Menopause Quotes

“A woman must wait for her ovaries to die before she can get her rightful personality back. Post-menstrual is the same as pre-menstrual; I am once again what I was before the age of twelve: a female human being who knows that a month has thirty day, not twenty-five, and who can spend every one of them free of the shackles of that defect of body and mind known as femininity.”
― Florence King

“I'm what is known as perimenopausal. "Peri", some of you may know, is a Latin prefix meaning 'SHUT YOUR FLIPPIN' PIE HOLE".”
― Celia Rivenbark, You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool

“[Hot flashes] are the prime cause of sleep disruption in women over age fifty, Suzanne Woodward of Wayne State University School of Medicine reports. Her studies show that hot flashes in sleep occur about once an hour. Most prompt an arousal of three minutes or longer. Independently of their hot flashes, women who have them still awaken briefly every eight minutes on average. The sleep process dramatically blunts memory for awakenings, Woodward said, and in the morning women seldom realize how poorly they slept. Instead, they often focus on the daytime consequences of poor sleep, which include fatigue, lethargy, mood swings, depression, and irritability. Many women and their doctors, Woodward said, dismiss such symptoms as "just menopause." This is a mistake, she suggested, because treatment can reduce or eliminate hot flashes, aid sleep, relieve other symptoms, and improve a woman's quality of life. Treatment also helps keep frequent awakenings from becoming a bad habit that continues after hot flashes subside.”
― Michael Smolensky, The Body Clock Guide to Better Health: How to Use your Body's Natural Clock to Fight Illness and Achieve Maximum Health

“The first indication of menopause is a broken thermostat. It's either that or your weight. In any case, if you don't do something, you could be dead by August.

God, middle age is an unending insult.”
― Dorothea Benton Frank, Sullivan's Island

“The menopause of Sarah became her menostart; this is feminine beauty! The death plot against Mordecai became his life spring; this is masculine beauty! A kind of life lived in God's word is a life of miraculous beauty!”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“On a planet where for thousands of years, even today, a woman's worth has been judged exclusively by the productivity of her womb, what the hell is the point of a barren woman?”
― Elissa Stein and Susan Kim

“I feel as if I have been piling things into my arms for the last twenty years, holding it all,
managing it all, doing it all, being it all and suddenly I am looking at the pile, realizing how much
of it doesn’t belong to me, and hungering to let it drop, to lay it all down, to walk away. I have
learned that when people see you carrying a lot and not dropping anything, that they often
think, “I guess she can hold this for me.” When they see you saying yes, they decide to also ask
you for things. When they see you doing something, they think, “She can do something for me
too.” And, eventually, the load becomes unbearable and you are driven into the ground by a
weight that you have opened your arms to accept.”
― Molly Remer, Walking with Persephone

“I'm an adult and this is my house. I can grow what I like in my garden. Wear what I choose. What difference does it make what you or anyone else thinks of as normal? Why the f should I care if you approve?”
― Kirsten Miller, The Change

“Decide to smile and keep upbeat. A scowling, bad-tempered face is far less attractive than a smiling, accepting one.”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“I drove through red traffic lights once. I thought red meant 'go', which was dreadful because I know red means 'stop'. - Nora, 50”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“Women become a little dangerous during this time [menopause]..we can no longer keep a lid on it.”
― Stephanie Marston, If Not Now when: Reclaiming Ourselves at Midlife

“I went to work wearing a suit and odd shoes. One was blue and one was black. I can't believe I did that. I'm so particular - I would never have done that before. - Les, 48”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“I made a mental note of where I'd parked the car, but when I came out of the precinctI couldn't remember where it was. I pushed a full shopping trolley through acres of busy car park to try to find it, and after 20 minutes I was nearly in tears. Eventually I just stumbled across it, but I don't remember parking there at all. I felt so stupid. What's even worse was that a few weeks later I did exactly the same thing. - Fiona, 56”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“Sometimes I feel as if there's too much information going into too small a brain. - Paula, 56”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“Some people assume that there must be something wrong with a relationship if they discover that partners are sleeping separately. But why? OK, human beings have sex and procreate, but whoever said they had to spend the whole night together in the same bed?”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“When my daughter was 10 she pointed at my face and said accusingly, 'Er - yuk! Witches have those.' I rushed to the mirror. There, sprouting determinedly from a mole on my chin, was a single sprout of hair. I was 45. Caroline, 53”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“Nobody had warned her that this would happen during middle age: these sudden, wildly inappropriate waves of desire for young men, with no biological imperative whatsoever.”
― Liane Moriarty, Nine Perfect Strangers

“We haven't slept in years. This is an advantage of menopause. Some nights, we meet for coffee at 4:00 a.m.”
― Maria Dahvana Headley, The Mere Wife

“Messages we get about menopause more often tell us we must keep ourselves from much of what we want and need in this time. It's easy to get the idea that life in and after menopause is going to be little, dreary rituals of desperate maintenance and exacting control over food, exercise, the shape and size of our bodies, our skin, our intimate relationships, our sexuality, our leisure, our moods, robbing us of what pleasure we might have found in these things before.”
― Heather Corinna, What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You

“Menopause isn't "Cocoon." Sorry.”
― Heather Corinna, What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You

“[As in puberty,] There will be tears. And anger. And tragically unfortunate haircuts.”
― Heather Corinna, What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You

“Have no shame ... as another woman friend of mine counseled with perfect sincerity and cheer: 'Just gain the 25 pounds. I really think I would not have survived menopause--AND the death of my mother--without having gained these 25 pounds.' [quoting Sandra Tsing Loh's 'The Madwoman in the Volvo']”
― Heather Corinna, What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You

“We should practice being so centered in our daily lives that if the world crumbles beneath our feet it doesn’t matter and won’t throw us off.”
― Betty Bethards, Sex and Psychic Energy

“My friend said menopause made all of her friends forgetful and moody!”
― Steven Magee

“Menopause makes them moody!”
― Steven Magee

“I created Accountable Menopause Health Strategies to help myself navigate through menopause, and hopefully help other women in the process.”
― Sarah Lussier

“There's still so much to learn [about menopause] because it turns out that hormones impact everything, so around menopause, everything changes too.”
― Sarah Lussier

“It can feel hard to navigate healthcare resources as a woman, especially in our 40s when our body starts transitioning to menopause.”
― Sarah Lussier

“And if you know your own body listen to it.”
― Crystal Clary, HORMONE CREAM AND THE GALLBLADDER: Girl Power

“Chemical menopause is remarkably like Long COVID.”
― Steven Magee