Menopause

 So, today is World Menopause Day. Menopause is one of the many gifts given to humans by evolution, gifts including the brain, DNA, genetic diseases, mental illness, a range of body types, libido and more. Menopause, like all these gifts, collides with human civilization and its inventions and conventions. Menopause is a factor of consequence in the historical treatment of women and the misbehavior of men. It’s one of those natural processes that humans have trouble talking about. When menopause evolved, biological evolution had no plan for cultural evolution. We have not always been good at reconciling these two evolutions, as the history of gender roles and gender conventions shows us.