My Period Vol.042 - Heavy Periods and Unexplained Discomforts in My 40s My History of Unused Eggs The Liberation of Menopause

Kaori Nakamura, 60 years old, university professor

Menarche: 6th grade (age 12)

Current average number of menstrual periods: None (menopause)

Current average menstrual cycle: None (menopause)

Sanitary products currently used: None

-What day is your period?

Fighting sleepiness

-What image comes to mind when you hear the word "menstruation"?

Gloomy

- From here on, I'd like to look back on half of my life, focusing on menstruation. When was your first period? How do you remember it?

I got my first period when I was in the sixth grade of elementary school. One after the other, the girls in my class were getting their first period, so I thought, "Maybe it's my turn soon," and it really did happen. For me, my first period was not a happy event, and I somehow had the feeling that "I don't want to move on to the next stage."

In the end, I told my mother that I had my period, and she gave me some sanitary napkins and taught me how to use them. Nearly 50 years ago, there were only a few types of sanitary napkins, and they were of low quality, with only the type without wings available.

When I was in elementary school, I used to wear navy blue bloomers over white shorts, and my mother would put pockets in the bloomers to put napkins in, as a thoughtful gesture so that I wouldn't have to carry them around.

I didn't talk about my period with my family. I didn't say anything, and my mother didn't say anything either. There was no special celebration, and I was actually glad there wasn't.

-What were your periods like when you were in middle and high school?

My second period came during the summer vacation of my first year of junior high school, while on a family trip. I hadn't had a period for over six months since my first period. I realized I was on my period when I went to the toilet while on the trip, and when I frantically told my mother, she said, "See? It's because you're not careful," so I went with my mother to buy some sanitary napkins and managed to get through it.

After that, my periods became regular. I was happy when I didn't get my period for a while after my first period, but by that time most of the girls in my class were already having their periods, so I accepted it.

I don't think I felt my periods were heavy when I was in junior high and high school. However, I did experience symptoms of anemia. My complexion seemed to get quite pale when I had my period, and whenever the school nurse passed me on campus, she would stick out her tongue and gesture with her lower eyelids to check for anemia. However, I didn't experience any particular symptoms.
My mother would make liver dishes several times a week to help me get enough iron. It was so common that I hated even looking at it.

I think I used to have a heavy menstrual flow. It's been heavy since I was in junior high school, and it may have gotten even heavier when I entered high school. My period pain felt heavy and dull, but it wasn't particularly painful. That was the extent of the change I experienced in high school.

-What path did you take after graduating from high school? Did you experience any changes in your life?

I went on to university. I had never joined a sports club before, but I decided to try playing a sport, so I started skiing. I had a heavy period, so I thought I wouldn't be able to change my pads in time while skiing, so I started using tampons around this time.

However, the first time I tried tampons was way back when I was in junior high. A friend recommended them to me, but back then they didn't have applicators, so I gave up, thinking, "There's no way!" But when I tried them again after a few years as a university student, I was amazed at how far tampons had come. They had an applicator and were easy to use. I thought it was a revolution. Since then, it's become commonplace to combine tampons with pads.

-What path did you take after that? Did you experience any changes in your period or physical condition?

After graduating from university, I joined a foreign IT company as a systems engineer. I worked extremely hard, even on weekends, and I would drink alcohol after work.

Around this time, my period also changed. I felt extremely sleepy during my period, and would suddenly lose consciousness, even on the train.

My menstrual flow also increased, and it was normal for me to use both tampons and night pads during the day. The amount varied from day to day, and I would often experience sudden, heavy bleeding or large clots of blood. Looking back, I think it was probably around this time that I had uterine fibroids.

During a health checkup in my early twenties, I was diagnosed with anemia and found to need further testing. This prompted me to visit a gynecologist for the first time in my life. The gynecologist only interviewed me and prescribed me iron supplements, which was a surprise. Taking the iron supplements made me feel so much more energetic. I thought it was a magic pill. However, I've always disliked medicine, and I've even vomited after taking iron supplements on an empty stomach, so I ended up taking the prescribed medicine and that was it. I was busy and didn't have time to go back for a follow-up appointment.

-How long did that lifestyle continue?

I continued working there for six years, then quit my job at the age of 28 and went to Kenya. I had traveled there once before for a short period of time, and I really wanted to go back for a long period of time.

I got a student visa and studied Swahili there. I set off for six months, planning to spend the first three months at school and the remaining three months wandering around Africa, but I wanted to stay longer, so I threw away my return flight ticket, found a job there, and ended up spending three years in Kenya. I was incredibly drawn to Kenya.

I had heard that the local sanitary products were of low quality, so I brought a six-month supply from Japan for the period I planned to stay in, but I didn't have a three-year supply, so the most important thing I asked of anyone visiting from Japan was to ask them to bring their own sanitary products from Japan.I also received some surplus Japanese sanitary products from people returning to Japan, and as a safety measure, I used those on the days when my flow was heaviest, and on the days when my flow was lighter, I used locally sourced sanitary products.

- What will happen after your three years in Kenya?

I returned to Japan and went on to graduate school. I decided to research the ethnic group I encountered in Kenya. I often went to Kenya for long-term fieldwork, and my days were very fulfilling. I am still continuing my research on this ethnic group.

When I was a graduate student, I met a female gynecologist who was easy to talk to. I underwent an ultrasound scan and was diagnosed with uterine fibroids. The doctor suggested treatment with birth control pills, but I was planning to go to Kenya for a year shortly after, so I thought, "I don't even want to take iron supplements, so what if something happens in Kenya if I take birth control pills with their potential side effects?" and declined. Looking back, I regret not having taken them. From then on, I was told to have my uterine fibroids checked once a year.

My menstrual flow had also increased. I also had period pain, but I didn't pay it much attention because I thought everyone else was the same. Only recently, I had the opportunity to compare my pain with other people at an event where I could experience period pain, and it was only then that I realized that my pain was actually quite severe.

-Have you noticed any changes in your period or physical condition since entering your 40s?

Yes, in my early 40s, my health began to be affected, probably due to a combination of major changes in my environment, such as caring for my sick mother and getting married.

First, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and began battling the disease. I began commuting back and forth between Kyoto, where I lived and studied at university, and my parents' home in Tokyo. I had already finished writing my doctoral thesis, but I was still enrolled as a researcher at graduate school, while also working as a part-time lecturer at five or six universities to make ends meet, and I made frequent overnight bus trips between Kyoto and Tokyo on weekends - it was a very demanding life.

My mother's illness prompted me to get married. I hadn't particularly wanted to remain single, but I didn't know how to fit marriage into my life, and as a result, I ended up in my 40s. Wanting to reassure my mother, I decided to get married and even went on an arranged marriage meeting, but I was asked, "You'll have to quit research when you get married, right?" and I was starting to give up, thinking that no one would want to marry someone who would stay in Africa for an extended period of time. Then, a friend told me, "This is the only person who would allow you to continue going to Africa," so I married a fellow researcher I had known for a long time.

My mother passed away about a year after I got married, when I was 43. I remember my aunt predicting at her funeral that I would need to take care of my health for a while. She meant, "You're still being careful right now, but the stress of losing someone you love will gradually start to show in your body, so be careful," and she was absolutely right.

It started with hives when I was around 43 or 44 years old. Even when I went to the hospital, the cause was unknown, so I took medicine as a temporary treatment. Other symptoms included sudden vomiting in the middle of the night and dizziness when I tried to get up in the morning, which made it difficult to stand up. On top of that, I developed asthma and back pain, and one problem after another seemed to come up, and I was hit by one ailment after another, and I wondered where my once healthy self had gone. The illness lasted for about three years, and gradually subsided towards the end of my 40s.

Then, as I entered my late 40s and menopause, my periods started to change.

- What changes occurred in your late 40s?

My menstrual cycle, which had been regular at 28-30 days for many years, began to shorten to about 26 days. My already heavy flow also became even heavier. I remember there were several times when the blood came out all at once, so heavy I couldn't sit down. I continued to use both tampons and night pads at the same time.

My doctor told me that my uterine fibroids were gradually getting bigger, but he also said, "You'll reach menopause soon, so just hold on until then. They'll get smaller after that, so you'll be fine," so I decided not to have surgery.

-Did you go through menopause after that?

Yes, I went through menopause around age 50 or 51. Around the same time as my own, I was writing a thesis on the role of older women in the Kenyan ethnic group I am researching. In this ethnic group, women's status rises as their first child reaches adulthood, and the jewelry they wear also changes. After roughly 20 years of childbirth and child-rearing, they gradually step back and move up to a higher stage of status. Women who reach this stage suddenly expand their horizons, conversing on an equal footing with the elders (older men) who dominate society and becoming advisors to younger people, both male and female. While menopause is generally perceived as a loss, for these women it was the beginning of a new era full of blessings, and I believe there is something to be learned from their experiences as women living in Japan.

-Looking back on your period, what do you think now?

I think I've done pretty well. I lost so much blood every month, I got anemic, and I managed to balance my work and life somehow. Since my period stopped, I've been amazed at how much better I feel without it.

I was probably in my late 30s. There was a time when I would joke with friends my age, saying things like, "I've wasted 12 eggs in a year again." We'd say, "I wonder how many I have left," and "But I don't want to count them." There wasn't a moment in my life when I decided not to use eggs. But in the end, I didn't use any. Now that my period is over, I feel like I've completely gotten over it, including that incident.

Also, in terms of gender, menstruation and "being a woman" have always been themes of concern. In terms of my generation, when I started working as a new graduate, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law had just been enacted, so somewhere deep down I felt that "I don't want to be seen as spoiled just because I'm a woman" and "I want to negate my femininity." I think I felt that in order to be treated the same as men in society, I couldn't admit to myself that my periods were heavy.

Just the other day, I celebrated my 60th birthday with a glass of sparkling wine with a long-time friend whose birthday is just one day apart from mine. When asked to say something on my 60th birthday, he said, "You go around in circles and everything is forgiven. You go around in circles and go back to zero." Everyone has their own accomplishments and failures. But when you reach this age, you've already retired, your children have left home, and you realize that the things you thought you had achieved were fleeting. Just as the word "60th" suggests, it's like starting a second round back to square one with nothing.

I felt a sense of physical refreshment during menopause, but now that I've turned 60, I feel even more refreshed and liberated, both physically and mentally. I feel like I've reached a stage where I can interact with everyone as they are, without worrying about labels or frameworks like affiliation or titles, which I've never really liked, or gender. It feels like I've finally reached the stage of "blessing" that Kenyan women experience. Aging is actually quite a good thing.

Note: "My Period" aims to provide an opportunity to think about and talk about menstruation, an issue that is often hidden, by recording and sharing how people of various generations and backgrounds have dealt with it. It does not endorse any specific products, services, or methods of coping. The content posted is based on each person's personal experience, so if you have any symptoms that concern you, please consult a medical institution.