If there is one single eternal truth in this world, in my humble opinion, it's this: 'Things change'.

Whether it is the bright light of day with all its sunny promises that gradually fades into the restful though darker hues of night; or the seasons that go from wet to dry to cool and then hot, each bringing its own special brand of magic and masti; or, more prosaically (or even Prozac-ally, given the age we live in) just the way we grow older every day, change is all around us. That there is equal beauty in each change that occurs is something we all agree about, except when it comes to our physical selves.

While in our impatient childhood and youth, we could hardly wait for each passing year to take us to that coveted goal of adulthood, now we do all we can to slow down, if not halt the march of time. But, of course, time and tide wait for no woman and our bodies too must obey this most basic rule of the universe.

This ephemeral nature of life was brought home to me rather forcefully a few months ago when a routine annual check-up turned up three growths in my left breast. My informed and educated mind immediately went into overdrive, fast forwarding me through a mastectomy, tearful family conferences, chemotherapy, radiation…all this even before I could get off the examining table and out of the hospital gown! That they turned out to be two benign cysts and a fibroedanoma is an outcome I thank God for every single day. But what it made me realise is that my body is changing, slowly but surely. It is no longer that of a 25-year-old, there for me to use and abuse as I desire. As I edge closer to my 40s, I am becoming, as my surgeon so succinctly put it, a victim of my hormones.

I could, if I let myself, go into a blind panic over the impending Big Change his words implied. The Change that is lurking around the decade, waiting to rob me of my fertility, my libido, my good mood, my nights of peaceful, cool slumber. Or I could calmly accept the fact, even as I pop my Vitamin E and Evening Primrose Oil capsules, that life as I know it will surely change once I hit menopause. There, I said it. Menopause. A word that only means the end of menstruation, when the ovaries stop producing eggs or ova, but has the power to inspire dread in most of us who face it.