Menopause has always been more than hormones and hot flashes. For BIPOC women, it’s layered. It’s biological, cultural, ancestral, and deeply personal. And navigating it inside a healthcare system that wasn’t built with us in mind can feel like trying to find your way through fog with a flashlight that keeps flickering.
This is where reclamation begins.
It starts with remembering that our ancestors didn’t just survive menopause. They honored it. They understood it. They passed down tools rooted in land, tradition, ceremony, and community. And somewhere between colonization, medicalization, and the modern wellness machine, that wisdom was pushed aside.
We’re at a point now where we can bring it back—and pair it with what modern science offers, without letting either realm dominate the other.
This is where the power lies.
Where Modern Medicine Falls Short (Especially for Us)
Let’s name the truth: modern menopause care is still built on research done mostly on cis, white, thin, postmenopausal women. So much of the “standard advice” is out of touch for BIPOC women who carry different genetic backgrounds, cultural histories, environmental exposures, nutritional traditions, and life stressors.
We get told to take the same cookie-cutter advice while our symptoms get downplayed, misdiagnosed, or brushed off with “that’s just aging.”
We deserve better than that shrug.
Menopause isn’t a diagnosis. It’s a transition. And the lack of culturally grounded care means many BIPOC women walk through it feeling unseen, unheard, and unprepared.
What Our Matriarchs Knew Before Research Caught Up
Long before hormone panels, sleep trackers, or supplements shaped like gummy bears, our aunties and elders helped guide this phase through story, ceremony, food, plants, prayer, and intuition.
In many Indigenous and Afro-diasporic cultures, menopause wasn’t something to resist. It was an elevation. A shift into authority and deeper knowing. There was reverence in this phase—identity, community role, and spiritual clarity all sharpened.
We lost that narrative somewhere along the way. But it’s still in us. It’s still ours to reclaim.
Modern Tools Are Helpful—but Not Holy
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) isn’t the enemy. It’s a tool. A powerful one when prescribed with nuance.
Modern options support:
• bone density
• brain clarity
• cardiovascular health
• mood regulation
• connective tissue recovery
But it only works well when it’s part of a bigger picture—one that considers culture, daily stress, environmental load, sleep, food access, and movement practices that actually reflect our realities.
Science can help us. But science alone isn’t enough.
Where Modern Interventions Can Cause Harm
When practitioners don’t understand cultural context, dismiss pain, or treat menopause like something to “fix,” they create more harm than help.
Menopause care without cultural competence is incomplete care.
The question to ask isn’t “Should I do HRT or not?”
It’s “Does this support all of me?”
The Integration: Where BIPOC Women Get Their Power Back
You don’t have to pick between the OB-GYN and the auntie with the plant medicine garden. Between your lab results and your intuition. Between evidence-based practices and ancestral knowledge.
You get to weave both.
Start with one question:
What meaning do I want this transition to hold?
Then build a support system that honors that answer.
Tools from both worlds might include:
Modern approaches:
HRT
strength training
nervous system work
adaptogens
inflammation management
sleep rituals
nutrition tuned to your physiology
Ancestral approaches:
traditional herbs or teas
ceremony
dream work
ritual baths
somatic grounding
storytelling
foodways that nourish lineage and body
You don’t need to do everything. Start small. Build slowly. Let your body tell you what resonates.
Real Talk: The Conversations BIPOC Women Are Having Behind Closed Doors
“Is HRT messing with nature?”
No. You are nature. And adapting to new circumstances is part of every ecosystem. This isn’t cheating the process—it’s supporting the process.
“What about the risks?”
Fair question. The old WHI study? Outdated, flawed, and wildly misapplied to populations it didn’t actually include. Modern research tells a different story, especially when HRT is started early and individualized.
“How do I blend all these approaches without feeling overwhelmed?”
Start with one practice from each world.
A ritual. A strength habit. A food shift. A breathwork moment.
A conversation with an elder. A conversation with a practitioner you trust.
This is a quilt, not a checklist.
Why Integration Is Liberation
You deserve a menopause experience shaped by wisdom, not fear. One rooted in both heritage and health. One where your DNA, your story, your ancestors, and your modern tools work together.
That’s where BIPOC women get their power back.
That’s where the narrative shifts.
That’s where the next generation gets to see menopause as initiation—not decline.
Want to go deeper?
If you want a guide that speaks directly to this phase with cultural grounding, strength training, hormone education, and real-life strategies, explore my Mastering Menopause Guide.
And if you want to reconnect with foods your ancestors used for strength, healing, and endurance, read my Ancestral Foods as Fuel post and start exploring how cultural foods can support performance today.
This transition was never meant to be walked alone—or through the lens of someone else’s research.
You get to reclaim it.
On your terms.