پریس

Urdu has a word for menopause. It has none for the years before it, when periods change, sleep goes and a woman in her early forties starts to wonder what is wrong with her. Without a word there is nothing to search for, and often nothing to say to a doctor.

The cost shows up in clinics. An audit at the psychiatry outpatient department of Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi, presented in 2024, looked at 250 women aged 45 to 55 already diagnosed with depression. 78% had significant perimenopausal symptoms that had been overlooked. 82% were on antidepressants.

Roshara was built for that woman. It is a free perimenopause and menopause platform in English, Urdu and Roman Urdu, written first for Pakistani Muslim women in Pakistan, Singapore, the Gulf and the diaspora, and open to any woman who finds herself in it.

“Most of us never had the period talk, so menopause was never going to be a conversation either. These women weren't short of a doctor. They were short of the words to tell one what was happening.”

Track what is actually happening

Each day a member logs her mood, energy, sleep and hot flushes, then tags nearly 30 symptoms, from brain fog and joint aches to palpitations, tingling and period changes. She can note what might have set a day off too: hot weather, spicy food, chai, a missed meal, a stressful day. Over weeks, the patterns show.

When she is ready, Roshara turns it into a record for her doctor: what she is taking, the side effects she has logged, her test results and when her symptoms started. She can save it as a PDF or email it straight to her doctor. Whatever language she logged in, the record goes out in English, for the clinician.

“Your memory is a poor witness. Six weeks of notes tell a doctor more than you can recall in a ten-minute appointment.”

Learn without having to ask

The library holds more than 130 articles on the questions women hesitate to ask even close friends: the anger that doesn't feel like theirs, aches that came from nowhere, whether brain fog is something to check. Treatment information reports what named guidance says, including the Pakistan Menopause Society's 2026 recommendations, NICE and the British Menopause Society, and points women to a licensed clinician. Roshara does not diagnose or prescribe.

The Urdu is not a translation laid over an English product. Every symptom term comes from one agreed vocabulary, so a word means the same thing in an article, in the tracker and in an email.

Connect, anonymously if she chooses

Circles is Roshara's community: a kind space to ask, share and feel understood. Women can post anonymously, and anything that crosses a line can be reported and is read by a person. Many women read on a phone the whole family shares, so discretion is built in, not added on.

What comes next

“What struck me most was how under-researched perimenopause is, even among professionals. That has to change. We're laying the groundwork for a long-overdue conversation in women's health, in South Asia and across the diaspora.”

In the future, Roshara plans to add four to five more languages, so more women can read about these years in the language they think in.

“No woman should feel ashamed, unsupported or afraid to speak up. We want her to walk into her doctor's office informed, confident and ready to ask for what she needs.”