I'm 61, so I'm not sure if that's late enough in life for your fic. :-)

I would say that the one thing that really surprised me, in addition to the "usual" insomnia and mood swings/emotions close to the surface and hot flashes, was that the hot flashes progressed to pretty much announcing themselves with surges of anxiety and ... there's no better word for it ... doom. Seriously. If you google "hot flashes feeling of dread," it's all there. Nobody'd ever told me about THAT one.

Let me know if you want anything more. ♥