Marie Claire | “Regardless of age, menopause is going to be part of our lives”

PERI … what? An analysis, its result and a scare. If I had to summarize what my life is today and the project we are promoting, those would be the words that would start the story.
But I know that everything needs context.

I am Miriam, 49, a journalist, married, a daughter of 8. I am a common woman. Nothing in my life is neither glamorous nor tragic. But, last year, that calm began to feel some changes.

Without prior notice my menstrual period went from being a clock to becoming a badly educated guest: one month appeared, three disappeared, reappeared.

The fact caught my attention, but I attributed it to stress. I work with communication consulting and I have a fairly intense routine. Stress seemed like a possible excuse.

I told my gynecologist who didn't give it much importance. Several months passed and the annual check arrived. We talked about the topic of the period and she decides to ask me for a hormonal analysis.

I went to look for the results and anxious, I opened the envelope with the results in the taxi. I almost had a heart attack. I remember reading aloud. Peri … what? and that the taxi driver looked at me in horror.
The result said PERIMENOPAUSIA. I, stunned.

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How? Menopause? Yes, I'm young. I feel young. I am active I don't look like a menopause. And with that statement still bouncing in my head I begin to question: what does a menopause look like? What do I think menopause is?

I confess that despite being at 50 I had never spent a minute thinking about this stage.

I, in the worst way, realized that for me a menopausal did not represent a type of person but a sensation. Of finitude, lack of energy, absence of dreams. Nothing that looked like me and yet the analysis told me that I was almost a menopausal.

And I began to think: where are the others? I didn't remember someone talking about it. I must also confess that, in case you have spoken, I should not have given you much attention.

And I was adding information and feelings. Here I drew one of my first conclusions: the stage I'm going through is still a taboo. I begin to investigate – Dr. Google of course – and I find two opposite poles that talked about menopause: medical sites that addressed the issue with a very technical or distant language.

On the other extreme, sites that had experiences from a very personal point of view or where the influence of those who were paying for the content was directly noticed.

Nothing against the sponsors – in fact, I'm looking for mine – as long as the content remains unbiased. And to my surprise I didn't find it. Or at least nothing that identified me as an active woman, close to 50, full of projects and without much idea of ​​what awaits me at this stage.

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But, what really started to worry me was that most of the doctors and health professionals didn't know how to guide me either. I was surprised that a stage that covers about 1/3 of the life of a modern woman (according to the current life expectancy of Argentine women) it still remains invisible. It worried me and it scared me.

FROM SHOCK TO COUPLE MEETING

In the middle of all that whirlwind a party appeared. Literally a party. Average age of the guests: 45/50 years. A lot of women. During the party I had a hot flash and I turned red like a tomato. Karina, a friend who lives in Prague, was by my side and I tell her that I am going through perimenopause and she answers: me too.

From that minute the menopausal began to appear from under the stones. Menopause was the "guest of honor." Conclusion: we were many in the same situation. The profiles were the most diverse: with young children, adolescents, without children, lesbians, heterosexuals, sexual bread.

But all with one thing in common: nobody wanted – or thought – to "pause" his life and yes to continue advancing and realizing your projects and dreams.

For these women, menopause was seen as a stage not as an end, but unfortunately all agreed that there was a lack of containment and information.

WE GO TO ACTION: NO PAUSE RISES

I go back to Buenos Aires and start thinking: if most people have this concern, why not do something to solve it? A phone call from a millennial friend was what made all the difference.

Milagros Kirpach, 25, a journalist, had been a student of mine at the UCA and subsequently an assistant in the chair that I had in that institution. Milagros wanted to tell me about his personal search. He planned to travel to Australia to improve his English. Leave your job, rethink where you wanted to go.

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Coffee in between and I only spoke: of my menopause, of the need I saw to make the subject visible, of the absence of a community dedicated to speak seriously – but in an accessible way – about this stage.

After the coffee she proposes: what if we put together something? What I had begun to think with Karina would finally see the light.

And the project was joined by Sofía Varela, 26, publicist, brilliant as few and with a great goal in life: to give visibility to causes that aim to improve people's quality of life. To our luck, she fell in love with the project.

This is how No Pausa was born, a multiplatform communication ecosystem (website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube) dedicated to speak in an attractive, intelligent, empowered and inclusive way about menopause. No taboos Unlimited. Without fears.

Milagros has an analysis that I love and that serves as a compass: in No Pause we are women who love to live life, enjoy things and that will not change.

That is, iDepending on how old we are, menopause will be part of our lives at some point. And we – the millennials included – want to be prepared. Because we don't plan to stop being who we are because we don't know what's going on with our bodies.

We want to understand, talk, learn about experiences and therapies to go through this stage in the best possible way and accompanied by all the tools that information can provide. To be able to decide on the hand of quality information.

THE COMMUNITY DOES NOT PAUSE

When I put it into words it seems easier than it really was. All this genesis occurs in October 2018 and only in May 2019 No Pause sees the light. In those six months many things happened: I met beautiful people who copied with the project.

There were also those who laughed at him and the most surprising thing: women who had already passed through that stage or were passing through that when I asked for their opinion they talked about the subject as if they were talking about the existence of water on Mars. There are many bizarre anecdotes. And also very nice memories.

Today we are a beautiful community of women – and some men – that interacts. To talk and share. They teach us every day, they suggest what to investigate and they thank us for providing information.

In No Pause we always say that if we thought little we would not have been born. Now we are taking the first steps to No Pause Civil Association. We want to bring talks about menopause to women in vulnerable situations.

We live closely how the arrival of menopause and its combo “low libido + vaginal dryness + misinformation”For example, it ended in an act of domestic violence. Today, thanks to the cell phone, bringing good information to all these women is possible.

And, we hope, that's just the beginning.
Let's talk, let's make visible.