Here Today, Here Tomorrow ... and for the Rest of Your Life

Here today, gone tomorrow. It’s an expression that applies to many things.

Fashion trends are definitely here today and gone tomorrow. So are fads, like big hair, piercing, and favorite songs. Even figures of speech come and go. When was the last time you heard someone say, “Groovy!” What about, “Well, I never!” (I always picture an older, refined woman saying that one.)

I’m known to say that “menopause is puberty in reverse.” I’ve compared menopause to puberty because menopause really is puberty in reverse. Puberty is when you start your reproductive life, and menopause is when you end your reproductive life.

Menopause and puberty are similar in many ways. Both involve all sorts of physical changes, emotional issues, and social conflicts. Both are difficult for family members.

But the big difference between puberty and menopause (other than the fact that everyone talks about puberty but not menopause) is that puberty is temporary. It’s a “here today, gone tomorrow” phenomenon.

But menopause isn’t. No, with menopause, it’s here today, here tomorrow. It’s here to stay ... for the rest of your life.

When I tell women that they are menopausal for the rest of their lives, they’re always surprised. They’ve never thought of it that way. They’ve always thought it was just a passing thing; that when their hot flashes ceased, they’d be done.

But, think about it.  You can’t go backward.

Sure, the transition into menopause is gradual, just like puberty. With puberty, you transition from childhood to adolescence, and then on to adulthood.

But at about the age of 50, you transition into peri-menopause and then to post-menopause. Once you’re post-menopausal, what’s next? Nothing! It’s the last phase of your life. And you’re there for the rest of your life.

You’re a post-menopausal woman until the day you die.

Like I said, you can’t go backward.

That means menopause is here today, here tomorrow ... and for the rest of your life!

The big mistake in viewing your menopause as anything other than permanent is that you’ll fail to pay attention to all the things that really matter, like preventing a heart attack, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s Disease.

If you assume that menopause is here today, gone tomorrow, you’ll focus only on the short-term symptoms of the transition and not on all the long-term things that lie beyond it. Sadly, the vast majority of women are in the mindset of here today, gone tomorrow when it comes to menopause.

Unfortunately, if you apply the here today, gone tomorrow approach to your menopause management, you’ll be here today, gone tomorrow.

If you want to be here today, here tomorrow, you’ll have to rearrange your handling of your menopause. You’ll have to manage it for the long term, and make sure you do everything you can to stay here.