“Menopause.” Created and produced by Jaye Watson. Public Broadcasting System, 2023. 30 minutes.

The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause. Directed by Jacoba Atlas, Denise Pines, Tamsen Fadal, and Joanne LaMarca Mathisen. Video Project, 2024. 57 minutes.

Although menopause has gained increased visibility in mainstream media, it remains an underrepresented and under-researched aspect of healthcare globally, including within the United States. In this context, the television episode and documentary film reviewed here constitute timely and valuable contributions. By bringing together scientific expertise, clinical perspectives and the lived experiences of individuals, these programs examine menopause from multiple lenses and bring attention to this significant life transition. The informative and accessible PBS episode “Menopause” from the Your Fantastic Mind series thoughtfully unpacks the physiological, neurological, and emotional changes women experience during menopause, exploring the changes it potentially causes in someone’s brain and body. Blending insights from US-based healthcare providers and researchers with personal testimonies from four menopausal women reflecting on their menopause journey, the episode offers a look at how hormone fluctuations affect everyday life through symptoms such as hot flashes, cognitive changes, and changes in mood. It also presents an evidence-based overview of both hormonal and nonhormonal treatment options and shows that many women do not realize the extent of these menopausal symptoms and their impact. This episode highlights the lack of training and education of medical practitioners in this area, allowing viewers to better understand the evolving landscape of menopause care.

At thirty minutes, “Menopause” is an excellent pedagogical tool for teachers and educators across disciplines like health education, biology, psychology, and gender studies. It serves not only to educate about menopause as a biological transition but also to challenge the common misconceptions and the taboos that may affect healthcare provision, though fortunately we are seeing more training and education for healthcare providers. The documentary can prompt critical classroom conversations about the historical exclusion of women from healthcare research, opening up the conversation around taboo topics, the gendered framing of aging, and the variability of menopausal experiences among individuals.

The program is especially useful in teaching students how to interpret health information with empathy and scientific literacy. It features some neurological research, including how menopause affects brain structure and function, helping demystify the connection between hormones and cognition. By including diverse voices and lived experiences, the episode also humanizes what is too often treated as a clinical subject. Focusing on the different ways that people experience menopause importantly positions this life stage not as a decline but as a transformation, which emphasizes the potential for continued vitality, resilience, and empowerment. It highlights the need for supportive conversations, better-informed healthcare providers, and comprehensive education to guide women through this phase of life with dignity and knowledge.

“Menopause” is a well-rounded, engaging, and critically useful classroom resource. It opens the door to start conversations that lead to a deeper understanding of women’s health that prepares them for aging, making it a useful contribution to curricula in health education and beyond.

The M Factor is a compelling and timely documentary that breaks the long-held silence surrounding menopause. With empathy and depth, it gives voice to women across racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds who have too often suffered in isolation. Through personal testimonials and expert commentary, most notably from neuroscientist Lisa Mosconi and other clinicians, the film unpacks the multifaceted impact of menopause on physical health, emotional wellbeing, and identity.

The film takes a holistic, woman-centered, intersectional approach. Like “Menopause,” it dismantles stigma and misinformation, showing that menopause is not a singular experience but one that varies dramatically across ethnic and cultural lines. It sheds light on disparities by explaining, for instance, that women of color often enter menopause earlier, experience more intense symptoms, and face significant healthcare inequities. The documentary’s historical segment on the exploitation of Black women in nineteenth-century medical experimentation provides a disturbing backdrop that contextualizes their ongoing distrust in medicine, and viewers may need some warning before watching this section.

From a clinical perspective, The M Factor explores the neurological research about menopause, the growing field of menopause medicine, and the necessity of evidence-based treatments such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which often involves treatment with estrogen and progesterone (and estrogen for women whose ovaries and uterus have been removed), and in the United States the hormone testosterone is available if the healthcare practitioner deems applicable. It also addresses lifestyle interventions like diet and exercise and acknowledges how overwhelming the US supplement market can be. Importantly, it underscores the need for a tailored approach to menopause and women’s health, not a one-size-fits-all solution.

This video is an excellent pedagogical resource for educators in health sciences, gender studies, and public health. It facilitates critical conversations about gendered healthcare disparities and offers opportunities for reflection, especially about the cultural silencing of menopausal experiences and the importance of patient-centered care. Teachers can use this film to prompt discussions about societal attitudes and interdisciplinary approaches to women’s health. By blending lived experience with clinical context, The M Factor both fosters compassion and provides a nuanced account of menopause from a US-based perspective, making it an essential tool in education settings where this topic can be explored in ways that help students understand the past and the present and that modernize women’s health education.

Camille Cronin is an academic and healthcare professional, now working as an independent consultant with university honorary roles at RMIT, Australia and University of Essex, UK. With a clinical background in nursing, her career encompasses clinical practice and management, with extensive roles in higher education. Her doctoral research employed case-study methodology to explore workplace learning, a focus that continues to inform her ongoing scholarship.

Professor Cronin's interests are diverse and impactful, including women's health, menopause in the workplace, digital health, oral health, and dementia care. She co-leads an international group of nurse scientists examining menopause in the workplace, collaborating across Finland, Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Denmark. She collaborates in a range of women's health projects promoting women’s voices.

Through her research, public engagement, and advocacy, she champions inclusive, evidence-based approaches to women's health, aiming to transform both policy and practice with an interdisciplinary approach, making research accessible and relevant to diverse communities.