About Menopause

The better we are informed about all areas of The Menopause Years, the better choices we can make for ourselves or support those we love.

“Though the old woman is both feared and reviled, she need not take the intolerance of others to heart, for women over fifty are already one of the largest groups in the population structure of the Western world. As long as they like themselves, they will not be an oppressed minority.”
The Change – Women, Ageing and The Menopause
Germaine Greer, 2019

We often only hear awful stories about menopause, but the reality is that the menopause experience is vast and varied. Many women have mild symptoms, some moderate, and others are severe. Often these symptoms are temporary, but occasionally they’re long-lasting.

Menopause still appears to be the domain of the medical model, where women often must fight to be heard and educate themselves on what this time of life means to them. Many find themselves given antidepressants and a diagnosis of depression without further investigation and receive little understanding or effective, practical solutions.

Menopause does start a series of biological events (known as windows of vulnerability) that increases a woman’s risk of several medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. But menopause isn’t the only aspect of life to be considered at this time.

We need to broaden the scope from a medical model perspective (focusing on and ‘fixing’ symptoms) towards a more holistic standpoint, including self-determination, education and choice.

Managing menopause is the ultimate exercise in a holistic or whole-body approach. Because the menopause transition occurs at a time, with the possibility of so many changes arising, it is important not to conclude that every symptom is hormone-related. Instead, it is helpful to gain reliable information about everything that is ‘menopause-adjacent’. The greater this understanding, the more women can advocate for the care, interventions or support they need.

“It is important to remember in all this that menopause is not a disease”

Because menopause is such a large topic, other pages will go into more detail