Very very true! And one of those things that we beat ourself up over...

I want to write eloquent words about wisdom as we age, but I don't feel very literary today!

April I just have to say you’re hilarious! Love your humour, turn of phrase and general attitude to life.

Oh wait til you add an appendectomy scar to the C section scar ( which looks like I performed it myself ) and then you’ll understand why it’s been 20 years since I’ve worn a bikini . FFS.

57- wow! I guess I'm peri (late 40s) but my shape and weight change all the time from different routines- and tbh- A Lot of stress. My size is " must have stretch cause I refuse to have 3 different sizes in my closet."

Fun parental Dr. anecdotes. My dad was a veterinarian he was pretty accurate with his assessments of our childhood ailments.

I'm ten years out from surgical menopause w/o HRT. Like a lot of people, I gained a fair bit of pandemic stress weight, then lost most of it a year ago. This January I decided to apply myself (lol) and work on losing the last bit of vanity weight. Ok, I'm now back down into my (heavy quotations) "ideal" weight range...and am still a cup size bigger than I ever was at this weight. It's maddening. But I guess it's my postmenopausal fate.

This is such a lovely and comforting thread. So glad to hear my side eye counts as exercise! Anyway I have been post-menopausal for about 6 years, had two c-sections, one after an absolutely enormous full term twins pregnancy, and all the planks in the world will not make me bikini ready. To say the least.

April, you made me laugh out loud with your follow up post. Oh, family!!

I hit 12 months period free two months after I turned 57. Going long is good! Those natural hormomes provide a lot of protection. I'll be 60 in September. I've been doing pretty well weight wise. I've just started noticing fat being redistributed to my belly and hips **sigh**. I'm trying to nip it in the bud. We'll see.

April.....I hear you on the C section scar. Ugh! It doesn't matter how thin I am or how flat my stomach is that damned pooch never goes away. My scar almost looks like a smile. Like it's taunting me.

I am a very average size, average BMI but as a South East Asian, belly fat has been the bane of my existence in terms of clothing fit. I was always surprised when I see reviewers of my height/weight claiming to wear clothes that couldn’t even have worn as a teen. Menopause and reading glasses are so much fun. Not!

April, thanks for this thread and everyone for additional comments, I am a candidate for serious eye exercises.

My recent need for reading glasses is driving me nuts. I was at a restaurant that was dimly lit and found that without my reading glasses, I could not read the menu and trying to read ingredient lists (to make sure that I don't give a celiac friend gluten) is an exercise frustration.

What a fun-read thread. I was an average age for menopause and have five children. What I started last year because of a pair of pants I insisted on purchasing even though I knew they were too small and continue to do so b/c the fit is So. Much. Better. is buying pants to fit my hips and make a modification (photo below) to the waist. It's a fussy repair--but if you are an intermediate seamstress or above--this works like a charm! My pants actually now fit well, priceless!

Helena, I was so self-congratulatory that my feet never changed size through three pregnancies! So imagine how pissed I was this year to figure out that 9 years after my last baby I just went up a shoe size. Talk about WTF.

April, I have that same scar! Makes it look like I'm wearing underwear even when I'm not, since it falls right where the top of undies would! Such a look!

Still, LJP, I'm always bikini-ready... I just take out my bikini and get into it! Ready! If men get to strut their pooches and hairy selves at the pool, screw it, I'm going to get some sun on my belly too.

Lesley, love that attitude. Not a bikini girl myself but my sister once forwarded me a tweet (2 years into covid) from someone who said she'd basically thought we were all going to die so she'd "been snackin'." And that the "beach was gonna get the body I give it."

Lmao and high fives to your sister

Bijou, I read somewhere that as we age, the photo-receptors in our eyes get weak, so we need brighter lights to even see. I used to get irritated at my parents for not wanting to drive at night when I was a teen. I get it now

Yup; my caboose chugged on over to my tummy. It’s so hard to find pants that work now. Also, pretty much everything is a couple of inches lower.

I increased my exercise over Covid so I’m maybe 10 - 12 pounds down and weigh what I did at age 12 and for a brief while after a diet in my mid-twenties. But size wise? Nowhere near that small. I’m about the size I used to be decades ago when I weighed 10 - 12 pounds more.

The bodies of older actresses change, and they are paid to look good so have an incentive to keep up diet and exercise. It is what it is.

This change is a real thing, is what we're all saying. I weighed more than I do now throughout all of high school and college but the shape is so different!

I still have the narrow hips I've always had but yikes, the front side. Who is making flattering pants for us?

Ha elpgal! I'm on team Hates Driving At Night too!
In my experience though, the older people often don't keep many lights on in the house. At least my dad, inlaws, and DHs grandparents. DH and I are the opposite- especially SAD queen me. Give me All The Light!!

Okay, I’m late to the party with my response, but I had to comment on this comforting and hilarious thread. I am almost two years into menopause. What I’ve noticed, in addition to what everyone else has said is that one, despite pilates and other core work, my belly lack the muscular firmness it used to have. And two, my shape has changed so that my belly pushes into the front of my jeans and pulls the zipper cover away from the zipper, exposing the zipper. This happens even when the waist doesn’t seem too tight. I need to look for jeans with a front support panel, something ideally not as uncomfortable as the control top pantyhose from the old days.

Also, am I the only one whose sleep has gone to crap, amd is still suffering nighttime hot flashes, despite hrt?

Lastly, my mother was a nurse, but I almost ended up in the hospital as a kid because she waited so long to take me to the doctor. Apparently I had a raging case of pneumonia!

Marmee, sounds like our parents went to the same school of medicine!

My mom was right there with your parents. She had two cure-alls. If it involved visible bleeding "just wrap a dishtowel around it" and if it was internal, "go lie down on your left side."

For visible skin things (bug bites, the hives that somehow showed up all over my face at age 9, acne, chicken pox) you got either baking soda or Caldesene powder. Guess what: if you apply baking soda paste to huge angry hives, it feels like someone has set your face on fire.

Naturally, if these remedies didn't work, you hadn't done it correctly/long enough and should therefore double down.

Oops, I forgot the warm salt water gargle! Strep throat? Tonsillitis? Mono? You don't need an antibiotic, here's the Morton's.

Marmee, no, you are not the only one whose sleep has gone completely to hell. I don't get intense hot flashes but even on a frigid night with the bedroom heat turned off, pajamas + blanket = too warm.

Oh, great thread. It's VERY comforting to have this group!
(Parental medical advice: take antibiotics till you feel better, save the rest for next time.)

I'm flummoxed by the back/flank fat situation post-menopause. Lucky on the belly front, but sporting love handles and flanks.

I try to write a lot of reviews, because I do read them intently. It's a great idea to add maybe a word about age range in reviews, to help our sisters of a certain age!

Ladies this is why nature gives us bad eyesight as we get older.Just remove your glasses when you look in a mirror and everything is comfortingly soft focus.No need to diet,Botox or whatever!

Sleep - it took long time to figure how to deal with lack of it. Certain supplements do help like L-Tryptohan, GABA. Taking socks off during the sleep ( flash/heating in the middle of the night ) became automatic - done without waking up - lol.