F#ck Middle Age = one for the ages
You know you’ve got crowd support when an audience member hands you a fan onstage during a hot flash. Which is what happened at F#ck Middle Age, The Midst’s first in-person event on October 19, 2024, in Chicago.
The hot flasher, Rachel Hughes, kicked off the first panel: Here’s What You Really Need To Know About Peri/Menopause, along with Dr. Lauren Streicher MD, a renowned menopause expert and founding Medical Director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause. Seated next to Dr. Streicher, Hughes mentioned that she’s a “super flasher,” a condition marked by experiencing hot flashes earlier in life, and for up to 15 years after the end of menopause. Hughes is a leading voice in the perimenopause awareness movement and a community leader for Alloy Women’s Health, an event sponsor.
But that wasn’t the only heated moment. Women traveled from beyond Chicago to talk about the modern 35+ experience, including how Gen X and Millennial women aren’t taking perimenopause symptoms laying down. Well, OK, sometimes we lay down because we’re tired. But we’re also asking questions about how to get the care we need, because this isn’t our grandma’s midlife.
Daphne Berryhill, a pharmacist and medical writer who contributes to The Midst, traveled from Madison, Wisconsin, with her 20-something daughter, Nora. “I came away from F Middle Age feeling like it’s more than OK — it’s imperative — to invest in myself in midlife,” Berryhill says. “Like so many women, I need nudges and support to do that because it still feels at odds with the cultural messaging I grew up with.”
Berryhill said she enjoyed the diverse, expansive thought-sharing on how to go about discovering what you want and then getting it — or something close to it. “Plus, Dr. Streicher gave straight-out ‘this is what you need to do’ advice on how to get healthcare needs met during peri and after menopause,” she says. “That kind of expert advice is really hard to find.”
Here’s a photo recap. Photos by Rena Naltsas.
Learn about upcoming Midst events here and sign up for invitations on The Midst Substack. Are you interested in hosting a Midst event in your town? Contact our Head of Community, Tiffany Nieslanik, at tiffany [at] the-midst.com.
Thank you to our sponsors, Alloy Women’s Health and Become Clothing.