Basic HTML Version
The Changing
Years
PREPA·
NOW!
by
Ronald D. Kelly
It's time we all understand our natural life cycles.
T
HOSE
of you who are
women face far more
today than was ex–
pected of your mothers and
grandmothers.
Not only must you be an up–
to-date homemaker, wife and
mother, you must also cope with
the mounting pressures of finan–
cia! responsibility and keep up
with knowledge of a rapid ly
changing world.
Yet when you reach those mid–
dle years of life, the same physical,
hormonal, mental and emotional
changes will go on just as women
have experienced for thousands of
years. For many, it's a devastating
combination.
Some bave hoped, even thought,
today's active, fulfilled women aren't
supposed to experience irrational
anxieties.
lt
seems so out of style.
lnstead of looking at this stage of
life as a time of reassessment- a
time to grow and develop some of
those interests put aside in earl ier
years- some look into their mirrors
one day and see a vaguely familiar
face anda figure tbey don't like very
well.
There is a noticeable tint of gray
in the bair. There are wrinkles in the
corners of the eyes. A few pounds of
extra weigbt. A listless feeling, fre–
quent depressions, occasional hot
flashes and night sweats and their
nerves
ar~
frayed.
February 1985 .
It
all adds up to the "change of
life"-menopause as it is more
tecbnically called. There is in the
life of every God-designed woman
that time when the body will no
longer bear children. A physical
and emotional change is under
way.
For too many it
becomes a crisis.
Battling Fluctuating
Ho rmones
Women entering the
middle years, whether
they admit it or not,
have the battle of fluc–
tuating hormones to
figh t. Many find it
hardly a skirmish. But
for some, it's an all-out
war. It's up to you
whether you will enter
the battle prepared and
armed or whether you
will face this challenge
unprepared both physi–
cally and mentally.
r
lt
is an important
1 ime in life. The happi–
ness of the remaining
one third of your life is
at stake. How to pass
through menopau se
and plan for the future is often one
of the most overlooked and least
considered t imes of life.
Everyone has to realize the mid–
dle years are very real. I have a
good fr iend, a male, who unti l
recently believed these sort of
changes were all mental and psy–
chological.
One night he and his wife were
guests in our home for dinner. As
we sat by the fi replace after the
mea!, the subject of menopause
came up. He and my wife engaged
in quite a d iscussion on whether the
change of life was hormonal and
physical or just in one's head.
After some time, my friend's
wife finally presented the best case
7