There are resources for the mind, body and spirit in this transition. There is liberation in menopause.

Nicole McConico; Iranti Ẹjẹ attendee

Menopause is a threshold ... this portal to our divine wisdom. It is that crone state where knowledge, plus practice, has become embodied wisdom.

Sonya Renee Taylor; Iranti Ẹjẹ speaker, New York Times best-selling author, activist, thought leader and founder of The Body Is Not an Apology

Incarcerated women experience menopause as a silent crossover. Prison stories should be told, and a curriculum be created.

Cheryl Ward; Iranti Ẹjẹ panelist, formerly incarcerated activist and SAFE Housing Network manager for A New Way of Life Reentry Project

What I think is important, intergenerationally, is for those of us who are in perimenopause or postmenopausal to be able to feel candid enough to share with younger people what we've been through. What the experiences are like for us and to model ... to continue to live a joyful and full and rich and HOT life ... not hot like a hot flash, but hot like *sizzles*! I want us to be able to foreground it for them its not a shameful experience.

Courtney Reid-Eaton; former BGG2SM senior advisor, Iranti Ẹjẹ moderator, Black feminist, cultural worker, spouse and mother

I think about the generations that come after us. I imagine that people might say the word 'menopause' and think about somebody like me or somebody like you and ... the idea of that is what inspires the work I do. This also gets to be the face of menopause.

Austen Smith; Iranti Ẹjẹ speaker, masculine-of-center/nonbinary wordsmith, editor, community facilitator and radical imagination doula

I learned that someone can sing and cry at the same time and still hit all the energetic notes. I learned about the supportive work of cruciferous vegetables. I learned about the idea of ancestralizing parts of our bodies that we have to release. I learned about the conditions of menopausal people in prison. I learned many more things.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs; Iranti Ẹjẹ speaker, author, queer Black troublemaker and Black feminist love evangelist

My future self is dope, and pleasure is medicine.

Osuntola Titlola Oguntoyinbo; Iranti Ẹjẹ attendee

Everything we do in Black bodies is ceremony. We are in a body on a body, whales/elephants/and us, paradox of individual experience in a collective experience. Menopausal fire as a hearth. Fire wants to be kept and not bound.

Vahisha Hasan; Iranti Ẹjẹ attendee

Part of decolonization is understanding that I am just one part, and I need each and every one of you. What is in our blood memory, they can't take that from us.

Vivette Jeffries Logan; Iranti Ẹjẹ panelist, elected member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation's Tribal Council, founding director of the OBSN Tribal Health Circle and social justice trainer

Menopause, long mired in myth and controversy and shrouded by a cloak of embarrassed silence, is fast becoming the leading women’s health issue of the decade.

Jane E. Brody; The New York Times, May 19, 1992

Menopause is not an afterthought for us. Nor can we continue to tolerate being society’s afterthought. We are here to insist that the sheer potency of this next vital chapter of our lives no longer be overlooked, ignored or squandered. And, urgently, to demand investment in the science that could help solve or at least ameliorate the deep challenges that accompany the transition to menopause: the physical and emotional symptoms endured by millions.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf; executive director of Ms. partnerships and strategy

Now is the time for each and every one of us to make our voices heard. To tell our state leaders that we deserve to make informed choices about our health and have access to affordable, competent care. We have every right and reason to demand states invest in menopause and ensure our well-being. We owe it to ourselves—and to generations to come—to not back away from this cause.

A Citizen’s Guide to Menopause Advocacy, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Our job is to continue to discuss hormone therapy the same way we would any medication. At long last, we are free to have this conversation without the unnecessary fear factor that the black box warning engendered.

Dr. Sharon Malone and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf

The question is no longer whether science supports hormone therapy, but how quickly we can rebuild trust and partnership. Who will lead the re-education of America’s well-meaning doctors? And after two decades of fear, how do we communicate accurate, nuanced risks and benefits to the public? The stakes are high.

Dr. Kelly Casperson; board-certified urologic surgeon, CEO and founder of The Casperson Clinic, and host of the podcast You Are Not Broken

Menopause affects every cell in your body, from the top of your head to your toes and your bones. Sixty-nine percent of OB-GYNs have no menopause training. Your doctor needs to know how menopause is affecting your body. They've shown on average, it takes seven visits to figure out that symptoms are related to menopause. This has to change.

Dr. Sophia Yen; co-founder of Pandia Health

Is this primal rage I’m feeling an appropriate response to tyranny—or just low estrogen?

Glennon Doyle; author

Sleep health is political, and it’s time we treated it that way. Demand your doctor take sleep complaints seriously. Support candidates prioritizing healthcare funding. Join organizations like Project Sleep lobbying for research. Share personal stories to break the shame. To resist, we must reclaim rest itself. Our lives depend on it.

J. Roxanne Prichard, Ph.D.; professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota