50 over 50

 

Well, Mrs. Hielscher. From now on, it's downhill. I somehow imagined the congratulations from my gynecologist on my fortieth birthday differently. Actually, I didn't expect any words from her at all, but instead came this verbal wrecking ball.

 

This statement pretty well sums up the relevance of women's health beyond forty. I noticed this very clearly again three years later when I discussed the topic of menopause in my podcast “Five to One” with experts. Since then, aging hasn't let me go. I thought for a long time about how I can discuss the topic of the aging woman in our society. And loudly enough that I can help a bit so that we can step out of the shadows and the taboo zone. And so the idea for “50 over 50” was born. An interview archive with fifty women between 50 and 60 from whom we can all learn. Because I simply lack role models for the life phase coming up for me. And I ask myself what will move me. How will it feel when my child grows up? How will it feel when my parents are no longer here? How will my professional role, my marriage change? How do I get through menopause and how can I prepare for all this? 

 

These questions press themselves upon me and I have no answer. That's why I am starting this new podcast. And I am not alone at all with my helplessness. 

 

I receive so many letters from women who also don't know their way around the near and more distant future. Because the women who write to me are not only between 40 and 50. They are also 25 and wonder where the female employees beyond 50 are in their agencies. So they already have no image of themselves a quarter of a century later at a young age. And it already occupies them now.

 

I have released a season exactly about this in my current podcast. It's called “5 over 50” and is the foundation for the soon-to-start new project.

 

This is how I talk with the writer Ildikó von Kürthy about empty spaces that suddenly open up and whose emptiness scares her, with the actress Heike Makatsch about the fear of broadcasting your real age and the courage to do it anyway, with the entrepreneur Sue Giers about how it feels to stand before a pile of broken pieces after a marriage with three children falls apart, with the health expert Mirian Lamberth about the possibilities of preparing to stay healthy, and with the presenter Bettina Rust about the fact that she might not be the right person to talk with about aging because she doesn't really think about it.

 

Five women from different fields told me surprisingly openly about their feelings about aging and their experiences. About the obstacles and barriers, but above all about the opportunities. Because I am convinced that the opportunities arising from what has been experienced and lived through have a huge quality. I myself look forward to this new phase with a lot of life experience and composure, and the women who are already there can confirm that it is good where they are. The conversations take away the fear of no longer being seen, suffering from persistent menopausal complaints, or no longer being attractive. No one wants to deny the downsides of aging, and there are just as many and maybe one or two more highs and lows than in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, but the “yes” to the opportunities must simply be greater. 

 

So that I and no one else believe anyone who says: From now on, it's all downhill.