Apparently estrogen is a mind control hormone. It heavily influences a woman’s need to nest and nurture. It allows us to put up with all kinds of nonsense like the ups and downs of love and relationships. What kind of sane person would undertake the raising of a child? Estrogen tells you it will be OK. You can have it all. The husband the house and of course the career to help pay for it. Estrogen says no sleep is fine. That you can get up at 5:30, bake cookies, make Halloween costumes and at the end of the day still have energy for sex. Without estrogen, no one in there right mind would undertake all this. Only the president of the United States works harder.

And then at age 40 to 50 it is gone. Lots of books are written about the change.  The Madness of Menopause is a great article to read. Estrogen is gone and the mind returns to normal. The woman looks around and says “yikes how did I get here”.  Some women make easier transitions than others. The husband picks up more of the slack. Maybe the kids are already away at college. Maybe the woman gets on hormone replacements and happy pills. I have also seen the other end of the spectrum. My friend Mary just up and left her husband of 30 years. We were all very close and no one saw it coming. Poof! She never looked back. Two years later she has found a new love and is very happy.

You just never know….