When anthropologist Margaret Lock investigated menopause in American, Canadian, and Japanese women, she uncovered a fascinating fact: “The Change” was not nearly as scary, painful, or emotionally challenging for Japanese women. What American women take to be truth, that menopause will be a time for hot flashes, pains, and emotional tidal waves, Japanese women don’t dwell on. In fact, the Japanese language didn’t even have a direct translation of a word to describe menopause. Whereas 85% of American women experienced hot flashes, only 12% of Japanese women experienced them. Hot flashes also wasn’t a term that was translated into Japanese. [1]So what is it that makes these two experiences so drastically different?
American Women: The Menopause Experience
The culture surrounding menopause among American women seems almost helpless. “The Change” is perceived as this inevitable shift in the body and hormones, a change that will impact not only the woman experiencing it, but everyone around her. On menopause, author Sandra Tsing Loh writes, “The literature of menopause is the saddest, the most awful, and the most medical of all genres. You're sleepless, you're anxious, you're fat, you're depressed - and the advice is always the same: take more walks, eat some kale, and drink lots of water. It didn't help.” Famed actress and comedian Joan Rivers once said, “A study says owning a dog makes you ten years younger. My first thought was to rescue two, but I don’t want to go through menopause again.” And yet, within the onslaught of negative experiences, there is an urge, a desire, that this time be a blossoming, rather than a closing.
Oprah Winfrey once said,
So many women I’ve talked to see menopause as an ending. But I’ve discovered this is your moment to reinvent yourself after years of focusing on the needs of everyone else. It’s your opportunity to get clear about what matters to you and then to pursue that with all of your energy, time and talent.[2]
There is a desire that this time be fruitful, rather than fretful. But with many of the symptoms, like hot flashes, that American women experience, it can be a huge struggle to focus on the beauty of this shift. However, if menopause came without the symptoms, or if the symptoms were dramatically lessened, it could evolve into this time for reflection, for growth, for revitalization for American women. It’s not impossible to imagine. Japanese women have been living with menopause as “A Change” rather than “The Change” for centuries.
Japanese Women: The Menopause Experience
It’s Not Stress
Many Japanese women don’t think of menopause as a difficult time. It’s a part of life, the process of change, but not an interruption that departs from the norm. Why does menopause affect American women so differently than Japanese women? Some could say stress levels are higher in the US, leading to higher cortisol levels and more emotional unease around menopause. And yet, a recent study on stress levels showed that stress in Japan is barely less than that of the United States. This Bloomberg study incorporated factors like homicide rates, GDP per capita (adjusted for purchasing-power parity), income inequality, corruption perception, unemployment, urban air pollution and life expectancy.[3]Stress doesn’t play a big role, and it’s not an excuse that can be validated. There must be something else that either happens to Americans or something else that Japanese do that Americans don’t.
Prevention and Health
Let’s look at health and health systems. Japan does have a tendency to focus on preventative medicine, which has been linked to less cases of obesity and health-and-income disparity. The focus on preventative medicine often begins with food, and that is one area that has been studied significantly in the last few years. The amount of soy intake differs drastically between American and Japanese women. Soy provides the body with more natural isoflavones which have been studied for their effects on regulating hormonal imbalances.
Eating Habits
The daily diet with looking at Americans compared to Japanese is a huge factor in wellbeing. Americans, according to national studies, don’t eat a healthy diet.
About three-fourths of the population has an eating pattern that is low in vegetables, fruits, dairy, and oils.More than half of the population is meeting or exceeding total grain and total protein foods recommendations, but, as discussed later in the chapter, are not meeting the recommendations for the subgroups within each of these food groups. Most Americans exceed the recommendations for added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium.[4]
In comparison, the daily diet of Japanese includes fish, soy, broth-based soups, vegetables and fruit. But it’s also a lifestyle, not just a shift in what you eat. Naomi Moriyama, co-author of Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen, says,
The magic of Japan-style eating is a healthier balance of filling, delicious lower-calorie foods, presented with beautiful portion control in pretty little dishes and plates... the average Japanese person eats about 25% fewer calories per day than the average American, which could partly explain their lengthy lifespan.[5]
By eating with your eyes, the body fills up faster. Also, studies show that eating just 8% fewer calories a day, while slightly improving activity level, could be sufficient to elongate life, according to the University of Florida College of Medicine suggests.[6]
Conclusion
These trends are interwoven into the daily fabric of life for the Japanese. But it’s never to learn something new. American women can benefit from the findings of Japan. By shifting diet to focus on healthy foods, aiming at prevention rather than treatment, perhaps answers will be found in how to ease the symptoms of menopause. And when the symptoms of menopause diminish, that time in life goes from being “The Change” to “A Change,” just one more shift in the beautifully evolving life of a woman.
[1]https://newrepublic.com/article/115705/japanese-women-handle-menopause-differently-american-women
[2]https://smokymountainnaturals.com/blogs/news/menopause-quotes
[3]https://www.atlasandboots.com/most-stressed-countries/
[4]https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/chapter-2/current-eating-patterns-in-the-united-states/
[5]https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diets-of-world-japanese-diet#1
[6]https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diets-of-world-japanese-diet#1
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