Women's Health series #5: Menopause and beyond!

Menopause is not a switch that flips at a certain age. It is a multi-year transition that can affect every system in the body, and for decades—centuries, even—women experiencing it have been dismissed, medicated, or worse. In the final episode of her perimenopause series, host and health coach Chris Swell delivers a direct, compassionate recap: the symptoms are real, the suffering is optional, and the first step toward relief is understanding that you are normal.

The scale of the problem

Swell opens with a startling statistic: studies suggest that between 10 and 30 percent of women leave their jobs during perimenopause. The reasons are not trivial—intensified anxiety, depression, brain fog so thick that concentration becomes impossible, and physical pain that makes daily work feel like a burden. She connects this to a long, ugly history. “They used to call it hysteria when a woman was in that age and medicate them and lock them away,” she says. She even points to research suggesting that many women persecuted as witches during historical witch trials were in their perimenopausal years, targeted because they were mixing herbs to manage symptoms. The point is not to sensationalize the past but to underline a present reality: this is a conversation women need to have, openly, so they know they are not broken.

Why menopause affects everything