The menopause, the silent transition
When a woman works, she builds a society -unknown
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/society/india-menopause-policy-women-workplace-support-mini-mathur-lisa-ray-intuit-books-podcast/article69500270.ece
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The national growth story is rising, and then there is a pause we never wanted to encounter, no, it’s not the operation sindoor or any other terror organization’s magnum opus, it’s the topic we don’t often talk about. Menopause, the state where a woman loses her ability to create a new life, but it’s not just that, we often see that as a negative phase of life, when a woman loses her ability to create a new life, that’s a negative way of looking at lif,e isn’t it? Well, there is more to life than creating o,ne and no one knows about it more than a woman of reproductive age. During menopause, there are a lot of things that happen iwoman’sen’s body. It’s like a knee-jerk reaction at the age of 55, an age when your body was smoothly functioning for some time now, and now all of a sudden it stops (it takes 12 months to ough). The body was growing weak, but all of a sudden, a major part of your body stops working. The endocrine system it’s a system that is responsible for a lot of things in your body. The endocrine system is basically the controlling mechanism that decides how and where the fuel (glucose) is used in the body.
The endocrine system gives out the control signals, which are body hormones, most of which are involuntary and very important. This system loses its control when menopause happens, and that leads to a major change in one’s body. This change is not very easy at once, for others, it might look like the woman is getting irritated for no reason. Symptoms like brain fog, sleep disturbances, frequent headaches and migrates, hot flashes and night sweats, chills and palpitations, muscle loss joint paint and various other symptoms related to skin, nails weight loss etc. so, now a large population of India is going through menopause, nearly about 15 crore women, which is certainly a very big population which is an active workforce and yet to retire. Here are a few things we need to take care of if there is a woman in your household who might be going through a tough time. Take her to the hospital and make sure she gets a good source of nutrition and support, as she can grow irritated and weak. There can be a lot of collagen loss and bone matter loss, which could lead to a poor quality of remaining life, leading to stressful years ahead.
While we discuss the idea on macro level there is something else which is at play, on a national scale, this menopause can slow us on the economic front, which often goes unrecorded just like the men’s underwear index which is an informal indicator of recession in any nation, as funny as it may sound, its a serious business. Often, depicting a real picture of a nation's economy, there is a parallel that can be drawn. Underwear are personal and mostly undiscussed affairs in public which means that many men don’t buy or discuss such stuff openly just like menopause, a study conducted in UK says that a nation could lose 1-2 lakh crore of economic loss (the research is customised to uk not india, the number in indian terms can vary). When a major chunk of the population is going through menopause [1], it's high time we address this issue, not because there are 15 crore women in India who will be going through this. Butt, because it'sa more important matter and now is the best time to discuss it.
The economy suffers when a women suffers, this needs to be understood by Indians more because we are the nation which identifies itself as a beautiful women with a tika on her forehead, we identify by that quote more so because max muller has also described India as a land where women are not just revered but also uniquely honored the feminine. Women as a principle of divinity and not just as a consort or mother, but as one of the driving forces in the form of shakti. While we have forgotten this aspect of Indology, it's time that we remember this again and go back to the ways we kept practicing our olden ways, of managing things in an Indic way, it's not to say we go back on old practice, but to include the older ones with new methods.
While one might be thinking, how will the economy be affected by this? One might also ask how it i that this is talked about and the men’s issue, that is the loss of androgen post 50’s, is not discussed? Yes, even that needs to be discussed, because both impact us equally, as there will be a significant risk of lower productivity loss during these phases of one’s life. More so in rural areas where women’s health is almost always ignored, women sacrifice their health at the altar of their family’s health, not understanding that both are equally important. A women, or a matriarch is often the binding force of the family which keeps the family stick together, considering that she is most approachable in the family, a son/daughter and other younger once feel easy to approach the mother while the father is busy toiling away and doing the tougher work of being the provider of the family, so in many cases the burden of creating a happy family falls on the shoulders of women, imagine if a women is not healthy and irritated she wont be able to impart the important lessons of life one needs to make a better life, and eventualy better society. Remember it took a ma jijau to make a Shivaji and a ma vidhyavati to make Bhagatat Singh. This society cannot perform without the contribution of a woman. Hence, it's extremely important that we stand with them in every time of need and more so, when they have a plethora of experience and can impart it to the younger ones.
It’s time we make systems that fill the medicinal and social gaps of the system to help women smoothly transition through this phase, it must be more discussed and not to be seen as a taboo topic, just like it was in the Vedic and later Vedic periods, where once women went through menopause (rajonivritti) she was considered fit for her next phase of life, which is to become a guiding force of her family. A smooth transition was ensured by giving her Hormone therapy, which often included herbs like ashwagandha, shatavari, Brahmi, and guggul. The point is that there was a system in place to manage this issue without making any significant negative impact on a household or an individual's life. It's high time that the government builds a campaign to make people aware of the situation, not just sex ed, but transitional education in general biology, which includes such topics, cs should also be discussed. An awareness campaign like use of condoms and contraceptive can also be designed along this, the use of Sakhi medicine was a good attempt which is a non-hormone based contraceptive pills but didn’t strike a chord with the rural population, the fruits of which could have been enormous considering that there are no side effects of the medicine on large scale unlike the popular morning pills. It's high time we look at things the way they are, and not as somtabooboo, or the ill effects will be borne by future generations to come. After all, we must remember “when a woman works, she builds a society.”
[1] “Menopause and the Workplace - Committees - UK Parliament,” accessed May 25, 2025, https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1416/menopause-and-the-%20workplace/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
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