Why Dia Mirza talking about perimenopause is a bigger deal than it seems

Weeks ago a client told me she had begun carrying a little hand fan in her office bag, “just in case.” She hadn't told her manager why, and she hadn't told most of her friends either. She was forty-one years old and had decided, unspokenly, that whatever was happening to her body was her own business. I think about her a lot so when I read that Dia Mirza had spoken out about her own hot flashes and inflammation my first thought wasn’t “how brave”, it was “finally”.