Ancient Egyptians didn’t only view life as a physical experience.
They understood transition as sacred.
And interestingly enough… some of their oldest medical and spiritual texts already acknowledged menopause as a natural phase of life.
Not failure. Not decline. Not invisibility.
A transition.
While Anubis became known as the great guide between worlds, his female counterpart, Anput, represented something more specifically feminine.
Protection. Transformation. The maternal force during change.
Anput was often associated with guarding the vulnerable spaces between “what was” and “what comes next.”
And honestly… isn’t that exactly what midlife often feels like?
Ancient Egypt often viewed the end of menstruation not as an ending — but as another form of fertility.
Not biological fertility.
Wisdom fertility. Inner power. Discernment. Transformation.
Even the black color associated with Anubis symbolized fertile Nile soil and rebirth — not decay.
A kind of “Second Spring.”
The Ebers Papyrus and Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus documented treatments for symptoms we now associate with menopause.
Egyptian physicians used herbs like:
And while some remedies sound unusual today… the fascinating part is this:
They recognized menopause as a real physical experience thousands of years ago.
Ancient beliefs sometimes described the womb as something that could “wander” through the body causing symptoms.
Today we obviously understand anatomy differently 😅
But emotionally?
Many women still carry unprocessed experiences in the body.
Stress. Suppressed emotions. Trauma. Overriding intuition.
And midlife has a way of bringing everything back to the surface.
How many women were taught to disconnect from themselves just to survive?
And then suddenly hit midlife and realize the body is no longer willing to stay silent?
Midlife really has a way of exposing everything we ignored for years.
Ancient Egyptian symbols carried deep meaning around transformation and healing.
The Scarab Beetle
The scarab represented rebirth, regeneration, and becoming.
Its hieroglyph literally meant: “To come into being.”
And honestly… what better symbol for midlife transformation?
A shedding. A rebuilding. A rebirth into a different version of yourself.
The Ankh — the “Key of Life” — symbolized life force, fertility, feminine wisdom, balance, and spiritual protection.
It represented the union of opposites: feminine and masculine, physical and spiritual, life and afterlife.
Today many women still feel deeply drawn to these symbols during periods of emotional or spiritual transition.
And maybe that’s not accidental.
Anubis was the god of the liminal.
The in-between.
The guide between one identity and another.
And perhaps menopause carries a similar invitation.
To review your life. To weigh what still matters. To stop living entirely for everyone else. To reclaim yourself.
Do ancient Egyptian remedies “fix” menopause? No.
But there’s something deeply validating about realizing women have been navigating hormonal transitions for thousands of years.
Midlife is not a modern failure.
It is a human experience women have always walked through.
Take what resonates. Leave the rest.
If you’re in midlife and things feel… different — you’re not imagining it.