e all know what menopause is, right? Say the word and everyone’s got the full picture in their head already: old(er?) women with hot flushes. That’s all it is, right? Who, in 2022, needs a 300-page guide to something that happens – and has always happened – to half the, the answer is: all of us. For something that’s so well-known, well-established, and essentially inevitable for every single woman (defined brilliantly within this context by Bezzant as “a shortcut for ‘people with ovaries or who have had ovaries’”, and thus including, for example, trans men and non-binary), menopause nevertheless seems to be something that, here in 21st century New Zealand, is still surrounded by mystery, confusion, and is just one of those things we don’t really talk about; as one of Bezzant’s contributors concludes, “Nobody tells you a goddamn thing about menopause.” strives to address that and to instead inform, empower, and nurture women through this significant time of transition and counteract the fear, worry, unpleasant surprise, self-negativity, midnight doom Googling, and snake-oil salesmen that pervade the current landscape for today’s (peri)menopausal woman.
