Empowering good health and happiness beyond 50
Date Published: 20 March 2026
— Professor Chris van Tulleken, Clinician, Academic, TV Presenter, UK
Aged 50+ is a pivotal stage in many women’s lives. We are entering post-menopause—free from reproductive hormones, periods, and contraception. Children may be leaving home, careers may be shifting or winding down, and there is the dawning realisation that we may have 20 or 30 healthy years ahead of us. This is not an ending, but a powerful new beginning. This stage of life offers an opportunity to reconnect with yourselves, to rediscover what truly matters, and to prioritise self-love and self-care without guilt. This book brings you the wisdom of 50 inspiring women who share their lived experiences with honesty and generosity. Their stories offer guidance, reassurance, and permission to live authentically on your own terms. Together, they show how this stage of life can be rich with meaning, purpose, freedom, and joy. These are Your Joyful Years.
Professor Joyce Harper is a down-to-earth expert in reproductive and women’s health, with almost 40 years’ experience listening to women and translating science into practical, evidence-based guidance. She has published widely about women’s health and is passionate about helping women thrive. Joyce combines research, real-world experience, and a deep belief in living life to the full, and she practices what she preaches. This book is the second in her trilogy: Your Fertile Years; Your Joyful Years; and Your Final Years.
Excerpt
Prologue
A Gift from Me to You:
Embrace Your Health and Happiness Beyond 50
This book is a gift to women around the world. My intention is for every woman beyond 50
to live her best life and for it to truly become the most fulfilling and joyful time.
Writing this book and listening to these women changed my life, and I hope it changes yours.
Why did I write this book? Almost daily my mother wished people good health and
happiness. Throughout my life I’ve taken this saying on board and lived a relatively healthy
and happy life. But at 50, having gone through the menopause, I became a single
parent of three boys under 10, and I felt it was time to take my mother’s saying
to another level so I could live my best life ever. I knew I was running out of time.
Now, I’m a 62-year-old woman feeling the need to write about the power of
postmenopausal life because few people talk about the wonders of our second
spring. But don’t take my word for it. In Your Joyful Years I share my stories and
the stories of 50 other women who are thriving and happy. I want these words
to be an inspiration to all women. To give you the permission and motivation
to achieve good health and happiness. This is the first book to share so
many stories from women about ageing.
But let’s not do this alone. I believe women supporting women is incredibly
powerful and as I have grown older, the women in my life have become
more important to me than ever before. Let’s find our tribe and flourish.
Society has decided how women aged over 50 should be behaving.
Let’s reset this and rise to our power. This book aims to help you
make this shift and give you tools to help you live the life you
have always wanted. Life does not need to be a constant struggle.
By this stage in your life you may be curious, and searching for more,
and this is why you are reading this book.
In 2023, at the start of the journey to write this book, I asked my friends on
Facebook what they thought about my idea to write a book sharing the
stories of happy women, and I received so much support, but
also a thought-provoking comment from a dear friend. She said
“Anyone who says they are happy is either on drugs or delusional”
which is a sentiment I totally disagree with. I don’t think we can be happy
all the time, but there are those people who are happy most of the time. And
we can learn from each of them.
While this book is about looking forward, I felt it was crucial to
share the women’s menopause stories in
Chapter 2: Redefine Menopause: The Realities, The Myths, and The Truths.
A few of them experienced no symptoms, while others went through some
of the toughest periods of their lives. They emerged on the other side,
viewing menopause as a reawakening and a gateway to a new chapter.
The main section of the book is divided into two parts. The first part,
Look After Your Happiness, explores: hobbies; creativity; adventures
and challenges; relaxation; time in nature; quality time alone; sense
of purpose and retirement; and sex and love. I believe these should
be in our happiness toolkit. The second part, Look After Your
Health, focuses on the five pillars of wellbeing, which
include: nutrition; exercise; sleep; mental health;
and friendships, including family, friends, community, and lovers.
Throughout these chapters I share the experiences and words of
the women I interviewed.
The final chapter, The Future is Yours: Reflect, Reimagine,
Reinvent, brings together my thoughts about how women
can lead their most authentic lives, with good health and
happiness. I explore what the women think about religion
and spirituality, if they feel free, and what advice they would
give their younger self.
Each chapter ends with thoughts to take with you.
This book is global. The women I interviewed live in the: UK,
USA, Australia, Canada, France, Greece, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand,
and Spain, where they work as: an adventure activist, App designer,
author, charity director, coach, doctor, editor, fitness instructor,
home maker, influencer, journalist, literary agent, model, nurse,
personal assistant, physiotherapist, podcaster, radio producer,
wellbeing and yoga retreat centre manager, teacher, are retired,
and much more.
About the Author
Joyce is deeply passionate about empowering women to live their best lives through good health and happiness. Her last book, Your Fertile Years, published by Sheldon Press in 2021, explores women’s health from puberty to menopause. In Your Joyful Years, she shares the wisdom of 50 women over 50 who are thriving, to empower women to lead a life of good health and happiness. She has started writing her next book, Your Final Years, about the end of life.
Her podcast Why didn’t anyone tell me this? is ranked in the top 10% of podcasts globally on Listen Notes and is listened to in more than 90 countries.
Joyce gives many public talks. She regularly appears in the press, on radio and TV. She is a regular guest on various BBC programmes including Women’s Hour and the BBC World Service. She has been a guest on Brian Cox’s Infinite Monkey Cage and his radio show A Question of Science and she explained sex to Philomena Cunk, in Cunk on Life.
As co-founder and co-lead of the UK Menopause Education and Support Programme (InTune) with Dr Shema Tariq and the International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration (IRHEC), Joyce is dedicated to improving reproductive health education for all ages. She collaborates with schools across the UK and globally to deliver impactful programs that promote knowledge and understanding.
An avid cold-water swimmer, Joyce is also a founding member of the research network SwimHer, which investigates the links between women’s health and cold-water swimming. Her groundbreaking work includes publishing the world’s first study about how cold-water swimming affects menstrual and menopause symptoms.
Since 2016 she has run a local women’s group in Saffron Walden, The Purple Tent.
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