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"Did you know that September is National Menopause Awareness Month? I&amp;#039;m not making that up. It&amp;#039;s true. According to the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), &amp;quot;Congress declared this special designated month to draw attention to the large public health challenge that menopause brings\u2014and to reinforce that women and their healthcare providers must have accurate, unbiased menopause-related information to make informed decisions that will lead to improved health and quality of life both around menopause and beyond.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s estimated that 40 million American women or more are currently on the menopausal spectrum. That&amp;#039;s a lot of women. And I&amp;#039;d like to think that times have changed since Gail Sheehy set off a firestorm when she wrote about her experience with menopause in Vanity Fair in 1991. The response to her article was &amp;quot;immediate and electrifying,&amp;quot; Sheehy writes; she &amp;quot;had clearly struck a nerve&amp;quot; when she wrote of her own fears and being caught off guard. The detailed letters she received in response propelled her to investigate further and write The Silent Passage. &amp;quot;Menopause may be the last taboo,&amp;quot; she states in the book. So she set off to interview hundreds of women and expert medical professionals to shatter the silence surrounding this passage. Twenty years later, we&amp;#039;ve come a lot farther down the road that Sheehy helped pave. From &amp;quot;Sex in the City&amp;quot; to Oprah, menopause is talked about more openly \u2013 at least amongst women and those attending musicals with that name. So what are we to do this month with increased awareness? I&amp;#039;d say keep talking: to other women, health professionals, our spouses and loved ones. Find new information. Find what works. Or, to take another page from Sheehy&amp;#039;s book, as her gynecologist and menopausal expert Patricia Allen, told her, &amp;quot;This perimenopausal period should be a transformation, so that a woman gets to become \u2013 physically, emotionally, and spiritually \u2013 the best she ever was.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;ll celebrate that not only in September but all the year round. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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