How to Menopause

Tamsen Fadal’s How to Menopause is influenced and inspired by the growing menopause awareness movement, which is interconnected with feminism and women’s rights in general. Feminism means fighting for more inclusive policies, gender diversity acceptance, and women having equal voices on the world stage. For decades, menopause has been under-discussed and scarcely taught in medical school despite it affecting every woman who reaches menopause. Menopause is shrouded in secrecy and stigma that has existed alongside a general tendency to encourage women to be tough and stay quiet. Historically, women who were experiencing a variety of mental or physical illnesses were deemed “hysterical” and put into asylums where they were abused and treated horribly. 

Today, women who report menopausal symptoms are often labeled hypochondriacs, told to deal with it, or told that it’s just normal. While these lines of thought may seem centuries apart, they are not; in both cases, women are being conditioned into thinking they are imagining their problems. The menopause awareness movement seeks to rectify this. In a similar line of thought, women who reach middle-age are often deemed socially irrelevant and undesirable, so necessary affirmations of self-worth come from within and from other middle-aged women.