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"Perimenopause and its sister stage, menopause, are biological facts of life for every woman. But they are also social and cultural constructs that women experience differently in different parts of the world. In Paris, I was constantly on the lookout for how French women experienced la menopause. After all, it was a French physician, de Gardanne, who coined the term &amp;quot;menespausie&amp;quot; in 1872. Well, short of going up to complete strangers and asking women of a certain age how they were faring, I didn&amp;#039;t find any obvious signs. What I found instead was that the stages of women&amp;#039;s lives weren&amp;#039;t clearly demarcated by their reproductive status as it seems they are in this country. For instance, women looked and dressed femininely and stylishly no matter what their age, as I reported in my previous post. And though I&amp;#039;ve become somewhat of an expert in sussing out women&amp;#039;s ages in this country (and, if they&amp;#039;re around my age, wondering if they experience hot flashes), in France I couldn&amp;#039;t really tell who was my age. It also seemed that older women were respected and honored more \u2013 and still considered sexy \u2013 when they were past their reproductive primes. I don&amp;#039;t know if menopause is different in France. I only know that women don&amp;#039;t look all that different at menopause. Of course this was in fashionable Paris, and not elsewhere in France, but I saw mostly thin, stylish, women with well-cut and colored hair (no gray until you&amp;#039;re 70) who looked like they were all part of a feminine continuum that wasn&amp;#039;t clearly marked by age. For this, I say &amp;quot;viva la menespausie.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/a46067/la-menopause-361/>