Perimenopause Awareness is Growing. And It's Just the Beginning

September is Perimenopause Awareness Month - and that's worth celebrating.

For decades, women's health - and especially at this stage of life - has been overlooked, underfunded, and underresearched. Millions of women move through the physical and emotional changes of perimenopause without the resources or recognition they deserve. Awareness efforts like Perimenopause Awareness Month create visibility, foster community, and start to correct that imbalance.

Perimenopause affects millions, especially women in their late 30s through their 40s.

This progress matters, but awareness is just the beginning.

Awareness creates visibility

Perimenopause (the years leading up to menopause) is one of the most disruptive stages in a woman's life. It can affect sleep, mood, relationships, and work. It influences choices about health, money, and family.

64% of women aged 36-40 report perimenopause symptoms.

(Source: UVA Health/Flo Health study published via NPJ Women's Health Journal 2025)

Shining a light on this stage validates experiences that were once hidden. It drives new research and sparks new innovation. And it opens the door for brands and organizations to do better.

Turning awareness into action

Where many brands and companies fall short is stopping at recognition. Awareness tells women they're not alone, but it doesn't automatically translate into products, services, or messaging that fits into their lives.

That next step is where the opportunity lies:

• Creating solutions that reflect the realities of midlife

• Expanding beyond supplements or symptom products to categories like finance, travel, tech, and work.

• Listening to women's own words about what this stage means, not just the medical framing.

A report from the Female Founders Fund estimates the menopause market is a $600 billion opportunity. That's not just vitamins and hormone therapies; it's opportunity across industries.

Perimenopause in the context of midlife

For most women, perimenopause isn't happening in isolation. It's layered alongside other life changes that also reshape priorities and spending:

• Starting or expanding families (or choosing not to)

• Parenting teens and preparing kids for independence

• Moving into leadership roles, career pivots, or career breaks

• Caring for aging parents while still raising children

• Navigating relationship changes (divorce, remarriage, blended families)

• Managing health more proactively, from stress to sleep to preventive care

These not niche moments. They are everyday realities for millions of women in their late 30s through their late 40s. And each one creates different needs and opportunities for brands.

Perimenopause awareness matters, but women in midlife are navigating many transitions at once.

Life in Motion

At Morning Light Strategy we use the lens of Life in Motion (TM) because people aren't static. They are constantly moving through change - some expected, some disruptive, all of it meaningful.

Perimenopause is one example of a transition that has been invisible for too long. Awareness puts it on the map. Action ensures women see themselves reflected not just in health conversations, but across the marketplace.

Perimenopause awareness is growing, and that matters

But an even bigger opportunity is to see women in midlife as whole people, balancing health, family, work, and identity, and to design with all of that in mind.

Resources:

• Learn more about Perimenopause Awareness Month

• Find trusted health information: National Menopause Foundation, The Menopause Society

• Explore Morning Light Strategy's Life in Motion (TM) approach

We help brands make sense of consumers in motion.

If you're looking for new ways to grow, let's talk.

About Morning Light Strategy:  Morning Light Strategy is a boutique insights & advisory agency. We help brands find clarity when consumers are shifting, briefs are tricky, and the path forward isn't obvious. From menopause to identity shifts, caregiving to cultural change, we specialize in emotionally complex life transitions that reshape behavior.  

To learn more, visit: www.morninglightstrategy.com