Happy World Menopause Day 2025!

Hello and welcome to Divergent Menopause, previously known as The Autistic Perimenopause: A Temporary Regression.I am Sam Galloway (she/her) and I am an AuDHD woman seven weeks into surgical menopause (hysterectomy).If you are interested, you can read more on why I needed the surgery here.Thanks for joining me on this wild midlife ride! 🎢October 18th marks the annual event that is World Menopause Awareness Day! In this video and podcast episode, I take you through the advice (see the six posters below and here) provided by the World Menopause Society for 2025’s theme of Lifestyle Medicine in Menopausal Health!Closed captions and transcript available too.🎥 Prepare yourself for much brain fog, sarcasm and despair as I explore the multiply astonishing ways in which this mainstream advice is, at best, inaccessible and, at worst, detrimental to neurodivergent people going through this life transition. 🎧Here is last year’s World Menopause Day post from me.Some resources referenced in the video/podcast today:I wrote this article on Blue Zones earlier in the year, because I have always been obsessed with longevity research. However, I am now extremely scornful on the topic as you will find out if you read this, or listen to the podcast episode link in the following post:This is a great read on the narrow minded push for Mediterranean style diets:The six (!) International Menopause Society posters I share in the video, brimming with unreachable targets for so many of us who don’t and can’t conform to neuro-normative expectations:Below is my viral 2024 post, which shows that our way of being in the world is totally valid and important. Maybe we need anti-goals for menopause lifestyle advice. What would yours be? I would love to know in the comments.Take good care of yourself. 💐And be realistic about it, the above International Menopause Society goals were not written with neurodivergence, chronic illness and disability in mind.Cheers,Divergent Menopause is a labour of love. Each article takes hours to research, write and edit. If you have found my ongoing advocacy work valuable, please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you are able to. Thank you 💕 Get full access to Divergent Menopause at samgallowayaudhd.substack.com/subscribe