If you want a masterclass in how women’s health gets sidelined, look no further than hormonal conditions. Endometriosis takes an average of 10 years to be diagnosed. PCOS? Up to 70 percent of women go undiagnosed. And then there’s the pièce de résistance: menopause. A universal experience for half the population—and yet, for decades, women have been, as Vanessa Coppola, DNP, FNP-BC, puts it, “made to believe that their suffering was psychological rather than physiological.”
Women approaching menopause have long been told—often by men, which is its own irony—that hot flashes, low sex drive, brain fog, and weight gain are “just a normal part of aging.” The implication? That discomfort is inevitable, and treatment is optional. In reality, getting (somewhat) comfortably through perimenopause and menopause is doable with hormone therapy.
