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I’m Three Months Into Perimenopause and I Want A Refund
Is anyone ever ready?
“Sex started to hurt,” my friend confesses in an anguished voice. “I worried that was it for us. I’m only 63. Would ever have sex again? Had my body just given up down there?”
We’re in the kitchen, talking in that conspiratorial way women do when they don’t want men or kids to overhear. I lean against the counter with a half-empty wine glass in hand. My job is clear: listen and validate. I know from personal experience how often women aren’t believed by the medical establishment when it comes to their bodies.
“Of course, sex shouldn’t hurt! What did the doctor say?” I emote buckets of compassion and understanding, bracing for the worst.
“It’s common,” she exclaims with obvious relief. Thankfully, her GP is wonderful. The doctor listens, then offers a simple solution.
My friend looks equally embarrassed and delighted to tell me just like that, Sex is good again.
“I wanted you to know this could happen, and that it’s not the end. In case it happens to you,” she emphasizes, mixing up the potato salad.
I know why she’s relieved her problem was solved so easily: she’s been suffering through epic hot flashes and night sweats for over a decade with next-to-no relief…
