Life after the shock

by Dr. Kate Beyrer, Chief Medical Officer, AfterShock

Yes, there is life after the shock of menopause. I call it the Rise.

Menopause isn’t dainty. It’s an upheaval in our body, mind and spirit. In the roadway of our lives, think of it as a Dip. All of a sudden, the ground beneath your feet gives way. You stumble. Your stomach drops. What’s going on, you wonder? You feel different. Less than. Your brain is fogged and you can’t remember details as well as you used to. Your body looks and acts like someone only vaguely familiar to you. Your mood is unpredictable, even scary. You are no longer the “self” you think of as yourself.

You struggle along in the Dip for some time, because what choice do you have but to keep going? No one seems to have an answer or solution, so you’re left to wonder if you’re going to feel like this for the rest of your life. As if you will live in the Dip forever. 

And then, blessedly, comes the Rise. The strengthening, the clarity, the focus – all of it returns and better than ever. Only women who have gone through the shock of menopause and come out on the other side know the ascendancy of the Rise. Here’s what they know: It is glorious. And it’s our birthright.

Let’s ask ourselves, why would we get this far if we weren’t meant to live well beyond our reproductive years? If our primary role was to be vessels of life, nature would have selected us out after we served the purpose of bearing and nurturing our children. But instead we are here for decades more. There must be an evolutionary rationale behind all this.

It’s a radical idea, but true nonetheless, that over time, nature (mother earth) has selected biologically born women to be humanity’s leaders, icons, visionaries. We were given gifts that our biologic male counterparts simply do not have. Our very bodies are connected to moon cycles. We create humans and the food to sustain them. Our psyches are designed to put the care of others before ourselves, for years on end, until those others can fend on their own. Compassion, empathy, intuition – these are all commonly understood as “female” traits. Evolutionarily, we have mastered the art of being human.

So it follows of course that nature has plans for us, well past our childbearing years. We were meant to life live after menopause with gusto and empowerment. Perhaps this is why menopause is such a shock to our systems – it’s meant to wake us up, to lift us up, so that we can continue on, but from a new vantage point

One thing that all of this means is that women must take up the mantle of medical advocacy. Not just for our own wellbeing but for the good of all. Now is the time, because for the first time in history we are not only the patients, but the researchers and doctors. We are the policy makers and inventors. We are the entrepreneurs.

Women are beginning to coalesce, like a gathering storm. And by banding together, with our new, discerning brains, with our spirits on the Rise, we can uncover our genetic destiny.

Nothing happens in nature without a reason. The Dip is followed by the Rise by design. We’ll unwrap that design, that map, that path, together.