Womanhood Was Never Meant To Be Cured

These days, it seems you can’t turn on a podcast without a woman over 40 moaning about menopause. Whether it’s Halle Berry or Mel Robbins, almost every female celebrity and thought leader is describing their harrowing experience with hot flashes and weight gain. A new “expert” on the topic seems to pop up every time I open Instagram. Even the FDA has recognized the need to address women’s changing biology in later years with the removal of the black box warning on many HRT drugs.

While the increased focus on women’s health is a welcome change, reducing every biological shift a woman undergoes to a medical diagnosis will not “cure” womanhood. The many transformations that accompany a woman’s lifespan may be, at times, inconvenient and yes, even painful, but pathologizing womanhood perpetuates the myth that the very essence of women is damaged and in need of correction.

Whether it’s the psychological discomfort of puberty, the physical pains of childbirth, or the mood swings that accompany menstruation, no woman walks away unscathed, and one woman’s experience can be wildly different from another’s. But it seems the more experts “study” and analyze women, the more confused we become.

Pathologizing womanhood perpetuates the myth that the very essence of women is damaged and in need of correction.

As teenagers, young girls’ surging hormones turn their bodies from beanstalks to hourglasses. As their breasts get fuller and their hips get wider, they often struggle to cope with the physical transformation as well as changing brain chemistry. It can be awkward to be a teenage girl, as any grown woman with a memory will tell you. It’s stressful to navigate male attention, often coming in the form of teasing from boys whose hormones are also surging. Comparison with peers breeds anxiety and insecurity. Struggling through societal norms and where a girl does or does not fit into any existing paradigm can be confusing. Today’s massive engagement in social media only exacerbates these normal stresses of being a teenage girl.

But rather than help young women navigate this metamorphosis, some tell girls they might be boys and offer additional hormones to disrupt or delay puberty. In the worst-case scenarios, predatory doctors permanently put an end to the most natural process of womanhood by removing body parts or stripping them of the ability to have children.

As women enter their fertile years, they are often told pregnancy is a malady that requires a pill. Getting pregnant is framed as an impediment to a six-figure income and a burden to freedom. Periods must be meticulously managed to fit into a tightly organized schedule, and any aberration must be mitigated. Never mind the damage the birth control pill may cause to women’s health. Not having a baby has become the ultimate victory. So much so that some women will kill their own child before it even has a chance at life.

Women approaching the crone phase of life face the inevitable and precipitous decline of hormones, and the baby they believed they never wanted becomes a biological impossibility. Toss in bouts of uncontrollable sweating, bloating, lethargy, mood swings, brain fog, sleepless nights, and any other discomfort possibly known to mankind, and some women are quite literally ready to throw themselves off a cliff. In a desperate attempt to alleviate the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, more drugs are being championed without a nuanced conversation about alternative metabolic pathways and tools that may be utilized to help women navigate this final transition. A new era of consumer is born.

Undergirding every chapter of a woman’s life is psychotherapy and a cocktail of medications to alleviate what may often be a byproduct of living a life disconnected from her own biology.

Undergirding every chapter of a woman’s life is psychotherapy and a cocktail of medications to alleviate what may often be a byproduct of living a life disconnected from her own biology. Girls as young as six or seven are diagnosed and put on medications to remedy depression, anxiety, confusion, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Emotions must be squelched, tamed, or indulged. It is too inconvenient to teach girls how to manage or ride out uncomfortable feelings. However, without the maturation process that comes with a life of limitations and service that often accompany marriage and motherhood, young women can remain emotionally infantile well into their adult years. Drugs ensure a woman is numb enough to manage the emotional complications that reveal her heart, as well as interactions and misunderstandings with the opposite sex.

By no means am I suggesting women should suffer unnecessarily or that there are no legitimate reasons for which a woman might seek medical intervention. But treating every phase of womanhood as if it’s a disease strips us of our essence and potency and encourages victimhood. All the while, pharmaceutical companies salivate at the potential of a cradle-to-grave consumer.

In a world that profits from convincing women that their natural rhythms are flaws to be fixed, it's time to reclaim the profound beauty and strength inherent in female biology. From the first blush of puberty to the wisdom of menopause, these stages are not pathologies but sacred passages that shape resilient, powerful, and loving women. By rejecting the narrative of perpetual brokenness and honoring our bodies as they are—cyclical, fertile, and transformative—women step into true freedom. There is profound joy in the ache of growth, the miracle of creation, and the peace of surrender. Womanhood is a gift meant to be lived fully and without apology, not something to be medicated away.