Alina Kang

My daughter has a stuffed monkey named HaHaHa. He has been an important part of our family since she was about a year old. Before you make fun of his name, his name is HaHaHa because that is how a monkey talks. She takes his name very seriously and is not at all ashamed. He is, after all, her best friend. With a name like HaHaHa you cannot help but feel happy when you are around him. HaHaHa is an incredibly well-traveled and well-dressed monkey.

An excerpt from I Left Anyway: The Life I Was Supposed to Want. The schedule looked ordinary, which almost made it harder to explain. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead. The computer screen asked me to log in again because five minutes of stillness was enough for it to decide I had disappeared. There was no collapse that day, no scandal, no final straw that would make the story easy. I washed my hands, knocked on doors, asked about bowel habits, appetite, bleeding, pain.

Something is happening in women’s health care. Perimenopause is finally being discussed openly. Vaginal estradiol has entered mainstream conversation. Testosterone therapy for women is no longer confined to niche clinics or whispered discussions. Across medicine and social media alike, women are asking new questions about tissue health, sexual function, intimacy, discomfort, sensation, and quality of life. And perhaps more importantly, they are no longer accepting silence as an answer.