"Indeed, the menopause is a rite of passage that takes some getting used to. Just as it took our thirteen-year-old selves time to adjust to the trials of menstruating, so too will it take our forty-something selves time to readjust to not menstruating."

Menopause is not a single point in time when the ovaries are switched off for good, but occurs in stages over the span of a woman's reproductive life. It's a transition that begins and ends with female fertility, and in the process, reshapes the way we think, feel, act and grow into our "second adulthood," the approach encouraged in the pivotal book on menopause, The Silent Passage.