A while ago there was a study that said if you had more sex you could postpone menopause. The study received a lot of media attention. Headlines like the following popped up everywhere:

“Do you want to postpone menopause as long as possible? Have more sex. And if you don’t have a partner, masturbation works too”

I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry when I heard these because it’s not really that simple. There are an almost endless array of studies that say things you should take worth a pinch of salt. In my book for example, I talk about a study that says that square dancing helps women with symptoms during perimenopause. This exemplifies the difficulty of distinguishing useful and non-useful information when referring to studies. Science can be difficult.

In addition, this is the second time in a short space of time that we are talking about studies or treatments that are about postponing the awfulness we have before us. As if that should be our goal. To push it out ahead of us as far as possible. If we just have a bit more sex or masturbate then we might succeed. And if you do not succeed then there is another possibility: a new treatment! Now we can go to a private clinic in London and pay lots of money and alter the natural course of nature by fiddling with our ovaries.

A reputable IVF team in the UK has developed a treatment that allows you to postpone your menopause by about 20 years. A treatment (or rather a procedure) that could almost be equated to botox but for your lady parts. Isn’t that amazing ???

But wait. Is this really the way we want to go? The new treatment caused a huge outcry in the women’s health world. On the one hand, the team defended the procedure by saying that it is good for women who have health problems, or for those who cannot take hormone replacement therapy. But they also wanted to emphasize that it could be an alternative for those who wanted to postpone their menopause for a variety of reasons. Feminists raged and considered this to be a patriarchal invention. And without being an extremist feminist, I also wonder what it’s all about. I understand it from a medical point of view but why would you want to postpone your menopause? Because it is so horrible that you prefer not to endure it? Because you think it means that you are past your prime and getting old.

I bet there will be a market for this. Just as there is a market for botox, fillers, plastic surgery and more. But not in my case, I refuse. Aging is a privilege. Much better than the alternative anyways!

This is a guest post. Any opinions expressed are the writer’s own.