Over the past two years, menopause has become wildly popular in the public discourse—viral headlines that “Menopause is Having a Moment” and a celebrity drumbeat for reform. (Think: Halle Berry on the steps of the U.S. Capitol last March with a bipartisan group of senators shouting, “I am in menopause!”)
Since the 2024 elections, like so many of you I’ve been thinking hard about all that’s broken in civic life (quite frankly, starting with our media and publishing ecosystems). As we head into 2025, the next step to keep up momentum is to mobilize the menopausal masses, the legions of everyday people who are frustrated with and failed by our nation’s delivery of women’s mid-life healthcare.
A team of experts launched a digital booklet: A Citizen’s Guide to Menopause Advocacy. Ms. magazine’s Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Dr. Mary Claire Haver, author of the NYT #1 bestseller The New Menopause, are joined by award-winning journalist and women’s health champion Maria Shriver in creating this timely and action-oriented roadmap.
Weiss-Wolf, Haver and Shriver are joined by a cadre of experts who offer insights—Dr. Sharon Malone, Dr. Lisa Mosconi, Dr. Judith Joseph, Dr. Kelly Casperson, Dr. Corinne Menn, Dr. Rachel Rubin, Tamsen Fadal and Jannine Versi.
Together they show there is a real opportunity for progress on menopause reforms—bipartisan issues like funding for women’s health research, public education and training for healthcare providers, improved access to MHT and other treatments, and a reimagining of the role of the private sector and CEOs. Over the next two years, these may well be among the ideas that can transcend political gridlock.
We owe it to ourselves and to generations to come not to back down from that demand.
