Menopause used to be a taboo topic in many quarters. Now, it’s frequently in the news . In March 2024, the White House announced an initiative to “Galvanize New Research on Women’s Midlife Health.
”In May, Sen. Patty Murray introduced bipartisan legislation that would spend US$275 million to improve menopause care and midlife health. The actor Halle Berry went to Capitol Hill to help draw attention to the measure.
While she was there, she shouted: “I’m in menopause.” This new focus on menopause and the greater openness to talking about it is occurring at the same time as scientific studies are underscoring the benefits of hormone therapy to treat menopausal symptoms – two decades after it suddenly fell out of favor. The three of us believe open discussions about menopause are long overdue.
We write and teach about employment discrimination , aging and the law , and feminism . Having teamed up to write a book about menopause and the law , we are closely following the changes in how researchers assess the benefits of hormonal treatment and what that means for its availability. Technically, menopause is a point in time .
It typically starts 12 months after the last menstrual cycle and marks the end of fertility, and it usually occurs between ages 45 and 55. It’s preceded by perimenopause , a transitional phase during which menstruation changes but continues, that can last as long as a decade. People who have gone through menopause are in postmenopause for the re.
