A woman who went through menopause at 29 is running for US vice-president
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Something that is getting next to zero attention right now: Nicole Shanahan, who independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr added earlier this year as his running mate, found out she was in early menopause at 29.
Shanahan was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin at the time (they went on to have a daughter and have since split). When you hear about the quest to “end menopause”, and we hear that a lot these days, it traces right back to Shanahan. (In 2020 writer Bonnie Rochman wrote a feature about these efforts for US Marie Claire.)
Shanahan told Financial Review writer Hannah Kuchler in February it all started when she was invited to speak at a fundraiser held by the Hollywood power couple Norman and Lynn Lear. She was 31 and having hot flashes; watching her Flo app in terror as her fertility faded away. She was well aware of the Silicon Valley form of bro longevity, but she took the event’s cocktail hour to ask every expert she could find about reproductive longevity. Then, like so many of us, she got obsessed.
Kuchler writes: “When Shanahan scoured the patent corpus for advances on women’s reproductive longevity, she found “virtually nothing”,” The only research was responding to the age-old pressure for women to look young.”
The couple went on to dedicate millions from their respective charitable foundations to the issue of reproductive inequality, looking into why humans even have menopause and what can be done about it.
In addition to establishing the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality at the Buck Institute in California – the first such independent research organization of its kind – Shanahan earmarked additional millions to provide grants to researchers around the world for study in female reproductive aging.
Kuchler says Shanahan’s unprecedented investment comes in at US$100 million, and writes: “…the 38-year-old became the most influential individual funder of reproductive longevity research. If she is successful, this new knowledge may have the kind of profound consequences that came with the arrival of the contraceptive pill.”
The US press is doing its best to ignore the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket, which is part of the dangerous shift in media in North America from objective observer to cheerleader, or whatever the opposite of cheerleading is.
Shanahan’s politics seem to have shifted considerably since that Lear fundraiser, to put it mildly. And as Fast Company reported in a juicy article after she was chosen for the ticket, her big bucks likely paid for RFK Jr’s controversial Super Bowl ad.
But to me, it’s a major story on two fronts: that a woman under 40 is running for vice-president, and since everyone wants to talk about menopause, that she went through it so young and has done something so significant with her experience.
One we should be hearing a lot more about.
Science stuff
• MAGNESIUM: You know how everyone is always saying ‘take magnesium’? A new study out of the University of South Australia, published in the European Journal of Nutrition found a strong link between low magnesium levels and an increased risk of diseases. Researchers measured blood samples from 172 middle-aged adults, finding a strong link between low magnesium levels and high amounts of homocysteine, a “genotoxic” amino acid. Low intake of magnesium has previously been connected to a higher risk of disease, but this study sheds a light on its ability to cause DNA damage.
• INDIA: A study published in Nature using secondary data found “a very high proportion” of married women aged 30 to 49 are already in menopause: 15 percent. The culprit appears to be early hysterectomy, and the authors say there needs to be further research to find out why women are opting for this major surgery when going through menopause at a younger age carries “implications for morbidity and mortality risks for women in their later years”.
• MENTAL HEALTH: Our risk for bipolar disease and clinical depression rises before menopause, according to a study out of Cardiff University in Wales. Researchers, publishing their work in Nature Mental Health, analysed data from 128,294 participants in the UK Biobank and found a significant increase in the rates of psychiatric disorders after the onset of perimenopause. During post menopause, the incidence rate dropped back down.
Halle Berry is MMMing everywhere
Halle Berry is on fire this year: From shouting “I’m in menopause!” as she helped launch a $275 million bill to strengthen and expand research in the US, to the way she speaks about this transition, and what a hard time she had figuring out “what was wrong” with her.
“We have to take our health into our own hands,” she said on Good Morning America this week. “Many women at this time lean out of their health care; we have to lean in. Sometimes you have to self-diagnose.”
In addition to directing and acting, he’s also got a digital community focused on perimenopause and menopause health, Respin, and is invested in Pendulum Akkermansia, a probiotic she says she felt a difference after taking “immediately” and has been key to her metabolic health.
I’m officially a crone (and happy for it)
I am beyond thrilled at being included on Jody Day’s Substack list of NomoCrones (not a mother and a crone). The names on her list! I want to interview all of them. Jody’s work at Gateway Women has helped me make peace with not having children, not by choice, and this meant everything. Check out who she’s recommending, too.
This week: Hotflash inc podcast
If you need a master class in cancer prevention with a minor in what’s wrong with the way hormones are prescribed in mainstream medicine, this week’s Hotflash inc podcast is for you. I speak to Dr Leigh Erin Connealy, a integrative physician, author and co-founder of Raena.
Click, watch, read, listen + learn
• If you only read one thing this week, make it Lara Briden’s blog post spelling out the great inequity in the way mainstream medicine continues to treat our hormones: How science got it wrong about progesterone (BTW: take a wild guess on the reason) LaraBriden.com
• Not knowing you haven’t had a period for six months might indicate that you are a little disconnected from your body, no? Why I stopped wearing underwear after menopause The Cut
• Great advice: 'At 44, I switched spin and HIIT for walking and weights' Women’s Health
• Fellow MenoClarity member Rachel Lankester is such a necessary voice in this transition. Check out her Magnificent Midlife podcast this week, interviewing the CEO of Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving women’s health across Australia: Unpicking menopause narratives with Dr Sarah White
• The first question I have to ask is: does this not have a huge impact on perimenopause? It turns out we all dramatically age in two bursts. I’ll be ready for the second one: Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60 The Guardian
Editor’s note
I want to take a minute to remember Pam McColl, one of the most joyful and heart-centered people I’ve ever met. Pam married one of my best friends years ago and they had twin boys who are now in their early teens. Pam was firmly in the #perimenoposse. She passed away from cancer August 8, at the age of 44.
Thank you for the shoutout of my NomoCrones on Substack list! Whether you're a mother/childless/childfree and interested in aging out loud, I hope you'll enjoy meeting/reading these wonderful older women writers: https://jodyday.substack.com/p/a-truth-of-crones