Neuropsychiatrist Dr Louann Brizendine on why the female brain gets stronger and better during midlife and beyond.
IN CONVERSATION WITH…
In her New York Times bestselling debut The Female Brain, Dr Louann Brizendine was among the first to explain the differences between male and female brains, and the powerful role hormones play in how we think, communicate and feel. It traced the life of a woman and her brain from conception to midlife but, while writing the chapter titled ‘The Mature Female Brain’, Louann found herself struggling. ‘I didn’t feel I had any legitimacy, as I didn’t have any personal experience of this stage,’ she explains. ‘I could only write up to the age I was.’
Fast forward 15 years and Louann, now aged 69, has since had her our own experience of this unique stage and helped countless other women in her psychiatry practice. And so came about her latest book The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond. ‘The message wasn’t complete – I discovered that women’s brains are reshaped for the better during this time,’ says Louann. ‘We can access new power, increased clarity and a laser-like sense of purpose if we know how to seize it.’ Here, she shares how to do just that.
Tell us about the Upgrade
I take women from their early 40s all the way up to their 90s, looking at the changes taking place in our brains. This isn’t a period of decline. The menopause (I prefer to call it ‘the Transition’) can actually bring about renewed vigour and purpose, and I saw this in my own experience. To my surprise, later life is not a slow decline towards the end: I was staring down the most vital, confident and wise phase of my life – what I now call ‘the Upgrade’.
Our hormones and brains actually support us in becoming more and more our authentic selves. I wanted to create a framework to help guide us through this phase of life and let younger women know there’s really cool stuff ahead. There’s a whole other life just around the corner.
Why do you reject the word ‘menopause’?
The medical profession uses the words menopause and perimenopause to diagnose the end of our fertile years. This doesn’t describe the whole woman or the transformation we’re going through at this stage. I prefer to use the Transition (aka perimenopause) and the Upgrade (menopause and post-menopause). Just as the teen years are about so much more than hormones, so is the Transition. I wanted to capture how our identity shifts during this time, the path toward authenticity that emerges, and the changes to our relationships
