A new health column places menopause alongside work, relationships and ageing, with realistic ideas for connection and support beyond costly wellness plans.
On October 6, 2026, The Star published “Staying well while growing older” by Che Puan Muda Zaheeda Mohamad Ariff, Royal Patron of the Malaysian Mental Health Association. The column placed menopause alongside work pressures, family responsibilities and relationship changes rather than treating it as an isolated health issue.
WHO’s September 2026 event notice described menopause through familiar health concerns: hot flashes, sleep problems and mood changes. It also noted pain during the transition and increased osteoporosis and heart-disease risks after menopause.
The Star column broadens that symptom-focused conversation. Its subject is not only what happens in the body but how women live through those changes while managing responsibilities and concerns about ageing.
This is a change in emphasis rather than a change in medical standards. The column announces no treatment protocol or screening schedule. Its contribution is to place bodily changes within the wider circumstances of a woman’s life, without making hormones the explanation for everything.
The recent coverage brings several parts of midlife wellbeing into the same discussion:
Together, these points support a broader editorial question: what would wellbeing look like if it accounted for the life a woman actually has, rather than an idealised schedule of healthy activities?
The different sources serve different purposes. The Star piece is a health column, not a controlled trial. Its suggestions about coffee meetings and walking groups are practical proposals rather than demonstrated treatments for menopause-related distress.
The WHO communications provide health context and describe topics discussed at events. Neither they nor the column establish the cause of an individual woman’s sleep changes, mood changes or body concerns. The material also provides no diagnostic criteria or personalised screening plan.
The Menopause Society’s figures come from an organisational press release. The supplied reporting does not provide enough methodological detail to treat those percentages as representative of all partners or either country’s population.
The useful reading is therefore modest: these sources identify subjects worth discussing and possible ways to seek support. They do not offer a formula for resilience or a replacement for qualified care. Personal decisions about symptoms, screening and treatment belong in conversations with an appropriate clinician.
The Star column’s examples are deliberately familiar. There is no requirement to turn friendship into a programme or to make every conversation about menopause.
Its practical suggestions include:
A useful interpretation is to choose contact that fits real circumstances. An invitation is not an obligation, and an activity that is inaccessible should not become another reason to feel inadequate.
This also changes the tone of the conversation. Instead of asking whether a woman is doing enough to stay well, it makes room to ask what support is available and what she needs help with.
The Menopause Society’s medical director, Dr Stephanie Faubion, said menopause can affect relationship dynamics and sexual intimacy. She also described the possibility of unexpected stress for couples.
That commentary supports including relationships in the discussion rather than treating intimacy as separate from health. WHO’s September 2026 Sri Lanka event took a similarly broad scope. Participants discussed sexual wellbeing and mental health alongside urogenital symptoms and healthy ageing.
The editorial implication is not that couples must experience menopause in a particular way. It is that changes affecting comfort or intimacy deserve room in conversation. Partners’ questions can be acknowledged without displacing the experience of the woman going through the transition.
For related reading, Refemina’s whole-person discussion of mental health and intimacy keeps these subjects connected rather than placing them in separate boxes.
The Star column answers this question by challenging the assumption that good health requires premium purchases. Its concerns include supplements and retreats, but the deeper point is about advice that ignores people’s resources.
A recommendation can sound simple while still asking for time someone does not have. A social activity may require transport. Food advice may depend on a budget that the writer has never asked about.
Those constraints belong in the discussion rather than being treated as failures of commitment. The column’s approach leaves space for wellbeing that is less polished and more realistic.
It also offers a useful test for midlife health messaging: does the advice recognise ordinary limits, or does it turn every concern into a purchase? That is an editorial question, not a judgement about anyone who chooses paid support.
Strength and independence remain legitimate goals. So do confidence and a sense of connection. The column’s position is that these aims should not be packaged as a shopping list or a demand to make ageing look effortless.
The sources identify sleep, mood and body composition as relevant topics. They also bring sexual wellbeing and relationship concerns into view. Where changes are concerning, these are reasonable subjects to raise with qualified care.
The distinction is between describing an experience and assigning its cause. A woman can say that her sleep has changed or that intimacy feels different without first deciding that menopause explains it. The Star column’s wider framing allows work demands and family circumstances to remain part of that account.
The same approach applies to screening. The author recommends screening that is appropriate for the individual. That leaves the decision with the person and their clinician rather than creating a universal list of tests from a newspaper feature.
For organising the discussion, Refemina’s framework for bringing midlife concerns into a care conversation offers related reading. The purpose is to keep the person’s priorities visible, not to arrive with a self-made diagnosis.
This broader view also leaves room for what matters beyond symptoms. Being able to remain independent is part of the healthspan concept described in the column. Feeling connected and having space to ask for help belong in its account of ageing too.
The useful direction for clinical practice is a broader conversation that recognises menopause while also asking about relationships, responsibilities and access to support, without turning that context into a diagnosis.
Midlife wellbeing can become another buying decision when every concern is framed as a need for hormones, supplements or weight loss. Refemina addresses that narrow framing through research-led editorial coverage that connects hormonal change with strength and confidence, helping readers distinguish credible evidence from wellness hype and understand the wider midlife picture.
Follow Refemina for research-led insights on menopause, strength, metabolism, nutrition, skin, intimacy and confidence through midlife. New articles turn complex topics into clear, useful context.
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