Midlife Is The New Gold Rush
Why our third act is now a multi-billion dollar industry
The Commodification of Midlife
Midlife is an ambush, not a crisis.
Women in midlife are being targeted by the menoposse, a mix of wellness influencers, medical professionals, and 50+ celebrities who all have something to say and, most importantly, something to sell.
In the Western world, midlife is framed as a problem to be solved. Social media, magazines, and menopause gurus push the idea that ageing as a woman is either a glossy, Instagrammable rebirth or a tragic decline into brain fog and irrelevance.
And of course, for every symptom you might experience, there's a book, overpriced supplement, or retreat in Costa Rica promising salvation.
Menopause used to be taboo. Now it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry. A Forbes article from August 2024 spelled it out plainly: With $15 Trillion In Spending Power And Decades Of Wisdom, Women Over 50 Are An Incredible Untapped Resource1.
In other words, we’re the new gold rush. And the message we’re being sold? You are either a fabulous, reinvented goddess who looks 20 years younger, or a washed-up shadow of your former self.
Pick a side.
Menopause Around the World: Crisis or Celebration?
While Western cultures medicalise and commodify menopause, other parts of the world take a vastly different approach.
In Japan, menopause is called konenki, which translates to "renewal years", a natural and even welcome transition. Konenki is viewed as a second spring. Japanese women report fewer symptoms, and some researchers believe this is due to diet (high in soy-based phytoestrogens) and lifestyle, but also cultural attitude. Ageing isn’t demonised in the same way it is in the West.
In China, menopause is traditionally seen as a shift in qi energy rather than a pathology. Older women often gain social standing and are respected for their wisdom. That’s quite a contrast to the Western notion that menopause makes women invisible.
In certain Native American cultures, postmenopausal women take on leadership roles and are considered wise elders.
But then there’s India, where perceptions vary by region and class. In more conservative areas, menopause can mean increased restrictions and no longer being considered fertile means losing status in some communities. Conversely, in more progressive urban settings, women find newfound freedom, no longer bound by reproductive expectations.
And then there’s us. Western, urban, independent women being told we’re either falling apart or about to reinvent ourselves into Wonder Woman, with just the right mix of biohacks, collagen powders, and overpriced wellness retreats.
The Midlife Script You Didn’t Ask For
If you follow the menoposse online, midlife is all about brain fog, aching joints, low sex drive, and fading into the background. A litany of debilitating symptoms. And if you're not experiencing all of these things? Well, clearly, you’re doing it wrong.
Because how else will they sell you their lotions, potions, and hormone-balancing miracle cures?
Well, I didn’t get the memo. And I’m following my own script. I'm still menstruating like I mean it and paying my pink tax like a good girl. Side note, I wonder: How much money does that add up to over 40 years of buying tampons?
Yes, I have the occasional symptom (remember that time I forgot Paul Newman’s name while watching Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid?), and yes, some women have a harder time than others. But for most of us, it’s not so unbearable that we need to crawl under a duvet until further notice.
I refuse to obsess over menopause, and I refuse to fade into the background.
If I’m ever to fade into the background, let it be in London, walking across Tower Bridge the way Bridget Jones once did, like I own the town. By the way, Renée, you were f** fabulous.
Also, Chaka Khan... and vodka. Ta.
No one actually handed us a script for this stage of life. Funny how we were given one as young girls, but now? We’re left to figure it out on our own.
And that’s precisely why wellness influencers are so eager to write it for us.
But if we weren’t handed a script for this part of life, we should see it as an opportunity and not just buy into a narrative imposed on us.
This is our story to tell and that space is ours to take.
We can now write our own script, and decide for ourselves how we deal with this transition. We can choose to buy into the narrative pushed on us through mainstream and social media, or not.
What Keeps Us Up at Night?
After coaching women like me for over two years now, one thing is clear. For many in their 40s and 50s, it’s the fear of irrelevance and invisibility. That sense of being slightly out of focus, like Robin Williams' character in Deconstructing Harry, wondering, Is that how I appear to everyone else?
It’s the frustration of always being on, running your home like a business, managing everyone’s lives, and keeping pace at work with younger colleagues who are all in. But after decades of playing those games, you might find yourself thinking… enough, I’m over it.
It’s wondering if your best years are behind you, if the next decade will bring excitement and joy or just more of the same. And it’s the deeper, more existential question lurking beneath it all:
How do I show up, not as someone desperately clinging to youth, but as myself, fully and unapologetically?
Midlife Is the Beginning
As a brain health strategist and pro-ageing advocate, working with women in their 40s and 50s, I'm essentially calling out the very industry I'm part of. The irony isn't lost here.
Writing this feels a bit like shooting myself in the foot. But there's a crucial difference: I'm not selling salvation in a jar or promising to fix what isn't broken. And neither are the other midlife coaches who also post here and elsewhere.
We’re advocating for truth over transactions, for community over commodification.
Because while I guide women through this transition from a brain and cognitive health perspective, I refuse to frame midlife as either a tragic decline or a glossy rebirth requiring an arsenal of overpriced supplements. There are no gimmicks here.
Some might say that's bad business. I call it integrity.
You are not a problem to be solved. You don’t need fixing, optimising, or reinventing into a marketable, menopause-friendly version of yourself that fits everyone else’s narrative.
You need truth, community, and a life that feels expansive rather than restrictive.
And maybe a bit of Chaka Khan.
Midlife and menopause are not a crisis. They are a natural evolution. And you get to decide what that looks like.
Welcome to your third act. It’s yours to write.
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