World Menopause Day 2024 – by Sara Barnes

Calling all menopausal outdoor women!

Do you remember your parents shoving you out of the house to go and get some fresh air and exercise and hating it? You’d much rather have been indoors, reading, eating sweets, or watching TV (if they allowed you to watch daytime TV).

But, it created a habit for those of us old enough to remember the experience, the time before selfies, cold water plunging and breathwork were a thing. A habit that can serve us well as we now go through our menopausal forties, fifties and beyond. Regular exercise and fresh air boosts our metabolic rates, Vitamin D supply, and general well-being. The evidence is not just anecdotal, it is even being prescribed by some GPs for depression and other mental health issues.

In The Cold Fix (Vertebrate 2022) you will notice that many of the people I interviewed described how just being outdoors each day could be extremely uplifting and mood changing.

'But one thing I noticed about Leelou every time we’d swum together is how observant she is of what is around her: from the taste and quality of the water she’s immersed in, to the play of the light on the fells and trees. It’s so much more striking in winter when you can see right through stands of skeletal trees; your depth of focus is greater and the light somehow more transparent. Do we become more aware of our surroundings when electronic distractions and white noise disappear? Or is it connected to the temperature of the water? As the temperature drops, self-awareness increases? As the blood rushes to our core to keep our vital organs safe, is something switched on in our brains that reconnects us to all our senses?

I watched Leelou’s face as she sank down slowly and luxuriantly into the lake on a grey-tinged-pink January morning; my intrusion into her unguarded emotions felt connecting and completing. I was her and she was me. My facial muscles tensed and relaxed in a similar way every time I submitted to the cold. We were in this together, in that one moment of change. Silence. Except for a wagtail on the jetty, two seagulls squawking in harmony below a cloud, we didn’t even make a ripple on the surface of the lake; our strokes were so slow and almost meditative.'

What does twenty-first-century fresh air and exercise look like for a menopausal woman? Does it have to involve expensive trail shoes, or vivid and breath-restricting lycra leggings and crop tops? Can we just be ourselves for what seems like the first time in our lives? Not living up to anyone else’s expectations of the body beautiful or superwoman, or striving to meet our own super high standards of organisation and sense of achievement. Dare we actually revert to our inner child, release our wild woman, or even, heaven forbid, be comfortable in our own skin?

Yes, we can. Many older women are rediscovering activities that they used to enjoy, and many more are experimenting by getting involved with new-to-them activities, such as paddleboarding, skateboarding, strength training, e-bikes and cold water swimming. There are friendly and welcoming clubs and groups all over the country where everyone is treated equally, given helpful and practical tips and training before being unleashed to fend for themselves. 

If you haven’t already done so yourself then you are bound to know someone who has taken out a monthly gym membership and is comfortable using all of the equipment alongside the fit young things. I’m not talking about power lifting, although there are quite a few female power lifters around, but all round strength and flexibility work, which builds up the core, upper body, abs and butt. As we grow older it isn’t just our flexibility that wanes, but also our muscle bulk and definition, not to mention our enthusiasm for a lot of things! It is really important to maintain a good level of mental and physical fitness and mobility, not just to avoid trips and falls, but to avoid getting depressed or losing confidence and becoming scared to do anything on our own. And have I mentioned bone density and how it can decrease quite dramatically as we grow older? All brilliant reasons to keep ourselves as fit and active as possible by participating in a range of indoor and outdoor pursuits.

Personally, I find a mix of strength training, yoga, walking and outdoor swimming works on many levels: physically, mentally and emotionally.

At the time of first researching The Cold Fix I was fifty-four and menopausal. I was up against the prospect of living a physically limited life at the same time as experiencing many of the unpleasant symptoms of the menopause, such as hot flushes, loss of body confidence, forgetfulness and lack of focus and ability to concentrate. But, I took all of these obstacles and challenges, turned them on their heads and found the positives. I could walk far enough to get myself into a Lake District lake, I could float (even though my crutches couldn’t), and I could laugh at myself for falling over post swim while trying to put my knickers on. I met other women who were like me: growing older, facing personal challenges, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, spending time outdoors in all weathers and daring to bare their less than perfect bodies in public.

I actually discovered cold water as a form of physical pain relief following major surgery to try and alleviate the effects of osteo-arthritis in both my knees and have used it in this way ever since. The Cold Fix is the ‘touchy-feely’ story of my journey and what it is about the cold that so many people around the world are addicted to. Feedback from people who have read the book shows me that if we can find one thing in life that we are passionate about, and for me clearly it is cold water immersion out in the wild, then that one thing will drive us forwards no matter what life throws at us.

So, here it is, the perfect antidote to growing older: find your passion, seek out what makes you smile and want to get up and out in the morning. It may be fell running, e-biking, photography, wild swimming, paddleboarding, kayaking or beach yoga, it doesn’t matter, so long as it makes you feel something deep down inside.

Runners often talk about the ‘runners’ high’; I used to get it when I was trail running, so I know how good it can be. For me, now, adapting to cranky knees and, more recently, disturbing news of a dodgy heart, this high is still achievable and has nothing to do with cardio-vascular exertion. It is more cerebral, lasts longer and I plan my life around it. I am now sixty-two, still fit as a fiddle in my head, post-menopausal I reckon, and don’t plan on watching daytime TV just yet. It’s not as if I am always outdoors, but I do need to get outside at least once a day, to see the sky, feel the breeze, soak up any glimmers of sunshine, or dodge raindrops. Nature plays a huge part in my well-being, increasingly so as I grow older, maybe because I dread the day when I am not able to get myself outdoors and just have to be content with staring at it through my window.

They say that your world shrinks as you grow older, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine being able to live in one beautiful corner of a huge world and having the time to get to know every tree, drystone wall and winding lane. As the seasons turn so do the views and perspectives – a living television permanently on Nature channel. Social media continues to sway between being a positive and a negative influence on all of us, but it definitely has found a solid place in my life. Through it I have been able to meet people around the world who never would’ve crossed my path, many of whom I interviewed for The Cold Fix. So, from this small corner of the Lake District, I regularly reach out to total strangers to arrange swim meet ups and visits through my social media channels.

'"You have everything you need." The Dutch hypnotherapist had pre-empted the words of all the people I had met: the Mother, the Warrior, the Child, the Panther and the Thinker. They are all within me and within us all. We bring them out in each other and can bring them out in ourselves. The cold water is the window to our true selves, and by opening that window to others we become a community.'

Finally, on World Menopause Day 2024, if you are still in any doubt about what growing older can look like if you embrace life, and in particular cold water immersion, with both hands, I would like to end by saying, in the words of a couple of anonymous contributors:

'For me, at fifty-eight, feeling ‘sexy’ is something swimming has helped me rediscover after some years of not understanding the concept or not allowing myself or not being ‘allowed’ by the people I had in my life to believe I could be. Now, I feel at my ‘sexiest’ when I’m doing or have done something extraordinary. The fire I feel roaring inside me is tangible. All others see is a glow. It’s nothing to do with make-up for me, but how high the flames are inside. If I picked through the frames of my GoPro videos one by one, I’d cringe at body bits I think look horrid, ugh. It’s not about those bits, though, is it?

Sexy is a silly word to me. But to be radiant and gorgeous means to be comfortable in your own skin. To own and love your own at each moment, no matter what that moment is.'