I Has the Menopause
Nov. 22nd, 2014 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebAs of yesterday, I am officially menopausal.
How it happened for me
Last year my doctor said she could make me bleed monthly forever if I wanted her to but instead recommended that I switch from regular birth control pills to the progesterone-only type (aka the mini pill). I did so.
I immediately stopped bleeding. Boom!
Then you know that feeling you get when you realize you've made a horrible mistake and now you have to give people the bad news, or maybe you have to give a speech? I noticed a few times that I was getting that feeling when nothing was going wrong with my life before I finally realized--duh, these must be hot flashes.
Then at this year's annual physical, my doctor tested my FSH and the levels showed that I'm done now.
How to commemorate it
Shouldn't there be some sort of celebration? Community ritual? (I'm kind of afraid to read about rituals from other cultures. And my own culture is all about complaining about the millions of things that could suddenly get worse in your life, at least for a little while, but maybe forever, but how there's still hope and you could still have a fulfilling life and so you shouldn't kill yourself. Thanks, my own culture!)
At one point in my life, I enjoyed celebrating each new month where I wasn't making a baby with a doughnut. So going the rest of my life never making a baby could mean ... a gigantic box of doughnuts!
What I most want is to go to my favorite Tex Mex restaurant and eat whatever I want. Like I do pretty much every Sunday and will do again tomorrow.
And I have stopped taking the pill as of today. And I will stop buying it. And I am writing this blog post about stuff people don't talk about. And I have already gotten rid of various supplies. (Sometimes decluttering is so easy and fun!) These are pretty good rituals.
How it happened for me
Last year my doctor said she could make me bleed monthly forever if I wanted her to but instead recommended that I switch from regular birth control pills to the progesterone-only type (aka the mini pill). I did so.
I immediately stopped bleeding. Boom!
Then you know that feeling you get when you realize you've made a horrible mistake and now you have to give people the bad news, or maybe you have to give a speech? I noticed a few times that I was getting that feeling when nothing was going wrong with my life before I finally realized--duh, these must be hot flashes.
Then at this year's annual physical, my doctor tested my FSH and the levels showed that I'm done now.
How to commemorate it
Shouldn't there be some sort of celebration? Community ritual? (I'm kind of afraid to read about rituals from other cultures. And my own culture is all about complaining about the millions of things that could suddenly get worse in your life, at least for a little while, but maybe forever, but how there's still hope and you could still have a fulfilling life and so you shouldn't kill yourself. Thanks, my own culture!)
At one point in my life, I enjoyed celebrating each new month where I wasn't making a baby with a doughnut. So going the rest of my life never making a baby could mean ... a gigantic box of doughnuts!
What I most want is to go to my favorite Tex Mex restaurant and eat whatever I want. Like I do pretty much every Sunday and will do again tomorrow.
And I have stopped taking the pill as of today. And I will stop buying it. And I am writing this blog post about stuff people don't talk about. And I have already gotten rid of various supplies. (Sometimes decluttering is so easy and fun!) These are pretty good rituals.