<This email is packed with resources and links on support during peri/menopause - forward it to someone who could use some help with this maddening season of life. Or, if this was forwarded to you, get on the email list here>

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My baby sis is now in her early forties, and she sent me this text last week.

October is Menopause Awareness Month but I don't need a special occasion to bang on about menopause, as you know. For me, this is menopause:

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And I don’t want that for baby sis. So I pulled together all the useful advice I could muster in my estrogen-depleted brain, and came up with a 5 point tip sheet for her as she heads into natural menopause:

1-Get a routine

Stick to it like white on rice. Your boss, your children, your partner - they take a back seat to the routine (it won't work but try anyway).

My friend Sally Herships (Overlooked episode on migraines and hormones) swears by her routine. Another friend, Eva Ontiveros, said this:

So, yes, a routine with you at the center, to preserve not just your mind and body, but your spirit too.

2-What’s in the routine?

All the things you’ve been doing so far that make you feel good.

What’s that you say?

All the very same things that made you feel good are now making you feel bad?

Change. It. All.

Eat differently, sleep differently, exercise differently, dress differently, love differently. Menopause is an invitation to burn down (or at least majorly tweak) all the things that don't serve you, and lean into something new - against your wishes perhaps, because you've spent those four decades perfecting things, keeping the house of cards in perfect balance.

Menopause is a reminder that it’s a house of cards.

Maybe you're at the pinnacle your career. Your body didn’t get that memo. It’s doing its own thing now and in an act of humility and self-love, your job is to serve that body as well as it has served you throughout your years of compromise and capitulation COUGH I mean your journey as a woman.

The work is not in the effort, but in the acceptance.

Make room, and not just in the waistband of your one-size-up trousers, but make spiritual room for this change. It's going to be difficult. And it's going to be ok.

3-Talk to the doctor about estrogen

That’s it, that’s the sentence.

4-While we’re on the subject of hormones, in my experience if you can steady your cortisol and insulin, vast improvements in your health await. For me, that means yoga at night and moving after meals, but I am only the expert in myself and no one else.

5-Heart, Bones, Brain

Maybe these should be three different points but you know, it's all one body at the end of the day. With estrogen levels fluctuating, these organs are most impacted. For 🧠 Dr Lisa Mosconi’s book The Menopause Brain was a lightbulb moment. For ☠️ I follow Buff Bones on Instagram and think they’re great, and am taking my bone health much more seriously after I broke my arm this year. For ❤️ my doctor was the best resource on this, as I’ve been on statins for about 3 years now, and the only thing that’s moved the needle on my numbers is … estrogen. Sooo ... yeah, talk to your doctor about estrogen.

Of course, none of this might be relevant to my baby sis.

Because in reality, no two menopauses are the same, and we don’t talk about that enough. That diversity of experience is the theme of this week’s episode on menopause. You’ll hear from listeners Samantha Gattsek and Robyn Watt, and also from Lauren Chiren, who took that experience (she thought she had dementia) and turned it around.​

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Here are five more episodes on peri/menopause if you want a deep dive, and these might also be useful to send to your favorite millennial sister (biological or otherwise) who’s about to hit perimenopause. Or, just forward them this email.

1. ​Not your mother’s menopause: what Gen X is learning from menopause​
2. ​On Surgical Menopause and cancer prevention​
3. ​Menopause in the office, are we even ready for this?​
4. ​What are dense breasts, and why this is the right time of life to learn more​
5. ​Inequality, even in menopause - we’re not moving ahead till we’re all moving ahead​

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Wishing you (and my sis) the best of health,

Golda

🩺You know this already but I'll say it anyway: what you hear and read on 'Overlooked' is for general information purposes only and represents the opinions of the host and guests. The content on the podcast and website should not be taken as medical advice. Every person's body is unique, so please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions that may arise.