Getting old, for real now

I've noticed a new topic of discussion among friends lately. It's not something that's ever really crossed my mind before. Well, it probably crossed my mind but it didn't stop for tea and a long ponder until lately. The topic is the dreaded menopause. The Change and all it's little sidekicks like HRT (that's hormone replacement therapy for you young 'uns), body hair, hot flashes and the drying up of mucous membranes. Yea, I didn't say it was a pretty topic but it is becoming more and more topical as time goes on.

I've had a terrible sinus infection for the last two weeks. When I visited the doctor he asked if I'd had them before and when I said that I had started having them recently he nodded in a knowing way. He was writing out a prescription for antibiotics, which is like gold dust at our surgery, so I just let the matter slip rather than interrupt his writing with a question. I might say something wrong, he would reassess the diagnosis and I would end up going home with the recommendation of steaming my sinuses with fresh mint leaves but no real drugs to make me well. It has happened before. I'm American. I believe in heavy drugs so I noticed the nod but didn't query it.

Later I was chatting to a friend, another mum about the same age, and she said that she had started getting sinus infections too. She looked into it and discovered that sinus infections are common in women in the their late 30s and early 40s and can become chronic until the menopause. Fantastic.

I mentioned this to another friend while standing in the school playground waiting for the children to come out. She gave the same knowing nod that I saw at the doctor's surgery and used the cringe-worthy term - 'gummy mucous membranes'. Apparently it's a sign that hormones are changing, the need for nice wet slippery mucous is decreasing so things are getting a bit thicker... in those areas of the body where... well, you know. It's all leading up to the menopause. There's that word again.

Then on Facebook, a girl I went to school with wrote a note about her recent hysterectomy. When I read the words I gasped. Oh my God! She can't have any more children! How awful! What a terrible thing to go through at such a young age! But no. I then started reading comments from other women, all of them in the US, and lots of them had had hysterectomies BY CHOICE. The idea seems to be to just skip all the irregular periods and cut to the chase by whipping it all out. Well, not always all. There were comments about keeping the ovaries and just removing the womb, the benefits of keyhole surgery rather than an incision and whether to have HRT or not. I read these comments with my mouth hanging open. Is it really normal now to just decide to have major surgery to avoid a few months of inconvenience?? That seems so bizarre.

And then yet another friend brought up the subject of The Change over coffee. She's against HRT but is open to more natural remedies like some kind of yam cream you rub on your forearms. Oh great, so not only will I grow a mustache but I'm going to smell of yams. It's amazing how knowledgeable women are on the subject. I feel like I need to start educating myself. I've just been skipping along - tra la la - thinking it will happen 'one day' but not really anytime soon. From the state of my sinuses I wonder if I should be more concerned. And there is the lingering question of whether or not to have that third baby... The clock is ticking.