What I Hope We Don't Lose as Menopause Awareness Grows

I worry we're starting to use (peri) menopause as the explanation for everything, when it may simply be one part of an already incredibly complicated stage of life.

I've been thinking a lot about the conversation around perimenopause and menopause lately.

Partly because I'm 43 and my wife is 51 and we're both moving through this stage of life, just from slightly different vantage points.

Partly because I spend my days in consumer insights, studying how people navigate aging, health, caregiving and other major life transitions - including menopause.

And partly because, over the last few years, it's been impossible not to notice how dramatically the conversation has changed.

There are more books, podcasts, newsletters, social media creators, startups, physicians, employers, and entire communities dedicated to helping women better understand these stages of life. There's more research (finally), and more companies building products and services for women.

 To be clear, I think this is all a very good thing!

Women deserve better information, better care, better research, and better support than they've historically gotten. There's still a ways to go.

But lately, one thing that stands out to me is how easily the conversation can slip from awareness to oversimplification.

Midlife is messy.

One thing that gives me pause (yep, pun intended) is how quickly perimenopause, for instance, can become the explanation for just about everything happening during this stage of life.

Sometimes that is exactly what is going on. But sometimes it isn't.

For a lot of women, our 40s and early 50s aren't just about hormonal changes.

They're also the years when our careers are often at their busiest, our kids are still dependent, our parents are aging, our relationships are evolving, our finances are shifting, and our identities are changing.

These things don't happen separately; they tend to pile on top of each other. And they can all contribute to things like fatigue, difficulty sleeping, weight changes, mood changes, brain fog, depression, anxiety, and a number of the other symptoms also associated with perimenopause.

Lately I've started hearing throwaway comments in conversations like:

"Oh, that's probably just the peri."

(yep, I've done it too.)

Sometimes they might be right. Sometimes it probably is part of the story. But I worry about how easily one explanation can crowd out everything else that's also happening.

Not everything fits neatly into one category.

This isn't just theoretical for me, it's also personal. I've dealt with some of these common peri symptoms (fatigue, sleep issues, depression) for years.

Could hormones influence those things as I move through this stage of life? Absolutely! Will they? Maybe!

But they also existed long before perimenopause entered the picture.

Life rarely gives us clean experiments where one thing changes at a time. Most of us are living through multiple transitions simultaneously. That's what makes this stage of life so hard to untangle.

I hope we don't create a new stereotype.

This is a thought I wrestle with quite a bit.

Many of us grew up hearing some version of:

"Oh, you must be on your period..."

It was dismissive. It reduced women to hormones instead of taking them seriously.

I'd hate to see us unintentionally create the midlife version of that:

"Oh, she's probably perimenopausal..."

The goal of greater awareness of should be greater understanding - not a new shortcut for explaining women's emotions, decisions or behaviors.

And I wonder about the workplace, too.

This is a little harder to articulate, and I'm genuinely thinking out loud here.

Over the past few years, I've watched a number of incredibly talented women in midlife (many of them senior researchers and leaders) lose jobs as organizations restructured.

At the same time, we've seen a huge increase in conversations about menopause in the workplace.

Watching both trends unfold at the same time has made me think more carefully about how we talk about menopause at work.

Women have spent decades pushing back against "glass ceilings" and the assumptions that biology somehow makes us less capable of leading, making decisions, or handling the pressure of senior positions.

As we work toward better support (and absolutely we should work toward that), I hope we're also paying attention to the stories we're telling - and the assumptions those stories might unintentionally reinforce.

How do we acknowledge that menopause can have a very real impact without unintentionally reinforcing old stereotypes in new language?

I don't know the answer, but I think it's a question worth asking.

Awareness was a first step.

Maybe nuance is the next one?

None of this makes me less excited about where the conversation is headed. If anything, it makes me more optimistic.

I'm excited to see more research, more innovation, more companies investing in women's health, more physicians specializing in menopause, and more women sharing their experiences openly.

I'm also someone who's incredibly interested in where the science goes from here. As we finally invest more in understanding women's health more deeply, I suspect we'll continue learning things that change how we think about this stage of life.

I just hope that, as the conversation grows, we leave room for complexity. Because women in midlife aren't navigating one thing.

They're navigating careers, relationships, caregiving, aging parents, finances, identity shifts, changing health - and yes, (peri)menopause too.

I'd love to see the conversation evolve in a way that reflects that reality.

What do you think?

Has the conversation around (peri)menopause changed how you think about midlife? Are there aspects of the conversation you hope we don't lose as awareness grows?

I'd love to hear your perspective.

About the author:  Nicole Munsey is the President and Co-Founder of Morning Light Strategy. She spends her days studying how people navigate major life transitions (including aging, caregiving, and menopause) and occasionally writes about the cultural conversations surrounding them. Connect with the author here: www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemunsey

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