RSSThe Hottest Flash About Menopause
November 9, 2008
Menopause is upon us, or right around the next corner. I’ve heard awful things.
But I got through morning sickness all day everyday for 4 months. I got through never getting more than 3 hours of sleep consecutively, for 5 years straight. I guess I’ll get through this too. I EXPECT to get through it. I EXPECT good things to happen during and after, good things that I don’t have now.
Photo by RickC
Our brains begin different from male brains. From Michele Miller’s excellent WonderBranding, women have 4 times more connections between the right and left brain hemispheres. If that isn’t great enough, read the comments. It appears that we may also be able to access that information faster. This is fantastic. The future must surely belong to those who can do what machines still can’t.
As we ride along on the Menopause Train, we feel a shift from estrogen dominance (looking after everyone else) to a new relatively higher level of testosterone (looking after yourSELF, quelle surprise). Eileen Williams writes the blog The Feisty Side of Fifty. In this post, she explains that our bodies continue to make testosterone, even though estrogen production is diminishing. Less estrogen means less nurturing. More testosterone means more assertiveness and more goal-oriented behaviors.
Photo by Gaetan Lee
Eileen posted as a guest blogger at Great Adaptations, and wrote of a growth spurt in the human brain at age 50. The layer called myelin that coats the nerve fibers actually grows, thereby improving the integration of experience in the part of the brain involved with emotional learning. More magazine’s Dec. 05/Jan. 06 has a good article on myelin growth here.
How simply fabulous is this? Proof that we are getting better, smarter, and wiser. Machines can’t create emotion in its thousand thousand nuances, but we can and we’re getting better at it.
Brains are use-it-or-lose-it just like everything else. Go to www.happy-neuron.com. Do a game each day. You’ll feel yourself getting sharper. It’s good.
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4 Responses to “The Hottest Flash About Menopause”
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A Greener Tea
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I don’t need brain games as I’m continuously learning new software and new things to do with my Mac. Lately, I’m secretly nurturing a baby blog of my own. I’m even learning a little bit of code! I wouldn’t have thought I’d be doing this at 56.
Now if I could just find my keys!
Go figure, I’m in the throes of menopause and find that I am learning more, just not all at once, my ability to multi-task has diminished slightly but I am more focused and get more out of what I do.
My boss claims she has “menopause” brain and can’t remember to finish anything or pay attention when you tell her something. It’s really just another excuse for someone else to pick up her pieces, nothing new, just a new excuse. Should I tell her I know the truth…or maybe it’s time for me to move on.
However – the night sweats are freaking killing me, how can I possibly hold that much liquid in my cleavage, it’s like a small pond for criminy sakes!
The silly everyday things get overlooked. I’ve made tea with no tea bag, washed clothes with no soap, whatever. It’s because we’re busy thinking about more interesting things. I agree about being more focussed – just better at neutralizing the noise you don’t need for anything.
Menopause brain must be the same as pregnancy brain. You’re not dummer (in fact, the opposite is true), but we’re more internally directed, and I’ll pick that anyday over always knowing where keys and tea bags are.
A baby blog, or any kind of writing, is a great thing though I didn’t know it a year ago. Writing down what you think clears space in your head. It makes room to receive new things and to build on the first thoughts. Pretty soon, you see yourself moving down a very real path with milestones and markers. You can look back and draw a physical line from where you were to where you are. You’ll barely be able to recognize who you used to be.
By the way, Karen, GREAT glasses. I’d have 20 pairs in all colors and styles. They are the coolest accessory, IMO. Another aspect of aging I quite like.