What Age for Menopause Symptoms is Common? [Infographic]

How many women reach menopause

Do you know what age for menopause symptoms to appear is most common? One thing that I've gained through my years of learning from The Welcomed Consensus is to be curious about my body. As a sensual researcher I often search out simple ways to answer questions about menopause that I can easily pass on to others. In the beginning stages of my own change, I had no idea who was going through the same thing I was or what age most women reached menopause.

Recently I was wondering - What is the rate of growth for women in menopause in our population? How many women reach menopause in the United States each day? How about in the world? 

Yup, that's my tech-geek side coming out again chewing on numbers for fun. Basically I wanted to know how many of us are there and what are the most common symptoms we have? I ran across this infographic that put a few things in perspective.

Information About Menopause
[Infographic Source]

 

 Age range for natural menopause

The age range women can expect to reach menopause is 40 to 58. The average age is 51. In the U.S. 6,000 women reach menopause daily, totaling 2,000,000 annually. That is a lot of us at the age for menopause symptoms. We are all in this together!

 

Top symptoms of menopause

The most common symptoms of menopause that women have are the following

  • hot flashes
  • mood swings
  • vaginal dryness
  • sleeplessness
  •  loss of sex drive

However for the majority of women, this does not seem to dampen their happiness at that age. 51% of women said they were happiest and most fulfilled between the ages of 50 and 65 compared to their 20's, 30's and 40's. The happy category of women is what I aim to be. 


News Flash for a Happy New Year 2016

At the start of 2016, I have an announcement for all readers of this blog.

On October 30th, 2015 I graduated from the Welcomed Consensus’ Validation Program and became a full instructor. I’m having the time of my life and will continue to blog about my menopause experiences and fun discoveries in my sex life.

I invite you to continue the exploration and celebration of menopause with me at my new blogging location on The Welcomed Consensus website. Also meet some of my fellow sensual researchers who write their stories on the blog too.



Pleasurable Menopause Interview Emphasizes Choice

With two million women entering menopause each year in the U.S. alone, everyone knows someone who is making the transition in to menopause.  It is a phenomenon that effects women physically and emotionally and can alter our outlook on life. Thus, menopause impacts all of us regardless of age or gender. I believe we can all benefit from placing emphasis on the positive without discounting the reality of what happens during the change.

Recently I was interviewed by Rebekah Beneteau, creator and host of Ask Me Anything Love and Sex Show. We talked about pleasurable menopause and explored some tools that anyone can use to have more fun with what occurs in their bodies.  Below are some excerpts from the second half of the interview.


Listen to the second half hour of the interview and subscribe to the Female Orgasm Podcast by The Welcomed Consensus to get all the episodes

Pleasurable Menopause Interview Emphasizes Choice
Rebekah: So what's fun about a hot flash?

Yvonne:  In a hot flash one of the things that I experience is this intense rush of heat coming from my inner core, right? In seconds I can break out into sweats and my heart is rushing and I feel these fluttery feelings. It’s like Whoooooo!

One day I'm having this experience of a hot flash and I was about to whine about it because, well you know, it was a hot flash and that’s what you do. You complain about your hot flashes and you whine about having a hot flash. Then I had a flash of my own - a mental flash... Wow, if I felt this same thing during a Deliberate Orgasm I would say it was great. I would love it.

Then I thought, why don’t I love it right now? Why don’t I call it fun right now? Why don’t I feel my body like I feel my body during a Deliberate Orgasm? They don’t last that long. A hot flash is a Flash! I better catch all the enjoyment I can out of it right now or I’m missing it. That’s how it’s fun.

It happens at unexpected times though. That’s the thing that I had to get into agreement with. I didn't control or arrange anything. Those flashes happen. Here I am, I’m talking in the middle of a dinner conversation and all of a sudden I feel like ripping my sweater off. Taking my clothes off and fanning myself. Well, I can whine about it, but it’s happening right now. I might as well have fun right now because it’s happening right now.

I can let other people in on it too. I get this experience, a beautiful flush in my skin and can let it glow. I let the turn-on out during that time, ooze turn-on. Because that’s how I feel now when I’m in agreement, I just ooze turn-on. It’s so fun.

I’m not trying to pretend like I don’t have a hot flash. I’m not trying to pretend that nothing is happening. Why not turn on? That’s how I make it fun for other people is I turn on when it’s happening. I approve. I’m in agreement.

Approval, other people feel it. Other people feel me approve of the hot flash, of myself, of being a woman. You know, that’s a rare thing somebody who approves of being in menopause, being middle-aged, having things happen that are out of control, so to speak. It’s a really powerful way to live life.

I’ve taken those viewpoints that I have researched for 18 years with Deliberate Orgasm and am using them with menopause. Whipping out those tools at the time it’s happening. At the time that it’s happening I make the choice to turn-on. I make the choice right then. That’s why I say I’m just like every woman because we all have choices to make moment to moment.

Rebekah: Right. For me it really becomes a spiritual discipline and a practice. I feel like when I give into my negativity and my anger it’s easy, it’s cheap excitement and it’s lazy. It takes a little bit of work to get into agreement with how it is. To find something to approve of and yes, to go for making every moment fun and pleasurable for myself and the people around me. No matter what’s going on.

Yvonne: It does take something from an individual to do that. You said that well. I think the payoff is huge. It’s huge when you do make that choice for fun and pleasure.

Pleasurable Menopause Ask Me Anything Interview

Recently I was a talk radio guest of Rebekah Beneteau, creator and host of Ask Me Anything Love and Sex Show. Rebekah describes herself as a former stand-up comic turned healer and coach. Her signature style draws on straight talk, humor and radical acceptance.  No topic is taboo.

When Rebekah initially made the invitation she let me know she had an avid interest in pleasurable menopause. As we became acquainted before the show, I knew we'd have a lot to talk about. In fact we talked for nearly an hour non-stop on the show and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Below are some snippets of our dialogue.

Listen to the first half hour of the conversation and subscribe to the Female Orgasm podcast by the Welcomed Consensus for all the episodes.


This photo was snapped while live on the air with Rebekah and I hope you can tell I'm enthusiastic. Have a question you'd like to see addressed on Menopause Flashes? Feel free to ask in the comments. This post after all is titled Ask Me Anything, so go for it. 


Ask Me Anything Blog Author Yvonne Wray
Why I can talk with such confidence, it’s not an intellectual thing. I feel it in my body. I have to say, I know sometimes people think "Oh Yvonne, you’re from California and you're so San Francisco. You know -- it's not the same for people across the US. You're in this unique special situation."

But you know what? I'm a really down to earth, practical person. I mean I have a computer science degree. I'm not really into those kinds of mmm-- I don’t know what to call them exactly. Although I'm talking about orgasm and a definition of orgasm, I'm talking about something that I feel, that I experience. It's a reality, not just a play on words.

It can keep getting better and better. Why I say this, about me being a practical person, is because I just know there are women and men out there that think they can brush it off because I'm this San Francisco sexual person or something. But it's not true. That part doesn't matter so much, except to say that I'm really like every woman.

Every day I go through the same types of resistance that women have to having pleasure. I face those kinds of everyday decisions, those everyday choices that every woman goes through and every man goes through in order to have a good relationship. In order to have a good sex life. In order to have something that you can sustain over years and years.

When I tell the truth about what I'm feeling and just say it straight out -- Oh this is how I’m feeling today, I can enjoy the communication and the intimacy that comes with that.

It is the same in everyday in life, not just in menopause. Every day your moods are changing. Every day how you are experiencing your life changes moment by moment. So in that communication with my friend, when I'm telling him and letting him know what's happening, that creates movement. It also moves the energy through my body. It moves the energy through my life and it opens up more possibilities for more pleasure and more enjoyment.

Note: excerpts were edited for readability. The full transcript with the audio can be found at Fun, More Pleasure and Menopause: A Paradox?

Three Things My Celebrity Crush Taught Me About Menopause

This week I’ve joined the women of GenFab™ to write about: My Celebrity Crush.

John Travolta and I grew up together. Right from the start, boy could he make me laugh not to mention my heart race with his Italian good looks.  He played Vinnie who was already in high school when I met him, but I reasoned that was okay. I was thirTEEN, that’s only one year behind. He’d find out about me soon enough. When he ran for student body president I was with him all the way. I dreamed up the perfect campaign slogans and signs. My bold approach would show everyone else what I already knew about him. Underneath the swaggering good-looking Sweathog exterior, there’s a guy who cares. I was the perfect match for him, my brains his bravado. Only he didn’t know. I could be Vinnie Barbarino’s girl. I was sure Mr. Kotter would approve.

A year later my initial crush was elevated to full-tilt heartthrob. As Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever the familiar John was there, but a new element had been added. Staring at the theater’s larger-than-life poster he appeared an exotic man-creature with serious sexual vibes. In his sleek white suit I admired the confidence of his stance and was elated to see that he could dance! I could imagine him, finger pointed skyward slowly lowering it to point in my direction. He’d look right at me, beckoning me to come be his partner. Just thinking about it let loose a million butterflies in my stomach and a stampede of horses pounding within my chest. It was exhilarating. It was obvious to me, we had both grown up.

My Celebrity CrushBut being only fourteen-AND-A-HALF I wasn’t allowed to see my R-rated John until a few years later. This situation only increased my ardor. I pined and brooded, sure proof of my devotion. The popular Bee Gees hits from the movie’s soundtrack played on the radio and gave words to my amplified emotions.

When I got the original movie soundtrack album, I sang right along declaring “If I can't have you, I don’t want nobody, baby!” I found out that in the movie this passionate plea was sung, not by the Bee Gees who wrote it, but by a woman with the same name as ME, Yvonne Elliman. I became convinced that this fact was not merely a trivial coincidence, but a sign of something more.

I saw John dance with Olivia in Grease, scrubbed clean for a PG audience, before I’d ever see him in what I considered his full glory, on fire dancing disco in Saturday Night Fever. But my crush had made his mark on me. I’d caught the fever. True to the hit song “You Should be Dancing”, before I graduated high school I was a self-taught dancer, my disco techniques worthy of Travolta’s attention.

Coming up with what I wanted to write, I went over the telltale symptoms of a classic crush. There I sat with my laptop studiously making notes. The click of the keys coming quickly as I got on a roll. Then it dawned on me - the list of behaviors describing a young teenage girl with a crush sounded strangely familiar. In fact it described me, and I don’t mean the teenager me. I mean the me of just a few weeks prior, the 50 year old menopausal me.  

The clickity-click of my typing stopped. My head did a little spin on that for a moment, fragments of thoughts colliding. I’m going through menopause. A crush? It seemed entirely contradictory. I read over my list, fingers still poised over the keys. Could that be? I did a quick mental checklist. The giddy highs and aching lows, the overwhelming feelings of falling for him and noticing so many things I liked about him. The intensity of emotion flooding me, not to mention the preoccupation with how he was spending all of his time, were undeniable signs of something.

I’m not sure just how long I sat there like that, staring at my screen. Then it hit me. Pieces of the puzzle came together and I had one of my menopause flashes. Thus I’d like to thank John, My Celebrity Crush, for teaching me these three things about menopause.

#1 – Menopausal hormone shifts can feel astonishingly like an adolescent crush. This is nothing I’d ever heard of before. I probably would have judged it silly if someone suggested that would be happening to me.  But expressing those overwhelming positive emotions, rather than trying to figure out if I was crazy or not, opened a window to more pleasure for me.

#2 – Mood swings during menopause can be taken advantage of for more enjoyment. Writing about my celebrity crush I saw how I actively looked for reasons to adore my crush. Thinking back about it, that was true of all my teen crushes and it remains true today. While it might be hormones that give my emotions a kick start, I’m the one who reinforces them and keeps the good feelings alive by coming up with more excuses to enjoy more things.

#3 – There’s no rhyme or reason to the intensity of menopause experiences. In hindsight, I cannot come up with any logical explanation for developing a crush so intensely for so long on John Travolta.  I cannot sensibly explain the causes of the highs and lows, or scribble down the recipe that created the potent mix of idealization and infatuation. What I can do is describe and acknowledge both the uniqueness of my experience and the common threads that bind us as human beings. Therein lies the joy of living. And so it is with my experience of menopause.