“Perimenopause and menopause should be treated as the rites of passage they are and, if not celebrated, then at least accepted and acknowledged and honored.”
- Gillian Anderson
For generations, Western culture has sold us a devastating lie about menopause: that it's an ending, or a fading away. While women across Asia, Africa, and indigenous cultures step into power during this transition, we've been taught it's a time for becoming smaller. But what if I told you everything we've been taught about this profound life transition is completely backwards? What if there is powerful ancient wisdom that could reframe this period of life?
What if, instead of a sunset, we're actually witnessing a dawn?
Ancient Wisdom vs. Modern Western Blindness
The global tapestry of menopausal understanding reveals stark contrasts in how different cultures view this powerful transition.
In Japan, where women often report fewer menopausal symptoms than their Western counterparts, the transition is known as "konenki" - literally meaning "renewal years" or "energy change." Rather than viewing it as an ending, they recognize it as their "second spring," a time of new possibilities and shifting priorities.
This isn't just cultural optimism. Research has shown that societies with more positive attitudes toward menopause tend to report fewer severe symptoms.
In many cultures, post-menopausal women step into positions of increased social influence and authority. Their experience is valued, their wisdom sought after. Free from the demands of reproduction and child-rearing, many women find themselves with the time, energy, and confidence to pursue long-delayed dreams or take on new challenges.
In traditional Chinese medicine, this phase is viewed as a natural redistribution of yin and yang energy rather than a deficit. Women often describe feeling more decisive, more willing to speak their minds, and less concerned with others' approval. As one Chinese proverb puts it: "With age comes the freedom to be yourself."
This perspective offers Western women an alternative to the narrative of decline. Instead of seeing menopause as something to be medicated away or suffered through silently, we might view it as a transformation - challenging at times, yes, but ultimately leading to a new phase of life rich with possibility.
Many women report feeling more confident, creative, and liberated during their post-menopausal years. Free from the biological rhythms of reproduction, they often experience a renewed sense of purpose and personal power. As author Dr. Christiane Northrup notes, this is when many women finally feel free to pursue their deepest passions and speak their truth without reservation.
It's Global Understanding, One That Skipped Us
In Japan, they don't see menopause as an ending - they see it as a transition into a new purpose. A rebirth. A second spring.
In Native American cultures, they don't even have a word for menopause. Instead, they call post-menopausal women "Women of Wisdom." They celebrate this phase as an arrival at a new level of power and understanding.
The ancient Ayurvedic system sees this time as an opportunity - a sacred window to prioritize your wellbeing on every level: physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually, and spiritually.
Mayan women reportedly view menopause as a time of increased freedom and social status. They see it as entering an era where they can become community leaders and healers.
In China, menopause is seen through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a natural transition where yin and yang energies shift. It's viewed as a normal progression. The term they use translates to mean "age of change" or "transformative years."
South American indigenous tribes often have specific ceremonies marking this transition, viewing it as an entrance into an honored elder status. Not elderly, but an elder. Massive difference.
Among traditional shamanic and the Cree people of Canada, there's a deep belief that menopause marks the gateway to a woman's fullest spiritual and healing powers. These cultures view post-menopausal women as uniquely equipped to serve as healers and spiritual guides, seeing the end of menstruation not as a loss but as a necessary transition into deeper wisdom and power.
So here's what I want to know: How did we get it so wrong in the west, where we instead sunset our wise women?
The Untold Story of Power
Here's what they don't tell you in those dry medical pamphlets: This is when many women finally stop giving a damn about society's expectations. "It's a time of liberation," says Davina McCall, referring to menopause. "It's a time of shedding the shackles of inhibition and of giving a damn."
Gone is the need to be "nice," to make yourself smaller, to fit into predetermined boxes. The freedom is intoxicating. Women are starting empires in their 50s, leading revolutions in their 60s, discovering new passions in their 70s. They're having mind-blowing sex, finding new love, and yes – experiencing pleasure that their younger selves couldn't even imagine.
“Menopause is passage, not a problem. It's time to embrace your wisdom, your experience and your strength. It's not an end. It's a new beginning" - Jane Fonda
The Biology of Becoming
When we stop producing eggs, our bodies don't just shut down – they redirect that immense creative energy elsewhere. Science is just beginning to understand the neural changes that occur during this transition. Many women report increased intuition, clearer thinking, and a sense of coming home to themselves. It's as if the energy once used for potential reproduction is now available for personal revolution.
Tracee Ellis Ross, one of my favorite humans, shared this:
"My friend Michaela told me, 'This is an invitation into your wild-woman phase, to being a moon driver. You have spent years being driven by the moon, and now you are going to drive the moon.' And I was like, 'That's right. I'm about to drive the moon." "Another friend was like, 'Your womb will no longer have to be thinking it's going to make a baby. You can fill it with all your creativity.' And I was like, 'That's right. I'm going to make babies of projects and things out of my womb.'"
Rewriting the Cultural Script
Society tries to write us out of the story just as we're getting to our most interesting chapter. Where are the films about women discovering their life's purpose at 60? Where are the love stories featuring silver-haired goddesses? Where are the tales of post-menopausal women leading movements, changing paradigms, and yes, having earth-shattering pleasure?
Gwyneth Paltrow says:
“Menopause gets a really bad rap and needs a bit of rebranding. I remember when my mother went through menopause and it was such a big deal, and I think there was grief around it for her and all these emotions. I don’t think we have in our society a great example of an aspirational menopausal woman.”
The Sacred Space Between Stories; The Wild Woman
This transition is what mythologists call a liminal space – the fertile void between what was and what will be. In traditional societies, such spaces were honored and supported. Women had guides, rituals, and wisdom traditions to help them navigate this passage. Today, we're recreating these circles of support, finding new ways to honor this transformation.
This is when many women rediscover what Clarissa Pinkola Estés calls their "Wild Woman" nature – that fierce, instinctual self that may have been buried under years of being "good" and "appropriate."
Like wolves shedding their winter coat, we shed old roles and expectations. It's no coincidence that so many women report feeling more outspoken, more decisive, less concerned with pleasing others during this time.
Traditional cultures understood this awakening. They saw that when a woman was no longer bound by the social and biological imperatives, she could step fully into her power as elder, wisdom-keeper, and truth-teller. The wise woman archetype appears in mythologies worldwide not as a figure of decay, but as one of deep reverent power – she who knows, she who dares, she who no longer needs anyone's permission to be herself.
This liminal space, this sacred pause between our stories, isn't empty at all. It's rich with possibility, alive with becoming. Like the darkness before dawn, it holds all the potential of what we might become when we finally, fully belong to ourselves.
The Revolutionary Act of Aging Powerfully
Every woman who refuses to disappear, who claims her space and her power, who lives visibly and unapologetically in her post-menopausal glory, is performing a revolutionary act. She's showing the next generation a new way to age, a new way to power, a new way to be.
The truth is, we're not just rewriting the story of menopause – we're rewriting the story of what it means to be a woman in the second half of life. And this story? It's not about fading away. It's about finally, gloriously, powerfully coming into bloom.
This isn't just a second act. It's a second spring. And spring, as we know, is when everything comes alive.
Why This Changes Everything
This reframe isn't just about making menopause more palatable – it's about reclaiming lost power. It's about refusing to let society write off half our lives. It's about recognizing that what we've been taught to view as an ending is actually an initiation into our most authentic, powerful, and purposeful years.
When we rewrite the story of menopause, we rewrite the story of feminine power itself. We challenge the notion that a woman's value is tied to her fertility. We reject the idea that aging equals decline, its the opposite actually. We reclaim our right to become more, not less, as we age.
This isn't just a new perspective on menopause – it's a revolution in how we think about women's power, purpose, and potential. And it's about damn time.
Because when women stop seeing their later years as their lesser years, when they start claiming their wisdom years as their power years – that's when everything changes. Not just for them, but for all of us.
This is why the reframe matters. This is why it's revolutionary.
