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Women don't know whether to laugh or cry over this 'Perry Menopause' comedy sketch

No one fully prepares you for "Perry" moving in, but she's the worst roommate ever.

The Holderness Family/Facebook

Kim Holderness meets her unwelcome new roommate, Perry Menopause.

Whether you are female yourself or you love someone who is, there's someone you need to be introduced to. Perry Menopause—or perimenopause in the real world—is a witch with a b who suddenly moves into your life sometime in your 40s, bringing with her all kinds of baggage and annoyances.

For some reason, no one fully prepares women for her arrival. Sure, we all hear about menopause itself all the time. You know about hot flashes. You know the hormonal changes and end of your menstruating years are coming sometime down the road, but that's it. Nobody informs you ahead of time that for years and yearsbefore menopause your body is going to go through drastic changes that will leave you constantly saying WTF?! and wondering if you have some horrible, hidden disease or if it's "just hormones" from perimenopause.

Let me tell you right now, there's no such thing as "just hormones." Hormones are potent and powerful, and they affect basically every single function in your body, as this Holderness Family skit about Perry Menopause illustrates.

Let’s run down a partial list of unwanted luggage this uninvited roommate brings with her, shall we? Perimenopause can cause upwards of 100 different symptoms, which include:

- heart palpitations

- hair loss

- joint pain

- forgetfulness

- foot cramps

- itching

- weight gain

- hot flashes

- cold flashes

- poor night vision

The really fun thing about this list is that a whole lot of these things can be indicators of something much more serious, so for years you get to play games like “Is it lymphoma/arthritis/a heart attack/dementia or is it perimenopause?"

And a lot of times your doctor is no help because they either have no idea that perimenopause is a thing or they pull the "just hormones" line as if the upheaval of your entire body is "just" something you're supposed to live with.

Watch Kim Holderness meeting Perry Menopause officially for the first time:

Women in the comments were thrilled to see what they've experienced being validated in such a funny way.

"This is all spot on," wrote one commenter. "I'm so glad that menopause and especially perimenopause is being highlighted more to help make us ladies not feel so crazy and gives men (and doctors) an idea that it actually exists!"

"I was just going to say that Perry is a B*$ch but you beat me to it," shared another commenter. "The itching, weight is the same but have shift to different places, acne, mood swings, lack of sleep…yup, the pleasures that we go through. My poor husband and son have to deal with Perry as well."

"So f-ing true. Perry’s been around me about 8 years. Getting pretty tired of her! Also, what about brain fog!!!" wrote another.

"I don’t know if I should laugh or cry because you guys NAILED it!!! (But that’s just Perry confusing my emotions again)," shared another. "The only thing I would add is the back and forth between hot & cold all night! 🥴 kicking covers off, then to get cold, then to get warm, so you just let the one leg out of the covers. 😳 Finally finding a way to push covers away onto my husband and just end up with the top sheet! Go away Perry!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣"

Kim explained that her husband Penn was actually the one who wrote the skit, which is admirable because it means he's been paying attention. Perry Menopause may be a fictitious person, but perimenopause is real, she's the worst and we definitely need to talk about her more.

You can follow The Holderness Family on Facebook for more hilariously relatable skits like this.

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Charlize Theron fires back at claims that she got 'bad plastic surgery'

She blames the rumors on Hollywood's double standard when it comes to aging.

www.flickr.com

Charlize Theron does not mince words.

No, Charlize Theron hasn’t had “bad plastic surgery.” Like many women (scratch that, make it all women, all people in fact), her face simply looks different as a byproduct of growing older.

"My face is changing," the “Atomic Blonde” actress told Allure. “People think I had a facelift. They're like, 'What did she do to her face?' I'm like, 'B----, I'm just aging! It doesn't mean I got bad plastic surgery. This is just what happens.'"

While Theron doesn’t condemn cosmetic procedures, what she “despises” is a societal double standard where “men kind of age like fine wines and women like cut flowers.”

This isn’t the first time Theron has used that analogy to highlight the glaring discrepancy between how we collectively allow men to gain value as they grow older, while women are given an invisible expiration date.

Back in 2012 for a Q&A with WWD, she said, “It’s like we wilt for some reason. And men are like fine wines — the older they get, the better they get,” adding that the misconception is “such a lost opportunity because that’s when I think women are really in the true moment of their sensuality.”

That latter point is one echoed by several other fellow actresses of a similar age and beyond, such as Kate Winslet, Andie MacDowell and Jane Fonda, who have all shared anecdotes of feeling more confident, more sexy and overall more in their element during life’s later chapters.

And while ageism certainly affects both the sexes, there’s no denying that the beauty industry specifically profits from the notion of women “wilting” after 30—and that’s being generous, coming from someone who was already up-to-date with all the anti-aging trends at the ripe old age of 23.

via GIPHY

At the same time, society has also taken to shaming women (female celebrities in particular) for “getting work done”—often labeling them as vain, superficial, insecure, fake, etc. It’s a precarious place to be in, being either shunned for growing older or lambasted for trying to avoid it.

America Ferrera said it best in her "Barbie" monologue: “It’s literally impossible to be a woman.” That goes for beauty icons and regular folks alike.

As for Theron, her changing face is seen as a good thing—doubles standards be damned. What she does take umbrage with is how it’s affected her fitness.

“More than my face, I wish I had my 25-year-old body that I can just throw against the wall and not even hurt tomorrow. Now, if I don’t work out for three days and I go back to the gym, I can’t walk. I can’t sit down on the toilet,” she told Allure.

Stars—they really are just like us.

Read Theron’s full interview with Allure here.

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Health

After a tragic birth story out of Atlanta, an OBGYN breaks down 'maneuvers of last resort'

"A shoulder dystocia, if you don't know, is an obstetric emergency."

Dr. Fatima Daoud|TikTok

OB-GYN breaks down shoulder dystocia after tragedy in Atlanta.

TRIGGER WARNING: This story contains graphic details of childbirth trauma and infant loss.

A couple in Atlanta, Georgia, experienced a devastating loss that by all stretches of the imagination seems impossible. Unfortunately, the unimaginable is one of the rarest of rare birth complications that resulted in the loss of their newborn son.

Jessica Ross and her partner, Treveon Taylor, were excitedly awaiting the delivery of their first child when during the pushing stage of labor, baby Treveon Taylor Jr.'s shoulder got stuck. According to the Cleveland Clinic, shoulder dystocia is when one or both of the baby's shoulders get stuck behind a bone in the pelvis, which doesn't allow the baby to exit the birth canal.

Ross found herself in this very situation, which eventually resulted in an emergency situation in which the doctor had to dislodge the baby from the pelvis and perform a Cesarean section. It is suspected that the force with which the baby was dislodged caused the infant's decapitation.

Doctors and nurses on TikTok have been taking to the app in an attempt to explain how a situation like this occurs. Dr. Fatima Daoud, OB-GYN uploaded two separate videos expanding on information about shoulder dystocia and what she says are "maneuvers of last resort." She explains in the video that maneuvers of last resort are actions taken by the provider that may cause harm to the baby but are necessary to save the baby's and/or mother's life.

"The first thing I'm going to say is that shoulder dystocia, it's rare. But when it does happen it's an unpredictable, unpreventable medical emergency," Daoud explains. "There are risk factors, sure, for shoulder dystocia. But actually, the majority of shoulder dystocias happen in people who have no risk factor at all."

This essentially means that there's no way for a doctor or midwife to know that you may experience shoulder dystocia while delivering your baby. But when it happens, things have to move extremely quickly because once the baby's face hits the air, the clock has started. There are only a few minutes to get the baby out before they've been deprived of oxygen for too long. During this time doctors and nurses try multiple different ways to dislodge the baby's shoulder but if all else fails, they have to move to the maneuvers of last resort.

Daoud explains that decapitation due to shoulder dystocia is "astronomically, astronomically rare" before revealing that it doesn't always mean malpractice has occurred.

@doctordaoud

#stitch with @wykeishaforthecommunity Major content warning here, but I do feel that as medical professionals we have an obligation to responsibly and respectfully weigh in on prominent medical-related news.

"Is because, when we're trying to resolve a shoulder dystocia when it happens, there are multiple maneuvers that we do. Three of them are what we call maneuvers of last resort. The extreme stuff," Daoud continues. If the extreme stuff doesn't work, what are you going to do? If nothing is working, what are you going to do? And a decapitation is the answer. I'm so sorry to say this, but that doesn't automatically mean malpractice took place."

The OB-GYN apologized multiple times in the video understanding that it's not pleasant information, but it's necessary information to have in order to understand how the couple's doctor may have gotten to that point. It has been reported that this couple's baby died before the Cesarean took place due to how long he was stuck in the birth canal.

In a follow-up video, Daoud goes into more detail about the three last-resort maneuvers before something as horrific as a decapitation occurs. One involves breaking the baby's clavicle to force the shoulders past the pubic bone, and the very last one is the "Zavanelli maneuver," in which they attempt to push the baby back into the uterus via the birth canal.

"Performing a Cesarean in the middle of shoulder dystocia is very much different than performing a Cesarean section that's scheduled or in labor," Daoud says. "It's not even comparing apples to oranges. It's like comparing an apple to a truck."

She goes on to explain that if the Zavanelli Maneuver is unsuccessful and you've attempted all of the other maneuvers of last resort prior to the Zavanelli, the focus becomes saving the mom. Daoud is clear that she is not speculating on the case from Atlanta but explaining how an infant death like this can occur.

It's a tragic thing to consider and an even more tragic thing to experience. Everyone is wishing the parents currently experiencing this unimaginable loss comfort during this difficult time.

@doctordaoud

Replying to @RaideretteRaiderLicious It’s not as simple as making a cut and scooping the baby out like a typical c-section, though I obviously cannot say what did and did not take place during this tragedy. #zavanellimaneuver #shoulderdystocia

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