Whether You're 25 or 65, Here Are 60 Menopause Quotes That Will Resonate With Every Woman
As with any life transition, change can be scary and uncomfortable. When it comes to menopause and perimenopause, talking about it isn’t always easy—and until fairly recently, it was considered taboo.
But it’s important to understand what’s happening in your body and embrace the next chapter of your life with self-compassion. And as you enter uncharted territory, it’s comforting to know many women before you have navigated the same course, and emerged stronger and wiser on the other side.
Here are 60 empowering and often funny, menopause quotes and the process of getting older.
Related: What Can You Expect from Menopause?
Menopause Quotes
1. "So many women I've talked to see menopause as an ending. But I've discovered this is your moment to reinvent yourself after years of focusing on the needs of everyone else. It's your opportunity to get clear about what matters to you and then to pursue that with all of your energy, time and talent." — Oprah Winfrey
2. "I see menopause as the start of the next fabulous phase of life as a woman. Now is a time to ‘tune in’ to our bodies and embrace this new chapter. If anything, I feel more myself and love my body more now, at 58 years old, than ever before." — Kim Cattrall
3. "There are only two mammals who have evolved to survive after their childbearing years: toothed whales and humans." — Dr. Jen Gunter, OB/GYN and author of The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health With Facts and Feminism
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Billy Joel & Stevie Nicks/Parade
4. "Rock and menopause do not mix. It is not good, it sucks and every day I fight it to the death, or, at the very least, not let it take me over." — Stevie Nicks
5. "Life doesn't end with menopause; it's the beginning of a new adventure. Strap in and enjoy the ride!" — Dame Helen Mirren
Related: The Biggest Hormonal Change That Happens to Women Over 50—and How To Manage It
6. “The very best way that you can help yourself is to develop and sustain a positive attitude. The way you think and feel about everything will make all the difference to your experience.” — Caroline Carr, author of Menopause: The Guide for Real Women
7. “I’m enjoying my life, post-menopause, so much. It’s just so great to grow into yourself and not be bothered with all that tyranny of biology.” — Roseanne Barr
8. "Menopause: Mother Nature’s way of saying, ‘You’re welcome, honey, for not having to deal with monthly mood swings and cramps anymore!'“ — Anonymous
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9. “Menopause. A pause while you reconsider men.” — Margaret Atwood
UnSplash/Parade
10. “A study says owning a dog makes you 10 years younger. My first thought was to rescue two more, but I don’t want to go through menopause again.” — Joan Rivers
Related: Here's What a Hot Flash Actually Feels Like, According to OB/GYNs
11. "I wish we were more open about the menopause - I've been in absolute bits at times." — Amanda Redman
12. “If I wanted to be prettier, fillers, Botox and a neck lift might help—but I think I’m past all that. My feelings come out in my face and show who I am inside in ways that words can’t express. In fact, I’m confused by what ‘authentic’ is; am I less authentic because I wear ‘eccentric’ clothes and hats? No. I look at my contemporaries who have had ‘good work’ done; are they less authentic? No! And neither are the women who’ve had procedures that went awry.” — Diane Keaton
13. “One thing I love about aging—and I do love aging—I’ve got a wisdom that no young person can buy. You earn it.” — Suzanne Somers
14. “You have to sit down and take a good look at yourself, particularly as you grow older and your face changes. People are afraid of changing; that they’re losing something. They don’t understand that they are also gaining something.” — Sharon Stone
15. “Here’s what I know: I’m a better person at fifty than I was at forty-eight … and better at fifty-two than I was at fifty. I’m calmer, easier to live with. All this stuff is in my soul forever. Just don’t get lazy. Work at your relationships all the time. Take care of friendships, hold people you love close to you, take advantage of birthdays to celebrate fiercely. It’s the worrying—not the years themselves—that will make you less of a woman.” — Patti Labelle
Related: Dealing With Low Libido? Here’s How to Orgasm After Menopause
16. “Fifty was a shock, because it was the end of the center period of life. But once I got over that, 60 was great. Seventy was great. And I loved, I seriously loved aging. I found myself thinking things like: ‘I don’t want anything I don’t have.’…80 is about mortality, not aging. Or not just aging.” — Gloria Steinem
17. “I don’t think about my life in terms of numbers. First of all, I ain’t never gonna be old because I ain’t got time to be old. I can’t stop long enough to grow old.” — Dolly Parton
18. “And the beauty of a woman, with passing years only grows!” — Audrey Hepburn
19. "The changes, the highs and lows and the hormonal shifts, there is power in that. But we were taught to be ashamed of it and to not even seek to understand it or explore it for our own edification, let alone to help the next generation.” — Michelle Obama
20. “I think menopause gets a really bad rap and needs a bit of a rebranding. I don’t think we have in our society a great example of an aspirational menopausal woman.” — Gwyneth Paltrow
Related: 50 Body Positivity Quotes, Because It Isn’t Easy to Love Your Body 24/7
21. “Every woman is different when they go through menopause, and... I didn't know emotionally how I would feel." — Angelina Jolie
22. “As our body journeys through life, and life journeys on our body…. life will leave marks on us too. From the creases of our wrinkles to the birthmarks on our bodies to the tattoos we decide to place.” ― Lauren Klarfeld
23. “Growing into your future with health and grace and beauty doesn’t have to take all your time. It rather requires a dedication to caring for yourself as if you were rare and precious, which you are, and regarding all life around you as equally so, which it is.” — Victoria Moran
24. “I have to start loving what comes next and stop hating it. I won't be a part of it.” — Linda Robinson
25. “Be proud of how you show up every day, feeling comfortable in your own skin, being your magnificent you.” — Bonnie Marcus
Related: Insomnia Is a Common Side Effect of Menopause—If It's Happening to You, Here's Your Action Plan
26. “One of the ideas we must agree on and continue to forge with individual and collective vigor is that a woman's life goes uphill at forty.” — Marianne Williamson
27. “Fear of dying is human. Fear of aging is cultural.” ― Ashton Applewhite, author
28. “In the end, the real wisdom of menopause may be in questioning how fun or even sane this chore wheel called modern life actually is.” — Sandra Tsing Loh
29. “Listen, I had two kids—one when I was 40, one when I was 45. I breastfed for one year, which means I was breastfeeding four years ago. I’m going to move from giving birth to menopause without realizing it.” — Monica Bellucci
30. “A woman must wait for her ovaries to die before she can get her rightful personality back. Post-menstrual is the same as pre-menstrual; I am once again what I was before the age of twelve: a female human being who knows that a month has thirty days, not twenty-five and who can spend every one of them free of the shackles of that defect of body and mind known as femininity.” ― Florence King
31. “In the safest of places, there is death, divorce, economic recessions and cancer. Accepting this fact helps you not know any better than to risk adventure in the second half of life.” — Cheryl Bridges Johns
32. “What you believe can change your experience.”— Staness Jonekos
33. “Our mothers were largely silent about what happened to them as they passed through this midlife change. But a new generation of women has already started to break the wall of silence.” — Trisha Posner
34. “You can do this—this thing, where your body will cease to produce hormones and your skin, hair, muscles and bones ... basically every part of you will notice, go into withdrawals, and stage a coup. Be prepared for this mentally, and you'll own this 'thing.'” — Lisa Jey Davis, author
35. “Confidence comes with age, and looking beautiful comes from the confidence someone has in themselves." — Kate Winslet
Related: Kourtney Kardashian Says IVF Triggered Her Menopause—A Fertility Doctor Weighs In
36. “I think our bodies are beautiful, and I think celebrating them and being comfortable in them—no matter what age you are—is important. There shouldn’t be any kind of shame or discomfort around it.” — Jennifer Aniston
37. "I don't think of getting older as looking better or worse; it's just different. You change, and that's okay." — Heidi Klum
38. “The freedom that comes from no longer being fertile is huge.” — Cynthia Nixon
39. "When I turned 40, I was like, huh. I accept myself more now. It was much more comforting.” — Jennifer Lopez
40. “Menopause, it’s the best form of birth control. Face it graciously and brag about it. It’s great.” — S.F., quotes in Menstruation and Menopause by Paula Weidager
41. "Gravity and wrinkles are fine with me. They're a small price to pay for the new wisdom inside my head and my heart.” — Drew Barrymore
42. "And for her true womanhood arrived here there is no growing old. Age refines and enriches, warms and illuminates, expands and exalts her. She is more and more Woman through it; not less and less. The noble life that has let her hither is her grand cosmetic. Her intellect, loosed from the golden bonds of corporeal Maternity, rises to the grasp of higher truths.” — Eliza W. Farnham
43. "One should remember that the menopause is a normal and natural process, and it should not be dreaded. Realizing that the condition is a natural occurrence which all women experience—if they live long enough—and a philosophical calm acceptance of this fact, will help lessen the nervous symptoms.” — Lulu Hunt Peters, M.D.
44. "My belief is that it’s a privilege to get older. Not everybody gets to get older.” — Cameron Diaz
45. “The trick is to age honestly and gracefully and make it look great so that everyone looks forward to it.” — Emma Thompson
46. “For many women who have been caring for and putting others first, midlife is the time when there’s finally space to start thinking about you. You may feel compelled to make room for you, to live with greater purpose, or to answer the call to do something big in the world. It’s during this time that we can begin to define what legacy we want to leave.” — Terri Hanson
47. “One night in December 2018, the Tony-winning actress and singer Tonya Pinkins talked onstage about her experience of menopause, adding: ‘Things are so much better than they were decades ago, but they can be bad and better at the same time.’ ‘Bad and better’ is one way to think about our prospects at this stage of life too.” — Ada Calhoun
48. “I call the Change of Life ‘Orchids’ because menopause is such an ugly word. It's got men in it for goddsakes.” — Lisa Jey Davis
49. “We are always the same age inside.” — Gertrude Stein
50. “One day you will look back and realize all along you were blooming.” — Morgan Harper Nichols
Related: What You Should Know If You Want to Get Pregnant When You're Going Through Perimenopause
51. "I believe whole-heartedly that age is a mindset. Biological age is what it is, but I truly believe it’s more about how you feel—how you feel in your body and how you feel about your body.” — Jennifer Grey
52. "I didn't have children and there's something seismic about your fertility coming to an end with the menopause, which I'm now going through." — Anna Richardson
53. "You start out happy that you have no hips or boobs. All of a sudden you get them and it feels sloppy. Then just when you start liking them, they start drooping.” ― Cindy Crawford
54. "It's really important that we don't hang up the membership to the human community at menopause." — Valerie Harper
55. "When you’re young, there’s so much now that you can’t take it in. It’s pouring over you like a waterfall. When you’re older, it’s less intense, but you’re able to reach out and drink it. I love being older.” — Sigourney Weaver
Related: What Can You Expect From Menopause? Here are the Signs, Symptoms and Complications of Estrogen Loss
56. "If you deal with it in a healthy fashion, then I think you come out the other side a better person. I've got so much more energy now than I ever had in my early 50s before the menopause." — Julie Walters
57. “A woman must wait for her ovaries to die before she can get her rightful personality back. Post-menstrual is the same as pre-menstrual; I am once again what I was before the age of twelve: a female human being who knows that a month has thirty day, not twenty-five, and who can spend every one of them free of the shackles of that defect of body and mind known as femininity.”― Florence King
58. "The first indication of menopause is a broken thermostat. It's either that or your weight. In any case, if you don't do something, you could be dead by August. God, middle age is an unending insult." — Dorothea Benton Frank
59. "There will be tears. And anger. And tragically unfortunate haircuts." — Heather Corinna, author of What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You
60. "The object of facing up squarely to the fact of the climacteric is to acquire serenity and power. If women on the youthful side of the climacteric could glimpse what this state of peaceful potency might be, the difficulties of making the transition would be less. It is the nature of the case that life beyond menopause is as invisible to the woman who has yet to struggle through the change as to the top of any mountain is invisible from the valley below. Calm and poise do not simply happen to the post-menopausal woman, she has to fight for them." — Germain Greer
Next up, The Best Podcasts, Books and Instagram Accounts That Get Real About Menopause
