TV's changing view of the change: The menopause conversation is getting better, finally

Nearly two full decades ago, when I was in glow of my 20s, television provided me with my first extensive education about menopause via the British sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous." But we can joke about it, obliquely, via interludes like the famous "Last F**kable Day" skit on "Inside Amy Schumer" that, among other things, warns younger women that they may one day grow a beard — a detail Wanda Sykes builds an entire bit around in her latest Netflix comedy special "Not Normal." When Fleabag shares with Belinda that she's 33, Belinda gives her an assurance you don't usually see an older woman giving to a younger one that society deems to be in her sexual prime: "It gets better," Belinda says. "Better Things," in fact, spends its entire third season exploring what life is like for a woman on the verge of 50, opening with an episode in which Pamela Adlon's character Sam takes her daughter Max to college. More realistic sounding is Belinda's warning in "Fleabag" about "the only really shit thing about getting older, is that people don't flirt with you anymore.