The Silence Around Menopause

When I launched The Way Apothecary a little over a year ago, I thought beauty editors, almost all women themselves, would be excited. I imagined I was ahead of a trend. But when I reached out with ideas about perimenopause, menopause, and midlife that were not rooted in fear, the silence was louder than any no. These same women wrote beautifully about skincare, makeup, body care, and fragrance, yet when it came to midlife, there was hesitation. Aside from a few forward-thinking editors, the words I used seemed too heavy to touch.

When I tell people about my work, I often hear the same response: “That’s such a hot topic.” And to some extent, it is. Women are talking about menopause, but mostly in clinical terms. What is rarely explored are the profound positive changes it can bring, or how we might approach it with mindfulness and respect. That was when I began to see how much cultural baggage still lingers. Menopause is often spoken of as if it were a disease, something to be suppressed rather than celebrated or explored.

An Ancient Fear

I began to wonder if this silence goes deeper than modern discomfort. Perhaps it is something primal, carried in our collective memory. In early human communities, survival depended on fertility. To be able to bear children was to hold value and place. To speak openly of no longer being fertile may have risked exile from the center of the group, or even expulsion from the village.

This ancient fear, I believe, is still with us. It shows up in the way menopause is hidden in plain sight, present in every woman’s life yet treated as a secret. It explains the unease, even among women, when the subject arises. Somewhere beneath the surface is that old question of belonging. If we are no longer defined by fertility, do we still have a place at the table?

Losing Trust in the Body

I see this hesitation even here in the Bay Area, a place known for its “crunchy” devotion to wellness and natural living. When perimenopause arrives, the cultural messages are so loud that they can drown out a woman’s inner knowing. The trust we once held in the body, in rhythm, and in the feminine feels overshadowed. What happened to our reverence for Mother Earth and the belief that she is here to guide us?

What happened to the inner wild woman who runs with the wolves?

Perimenopause has not been seamless for me either. There have been nights of restless sleep, waves of emotion, and changes in my body that I was not prepared for. And yet, it has also been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. The good has outweighed the hard. This passage has asked me to slow down, to listen more deeply, to speak with clarity, and to reorient my life around what truly matters. It has also called me to lean into my holistic practices and discover their full strength.

Reclaiming Midlife

What I discovered was that midlife is the beginning of a path for the woman I will be for the rest of my life. It is a threshold where the mind, body, and spirit are called into new alignment. It is a time when beauty takes on depth, when ritual can anchor us, and when nature offers medicine and perspective.

This is what led me to create The Way, a lifestyle, a self-care brand, and a one-on-one practice. It weaves holistic wisdom, science with soul, ritual with nature, and offers a mind, body, spirit approach to balance and renewal. For me, it gives language to an experience that the word menopause alone could never hold, a language that honors change not as loss, but as transformation, almost like a shamanic journey.

I no longer feel the need to push against the silence. The cultural baggage around menopause runs deep, and my energy is better placed in shaping a new story. What I know is that this time of life offers far more than prescriptions, weight-loss drugs, or exercise routines designed to fight against age. It is a passage into presence, clarity, and depth. For those who wish to see it this way too, I welcome you to come along.

When we shift the language, we shift the story. We are not women defined by loss, but women stepping into a deeper kind of power, presence, and beauty. This is the conversation I want to have. If you want to live this phase of life on your own terms while discovering its power along the way, join me. If this resonated, please share it with a friend who might need it.

Ladies, please share your experiences with me. Have you felt your story of midlife has been dictated to you? How does this show up in your life — work, family, socially?

If this speaks to you and you’d like more personal support, I offer one-on-one guidance through The Way. Together, we explore how to navigate this passage with balance, ritual, and holistic care.
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