Every woman makes her own journey through midlife and her natural menopause. This website is here as a guide and inspiration for your own, personal journey.

On this site you can find essential tools for your empowered journey through menopause to that new country beyond, which can be an exciting and powerful land, full of promise and opportunities...

but we must seize this change positively...

On this site you can:

• Find out why there is so much confusion and misunderstanding about the natural menopause process
• Read about what modern medicine knows for sure about natural menopause, what remains to be found out, and what is the focus of fierce debate between experts.
• Find out how natural menopause can be a journey to the most exciting, fulfilling and rich period of a woman's life
• Read about how culture affects each woman's experience of natural menopause
• Find out how to stay strong, fit and healthy through these critical years
• Read about the mystery of the disappearing middle aged woman

What does menopause mean for you?

Healthy women nowadays can reasonably hope to live almost half their adult lives after menopause.

But it is still far too common for women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond to feel they are marginalised and ignored by society and that they and their needs, have become invisible (read more).

In the past, women approaching midlife asked for advice from the older women in their social and family group: their mothers, aunts, grandmothers and friends. But during the last century and particularly the last 50 years or so, our social groups and transmitted knowledge have become fragmented and dispersed.

For a variety of complex social, cultural and historical reasons, menopause became taboo, pushed under the carpet and not discussed. And as women’s traditional communication networks have broken down, there has been a huge growth in medical interest in women's bodies.

Women's shared knowledge has been gradually replaced with medical knowledge, our mothers' wisdom giving way to information produced by the medico-pharmaceutical wagon train.

But now with the birth and growth of the internet, we have a new "virtual river bank" where we can hang out, listen to each others stories and chat. We now have a chance to re-seal the fractures in women's wisdom.

Women's wisdom and medical science - collision or coherence?

And rather than throwing out the proverbial baby, we have a wonderful opportunity: to pool the knowledge from these two distinct worlds: the world of women's wisdom with that of modern medical insights.

But here lies a problem, because sometimes these two worlds seem to contradict each other.

The shifting sands of these contraindication and uncertainties often confuse women and their doctors alike.

Making sense of it all

It is time to get things together and start making sense of this muddle. And each woman can do this for herself, by becoming informed about her body. By understanding the difference between the life event which is the cessation of ovulation - the strict medical definition of "menopause" and the life process which is climacteric, perimenopause - in common parlance - simply "menopause".

Read more about the strict medical definition of menopause.

Read more about "climacteric".

Read more about "perimenopause".

No woman's menopause is the same as another's. But all our menopauses have one physiological system change in common: our periods stop, we cease to ovulate, we are no longer naturally fertile and our hormone balance alters.

Apart from this physiological shift, which we all share, everything else is fluid: - individually, socially, culturally and genetically determined.

Read more about culture and menopause.

Women, nature and the meaning of natural

Natural menopause is usually a perfectly normal event in a woman's life*. It is a process that combines physical, psychological and emotional transitions - no wonder our mothers and grandmothers called it "The Change".

On this website, "natural menopause" means finding the most natural path for you. Natural menopause is about finding the path that promotes the most harmony, causes the least disruption of your body’s complex balance and keeps you well, healthy, creative, and productive. This may or may not mean seeking help from a physician - it is your decision what is right for you.

Read more about the meaning of "natural"

The voyage ahead - your life, your decisions

For the majority of women who reach menopause age naturally, this is a time for quiet, personal reflection about how we feel about our bodies, our aging process and our role in the world.

By the time she reaches her middle years a woman knows there are very few certainties in life, only chances, opportunities and choices.

But a knowing, wise woman can and wants to make her own decisions. She designs her destiny as best she can in her own way, because only she really knows her own personal circumstances.

The challenge for each woman, is to find her own meanings and determine her own journey plan. For many women this means positive thinking and no doctors, while for others this means seeking medical advice if the going gets tough.

This website is here as a help and guide for your voyage. Take what you need and ignore what is not relevant to you.

And as you progress in your menopausal journey, seek to become critical, aware and insightful in your decision making.

When you don't know, ask someone who might. When you are confused, seek clarification, and if it all seems just too overwhelming ...

Take heart: millions upon millions upon millions of women have trodden this path before you!

The world can be a better place if the wisdom of midlife and older women is more highly valued and influential.

The world needs you and your wisdom.

So gather up your resources, enjoy the journey and get ready to march out into the world with confidence!

Reference

Gloria Steinem, "Doing Sixty and Seventy" Elders Academy Press, 2006.

*Important note For some women, menopause may be brought on early by surgery, disease or unusual physiology. For all women, but particularly the woman who experiences premature menopause or any other kind of abnormal or unusual menopause, the decisions she makes will depend very much on her individual, personal profile and circumstances. This website can help the woman with premature or other unusual menopause, but she should always seek advice from her physician.