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The gendered construction of ageing situates the menopause either as a beginning or as an ending of a sub-form of ageing, shaped by biomedical models. Studied mainly in North America and in Europe, this normativisation of women’s bodies (before, during and after the menopause) brings together the pathological studies with forms of prevention as is shown by the results of an analysis of scientific journals. The publication of feminist research challenges these models and the practice which accompanies them, demonstrating the different treatment of masculine and feminine ageing, and gender relations underlying these forms of medicalization. While the result is a certain destigmatising of the menopause, new demands seems to reinforce it, requiring both a self-discipline of the body against the potential economic burden of responsibility for old women and the maintenance of their eternal youth and femininity.