Hindsight
Perimenopause and menopause are challenging for most of us, but they are especially challenging for neurodivergent women.
It’s another hindsight experience, similar to those of us with a late ND diagnosis, where we are left untangling shame, ignored intuition, and being dismissed under some “sensitive, too much, not enough” narrative handed to us by a professional.
I went into menopause at 47. So, I was right. All of the years, I was right. I had my last baby at 42, and I was perimenopausal and pregnant.
Testing for it is limited. So why are we not listening to women more?
I hear story after story of similar experiences.
We spend a lot of energy and time wading through questions like:
Will I ever hit my stride?
Why am I so needy?
What is wrong with me?
Is this just it; is this just life?
What if we spent more time practicing how to cultivate our own questions based on our own experiences, intuition, wants, and needs?
What if we practiced engaging in community where we had support to separate out the system’s questions from our lived experiences?
What if we gave just a smidge more energy in the direction of collective and communal care rather than the illusion of hyper-independence?
What if we learned to validate our own experiences and to move from that place instead?