‘It affected my confidence in my pussy’: gen X punk legends rage at menopause festival

At Menopunkapalooza, riot grrrls sang and rallied around a topic still taboo today: women’s health during midlife

The music festival Menopunkapalooza began with the ceremonial application of an estrogen patch to the backside of Built to Spill and Prism Bitch drummer Teresa Esguerra. It ended with riot grrrl pioneers Calamity Jane tearing the roof off Portland’s Crystal Ballroom as they performed for the first time in 35 years.

What happened in between was 750 festivalgoers, a dozen pillars of the Pacific north-west’s punk rock scene, and a team of medical professionals singing, laughing and occasionally raging about a topic still taboo in 2026: women’s sexual health during menopause and perimenopause, and the promise of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).