Kelly Casperson, a urologist based in the Pacific Northwest, and a leading voice for women’s health rights explains in the film, “Women outlive the lifespan of our ovaries.” The Mayo Clinic states that more than 2 million women in the US enter menopause each year, and 85% of those women will experience menopause symptoms according to The National Institutes for Health. Somi Javid, OB/GYN puts the phenomenon in simple terms: “A woman’s estrogen levels after menopause drops down [significantly.] … It’s like being on six cups of coffee a day and then all of the sudden you are on zero cups.” Any coffee lover can understand how that feels.
“We go through puberty and everybody is happy, then pregnancy and it’s all parties and gifts, and gender reveals,” says Lisa Mosconi, PHd, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Women’s Brain Institute, in the film. “When you go through menopause, suddenly no one wants to hear about it.” She goes on to say that, “women are born with a ton of estrogen receptors, not just in the body but specifically in the brain; our brains run on estrogen starting at puberty and they keep doing that until the end of our lives.”
Women over 50 are one of the fastest growing employment groups in the US according to the National Institutes of Health, and yet in 2023 only 4% of major US companies offered menopausal health benefits to their employees, according to Bloomberg News. The documentary also dives into the racial disparities of menopause treatments and the differences as to how ethnicities experience and view menopause. Black women in particular are the least likely to be offered menopause treatment from their doctors and also the least likely to take the treatment even when it is offered. Asian women experience less hot flashes and night sweats but experience more fragility and poor bone health. Latina women view menopause in a positive way but view aging in a negative way, creating a disconnect.
