Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss · Jenn Trepeck

Global Perspectives on Menopause (feat. Zora Benhamou)

·48 min·3 clips

Zora says menopausal depression can be life-threatening if women sit alone and do not know what is happening.

1. Salad With a Side of Fries focuses on global perspectives on menopause with returning guest Zora Benhamou. 2. Jen Trebek hosts the episode, and Zora Benhamou appears as a gerontologist and host of Hack My Age. 3. The episode asks how menopause looks across countries and why age, support, and stigma change the experience. 4. Zora says gerontology studies the biological, sociological, and psychological process of aging from birth to death. 5. She explains that menopause belongs in a life-course view, like adolescence, rather than only in old age. 6. Zora says her professor, Dr. Paul Nash, now has a menopause section in his gerontology curriculum. 7. Jen connects that framework to epigenetics and longevity, and Zora agrees the mind-body connection is evidence-based. 8. Zora says she has published 300 interviews with women on the street about menopause. 9. She says she asks about age, where they are from, menopausal stage, symptom relief, hormone use, bone density, and whether their mothers talked to them about menopause. 10. Zora says many women answer that no one in their family ever discussed menopause. 11. She says she does not push answers and lets each woman tell her own story. 12. Zora says the timing of menopause varies, but socioeconomic status and stress may affect earlier onset. 13. She gives the example of women selling strawberries in Vietnam and says their circumstances can differ from women with more resources. 14. Zora says doctors around the world often dismiss menopause the same way they do in the United States. 15. She says hormone therapy is still stigmatized in many places, while women in France and Hong Kong are more open to it. 16. Zora says hot flashes appear across countries, and mood swings and a shorter fuse also show up often. 17. She says women in Thailand surprised her by speaking openly about libido and sex lives. 18. Zora says supportive households and revered older women tend to have easier menopause transitions, while stress and isolation make it harder. 19. She says women who want this perspective will like a global, practical discussion of menopause and aging. 20. Women who want only a short symptom checklist or no discussion of hormones may skip it.

As heard by us

A menopause conversation that treats support and culture as part of the health story.

Menopause is handled here as more than a medical shift. The discussion stays close to lived reality, moving through support, stress, family dynamics, and the social setting that can shape how the transition lands.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want a menopause episode that looks beyond symptoms and into context?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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