The Netflix show putting the spotlight on menopause

 Popular culture is generally associated with youth. But a new Netflix series that has a 49-year-old female lead, fighting the ravages of middle age, is being hailed for putting the spotlight on women's lifelong battle with their own bodies.

In one scene of Bombay Begums, Rani, played by Bollywood star-turned-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt, abruptly walks out of a board meeting.

While her colleagues try to figure out why, the camera finds her in the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face, trying to dry her armpits under the hand dryer.

"Most people said they thought she was having a heart-attack," says Namita Bhandare, gender editor for news website Article 14, "but I knew exactly what was happening.

What was happening to Rani was menopause.

Rani - literally queen in Hindi - is smart, intelligent and articulate and runs a large bank as its CEO.

But when it comes to her own needs, she clams up, even goes into the denial mode when a younger female colleague offers empathy.

There could be several reasons why Rani would want to hide it, Ms Bhandare says.

"There's the stereotype of a typical menopausal female boss - irrational, irritable, screechy - and she's a professional and doesn't want her colleagues to know.

"Another reason could be that she's coming to terms with her body and women are expected to deal with it on their own."

IMAGE COPYRIGHTYANTRA PICTURES

image captionBollywood actress Pallavi Joshi plays a woman going through menopause in Painful Pride

According to the Indian Menopause Society (IMS), the country has 150 million women living with menopause. The average age of menopause is 46.2 years - globally, it's 51. And the most common symptoms are hot flushes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, mood swings and loss of interest in sex.

"Women spend nearly one-third of their lives with menopause, but there's little awareness about it," says Dr Anita Shah, gynaecologist and secretary of IMS.

Dr Shah, who has been practicing in the western city of Surat for more than three decades, says less than half the women over 40 years who come to her with symptoms of menopause are aware of what's happening with their bodies and why.

That's because in India, menopause is taboo, even more than menstruation.

"In the past few years, there have been campaigns around periods, we've even seen a mainstream Bollywood film like Padman around the subject, but menopause remains completely invisible," Ms Bhandare says.