Menopause. Besides a few brief lessons on it in biology, it’s a process rarely discussed by college students. Performer Peggy Shaw, however, has spent years exploring the subject with young and old audiences alike.

Shaw brings her uncommon way of looking at menopause to the Hammer Museum on Wednesday with her solo act, “Menopausal Gentleman.” The show has garnered wide acclaim since its first performance 10 years ago.

“It’s a classic, “ James Bewley, Director of Public Programs and Education at the Hammer Museum, said. “Or rather like a living classic. ... It’s very contemporary and of the moment.”

Shaw drew inspiration for “Menopausal Gentleman” from her personal experiences as a woman enduring menopause, as well as her life as a lesbian and a mother. She finds that the audience can often relate to the show’s issues, whether the attendees are men or women, old or young. In fact, students are often a large part of the audience.

“Everyone can relate to the small details of your life, whether it’s about menopause, or it’s about being 21. I find being 21 is very much like menopause. It’s not all that different from even being 15 or 11,” she said. “It’s a hormonal shift that’s extraordinary. You feel the way you feel when you’re coming into yourself as a student or younger person.”

She cites “Menopausal Gentleman” in particular as a show that always gains a wide appeal among audiences.

“I’ve been all over the world with it, from Switzerland to Taiwan to New Zealand, and it’s just one of those shows that really works,” Shaw said.

The genesis for “Menopausal Gentleman” came 10 years ago, when she first began menopause and discovered that the seemingly troubling symptom of insomnia actually encouraged her creative mind.

“Once I went into menopause, I was up during the night when everyone mostly seemed to be asleep,” she said. “To get through it, I wrote every night. I just used that time when I was awake to write.”

Her writing delved into an often untouched subject: the experience of menopause. Shaw trumps stereotypical notions of menopausal women losing their sexual energy, presenting menopause instead as a volatile, positive process.

“Since I’m always making things, it wasn’t hard to make something from all that sweat and all that sort of darkness that you experience,” Shaw said.

Critics often fail to properly categorize Shaw’s performance style because it’s impossible to place into one subheading. Her monologue often hints at stand-up but includes moments of seriousness and angst along with its moments of hilarity.

The freedom to incorporate these different styles also comes as a result of performing solo.

“Nobody gets in your way, and you fly,” she said. “There’s no one to stop me, good or bad.”

Her more recent solo performances came after years of collaboration in alternative theater. Introduced to the gay theater company, Hot Peaches, by accident when she was crossing a street in Manhattan, Shaw has since spent 35 years learning to rise as a performer amid an audience often critical of gay performers.

“I learned very quickly; (the performers in Hot Peaches) were my teachers, and when I started performing, I immediately had to be as tall as them, as loud as them, I had to stand and make sure I was seen and heard,” she said.

From there, Shaw cofounded Split Britches Theater Company, which has collaborated to present a number of shows including a reinterpretation of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” featuring Shaw as the character Stanley.

As part of the “Hammer Presents” series, the show will be staged in the newly built Billy Wilder Theater

“I’m always keen to bring in more performances to the museum,” Bewley said. “This is really great because a solo performance works really well in the limited space of the Wilder Theater.”

Shaw hopes audiences will leave the performance Wednesday night with new images and new ways of looking at a rarely presented, but integral and natural process.

“We don’t have a lot of ritual images to get us into the future,” she said. “I think having new images about menopause is a great way to enter into that stream of whatever the future is going to be. And it’s a hopeful future when you see me perform.”