I joined a club a few years back – against my will and against my better judgment. Kicking and screaming, I became a card carrying member of "The Big M" club. Women who’ve lost their monthly cycles and any last vestige of comfort or emotional equanimity are all members.

We don’t have a secret handshake or bylaws. We recognize one another by our perennially raised eyebrows and the literal sweat of our brows.

Surviving this transition is dodgy. If it weren’t for the Venuses, our community of menopause goddesses, I seriously doubt I’d have made it through this. (It’s likely that my loving husband wouldn’t have either, for I’d have probably strangled him for some minor infraction like breathing too loudly or he’d have had to go on walkabout for a year or two to escape the "heat" in our home.)

Our small community has allowed us to not only survive during the second half of our lives, but to thrive, grow, and celebrate. We wanted to connect and share with our sister menopause goddesses (and hopefully keep you all from experiencing some of the crap we went through!) And so the Menopause Goddess Blog was born, expanding and enriching our community, offering help, heart, and humor. Not surprisingly, we’ve learned as much from our readers as we shared. That’s what happens when women offer wisdom to one another.

And now a couple of changes have become necessary to the blogsite. The spammers have made it a freaking nightmare, by using the comment section to advertise porn, penis enlargement, (surely every human on earth has received those emails dozens of times, so stop already!), and cheap prescription drugs. I literally cannot keep up with them. It’s a sort of good news- bad news joke. The good news is the site gets lots of traffic. The bad news is that the more popular the site, the more the spammers flock to it. So the webmasters have put a small box of those letters and numbers to type in when you comment, to decrease the amount of spam.

I HATE those little boxes, especially when they are so warped that you can’t tell what they are (at least my menopausal eyes can’t.) Our kindly webmasters have created one that is as user friendly as possible. And if you have any trouble, just send your comment to me and I’ll post it myself – just click on the "Contact Us" box at the top right of the home page.

While the website is being updated, I’d like to know what additions or changes you might like to see. What subjects should be addressed most urgently? What would enhance the online community for you? I and the Venuses still advocate everyone starting/joining their own Venus group in addition to our online circle – how can we help? We look forward to hearing from you!