Apparently, my body has scheduled a change of administration.

No public hearing. No formal invitation. No transition team. Just brutal hormonal negotiations.

I have questions, comments and concerns.

Who authorized this!?

Because I’ve governed a city, managed budgets, survived elections, raised five children, and navigated political tension…

But nobody told me my ovaries could stage an insurrection!

I thought I knew something about power, pressure, surviving the hour…

Until I started sweating in the middle of a shower!

How am I hot while I’m wet?

Why am I sweating before I break a sweat? Why am I standing in front of the freezer trying to remember what I came to get?

And don’t touch that thermostat!

Peri means around. Menopause means the end.

But whoever named this condition must’ve been a man who didn’t have a menopausal friend!

My hormones are raging

Sleep patterns rearranging.

And my patience?

Has officially resigned.

My brain has started buffering.

My memory went on strike.

I lose my keys, my train of thought, sometimes the words I’m trying to say…

But remember an argument from 1998 with enough evidence to reopen the case TODAY!

WHO AUTHORIZED THIS?!

We learned about menstruation, ovulation, fertility, and reproduction.

But somehow skipped the entire chapter on hormonal reconstruction.

And now we’ve got anxiety, brain fog, sleepless nights, and bodies we barely recognize.

And some women are being called difficult, dramatic, emotional, or weak…

When what they need is somebody who will listen and give their symptoms room to speak.

Because we’ve been carrying generations on backs that never rest.

Still expected to perform at our best.

But who holds the woman everybody else runs to? And who decided that because a woman’s body is changing, her value must be changing too?

This is too much and….

Who authorized this!?

Now don’t misunderstand me.

I’m not giving up my crown.

I’m just trying to figure out why my internal temperature keeps shutting the whole kingdom down!

I still have purpose. Still have passion. Still have rhythm. Still have style.

I just need a portable fan and somewhere to sit for a little while!

My hormones may be unpredictable, but my future is not done.

See, we are not expired. We are not erased. We are not less valuable because our bodies changed pace.

And apparently, we’ve reached a new level of organization.

Because somebody actually organized an entire celebration… ABOUT MENOPAUSE!

We have officially moved from menstruation to mobilization!

From hormonal negotiations to organized demonstrations!

And if anybody asks what all these grown women are doing gathered in one location…

Tell them…

WE ARE HOLDING A CHANGE-OF-ADMINISTRATION MEETING! We are trying to figure out…

Who authorized this?! And though we can’t determine who did…

consider this our official notice…

THE PERIODS ARE LEAVING,

BUT THE WOMEN AIN’T!