Does culture affect how you menopause?

I read an interesting article some years ago about Japanese women and how different their experience of menopause was from ours in the Western world, and it made a real impression on me.

I was at the time finding my own midlife challenging and reading this article got me really intrigued. How did being Japanese make their experience of this time of life so much better than ours?

Could I learn something from them that would help me to do things better?

Well it seemed that I could. 

You obviously can't change the culture you live in, but you can learn from other cultures and become aware of things in your environment or your mindset that might make things easier or more challenging.

Our Western world tends to revere youth and beauty, and this is illustrated by the huge anti-ageing industry which often promises to ‘turn back the clock’

There is no doubt that many women in the West do suffer from quite debilitating symptoms around this time, and there is obviously more than just our attitude involved.

I read that Japanese women tended to see the menopause as a natural event and in fact historically did not have a word to describe this time. More recently they have begun to use the term ‘konenki’  which means renewal and energy, which sounded like a lovely way to describe this time of hormonal change.

A positive attitude is definitely one difference between our world and their world. We may well scoff at this idea but there is some evidence that a positive attitude can reduce menopausal symptoms by 30%. Seemed like an easy win to me! 

Could I decide just to embrace the changes and work with them, and would this help me to feel better?

Another factor in these differences may be that Japanese women are metabolically healthier and have a much more active lifestyle and healthier diet than ours, and in particular they consume a lot more soya in the form of tofu, tempeh, miso, and natto. Soya contains isoflavones which are phytoestrogens similar in structure to human oestrogen although very much less potent. 

There is some evidence that the intake of these plant phytoestrogens can have a beneficial stabilising influence on hormones. These also can be found in chickpeas, lentils, and beans.

Another interesting difference may be that as a culture the Japanese have great respect for their elders and see them as wise and sage. Many work part time well into their 70s and are seen and feel like useful members of society.

So all these factors may be making the difference between our own experiences of midlife changes and theirs. 

I also looked at other cultures and found there was quite a big variation in how people saw this time of life.

In China this time is known as a 'second spring’ and parts of Africa and Asia also see this as time in a more positive light and as a liberation from the cyclical nature of monthly hormonal changes and fertility, and this is often welcomed. 

I realised I really did have a choice, and embracing ageing definitely had advantages. I continue to do this and have never looked back, and so am so grateful to the author of that article I read all those years ago.

I began to look at changing my lifestyle in other ways at this time and to realise that the way we respond to our environments can really make the difference between just allowing things to happen to us and taking some control over our lives. 

I began to walk to work, started playing tennis, and looked for ways of improving my work/life balance and prioritising my sleep. 

The results were spectacular and in many ways this personal transformation of my health and life led me to becoming a health coach to try and help others using the things that had helped me. 

It all started with that one article, and I hope reading this may help you to realise that your health is in many ways in your hands. Of course, we all have different risks and susceptibilities and may develop different challenges, but living well with a positive mindset will still be very useful whichever way you look at it!