WOULD YOU TAKE A PILL TO DELAY THE MENOPAUSE?You can’t move for midlife women discussing the menopause right now. Don’t know about you, but I’d say it ranks second only to wild swimming on Instagram these days (less photogenic, I guess). I say that with gratitude of course. I’m learning much about what’s to come on the hormonal rollercoaster of womanhood from the honesty and hard-won tips being shared. As, I hope, are many GPs, after hearing about the non-existent support many women have been given. Because all that excellent, taboo-busting real talk is just women doing what women do best of course - pooling their knowledge and swapping stories, in order to plug the gap where official research or policies should be. But here’s something I haven’t come across yet in all those peri-meno podcasts, Insta-lives and hormonal guide books - the idea that menopause could actually be delayed. Imagine putting the brakes on the hormonal big dipper we’ve all been riding since our teens, and enjoying 15 more years to just...be. This intriguing profile of Piraye Beim, and her bio tech start-up aiming to do just that, is full of optimism about how her new drug would transform our lives (not to mention insights in to other female conditions that might just get funding soon). “If we could buy women an extra 10 to 15 years of natural endocrine function, we’re talking about a huge boost in their vitality and their wellness at a critical stage in their life,” she says. “It will align us more with men, basically.”’ So, would you take a pill to pause Mother Nature? If it aligned us on pay too, I’m in.
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