This week I'm getting into that moment at 3:07 in the morning when your eyes are open and nothing woke you up. No noise, no kid, no dog. You replay the work conversation from earlier, this time with better lines. You do the countdown math on how many hours you can still get if you fall asleep right now. And by breakfast you've turned the whole thing into a joke about being a night owl, and you call that getting a lot done.

We get into why waking at 3AM is all about how we took one of the most measurable, most researched, most treatable symptoms of this transition and turned it into a productivity brag. We get into how a woman's sleep has always been treated as interruptible, how rising while it's yet night got framed as virtue, and who benefits when she quietly runs on five hours for a decade and never takes up an appointment slot. 

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License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

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This week I'm getting into that moment when you get the call, and within about four minutes, before you've let yourself feel one single thing, you're already running logistics. Who's driving, who's staying where, deli tray or casserole. Then you show up and don't sit down for six hours. You refill the coffee, find the extra folding chairs, hold everyone while they sob into your shoulder, and your own face does absolutely nothing, and you call that holding it together.

We get into how women were once paid, honored, and considered essential as mourners, and how that role got handed to priests and funeral directors while the unpaid labor came back to us with a casserole dish in it. We get into what deferred grief costs, especially when perimenopause already has your nervous system running in a deficit. And we get into the hardest part, putting the plate down, saying out loud in the car who you're there to say goodbye to, and letting yourself be one of the people who gets held.

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License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

This week I'm getting into that moment when you rewrite the same two sentences five times. You add an exclamation point so it doesn't read as cold. And by the time you finally hit send, the thing you actually wanted is gone from the message entirely, and you call that being professional.

We get into why softening isn't politeness, it's a skill you were trained in early, because a woman who says the thing plainly doesn't get an answer, she gets told she has a tone. We get into how the tone accusation was never actually about volume. We get into what it costs to be the one who is easy to work with and never once heard. And we get into the hardest part, saying it one time, plainly, and letting the discomfort sit with the room instead of taking it back and rewording it into something that means nothing.

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License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

This week I'm getting into that moment when someone says let's get a picture and you hear yourself say oh, I'll take it. You just become the one holding the camera, and one day you notice there's a whole season of your life you are not in a single frame of. We get into why that is grief and not vanity.

We get into how the ideal body has been rewritten every decade for a century, and why a standard that keeps moving sells more than a fixed one ever could. We get into how perimenopause lands right in the middle of it, since declining estrogen changes where your body stores fat and disrupted sleep shifts appetite regulation and stress hormones. And we get into the hardest part, being in the picture before you like the picture. 

Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-down
License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

This week I'm getting into that 9PM moment when everything is technically fine and a voice in your chest goes, wait, is this it? And instead of saying it out loud, you go alphabetize the spice rack. We get into why that question isn't ingratitude, it's a curve. Researchers have tracked a U shaped happiness curve across a hundred countries that bottoms out in your mid forties and climbs back up after.

We get into Betty Friedan naming the problem that has no name in 1963, and the women who answered it by redecorating and moving, which is to say reorganizing the pantry sixty years ago. We get into how perimenopause turns up the volume, since the hormone shift lands right at the bottom of that U. And we get into the hardest part, naming the thing instead of organizing something. I feel restless, and I think I want something for myself.

Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-down
License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

This week I'm getting into that moment when the groceries are already in the trunk and you decide to take the long way home just to stretch the quiet a few more minutes, and then feel guilty about it before you've even pulled out of the parking lot.

We get into why craving solitude isn't the coldness or selfishness we were taught it was, it's your system asking for ten straight minutes where not one living thing needs a decision from you. We get into the mental load that stays invisible and never clocks out, the hundred year old Angel in the House you inherited without ever signing anything, and why PTO for women like us really stands for prepare the others. 

We get into how perimenopause turns up the volume on all of it, since a nervous system that hasn't been fully off in years plus a hormone shift gets you wired, tired, and touched out. And we get into the hardest part, taking the alone time on purpose instead of waiting until everything is finished, because it will never be finished and that is the whole trap.

Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-down
License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

This week I'm getting into that moment when a friend shares her good news and something in your chest quietly folds in on itself, even while you're saying I'm so happy for you in a voice you barely recognize.

We get into why envy isn't the character flaw we were taught it was, it's actually a compass pointing straight at what you want or the version of yourself you're quietly mourning. We get into how perimenopause turns up the volume on all of it, since it's an identity earthquake that hits right as mood and sleep changes make comparison sting harder and longer. And we get into the hardest part, learning to read what your envy is actually pointing at instead of burying it under shame and calling yourself petty.

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License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

This week I'm getting into why so many of us would rather quietly cancel a follow-up and let a referral expire than ever actually tell a doctor they failed us, and why we walk out blaming ourselves instead.

We get into what it actually costs to stay silent, including the research on diagnostic overshadowing, where every symptom gets blamed on your weight while the real problem, the thyroid, the hormones, the pain, never gets looked at. We get into why the dismissals hit harder and more often for Black women, women in larger bodies, and older women. And we get into the hardest part, giving yourself permission to fire a doctor out loud and on purpose, instead of ghosting them like a bad date and calling it manners.

Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-down
License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

In this episode I get into why so many of us cross our legs before we laugh and then wave it off like it is nothing, when it is actually our bodies telling us something real that nobody gave us permission to say out loud. We get into what the research actually says, that roughly one in three women deal with some kind of urinary leaking, and that it climbs after childbirth and through perimenopause as estrogen drops and the pelvic floor loses its support. We get into why we were handed a punchline instead of a plan, and why "just do your kegels" is not the whole answer and sometimes not even the right one. And we get into the hardest part, learning to tell the difference between what your body genuinely cannot help and what you actually have real, doable options to change.

Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-down License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

In this episode I get into why women are reading a real thing correctly and then talking themselves out of it because nobody gave them a word for it.  We get into what the research actually says, over ninety percent of women admit to an emotional affair, and 64% of couples say it does as much damage as a physical one or more. We get into why the woman on the other end was doing it, because the history of women having no way to get emotional needs met except through a man does not disappear just because we have therapy apps now. And we get into the hardest part, knowing what is yours to hold and what belongs to someone else to manage.

The last thing you need is one more reason to call yourself paranoid. Trust what you see. Name it out loud before you can prove it. And that's the most unladylike thing of all.

Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-down License code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH

If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq