When I recently read about international women’s day and heard that we have come a long way but there is still so much to do, I thought that there is another part of a woman’s life that we all go through if we are lucky enough to reach that age, but it is still something that is often misunderstood and stigmatised: Menopause. 

It is interesting that, what in the beginning of history was more a natural part in the female life cycle, turned over the centuries into an illness that could be cured with a pill or so, fostering a culture of silence and shame. 

Menopause was mentioned quite early on, Aristotle the Greek wrote about it as something that occurred in a woman’s life around 40 years of age. Considering that over 50 percent of people had a lifespan of 20-35 years, it was probably not the biggest health issue they had! 

The middle ages were, from a female perspective especially, not called the “dark ages” for nothing. 

Although a network of “wise women” with a lot of knowledge about female issues was around where skills and traditions were given from mothers to their daughters for centuries, something new came up to threaten this: physicians. They were, of course, all male and did not like the competition of wise women who would have better results than them (the study of medicine at those times was very poor). Wise women lost their historic role and were pushed aside by the male physicians (if they were lucky – the unlucky ones ended up under terrible torture or being burnt at stakes as witches). 

Although there was quite an interest developing of the female body and its issues, they were all about the time in the woman’s life when they were fertile – females were deemed inferior to men and especially when they could not fulfil their role as child bearers. So, the fact that a woman’s value is based on her fertility has smugly developed over many, many centuries. 

In 1821 a French doctor coined the word “menopause” for the first time, with very few ideas what it was about. 

If you think it got better then, you could not be any more wrong! In Victorian times, the menopause was the focus of deep distrust. Physicians thought there was a direct link between the womb and brain, making all women susceptible to insanity!! The term “climacteric insanity” was created. Women who were lucky (!) got the offending organs removed to make them more compliant, docile, and harder working (I am not making this up). The unlucky ones were locked up in asylums. Of course, as it was deemed essential to “cure” this mental disorder, including “nymphomania” and “hysteria” there were many ways women were treated, but they are too gruesome to be mentioned here. BTW, any sign of sexual desire in women was thought to be a sign of insanity. 

By 1930, the hormone oestrogen was discovered and menopause was classed as a “deficiency disease”, to be cured by the intake of testicular juice, crushed ovaries of cows or the urine of pregnant women(later replaced by horses urine due to cost issues). 

After being able to produce synthetic oestrogen, the pharma concerns had to try and flog it to the women. In 1966 Dr Robert Wilson wrote a book in which he praised the use of HRT to avoid the “living decay” caused by falling oestrogen levels. He described menopausal women as “flabby”, “desexual”, with “shrunken breasts and genitals”. This was 1966!!! I’m surprised nobody kicked him in his shrivelled genitals!! It is probably no surprise that it was revealed later that his book was paid for by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, who produced the HRT… 

Menopause is a big cultural issue, shaming us for ageing. If a women’s worth is still mostly defined by whether she can give birth, the societal value of women will drop from a certain age. 

There is much more focus now on menopause and how women can be helped with the symptoms. Companies are starting to look at implementing clauses in their contracts as they are losing many skilled, experienced women due to symptoms as “brain fog” and there is support out there. There are also some really good books out there to inform ourselves. 

And yet, I often see clients who find little or no support from their GP’s for their issues and questions and often they are patronised if they listen to their bodies. 

So, if menopause is still sometimes called “The Change”, I think it is time to look at it with knowledge, support and all the help us mature women deserve. 

Love, Gisela