Why the Menopause can provoke Feelings of Grief By Maria Bailey
Founder of griefspecialists.org
You might be wondering what grief has to do with menopause, especially when grief tends to be associated with bereavement. However, feelings of grief can be linked to any kind of change or loss in our lives.
W
hile menopause is a natural transition in our life, the symptoms can be severe and have a big impact, not only on our everyday life but also on the lives of those closest to us. Menopause brings with it a number of losses, including health, fertility – especially if you’ve not been able to have children, youth, control over your body, what has been normal for you, and feeling a loss of attractiveness. It can also happen around the time when you become an ‘empty nester.’ You can experience a possible change in your relationship with your partner, bringing another layer of loss. Same-sex relationships where one or both of you are both going through menopause at the same time, perhaps with different symptoms, can be hard, too. Non-binary people or transgender males might feel an additional sense of loss or conflicting feelings around their identity during menopause. Menopause can be a very isolating time, where you feel you’re going through it alone, with nobody who understands. Feelings of grief can easily be misdiagnosed as feelings of depression. It’s easy to see how when you look at the shared symptoms:
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MENOPAUSE LIFE SUMMER 2022
• Feeling down • Tiredness • Loss of concentration • Anger, irritability, or frustration • No interest in activities you once enjoyed • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much • Feeling isolated and removing yourself from social activities
• Undereating, overeating or craving unhealthy foods
• Drinking too much • Anxiety, excessive worry, or guilt • Missing days or underperforming at work or school
• Suicidal thoughts • Headache, tummy ache or muscle pain • Loss of self-confidence/worth • Brain fog • Loss of control over your body that used to behave in a fairly predictable way
• Significant emotional loss of feeling
alone even with a loving family around you
• Loss of ‘drive’ and enthusiasm for life.
