The Window of Opportunity

Do you remember back when you were in high school and your parents told you that the choices you made then would affect you forever? You might have seen no reason to make good grades or just say “No” to drugs, or observe the speed limit.

You were a teen. You couldn’t imagine that there were consequences to your behavior. You never imagined that what you did then could determine the course of your life.

But your parents were right. Your high school years were a “window of opportunity.” They were a time when you made choices that would affect you forever.

If you failed, you wouldn’t be eligible for a good college. If you got pregnant, you would curtail your freedom and your childhood. If you smoked cigarettes, you’d become addicted and have a hard time quitting. If you got that ugly tattoo, you’d hate it later, and be stuck with it forever.

How could it be that four short years could have such a profound effect on the rest of your life?

Windows of opportunity aren’t confined to high school. They arise over and over again throughout our lives. The circumstances and consequences change. But the concept of a specific period of time dictating the rest of your life is something they all have in common.

Menopause involves a window of opportunity. And it’s called “the estrogen window.”

The estrogen window is the first five to ten years of your post-menopause. And it’s the most critical time of your entire menopausal life. And that’s because it dictates the rest of your life

Until you reach post-menopause, your ovaries produce estrogen. And estrogen bathes every cell of your body. Every function from your brain to your heart to your bones depends on estrogen. It’s your fountain of youth. It’s your sense of self. It’s your pot of gold.

Whoever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend was wrong. It’s estrogen!

Problem is that, when you reach post-menopause, your estrogen disappears. Poof! It’s gone.

It’s as if a door slams shut.

But you’ve heard that when one door closes, another one opens, right?

Well, in the case of menopause, it’s a window that opens: the estrogen window. It’s your window of opportunity.

But it only remains open for five to ten years.

Here’s how it works. All those years that your body basked in the glory of estrogen and benefitted from all its gifts are gone. And, because your estrogen is gone, your body starts to suffer the consequences of having to function without the support of estrogen.

Your heart arteries start to harden, putting you at risk for a heart attack.

Your bones start to dissolve, putting you at risk for osteoporosis.

Your brain starts to shrink, putting you at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.

All these things begin to deteriorate as soon as your estrogen disappears. And they continue to decline over time.

Eventually, your heart, bones, and brain incur so much damage from the aging process that they just can’t recover. Estrogen is what prevented all this aging before it disappeared. And, without it, your body can’t function properly or age well.

But if you take estrogen in the first five to ten years of your post-menopause, you can rescue your body from the doom of this aging process. You can prevent a heart attack. You can halt osteoporosis. You can block Alzheimer’s.

But only in the first five to ten years of post-menopause. It’s your window of opportunity. Once it closes, it’s too late. You can’t go back. You’ve sealed your fate.

Back when you were a teenager, your parents warned you. But you probably didn’t listen to them. You probably look at that tattoo now and wonder, “What was I thinking?”

It doesn’t have to be that way with menopause. You can take advantage of your window of opportunity before it closes. And you won’t be recovering from a heart attack in five years, or rehabilitating your broken hip in ten. Heaven forbid should you be afflicted with Alzheimer’s and unable to remember a thing in fifteen!