Menopause is not a disease and does not need to be ‘diagnosed.’ It is a natural phase and transition in the life of a woman.

As I reached my late 40s I became very unsettled. Maybe it was a mid-life crisis. Maybe it was a growing intolerance for not living according to my purpose and ethics. Regardless, I knew I had to make a big change.

I started my yoga teacher training about the time I was going through menopause. My periods were infrequent. I was having minor hot flashes, trouble sleeping and I felt very stressed all the time. (Though to be fair, I had a very stressful job at the time with which I was very unhappy.)

Although my mom didn’t suffer a lot of signs of menopause, the main one she did suffer from was a big one – disrupted sleep. My sisters and I call it ‘mom’s disease’ – the inability to get a good night’s sleep. Not surprisingly, my sisters got it when they entered menopause and so did I!

When I was in graduate school and learning the physiology of our life cycles, I was horrified when I learned about menopause. As you will see in this article, the list of things we may expect to happen is long and unpleasant. On top of that I was given a long list of chronic diseases for which I would be at increased risk.

I don’t remember all the signs I had leading up to my menopause, known as the perimenopause phase. But I remember how I felt. I felt like things were ending.