STAT News – Biotech
Opinion: The perimenopause movement sells women the lie that they are ruled by their hormones
The latest effort to make healthy women believe they are ill is a new movie on perimenopause, “The M Factor 2: Before the Pause,” which debuted March 19 on PBS. The film is a sequel to “The M Factor,” a movie that not only medicalized menopause, but lost accreditation as an education activity for physicians after our project coordinated a complaint that was co-signed by international women’s health experts.
“Before the Pause” expands medicalization to midlife, telling women in their 30s that their hormones are starting to run amok and will ruin their cognitive, physical, and mental health. The film begins with a woman’s frightening retelling of the day that she was asked for her name and could not recall what it was. The film encourages women to “shred the silence” on the epidemic of menopause and offers merchandise to help supporters spread the word.