There is a specific kind of silence that settles in the doctor’s office or the dressing room when a woman reaches her mid-forties. It isn’t a silence of peace, but rather one of discovery. For the average mother, the mirror has long been a tool for checking if there is peanut butter on a shirt or if a stray gray hair has appeared at the temple. But as the years turn toward the season of menopause, the gaze shifts downward.