Menopause: A Truly "Hot" Topic (Part I)
A natural season, or something to "fix?"
Happy Tuesday, health heroes!
Gentlemen, you may have seen this headline and thought, “This isn’t for me!” But I have news for you: every woman in your life has gone through menopause, or will eventually. There is a great benefit to understanding what the heck is going on — so you can not only support the ladies in your life, but have informed, useful conversations around a topic as natural as breathing.
Not to mention that when women are comfortable, confident and optimistic about this stage in their life, they’re often much more fun for men to be around!
Let’s cut to the chase: menopause in American culture is often treated as something to “fix.” I myself was “diagnosed” with menopause by my doctor — haha! Good heavens.
As soon as women begin noticing changes—hot flashes, mood swings, or disrupted sleep—they’re met with endless ways to replace hormones or counter the “change.” It’s no wonder so many women feel unsettled by this transition, questioning their bodies and sometimes feeling like they’re falling apart.
What if we viewed menopause differently? What if, instead of something to treat, we saw menopause as an opportunity for improvement, transformation, and nourishment? Now, that’s not something my doctor would talk about after giving me a ‘diagnosis’!
I believe this change in perspective could profoundly alter how American women navigate their health. Instead of being driven by fear of symptoms, they could feel empowered, supported, and in control.
Rather than being bombarded with products that prey on symptoms and concerns, they’d have resources to help them learn, grow, and thrive through this life stage.
What Symptoms Are We Talking About Here?
Here’s a brief list of things women might experience during the different stages of menopause.
These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency depending on the individual. It’s also hard to distinguish between menopausal symptoms and other health concerns.
Genetics plays a significant role in how a woman experiences menopause, too. Most women can look to their mothers for a good perspective on how they might handle their menopausal years. However, lifestyle behaviors will, of course, have a huge impact.
One of the tricky things about menopause is that its symptoms can overlap with other health issues, making it difficult for women to know when something is related to menopause and when it might be a more serious health concern.
For example, I experienced heart arrhythmias that subsided a few months into menopause. I never had a history of heart palpitations – so was this coincidence or not? I know, without scientific evidence, that this was a hormone shift-inducing arrhythmia. All my doctor could do was shrug his shoulders.
Fatigue, mood swings, and weight changes, as another example, are all common menopause symptoms — but they could also indicate thyroid disorders, depression from other sources, or cardiovascular issues. Can you see why this season of life is so challenging for aging women? Ugh!
Understanding this overlap of symptoms is critical because post-menopausal women are at higher risk for certain diseases like osteoporosis and heart disease due to declining estrogen levels. It’s worth asking: does the hormonal shift during menopause make us more vulnerable to disease, or could there also be a protective effect? The answer is undoubtedly both.
As women gain wisdom and maturity through this transition, could there be an opportunity to make health decisions that support both the body and mind as they age? Please say it’s so.
A Culture Focused on Treatment
Let’s take a step back for a moment and ponder how Americans manage women’s menopausal symptoms. We treat menopause uniquely – unlike almost any other condition we experience.
How often do you see exogenous sex hormones given to patients, except in sex changes? Not often.
Think about how we manage other times of life when we are experiencing significant hormone shifts – do we use pharmaceuticals to manage those times? What if we gave teenagers going through puberty hormone therapy? That’s preposterous thinking.
So, then, why do we think it’s normal to do this for women during menopause? That is the Western medicine approach.
Admittedly, I do have a more natural approach to my health philosophy (see last week’s article to learn more about health philosophies and why they’re essential). I’ve also known many women who get relief from hormone therapy, so there are some benefits to be sure. But for me and my personal health philosophy, I believe there’s got to be a better method.
The global hormone replacement therapy market accounted for $21.8 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach 40.1 billion by 2032. Millions of women are caught in an endless cycle of chasing treatments for menopause as if it’s an ailment rather than a natural phase of life.
What is happening here? It’s the case of a pharmaceutical-first culture.
Again, an estimated 75 million women in the U.S. are either going through menopause or are post-menopausal. If the average life expectancy for a woman is around 80-85, most of us will spend nearly half our lives in a post-menstruation phase.
That’s half a lifetime we’re being told to “fix” rather than live through. What if we approached menopause with curiosity, fortifying the body to embrace it and being given support and confidence to do so?
What Can We Learn From Other Cultures?
Interestingly, not all cultures share the same outlook on menopause. In Japan, for instance, menopause is often seen as a smoother transition, partly because of a diet rich in phytoestrogens, such as soy, and a cultural reverence for aging. Women there tend to experience fewer symptoms like hot flashes, and there’s less emphasis on “treating” menopause. It’s a natural stage of life, not something to fear.
In France, there’s a balance between using hormone therapy and embracing aging. While medical intervention is available, there’s also an acknowledgment that aging is a natural process that can be supported through lifestyle changes, homeopathy, and wellness practices. There’s a cultural embrace of the natural shifts that come with growing older, and it’s less likely to be medicalized than in the U.S.
Closer to home, Native American cultures view menopause as a time of transformation, where women are seen as stepping into their wisdom and power. Rather than losing something, they gain a new role within their communities, often as leaders or wise elders. The spiritual aspect of menopause is respected, and women are not pressured to hide or “fix” their symptoms.
If we embraced this approach in the U.S., I wonder how it might change how we experience menopause. Could we learn to see it as a season of life, like the weather? If we knew the symptoms were a natural part of this shift, would they feel less overwhelming? After all, life is cyclical, and just as we adjust to the changing seasons of nature, we can adapt to the seasons of our lives.
The Pressure on Women in the Workplace
Of course, one of the most difficult aspects of menopause for many women is that life doesn’t slow down just because we have symptoms. The pressures of work and family continue, even as hormonal shifts bring on frustrating symptoms. Harvard Business Review states that by 2025, there will be 1 billion people worldwide experiencing menopause. In the U.S., 80% of these women are employed. That’s a lot of our workforce.
Additionally, according to a 2022 survey by Biote, two out of every five women reported experiencing menopause symptoms that interfered with their work performance or productivity each week. In the U.S., nearly two-thirds of women nationwide want menopause-specific support at work, according to a survey by Bank of America and the National Menopause Foundation. Yet only 15% of U.S. companies offer menopause benefits today, according to Mercer research. An alarming 25% of these women have even considered leaving their jobs because of the symptoms they’re facing. We have an opportunity here to address this.
There’s still a stigma around discussing these symptoms openly, leaving some women struggling to maintain their professional responsibilities. If our workforce embraced this life change, like they do pregnancy, what would that look like? I believe it would create a culture where experienced women would contribute without feeling burned out or ignored. Feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about workforce solutions in this area. I design worksite wellness programs that include benefits for menopausal women in the workplace.
So, what can we do about it?
Some of us women haven’t been taught fully what to expect with the transition of becoming older or that menopause comes with more than just discomfort, irritability, and hot flashes.
Menopause can bring with it a deep understanding of ourselves, stepping into a time of wisdom, experience, and confidence. This process, especially in our reactive, youth-driven American health culture, can actually be a joyful time of self-understanding instead of another marketing ploy to fall victim to.
However, you do have to be proactive about it since our culture doesn’t make it easy.
Deciding how you want to take charge of this stage of your life is entirely up to you. Just remember that nothing is broken, so nothing needs to be fixed.
On Thursday, we’ll continue this topic by exploring some ways to alleviate discomfort in this season of life and ways to harness alternative modes of thought to support the body and mind throughout menopause.
Gents, don’t go anywhere — I promise this pertains to you, too!
Have a great week, everyone, and I’ll see you on Thursday.
Dr. Alice
A little more about Dr. Alice Burron and The Health Navigator Group:
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