Abstract

 
 
 Menopause is defined by its relationship to menstruation––it is the cessation of menstruation. Medical texts identify menopause as part of the cycle of “decay” associated with female reproductive functions; early menopause is often a dreaded result of various medical treatments and a sign of disfunction.
 It turns out that only three types of animals experience menopause: killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, and humans, while other animals can reproduce until death. Although the precise relationship between evolutionary theory and the physical development of human menopause is still uncertain, scientists and anthropologists suggest that the “grandmother hypothesis” provides a partial explanation: older women, who can no longer produce their own children, ensure their genetic legacy by playing a critical role in helping to feed, raise, and nurture their grandchildren.
 
 
 
 The average woman will spend almost as many years “post-menopause” as they will menstruating, and they may spend four years (or more) experiencing perimenopausal symptoms, the transition time between “normal” menstruation and menopause. But legal issues relating to perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause are just beginning to surface, prompted by the movement towards menstrual justice, feminist jurisprudence, and developments in the law of aging.
 This Essay is an initial effort to catalogue various legal approaches to menopause and to set out areas for further analysis. It briefly explores cultural images of menopause and post-menopausal women, including the ubiquitous hot flashes; analyzes potential legal claims for menopausal justice; and suggests the interrelationship between such approaches and social attitudes towards menopause. It suggests that “normalizing” menopause––acknowledging its realities––is one means for removing the associated stigma and “disabilities” and might result in reinterpreting existing laws and guiding future legal reforms.
 
 
 
 
 
Highlights
Introduction toMenopause, JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/introduction-tomenopause#:~:text=Hot%20flashes%20or%20flushes%20are,for%202%20years%20or%20less [https://perma.cc/27VN-VTDW].10 Symptoms, GEN M, https://gen-m.com/symptoms/ [https://perma.cc/E9TR-EZCT].11 GAIL COLLINS, NO STOPPING US : THE ADVENTURES OF OLDER WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY 177 (2020).12 Johnson et al, supra note 4, at 15.treated with estrogen replacement therapy: the promise was that women would never experience the effects of aging.[13]While hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can be an effective treatment for menopause symptoms, might it––ironically––cause monthly bleeding,[14] it is still marketed as a pseudo-youth elixir.[15]
While HRT can be an effective treatment for menopause symptoms, might it––ironically––cause monthly bleeding,[14] it is still marketed as a pseudo-youth elixir.[15]
Menopausal women were explicitly treated differently, such as through insurance denials, because menopause allegedly “disrupted all sorts of physical functions and created nervousness.”[29]. By using the “menopause defense,” a party could diminish the harms experienced by menopausal plaintiffs by attributing the women’s damages to menopause, thereby providing a potential basis to limit relief.[30]. Such allegations might be made against any woman over the age of thirty-five, covering a broader range of women than those undergoing menopause.[31]
Summary
In late 2020, an article in Glamour magazine tartly noted that “the way we talk about [menopause] (or rather, don’t talk about it) in our society would make you think it’s a. Dirty word or something to be ashamed of—rather than a natural part of the aging process for women.”[7]. It wasn’t until the early eighteenth century that menopause began to be viewed as a medical disorder, the cessation of menstruation was not a new concept.[8] But it was the distinctive naming of the experience, and its framing as a disorder that first appeared in medical journals around that time. 9 Introduction to Menopause, JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/introduction-tomenopause#:~:text=Hot%20flashes%20or%20flushes%20are,for%202%20years%20or%20less [https://perma.cc/27VN-VTDW]. Treated with estrogen replacement therapy: the promise was that women would never experience the effects of aging.[13].
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