Within the medical community, there's a debate about whether menopause should be viewed as a natural process or as a health threat. Some physicians see menopause as a hormone deficiency syndrome associated with dysfunction of the ovaries, requiring diagnosis and treatment. Their argument is based on the fact that menopausal women are at increased risk for developing health disorders. For example, for every 2,000 postmenopausal women, 20 will develop heart disease; 11 will develop severe bone loss (osteoporosis); six will develop breast cancer; and three will develop endometrial cancer. The risk of some of these diseases can be reduced by treating menopause with hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and many physicians now strongly believe that this treatment should be used by all women who have no medical reason to avoid it.

Other professionals object to the "medicalization" of menopause, believing that it perpetuates negative cultural perceptions of aging as a time of decay that should be feared, rather than as a normal developmental stage in a woman's life. They, too, acknowledge that the risk of certain diseases rises after menopause and encourage various preventive strategies.