Name: Menopause Extravaganza: The Science and Culture of a Subject No One Used to Want to Talk About
Start: 2026-10-18T15:00:00-0700
End: 2026-10-18T16:00:00-0700

Menopause Extravaganza: The Science and Culture of a Subject No One Used to Want to Talk About

Sunday October 18, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

Gray Area Theater

Buy Tickets/RSVP

$10 advance / $15 door

Co-presented with Gray Area Theater

Menopause, a natural consequence of aging, has for centuries been alternately ignored and belittled, seen mostly through a male lens of bafflement, repugnance, and boilerplate misogyny. Now, however, a growing body of women and their doctors are rejecting this traditional view, developing new therapies and strategies as well as ways to appreciate the new freedoms it can offer. This energizing (and overdue) afternoon features Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain, reading from her forthcoming Your Brain on Menopause and joining other panelists in a conversation led by Keli Dailey: Dr. Sarah Isquick (a colleague of Dr. Sally Greenwald, featured in the recent New Yorker article “The Billionaires’ Vagina Club”), psychiatrist Dr. Alecia Greenlee, and menopause doula Lasara Firefox Allen, author of Genderqueer Menopause. Select performers from The Menopause Monologues® will kick off the event.Bring your friends for a conversation-sparking afternoon. Doors at 2:30pm.

Moderators

Keli Dailey

Keli Dailey is a journalist, comedian, and teacher whose work explores democracy, midlife, and the absurdities of modern life. She created the comedy-news series News Hangover and founded MenoPower, a storytelling project that uses humor to tackle menopause and aging. A former John S. Knight Jou... Read More →

Speakers

Lasara Firefox Allen

Lasara Firefox Allen, MSW (they/them/Mx.) is a trans, genderqueer author, educator, and certified menopause doula and coach. They are the founder and CEO of Genderqueer Futures, a global education and coaching practice specializing in gender-affirming menopause care for providers and gender-expansive... Read More →

Louann Brizendine

Dr Louann Brizendine is a UCSF clinical professor, Yale, Harvard, and UCSF trained in medicine and neuropsychiatry; founder of the UCSF Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic; author of the NYT bestselling The Female Brain and upcoming Your Brain on Menopause.... Read More →

Sarah Isquick

Dr. Sarah Isquick is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner who founded her San Francisco concierge practice on a simple belief: women deserve unhurried, deeply personal care from a physician who truly knows them. She specializes in hormonal healt... Read More →

Alecia Greenlee

Alecia Greenlee, MD, MPH, is a reproductive psychiatrist, speaker, and founder of Bloom & Build Integrative Psychiatry in Campbell, California. Board-certified in adult and consultation-liaison psychiatry, she trained at UCSF, Harvard's Cambridge Health Alliance, and the University of Chicago... Read More →

Rebecca Foust

Rebecca Foust’s books include You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems (Blue Light Press 2026) and Only (Four Way Books 2022). Her poems appear widely in venues including The Slowdown, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, POETRY, and Southern Review, winning the James Dickey, New Ohio Review, Pablo Neruda, James Hearst, and Poetry International prizes in recent years... Read More →

The Menopause Monologues®

The Menopause Monologues® is an acclaimed theatrical production that combines powerful storytelling, education, and community engagement to elevate conversations around menopause and women’s health. Following sold-out runs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, and with a Seattle production p... Read More →

Sunday October 18, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Gray Area Theater 2665 Mission St, San Francisco 94110

Nonfiction

City San Francisco

Litquake 2026