In my case, when it arrived at 49, perimenopause was terrifying and like nothing I had ever before physically experienced.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I turned 50, I realized I was now going to start counting backwards in terms of the years I had left. Then I turned 60, and I just stopped counting. I don't have a fear of death, but I have an awareness that there's a time limit.
When the brain perceives you are no longer reproductive because your hormones are out of balance, it tries to get rid of you, and it usually activates the cancers in perimenopause.
I don't consider 41 being in prime of life. Even if I conceived a child tomorrow I'd be 52 by the time it was 10. I'm not sure I'd have the energy, and I find that quite scary.
I find dates, in general, horrific. We have to sit there and ask these questions and pretend to eat a meal, and it just feels so stiff.
Forty freaked me out. I didn't see it coming. My life was in a state of chaos - I was moving jobs and moving house - and it just hit me like a ton of bricks.
I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.
Listen, I had two kids - one when I was 40, one when I was 45. I breastfed for one year, which means I was breastfeeding four years ago. I'm going to move from giving birth to menopause without really realising.
I never went through a biological clock experience. I never even heard it ticking.
It was the closest to purgatory that I've ever experienced while I've been living.
I had a bit of a male menopause. It started at the age of 18 and continued until I was 45.