13 million Women, Non-binary and Trans folk are going through menopause in the UK today, 1 in 100 of them will be under the age of 40. This body of work uses the feminist gaze to explore the ingrained patriarchal notions of womanhood and the inherited gender bias in medicine have had a profoundly negative impact on their hormone health and well being. Healthcare providers are currently failing to correctly diagnose and treat menopause symptoms, whilst the industry for food and dietary supplements is rapidly growing to provide alternative remedies with questionable efficacy.

The use of data portraits as a visual strategy enables the viewer to consider the experiences of early menopause. The data portraits take the form of hand drawn illustrations of Black Cohosh, a plant that is used regularly as a herbal remedy to alleviate menopausal symptoms like hot flushes despite little evidence to prove its efficacy. Short animations of the plant growing serves as metaphor for the growth of the dietary supplements industry as an alternative for inaccessible and inadequate medical care.

Using photography, film and data portraits this work looks at the experience of early menopause and considers the constraints of being defined, dictated and reduced for being biologically female.