ARTE – TUESDAY JUNE 25 AT 10:30 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY
Menopause, a taboo subject? Not quite anymore. But difficult to tackle head-on, on television as elsewhere. In her documentary, Julie Talon stages a collection of twelve moving and spontaneous testimonies. She gives the floor to women who need to speak, to make this difficult period visible to everyone.
Insomnia, cold sweats, mood swings, depression, weight gain, tears, reduced libido… Some don’t even talk to their partner about it. They cross the river of menopause alone on their raft. “It doesn’t interest the medical profession, it’s ‘a girl’s story, palpitations and bad sleep, who cares’. Except that it generates incredible discomfort”summarizes one of the women who speak anonymously – interviewed at their home, we see their faces, but none of them is named, we know neither their age nor their past, as a way of showing that they represent a common history.
Also read the survey (2023): Article reserved for our subscribers Women and menopause: “I realized that it could turn your life upside down, but that no one talked to me about it”
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The taboo also affects the image of these women on the small and big screen: “In the cinema or in advertising, for example, the woman aged 50 to 60 is not represented at all, we see her reappear when she is 70, dancing with her towel for urinary leakssays a mother. Me, in the story, I don’t recognize myself at all. »
“Terribly disabling”
We must therefore learn to love ourselves without others, without the gaze of a partner or through the eyes of people in the street. “It’s terribly debilitating. For two years, I felt like I was on hold. Clearly, I’m losing life points”sighs one of them.
Sometimes gynecologists diagnose perimenopause (or premenopause), a period that can last up to four years. They then propose nothing less than… removing the uterus! An idea experienced as “a kind of mutilation” : we explain to them, in short, that they are no longer “useful”.
Read also (2022): Article reserved for our subscribers “The silence surrounding menopause must become a cacophony”: the British in the midst of hormonal upheaval
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Today, 500,000 women enter menopause each year, all of them women aged 55 or over. This is a “normal” evolution of the female body. They all go through this. However, they all feel guilty. This documentary highlights this female “shame”, and the desire to talk about it, which is often cathartic.
Read the survey (2023) | Article reserved for our subscribers The long history of menopause
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Beyond menopause, Julie Talon makes us discover what it’s like to age. For many women, acceptance is all there is to it. Taking responsibility for your body and your new desires is part of life. Physically, socially, it’s something else. “There is this weight of society, which says, for example, that it is not good to be fat. They tell you: “If you do not manage your body, you do not manage your life either.” In the eyes of others, it is a little your fault.”
Also read the testimonials (2020): Article reserved for our subscribers “A real hell”, “a liberation”, “a micmac”… Women talk about their menopause
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Menopause, when women talk about it, documentary by Julie Talon (Fr., 2023, 52 min). On Arte.tv until January 23, 2025.
