Menopause in neoliberal times

Lately, there has been extensive discussion regarding the lack of supply in pharmacies to meet the demand for hormone replacement therapy intended to alleviate the multiple and complex symptoms that we women may experience during menopause or perimenopause.

That this serious lack is being claimed—driven, in part, by feminism—is legitimate and necessary. Especially, when comparing what is happening with the supply of sexual health drugs intended for men (even though we are talking about very different uses). We confirm once again the lack of a gender perspective in the health system in general and in research on menopause or situations that impact women from a certain age in particular.

I would like —in this brief reflection— to open some more questions, added to this objective pharmacological need.

As a woman in this stage who dedicates a monthly budget to supplements to balance these symptoms, there are two lines of reflection that I would like to open. First, to note that social inequalities also have a direct impact on the possibility of alleviating the symptoms of this stage. As always happens with capitalism, the priority of the menopause businessis not to improve our well-being but to squeezeprofit to the maximum: in this scenario, women in greater situations of economic vulnerability are those who have the least access to seek pharmacological solutions, which are expensive. But that is not all. The health recommendations that are made (which many women experience as social demands) about this stage involve habits such as physical exercise. And the most economically vulnerable women are also those who suffer most from what we call time poverty (time for themselves, to improve their personal situation). We do not take enough responsibility, neither socially nor from the administration, for what all this implies.

Secondly, I wonder if the business that we menopausal women generateis not, in large part, the result of the neoliberal model that imposes on us maximum professional performance, the aesthetic pressure to always seem younger, the demand for permanent sexual availability... In short, the pressure on women to make the passage of time invisible. Often, when I feel very tired or have trouble sleeping and I am clear that hormonal changes are influencing it, I wonder how much of the daily self-demand I experience also has to do with responding to this social model in which women can only be valued if we can convey the energy and physique of appearing younger than we actually are. One of the compliments that is most common when you state your age after a certain point is to tell you that you don't look it, that you look younger. We live in a society that does not let us be who we are. Shouldn't old age make us feel that we are socially recognized for the wisdom of having lived more rather than for scraping away whatever youth remains in us?