Since "menopause" is a direct result of hormonal changes, only changes resulting directly from such changes can legitimately be ascribed to it. Often though, changes occurring coincidentally at midlife are also blamed on it - in fact when, as often happens, men experience the same "symptoms" this is dubbed "male menopause". (Actual male "menopause" (cessation of menses) is of course an impossibility ;-)

"Beyond" is just that - all the lifetime after period cessation - which gives us plenty of scope! Chances are though that there will be a greater focus on the immediate years after menopause - for the time being at any rate.

The site is chiefly intended for postmenopausal women or those in the late stages of perimenopause who are becoming more interested in life beyond, rather than struggling to cope with the idea of the approaching event. Realistically however, many women arriving here are just starting on the journey and are seeking basic info about what they can expect. For them I have retained the "newbie" info from the old unofficial alt.support.menopause website from which this one evolved. Most other topics, especially the "philosophical" ones are relevant to any woman

• You can always get back to where you came by using the BACK button, or the "GO" function on your browser. If you find yourself on an outside site, this is the *only* way to get back to this one.
• Every page has a link top and bottom which will return you to the initial Welcome page
• Many pages of related topics (e.g. osteoporosis) have linkages to each other at the top of each page.

The aim of this site is twofold:

• To provide a forum for the airing of the views of (and discussions between) women who believe that menopause is simply a transitional and developmental time of life, rather than the "beginning of the end" and so encourage younger women towards a more optimistic view of what is to come.
• To better enable women to make a truly informed decision about any treatment or preventative measure offered to them by
• providing solid noncommercial information about common products
• providing a forum to combat the hype of press releases and advertisements by seeking out the "cons" of products to balance the "pros" so enthusiastically expounded by commercial entities. It makes no excuse for seeming to be possibly "anti" most things - there are already more than enough proponeents ;-) 
• Offering help and instructions on how to find, choose and effectively read and interpret medical studies and websites of all kinds