Talk has been swirling since last week's presidential debate that the Democratic Party may seek to replace President Joe Biden on its 2024 presidential ticket. And one name pundits have consistently put forward is California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

Regardless of November's race, Newsom is unlikely to disappear from the national stage. The governor has long been a rising face of the party and could emerge as a presidential front-runner in 2028. 

His beginnings and governorship
Newsom was born in San Francisco in 1967. His father was a state appeals court judge, giving Newsom an early interest in politics. He made his way up the totem pole in San Francisco politics and in 2003 was elected the city's mayor, serving until 2011. Newsom then jumped into statewide politics, serving as California's lieutenant governor. He was elected the 40th governor of California in 2018, beating his Republican challenger by nearly three million votes, and was reelected in 2022. 

As governor, Newsom has "led a historic transformation of the state's behavioral health care system … launched the Reproductive Freedom Alliance and built new climate partnerships across the globe," said a press release from his office. But his tenure has also been controversial. Newsom faced a recall vote in 2021 following "mask mandates, shuttered schools, sluggish vaccine rollouts" and increased crime and homelessness in California, said CalMatters. However, the governor fended off this recall attempt by a large margin. 

His future
Biden has said he intends to stay in the race, and Democrats "aren't going to turn our backs because of one performance. What kind of party does that?" Newsom said after Biden's debate. But Democrats are still high on Newsom's prospects in 2028. In 2023, he "toured Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas to push back against what he describes as the 'rollback of progress' on civil, women's and LBGTQ+ rights in red states," said The Washington Post. He also "popped up in Tel Aviv and Beijing," meeting with world leaders and "promoting his climate agenda."

While "other potential White House aspirants are quietly laying the groundwork for the future, the second-term governor has been more of an attention-seeking missile," said the Post. Newsom has been "darting across the country and the world stage as he courts a broad array of Democratic constituencies who could be helpful in a future presidential run."

Perimenopause has been in the spotlight of late. Filmmaker Miranda July's new book, "All Fours," was called the "first great perimenopause novel" by The New York Times, and actor Naomi Watts recently declared that perimenopause should become the "new puberty," such that it might garner more empathy and attention.

What is perimenopause?
To be clear, perimenopause is not literally a second puberty. There's only one of those, and it happens during adolescence. But while "second puberty" is not an official medical term, the slang is sometimes used to describe the point in a woman's life when "irregular estrogen levels cause the physical changes of perimenopause," said Healthline. Perimenopause typically occurs about three to five years before menopause (which usually begins during a woman's 40s) and is a "natural process prompted when the ovaries gradually stop working," said Johns Hopkins Medicine. 

Perimenopause can cause symptoms like declining bone and muscle mass, wrinkles, sagging skin, graying hair, irregular periods, decreased fertility, vaginal dryness and hot flashes. A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders last month also links perimenopause to a significant increase in the likelihood of depression. According to the study, "women in this stage are about 40% more likely to experience the mental health condition than premenopausal women," said CNN. This is partly because levels of estrogen, the main female hormone, rise and fall "unevenly" during perimenopause, said the Mayo Clinic.

Why does it fly under the radar? 
Many women do not expect to experience menopausal symptoms as early as their 30s and, thus, do not link these symptoms to menopause. "I'm seeing more and more women in perimenopause who feel that their symptoms are being dismissed," JoAnn Pinkerton, an OB/GYN at the University of Virginia and the executive director emeritus of the North American Menopause Society, said to The Washington Post.

The problem does not merely lie with doctors. Ninety-nine percent of preclinical aging studies ignore menopause, said Harvard Medical School, and "this gap in research translates to gaps in women's health care." Normalizing and promoting this tricky stage of life seems to be an important first step in helping women better navigate their health struggles.