Talk about ignorant. Women do die from menopause. It may not be the proximate cause, but when estrogen levels decline so does a woman's health, primarily--as we've talked before--cardiovascular. It's only when (primarily) men can "monetize" something do they pay attention. Now all of a sudden, they're seeing women, but as business opportunities and profit centers. Plus ça change...
Exactly Susan! That tension is exactly what the quote in the title captures. Menopause was often dismissed because it wasn’t seen as a direct cause of death, even though the long-term health consequences are significant, particularly for cardiovascular risk. That disconnect between real impact and perceived importance is exactly what markets are now beginning to recognize.
“No one dies from menopause” and yet the highest rate of suicide among women, according to the CDC, in the US is consistently in the age range 45-65. Correlation at the moment but biological research suggests there is a link to perimenopause.
This is such an important point. The “nobody dies from menopause” framing misses the indirect risks that accumulate over time like mental health, cardiovascular risk, metabolic changes. The suicide data in midlife women is one of the clearest signals that hormonal transition is not a minor health event but a major physiological shift. We are only scratching the surface in terms of understanding the links.
I am already disabled by MECFS but I had a part time job in a law office that I lost when peri hit and the severe migraines started. I honestly don’t know how women keep working through this and if I hadn’t been disabled already I would have ended up unemployed and homeless from the throw up migraines, the lack of sleep, and the brain fog. Trust me, NOBODY would have wanted me handling their mortgage or divorce in this condition.
Maggie, this is the part that often stays invisible; the impact on work, income, and daily functioning. Hormonal health was long treated as a private inconvenience, but experiences like yours show how profoundly it can affect economic life. Thanks so much for sharing that!
When I was in my 20s in the 90s suffering from endometriosis nobody wanted to talk about how women’s hormone issues affect our ability to work because we were still (and are still) fighting for equality in the workplace. None of us wanted to admit that our health issues interfered with our ability to do our jobs every day. Even in the early 2000s I had a boyfriend who owned a chain of medical clinics who admitted he hesitated to promote women because our periods affect our productivity & if we have babies that does too. Luckily he didn’t know about menopause or he would have been firing all the middle aged women.
Now society is going backwards but we’re fortunate to have women like you doing this work. THANK YOU!!
My mom made it to 69 before she couldn’t stand the joint pain and heat anymore. My poor mom. She asked for help more than anyone I have ever known & they would only offer her mental health meds that made her feel worse. They even hassled her over the small dose of tramadol that she had consistently use for her pain, that she never ever abused or overused after years of NSAIDs made her stomach bleed.
I’m very sorry about your mother Maggie. Stories like this show how easily hormonal health was misunderstood or dismissed for decades, often leaving women without the right support or treatment. One of the reasons these conversations matter is precisely so that future generations don’t face the same gaps in care.
Thank you. There’s a nurse at a clinic I go to who desperately wants MHT but because she’s “too old” or too far into menopause they won’t let her have it. So she suffers. I am so lucky I didn’t miss my window of opportunity but so many women have.
I’m so sorry. It is appalling how women are treated by the medical field. So little training and understanding of this major transition in a woman’s life.
When I was 45 I began getting abdominal migraines that would last for three days. The violent GI symptoms were so bad that my potassium would get low enough that there was a risk of cardiac consequences had I not eventually gone to the ER. It got worse every year to where this was happening a couple times a month (I avoided the ER most of the time because my PCP and pain management helped me manage at home.) The summer I was 51 they were so bad I was admitted twice for a couple days. My insurance company was billed $25,000 each time, not including the ambulance trip.
I could not get my weight above 92 lbs from age 45 to 52 when I finally got estrogen patches. I am now at my goal weight of 110 lbs and I haven’t thrown up since.
My mom died from suicide at 69. She had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia in her 50s but at the end of her life she was having panic attacks and running so hot she was convinced her air conditioner was broken even though her apartment was COLD. She was in her 30s in the 90s when there was all the MHT misinformation. And I think she thought premarin was the only option & she was not going to contribute to animal abuse.
Perimenopause almost killed me & I despite going to all the specialists (gyno & neurology) nobody told me migraines get worse in peri. My period was coming every 16-21 days and nobody even told me I was in Peri. Nobody offered me MHT until the hot flashes came and then they tried to deny me because of the migraines that weren’t severe for decades before peri.
Sorry for my long comment but I am still mad about it & would probably still be suffering if not for social media educating me because the medical professionals sure didn’t. And my poor boomer mom didn’t stand a chance.
Thank you for sharing this — stories like yours are exactly why this conversation matters. What you describe reflects the structural gaps the article is pointing to: years of symptoms without clear diagnosis, limited training among clinicians, and delayed access to treatment.
The quote in the title is a real life comment made to an investor in women’s health which reflects how menopause was historically dismissed, and experiences like yours show why that thinking is wrong and is changing. I’m very glad you eventually found treatment, and I’m so grateful you shared this perspective here. These are the stories that deserve to be heard.
In a sense, yes, and what’s interesting is that the need was always there. What’s changing is that investors are finally learning how to measure and model it, which is what makes capital move and this is a step in the right direction.
I am so excited you are bringing this conversation to the forefront. Thank you.
As a menopause coach, my practice is designed to help women find access to evidence-based education and care. It sounds relatively simple until you factor in the reality that there is currently one menopause-certified care provider per 13,000 women navigating menopause in the US — AND that the menopause supplement industry is estimated to be a $17 billion global market slated to grow 5% every year (Harvard Health Publishing).
Just these two items create a significant impact on accessibility to information women can trust. And, sadly, they don't even touch the massive gaps in funding and research that would help us all better understand what is actually happening to women during this massive shift — or how we can help them.
As someone who interacts with women every day who are genuinely struggling to manage their symptoms and the realities of daily life, this headline knocked the wind out of me.
So many women have shared in the comments the profound impact menopause has had on their lives and the lives of women they love. Thank you to all of you for sharing your stories.
What I'm interested in is this: how do we, as women, catalyze future investment in a way that can be both profitable AND profound in its capacity to change women's lives for the better?
Talk about ignorant. Women do die from menopause. It may not be the proximate cause, but when estrogen levels decline so does a woman's health, primarily--as we've talked before--cardiovascular. It's only when (primarily) men can "monetize" something do they pay attention. Now all of a sudden, they're seeing women, but as business opportunities and profit centers. Plus ça change...
Exactly Susan! That tension is exactly what the quote in the title captures. Menopause was often dismissed because it wasn’t seen as a direct cause of death, even though the long-term health consequences are significant, particularly for cardiovascular risk. That disconnect between real impact and perceived importance is exactly what markets are now beginning to recognize.
“No one dies from menopause” and yet the highest rate of suicide among women, according to the CDC, in the US is consistently in the age range 45-65. Correlation at the moment but biological research suggests there is a link to perimenopause.
This is such an important point. The “nobody dies from menopause” framing misses the indirect risks that accumulate over time like mental health, cardiovascular risk, metabolic changes. The suicide data in midlife women is one of the clearest signals that hormonal transition is not a minor health event but a major physiological shift. We are only scratching the surface in terms of understanding the links.
Absolutely. As ever, there is too little holistic research in this, and let’s be honest, over, women’s health.
it's time to change that!
I agree. The how is much harder. I had this conversation yesterday. Until the patriarchy is dismantled we are unlikely to see meaningful changes.
I am already disabled by MECFS but I had a part time job in a law office that I lost when peri hit and the severe migraines started. I honestly don’t know how women keep working through this and if I hadn’t been disabled already I would have ended up unemployed and homeless from the throw up migraines, the lack of sleep, and the brain fog. Trust me, NOBODY would have wanted me handling their mortgage or divorce in this condition.
Maggie, this is the part that often stays invisible; the impact on work, income, and daily functioning. Hormonal health was long treated as a private inconvenience, but experiences like yours show how profoundly it can affect economic life. Thanks so much for sharing that!
When I was in my 20s in the 90s suffering from endometriosis nobody wanted to talk about how women’s hormone issues affect our ability to work because we were still (and are still) fighting for equality in the workplace. None of us wanted to admit that our health issues interfered with our ability to do our jobs every day. Even in the early 2000s I had a boyfriend who owned a chain of medical clinics who admitted he hesitated to promote women because our periods affect our productivity & if we have babies that does too. Luckily he didn’t know about menopause or he would have been firing all the middle aged women.
Now society is going backwards but we’re fortunate to have women like you doing this work. THANK YOU!!
My mom made it to 69 before she couldn’t stand the joint pain and heat anymore. My poor mom. She asked for help more than anyone I have ever known & they would only offer her mental health meds that made her feel worse. They even hassled her over the small dose of tramadol that she had consistently use for her pain, that she never ever abused or overused after years of NSAIDs made her stomach bleed.
I’m very sorry about your mother Maggie. Stories like this show how easily hormonal health was misunderstood or dismissed for decades, often leaving women without the right support or treatment. One of the reasons these conversations matter is precisely so that future generations don’t face the same gaps in care.
Thank you. There’s a nurse at a clinic I go to who desperately wants MHT but because she’s “too old” or too far into menopause they won’t let her have it. So she suffers. I am so lucky I didn’t miss my window of opportunity but so many women have.
I’m so sorry. It is appalling how women are treated by the medical field. So little training and understanding of this major transition in a woman’s life.
actually they do. Osteoporosis. Urinary sepsis. Heart attacks. Ugh.
Yes exactly Lara. Thank you for saying that. The disconnect is exactly what this article is about
“Nobody dies from menopause” I disagree.
When I was 45 I began getting abdominal migraines that would last for three days. The violent GI symptoms were so bad that my potassium would get low enough that there was a risk of cardiac consequences had I not eventually gone to the ER. It got worse every year to where this was happening a couple times a month (I avoided the ER most of the time because my PCP and pain management helped me manage at home.) The summer I was 51 they were so bad I was admitted twice for a couple days. My insurance company was billed $25,000 each time, not including the ambulance trip.
I could not get my weight above 92 lbs from age 45 to 52 when I finally got estrogen patches. I am now at my goal weight of 110 lbs and I haven’t thrown up since.
My mom died from suicide at 69. She had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia in her 50s but at the end of her life she was having panic attacks and running so hot she was convinced her air conditioner was broken even though her apartment was COLD. She was in her 30s in the 90s when there was all the MHT misinformation. And I think she thought premarin was the only option & she was not going to contribute to animal abuse.
Perimenopause almost killed me & I despite going to all the specialists (gyno & neurology) nobody told me migraines get worse in peri. My period was coming every 16-21 days and nobody even told me I was in Peri. Nobody offered me MHT until the hot flashes came and then they tried to deny me because of the migraines that weren’t severe for decades before peri.
Sorry for my long comment but I am still mad about it & would probably still be suffering if not for social media educating me because the medical professionals sure didn’t. And my poor boomer mom didn’t stand a chance.
Thank you for sharing this — stories like yours are exactly why this conversation matters. What you describe reflects the structural gaps the article is pointing to: years of symptoms without clear diagnosis, limited training among clinicians, and delayed access to treatment.
The quote in the title is a real life comment made to an investor in women’s health which reflects how menopause was historically dismissed, and experiences like yours show why that thinking is wrong and is changing. I’m very glad you eventually found treatment, and I’m so grateful you shared this perspective here. These are the stories that deserve to be heard.
Basically, companies are realizing that they can make more money off women’s health.
In a sense, yes, and what’s interesting is that the need was always there. What’s changing is that investors are finally learning how to measure and model it, which is what makes capital move and this is a step in the right direction.
I am so excited you are bringing this conversation to the forefront. Thank you.
As a menopause coach, my practice is designed to help women find access to evidence-based education and care. It sounds relatively simple until you factor in the reality that there is currently one menopause-certified care provider per 13,000 women navigating menopause in the US — AND that the menopause supplement industry is estimated to be a $17 billion global market slated to grow 5% every year (Harvard Health Publishing).
Just these two items create a significant impact on accessibility to information women can trust. And, sadly, they don't even touch the massive gaps in funding and research that would help us all better understand what is actually happening to women during this massive shift — or how we can help them.
As someone who interacts with women every day who are genuinely struggling to manage their symptoms and the realities of daily life, this headline knocked the wind out of me.
So many women have shared in the comments the profound impact menopause has had on their lives and the lives of women they love. Thank you to all of you for sharing your stories.
What I'm interested in is this: how do we, as women, catalyze future investment in a way that can be both profitable AND profound in its capacity to change women's lives for the better?