If the Body Were on Trial: How “Perimenopause” Became the Legal Cover for Neglect
Paige Elizabeth
Founder and Coach
Imagine a courtroom.
A woman’s body stands before the judge — weary, inflamed, exhausted.
The defense steps up and says,
“Your Honor, she’s in perimenopause. It’s just her age.”
But when the evidence is presented, the story collapses.
There are decades of chronic stress, skipped meals, blood sugar crashes, five hours of sleep a night, and a lifetime of emotional suppression.
There’s a culture that demanded she hold it all together — for her family, her career, her appearance — but never gave her the time, nutrition, or rest to sustain it.
If this were an actual case, no credible judge would call that “perimenopause.”
They’d call it gross negligence.
Chronic malpractice.
Even systemic abuse — not in the criminal sense, but in the quiet, socially accepted form that we’ve normalized as modern womanhood.
The Cultural Misclassification of Decline
Somewhere along the way, women were taught that anything that goes wrong after 35 is “hormonal.”
Weight gain? Perimenopause.
Insomnia? Perimenopause.
Anxiety, low libido, brain fog, chronic fatigue? Perimenopause.
But that’s not biology’s fault — it’s the verdict that’s been handed down by a lazy system.
The truth is, these symptoms are the accumulated evidence of decades of dysregulation.
What’s called “hormonal imbalance” is often the body’s final act of self-defense after years of undernourishment, cortisol dominance, and emotional overextension.
It’s what happens when the nervous system has been living in a constant state of emergency and the adrenals have been subsidizing survival.
And yet, when a woman’s body finally demands a retrial — when it refuses to operate under those old terms — society doesn’t investigate the crime scene.
It just slaps on a new label and calls it normal.
If the Body Were the Plaintiff
If the body could file a complaint, it would plead violation of due process.
It would present evidence of missed meals and skipped rest days.
It would show bank statements from the years she invested in everyone else’s wellbeing except her own.
It would subpoena medical experts who told her her labs were “normal” while she was barely functioning.
And it would call witnesses — other women who were told, “It’s just your hormones,” when it was really their entire operating system breaking down.
The court would hear testimony from her liver, her gut, her mitochondria — all working overtime to clean up after years of caffeine, adrenaline, and emotional suppression.
And when asked how she pleads, the body would say,
“Guilty — of loyalty to everyone but myself.”
Why the Label Protects the Defendant
Here’s the irony: labeling everything as “perimenopause” protects the real culprit — a culture that conditions women to be high-functioning martyrs.
By making the dysfunction seem inevitable, the system absolves itself of responsibility.
Doctors don’t have to ask hard questions about lifestyle or trauma.
Employers don’t have to question the environments that drain women.
Partners don’t have to reckon with the emotional labor women carry.
The label becomes a legal shield — a form of cultural qualified immunity — protecting the systems that created the harm.
It’s not perimenopause.
It’s a lifetime of unpaid energetic debt coming due.
The Real Case File: HPA Dysfunction, Not Age
What’s really on trial isn’t estrogen or progesterone — it’s the HPA axis, the command center between your brain and adrenals.
When that system is dysregulated, hormones become collateral damage.
Most women over 35 are not entering perimenopause so much as they’re entering the late stages of adrenal exhaustion — a metabolic and neurological deficit that’s been building since their 20s.
This is why so many women experience relief when they nourish their bodies properly, support their minerals, and restore parasympathetic function.
They didn’t fix “perimenopause.”
They addressed the crime that caused it.
The Cross-Examination
If this were a courtroom drama, here’s what the cross-examination would sound like:
Prosecution:
“Doctor, is it true the patient has lived on 1,200 calories a day for twenty years?”
“Yes.”
“Is it true she’s been under chronic stress and sleeping less than six hours a night?”
“Yes.”
“Is it true she’s used caffeine and adrenaline as her main sources of energy?”
“Yes.”
“And now that her body is failing, you’re labeling this perimenopause?”
“…Yes.”
“Would you call a house that’s been left unmaintained for decades a victim of time — or of neglect?”
Silence.
That’s the moment the jury starts to see it: the case isn’t about age. It’s about accountability.
The Verdict
If the body were on trial, the judgment would read:
“This is not the natural consequence of womanhood.
This is the compounded result of systemic neglect.
The defendant — culture — is guilty of overworking, undernourishing, and gaslighting the female body.”
And yet, the story doesn’t end with punishment.
Because women aren’t here to play victim or stay in litigation forever.
We’re here to reclaim jurisdiction — over our energy, our hormones, our health, and our narrative.
When women stop accepting “perimenopause” as a verdict and start treating it as evidence, the whole system starts to shift.
The body stops being a defendant and becomes a plaintiff with power — and a right to restitution.
A New Kind of Justice
Healing is the appeal process.
It’s where you reexamine the old testimony — the beliefs, the habits, the conditioning — and decide what no longer holds up.
You replace self-punishment with nourishment.
You replace the false peace of suppression with the real peace of regulation.
You stop negotiating with exhaustion and start prosecuting the systems that caused it.
And when you do that — when you restore what’s been neglected — you don’t regress.
You resurrect.
That’s not perimenopause.
That’s justice.
Authors note*** As a co founder of Occupy Freedom PAC I have been in legal mode a lot lately. I hope you enjoyed this!
Final Verdict: It's Time for Action
The evidence is clear: Your symptoms are not age—they are unpaid energetic debt.
Stop accepting the verdict of “just perimenopause.” Start the process of reclamation today.
If you’re ready to stop negotiating with exhaustion and start prosecuting the systems of stress, it’s time for a focused intervention.
Book your Free Consultation now to finally get an honest assessment of your health and map out the specific steps for your recovery and long-term justice.