My Menopause Relapse

My 22-year-old and I devoured an 8-pack of those delicious PB and chocolate “MenoBars” again this week leaving my bride wondering which one of us are bigger idiots – “We’ve discussed this—those are menopause bars–how do you still not know that?” As usual I didn’t read the box nor take note of the name – Meno Well. “Figured they were for dudes,” I said. Apparently, I missed the “Power for the PAUSE” subtext. Bridget said we need to at least try to be lucid.  But a day later the so-called doctor’s pre-visit AI form kept asking me for my last menstrual cycle. I had to approximate the date and then check the box if my menses had been normal, which I’m pretty sure it has not been. I started thinking menses had to be misspelled, like maybe they meant to ask if “men see,” which I do, obviously.  I even asked my wife for her help but she just looked at me and said, “I just can’t.”  The form actually started making some sense when it asked for the frequency of my annual cycles— I said 2, which is about the number of times I ride a bike. I told my wife that maybe I’m just missing something, to which she said, “You’re missing something alright…” The entire situation was candidly pretty frustrating. I guess maybe not as much as women have with menopause – well-meaning doctors acknowledge they are often unable to diagnose and treat menopause quickly and that the field needs a makeover.  More women in their 50s are ditching their PCPs and OBs for someone trained in menopause and nearly 30% in our survey of about 1,900 women—up from 20% a year ago—said they are leaving or thinking of leaving their jobs and “starting fresh” after a difficult 10 years. I’ll concede, us boys ought to be a bit more careful digging into the pantry before stealing what limited joy my wife has living with a couple nincompoops. But those bars are so good. I will admit I’m a bit more cautious now filling out stuff. Like what else has AI wrongly assumed about me? Of course, part of me realizes that our medical record doesn’t really define us, that it’s what we do about what’s in there that matters. Even if it’s saying I’m due for a period.

Note: Berkeley Research Group’s report on the menopausal care market includes some resources and perspectives from women, OBGYNs, and start-ups looking to help. Access that report here.