Menopause is joyful!
A tweet from Jools Denby saying: “A Man’s Guide To The Menopause. A man asked me what the Menopause was like: let’s imagine your nuts dropped off aged 40. Your GP only suggests losing weight as a cure for your consequent physical and mental disintegration.”
For the last few years, I have been noticing more and more pathologisation of the menopause. Either anecdotally, in the media, or from ‘professionals’, the message seems as clear as day: menopause is some awful process that women need various kinds of emotional and medical support with. About three years post-menopause, I was working at a university and they launched a menopause support network complete with an MS Teams community and events. I found this absolutely hilarious until I went to an event and came away equally baffled and depressed: why were all these women so desperate and unhappy?
I have been post-menopausal for a decade now, so I feel that I know enough about it to tell you that it’s joyful! Not having to deal with periods is brilliant and liberating. I might get one mild hot flush a month (if that), but otherwise there are only two downsides. The first is a decrease in sleep quality, particularly deep sleep. However, according to ‘sleep scientist’ Matthew Walker, that is pretty much normal for all humans—males and females—as we age, so can I really call that a symptom of menopause? The other downside is that I do find it harder to build muscle; not impossible, just harder (slower) than when I was fertile.
As I have written before, I am still strong and full of energy. For instance, I strength train callisthenics 3-4 times per week, and calisthenics is hard. Like really, really hard. But here I am, a 49-year-old post-menopausal female, doing pull ups, push ups, L-sits, dips, handstands, and all manner of physically challenging things 3-4 times a week. As well as that, I do a 20-30km weekly hike or trail run. If you cannot do these things (or their equivalent according to your temperament and taking any disability into account), it is not because you stopped bleeding, but rather it is due to not having taken proper care of your body thus far. And hear me out, because if you aren’t doing well, but think you have been doing the ‘right things’ (exercise, no junk, no booze, and lots of vegetables and whole grains), you need to be open to the possibility that your diet is wrong in terms of optimal health, especially as you age.
I listened to a podcast a while back—I can’t remember if it was Peter Attia or Andrew Huberman—and their guest said that the brain is built anew every 3 years. I had heard the 7-10 year figure before for other parts of the body, but I was quite struck by the 3 year new brain figure, especially as a committed, daily meditator.
One of the things which has always frustrated me, is people’s refusal to accept that what they eat has an impact on their health, mental and physical. Or, if they accept that, they may refuse to believe that what they have been doing thus far isn’t healthy, which is usually the case if they are eating lots of vegetables, beans and legumes, and whole grains. People are so incredulous to the idea of not eating plants, or heavily restricting their intake, that they refuse to experiment and investigate by reducing or removing them.
Our body, which includes our brain, is built and rebuilt, using what is available to it. And what is available to it is what we put in it. So, if you are not consuming the things a body needs to grow and repair, well then it seems logical to say that you’re going to have a pretty shit body and brain, as it doesn’t have the essential building materials it needs to make a great body (which includes brain).
If you are a menopausal woman who feels like shit, do not despair! Read the last three paragraphs again to remind yourself that the body is always rebuilding itself. You can repair and renew and reinvigorate yourself, but to do so, you need to stop polluting your body. Stop eating processed food, cereals and grains, sugars, and alcohol, and start feeding it what it needs to be healthy, energetic, and joyful. I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t large amounts of vegetables and whole grains. It’s actually the opposite of that.
If you hold onto the fact that the brain is 60% fat and that lipids (fats) “play structural and functional roles in neurons“, and that bones, ligaments, skin, and muscles are made up of protein (in particular, collagen), then it also follows that we’re going to give our bodies the best chance at health, if we eat a diet full of the right kinds of fats and protein, as these are the essential building blocks of our bodies. In addition, given that all humans start to experience muscle loss as we age, we all need to prioritise protein and strength training to mitigate against that.
Having tried 20 years as a whole food vegetarian (i.e. high carb, low fat, no processed/junk ‘food’) during my ‘peak years’, and then sixteen subsequent years eating more and more meat and fat, I know for a fact that my body feels significantly better the more fat and meat I eat. I have experimented with a carnivore diet and whilst I felt incredible, I have settled on a animal-foods based ketogenic diet as it is less restrictive.
Maybe I just ODed on carbohydrates when I was younger; all I know is that switching from carbs (glucose) for fuel to animals and their fat has equated to significantly higher levels of mental and physical health. I am not the only person who has discovered this, either. There is a growing amount of literature on the benefits for our mental health by following a ketogenic diet (see: 1, 2, 3, or 4 for starters). In respect of menopause, I would highly recommend reading Elizabeth Bright’s Good Fat is Good for Women: Menopause. I’m not even sure everyone needs to go keto, but I do think everyone needs to at least try an animal foods based low carb and high fat diet for six months.
The question is whether you are willing to trust your own body and try a high fat, very low carb, moderate protein experiment? If you currently don’t agree that menopause is joyful, then what do you have to lose? Not your health, clearly. Maybe I am wrong, maybe you feel the best on twenty tons of cracked wheat and chickpeas, but if you don’t, be open to trying something different. You never know, you too might discover that menopause is absolutely joyful.
Additional resources:
Andrew Human podcast with Dr Stacy Sims: Female-Specific Exercise & Nutrition for Health, Performance & Longevity
Dr Stacy Sims’ book, Next Level: Your Guide to Kicking Ass, Feeling Great, and Crushing Goals Through Menopause and Beyond.