Since the late 1970s, the medical profession has studied menopausal women more than in any time in history, and what it has learned from those women — a group that includes the mothers of baby boomers — has changed the way our culture views menopause.

Not Just “In Your Head”

Symptoms such as hot flashes, insomnia, and irritability were once viewed as all-in-the-head responses to the panic of aging. Today, many scientists trace these symptoms to specific changes in hormone levels. In the 1980s, most women viewed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as the only option for relieving menopausal symptoms. Today, hormone therapy is just one treatment choice. The world is a different place for today's menopausal women thanks, in part, to data gathered for and by their mothers' generation.

More Information and Choices

Today there is a wide variety of health care resources, treatment options, support groups, information sources, and discussion forums turn to for information, advice, and ideas about having a healthy menopause. Menopausal women don't have to “shut up and get through it” deny that they're experiencing natural emotional and physical reactions to this important passage. Today's fifty-year-olds have one-third of their lives ahead of them. They will live longer than any generation of women that preceded them, and they won't experience this “third age” as their mothers experienced it. To live the years ahead productively and happily, women in this group must come face to face with their body, their health, and their attitudes toward menopause.