Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jul 19 11 tweets 5 min read
I had night sweats so bad this weekend that I tested (negative) for Covid because I recently learned that night sweats were a symptom of the BA-5 variant.

Perimenopause? Or Pandemic?

I’ve written about how similar the effects can be feministgiant.com/p/essay-fallin… #Menopause
Whether it’s being so fucking bone-tired-exhausted that I’m in bed all day: perimenopause or pandemic?

Or what seems like allergies that I never used to have: perimenopause or pandemic?

Too many physical effects could be either or: perimenopause or pandemic?

#Menopause
And it only took them almost two years to try to explain this:

“66 percent of postmenopausal women experienced breakthrough bleeding after one or both of their (Covid vaccine) shots” h/t @rerutled

nytimes.com/2022/07/15/wel… #Menopause
Two weeks after that second shot: I got my first period in 10 months.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-perime…
I’ll test again in a couple of days or so, but if feels now as if I get night sweats just before time of the month I used to get my period.

A phantom period!

Before I realized, finally, that I was perimenopausal, my period was preceded by 2/3 nights of waking up soaked in sweat
And so many places are experiencing record #-breaking heatwaves right now.

NYC is 92F/33C.

So this morning, waking up in a sweat-drenched panic I wasn’t sure what to blame: perimenopause or pandemic or climate change or fuck all?!
I’ll be turning this thread about anxiety and perimenopause into an essay soon

Before perimenopause: I never had allergies and I was ne we anxious. Now? It’s Covid/pandemic anxiety on top of perimenopause anxiety churned into an avalanche of anxiety!
Thought I’d alert you all to the night sweats thing because it helps my anxiety and panic to share it out loud.

And to channel it into essays here feministgiant.com
And this #menopause anthology I’m editing for @unbounders

Pledge support here! unbound.com/books/bloody-h…
Please try to me as safe as you can.

This latest variant is very contagious and so many are going around as if the pandemic is over when it most certainly is not.

Take good care of you and all those who need us to do better 💜✊🏽❤️
As always: thank you all who share when I post about my perimenopause.

It must certainly helps me and I know it helps so many other too, who rarely have other outlets to talk/hear about #menopause besides HRT/No HRT or How To Lose Menopause Belly.

We know there’s so much more!

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More from @monaeltahawy

Jul 15
I’ve been blocking people all morning telling me “You’re a whore. You should’ve kept your legs shut, etc.” like I said: even 10yo rape victim is not “perfect” enough for them and that means no one is. Which is why our demand must be abortion on demand—safe and accessible for all
Rape exceptions are not enough.

Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, Christian zealots in too many states had been chipping away even at rape exceptions.

Abortion on demand--safe and accessible for all--must be the demand
feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-se…
For as long as patriarchy can shroud abortion with silence it will continue to stamp it in shame.

We must shatter that silence, vanquish secrecy, and drag abortion out of the shadows and into the public discourse as the human right that it is.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-on-abo…
Read 4 tweets
Jul 14
As horrific as the case of the 10yo Ohio rape victim who had to go to Indiana for an abortion, and as horrific as the Christian zealots' reaction has been, it is important to say abortion is a human right to all who want it and not just in the most horrific of circumstances.
I had 2 abortions because I did not want to be pregnant. I was not raped. I was not sick. The pregnancies did not threaten my life. I did not already have children. I just did not want to be pregnant. I did not want to have a child. feministgiant.com/p/essay-on-abo…
My abortions were not traumatic – rather the silence around them was traumatic. I am glad I had my abortions. They gave me the freedom to live the life I have chosen.

We do not have to suffer in the worst possible ways to "earn" the right to an abortion.
Read 20 tweets
Jul 14
Last week, I took over @DUALIPA's Service95 newsletter, which is published in 9 languages, with an essay on abortion. You can now read it on FEMINIST GIANT. feministgiant.com/p/essay-on-abo…
I am thrilled that Dua has lent her voice and massive platform to abortion at such a vital time for justice and human rights.

Subscribe for free to Service95 service95.com

And sign up for FEMINIST GIANT feministgiant.com
In my essay, I mention Dr. Meera Shah's You're the Only One I've Told: The Stories Behind Abortion. Next Wednesday in NYC, I will be in conversation with Dr. Shah for FEMINIST GIANT & @strandbookstore Book Club. Sign up for this free in-person event.

strandbooks.com/events/event50… A flyer promoting Feminist ...
Read 4 tweets
Jul 13
As I work on my new essay on menopause, here are a few I've already written: Going through perimenopause during a pandemic has taught me to focus on emerging. We cannot reverse. We will emerge, our hearts unhealed and scarred but awesome. feministgiant.com/p/essay-fallin…
I refuse to emerge as if unscathed. I insist that we all be scathed, that we refuse to be the people we were at the start of the pandemic. A pandemic, like revolution, does not happen overnight. feministgiant.com/p/essay-fallin…
The pandemic and perimenopause--the right &left speaker that give stereo to my life--have fucked up my sleep. Accustomed now to waking up every 2hrs, I have a comfort routine at the ready: I soothe myself with eyeliner. I call it Deliberate Beauty feministgiant.com/p/deliberate-b…
Read 12 tweets
Jul 13
In Japan, the first study to focus on #menopause and work found that ‘menopausal loss’ affected one-fifth of women experiencing menopause, who quit, turned down promotions, reduced their working hours or were demoted as a result of their symptoms. nature.com/articles/d4158…
"Menopause often comes at a time when people move into more senior, more demanding roles. In research, as in other careers,this coincidence is almost certainly causing some to reconsider their career ambitions, adding yet another drain to the ‘leaky pipeline’ of women in science"
“How can I compete with men when I can’t sleep?” Andrea, 50, a senior executive at a Canadian financial services company. “I looked around the table at all the men and thought, ‘I can’t sleep. I sweat all the time. How can I ever compete with these guys?’” thestar.com/life/health_we…
Read 13 tweets
Jul 13
“I learned that sometimes you have to stand up to illegitimate authority and sometimes there are unjust laws that need to be challenged,” Heather Booth, of Jane, the network that provided 11,000 safe and affordable abortion in pre-Roe v Wade Chicago feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…
During protests demanding the legalization of abortion in 2020 on Safe Abortion Day, which is marked on Sept. 28, women charged police lines and threw Molotov cocktails at officers in Mexico City. The images from the protest were a reminder that we must make patriarchy fear us Women in helmets charge at a line of police behind barricade
Less than a year later, on Sept 7, 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court voted to decriminalize abortion, giving momentum to efforts to strike it from state penal codes throughout the country.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-se…
Read 4 tweets

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