From “women’s hell” to bikini medicine: How menopause lost the plot
The way we experience menopause today didn’t happen by accident. It was shaped, often badly, by history, medicine, and culture.
The word menopause itself was coined in 1821, combining the Greek men (month) and pauein (to stop). But long before it had a medical name, it had nicknames like “women’s hell,” “green old age,” and “death of sex.” Not exactly empowering.
By the early 1900s, menopause was widely considered a disease. Doctors believed there was a mysterious connection between the uterus and the brain, making women prone to hysteria (from hystera, meaning uterus). Treatments included hypnosis, vibrating devices, opium, surgery, and when nothing worked, institutionalization.
Then came estrogen. In 1934, estrogen was discovered, and menopause was reframed as “estrogen deficiency.” Hormone replacement was marketed as a cure-all, and pharmaceutical companies leaned in hard. Robert A. Wilson, MD, who authored a national bestseller Feminine Forever (1966), declared estrogen deficiency “a natural plague,” calling menopausal women “crippled castrates.” But, Wilson wrote, with estrogen replacement, a woman’s “breasts and genital organs will not shrivel. She will be much more pleasant to live with and will not become dull and unattractive.”
At the same time, women’s health became radically oversimplified. Enter “bikini medicine”—the idea that women’s health is defined almost entirely by the parts that are covered by the bikini, meaning reproductive organs. Everything else? Treated as if women were just smaller versions of men.
From the 1960s through the 1990s, women of childbearing age were routinely excluded from clinical trials. Many medications on the market today were never properly tested on women. Even animal studies often used only males, because female hormones were considered “too complicated.”
It wasn’t until the late 1990s that scientists made a significant breakthrough: what we commonly call sex hormones are not just essential for reproduction—they’re also vital for brain function. In other words, the same hormones that play a key role in fertility, especially estrogen, play a crucial role in how women’s brains work.
Menopause has been consistently misunderstood. As Lisa Mosconi, PhD puts it:
“Western medicine has emphasized its downsides and minimized its significance… But when you look at menopause from an integrative perspective, there is much more at play.”
Because here’s the part that rarely makes headlines: The same hormonal shifts that create challenges also support new neurological and mental capacities. There are hidden strengths here that reveal themselves when we work with our bodies instead of fighting them.
Which brings us to a different conversation altogether. In the next post, we’ll explore what becomes possible when menopause is viewed through an integrative lens and how practices like yoga can support the brain, body, and nervous system through perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. Tune in!
References
- Lisa Mosconi, PhD The Menopause Brain (affiliate link)
