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Let’s get something straight: if a human female lives long enough, menopause happens. Full stop. It’s not a modern phenomenon. It’s not a syndrome. It’s not a disease. And it’s definitely not the result of women suddenly living “too long.” That idea needs to be retired—preferably with a gold watch and a firm talking-to.
Fertility Has Always Had an Expiry Date
Aristotle (yes, that Aristotle) wrote in his biological treatise On the Generation of Animals that female fertility ends well before death. He wasn’t exactly a champion of women, but he did observe that our reproductive years come with a natural expiry date—and that we lived on beyond them.
So no, menopause didn’t sneak in with modernity like a side effect of Wi-Fi or oat milk. It’s always been part of the female timeline. What’s changed is not that we go through menopause—it’s how long we live afterward.
Life Span vs Life Expectancy: A Quick Reality Check
Let’s clarify a common mix-up. Lifespan is the biological potential for how long a person can live—think of it as the upper limit. Life expectancy, on the other hand, is a statistical average that factors in things like famine, childbirth, war, and infections.
So yes, the average life expectancy used to be lower, often skewed by infant mortality. But plenty of women lived into their 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s thousands of years ago—and they weren’t hiding behind the colonnades of ancient temples either.
Let’s Talk Historical Women with Some Serious Staying Power
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Queen Tiye, grandmother of Tutankhamun, lived into her 60s in ancient Egypt and held serious political power.
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Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century polymath, composer, and medical writer, lived to age 81.
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Catherine de’ Medici lived into her late 60s—while managing empires and marrying off royal children.
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Even in the harsh world of medieval Europe, Eleanor of Aquitaine made it to 82, outliving two kings and mothering ten children along the way. [featured image of Eleanor of Aquitaine source]
So yes, there were old women in history—and they were busy. They just didn’t get written about as much as the old men. (What’s new?)
The Real “Modern Phenomenon”? The Way We Talk About Menopause
As Dr. Deena Emera said on the Hotflash Inc Podcast, by Ann Marie McQueen:
“Menopause itself isn’t surprising – if you live long enough, you will run out of eggs. What’s unique about humans is that we have such a long post-reproductive life stage. That’s the real mystery we need to solve.”
Exactly. The question isn’t why menopause happens—it’s why we get so much life afterward. That’s rare in the animal kingdom, but in humans? It’s baked in. There’s even a name for it: the Grandmother Hypothesis—the idea that post-reproductive women stick around to help raise the next generations. (Sound familiar?)
So No, Perimenopause and Menopause Are Not Modern “Conditions”
Let’s just call that what it is: a myth. A modern misreading of biology, stats, and history. Perimenopause and menopause are not new, not disorders, and not caused by “overstaying our welcome” on Earth. What’s changed is that we’ve started paying attention—and talking about it.
So the next time someone suggests menopause is some side effect of modern life, hit them with this: “Menopause has always been here. You just haven’t been listening.”
And if you want to really make them think, throw in this zinger from The Wiser Woman blog:
“We are supposed to live this long.”
Because we are. We always have been.
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The 3C Framework – Calm, Clear & Connected
A Practical Roadmap for a Mindful Menopause
Wednesday 12th March at 6.30pm – 7.30pm – online – save a seat here
Menopause doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Calm, Clear & Connected is a straightforward, easy-to-follow framework designed to help you take control of your experience with clarity and confidence.
In this lively workshop, you’ll gain essential menstrual health knowledge, helping you understand what’s happening in your body and why. With this foundation, making supportive choices becomes simpler and more effective—because they’re relevant and meaningful to your unique journey.
Through a practical, science-backed approach, you’ll create a personalised plan to:
✔ Calm your body—reduce symptoms, manage stress, and restore balance
✔ Clear your mind—cut through confusion, improve focus, and feel confident
✔ Connect the dots—understand your body’s needs and make informed choices
No fluff, no guesswork—just clear guidance and actionable steps to help you move through menopause with ease. By the end of the course, you’ll have a real-world strategy that works for you, so you can feel energised, in control, and fully supported in this next phase of life.
Your menopause, your way—let’s make it work for you.
Save your seat by booking on the calendar right now —> WORKSHOP CALENDAR
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Many, have asked why we don’t talk about menopause when what we really should be asking is ‘How can we learn to talk about menopause?’
The word menopause appears twice on the Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance published by the Department of Education in 2019.
You will find it on page 29 under the section titled –
By the end of secondary school – Schools should continue to develop knowledge on topics specified for primary as required and in addition, cover the following content by the end of secondary: Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health
To have the word menopause mentioned in the curriculum was certainly a huge leap forward and a long overdue addition to the other relationship and sex education topics. However, in specific content, I have not been able to speak with anyone who knows exactly what is being delivered across the country.
What about Menstrual Health?
As with all topics in education they need to be introduced at various points, in relevant and meaningful terms for the age group and cohorts.
The word menstrual gets 7 mentions in various forms as either products, cycle, or wellbeing, and menstruation gets 6 mentions. Go the Period Campaigners!
However, there is still no mention of menstrual health in the curriculum, currently.
The term Menstrual Health was developed through a multi-stage process, led by the Terminology Action Group of the Global Menstrual Collective in 2021 – only 200 years after the word menopause was formally adopted thanks to French Physician Charles-Pierre-Louis de Gardanne to describe the permanent cessation of menstruation.
Since 2021 the World Health Organisation has placed menstrual health firmly on the global agenda.
What about the missed generations who have not learned about menstrual health?
Trying to learn about menopause without first learning about the prequel event called menstrual health, has proven time and time again to be the one thing that is holding back the conversation.
Let’s take a closer look at the missing menopause memo.
Menstrual health, like mental health, can be positive or negative. Most narratives place anything to do with menstruation in the negative column and refer to ‘period problems’.
Menstrual health is every single day of a menstruators life, not only the days of bleed.
For those who follow the typical timeline, they will experience around 450 menstrual cycles over 40-years. The menstrual health timeline is forecast the moment two sets of chromosomes unite. Menstruation will start a couple of years after the ovaries have ‘switched on’.
The regular infradian rhythm called the menstrual cycle has an unpredictable sequence to start with and then within a few years becomes mostly predictable, creating ovarian/uterine patterns that are relative to each person. On average menstrual cycles range from 21-35 days in length.
The first 30 years of circulating menstrual cycle hormones influence everything from muscles, bones, digestion, energy, metabolism, immunity, respiration, and the brain. In total, there are around 400 roles in the body that are collectively driven by sex hormones, in all humans not only those who menstruate.
It subsequently makes sense that the fluctuating cyclical version of events, driven by the ovaries in a menstruator will have a cyclical impact on physiology, second by second. The last 10 years of pre-planned ovarian activity is one that becomes less predictable, known as perimenopause. The tipping point of perimenopause, also known as accelerated ovarian aging, is estimated to be on average age thirty-seven and a half years.
Aging conundrum: A perspective for ovarian aging. Research has shown that the decline in follicle numbers is a bi-exponential function of age, and this change occurs at the critical value of 25,000 follicles at the age of 37.5 years. Frontiers in Endocrinology
From this point forward ovarian aging speeds up, slows down, does a loop the loop and then closer to the typical menopause day (51) the menstrual cycle stops for several months at a time, until it finally stops, permanently.
In my opinion, to truly understand menopause and create confident conversations, you have to know about the menstrual health timeline and the sequence of events that start 40 years prior.
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Perimenopause is the word used to describe the time before a typical Menopause Day. Which makes it easy to know when perimenopause finishes, but not when it starts.
The typical Menopause Day is the one moment in time when you have traveled along the menstrual health timeline to the point when the ovarian cycle has stopped permanently. When there has been no menstruation for 12 months, the next day is postmenopause, the time before that is perimenopause.
- Menopause Day may occur because of medication used to treat another health condition such as endometriosis or cancer, regardless of the distance traveled along the timeline.
- Menopause Day may occur before the age of 45, which is below the age of a typical menopause day which most often happens between the age of 45-55. This kind of Menopause Day is called Early Menopause.
- Menopause Day may occur below the age of 40, and this is termed Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI).
To some Perimenopause is a fairly new word, and others say it has been made up. The earliest known use is in the 1960s. The word was first used in an official clinical capacity in 2001 when the first Sexual Reproductive Agin Workshop (STRAW) was held and then modified to include Earl and Late Perimenopause when they met again in 2011 and the new revised edition became known as STRAW+10.
Peri means ‘a time leading up to’, however, it does not help us figure out when it starts. Medically they consider the key indicator to be a change in the menstrual cycle, or ‘fertility becomes unpredictable’ (don’t like that phrase either as it takes back to reproduction).
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The Menstrual Health Timeline is a sequence of events linked to DNA and time. Menstrual Health orchestrated by the ovaries and the brain.
When someone is born with ovaries and a uterus they will take their first step on the menstrual health timeline when their ovaries switch on, which we know to be around the age of 8. From this point, the estimated time frame of ovarian activity is 40 years, before the ovaries switch off again.
The Menstrual Health Timeline v Reproductive aging
From the point of ovaries switching on, to switching off, is medically defined as reproductive aging. I don’t like that term because it places the role of the ovaries and uterus exclusively in the reproductive system category. What if you don’t want to reproduce or find yourself unable to, does that mean they have no importance? I have chosen to use the term the menstrual health timeline to reflect a journey that links, menstrual health and ovarian aging, to overall health and well-being.
What happens next?
- There are 100s of hormones. We know a lot about the actions of many but you will hear mostly about the top 20. There are 3 main hormones at the top of the list, particularly when we are talking about menstrual and menopause health.
- These 3 very important hormones, referred to as sex hormones, are made in all humans.
- They have a vital role in all 11 systems of the body.
- There are 11 different functional networks in all humans. They work together to keep us alive. One of the key parts keeping them operating well is the method of communication between them – hormones.
- Hormones have no gender. No hormone is exclusive to one gender over another. It’s a huge misconception, and even today our children are taught the wrong kind of language about hormone health.
Do Sex hormones need a re-brand?
Calling the top 3 (oestrogen, testosterone & progesterone) sex hormones is a very old nomenclature based on the fact that they are part of the development of secondary sexual characteristics in humans. Technically, progesterone doesn’t really qualify but gets grouped into it by default because of menstruation and pregnancy.
There are only 2 pages in a school textbook about these hormones and they are placed on gender pegs, which creates a smoke screen around hormone health moving forward. Scientists have known for decades that sex hormones play a role in all 11 systems of the body. Since I discovered this I have never understood why it is not in textbooks at school or university education. Speaking as someone who taught the A Level Biology curriculum, who now knows about this massive hole in our education system, I just don’t understand why there has been no upgrade in what we teach.
I will explain more about The Menstrual Health Timeline in future blogs, but for now, here is an illustration of what it looks like.
