Hello my sweet Stitchy-Kin. As you doubtless read in the title, it is indeed World Menopause Awareness Month! And at Grimalkin Crossing we’re here for that! To kick off a campaign to raise awareness about this normal, healthy, and totally natural life process we’ve come up with a new sampler design! We’ve named it “Too Young, Too Old” and it opens up our offerings with a must-stitch, humorous observation about mid-life in general. After all, it’s that time of life when most women start experiencing their first menopause symptoms. It’s also when many of us begin looking for help managing them.
Why we need Menopause Awareness Month
But, do we get that help when we go looking for it? According to Let’s Talk Menopause, a national nonprofit organization invested in changing the conversation around menopause:
- approximately 6000 women enter menopause each day.
- And a staggering 75 MILLION WOMEN are in perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause in the USA alone!
- In a grim addition, 75% of women who seek care for menopausal symptoms don’t get treatment.
If that last bullet point horrified you, it should. The National Menopause Foundation reports that 62% of women experience menopause symptoms that interfere with their quality of life! And yet…
Despite its importance for the health of half the world’s population, menopause is under-studied. And, at least in the United States, it is difficult to track funding for menopause research, because the NIH hasn’t assigned menopause a unique identification code like the ones other conditions (such as anorexia or prostate cancer) have.Nature 617, 8 (2023)
In other words, if women are ever going to get the help we need, things have to change. We all have to be willing, all 75 million of us, to talk past the stigma and get real about this natural life process.
Too Young, Too Old: Your New Conversation Starter!
Most of you know that we’re fans of stitching in public. As such, Sue and I make opportunities to stitch in coffee shops and public parks when we’re on vacation together. Our stitching always draws positive attention and commentary from passers-by. In fact, some of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had have started this way—and now I’m looking forward to starting a few more to raise menopause awareness with our new design!
As a counted cross stitch design, “Too Young, Too Old” homes in on the discomfort we all feel when we’re in the middle of a transition. That sense of commonality, of relatability reaches across age, class, and gender barriers. It also reminds us that change affects us all. And it can spur dialogues about aging, and the accompanying changes that are nothing more than natural life processes.
Those conversations don’t have to be uncomfortable or scary. As the inspiration behind “Too Young, Too Old” suggests, we can bring humor to them, have a laugh or three, and share experiences that remind us that we’re not alone.
Those are very human things to do, too. 😊
| The full retail price for Too Young, Too Old is $8.95 USD. Click/tap to start stitching yours today! |
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