until I could do a little more work after the boys were in bed. No wonder I was burned out by my late 40’s and feeling the effects burnout and peri-menopause! Although it wasn’t that long ago, there was little to no information about the topic or mention of the word menopause.
But change is coming and women 50+ are leading it. From Dr. Sara Gottfried, a pioneer on the topic, Dr. Schwarzbein, a brilliant endocrinologist and Dr. Anna Cabeca –the words “hormone” and “menopause” are gettting more and more attention. We formed AfterShock with the mission of sparing women who are entering this amazing time of life the mental and physical suffering that can quite literally bring them to their knees – ending marriages and partnerships and pharma companies profits rising with their anti-depressant prescriptions. We don’t want the next generation of 40 and 50-year-olds blindsided by the changes that peri menopause and menopause can unleash. We want them to understand and manage their hormones and physical and mental health so that people in this time of life, filled with formidable experience and wisdom, can fill themselves up again, dream big dreams and tackle ideas, problems, solutions for their families, communities and the world for the next half of their lives.