You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
—Indira Gandhi
Going through perimenopause into menopause with the ability to weather symptoms depends on a lot more than just medicine, herbs, and lifestyle issues like diet and exercise. It depends on your attitude.
If you are someone who views health in a holistic way, then you understand that mind and body are linked. But even if you don’t have a holistic perspective, you can still understand the importance of attitude on your hormonal health.
Even in ancient times, there was the belief that we needed three different doctors for healing: the “knife” doctor (for surgery), the “herb” doctor (for medications), and the “word” doctor.
From today’s scientific standpoint, the “word” doctors are not just psychiatrists and psychologists, but neuroendocrinologists, who study the interactions between the nervous system and the endocrine system. Neuroendocrinology is the science of mind–body medicine, in a way, and it has grown as scientists have increasingly recognized that the release of hormones is closely controlled by the brain and that emotions and attitudes affect hormones.
Take adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone, for example. Simply thinking about something you’re afraid of or a stressful situation can cause your body to start pumping out adrenaline, which then raises your heart rate and blood pressure. So mind affects body. Similarly, a new mother who even looks at a photo of her baby usually experiences a release of oxytocin, a hormone that causes a feeling of well-being and an increase in milk supply. Again, mind affects body.
In talking with some of the nation’s leading experts on hormones, menopause, and thyroid disease, I discovered some wonderful recommendations for bringing a mind-body component into your overall approach to hormonal imbalances.
Have a Positive Attitude
Around the world, menopause is associated with uncomfortable symptoms. But for many women, menopause is also a positive, life-affirming time.
If you’re just entering perimenopause, it’s hard to look toward menopause with anything but trepidation, and asking you to have a positive attitude may sound a bit nuts. But you may be surprised to learn that a North American Menopause Society survey of women ages fifty to sixty-five found that the majority of women feel that this is the best time of life. It’s a time when women report feeling confident, fulfilled, free to pursue their interests and passions. As many as one in three women will go through menopause without any particularly troublesome symptoms.
Holistic physician Tieraona Low Dog explains:
It’s rare to find women who think they will go through menopause without problems. And yet, in my practice, about 30 percent of women never have a hot flash. But we don’t study the women who go through menopause without symptoms. We don’t study the group of women who transition with very little turmoil.
My own grandmother, who is in her nineties, went through menopause at a time forty years ago when hormones were just coming on the scene, and she didn’t take them. I asked her about her menopause, and honestly, she’s not quite sure what I’m asking her. “I remember when my periods stopped, I did have a few hot flashes,” she said. But she doesn’t view it as a problem, and she didn’t “do” anything for them. “I had to change my shirt,” she says. Or, “In bed, I’d get hot and had to kick off the covers sometimes. Some nights it bothered me a bit, but it didn’t last forever.” She’s very matter of fact about it.
If you watch television or read magazines, you may think that every menopausal woman is walking around having constant hot flashes. The reality, however, is that many women are going through menopause with a fairly matter-of-fact attitude about it all. You’ll probably hear complaints from the women in your life who are having some menopausal difficulties. Yet how many women you know are going through menopause right now, but you don’t even know about it, because they’re taking the symptoms in stride?
It’s helpful to think of how you felt during the other major period of hormonal fluctuation for women: puberty. Most of us didn’t one day just develop breasts and body hair and start menstruating on a perfect twenty-eight-day schedule, with no premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and no cramps. Truthfully, it was probably far more erratic. Some of us watched as one breast grew more quickly than the other. We had hormonal mood swings, and eventually, we started getting a period. But it usually took many months, or even several years, for our period to become regular. Some of us discovered that PMS and cramps were also part of the picture.
We don’t rush in to medicate every symptom of puberty. In turn, some practitioners suggest that we don’t need to view every symptom of menopause as a problem that requires medication.
When women ask me, “What should I do for menopause” I often ask, “What did you do for your puberty? How did you get through it?” Most women are floored by these questions. The good news is, you successfully navigated through puberty. I’m confident you’ll be able to navigate through menopause without much difficulty. Most women reflect upon that…they know it didn’t happen overnight, it was a several-year transition.
Holistic health expert Dr. Annemarie Colbin agrees:
We need to stop thinking about having “hormone problems.” It’s not a problem or a medical condition, and you’re not sick.
Stefanie Rotsaert, a thyroid patient and founder of a successful patient support group in New Jersey, found that a positive attitude was very helpful during menopause. Says Rotsaert:
I always try to believe in the best. I believe if you feel that way, it is. My main symptom was hot flashes, and occasionally I had some night sweats. I didn’t think negatively, I assumed that was what it was and went with it. Many people have a negative attitude…they feel that they are the only person with a medical problem, the only person suffering. But I think with a negative attitude, the problem gets worse. Doctors all notice my positive attitude. I have a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm, and, you know, I think it’s contagious!
Use Affirmations and Self-Hypnosis
One of the most effective ways to communicate mind to body is through positive affirmations, or self-hypnosis. When you think of hypnosis, you may have images of hypnotists on stage, making audience members cluck like chickens. But that’s not what hypnosis is about.
Osteopathic physician Scott Kwiatkowski has an interesting way of explaining the mind–body connection:
There is you, and there is your body. You need to realize that you have a relationship with your body. Think of your body as your best friend, who loves you but doesn’t speak any English. You speak to your body with your thoughts; your body speaks back to you with images, feelings, symptoms, and pain.
Noted guided imagery therapist Belleruth Naparstek explains that the brain doesn’t know the difference between something you actually see and something you imagine. So your body can respond as strongly to an image or a thought as to the real thing. Naparstek has told Prevention magazine that guided imagery helps you “get in under your mind’s radar” so that you can persuade your body to do something.
It may be to increase brain chemicals that make you feel calm and centered, decrease hormones that make you hungry, change the levels of biochemical components in your bloodstream that affect blood sugar, even build more immune system cells to fight everything from cancer to the common cold.
Think of self-hypnosis techniques as a way of taking positive images of your body, and the hormonal changes you are facing, and translating them into a language your body understands.
Steven Gurgevich, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a foremost expert in medical hypnosis and mind–body medicine. He is director of the Mind–Body Clinic at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine, where he teaches mind–body medicine to physicians at Dr. Andrew Weil’s Program in Integrative Medicine. Dr. Gurgevich feels that how we think about menopause, and ourselves during menopause, plays a critical role in how we feel. According to Dr. Gurgevich:
We know that the hormonal changes are happening in the brain—for example, as estrogen drops, the body “thinks” we’re cooling down, so it has to heat us up again with hot flashes. If it’s happening in the brain, why not approach it in the brain?
It’s one thing to tell ourselves we need to be positive, or to have affirmation, but it’s another thing to convince our body that we truly believe them. This is where self-hypnosis comes in. Says Dr. Gurgevich:
In my work with mind–body approaches and hypnosis—whether it’s visualization, guided imagery, or autogenics—when you combine that approach with a hypnotic state, and you have the robustness and power of excluding distractions, the body really gets the message, faster and better. The key is to help the conscious mind—the critical evaluator—to step aside enough to let the mind–body connection really work. It takes some repetition, to replace old ideas with new positive ideas, but it can work if we are willing to stay with it.
According to Dr. Gurgevich, studies have shown that there are a number of benefits of self-hypnosis for women in perimenopause/menopause, including
Dr. Gurgevich has found that the more a woman can have positive thoughts about her body and menopause, the more successful and comfortable her menopause. But Dr. Gurgevich emphasizes that affirmations used in self-hypnosis must emphasize the truth. They must be honest.
To explore self-hypnosis for yourself, you may want to try the following brief session developed by Dr. Gurgevich:
Think of your “thinking mind” (conscious mind) as a magnifying glass that will concentrate the energy and intention of your affirmative statements. If you like, think of your mind as a clear, still pool that is concentrating the sunlight to nourish the plants growing at the bottom of the pool. In other words, be creative and imaginative. The intention and energy of these affirmations are being absorbed by your subconscious mind (that’s the mind of your body), which can perform all of the physical functions automatically or autonomically. You don’t have to repeat them more than once or twice, but it is important to let yourself believe in what you are saying to yourself (either silently within or aloud). You can create images to match the statements and positive outcomes if you like.
My body is performing naturally and in harmony with the time and nature of health.
Each day I experience greater ease and comfort as my body is adjusting to the next healthy phase of my life.
Experiencing menopause is letting me learn better ways to reduce stress and increase my pleasures in life.
My female organs are vitally healthy and making comfortable adjustments for me now.
With each day I am achieving healthy menopause with comfort, peace, poise, and confidence that all is well.
I have a powerful connection between my healthy loving thoughts and my body’s physical responses.
My positive and loving thoughts of self resonate throughout my body, and menopause is now easier and easier to experience as the natural process it is.
When estrogen levels drop, my body is learning that this is normal, and my temperature remains comfortably normal too.
My body sleeps me restfully, comfortably, and gently as it so quietly continues a healthy journey through menopause.
I am now more relaxed and at ease with my body, and I am grateful that my body receives and believes my thoughts of comfort.
Dr. Gurgevich has created a self-hypnosis audio program featuring these and many more affirmations for perimenopause and menopause. Information on that program, as well as his many incredible self-hypnosis resources, is available in the book’s Web site www.menopausethyroid.com.
If you are interested in working with a medical hypnotist personally, Dr. Gurgevich says the general rule is that you don’t want a practitioner to treat something with hypnosis unless he or she is qualified to treat it without hypnosis. So always work with a qualified medical or mental health care professional who is certified by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
Redirect and Rebalance Your Life Energy
One of the ways to have a positive attitude through perimenopause and beyond is to realize that at menopause, your energy can be redirected to other areas. Dr. Tieraona Low Dog calls it “your reproductive/potential-of-life energy,” and whether or not you’ve had children, it’s a time when many women find themselves shifting their creative energy toward new interests and endeavors.
This is why, says Dr. Low Dog, many menopausal women may take up a new hobby, a new career, or do something they’ve put off.
Holistic physician Dr. Molly Roberts has some thoughts:
One of the most important things is to relax around menopause. This is a natural, normal life transition. Even hot flashes are more significant if you tighten up around the symptoms. Physically and emotionally, anything not in balance will start showing up and making itself known. To help stay balanced, you can ask yourself, “What am I here to do on this planet?” Then take a life review of what is and is not working. Step into the joy, the passion, the juiciness of your own life. Then symptoms won’t be as predominant in your life.
Dr. Jan Nicholson, a holistic therapist, has some thoughts on how to focus on the positive, and redirect creative energy:
The important thing is to find what gives us joy and to do more of that, to notice our feelings as important indicators about what we need, and about changes we might want to make in our lives, rather than seeing feelings as things to avoid. As a transition time, it can be a great time to see a psychotherapist or a life coach for support as we go through the changes and to find excitement within to start thinking outside the box about our lives. Whether we see someone for help with this or not, there are great questions we can ask ourselves and then live our way into the answers. For example: How do we want to enter this creative phase of life? What are things we’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet done? If we open to inspiration, what new things might come to us that we have never even considered before? Since it is a transition time, and changes are occurring outside of our control, it is empowering to consider it as a time to make our lives a more true reflection of ourselves.
Biochemistry won’t allow you to be dishonest with yourself. Things out of balance will be in your face. During perimenopause and menopause, you have the potential to look at what is out of balance and create the life that feels most integrated with you as a human being. If you medicate that away, you may not have the chance to find outlets for your nurturing and creativity, you may not find your own power.
Choose Your Health Direction
One helpful mind–body approach toward menopause is to consider it a time to evaluate your health and pay attention to how you feel and what you can and should do to enjoy good health for many years to come. Menopause may also be a good time to finally learn balance in your life and how to set time aside to care for your own health.
Menopause is a good time to take stock of your health habits and decide about how best to eat, exercise, and take care of yourself in order to enjoy good health moving forward.
Ob-gyn and North American Menopause Society spokesperson Dr. Jan Shifren feels that taking care of ourselves is especially important in perimenopause/menopause.
Perimenopause often takes place during a difficult time in a woman’s life—her children are teenagers or young adults, and her parents are aging. It’s physiologically a challenge, like adolescence, but at the same time, women are dealing with other baggage. A woman may be focusing on her husband’s midlife crisis, or daughter’s first baby, or have an elderly mother needing care. Women have to be prepared for the fact that there will be a lot of demands—physically and in terms of daily life—and be prepared to take care of themselves as well during this time. I often hear women say, “I don’t exercise because I’m so busy taking care of…,” and this is the time when women most need to set aside that time to take care of themselves. If you have menopausal symptoms and they’re bothersome, treat them. But your major goal is to view menopause as a time to reassess your health as you’re getting older.
Therapist Dr. Jan Nicholson also feels that part of this health approach is to make time for stress management. According to Nicholson:
The most useful stress management approaches would be those tried-and-true ones that you have used earlier in life. If you haven’t been pursuing stress management before, then consider taking a yoga or tai chi class, going to a meditation center, and making that a regular part of your life. Meditation, tai chi, and yoga are highly beneficial for having greater relaxation overall and enhanced peace of mind; they are also highly effective at reducing anxiety. And anxiety is one of the biggest symptoms I see in women who are perimenopausal/menopausal. Exercise is great for improving mood. Other possibilities would be having a massage, journaling, using relaxation techniques, taking bubble baths if you enjoy them, listening to soothing music, listening to guided imagery CDs, taking time in nature. It is a personal thing, whatever helps you to feel better, more relaxed.
Cultivate Friendships and Wisdom
Every woman practitioner I spoke with in researching this book emphasized the importance of connecting with other women during this important time of our life. Whether we forge new friendships and reconnect with existing ones, connect with more wise women in our lives, or make wisdom a personal goal, the period of perimenopause and menopause is the time when we really need our friends more than ever before.
Holistic physician Molly Roberts says that women may even want to establish rituals:
I have recommended that women get together with others—their peers—to start those rituals, when one friend is going into perimenopause, or when they’re in menopause, to actually celebrate. Get your friends together, talk, kvetch, laugh, and mark the occasion with some sort of ritual or ceremony that commemorates stepping over that threshold. You’ll find that some friends are further along, some are watching from the sidelines, but we can all start being helpful to each other.
Dr. Jan Nicholson feels that, in her experience both as a woman and as a clinician, women do not share about menopause with each other nearly enough.
Most women I know rely on their doctors and not much else to weather menopause. Part of that reluctance might be due to the stigma, for instance, not wanting others to know you have aged to that point, and not wanting to possibly face judgments or fearfulness from others. But it would be great for us to rely on our friends and acquaintances more, to have those open conversations. To check in with each other about symptoms we might be having in common could help relieve that sense that we are not alone in the process. For those who welcome a more formal way of joining together, there are workshops for menopausal women, and in some places, there are support groups.
Dr. Tieraona Low Dog believes that wisdom is an important goal at this time.
Some people refer to the postmenopausal years as the “crone” years. While I know how positively the word crone is intended, the word itself does have baggage for some people. I prefer “wisdom years.”
Dr. Annemarie Colbin suggests that we should be open to the idea of finding other, wise women to help guide us in perimenopause and menopause. Says Colbin:
We need to enjoy our wisdom years. And to help find one to guide you, I suggest that you put it in your mind that you would like to meet a wise older woman, and someone will show up. Wise older women don’t go around saying, “I’m a wise old woman.” They don’t market themselves. But they show up when you need them.
Dr. Colbin is right. It became clear to me, as I encountered (in many cases, purely by chance) so many amazingly wise women, including, I might add, Dr. Colbin herself, who I was lucky enough to be able to call upon for advice and information as I wrote this book.
Recharge with the Heart
Osteopathic physician Scott Kwiatkowski says one of the most important things we can do during perimenopause/menopause is to get out of our heads and recharge—with the heart, not the head. According to Dr. Kwiatkowski, we need to calm the sympathetic nervous system, that part of our autonomic nervous system that is always activated and responds with a fight-or-flight reaction during times of stress.
When the brain is always leading, you can’t stop thinking, and this contributes to feeling stressed and depressed. Drugs and alcohol don’t work. The key is getting “out of the mind.” You can try gentle movement and physical exercise like yoga, tai chi, walking, and swimming. Reconnecting with a spouse or lover is also an important part of recharging. Savor the food you’re eating, the smells around you, the feeling of swimming, the receiving or giving of a massage to someone you love. You want to appreciate the feelings and get out of your head.
One of the basic ways we can do this, according to Dr. Kwiatkowski, is family massage, a suggestion we have instituted in my own family. In our hectic lives, it’s a way that we can take time out to physically connect with each other, adults and children. Several times a week, we try to make time for even a few minutes to massage each other gently. It doesn’t have to be skilled—even gentle rubbing, or rocking, or putting a soft hand on the back.
Says Dr. Kwiatkowski:
And when you’re done, everyone says thank you. It’s a wonderful exchange, and even five minutes is a gift to each other. It’s something to look forward to and count on.
Communicate with Your Partner
Communication applies not only to friends but also to partners and spouses.
Marisol was diagnosed with both perimenopause and thyroid problems at the same time, and they came after a period of upheaval with her partner.
It’s proved to be an emotional roller coaster at home with fluctuating moods and zip sex drive. My partner and I have had many problems and almost broke up several times because no one could explain what was wrong with me, so he interpreted it all as my emotional withdrawal from him because I didn’t care about him anymore. Utter rubbish, is what I told him, and I became determined to get to the bottom of what was wrong with me, so diagnosis worked like marriage therapy in a way, because once he knew it wasn’t really “me,” we began to work together to get to the bottom of this condition.
According to Dr. Jan Nicholson, talking to your partner or spouse is important.
If he’s open to it, it might be good to give him something to read, a book, or provide him with more information online. Many men have heard stories about menopause and seem to worry that it is like PMS on steroids, so information about the reality is reassuring. It’s good for the woman to share what symptoms she is having, and to share how he might be supportive. When I went through menopause, I had anxiety for the only time in my life, and it was associated with driving. I had difficulty being a passenger and needed to be in the driver’s seat. I have heard this one from a number of women. So, using that as an example, we worked it out that I would always be the driver until that symptom diminished. (It took about six months.) There are other issues that come up that can be handled with humor, such as women throwing off all the covers at night, and husbands winding up having piles of sheets, blankets, and comforters on them. Or women suddenly no longer wanting to cuddle during the night because they get too hot from the body heat of their husbands. It is these kinds of everyday issues that are good to talk about, and it can be done in a way that both people can actually enjoy the conversation.
Breathe
It goes by a variety of names. In yoga, it’s pranayama, the art and science of breathing. In marketing language, it’s Breathercise or Oxycise. Some diet centers even incorporate it into their programs. Whatever you call it, a program of deep breathing exercises, designed to take in more oxygen and release more carbon dioxide with each breath, seems to help people in a number of ways.
For example, breathing experts point to numerous health benefits of systematic breathing practice, including increased oxygen delivery to the cells, which helps provide sufficient energy to fuel metabolism, improve digestion, lessen fatigue, improve energy, reduce stress, and relax. There are even studies demonstrating that certain types of breathing can reduce hot flashes. Learning how to breathe doesn’t cost a thing. All you need is some air and a pair of lungs to start.
Acupuncturist Dr. Jocelyne Eberstein feels that breathing exercises are important, because “it’s one way to add energy to the body besides food.”
If you’re interested in trying out better breathing for yourself, you can start by learning deep abdominal breathing. Here’s a simple breathing exercise to try:
Lie on your back, body relaxed. Put your hand on your abdomen. Take a deep, slow breath through your nose, filling your belly, so your hand rises. Then exhale slowly, letting all the air out of your belly. Inhale again, filling the abdomen until your hand rises. Again, exhale. Feel the breath energy rising from the abdomen to the throat and back down again to the abdomen.
You can start practicing this deep, abdominal breathing anywhere: sitting in the car, waiting in line, standing in the shower. It’s a first step toward incorporating deep breathing into your daily life. Several times a day, stop and just focus on your breathing. Take a few deep abdominal breaths. Every time you feel tired, try taking five deep abdominal breaths. See if these ventures in breathing practice help you feel a bit more energetic and alert.
Dr. Scott Kwiatkowski has some thoughts on why breathing is so important for women in perimenopause and menopause:
Proper breathing massages all the organs. And the point where the ribs meet the lower back is an area that particularly affects the ovaries. If you practice full abdominal breathing, this area is freed up, and blood supply to the ovaries is improved.
There are studies that have shown that abdominal breathing can substantially reduce hot flashes and help reduce their severity.
Abdominal breathing can be modified into a relaxation-style breathing exercise that is explained by noted holistic physician Dr. Andrew Weil. Holistic nutritionist Irma Jennings finds that her clients especially like Dr. Weil’s breathing technique. Says Jennings:
During this time of what feels like disharmony, bringing awareness into your life through a meditative practice is most rewarding. It could be as simple as taking five deep cleansing breaths several times a day. My clients particularly benefit from Dr. Andrew Weil’s breathing technique. This technique can be incorporated before your meals or anytime during the day whenever you feel emotionally, physically, or mentally fatigued or stressed.
To do Dr. Weil’s 4–7-8 technique, put the tip of your tongue on the gum tissue right behind your front teeth. Exhale through your mouth with a whoosh, to a count of eight. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose, counting to four. Hold your breath for a count of seven. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whooshing sound to the count of eight. Continue for four cycles, keeping your tongue in the same position.
Irma Jennings suggests practicing this technique every day:
Use it whenever anything upsetting happens…before you react. Use it whenever you are aware of internal tension. Use it to help you fall asleep. This exercise cannot be recommended too highly. Everyone can benefit from it.
Note: Dr. Andrew Weil has a wonderful audio CD, Breathing: The Masterkey to Self Healing/Meditation for Optimum Health, that teaches eight different specialized breathing techniques. It’s an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn effective breathwork techniques.
Make a Spiritual Connection/Meditate
Finally, I think it’s important to discuss the need for a spiritual connection. I’m not saying that you need to be religious, although for some people, religious practice, prayer, and regular attendance at a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque are clearly effective ways to achieve inner peace, a sense of well-being, a healthier feeling of calm, and a connection to God, the universe, or the divine.
But you do not need to be religious in order to be spiritual.
Spirituality can be expressed through a commitment to personal growth and development, through finding and practicing activities that make you feel fulfilled. You can volunteer for charitable groups that focus on helping people in need or making positive changes in the world. Attend spirituality workshops or retreats. Keep a spiritual journal, to note your goals and observations about your spiritual journey.
One of the most effective ways to foster a mind–body–spirit connection is meditation. According to the Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, meditation training can help you cope with stress, have an improved sense of well-being, reduce body tension, and increase clearness of thinking, all effects that benefit the immune system. Meditation can help patients with chronic illnesses—including thyroid problems—to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life. Meditation has also been able to lower blood pressure, help clear up skin problems, and increase melatonin levels. Researchers have established by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that meditation actually activates certain structures in the brain that control the autonomic nervous system.
I have found a variety of meditation approaches incredibly helpful in my own efforts to foster spirituality. In particular, I like the following audio programs:
Meditation for Beginners, by Jack Kornfield
How to Meditate, with Pema Chodron
Meditation in a New York Minute, by Mark Thornton
Another wonderful tool to aid in learning and practicing meditation and relaxation breathing is a fantastic product called Healing Rhythms, from Wild Divine. Healing Rhythms is an inexpensive biofeedback program and system that easily attaches to your home computer or laptop and offers interactive training on how to use your body’s own signals (heart rate and so on) to monitor physical and emotional reactions to stress. Healing Rhythms features three prominent mind–body experts—Deepak Chopra, Dean Ornish, and Andrew Weil—who teach you using more than thirty different breathing and meditation exercises.
You can boost energy, reduce stress, reduce anxiety and depression, and, surprisingly, improve specific symptoms such as interrupted sleep and insomnia, urinary incontinence, headaches, and high blood pressure.
The way it works is that by providing you with physiological information, such as heart rate or body temperature, that you might not normally be aware of, you learn which types of activities—certain breathing, relaxation, and meditation patterns—can bring about specific and measurable changes in your physical response.
More information on Healing Rhythms is featured in Appendix A.
Laugh!
Dee Adams, founder of the terrific Minnie Pauz menopause site, www.MinniePauz.com, believes that humor can also be a wonderful coping strategy during menopause.
Dee says she was always a fan of the cartoon “Cathy,” and she felt a similar approach was needed for women in menopause. Dee had never drawn a cartoon before she picked up her pen, and spent several years learning how to cartoon, just so she could create cartoons about the character she now calls her alter ego, “Minnie Pauz,” the woman going through menopause. Dee is the creator of the wonderful cartoons featured in the beginning of the book.
Says Dee:
I’m very serious about using humor to get through this process. As we all know, it’s not just the menopause symptoms, but some underlying fears of aging that attack our self-worth. Laughter has been proven to physically improve our health. Sometimes it just has to be shoved in our faces before we remember to use it!
Dee’s Minnie Pauz Web site is a popular destination for menopausal women, with a steady stream of Dee’s new cartoons exploring the funny side of menopause, jokes about menopause, and a friendly support forum where women can share information and support. But the underlying theme of everything Dee does is that we are all in this together, and if we can laugh, it makes it that much easier. And I agree.