She Leads the Way: Rewriting the Story of Menopause

In the Salish Sea, off the Pacific coast between Canada and the US, a family of orcas is searching for salmon. It's a lean year. The fish are scarce, the distances long. And who swims at the front? Not the fastest. Not the youngest. A grandmother who hasn't had a calf in decades. (1)

She knows the currents. She knows where the salmon are when times are hard. And her family follows her. (1)

She is one of only a handful of species on Earth to go through menopause. For her, it signals a new role, one where her wisdom sees her transcend from nurturer to guardian, cherished and respected by every generation.

Yet, back on land,  modern society often makes women feel sidelined after menopause. But at Ancient + Brave, we believe that just like the orca, later life can be a time for women to thrive, confident, knowledgeable and at home in whichever sea she swims in.

That’s why we’d  to tell you a different story about menopause. One in which you don't fade into the background, but lead the way.

The story we've been told: Why How We Talk About Menopause Matters

Hot flushes. Sleepless nights. The name that vanishes mid-sentence. When we talk about menopause, we almost always talk about what's lost. 

In 2023 (1), researchers at University College London concluded that the media focus mostly on the difficult side of perimenopause and rarely mention the positives (2). That can fuel anxiety about this stage of life before it has even begun. (2)

This is about more than tone. A systematic review (2) found that women with more negative attitudes towards menopause report more symptoms during the transition. In the one long-term study included, women who approached menopause with dread went on to report hot flushes more often. (3)

None of this means symptoms are "all in the head". They are real, and some women need medical support. But it does mean that the story we tell ourselves helps shape how we experience these years. Stories can be rewritten.

What is actually happening in menopause

Menopause itself is a single moment: your final period, recognised only in hindsight after twelve months. The years before it, perimenopause, are the real transition.

What we hear far less often is that menopause doesn't only happen in the ovaries. It's also a transition in the brain (4,5). 

Oestrogen acts throughout the body, including the brain, and many of the changes we feel, from temperature regulation to sleep and focus, originate there (4). 

That's good news. A brain that is changing is also a brain that can settle into something new. Which brings us back to the Orcas.

The Orca example: Grandmothers of the ocean

For a long time, humans were thought to be the only mammals to go through menopause. We now know better. 

Five species of toothed whale experience it too: orcas, short-finned pilot whales, false killer whales, narwhals and belugas (6). In 2023, menopause was also documented for the first time in wild chimpanzees in Uganda. (7) 

A 2024 study in Nature (6) found that female whales with menopause live around 40 years longer than other females of a similar size (6). Evolution didn't shorten their fertile years. It lengthened the life that comes after (6).

Why would nature do that? Because these females are needed. Among orcas, older post-menopausal females are especially likely to lead the family on foraging trips, above all in years when salmon are scarce (1). Young whales with a grandmother have better survival chances, and when a grandmother dies, her family feels the loss (8).

Nature, it seems, doesn't see this stage of life as an ending. It sees a role.

A different word for the same season: How language shapes menopause

It's just how we think about menopause that can make a difference, but also how we speak about it. 

In Japanese, this stage of life is called kōnenki, often translated as "renewal years" or "a season of energy" (9). It describes a long, gradual season rather than a sudden drop. 

When medical anthropologist Margaret Lock surveyed more than 1,200 Japanese women aged 45 to 55, they reported far fewer hot flushes than women in North America. Lock emphasises that biology and culture work together here: falling oestrogen is just one factor among many.

Anthropologist Yewoubdar Beyene saw something similar among Maya women in Yucatán. Their hormone levels resembled those of North American women, yet hot flushes were reported far less often (10). 

Many Maya women looked forward to the end of their periods with relief, as the start of a time with more freedom and standing in their community (10). 

In China, too, many women welcome the end of menstruation rather than mourn it. (11)And across many traditional cultures, the woman after menopause becomes a keeper of knowledge. Much like the orca grandmother who knows where the salmon are.

Rethinking menopause: The great renovation

Remember puberty? That sense that your body and emotions were suddenly playing by new rules? Neuroscientist Dr Lisa Mosconi describes puberty, pregnancy and menopause as the three great hormonal renovations in a woman's life, not just in the body but in the brain. (4)

Her 2021 imaging study found significant changes during the transition in the brain's structure, its connections and its energy metabolism (5). After menopause, these measures largely stabilised, and grey matter volume recovered in key regions (5). This went hand in hand with preserved cognitive performance, which the researchers interpret as a sign that the brain adapts (5). Mosconi herself describes the brain as finding a "new normal". (5)

That new normal may come with gifts. Mosconi reports that many women describe greater life satisfaction, deeper empathy and a new kind of emotional mastery once they're through the transition (4). Things that once would have knocked them off balance no longer hold the same charge (4). The research is still young. But it tells a story very different from "decline".

A building site is noisy, dusty and at times exhausting. But nobody renovates a house in order to knock it down.

Reclaim your menopause: Living bravely through every chapter

If you’re approaching menopause and worried about what’s to come, we’re here to tell you its  not to late to change your story. To help, we’ve shared 5 simple things you can do to shape the menopause experience you deserve.

Tell yourself a new story. If our expectations help shape how we experience this time, they deserve some attention (3). Since 2024, NICE has recommended menopause-specific cognitive behavioural therapy for hot flushes, night sweats and sleep problems, alongside HRT or as an alternative to it (12). 

The biggest effect was on how much the symptoms bothered women (12). You can start small: notice the sentences you tell yourself about this stage of life, and ask whether they're really true. Talk to women who are already through it. Their stories are often more encouraging than you'd expect.

Lift heavy. Not metaphorically, but literally. In the LIFTMOR trial, a landmark clinical study that tested whether heavy, high-intensity weightlifting and impact exercises could improve bone mineral density, post-menopausal women with low bone density did supervised, high-intensity strength and impact training for 30 minutes twice a week over eight months (13). 

Compared with a gentle home programme, their bone density improved at the spine and hip (13). Start with professional guidance and build up gradually. And as a side note: daily creatine consumption can enhance the effect of resistance training on muscle strength in adults over the age of 55.* Link to True Creatine+

Pass the story on. The expectations we carry into menopause appear to shape how we later experience it. So the way we talk about it today with our daughters, nieces, friends and colleagues helps write their story. Don't only tell them about the hot flushes. Tell them about the freedom too.

Tend to the foundations. Nourishing food, restorative sleep and targeted support from protein, collagen and botanicals remain the foundation.

Ask for support. Being brave doesn't mean carrying everything alone. If symptoms are shaping your everyday life, talk to your GP about your options

Closing thoughts: She leads the way

The world's most famous orca grandmother was called Granny. Researchers estimated she may have lived beyond 100 (15). When she was last seen, in 2016, she was swimming north, far ahead of the others.

Perhaps that's the image to hold on to. Not a woman stepping back, but one who knows the currents, trusts what she knows, and leads the way.

Menopause isn't the end of your story. It may be the chapter in which you start telling it yourself.

*The beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3 g of creatine in conjunction with resistance training, performed several times a week for several weeks at an intensity of at least 65–75% of one repetition maximum.

References 

1. Brent L.J.N. et al. (2015) Ecological knowledge, leadership, and the evolution of menopause in killer whales. Current Biology

2. Aljumah R., Phillips S., Harper J.C. (2023) An online survey of postmenopausal women to determine their attitudes and knowledge of the menopause. Post Reproductive Health

3. Ayers B., Forshaw M., Hunter M.S. (2010) The impact of attitudes towards the menopause on women's symptom experience: a systematic review. Maturitas 65(1): 28–36

4. Mosconi L. (2024) The Menopause Brain

5. Mosconi L. et al. (2021) Menopause impacts human brain structure, connectivity, energy metabolism, and amyloid-beta deposition. Scientific Reports 11: 10867

6. Ellis S. et al. (2024) The evolution of menopause in toothed whales. Nature 627: 579–585. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07159-9

7. Wood B.M. et al. (2023) Demographic and hormonal evidence for menopause in wild chimpanzees. Science 382: eadd5473. doi:10.1126/science.add5473

8. Nattrass S. et al. (2019) Postreproductive killer whale grandmothers improve the survival of their grandoffspring. PNAS

9. Lock M. (1998) Menopause: lessons from anthropology. Psychosomatic Medicine; Lock M. Encounters with Aging, University of California Press

10. Beyene Y. (1989) From Menarche to Menopause: Reproductive Lives of Peasant Women in Two Cultures

11. Shea J.L. Menopause and midlife aging in cross-cultural perspective: findings from ethnographic research in China

12. NICE (2024) Menopause: identification and management (NG23)

13. Watson S.L. et al. (2018) High-intensity resistance and impact training improves bone mineral density and physical function in postmenopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis: the LIFTMOR randomized controlled trial. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 33(2): 211–220

14. Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/672 authorising a health claim on creatine and muscle strength in adults over 55

15. Center for Whale Research (2017) J2 "Granny" update, Ken Balcomb