Menopause is biologically universal, but how women experience it, and whether they even have a word for it, depends a lot on where they live.
I talk with Dr. Yewande Banire, a family nurse practitioner who cares for patients in the United States and in Lagos, Nigeria, about what women's health looks like through an international lens. Yewande shares how her own years of heavy periods and fibroid pain, and being told it was just part of being a woman, led her into this work.
We talk about why women in Nigeria may not have a name for hot flashes or night sweats, how those symptoms can be mistaken for malaria or typhoid, and what limited access to hormone therapy looks like in practice.
We also get into the role a husband's permission can play, early ovarian insufficiency in women under 40, and what birth control pills can offer when hormone therapy isn't available. Yewande closes with a message for patients and for clinicians.
What You'll Learn
Why perimenopause and menopause can feel like a "this is not a problem we have" in places where no one is talking about them.
How symptoms like joint pain and night sweats get treated as other issues when menopause is the missing piece.
What limited access to estrogen and progesterone means for women who can't easily get or afford them.
How some cultures have stigma around age, and how a husband’s approval can shape whether women seek care for libido and vaginal dryness.
What clinicians can do to meet patients where they are, and why it's okay to refer when you don't know.
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