When menopause hit me, I began to seek information on how to manage the symptoms of menopause, on the safety of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy), and on what happens in a woman's body in general during the menopause transition. What I found seemed to be woefully little information for one of the most important biological changes in a woman's life. Menopause, brought on by a woman's body's inability to produce estrogen, affects every aspect of a woman's health--not just her reproductive capabilities.
As someone who has always made it a point to have regular check-ups with primary care physicians and specialists alike, I realized that other than the mention of the word menopause in a gynecological setting from time to time, no medical professional had ever had a conversation with me about planning for menopause.
I also knew that my mom had suffered from excruciating hot flashes and refused HRT because it supposedly could cause cancer, but the books I read mentioned that a whole generation of women had been mislead by the spotty research study that led my mom to avoid HRT. And as I read, it became clear that the reason I hadn't been told much about what to expect during menopause is that the doctors don't know much about what to expect either--because funds that could have been allocated to women's health research weren't. In fact, even research into medicines often don't include scrutiny into their specific effect on women's bodies!
For that reason, we've decided to donate a portion of every sale to women's health research. When you purchase a piece of jewelry to celebrate your own menopause journey, you'll be helping all women--daughters, sisters, friends, and mothers--by choosing one of the following research organizations to allocate your donation to at the time of checkout.
https://menopause.org/how-to-support-us/donor-information
https://med.stanford.edu/menopause/research.html
https://mageewomens.org/support
https://icahn.mssm.edu/research/womens-health
https://www.heart.org/en/
https://www.mayo.edu/research/clinical-trials/diseases-conditions/menopause