Why would anyone write about a menopausal woman?

November 16th, 2011 → 10:04 pm @ Robin Donovan

In May of 2009 my business partner approached me with an idea. “Women are always coming to you and asking for help in navigating information about menopause,” she said, “you need to start blogging about menopause because you can make it approachable and even funny.”

I was flattered; doubtful, but flattered, nonetheless. Together we created Menologues.com which started a journey of sharing my most private experiences relating to menopause, and that time of life, with women looking for answers, and hope.

Blogging on menopause forced me to think about it more deeply and more critically than I had before. When VibrantNation.com began to republish Menologues my audience increased substantially – and so did the interaction with menopausal women. Up until that point people would reach out to thank me, but it was mostly me talking about me.

With the increase in interaction, I began to learn, first hand, of the confusion and despair that went unchecked as women stumbled their way through menopause – it wasn’t just me. In one of my first posts I made the following statement:

From the time that we first begin to learn what being a woman is all about we also begin to learn that, whatever else it entails, menopause signals its death.

True or not, that seemed to be the prevailing belief, and that didn’t offer much hope.

As I continued on my own journey through menopause, and met many other exceptional women along the way, I realized that the world was sadly mistaken about us. They needed to be told. But how could I, a menopausal woman, tell them that I – that we – did not fit their stereotype?

I couldn’t just tell them, but maybe there was a way to show them. Maybe there was a way to make them laugh a little and get to know a menopausal woman who does not dress like Grandma Moses, sit in a rocker on her front porch, with her hair in a bun, knitting and crocheting the day away.

Donna Leigh is a menopausal woman, but you don’t have to be menopausal to relate to her and to laugh either at or with her. She could be your mother or your aunt, but she could just as easily be your co-worker and friend. She’s not every menopausal woman, but she is representative of the dynamic and vivacious qualities that exist in the majority of menopausal women today.

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