The key to thriving later in life: menopause

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There comes a time in every woman's life that we don't talk about enough: menopause. And reframing it may be the key to unlocking a more fulfilling life for women of all ages.

In this episode, Brittany teams up with WNYC's Radiolab to answer your questions about the ubiquitous and unknown. Brittany, Radiolab senior correspondent Molly Webster, and contributing editor Heather Radke answer your questions: why don't we talk about menopause? Why should you start talking about it early in life? And why is post-menopause potentially the greatest time in a woman's life? All these answers and more come from an unexpected place...our mammal relatives, orcas.

Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluse

For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This message comes from scam goddess.
0:02.3	Each week, scam goddess host Lacey Mosley talks about the scammiest scammers of all time
0:07.9	with hilarious guests like Nicole Beyer, Conan O'Brien, Ira Madison III, and Jonathan Van Ness.
0:14.3	Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:19.6	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:36.4	Here's a little fact about me.
0:38.5	I have always wanted to be 37.
0:42.5	It has been my dream age since I was a kid.
0:46.4	I'd be an adult.
0:47.6	I'd be living my own life.
0:48.9	And hooray for me, I've made it.
0:51.4	But as I'm finishing up 37, something else is looming around the corner.
0:56.5	Menopause is technically the date you stop having your period. So it's kind of like you can't really know when that is until about a year later.
1:06.7	So perimenopause is the kind of hormonal adjustment period leading up to that.
1:12.1	Perimenopause.
1:14.7	Hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats.
1:17.9	They'll be on their way in the next few years, and that kind of freaks me out.
1:22.7	Because look, I grew up in a family where my mom talked pretty openly about her experience
1:27.0	with perimenopause
1:27.9	and menopause. And yet, I still don't feel like I have a full picture of what to expect.
1:36.3	Because our culture rarely talks about it. It's like after a certain age, women's health
1:42.0	disappears from public discourse.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.