What The Menopause Marketers Won’t Tell You: Ageing Is To Be Celebrated | Stella Duffy

How was your Menopause Awareness Day 2025? Did you gaffe retired of your meno pyjamas, sip your meno beverage pinch a portion of homemade flaxseed-added breadstuff and a broadside bid of meno chocolate? Did you unreserved disconnected to nan gym to assistance weights past to a pilates people to support you patient for ever? Did you retrieve your MHT (menopause hormone therapy – nan now wide accepted word for HRT) pill, patch, gel, pessary, suppository aliases cream, trusting your GP aliases backstage session to beryllium prescribing for you and only you, grateful that yet medicine has made a quality for you? Or did you think: “How nan hellhole do I cognize what is correct for me?”

If you wondered who you tin trust, you’re not alone. In an Australian study published earlier this month, much than 500 women aged 45-64 noted “significant scepticism” astir nan motives of nan pharmaceutical industry, on pinch genuine interest astir who to spot and who was aft their money astatine a susceptible clip of life. Now researchers pass that women are being exploited successful a “menopause golden rush”.

My ain menopause was ghastly. If you deliberation basking flushes are bad (they are), effort 40 an hr successful your 30s while having chemotherapy, past radiotherapy, past failing IVF, and each nan while pinch nary of your mates knowing what you’re going through. This was much than 20 years ago, erstwhile nan menopause chat was virtually nonexistent – and while we tin each beryllium gladsome things person changed successful nan past decade, nan measurement menopause is now being sold should raise origin for interest for anyone approaching menopause.

Because here’s nan thing: menopause is simply a transition. Just arsenic puberty, pregnancy, parenthood and coming to position pinch infertility are transitions, truthful excessively is menopause. Yes, it takes clip – moreover now, astatine 62, I still get basking flushes very occasionally, usually if I’ve eaten excessively overmuch sweetener aliases americium dealing pinch thing very emotional, but I cognize it will pass. I cognize what is happening physiologically, and knowing what is going connected internally makes each nan difference. (I’m not convinced that menopause toast would, nary matter really overmuch flaxseed it contained.)

Having been postmenopausal for truthful long, I became willing successful really nan focus, and nan marketing, is connected nan modulation itself. I’ve spent nan past 5 years researching postmenopause, usually astir nan later 50s and 60s, erstwhile nan tougher beingness and affectional parts of nan modulation are mostly complete for galore of america and we move into our captious 3rd act. What emerged from my divers group of interviewees was a increasing consciousness of really meno trading preys connected nan ageist, misogynist and pronatalist culture successful which astir of america are raised.

Our culture’s ageism tells america that aged women are invisible, that staying charismatic should beryllium our privilege and that we suffer each worth erstwhile we suffer fertility. This triple whammy is particularly achy – and lucrative for marketeers – because it plays to our internalised fears. After a life of being trained to worth nan antheral regard and to judge that being a “real” female relies connected our fertility – and that to support some of these things we must enactment young and beautiful – well, of people it bites erstwhile we age. Unlike different signs of ageing, galore elements of nan menopause modulation can’t beryllium disguised by hairsbreadth dye, constitution aliases a clever statement of clothes. A sweaty basking flush mightiness beryllium good for Highland Mayan Guatemalan women, for whom menopause intends a raise successful societal position and immoderate of whom telephone basking flushes nan rising of their animal spirit, but for galore of america it tin beryllium very problematic. We hide our tampons successful beautiful flowery cases and deterioration pads to protect others from seeing leaky bosom milk, but sweating successful nationalist tin beryllium some physically uncomfortable and – often much painfully fixed our societal penchant for women to dress we are men successful nan workplace – admits to nan impossibility of afloat controlling our bodies.

This fearfulness and interest past feeds into menopause infighting where, alternatively of MHT and non-MHT camps moving together to support america done nan transition, they’re pitted against each different arsenic if only MHT will help, aliases only herbal supplements and weight lifting are nan correct measurement to go. Which creates a existent struggle for each of america to find our somewhere-in-between.

While menopause investigation is often contradictory, nan 1 point nan monolithic world studies show america is that there is nary cosmopolitan menopause and each individual acquisition is different, profoundly limited connected lifestyle, familial, sociocultural factors and attitudes. In immoderate studies, women study less negative beingness symptoms of menopause erstwhile they unrecorded successful a nine that values older women.

Given nan market’s passionate engagement pinch menopause, I’m peculiarly willing successful what will hap erstwhile nan companies trying to waste america things realise that astir of america will beryllium successful postmenopause for astir a 3rd of our lives – aliases possibly nan marketplace will beryllium excessively ageist, misogynist and pronatalist to travel aft our pennies then. We tin but hope.

And conscionable truthful you know: while everyone successful my investigation talked astir physiological and affectional difficulties successful nan transition, erstwhile they were retired nan different broadside – moreover while dealing pinch workplace favoritism and nan caring demands of their loved ones – each of them besides described postmenopause arsenic clip of thriving and growing. We’re not done yet.

• Stella Duffy is simply a writer, theatremaker and existential psychotherapist successful backstage practice. Her book Being nan Change will beryllium published successful 2027