An Interview With LuLu Braunstein and Lisa Anne Morrison of The Menopause Monologues

Menopause is not a niche. It is half the population.

For generations, menopause has lived in the margins, whispered about, joked about, or ignored entirely. Menopause Monologues drags it into the center, not as a punchline, but as a reality. The creators are not just telling stories. They are exposing the gaps in medicine, culture, and conversation that left them, and millions of others, in the dark.

STEPHANIE: What made you want to center menopause specifically, rather than women’s health more broadly?

LISA: Well, all three of us were in the throes of either perimenopause or menopause, and because we did not learn anything about menopause from our mothers, it was all we were talking about. We were like the blind leading the blind. Carrie, the creator of the show, reached out to her sister when she was starting to have symptoms and learned the word “perimenopause” for the first time in her life. She also heard from her sister, Julie, about her intense struggles during her search to find a doctor who could take care of her. This infuriated Carrie, and she thought it was time we told women’s menopause stories in order to help women who were as in the dark as we were. Plus, can you imagine how long a show would be if we tried to tell all the inadequacies in women’s health research?

STEPHANIE: What surprised you most in the process of developing Menopause Monologues?

LULU: So many things. Until very recently, doctors typically received about half a day’s worth of menopause training in medical school. It is starting to change, but far too late. We are also constantly surprised that women, even in major metropolitan cities with access to care, are still asking the most basic questions of our post-show doctors. There is still so much shame and embarrassment that women feel, so much that they do not talk about it with anyone. It certainly appears to us that when we look at what women’s health gets attention, once women are beyond reproductive years, we become less important. And while we should not be surprised, we are still angry.

STEPHANIE: Was there a moment where you realized this is something people are not talking about enough? Can you walk me through that realization?

• Lisa: Yes. For me, it was when I started having hot flashes. I had heard about them, but they were far worse than I had imagined. I was shocked that I had not been more prepared by my mom, sisters, or doctors.

• Lulu: My father-in-law had been trying to tell me to ask my doctor about hormone therapy, but I believed I would sail through this period of life. I had outrageous night sweats for years but no hot flashes, so I assumed it was something else. I tried changing the materials I slept in, but nothing helped, so I just pushed through. Then the brain fog became so bad that my husband told me to ask the doctor if I was heading toward dementia. A few years later, my cousin in the UK started talking about her moments of uncharacteristic rage and sadness, along with other symptoms I recognized in myself. She told me they had been greatly alleviated by hormone therapy. I started listening to a UK podcast to learn more, and shortly after, I insisted my doctor start me on the patch. When it takes that long to learn that so many symptoms can be helped, and that more serious issues like osteoporosis can potentially be prevented, you know it is not being talked about enough.

STEPHANIE: A lot of women describe feeling dismissed in medical spaces, even by doctors they expect to understand them. Why do you think that disconnect exists?

LISA: Because women’s health has lacked importance and funding in the male-dominated medical community for a very long time. To be frank, I think the disconnect exists because of the patriarchal world we live in.

STEPHANIE: There is often a cultural reaction to work centered on women’s bodies, menstruation, menopause, and so on that can feel either overly celebratory or quietly dismissed. How do you navigate that tension in your work?

LULU: That is a great question. It is something I think about often. Where is the line where people either go “ew” or “hooray”? For the most part, we do not really care if people think “ew” because we have felt shame for so long around everything related to women’s bodies. I grew up being too inhibited to even mention tampons, let alone whether I was on my period. So we are not holding back, but we also do not think we are being gratuitous.

STEPHANIE: Do you think work about women’s bodies is still held to a different standard in theater or storytelling?

LISA: If we are comparing theater to film, theater is more forgiving and inclusive of all body types. In this country, we are so obsessed with our bodies and also have a narrow idea of what women should or should not talk about. Theater, thankfully, is a place where we can tell women’s full, authentic stories like we do in our show.

STEPHANIE: Who tends to respond most strongly to the show, and who seems the most uncomfortable?

LISA: We have been blown away by audience reactions. My 27-year-old nephew came to see the show in Los Angeles. I had no idea how he would respond, knowing nothing about menopause. I found him afterward with tears in his eyes. He was moved and surprised by how much he did not know. He said he now felt more aware of what his fiancée might go through later in their life together. I think the over-65 crowd has been the most uncomfortable, but to their credit, not so uncomfortable that they did not enjoy the show.

STEPHANIE: Is there a risk that audiences dismiss this kind of work as “niche” when it is actually universal? Is closing that gap something you are interested in?

LULU: Yes. We share a story from one of our menopause experts, who is also the CMO of Midi Health. She was pitching her company to a boardroom full of venture capitalists, and one of them called their market “niche.” If it were not so frustrating, it would be funny. Fifty percent of the population is niche? We also hear things like “menopause is having a moment” or “menopause content is reaching saturation,” and you cannot help but think it has taken this long for anyone to talk about it. We need to push for research and education until it is no longer necessary to fight for attention. This is not just relevant to women going through perimenopause. It would help everyone to understand these experiences ahead of time so they are not blindsided. Relationships of all kinds would benefit, and women would not feel so alone.

STEPHANIE: In your experience, how do audiences actually respond to work about menopause? Do you encounter indifference, discomfort, curiosity, humor, or something else entirely?

LISA: We encounter everything. The phrase we hear most often is, “Thank you.” Women in our audience feel like we are speaking directly to them. They are vocal during the show, laughing and nudging each other, saying, “That happens to me.” Because we center real women’s stories, audiences see themselves, or the women in their lives, on stage and feel seen.

STEPHANIE: What do you hope someone who has never thought about menopause walks away with after seeing this?

LISA: I hope they develop empathy and understanding for what women go through during menopause, both mentally and physically, and how dismissed they have historically felt. I also hope they see that when we come together to face difficult things, we can laugh, learn, and create together.

The Menopause Monologues, the theatre movement that’s bringing real life menopause stories out of the darkness and into the spotlight, will play a limited engagement in the Mainstage Theater at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013), April 30-May 3. Each show concludes with a Q&A with a doctor specializing in menopause, turning the monologues into a dialogue around women’s health. 

(Emily Owens PR)