Hi Shaunta. Great article. When I started menopause at 49 I was very fortunate and the periods just stopped (I thought however that I was pregnant)! My symptoms were on the milder side other than always being hot. I have always been hot since a child bu t this was ridiculous. Fortunately, I played soccer with a group of women that were of a certain age (40–60). We would get together socially for coffee after soccer and that was the main conversation. We mostly laughed about it but encouraged and supported each other as well. We offered up solutions that seemed to work. Not everything will work for everybody. Mostly it was nice to know that we weren’t alone going through this.

As an aside, most of the husbands used our parties to tell outrageous stories of what they endured as well.