Anyone Who Told Midlife Women to Go Away Is About to Have a Very Expensive Awakening
We Will Not Be Silenced
Gillian Anderson just looked directly into a camera and told everyone who thinks women over 50 should quietly disappear to, and I am paraphrasing only slightly, go ahead and f*** off.
L’Oréal Paris released the video just before International Women’s Day, announcing that 70% of women feel invisible as they age.
I am 52. In 2024 I founded Rêve Health, a precision biomarker company built entirely around the science of women’s health. All of our perimenopausal and menopausal clients had been silenced, shamed, or dismissed at work, home, or at the doctor (and sometimes all three.).
Ignored and Gaslit, Despite Very Real Symptoms
Nearly every midlife woman I know carries a similar story. She goes to her doctor with a constellation of symptoms, brain fog, heart palpitations, weight gain despite nothing changing in her diet, anxiety, sleep issues…and told “this is just part of aging.” My weight gain was caused by a 16cm fibroid, but hey, I guess that’s “normal” too?
Because we Gen-Xers like to get to the bottom of things, we’ve researched on our own accord looking for answers and not finding any.
We are sometimes looking for reassurance but mostly looking for actual help and solutions. But it seems the healthcare system has collectively decided we are not worth helping (and let’s not into get into how few studies for ANY medical issues are conducted on women to begin with, never mind after 40).
She Is Searching. Nobody Credible Is Meeting Her.
I recently completed a full strategic brand and content audit for a major health system, mapping exactly where women between 40 and 55 are searching for guidance on perimenopause and what they find when they arrive.
The audit covered sixteen high-value search categories across the more than fifty symptoms perimenopausal women can experience.
The demand is significant, specific, and driven by women who are educated.
But what exists on the other side of those searches, from health systems that have the clinical expertise and the patient relationships to answer authoritatively, is largely thin, outdated, or simply absent.
The cardiovascular story alone is remarkable in its neglect. Research shows that estrogen plays a meaningful role in vascular function, and as it fluctuates during perimenopause, measurable changes begin to occur in arterial health, blood pressure, and metabolic markers, often years before a woman’s final menstrual period. This is not esoteric clinical information.
It is the kind of thing that changes how a woman understands her body and her risk, and it is almost entirely missing from the content strategies of health and wellness companies.
Gen X Women Are the Chief Household Officer, We Have Purchasing Power, and We Are Done Being Ignored
It’s not just healthcare companies ignoring midlife women–it’s pretty much all brands. As a side note, but really it probably deserves its own blog, why do so many fashion and beauty companies appeal to 20-somethings, when women in their 50s have the money and style to be their best customers?
Gen X women are at the height of their careers and their purchasing power. They are also, as anyone who has spent time with this demographic knows, among the most research-literate and brand-loyal consumers in the market.
They make the majority of household healthcare decisions, for themselves, for their children who are heading toward college, and increasingly for aging parents they are simultaneously managing. They are sandwiched between aging parents and teenagers, and they are deeply, specifically fed up with being spoken to like a problem to be minimized rather than a person to be served.
The brands that take HER seriously, and show up with depth, genuine respect for her intelligence, and a willingness to address the full complexity of what she is navigating, will earn a decade of loyalty and the referral network that comes with it.
Word of mouth among women in this age group is extraordinarily powerful. When she finds a brand or a health system that actually sees her, she tells everyone she knows.
We Deserve To Be Heard
There is a business case here that should be obvious and somehow still is not.
The brands that continue producing content that makes her feel vaguely ashamed for wanting to feel alive and vibrant, or that reduce her experience to hot flashes and a gentle suggestion to try yoga, will find that she has very efficient filtering mechanisms and an increasingly limited patience for being underestimated.
Gillian Anderson said it better than I could. And she is not going anywhere.
Neither are we.
If you are building in women’s health and want to talk about what it actually takes to reach this audience, I would love to connect.
You can book a discovery call in the link below.
