Menopause is a complex, paradoxical totality and every menopausal experience is differentfrom the other. This essay aims to capture some of the experiences surrounding it.The main questions is what it is that the women of the study share about menopause, andhow they talk about it. The material consists of interviews with eight women from the ages 51to 81, all of whom are either in menopause or have come out of it, and narratives collectedpartly on my own website ?Övergången? (?Transition?) and on the Internet via blogs and adiscussion board on menopause.Using Goffmans theories on interaction and roles and theories about gender and age as asocial construction I discovered that it is ambiguous messages that are thrown at the middleaged woman in menopause. Menopause is not always a welcome part of the role as a woman.The menopause is also associated with aging and a woman is expected to experiencemenopause during a certain age and period in the life schedule, often the middle age.