The menopause is a natural part of the female life cycle. But why do women become invisible after the menopause? Dr Jen Gunter answers my question 'Ain't I A Woman?"
Menopause is defined as the end of periods and reproductive ability in women. It is described retrospectively: following one year of no periods. On average womxn enter menopause around 51 years of age. Once in this phase of their lives, women mysteriously disappear. They disappear from our screens, from agendas, and from our discourse.
Menopausal issues such as incontinence, hot flushes, and mood changes, that have a significant impact on quality of life, are not spoken of.
But the menopause is more than menopausal symptoms.
In this piece, we explore femininity, story telling, language, and advocacy around menopause with Dr. Nighat Arif.
To health workers: listen to women when they share their stories. We must take women’s cultural heritage into consideration when providing their care.
A woman is prized in her fertility years because she makes the heir and the spare.
Dr. Nighat Arif, BBC TV Doctor Tweet
Dr Nighat on a menopause myth "… that is something that white women go through”.
Dr. Nighat Arif, BBC TV Doctor Tweet
Menopause can be a fun and liberating time. Your periods are over, there are many other things you can do with your life.
Dr. Nighat Arif, BBC TV Doctor Tweet
Dr. Nighat Arif is a Family General Practitioner doctor, with a specialist interest in Women’s Health & Family Planning. She is a passionate promoter of menopause care, wellness, self-care, and placing the patient at the center of their care plan. She is also a resident TV Doctor on BBC Breakfast, This Morning ITV, & BBC LookEast as well as the host of the Sunday Breakfast show on BBC3 Counties Radio.
Follow Nighat Arif on Twitter @DrNighatArif
In my pieces, I use the terms:
girls, women, womxn, pregnant people and birthing people to refer to some of the reproductive health experiences of individuals assigned female at birth
minoritised in place of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous & people of color), POC (people of color), BAME (Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic) and BME (Black & Minority Ethnic) to recognise that different individuals and communities do not naturally exist as minorities; but instead have been assigned this identity in response to dominant social narratives centred on ‘whiteness’. ‘Minoritised’ highlights contemporary power imbalances rooted in historical events of slavery, colonisation, and other systems of oppression.
Ain’t I a Woman II: in conversation with Dr Jen Gunter, author of the Vagina Bible and Menopause Manifesto
The menopause is a natural part of the female life cycle. But why do women become invisible after the menopause? Dr Jen Gunter answers my question 'Ain't I A Woman?"
The menopause is a natural part of the female life cycle. But why do women become invisible after the menopause? Dr Naghat ARif answers my question " Ain't I A Woman?"
In this game of gonads, who decided that a testicle is worth more than an ovary?
To deputise a complete stranger to interfere with a woman’s health choice is constitutionally, medically, morally and ethically wrong. That's the end of my sentence.
Cervical cancer can be prevented. When detected early it can be treated and cured with surgery. As we mark the one year anniversary of the "Cervical Cancer Elimination Day of Action", I reflect on the role of surgical systems in eliminating cervical cancer.
Adolescents make up 16% of the population and straddle the sometimes uncomfortable gap between childhood and adulthood. Seeking out information on the internet makes sense but at what cost?
Periods don't have to cost us education, equity and the environment
We had no say in the decision of when, how, where and to whom we were born. Yet this was one of the most important decisions in our lives, which continues to impact us today.
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