Throughout most of human history, the vast majority of women died before menopause; for those who survived, menopause was experienced as a signpost of an imminent and inevitable physical decline. But today, with a woman's life expectancy averaging between seventy-eight and eighty-four years, it is reasonable to expect that she will not only live thirty to forty years beyond menopause, but be vibrant, sharp, and influential as well.  The menopause you will experience is not your mother's (or grandmother's) menopause.

Women of our mothers' generation, whose female role models tended to be like June Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, had an entirely different social and political environment in which to make their transition. Menopause (like menstruation, for that matter) was not discussed in public. Today this is no longer true. As we break this silence we are also breaking cultural barriers, so that we can enter this new life phase with eyes wide open---in the company of forty million kinswomen, all undergoing the same transformation at the same time. And, as you'll soon discover, the changes taking place in middle-aged women are going to act like the power plant on a high-speed train, whisking the evolution of our entire society along on fast forward, to places that have yet to be mapped. Whether you climb aboard this fast-moving train or step aside and let it pass will play a major role in how far you go and how you feel along the way.

Ultimately, I've found this journey bracing, exciting, and health-enhancing. And I'm certainly not alone. A 1998 Gallup survey, presented at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society, showed that more than half the American women between the ages of fifty and sixty-five felt happiest and most fulfilled at this stage of life. Compared to when they were in their twenties, thirties, and forties, they felt their lives had improved in many ways, including family life, interests, friendships, and their relationship with their spouse or partner. In other words, the conventional view of menopause as a scary transition heralding "the beginning of the end" couldn't be farther from the truth. So please join me---and the millions of others who have come before and will come after---as we transform and improve our lives, and ultimately our culture, through understanding, applying, and living the wisdom of menopause.