65 million Indian women are navigating menopause right now, mostly without support.

Half don't know what's happening to them. The other half know something is happening and can't name it. Awareness is low, healthcare costs are climbing, and the cultural norm is to wait it out in silence.

For the 2023 Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge, I spent five months on this. Interviewed 38 women aged 42–55 across India. Interviewed 8 gynaecologists. The pattern that kept surfacing wasn't medical - it was informational. Women weren't struggling because menopause is inherently unmanageable. They were struggling because nobody had told them what to expect, what was normal, what wasn't, and when to actually see a doctor.

Of the 38 women I spoke to, only 4 were post-menopause. 23 were perimenopausal.

3 had no symptoms yet. Most of the women with symptoms didn't know their symptoms were menopause-related. Many believed heavy bleeding would just resolve on its own.

The 8 gynaecologists confirmed the other side of the gap: patients came in with fragmented information, if any. Nobody had visibility into what happened between appointments.

The problem wasn't medicine. It was translation.