We’ve done menstruation, let’s talk about the menopause! Because only women however they present can have the menopause although men who have had treatments for prostate cancer can have symptoms mimicking the menopause. There’s nothing scary about

the menopause. It’s a perfectly natural function of the body but it’s tied up with a thousand stereotypes of women, ageism and ‘old women are frightening’. True, old women are often very frightening to young men because look! A woman who doesn’t give a rat’s

arse what you think of her now all her mating hormones have gone and with it your charm as a potential mate. Now you’re just another annoying lad. That’s gotta hurt. Menopause means Wisdom, like it or not and it’s not always nice or cosy. Old women

are encouraged to refer to themselves as ‘young at heart’ and ‘as young as you feel’ and other such crap and told to ‘never give in to age’ which is ludicrous. Cosmetic surgery is now a thing but I can tell you what the surgeons and marketing

men won’t - it does not make you look young. You’re just an old woman who looks like at best, she’s had a great holiday and at worst like she was was trapped in a wind tunnel. Old is good. Old is meritorious. Old is survival. Old means you didn’t die young

Was thinking last night about how what is now called ‘body shaming’ can affect your life not just your opinion of your appearance. As a tall, muscular and big built woman who took after my 6’4” enormous father I have received a lot of criticism about how I

look from my earliest years. I was also born with my legs twisted inwards somewhat and the loose ligaments that now cause so much trouble even though you look cool in yoga 😉. The early abuse from my mother - literally that I was

‘born in the wrong body’ - sound familiar? - was devastating. As a child to be told you’re ‘wrong’ in a way you cannot do anything about except by surgery and constantly dieting - I was starved from age 10 and my brown hair dyed to ‘copper’ - is terrible.

I can say that now. Before I simply accepted I was unattractive and that it was my lot. In the 70s cosmetic surgery was unattainable though my mother offered me a rhinoplasty for my 18th birthday. I refused. I then spent 40 years with a person who found me

as unattractive as my mother had (guess why, duh) and whilst not as blunt as my mother could only manage to say he thought I’d done the best I could with what I’d been given. Now, you may think this all vanity. But the constant erosion