• This orca menopause research is getting very specific: New research out of the University of Exeter found that adult orcas who were accompanied by post-menopause mothers fought less with other males. The protection did not extend to their daughters, probably because they aren’t getting into physical fights but I’m just guessing: I’m not a whale or a whale researcher. Score one more for the Grandmother Hypothesis. We are good for all sorts of things after the periods and babies, amIright? Current Biology
• Great roundup of research: Menopause and the microbiome News Medical Life Sciences
• New research says it doesn’t matter if you exercise all the days or some of the days: "The take-home [message] is that efforts to optimize activity, even if concentrated within just a day or two each week, should be expected to result in improved cardiovascular risk profiles," lead author Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology Medscape
A pep talk to end all pep talks
I spotted a Reel by Rachel Haack this morning and dayammmmm am I glad I clicked on it. A marriage and family therapist in Reno, Nevada, she was just dancing around, acting happy because she’d booked a session with a 50+ woman.
But the caption! Oh what a caption:
“A woman walking through her second half of life is one of the MOST interesting humans on earth, for so many reasons:
Life’s complexity increases with age; her second half of life is multidimensional and layered
She hasn’t lived just one story, but many
She’s navigated numerous relationships with various roles, lengths and depths
She knows what it means to carry hurt & loss
She inhabits multiple titles & identities
Her life and family systems feel like they are often expanding and contracting at the same time
She has shifted, changed and learned over the course of time
She is fresh, new to this phase of life and growing into herself
She ain’t about the bullshit
See anyone you recognize? There is so much more good stuff in that caption. I FEEL SEEN. Please read it yourself and follow her for more.
Hotflash inc podcast
This week is part 2 of my first ever two-part podcast. Arizona ob-gyn Dr Burt Webb talks about all the things we can do to help aging vaginas, from HRT to some of the tech he uses.
Guys, join the Wise AF movement (now with hoodies) that I started with the brilliant Alisa Kennedy Jones of The Empress Age (check out the viral-making piece Tue Night did on her). Alisa is a true renaissance woman, seriously. I’m in awe. Wait ‘til she finds out I have a first draft of a screenplay I need a doctor for.
Click, read, watch, listen + follow
• Check out Andrea Donsky, my friend (and not just virtual now! We met last week and it was awesome!), partner in the The Menopause Shift Summit and co-founder of menopause supplement company We Are Morphus dives into the benefits of black seed oil during peri/menopause. Menopause Reimagined
• Tooth sensitivity, mouth ulcers, cavities, receding gums, oral thrush, loose teeth and difficulty swallowing: these are the symptoms dentists notice in women going through menopause. (I had gum problems earlier this year and oil pulling with coconut oil fixed it right up. Don’t love it though) Yahoo
• Is Racial Weathering Causing Early Menopause in Black Women? The Seattle Medium
• How to improve bone health during the menopause 220triathlon
• It’s a really nice thing: 'Menopause made me feel like I was dying of a heart attack - but one simple thing saved me' Manchester Evening News
• The current conversation about menopause kind of makes it all seem like we are dying tomorrow of a disease we are going to get this afternoon, but it’s important to remember that there is a very long, now-inclusive, fascinating study out of Harvard going on that says it’s simply taking care of your health and building loving relationships are the major factor in determining our longevity. Let’s Keep it Simple Silly, k? Apropos of nothing, the bond I have with a 7-year-old black former street cat named Ninja Jr one of my strongest: Lessons From the Longest Study on Happiness Medscape
• I’m currently seeking Series A funding to send me on this retreat: Canyon Ranch, Stacy London and State of Menopause to Host Retreat WWD
Editor’s note
Someone new I follow on Instagram posted about his mom, who started taking college courses at 42, started her PhD when she was 49, finished it and started teaching at 57. She’s in her 70s, still teaching.
The best article I read this week was in the Wall Street Journal: Are you a late bloomer in work or love? Maybe you are right on time.
I literally can’t imagine a better time in history to be this age, can you?
Written wearing jean shorts and a tank top, drinking out of my favorite mug, right after I spent a few seconds hanging from the branch of a tree in the backyard of the house I grew up in, the one that is just about the same age as me.
I love this Astrid! You are going to be a very strong 50-year-old - in more ways than one. And I would love to have one of these women on the podcast... I've just started following some on Instagram too.
I witnessed women in the 60-69 year old and the 70+ year old division at a powerlifting event this weekend do incredible things. One 70 year old women deadlifted 100kgs (beautifully, might I add, as in her form was on point). It made me think (again as it often plays in my mind) this narrative that plays of “it’s all downhill from 40” maybe, if you do nothing to look after yourself, if you do nothing to invest in your mental and physical health, then I get it. I just wanted to share this as it was spectacular to see and I thought of all the work you do Ann and the message of “we must take radical responsibility” to aid in the transition. Even in weight rooms you’re in my mind and I loved speaking to those women, I think you’d have such good conversations with them ☺️❤️