Perimenopause in Pictures

Behind the scenes of The Periprofessional's social media

Shelby Tutty, MHA

Aug 23, 2024

The Art of Perimenopause

In addition to writing this Substack publication and my day job, I’m active on social media.

Let me introduce you to my Social Media Manager.

Me (a still from a recent video I filmed)

Yes, that’s right. I create all of my own social media content, including designing graphics, writing captions, reading/responding to comments, and finding questions I can answer for women. My goal is to respond to every comment and interact with as many people as possible. It may take me a few days, but I read and reply as much as I can. I think the point of social media is to be social.

I used to own an online bookstore called Double Up Books (this was before Amazon was the giant it is now). It was a bookstore for parents of twins, triplets & more and was a side gig for me that I enjoyed. I joke that this is why I have twins - I’m always doing multiple things. From this experience, I learned how to create social media content, but now it’s so much easier. I used to make my own graphics from scratch using Photoshop, but now there are tools like Canva.

When I can’t figure something out on my own, I ask my 19-year-old daughter, who is double majoring in Art Education and Studio Art with a minor in Art History. She’s so talented and has helped me out of jams a lot. I’ll envision a picture but won’t know how to create it, and she’ll whip it up for me.

She created this fake book for my article on peeing problems in perimenopause:

My husband’s dream coffee table book that my daughter digitally created.

I write The Periprofessional once a week, but I post interesting things about health and perimenopause a few times a week online, so if you’re looking for more of my content, I invite you to join me on social media.

As you know, I’m not selling anything, so hopefully, that makes it less threatening for people to interact with me. My goal with The Periprofessional is to serve by answering questions, providing education, and helping women feel validated and supported.

Here are the links if you want to follow me online. I follow everyone back unless they don’t have any activity or their account is marked private. I figure those people need space, but if I’m wrong, let me know.

Threads - I’m having so much fun on Threads. Threads gives me the space to really connect with women and interact. There is a large and supportive community of perimenopause and menopause women who share their experiences. Threads only lets you use one hashtag, so I use either #perimenopause or #PerimenopauseThreads. I have over 1,400 followers as of August ‘24. I love them all! They are 87.6% women, .7% male, and 11.7% other.

Facebook - Facebook is my kryptonite. I can figure out a lot of things in life, but I can’t seem to figure this one out. I post at the same frequency as Instagram, but I find it hard to reach people.

Instagram - This is growing slowly, and I’m okay with that. I enjoy posting my visual content and perimenopause information here.

Substack Notes - If you want to get to know me outside of perimenopause content, this is the place to go. I post more about my personal life here. I need variety just as much as everyone else 😁.

I’m the Algorithm’s Worst Nightmare

A lot of what’s popular on social media is fear-based, and the algorithm knows that, so it promotes those things. That isn’t my jam, so often, my work isn’t picked up by the algorithm’s madness. That’s ok. I’m on social media for a whole different reason than to collectively raise everyone’s stress levels.

There’s so much misinformation online about perimenopause, companies trying to take advantage of us by trying to sell us false dreams and things we don’t need, or purposely making things confusing to raise our fear level. You can’t buy your way out of perimenopause, but they make it seem like we can.

I’m trying to make a dent in some of this nonsense by providing trustworthy content without the noise or using fear as a tactic. It’s hard work and goes against the grain, but I refuse to be like everyone else.

The Periprofessional Online

I wanted to share some of what I think my best social media graphics and captions from Instagram/Facebook are:

“This is 52! This is the average age of menopause in the US, according to the US government. Your perimenopause symptoms are not your identity. That's biology, this is YOU!”

You may be reading online that 51, in the US, is the average age of menopause. This is now outdated information. According to the US government, the average age is 52. Not sure how they know this, but they do. It recently bumped up to 52 from 51.
When perimenopause symptoms appear, it’s easy to allow it to also affect our identity. Don’t feel like moving off of the couch? Then we think we must be lazy. But this isn’t correct. Perimenopause is a biological process that affects us in so many ways. It’s not our identity. It would be like telling yourself when you sneeze, “You lazy fool, why did you do that?”

“The deeper I get into perimenopause, the more I feel the pull towards dehydration. Usually, a big water drinker, I'm just not getting the cues as much that it's time to take a sip.

Current water guidelines say you should get at least half your body weight (in lbs) in fluid oz of water (8oz of water is 1 cup of water). Therefore, if you weigh 130 lbs you'll need 65oz of water/day (plus adjust for sweating/exercise/heat/heavy bleeding). If you're really sweating, coconut water or electrolytes can be added to your water.

You can tell if you're hydrated properly by the color of your urine - it should be slightly yellow (not clear, which is normally recommended on the internet -- clear means you're just peeing it out and likely losing salt in the process).

Also be careful of drinking too much water. Brooke Shields recently collapsed on the streets of NYC ‘I flooded my system, and drowned myself. If you don't have enough sodium in your blood or urine or body, you can have a seizure.’ Lucky for her, Bradley Cooper by close by and jumped into the ambulance with her.”

I’ve had so many women tell me that when they increase their water intake to the proper levels, it’s game-changing. There is a right amount of water, and I posted the guidelines above. You don’t have to be perfect to see results. As we age, we lose the ability to detect when we need water, and often older people get dehydrated as a result.
You can use your urine color as a guide to a certain extent; however, all bets are off if you’re bleeding. Your urine color is going to be affected.

“I'm sorry, @tombrady! But that's how badly #perimenopause can affect drive. Probably why your movie wasn't called "50 for Brady."

Because of limitations on Instagram on what I can talk about, I wasn’t able to really talk much about libido, but I’ll have an upcoming article about it.
I had so much fun coming up with the article titles for my imaginary perimenopause magazine! I make myself laugh daily, but I’m still laughing about this one. I plan on making another one soon.

“Wondering why you've never heard of #perimenopause until now? You have! You just didn't realize it.

We're often portrayed in books and movies as crazy women going off the deep end (i.e. Shirley Valentine, Fried Green Tomatoes), middle-aged women locked up for lunacy, or as midlife women confined to bed with a mystery illness.

Perimenopause is real; the hormonal changes are real; the changes in our brain are real; the symptoms are real, and we're not crazy.

We just needed to wait for science to catch up. Thank you, Dr. Mosconi for adding so much to this conversation and for all that you do on our behalf!”

There are a few things that get me fired up about perimenopause, and this is one of them. Historically, perimenopause women have not been treated with the care and respect that they deserve. You have heard of perimenopause; we just didn’t realize it. The word perimenopause was first written in 1962. It’s taken this long for it to become more understood and common. And we’re only at the tip of the iceberg.

“In #perimenopause, our hormones go haywire and can cause symptoms like #hotflashes. Hot flashes are caused by your brain being sensitive to subtle changes in your body's temperature.

When this happens, your brain can release stress chemicals, like adrenaline and cortisol, to cope with your overactive temperature regulation system. These stress chemicals can cause a panicky feeling.

The feeling should go away on its own with time. However, you can speed up the process by going for a gentle walk or out into nature.

If you want to better understand your body through the change, subscribe to my free & weekly newsletter, The Periprofessional. Link in bio.”

In addition to massive heat and drenching sweat in seconds, hot flashes can also come with a feeling of doom or anxiety. I explained why above. Everyone experiences hot flashes differently, from mild to severe. You can have them once or several times a day (At one time, I had them about every 30 minutes all day long). You can have them overnight - called night sweats.
I haven’t yet written about hot flashes on my site, but I plan to. Of course, I do! Hot flashes usually occur in middle perimenopause. Visit The Musical Dynamics of Perimenopause if you would like to learn about the phases of perimenopause.

Taking a Pause on Perimenopause Art

This section is for my entertainment.

I was sitting on a plane watching a man create an ad for a popular tropical vacation resort for a family vacation. As a mother, the ad did not appeal to me AT ALL. It was fun to watch how he created it, but I thought I could come up with something better.

Let me know in the comments which version you like more. Was I on the right track? I won’t be offended by your choice; I’m just curious.

This is not the actual ad but my reproduction of the vibe.

This looks chaotic. It would not be relaxing for me to have my child hanging off of me like this while I’m trying to enjoy my vacation. Let’s think about what I had to do to get us there and everything I needed to remember! I would need a break by then.