Men With Menopausal Wives - Relationship, Sex, Emotions

Men, I need to know if menopause temporarily replaces your wife with a stranger I’m 53 and menopause has apparently decided to become a full time character in my marriage. My brain feels foggy. My vagina sometimes decides moisture is an optional feature. Sex is less frequent. My fuse is shorter. I argue more. I can get irritated with my husband for reasons that make perfect sense for about three minutes and then later I honestly cannot explain what the hell I was angry about. The poor man is basically a saint. He does things right. He helps. He is patient. And somehow there are days when I look at him and think, “Why are you breathing like that?” Then five minutes later I remember that I actually love him. My body has also been changing. Weight comes on easier, sleep can be weird, energy changes, desire changes, patience changes, and sometimes I feel like somebody took the operating system I had for decades and installed a beta version without asking me. And the funniest part is that sometimes I know I’m being unreasonable while I’m being unreasonable. Apparently self awareness does not always come with brakes. I know women talk a lot about what menopause feels like from our side. But I want to hear from the men living next to it. Not as an interview. Not as “how do you cope with your crazy wife?” I genuinely want the stories. What changed in your relationship? What surprised you? What made you laugh later? What nearly drove you insane? Did sex change? Did affection change? Did you feel rejected? Did you ever think, “Who is this woman and what happened to my wife?” And did anything actually help? I’m writing about this and I think the male side is way more interesting than people admit. So tell me the stuff men usually only say to another man over a beer. I promise I can take it. Probably. Depends what the hormones are doing that day. If you’d like to DM me, please upvote the post and leave a comment first. I get a lot of private messages that really belong in the public discussion. If I don’t reply to your DM, it’s probably because I think the conversation belongs here instead.