A conversation with creator Meredith Kasper
On March 5, I had the pleasure of sitting down in True Nature Healing Arts with Meredith Kasper, a Carbondale local, to talk about her game WTFF?! Perimenopause.
Kasper has spent over a year developing this delightful card game for the purpose of connecting people and providing a resource for perimenopause, which is the transition into menopause. Symptoms such as emotional dysregulation, fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, libido changes, and more begin affecting daily life as hormone production decreases.
“It shouldn’t just be on women to learn about this,” Kasper said. “It’s geared towards women, but it’s not exclusive.”
WTFF stands for “welcome to fun and facts” and, according to everyone who has played her game, it is relatable and full of laughter.
Originally from the Lakewood-Denver area, Kasper has been in the valley off and on since 1994. For a time, she taught American Sign Language and Spanish at Colorado Mountain College. Now, she offers custom Spanish courses for law enforcement, teachers, medical providers and more for specialized vocabulary. To boot, Kasper is also a massage therapist!
With this background in education, Kasper created a game that brings people together to talk about a stage of life that affects 42.5 million people at any given moment in the United States. “Menopause is just one day: it is the one year anniversary of your last period,” Kasper said, adding, “Everything after that is postmenopause technically, but we clump it all together as menopause.”
She clarified that people have menopausal symptoms before the end of their period and that those symptoms do not end when the period does.
“I created the game so that women have a fun way to learn about perimenopause and about the symptoms, what’s going on with their bodies, different things that can help, and feel less alone in the process of it all,” Kasper said.
Kasper’s game is designed for three to 16 players. There are six card categories and players roll a dice to determine which card to play. If one is rolled, players choose a card from the first section called “Sketching It Out.” The card says to draw “bloating” and the other players guess the word based on the drawing.
When the dice lands on a two, the category is “Play On Words.” This section has spoonerisms, like “Flot Hashes” (Hot Flashes) and letter scrambles, like GNATBOIL (bloating). The third category is “Three Things.”
“This category has a lot more education and learning opportunities,” Kasper said. “For instance: ‘Name three things that estrogen influences.’ Some examples are bone strength, heart health, stabilized mood, and cognitive function.”
The first three categories are worth two points and each player has 45 seconds to guess the answers correctly. The next categories are one point. Also, Kasper added the rules at the top of the cards in case of a memory lapse –– a common perimenopause symptom.
Category four is “Did You Know?” This section is all about biology. Players read aloud cards that define testosterone, the mitochondria, and more so everyone learns something! Additionally, the game has a QR code linking a resource Kasper made that lists perimenopause symptoms, defines words like heart, mitochondria, etc., and has articles and podcasts for further research.
“Wisdom” is the fifth section. Cards have quotes to be shared out loud, like: “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you,” a quote by Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Category six is a mix of cards like “No More Gaslighting,” “You Are Not Alone,” “Reframe,” “Cultural Twists,” and “Wild Card: All Play Stronger Together.” This section is information dense and played by the whole group, so after reading the card, the players can pick from a different category.
One card from the gaslighting section says, “Your symptoms are valid; if you feel off you’re not imagining it. Example: body temperature swings. One minute you’re freezing, the next you’re sweating through your clothes. It’s not all in your head. Your hypothalamus –– the body’s thermostat –– is being influenced by hormonal fluctuations. Reflect and share. Have you or others dismissed your symptoms?”
The reframing section is very sweet; an example we pulled said to “honor your fine lines and wrinkles as powerful markers of your wisdom and life experiences. Share a story about a time of growth, strength, resilience, or a time that made you smile,” and reminded us that “aging isn’t the enemy, we are just at a different stage.”
The “Cultural Twist” cards remind players that in different cultures, they embrace aging and perimenopause differently than we may have been taught. For example, indigenous cultures in Africa, China, and even Greece have the crone archetype where elderly women are seen as knowledgeable, authentic and intuitional.
Towards the end of our conversation, I noted that every phase in a woman’s life is another puberty where women continue to go through rebirths. Kasper replied beautifully, saying “We are going out as other people are coming in.”
There are “New Ladies Night” events facilitated by Kasper. “I’ve really enjoyed all of the events because there are a lot of ‘me too!’ and ‘I didn’t realize that!’ moments,” Kasper said. “It is a comfortable place for women to share.” There will be another event this April. Also, if you would like to host a private event, that is available! You can get a group together and Kasper will help facilitate it.
Kasper’s game WTFF?! Perimenopause aims to destigmatize all of the misunderstandings and misinformation about this stage of life.
The game can be found on Etsy and in 12 stores across Colorado. Local stores include Lulubelle, True Nature Healing Arts, The Launchpad, Bleu Door Boutique, and Aspen Emporium.
Listen to an interview with Meredith Kasper on KDNK Community Access Radio on Thursday April 2 at 4pm.