Bonfire of Expectations: Time to Burn the Menopause Myths
- Nov 5
- 2 min read
Every year, as the sky lights up with fireworks and bonfires crackle across the November air, we gather around the flames to celebrate renewal — a spark in the dark, a reminder that even after the coldest seasons, warmth returns.
But this year, I’m thinking about a different kind of fire.Not the kind that fills the sky — the kind that starts within.
Because for too long, women have been taught to hide their fire. To stay quiet about menopause, fertility struggles, or the heartbreak of Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI). We’ve been told that these changes mark an ending — the closing of a chapter, the dimming of a light.
It’s time to challenge that story.It’s time to light the bonfire — and burn the outdated ideas about women, ageing, and fertility that no longer serve us.
💭 What Needs to Burn
Let’s throw into the flames:
The belief that womanhood ends when your periods do.
The silence that surrounds menopause and POI.
The myth that menopause only affects women later in life — when in reality, it can start much earlier, even in our teens, 20s and 30s.
The stigma around symptoms like brain fog, mood changes, or fatigue — as if they make us weak or unreliable.
The inadequacy we feel because of these symptoms, when in truth, they are simply signs of hormonal change, not personal failure.
The idea that we can’t be vibrant, sexual, creative, or ambitious beyond 40.
These are the myths that have weighed us down for generations — quietly, invisibly, insidiously.
🌅 What Rises From the Ashes
Because here’s the truth: menopause isn’t the end of our fire — it’s the redefinition of it.It’s fierce. It’s awakening. It’s real.
When we stop apologising for our changing bodies and start honouring them instead, something powerful happens. We step into a kind of authenticity that can’t be faked or filtered. We start telling our stories honestly. We find community in the women beside us — those who nod, who get it, who’ve walked the same hot, sleepless nights.
✨ A New Kind of Flame
So tonight, as bonfires burn across the country, I’m thinking about all the women lighting metaphorical fires of their own — speaking out, reaching out, and reclaiming their voices.
Because this isn’t an ending.It’s a fierce new beginning.
🔥 Time to burn the menopause myths. 🔥
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