MENOPAUSE & SUICIDE

Has menopause ever given you thoughts of suicide?

It has for many women, and it’s time we talked about it.

Having Thoughts of Suicide and Being Suicidal Are Not the Same Thing

It’s an important distinction worth making.

I've had thoughts of suicide. I am not suicidal. My husband knows this. I'm allowed to say it out loud in our house, and saying it out loud doesn't make it dangerous -- it makes it honest.

Those thoughts show up on the mornings I wake up drenched in sweat thinking -- really? Again? When a hot flash spreads like heat from the inside out. When the body changes, the exhaustion, the phantom pains, and all of it pile up at once. After more than five years of this, the thought surfaces. And then it passes -- because I think about my husband, the people I love, the life I'm not finished living. And I keep going.

That's how it works for a lot of us.

What keeps most people who have these thoughts from acting on them is consequence. Family. Missed opportunities. The understanding that this feeling, however heavy right now, is not permanent. That's not making light of anything. That's just being honest about how the mind works when the body has been putting you through it for years.

Why Aren’t We Talking More About This?

If we don't talk about it, we can't study it. And if we can't study it, nothing changes.

Research on menopause and suicide is thin. Research on middle-aged men and suicide is extensive. The gap is not an accident -- it reflects decades of women's health being deprioritized in clinical research.

The National Library of Medicine has noted a notably high rate of suicide among women aged 45 to 54, with a potential connection to the biological changes of menopause. That connection deserves far more attention than it currently gets.

Refusing to say the word doesn't protect anyone. It just leaves people sitting alone with a thought they're afraid to voice.

Read the Full Study Here

You Deserve to be Heard

Your thoughts and feelings are valid.

If these thoughts are passing through -- the way they do for a lot of women going through menopause -- you are not alone and you are not broken. Talk to someone you trust. Say it out loud. Let it stop being the thing you carry by yourself.

If the thoughts are not passing, if they are getting louder or more frequent, please reach out. Help exists and it is worth using.

Check out some of the resources below.

Resources

United States

  • Call or text 988 -- Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week

  • Chat online: suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat

  • Hearing impaired TTY: 1-800-799-4889

  • Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255, press 1 -- or text 838255

  • LGBTQ Youth -- The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

  • Teen Hotline: 1-800-872-5437

International