When Jeanie Linders turned 46, she had a hot flash and a hot idea.

Why not offer a bit of comic relief to women as they endure what's known in polite company as "The Change?"

So she wrote "Menopause The Musical."

Now wait just a sweat-soaked-binge-eating minute. Menopause jokes? How could a life passage that turns a woman's body into a torture chamber be funny?

But seven years after she put on the first showing of "Menopause The Musical," the 59-year-old Ms. Linders has answered that question with a runaway hit.

The show, which opened Friday at the Byham Theater and runs until Jan. 20, has been seen by an estimated 9 million women in 11 countries, smashing attendance records at many venues. There seems to be an endless supply of women who get a kick out of songs such as "Hot Flash, Hot Flash," (to the tune of "Hot Legs") and "My Thighs" (instead of "My Guy") and "Puff, My God, I am Draggin' " (instead of "Puff the Magic Dragon.")

But Ms. Linders says her comic midlife tunes -- belted out on stage by four very different women who meet during a department store lingerie sale -- speak to something quite serious.

"It lets you know you are not out there by yourself," she said during a phone interview from her home in Tucson, Ariz. "It creates dialogue. Frankly, nobody wants to talk about this. We still have people who won't accept advertising because the word 'menopause' " is in the show's title.

"It is not just a change in your physical ability, not being able to procreate anymore. You are also hit with the second stage of your life. This is not what I wanted to do my whole life. As women, the little voice inside of us says, 'It's my turn. What about me?' "

Ms. Linders, who calls herself "La Mama," as the mama of Menopause, is spending the second half of her life being more than a hot flash humorist. She is also a philanthropist who started the Jeanie C. Linders Fund, which supports causes for women 40 and over. She took her show on the road -- "Menopause The Musical Out Loud: Breaking the Silence of Ovarian Cancer" in 2005-2006 -- and raised half a million dollars for ovarian cancer research and awareness.

Despite severe arthritis -- she has two metal knees, four silicon knuckles and redone shoulders -- she travels to Africa regularly to support global village projects. "As long as there is stuff to replace my joints, I run around the world. I just don't run as fast as I used to."

Before every show, the "Fan Brigade" sells hot flash fans for $1, and all the proceeds of the fans and a portion of the proceeds of other merchandise goes to set up initiatives to help African women escape poverty. One initiative organizes a weaving and spinning program, another is for raising chickens, and a third one -- in the up country outside of Nairobi in Kenya -- lets women plant seedlings so they can afford a goat and fresh water.

"It helps women get the basics of life that we take for granted," Ms. Linders said. "It allows them to have fresh water without sending their kids to the river three miles away."

For a woman who made her name in menopausal humor, her own rite of passage was not that traumatic. She said she had some night sweats and hot flashes, but nothing she couldn't shake off. Instead of fixating on her aging process, she threw herself into whatever interested her, mainly producing art and jazz shows.

Even so, she understands how women feel when they look at their shifting bodies.

"We are gaining weight. We can exercise all we want, but we are not going to look like those ,teeny ladies on TV. It is frustrating."

The actresses she employs are not the stereotypical Hollywood size-0 twigs either. Each show consists of four real women actresses who play a professional woman, an earth mother, an Iowa housewife and a soap star, the four alter-egos of her own personality.

In an industry where middle-age actresses have trouble finding work, Ms. Linders employs 200 of them to do the show nationwide, making her the largest employer of women over 40 in the Actors Equity Union.

Menopause has been a much better time for Ms. Linders than her 40th year, when her father died and she lost all of her money producing a Jazz show.

"Before the [current] show, I had no retirement plan," she says with a laugh.

Today, thanks to menopause jokes, she has security. "I pay my bills," she said in a bit of an understatement.

She keeps packing in the crowds, which are 95 percent female. The rare male audience member is typically dragged there by his wife for this middle-aged girls' night out, she said, but they also end up laughing in recognition, too.

"You have met my wife," one man recently e-mailed her.