Thought for the Day: A thought on menopause.

 Broadcast on The Today programme on February 17th 2023. 

Good morning.   In 1710, physician Simon David Titius described menopause as ‘the worst of all the calamities to beset a sex.’  I’ve been researching menopause from a Christian faith perspective for the past year, and I’ve had many conversations with women who would share this view. Much of the recent public discourse has highlighted the negative effects it can have on women, and it’s mostly been a welcome conversation. It's all too common for women who are suffering with menopausal symptoms to struggle to gain access to HRT and other therapies. They can feel diminished by their symptoms and unheard when they try to seek help.

Some women do suffer terribly, with things like insomnia, fatigue, brain fog, aches, hot flushes, and severe depression.  Conversations which make this less of a taboo topic are a good thing.

It can be hard to imagine that there might be positive stories of menopause. Every woman’s experience is different, but my conversations with older women who have been through it and out the other side, give me hope and encouragement that there are new and exciting possibilities waiting for us there. There are women who would want to challenge the idea that menopausal bodies are somehow inferior because they’re hormone deficient.  Women who want to affirm aging as something that should not diminish us.

The Gospels recount the story of a woman who has had menstrual bleeding for twelve years and which is stopped by touching the cloak of Jesus. Immediately after this incident, Jesus brings a twelve year old girl back from the dead. Viewed together, these two stories tell a tale of transition: the bleeding stops and then new life begins again. Menopause starts with an ending and finishes with a beginning. This is a narrative of death and resurrection, of old ways dying and new life emerging.  It’s a story of hope.

I want to imagine a different world for menopausal women. One where access to help is available for all. Where we’re supported openly and not blamed for our struggles, or our bodies viewed as defective just because they’ve aged. I have faith that God prizes our wisdom and experience even when the world prizes youthfulness more.  Our power is not diminished, and we are never invisible. I believe that menopause can be the remaking of women and that it doesn’t have to be the end.  We are just getting started.