When I wrote The Joy of Menopause Manifesto in 2022, one line became my rallying cry:
“Joy is an act of resistance in a world gone mad.”
Because let’s be honest: menopause doesn’t arrive quietly. It barges in with hot flashes, anxiety, brain fog, joint pain, and sometimes a crushing sense of invisibility. For too long, the script has been: hide it, medicate it, push through it. Pretend you’re fine while inside you’re unraveling.
But what if joy itself was the rebellion?
My Own Resistance
When menopause hit me, I didn’t feel joyful. I felt hijacked by my own body. The hot flashes, the insomnia, the mood swings, none of it was pretty.
Yet I realized something profound: the real enemy wasn’t my body. It was the story I had been told about my body.
That menopause was shameful. That my changing hormones made me irrational, weak, or unworthy. That I should fix myself before daring to show up in the world again.
Choosing joy in the middle of all that felt radical. It felt like power.
What Joy Looks Like in Menopause
Joy isn’t pretending symptoms don’t exist. It isn’t plastering on a smile while suffering in silence. Joy is:
- Laughing with girlfriends even when a hot flash leaves you drenched
- Feeling gratitude for a body that carries you, even when it aches
- Saying no to roles, jobs, or expectations that no longer serve you
- Embracing the hidden woman you’ve kept tucked away for fear of judgment
- Loving yourself without conditions and without apologies
This is joy as resistance: refusing to shrink when the world tells you to disappear.
The Shift We’re Seeing
The good news? Women everywhere are beginning to claim this kind of joy.
Social media is filled with women sharing their menopause stories, turning what was once taboo into everyday conversation.
Companies like HSBC and SAP have launched menopause support programs, recognizing that women in midlife are not a liability; they are leaders.
Researchers are finally documenting the economic cost of silence: in the U.S. alone, menopause-related absenteeism costs $1.8 billion annually.
The revolution is here. It’s messy, imperfect, but it’s happening, and it’s powered by women choosing joy every single day.
Why Joy Matters
Joy isn’t fluffy. It’s fuel. It’s what keeps us moving forward even when bodies ache and nights are sleepless. It’s what makes us resilient enough to demand better healthcare, stronger workplace policies, and deeper cultural change.
Because when women in menopause choose joy, they remind the world:
- We are still here
- We are powerful
- We are more than the sum of our symptoms
That’s why I do this work. Not just to ease hot flashes or balance hormones, but to help women reclaim joy as their birthright, their power, their quiet revolution.
This Menopause Awareness Month, don’t go through this season alone.
Join the Joy of Menopause private Facebook Community. Every week, I host Menopause After Dark, a real, unfiltered conversation about the challenges of perimenopause and the solutions that actually help.
Spaces fill quickly, click today and be part of the community where joy is our resistance.