NO SILENT PAUSES

Menopausal women are at risk for multiple health complications for the rest of their lives. Regular check-ups and reducing carbohydrate intake can help the transition. But, most important, we need to talk about menopause and stop treating it as a "women's only" issue

- Puja Awasthi

This is personal. This is universal.

This is unspoken. And it could start with something as inconsequential as sweating while the air conditioner is set to a freezing 16 degrees Celsius.

Of all the biological processes that women undergo, only two are universal-the onset and the cessation of menstruation. However, while the formermenarche is celebrated in many cultures, menopause invites silence.

Strange. Given that as per some projections, by 2026, India will have 400 million menopausal women, if we consider the average age of menopause to be 47. Since the actual number of women experiencing or having experienced menopause is not recorded globally, the closest estimation that can be made is by calculating the number of women in the 45-60 year age group, during which the transition to menopause is most likely to occur or postmenopause (cessation of periods for 12 months) has been reached. An article'Menopause in a globalised world'-in the journal Maturitas uses United Nations data to put women in the 50-plus age group at 985 million in 2020.

In India, where the age of menopause is earlier than western countries and women's life spans on an average are 69 years, as per the World Health Organization, a third of their lives are spent in this phase.

The silence then is baffling.

Dr Asna Ashraf, an obstetrician and gynaecologist from Lucknow with a special interest in menopause management, said that this was perhaps because menopause was not "as glamorous" as let us say IVF. She has been running a menopause clinic since 2011 after she cleared the credentialed menopause practitioners certificate exam of the Indian Menopause Society.