Abstract Introduction Menopause is currently a widely discussed topic, particularly in relation to population ageing in Western societies and the extension of life expectancy. The increasingly frequent presence of menopause in the scientific and general public spaces raises questions about the objectives and real beneficiaries of these communications. Following Charcot's construction of female hysteria, which reduced women to their uterus, menopause seems to emerge as a new nosographic category that identifies women primarily through the lens of ovarian insuffisiency. Objective This study aims to demonstrate that menopause is a socio-scientific construction whose primary objective has been the maintenance of gender inequalities to the detriment of women. Methods A non-systematic review of both scientific and non-scientific literature was conducted using PubMed, Google Scholar, Google. Keywords:menopause, invention of menopause, sex steroids, adrenal puberty, dehydroepiandrosterone, sex and hormones, molecularization of gender, neurosteroids,myokines,exerkines. Results The neologism menopause was coined in 1816 by the Parisian physician Dr. Charles de Gardanne. Nearly every symptom observed in mature women was attributed to the cessation of menstruation. The scientific construction of menopause reinforced a stereotype that legitimized women's exclusion from education and civil rights, in the aftermath of the French revolution, and until 1945 in France, when they were allowed to vote for the first time. The attribution of gender to steroid hormones, later challenged by Bernhard Zondek, became a cornerstone of female inferiority. The rhetoric of essentialization places ovarian function as the determinant of women's health status. Legitimation of female inferiority was grounded in biological norms referencing youthful hormonal values, scientifically validated for all the women, without consideration of age. Two main research paths have since questioned the ovarian-centric view of female biology. The first concerns the role of neurosteroids, which are present in both sexes. The second relates to the discovery of the myokines, identifying skeletal muscle as a major endocrine organ, and more broadly, to exerkines, which regulate global health and ageing. These findings reposition endocrine activity beyond the ovary, suggesting a systemic rather sex-limited model of hormone regulation. Conclusions Menopause releases women from reproductive constraints and their associated pathologies. Once women gain equal access to civil rights, education and professional life, they challenge patriarchal structures that had previously confined them to biological determinism. The disappearance of ovarian steroids may play only a marginal role in women's health compared with the systemic identification of exerkins, notably myokines, and the recognized role of neurosteroids. Thus, menopause, rather than a biological decline, may be considered as a political and cultural construction rooted in a historical androcentric interpretation of endocrinoly, perpetuationg gender inequality through the medicalization of female aging. Disclosure No
D Choucroun (Mon,) studied this question.