It’s Menopause Awareness Month. It’s nothing to dread, it’s a time to celebrate!
Menopause is an amazing transition that every person with a vagina and ovaries, graced with age, will face regardless of their attitude towards it. This glorious right of passage signals the end of a season of fertility and the beginning of the season of sagery.
Menopause is declared after a vagina-owner has not bled for 12 consecutive months. After this time a woman becomes post-menopausal.
Perimenopause typically begins in the 40’s and can last up to 12 years. This is a glorious time when the ovaries stop producing the same levels of hormones, leading to an exciting ride. While hormone shifts can cause mood swings, vaginal dryness,and dry skin, it can also be responsible for an increase in confidence, new and varied sexual desires,and a lack of tolerance for bullshit.
Menopause has a bad reputation in our youth-obsessed western culture---menopause has been viewed as a curse, something to avoid, silence, and “cure”. It is often held with the reverence of a cockroach, mainly due to the symptoms associated with this change of life. Many of these symptoms are caused by a decrease in hormone production, but could also be attributed to societal attitudes surrounding this remarkable right of passage. For instance, the anxiety and depression felt by many menopausal women oftentimes is in relation to their feelings surrounding aging in general; feelings of inadequacy, unattractiveness and being at the end of their fertile functionality.
Due to the lack of reverence and joy surrounding menopause, this sacred transition is often experienced silently. Women have not been encouraged to celebrate and indulge in all of the nuances that this new phase brings but instead have been made to be the “invisible woman” and pushed to the side.
What if we changed the narrative surrounding menopause to shine light on this remarkable new phase of a woman’s life. Menopause marks the end of fertility, but the beginning of a new creative power. This shift often attributes to a notable rise in self-assuredness, personal agency, wisdom and no more “fucks given”.
The physical symptoms of menopause can be uncomfortable; the hot flashes, mood swings, weight gain. Most of these symptoms can become more tolerable with a routine of self-care. Regular exercise, a healthy and diverse diet, plenty of rest, time spent with good friends, medicinal teas, and, of course high-quality personal lubricants can do an amazing job at helping one to maintain or improve their quality of life. The symptoms of menopause could be looked at as the body's way of ensuring that you slow down to take care of you, after years of being the life giver and caretaker of little ones or loved ones.
Vagina-owners in their menopausal years continue to be sexual beings. Many womxn report having the best sex of their lives post-menopause. One hypothesis for this is the level of confidence that womxn develop through their years and their willingness to be direct with their partners about what they’re looking for in the sack. Personal lubricants are a game changer in the post-menopausal bedroom. Menopause often causes the natural secretions of the vagina to discontinue and lube becomes necessary to prevent tearing or perforation. We recommend Love Organic Personal Lubricant. It’s ultra sensitive, super slippery and formulated to keep tissue supple long after use.
Vaginal dryness is not isolated to menopause. Experiencing varying degrees of moisture throughout one’s lifetime is entirely normal. Dryness can be caused from medications, hormone shifts, alcohol consumption, and genetics. Using a daily vaginal moisturizer can relieve discomfort due to dryness and help the vagina owner maintain and enjoy their sex life. Try Revival Daily Elixir, it’s packed with hydrating botanicals to restore, rejuvenate and hydrate vaginal tissue.
We are all evolving. We are learning to embrace self-care, to love our bodies and one another’s as they are, we are learning to communicate our needs and normalize our desires. Embracing sexual self-care pre-menopause can have incredible results on vaginall well being throughout our lifetimes. Lark Love creates botanically infused personal lubricants and moisturizers that hydrate and rejuvenate vaginal tissue. Using a high quality, nourishing personal lubricant before menopausal hormone shifts can give tissue a necessary boost in moisture and integrity before the sahara sets in, giving you a higher likelihood of maintaining comfort through the entirety of your glorious sexual life. .
We like to think that using a quality lube is akin to using sunscreen. You will only regret not using it when there is no turning back.
