Consider the fact that each year about 1.3 million people in the United States go through menopause — which may be accompanied by 34 possible symptoms of physical and mental health — and it is easy to see why this once-in-a-lifetime phase represents a dollar worth a fortune. 600 billion. But, as a TV presenter Stacy London, CEO of the postmenopausal State of Menopause, he will hear those figures once again, he tells me, he will scream. For him, the most interesting thing is the “why” behind that empty space and the people who have been left unattended because of it.
“For a long time, we have been taught to feel ashamed about menopause,” London says, referring to the lack of information, products, or services related to menopause. But now, there is an influx of forces pushing innovators like London, one of the Well + Good Transformers of 2022, to fill that gap. First and foremost is the fact that Gen-X is very active or is in menopause at the moment, and “we, as a generation, do not consider aging to lie down,” London states. “We’re like, will you tell me everyone before me just touched this? Really, there’s no way I’m doing it,” he says, laughing.
What helps is the reason that technological advances in the health sector allow us to live longer — more often, through and after menopause, for people who experience menstruation — and consumer knowledge about health has grown exponentially and rapidly, too. “We all know more about how to take care of ourselves, physically and mentally, than we have ever known,” says London. “That creates a long life, that menopause is no longer the autumn stage of a person’s life.”
“Menopause is a natural way for mothers to force us to focus on our own strengths.” -Stacy London, Executive Director of Menopause
Instead, London sees menopause as a long-term decline in mercury: “It can feel like nothing is going right or if every cycle in the body and mind is slowing down,” she says. And as any astrologer will tell you before the return trip, it is best to look forward to it and even embrace it by “slowing down to stop, relax, and receive,” says London. “That, for me, is the meaning of menopause: It is the natural way of motherhood to force us to direct our own energies.”
To do so requires knowledge about and tools to deal with this phase — all London has been working on to provide a Menopause State, since acquiring and officially launching the brand last year. Below, she and I are talking about the company’s transformation and her vision for the future where menopause is openly discussed and resolved such as menstruation or pregnancy.
Well + Good: What prompted you to start taking the Menopause State and launch it as your own brand?
Stacy London: It is important to note that I was not interested in business at all before this came up. But the reason I was interested in getting it was that I was a beta tester for some of the products for what would previously be a menopause skin care line. And I felt a real investment in a company that was already starting to think about menopause in 2018, mainly because I began to realize that what I was getting at the time was menopause by being forced to seek information.
I was not getting the help I needed from the doctors because I did not even know what to ask them, and my brain was doing physical exercises to try to explain what was happening to me. At first, I thought that my recovery from spinal surgery was the cause of my anxiety. Then, I developed night sweats and depression, which I just thought were worrying. And then, just when my dad had a heart attack, I started to have heart attacks, skin rashes — I just thought it was a physical manifestation of grief. And then when my doctor told me, “Oh, it’s just menopause,” I thought I was overreacting.
I had antidepressants thrown at me. I had an antidepressant thrown at me. But once I realized the role of hormones and menopause in all my symptoms — literally one-two of the experience of menopause on a physical and psychological scale — I was like, it was time to stop treating the problem and treat that person. I wanted a greater context for what was happening, and there was nothing. So for me, it was important not only the sunset for the line that was able to handle some of these, but also to redesign it on the market. Skin care during menopause is a part of it, of course, but I noticed a bigger game in terms of the stability of the symptoms of menopause.
W + G: Why did you feel that direct symptom relief was so important?
SL: Menopause occurs rapidly, and everything changes instantly: Your taste changes, your mood changes, and hormones control it all. So, I was like, “Why don’t we talk about all the things we can do to improve this time of life?” And that means creating products for the brand, specifically, so that there are options. Someone might say, “Hey, maybe I don’t need an estrogen patch, and I just need a cold medicine.” And someone else just needs something when they feel muscle fatigue or breast tenderness. Really, good, our CBD oil is perfect for that.
Basically, I wanted to offer products for instant relief — which is why we will also be eliminating the supplements we launched this year. Not that I do not believe in supplements, but it does place a responsibility on consumers: You should remember to take them daily, and medical professionals will tell you that you need to wait three months for any possible changes. Well, I don’t want to wait three months to find out if my thing is working; I want you to know within 30 minutes… or 20 minutes or two minutes, in some cases. So, when you are bathed in sweat in the middle of a meeting and you make excuses or apologize, instead, you can be like, “I have this,” and you can achieve something from your toolbar. .
W + G: So how do you deal with menopause symptoms that cannot be treated immediately?
SL: In fact, there are things that fall into that category, with weight gain being one of the biggest. When I see we go in terms of those things it is a partnership with other companies where we can say, “Hey, are you making a weird plan to stop menstruating? Let’s do it with you.” For example, we are working with a nutrition company to help them create a plan that aims to stop menstruation and the specific changes in weight loss that it can bring. We are also working with a fitness company that is developing a system that focuses on menopause. But in general, if someone comes to us with something that is not beyond our scope, we can at least point them in the right direction and educate them about it.
W + G: You have talked a lot about the need for education about menopause. Why is that, and how do you work to provide that?
SL: People need to know in advance that there are options available to them to treat their symptoms because I did not know that at the time. And I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through. I had a self-esteem problem that took me out of my game and broke my heart. But having at least a little knowledge of this past phase of life would change the way I went through it.
“We can offer products to help with menopause, but you can’t buy what you don’t understand. And you can’t make the right decisions if you don’t have education.” -London
We can offer products to help you during menopause, but you can not buy what you do not understand. And you can’t make the right decisions if you don’t have education. That is why, on our new website, you will find an option in the navigation bar called “Find More,” and it has two sections. The first is “Menopause 101,” which includes articles on how to control the most difficult aspects of menopause that were prescribed by doctors or approved by our team of medical advisors. And the second is our blog, “On Pause,” which includes journals kept from me, and which we are about to start allowing our clients to write pieces of first person — not product testimonials but essays about their menopause experience.
Finally, I would like to be a place where people can communicate the way we do now on social media. We want our site to be a safe place for anyone going through a menopause transition. And that includes not only people in the 40- to 60-year-old age group, but also people who are undergoing medical or menopause for surgery or menopause for non-bisexual periods at any time in life.
W + G: That’s fine. What’s next for the Menstruation Status document?
SL: We knew that sex during menopause was the second thing we had to deal with. Maybe it’s the number one request I receive. So, we actually launched a CBD enhancer to help with vaginal discharge and painful sex, and we did so in partnership with a company called In Your Pleasure, who came to us and said, “Our biggest customer base is in menopause.” I said, “Yes, we need to cooperate right now.”
We also have four other new products planned for this year, and some of them will also be collaborative because that is also something I really believe in.
W + G: How do you feel about menopause in the future?
SL: Menopause companies have a lot to gain by working together. If we advertise each of our companies, then we guarantee to our user that this is about his or her experience or their experience or anyone going through this process.
The fact is, menopause has so many different symptoms that we need to think about how best to deal with each of them — and not just one company will be able to overcome it. We need to work together to say, “Hello, we need our own way to the store. We need our own shelves. We need our own footsteps.”
What I don’t want is for them to have just finished giving birth to this new thing that people invest in because no one has done it before, and then the fad fades. This needs to be part of the atmosphere. We need [menopause care] as much as we need tampons. And why is this something we are not talking about in the same way?
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