July 16, 2024
The early, the better! A profound statement that slips the tongue quite often. Why to delay? The bird on the clock chimes early to get the nagging beast off the sleep; the early rising seems a nuisance but finally the prodigal devil gives in to the squeak. We have seen people walking in ‘early’ before time for a meeting or the chutzpah of ‘early bird’ may make the celebration outré.
‘Early morning walks’ are a sure-shot energy booster. If one rises early, one has less to fraught over the earlier desultory. The ‘early’ megafest is a gnomic interlude to an abstract living; always welcomed to hap on the virtue of discipline. However, sometimes ‘early’ can be a revelatory rug pile of imperceptible anomalies that run a crusade without warning.
‘Early Menopause’ is a gargoyle that leaves you gelid on the face; it comes as an obtrusion; the body now in an inchoate distress forever in ostinato, ‘what is happening to me’, and slowly the decrepit looms, ‘if it’s happening to me, the fault lies in my stars’. Seriously, it’s not like the early ripening of fruits that still gives a palatable taste. After all, its menopause and its ‘early’! If we possibly look at ’50 years’ as the menopause impasse, ‘early menopause’ would be around 40. Premenopause is the time before menopause and can last around 5-8 years with hormones depleting gradually before it takes guard. However, ‘early menopause’ may come without a warning or symptoms may kick in too early.
40—you are still the ‘queen’, lissome and lambent, preying to the pianissimo of the dark thick hair and embracing a sexuality that is no canard, and hardly a galumph treacherously falls off the feet. There is still hope to bring a ‘life’ into fruition. The hormones pirouette proudly and there is nothing to worry about till…
‘The early, the better has an undoing’—‘the early, the messier’
‘It’s happening surresptiously, and many women can’t make the head or tail of it’
Now if it’s really cutting the corner, do we grieve, clasp down on our knees and beg for forgiveness or fortify around a lily-livered self. Is it your fault? Are you being punished for a sin that the body gives no reason to innocuously devour the hormones before time? A definitive ‘NO’! Stop finding a lair to hide the lour or flag ‘early menopause’ as an iniquity.
The Real Talk:
Menopause is a grim reality; it shakes the core for many. If it’s early, between 40 and 45 years, one may find the body in unfriendly tit-bits and equally threatening. But, the cause is simple; the hormones are tired and need to retire early. The reasons could be many but it is no slugfest or a bludgeon insinuated in your reproductive tract to make you dance in discordance. ‘Estrogen’ and ‘progesterone’ are hormones that not only regulate a woman’s reproductive cycle but breathe in genetic consanguinity and the forbidding virtues. They also harrumph to impressionistic lifestyle and often give up their savoir faire to our impropriety. Smoking is known to have adverse effects on Estrogen. Many women don’t realize that crash diets and fasting for prolonged periods reduces effective metabolism which is impolitic for hormones to work efficiently. Extremely thin women have lower estrogen stores leading to ‘early menopause’. Other causes could be autoimmune diseases, epilepsy or patients on chemotherapy. Lack of exercise is another spoke in the wheel.
Stress, anxiety and depression too play their role in the early onset of menopause. Chronic stress has become an aneurysm to our otherwise ‘fish & tarter life’. It can lead to suppressed periods as the body is constantly in a state of fear and a feeling of abandonment. The reproductive system reaches a cul de sac. High levels of stress produce cortisol which is known to lower estrogen levels, thus causing hormonal imbalance.
So, can we try to make these hormones a bit dogged rather than diddle us mid-way? Why to take their discourteousness for granted; one can avoid the dilettante to understand the nuances of ‘early menopause’?
Let’s sleep 7-8 hours every day and savor foods rich in Vitamin D and Calcium. We can be more protein friendly; proteins rich in foods like fish, eggs, nuts and legumes help to build amino acids that produce hormones like estrogen and insulin. And the big question? Are you doing your exercises regularly? If not, start now. You don’t need to run a marathon; low or moderate intensity exercises give the required fuel to the body.
Nobody talks about ‘heart’ during the menopausal years. We relate the heart paroxysm of ‘heart attack’ and ‘arrhythmia’ to the menfolk, and let women group in the dark. Estrogen is a protective carapsse of the heart and a decline in it and that too suddenly increase the risk of Coronary Heart Diseases in women. The pulsating heart in allegretto is not just anxiety but your hormones being restless. It’s time to talk to them!
Early or on time, the journey is full of hag-ridden impulses, ricocheting a gallimaufry of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, and there is an intrinsic repulsion of ‘acceptance’ and to live with self-inflicting denial. Nobody wants to talk about in fear of declining ‘sexuality’ or the corrugated skin folds that hide feverishly beneath the hoyden intransigence. It’s not the ‘fault in the stars’ or the ‘body has left you in flagrante delicto’; a normal and natural functioning of the mind and body has just happened early!