By Claudia Panno *
Menopause is a one-way trip, in which air conditioning is alternated with heating. When the heat hits us, it is as if we were walking through Santiago del Estero in January, at siesta time, with a jute jacket on top.
It is a stage of changes: menstruation goes away and with it estrogen and testosterone, but forgetfulness comes, and I don’t remember what else. It is very common to open the refrigerator door and ask yourself “what did I come for”?
It’s true that sometimes we cry at the news or laugh at Wanda Nara’s troubles, or the other way around? But they are mood swings that we also had before when we were “in those days.” A psychologist, in the past, would diagnose it as bipolarity, but now it is self-management of emotions.
Luckily, menopause is no longer taboo. In the advertisements we see that the blue liquid is no longer used on the feminine wipe, which rather than referring to the period, told us about a royal lineage (that of blue blood) to which we did not belong. Furthermore, the word “menstruation” was not mentioned; it was alluded to with euphemisms and hints: “it came to me,” I’m dealing with it,” “Andrés visited me (the one who comes once a month). Now it is bread, bread and blood, blood.
Women in menopause suffocate, yes, but because of the adrenaline of new projects. He is not ashamed to fan himself in public with the Sube card or to ask for a bag when he feels the polar wave of Perito Moreno arriving. Since, perhaps, he has more hair on his chin, but he has less on his tongue. Sometimes he is sleeping and suddenly wakes up. But that is solved with the endless seasons of the captivating Netflix series. At night too, your toes may separate or bend; that is not satanic possession, but rather a cramp.
Perhaps his hormones decreased, but his self-knowledge increased. He knows what his body needs: less free fork and more Gandhian fasting. Nature, on the one hand, took away your strength, turgor and youth, but, on the other, gave you the necessary vitamins and minerals so that you can cope with this period or this lack of period.
One piece of advice, at this stage, is to have a good containment network. Friends who act as psychologists (to whom we tell our mambos), gynecologists (who advise us what lubricant to use against vaginal dryness) and sexologists (who tell us about sex toys to strengthen the pelvic floor, because “terrace, never basement”).
* Comedian and author of “Being happy at 50 – another book of self-deception.”
