Opinion | Can We Destigmatize Menopause Care?

Well, the menopause revolution is upon us. “Perimenopause or menopause.” “Perimenopause.” “Why you feel like [expletive] during menopause.” It also happens to come with a menopause industrial complex that is also trying to sell us a lot of wacky stuff. “Yam cream. Does it work for anything in perimenopause?” Listen, millennials get so much flak. We blame them for the mortgage crisis. We blame them for buying too much avocado toast. But when it comes to the menopause revolution, we owe millennial women a huge thank you. They are changing the conversation about menopause. They are bringing the symptoms out of the shadows. They are destigmatizing the experience of aging as a woman. Now, it’s easy for us to criticize influencers for trying to sell us a bunch of stuff that we don’t need. But in the case of menopause, the algorithm might be the first indication that you are experiencing menopausal symptoms. And listen, here’s the thing. No woman is above or beyond falling for influencer-led solutions for menopause. You may have heard about the recent viral trend of people taking an antacid with an antihistamine for some of their menopausal symptoms. I tried it late one night, saw the TikTok about it, and it worked. I am not a medical doctor. If you want to try this hack, or actually maybe any of the hacks for menopause, it’s a very good idea to talk to your medical provider first. Now, here’s the thing. I was happy that it worked. But why are we living in a system where women have to rely on an influencer-driven campaign instead of talking to a medical provider about a predictable, inevitable fact of life? For many women, their lives are quite literally on the line. One of those risks we don’t talk about nearly enough is the increased risk of uterine cancers. Most women who have a uterine cancer are also menopausal, and there are racial disparities in who receives care for uterine cancer and who is likely to survive uterine cancer treatments. So what do we do? Does that mean we give up on the medical system because they have given up on menopausal women? No, I don’t think that is the solution. I actually think we force the issue with our medical providers by bringing up these weird, questionable symptoms, by pushing them even when they shrug, and make them go and try to do the research that, right now, too many women are doing on their own.