Isn’t it time we dumped the idea of menopause as a time of decline? On Forbes magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women list last year, most of the women nominated were over 50. They included Ursula von der Leyen, 67, president of the European Union; Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, 63; Christine Lagarde, 69, who heads the European Central Bank; and Donna Langley, 57, chairwoman of NBC Universal Entertainment and Studios.

At 64, Sanae Takaichi has just become Japan’s prime minister, and if you review the (long) list of women who’ve won a Nobel Prize for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine or Literature, you’ll see most are over 48, which suggests that female brain power doesn’t take a dive at midlife, even though oestrogen levels drop.

“It’s true that some women will really struggle in perim

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