Postwar women can expect to live as much as one-third of their lives after menopause—a longevity that has stimulated reconceptualizations of “the change.” Once a source of shame, the menstrual cycle from beginning to end has become both a medically treatable condition and a source of female dignity and empowerment.

Medical research linked the declining estrogen levels incident to menopause with osteoporosis, reproductive-organ cancers and heart disease in older women. Hence, physicians advocated hysterectomy to shorten menopause, relieve pain and pre-empt cancer. Doctors also prescribed artificial estrogen to prevent osteoporosis and to moderate hot flashes, headaches, irregular bleeding and declining libido, considered the most distressing symptoms of menopause.

Feminists, patients and some doctors resisted this model of menopause as a “disease,” viewing rising rates of elective hysterectomy as evidence of doctors’ continuing disrespect for women’s bodies. Linkages between artificial estrogen and cancer spurred women to inform and treat themselves, increasingly sharing information through the Internet. Though, for many women, surgery remained a welcome option, better hormone replacements and herbal supplements, exercise and nutritional therapies gained in popularity Women also affirm menopause as a positive liberation from the physical and social requirements of fertility. Aging baby-boom women and their daughters offer a large market for these new ideas. Representations of menopausal women now range from images of vital, sexually active independence to re-affirmations of ancient wise women and powerful crones.