When I was in my early teens, my mother went through stages of being uncharacteristically angry and sometimes tearful for no apparent reason after a lifetime of being pretty mild-mannered and cheerful. She would walk around fanning her face, complaining about how hot and stuffy it was. It was the middle of winter and we lived in the Black Forest in Germany. I put it down to just one more weird thing parents did and never thought to ask her what was going on.
I forgot all about this over the years as I had children myself. I stopped menstruating after getting an IUD in my early 40s and felt the liberation that comes with one less item of body maintenance.
