For generations, Indian women have been taught to suppress anger.
Good daughters adjusted.
Good wives tolerated.
Good mothers sacrificed.
Good women stayed calm, composed and emotionally available for everyone else.
And somewhere along the way, women learned to swallow frustration so deeply that many stopped recognising their own anger altogether.
Until perimenopause and menopause arrived.
Suddenly, women who spent decades quietly carrying emotional labour found themselves feeling irritable, emotionally overwhelmed, impatient, exhausted and, at times, intensely angry — often without fully understanding why.
According to Swati Singh and Reshma Tiwari, co-founders of ResetWell Plus, rage during perimenopause and menopause remains one of the most misunderstood and stigmatized emotional symptoms women experience.
“In India, women are taught from childhood to suppress discomfort and maintain emotional balance for everybody else,” says Swati Singh, author, wellness advocate and co-founder of ResetWell Plus. “So when anger begins surfacing during perimenopause and menopause, many women feel guilt, shame or fear instead of understanding that hormonal and emotional overload are deeply connected.”
Today, more than 1.1 billion women globally are either in perimenopause, menopause or approaching it, while India itself is home to more than 100 million menopausal women. Yet emotional symptoms of menopause — including rage, anxiety, emotional exhaustion and mood fluctuations — still remain poorly understood across homes, workplaces and even healthcare conversations.
Research increasingly shows hormonal fluctuations during perimenopause and menopause can significantly affect emotional regulation, sleep, anxiety levels, mental wellbeing and stress tolerance. Sleep disruption alone can intensify emotional overwhelm, irritability and burnout.
But for Swati Singh, menopause rage is not merely hormonal.
“It is years of emotional suppression rising to the surface,” she says. “Women who spent decades carrying homes, relationships, caregiving responsibilities and emotional labour often reach midlife emotionally exhausted. Menopause does not create all the anger. Sometimes it removes the emotional filters women were forced to maintain for years.”
For Swati, the issue became deeply personal during her own menopause journey while living in the United States.
“What frightened me most was how emotionally unfamiliar I felt to myself at times,” she says. “Women begin questioning their patience, emotional balance and identity without realizing how deeply hormones, exhaustion and emotional overload are interacting together.”
Standing beside her in this movement is Reshma Tiwari, senior corporate finance executive at one of the world’s Big Four accounting firms, mother of two and co-founder of ResetWell Plus.
For Reshma, one of the biggest problems is how quickly women’s emotions are dismissed instead of understood.
“In many Indian environments, when women express anger, frustration or emotional exhaustion, they are immediately labelled moody, difficult or unstable,” says Reshma Tiwari. “But very few people stop to ask what the woman herself may have been silently carrying emotionally for years.”
Raised by a physician father and having watched her own mother quietly navigate menopause without awareness or emotional support, Reshma says generations of Indian women normalized emotional suppression because they believed they had no choice.
“Women became emotional shock absorbers for entire families,” says Reshma Tiwari. “They managed everyone else’s emotions while quietly abandoning their own.”
Research increasingly shows unmanaged menopause symptoms significantly affect emotional wellbeing, mental health, cognitive clarity, relationships and workplace productivity. Yet women are still often expected to continue functioning normally despite emotional exhaustion and hormonal changes.
“When sleep breaks down, hormones fluctuate and emotional labour continues increasing, something eventually erupts,” says Swati Singh. “But instead of understanding menopause rage compassionately, society often judges women for finally expressing emotions they have suppressed for decades.”
For both women, the larger issue is that Indian society still romanticises female endurance while leaving very little room for women to openly express emotional distress.
“Women are constantly told to adjust, tolerate and keep peace,” says Reshma Tiwari. “But emotional suppression comes at a cost.”
What began as two personal journeys slowly evolved into ResetWell Plus — a platform focused on helping women reclaim vitality, emotional wellbeing, confidence and cognitive clarity through expert-led education, honest conversations, webinars, wellness events and personalised hormonal and non-hormonal wellness solutions.
Unlike generic wellness platforms, ResetWell Plus approaches menopause not merely as a physical transition, but as a deeply emotional, psychological and cultural one too.
“At ResetWell Plus, we want women to understand that emotional overwhelm, anger and frustration during menopause do not make them weak or irrational,” say the founders. “Women deserve awareness, support and emotional safety during this phase of life.”
Both women believe India urgently needs to stop shaming women for emotions that often emerge after decades of silent emotional labour.
Because perhaps menopause rage is not simply anger.
Perhaps it is the sound of generations of women finally reaching emotional exhaustion after spending lifetimes carrying everyone else first.
