After receiving the life-changing diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, Selma Blair could have chosen to exit stage left, enduring her condition with stoicism, and remaining silent.  That is, of course, a path that—far too often—women have been encouraged to take, most recently by President Donald Trump, who suggested pregnant patients should try to “tough it out” instead of seeking even over-the-counter medication for illness. 

But this idea that it’s perfectly acceptable for women to suffer—and that they should do so out of sight and out of mind—is being shattered by a group of advocates who know a thing or two about being ignored.

I’m talking about Generation X, a cohort born between 1965 and 1980, and of which I am a proud member. Overshadowed on one end of the demographic tunnel by Baby Boomers and on the other by millennials, Gen X has been derided as the “slacker” generation—when not being dismissed entirely as the “forgotten” generation. 

And yet, as you’ll read throughout this digital issue, there is no group of women that has done more to change the face of women’s health than Gen X. It’s thanks to us that you can now be a menopause influencer, when our mothers wouldn’t even say the word “menopause” out loud. 

It’s thanks to us that the phrase “anti-aging” is being phased out (because why shouldn’t we be allowed to age?), and that women are seen as strong athletes. (We were the first beneficiaries of Title IX, the groundbreaking civil rights law that opened up opportunities for girls and women in sports.) 

And it’s also thanks to us that there is now an entirely new segment of the healthcare industry dedicated to the needs of women in midlife. 

Call it The Gen X Effect.

So no, Selma Blair didn’t retreat from the spotlight when faced with a debilitating chronic illness. Instead, ever since her 2018 diagnosis, she has done everything she can to demand that attention be paid—not only to her autoimmune disease, but to all of the medical conditions that disproportionately affect women. 

And in doing so, she and her Gen X peers have redefined what it really means to tough it out.

Inside the Issue