Stuck in the Middle with Me
On hormones, womanhood and a body in between
“After 30, a body has a mind of its own.” — Bette Midler
A decade ago, when I was 44 years old, I woke up on the floor in the arms of my bewildered mother. Betrayed by my body. If I had been paying attention, I would have seen that the supposed betrayal began years before. And, if I’m being frank, I will admit that the idea of feeling betrayed by my body is a tired cliché and an oversimplification of the truth.
It’s not betrayal, after all — it’s destiny, written in our origin code and mapped in blood and bone. I am woman, destined to ride the waves of gendered storms until I fall back into the earth, just ash and memory.
The truth is that a body evolves in the way it’s meant to, guided by broad, boring things like history, gender, genetics, and lifestyle. The truth is that I had busied my body with a big life and ignored these tiny dawning realities. Until I couldn’t anymore.
Until my body knocked me down in the middle and demanded my fealty.
Our Western understanding of menopause stands on the pedestal of patriarchy. This quintessential feminine experience has always been viewed, medically, through a masculine lens. In “Mad with Menopause,” Jackie Rosenhek…
