Dr. Betty Murray explains that menopause itself is natural, but living 20 to 40 years after it is new. A century ago, most women died within ten years of menopause. The abrupt loss of estrogen causes the sharpest aging acceleration women experience, something men never face.
Yes, menopause is natural. Everybody goes through it. We don't get a pass, but surviving significantly after it is actually unique. You know, if we look at our lifespan as women in 1900, the average lifespan was 48 years. Now, if you take out maternal mortality, right, because death during childbirth was one of the major killers, still is, particularly in parts of the United States. But if we were to remove that, most women didn't live significantly past the menopausal experience, usually within a about less than 10 years, they would've passed away. Sanitation, dental, medical advancements. There's a million reasons why we now have a 20 to 40 year potentially lifespan past menopause. So the reality is it's the largest, like, aging event that a woman will go through because we see an acceleration that occurs, right, with the loss of estrogen. Men don't experience that same loss.
