This is why current menopause discourses are dangerous

There is a lot going on now on the menopause health world, with the reinterpretation of the WHI (Women Health Initiative) study, from 2002 and now in 2024, it’s gone from HRT increases risk of breast cancer to the other polarity: all women should have access to menopause therapy, its safe, and all women should be able to have. this conversation about risks and benefits with their provider.

And with that comes a lot of narratives about women’s bodies that are important to deconstruct.

First, the idea that a magic pill can replenish our needs and take care of all our symptoms. The symptoms of menopause are symptoms of a systemic depletion of women’s bodies. It’s something that has happened over time, and there is no magic pill that can fix that. You can replenish biochemistry, but the toll that it has taken on your body, your emotions and mental health, that is something else. And yes, many women report feeling better: they are able to sleep, go to work, but still the narrative is that “my body is broken, and I can fix it with this magic pill” and that’s where I see the disconnect.

Second, menopause is not about aging. Dr. Lara Briden speaks about this, and refers to the work of endocrinologist Jerilynn Prior, and I think is very important to take this into consideration. Menopause is not a failure of the body, it’s not the failure of the ovaries, as a lot of the narrative goes. It is a neuroendocrine transition that is completely detached from aging.

Menopause is a brain overhaul, it’s a brain reshaping so that it can be more efficient to tend to our physiological needs in the second part of our lives.

So, it’s not about the failure of our bodies because we are aging, **it is about our body’s ability to transform and to tend to our physiological needs. **From now on, the focus is not going to be the energy intensive process of reproduction, it is going to be brain, bone, cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Mosconi, who is studying women’s brain in menopause explains that the menopausal brain is smaller and less energy demanding, because it doesn’t need to tend to this energy intensive process of cyclicity for reproduction. So, we get to focus on our other body systems: our nervous system, brain, cardio health and that’s why menopause is a window of opportunity. And that is why many women fall off the cliff in menopause. It’s not because of aging, it’s because they have been stressed, undernourished and overstretched for the whole reproductive period, so now when they come to menopause, that depletion makes her more vulnerable to symptoms.

Is like when you are rebuilding your house, but you didn’t tend to your house for 30 years, and when you start remodeling, you find that the electric cables were damaged, the water piping breaks, it’s not because of the remodeling. It’s because it wasn’t maintained for 30 years.

Would love to hear your reflections and if this resonates or if I’m completely alone in this train of thought.