Menopause Gets Its Moment

WITH NEW ATTENTION FROM BUSINESS AND MEDICINE, A LIFE STAGE COMES OUT OF THE WINGS

- Jamie Ducharme

KATHRYN CLANCY WROTE AN ENTIRE book about menstrual cycles. But even she was surprised by some of the premenopausal symptoms she has begun to experience at age 44.

"A lot of things that have to do with my uterus, ovaries, and breasts, I have been massively underprepared for as a Ph.D.-level expert in this field," says Clancy, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "That should tell you how even more underprepared most people are."

Most people who menstruate experience symptoms including hot flashes, brain fog, and changes to mood, sleep, and sexual function in the years before they hit menopause, which is defined as the point in time a year after their last period. But that premenopausal transition, which typically begins between the ages of 45 and 55 and can last years, is so rarely discussed in society and at the doctor's office that people often know nearly nothing about it in advance. One 2023 study of postmenopausal women found that almost none of them learned about menopause in school, and about half "did not feel informed at all" about the life stage.