Menopause: Why is it important to discuss this on the pretext of ‘Bombay Begums’

Movies and web series are usually made keeping in mind the youth, but a 49-year-old woman is in a central role in a new Netflix series.
 This series is showing the struggle of women struggling with their bodies and hence it is also being praised.
 In a scene in this series called ‘Bombay Begums’, the character named Rani suddenly goes out of a board meeting.
 His colleagues try to understand why he did this, but in the meantime, the camera shows him pouring cold water on his face in the office washroom and drying his sides in the hand dryer.
Article-14’s Gender Editor Namita Bhandare says, “Many people say that it felt like they were having a heart attack. But I knew what was really happening.”
 What was happening to the queen is called menopause or menopause (menstruation in women).
 Rani is smart, intelligent and outspoken.  She is the CEO of a big bank.
 But when it comes to their own needs, they become silent.  When a young colleague talks to her about it, she refuses it.
 Banerjee says that there can be many reasons for Rani to keep her menopause a secret.
 “It is a common belief that female bosses undergoing menopause become irrational and irritable. She is a professional and does not want her co-workers to know about it.”
 “Another reason may be that she is taking time to accept the changes happening in her body. Usually women are left to deal with it alone.”
 According to the Indian Menopause Society (IMS), at present there are 15 crore women in India who have been menopaused.  The average age of menopause worldwide is 51 years.  It is 46.2 years in India.
 The most common symptoms of this are- not feeling like sex, sudden mood changes, depression, waking up at night, night sweats, and sudden warmth due to changes in hormones.
 Dr. Anita Shah, IMS Secretary and Gynecologist, says that women spend two-thirds of their lives in menopause, but still there is not much awareness about it.
 Dr. Shah, who has been running a clinic in Surat for thirty years, says that more than half of women over the age of 40 who come to them do not know what is happening in their body.
 The reason for this is that menopause in India, like menstruation, is a subject on which people are not very comfortable to talk.
 Bhandare says, “There has been awareness about menstruation in the last few years. Films like Padman have also been made. But menopause is still not being talked about openly.”
 It is surprising that half of the world’s population is so silent about this thing that is happening and it is kept in such a secret.
 There have been efforts in western countries to bring awareness about this change happening in the body of women.
 Last year for the first time in the UK, menopause has been included as a subject in the schooling curriculum.  Dozens of such clinics have also been opened where women can show themselves.
 Last year, former US first lady Michelle Obama made headlines around the world when she told that she had come to the hot flashez (sudden heat) in the presidential helicopter Marine One.
 In a podcast, Michelle had said, “I felt like someone had set a furnace inside me and turned it to a high temperature. And then everything started melting. Then I felt what was happening  , I can’t do this to myself. I can’t do that. “
 Michelle had said, “It is important to know the circumstances under which the woman’s body is going through. It is important for the society to talk about it because we women, who are half of the world’s population, are going through it but we live as if  It is not happening. “