Damiana: A Botanical Companion to Sexy Menopause

A plant with a centuries-old reputation for pleasure, a new conversation about desire, and the art of embracing our sensuality at every age.

Who decided that menopause marked the end of a woman's sensuality?

For generations, the conversation around menopause has been dominated by what women stand to lose. Hormones, fertility, libido, youth. As though the natural evolution of a woman's body somehow diminishes her capacity for pleasure, passion and desire.

We think it is time for a different conversation.

That conversation is gaining momentum with the launch of Sexy Menopause: The New Science and Soul of Midlife Desire, a bold new book by Australian pelvic health expert and author Lisa Fitzpatrick.

At Happy Herb Co, we are celebrating with a botanical that has been associated with sensuality for centuries: Damiana (Turnera diffusa).

Meet Damiana

A small, aromatic shrub bearing delicate yellow flowers, Damiana grows wild throughout Mexico and parts of Central America. The Maya knew it as mizibcoc. In 1699 a Spanish missionary wrote of people preparing a sweetened Damiana drink, valued for its reputation in love.

That reputation travelled. When the leaf reached American pharmacies in the 1870s, the botanists of the day were less coy about it and named the plant Turnera aphrodisiaca. The name has since been corrected. The reputation never was.

But there is more to this botanical story than desire alone.

Damiana is also a herb people have long reached for at the end of the day, to unwind and feel at ease. That pairing is particularly interesting when we consider how intimately our experience of pleasure is connected to our state of mind, our sense of safety and our relationship with our bodies.

Its enduring place in botanical traditions reveals something fascinating about the ways humans have long explored sensuality through plants.

The changing nature of desire

Menopause can bring profound physical and emotional changes. Hormones fluctuate, bodies change, and the experience of intimacy may feel different from what we have known before.

But different does not necessarily mean diminished.

For many women, midlife also brings a growing sense of self-possession. A willingness to question old expectations, embrace authenticity and discover pleasure on their own terms.

Perhaps the invitation is not to recover the woman we once were, but to become curious about the woman we are becoming. To recognise that sensuality is not reserved for youth, and that desire can be expressed in infinitely more ways than we have been led to believe.

A little herbal rebellion

There is something wonderfully rebellious about a plant with a centuries-old reputation for pleasure finding its place in a modern conversation about menopause.

Damiana reminds us of a time when the relationship between humans and herbs extended beyond isolated symptoms and quick solutions. Plants were part of our rituals, our relationships, our celebrations and our understanding of what it means to feel alive.

This is the herbalism we love. One that invites curiosity, connection and a little pleasure along the way.

Celebrating Sexy Menopause

We are proud to be part of the launch of Lisa Fitzpatrick's Sexy Menopause, a book inviting women to rethink the stories we have inherited about ageing, desire and sexuality.

To celebrate, Happy Herb Co is gifting 100 Damiana offerings, sharing a little botanical history and inviting more women into this important conversation.

Because we believe sensuality does not have an expiry date.

And neither does our curiosity about the plants that have accompanied humanity through the ages.

Laura Grace
Owner and CEO, Happy Herb Co

Happy Herb Co shares traditional knowledge about herbs and makes no therapeutic claims for its products.