Starting Menopause Nearly Broke Me, And Nobody's Talking About It

"With the loss of our estrogen, we lose something even more valuable: our place in this world as we have known it."

When I came down with COVID last year, during the second week of confinement, seriously ill and unable to breathe, my period appeared unexpectedly. I was so sick I had to will myself out of bed to make sure I didn’t ruin the sheets.  That was the last time I ever got my period.  I have spent the better part of adulthood lamenting my menstrual cycle. It is every woman’s right, I believe, to complain about our inability to button our favorite pair of jeans during that time of the month or use it as an excuse to sit and cry in our cars in the school pickup line.