October is Menopause Awareness Month, and on October 18 the world marks World Menopause Day.

Most conversations about menopause stop at hot flashes and sleep. Pelvic pain rarely makes the list. For a lot of women, it belongs there.

40% of women will experience a complex gynecologic condition in their lifetime. That number doesn’t stop at a certain age. So this month, we’re putting menopause and chronic pelvic pain in the same sentence, and keeping them there.

Menopause Awareness Month

Menopause doesn’t arrive the same way for everyone. For some women it comes gradually. For others, it comes all at once.

That’s what happened to Steph, one of the women we walk alongside. After more than 30 years of gynecologic pain, cancer treatment in her early 40s brought sudden surgical menopause. Her gynecologic challenges didn’t go away. They changed shape. Today she navigates pelvic floor dysfunction, vulvovaginal disorders, and shifts in mood and energy that affect her daily life.

Steph’s experience is a reminder that menopause and chronic pelvic pain aren’t separate conversations. For many women, they’re the same one.

And menopause doesn’t only affect the woman going through it. That’s the heart of an essay from Dr. Corey Babb at Haven Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that’s worth revisiting this month.

From Dr. Babb: The Partner’s Guide to Menopause

Earlier this year, Dr. Babb wrote a series on the side of menopause that rarely gets discussed: what it does to relationships. It’s written for women, and for the partners beside them. In his words, “The goal is not blame. It is translation.”

The first essay asks a question many couples quietly carry: Is she becoming someone else?

Dr. Babb describes how perimenopause can bring a quiet withdrawal. A woman pulls inward because she’s exhausted, overstimulated, or emotionally depleted, and her partner reads the same moment as rejection. Both people start protecting themselves at once. Neither one is wrong, but without language for what’s happening, distance grows.

What helps, he writes, isn’t grand gestures. It’s asking what the experience actually feels like right now, instead of rushing to fix it. And many couples come through this stage more honest and more connected than before.

If you love someone going through this, or you’re the one going through it, this essay is worth your time. Read The Partner’s Guide to Menopause.

Welcome to the Team, Qaren

We want to give a special shoutout to our newest monthly donor, Qaren. Qaren, thank you for joining our monthly donor team and standing with the women we serve. We’re so glad you’re here.

The Journey Fund: Where We Stand

A virtual consultation is Step 1. It’s the moment a woman is finally heard and taken seriously. But for many clients, the next step means getting to Haven Center in Tulsa for an in-person, patient-centered exam.

Our partners already cover major pieces of that trip. Angel Flight donates free air transportation, and Lodgingly secures deeply discounted hotel rates.

The Journey Fund covers what’s left: 3 nights of safe lodging in Tulsa plus full care coordination. Traveling with chronic gynecologic pain is physically exhausting. Arriving the day before means a client can rest, recover, and walk into her appointment ready.

It takes $315 a month to fully support one client’s stay and travel logistics every month. Thanks to our monthly partners, we’re now at $47.60 a month, just $267.40 a month away from our goal.

Every level moves us closer: $7, $14, $28, or $56 a month. Ten new partners at $28 a month would close the gap.

Become a monthly partner.

Your gift is tax-deductible. The Aziza Project is a project of Visions Made Viable, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Know you are mighty,
Stephanie Berman
Executive Director, The Aziza Project