Talk about it, without embarrassment. Hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, vaginal dryness, mood changes, and bone loss they shouldn’t be symptoms to hide or tell only in a low voice. Because menopause, which can lead to one or more of these symptoms, is a natural physiological event that affects millions of women for the first time every year. Yet women don’t talk about it willingly and feel alone in the face of this change. To break down this taboo on menopause, shed light on the symptoms and to help the new generations arrive prepared for this phase of life, the TENA #UltimaMenopausaDaSola campaign was born.
To encourage intergenerational dialogue and that passage of “women’s wisdom” between women, which characterizes other moments of transition in female life, TENA has conducted a social experiment here in Italy: five couples of women, mothers, daughters and sisters, confronted on the theme of menopause, with the younger generation who asked questions about this stage of life to the real protagonists, the women who are experiencing menopause. Various topics were addressed. First of all the symptoms; among the most cited hot flashes, palpitations, night sweats. It is evident, however, that there is still too little talk about another myriad of possible consequences, important for learning to listen to one’s body and better manage this new dimension of health. There is, for example, vaginal dryness, very widespread and caused by the decrease in estrogen; forgetfulness, always caused by hormonal changes that have a close link with the neurotransmitters in the brain and also insomnia, mood swings, swelling, anxiety, joint pain, thinning hair…
The responses also revealed that women feel very lonely during menopause, because they find it difficult to share their experiences with family and friends. According to a research conducted by TENA in March 2022 on 6 thousand women in Italy, Brazil and the UK, it emerged that 41% of women arrive unprepared for menopause. And although 37% said they found support in friends and 34% in their partner, 17% reported that they received no help at all, while nearly a third felt that a lack of adequate support made difficult to go through menopause.
However, menopause also brings with it positive aspects, such as the end of premenstrual syndrome and being able to freely organize a vacation without having to consult the calendar. As well as in the sexual sphere: many women, in fact, speak of this period as a “second adolescence”, lived with a new and more mature self-knowledge.
Lastly, the most exciting part of TENA’s social experiment emerged in the last part of the interviews, between hugs and thanks, with the younger ones stating that they felt more prepared to welcome the menopause, while the protagonists felt only more free to express their emotions but also more understood by their loved ones. “Accept the menopause, talk about it and share your experience”, says a testimony. “Make it normal and above all don’t be afraid to ask for help”.