Angelina Jolie, pictured at last year's Hollywood Film Awards, has had her ovaries removed after a cancer scare. Credit:Reuters This former Hollywood wild child has certainly matured into a woman fully aware of her good fortune. After contacting her "husband who (bless him) was on a plane within hours", she becomes instantly reflective, adding with no small effect that "the beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity. You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarising, and it is peaceful." And for someone whose own mother died of breast cancer at just 56, there's also more than an element of gratitude in being able to write with utter certainty that her "children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer". Even if the radioactive treatment meant she couldn't hug them for a time. But there's something else at play here, too. This wasn't just Jolie the ambassador helping other women going through cancer. This was Jolie patently aware of what the results of the surgery would mean for her as a woman at the still-youthful age of 39. "It is a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a woman into forced menopause…" she writes. "I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes."

Here Jolie throws caution and, perhaps, society's last true taboo, to the wind. Menopause remains the one stage of a woman's life that society still hasn't quite wrapped its head around (after all, how on earth do you market "hot flushes" and "high anxiety"?) even if the women going through it have a far greater disposable income than their nubile counterparts. While the onset of menstruation carries with it a multitude of positive signifiers, even if it doesn't necessarily feel like that at the time, the same exaltation is hardly extended to menopause. If menstruation is the opening of possibility, then the latter is all about those doors slamming shut. It's not just the flushes and growing anxiety, there's the moodiness and weight gain. As Jolie reminds us there's the also added emotional pull of having to kiss our child-bearing days goodbye, and the perceptible brush of the clock of invisibility as it edges ever closer. Of course, I'm not suggesting that every woman goes through the hormonal equivalent of Dante's inferno. I'm sure one or two has sailed through the changes. All I'm saying is if our hand wasn't forced, menopause is hardly something we'd willingly sign up for. Is it? Put bluntly. Menopause is the pits. And not the Mr Jolie kind.

That said, I'm now in something of a bind. As a bona fide peri-menopausal woman staring down what I long considered to be the menopausal abyss there's something clearly revolutionary having a certified A-Grade celebrity standing right there alongside me giving me the thumbs up. When Jolie writes, "I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared", I believe her. And here's why. She betrays herself as not only rational, but a realist who knows there's a certain freedom in loss, too. Especially if it's comes on your terms, and especially when it means you get to spend more precious time with those you love. "What's an ovary or two?" She seems to be saying, "When they've done their job?" Pre-/peri-/post- or simply menopausal women take heart. Let's think about this for a moment. One of the most desirable women in the world – known as much for her motherhood as her stellar movie career – is telling us, "It's okay. Menopause is part of life. And it's here to stay. Yes, even in Hollywood". The least we can do is be all ears. Jen Vuk is a freelance writer.