ABOUT ME

Years of immersion in the world of complex chronic illness led me to understand that well-being is highly personal and a lifestyle. Despite this, I found myself putting out what seemed like a continuous stream of physical and emotional fires. I had no idea that these fires were perimenopause, which seemed like something for a much older woman, or that they were all connected. I found myself at a real loss and felt blinded as if by smoke, both literally and figuratively. After deep diving into research, I started connecting the fires and brought them under control. When I looked around me, I saw other women trying to deal with their fires much as I had — treating each thing separately and not recognizing the connections between emotional balance, various physical complaints, and shifting social roles or how one fire fed another. The menopausal transition is a period when we are tending the home fires, blazing through work and feeling hot under the collar from monitoring every spark in our environment. Add a hot flash and suddenly what was manageable can feel like an inferno. This is not the way it should be, we should not feel like everything we invested in is turning to ash. We should not feel alone when we most need community. We should neither be consumed in a blaze or worn down with the slow burn of midlife. We should not be told this is our lot in life. Let’s figure out what you need to thrive, together.