The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge,  in their words:-

“A challenged world is an alert world. Individually we’re all responsible for our thoughts and actions, all day every day. We can choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate’s women’s achievements. Collectively we can help create an inclusive world.”

I wrote a long list of things I want to challenge, here is the shortlist:-

I choose to challenge the historic narrative that our menopause is anything but a positive transition. 

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I choose to challenge that our menopause is something to fear, dread, ignore.

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I choose to challenge that we should be ashamed to admit we are in our menopause.

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I choose to challenge that we should be ashamed of our periods.

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I choose to challenge that we are miseducated on the value and purpose of our periods.

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I choose to challenge employers who don’t have a Menopause at Work Policy. 

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I choose to challenge the dismissal of women and their hormones.

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I choose to challenge that we can’t have a fulfilling and active sex life. 

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I choose to challenge that we are conditioned to think that our health and wellbeing are out of our control

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I choose to challenge the brands that sell ‘solutions’ and ‘cures’ for the menopause and our menstrual cycle treating them as illnesses, something to get rid of.

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I choose to challenge myself and my self-doubt every day.

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From Challenge comes change, so let’s all #ChooseToChallenge.