The Crone Stories

Nine women sat down with me this first season and trusted me with their lives. In this episode I look back at all of them: why I started The Crone Stories, why I chose the word Crone, what each woman brought, and what she told me when she heard her own story read back to her.

There is no new story today. This one is a thank you, and a look at what nine stories add up to when you hear them side by side.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

The nine stories of Season One

If you came in partway through the season, here is where to find each woman.

The Woman Underneath | Angie's Story
The Wisdom Spreader | Wendy's Story
Stopping the Shoulds | Bari's Story
What She Wrote on the Fridge | Charley's Story
The Pile Under the Rug | Lucy's Story
The Woman Who Learned to Listen | Kimberley's Story
I Matter Too | Lisa's Story
I Don't Have to Earn It | Miel's Story
The Woman Who Was Always There | Gertrude's Story

This episode's Sitting

The episode closes with a loving-kindness meditation. It begins with you, and then moves out to the women in your life.

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Tell me your story

Season Two only happens if women come forward to share. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, I would love to hear from you, and you can share your story anonymously if you would rather not use your name. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

What comes next

Next week, for the first time, I am telling my own story. The week after, I am telling my mother's. Season Two begins in early January.

Find the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moveyourmagic
Website: karenamy.com

If these stories mean something to you and you would like to help keep them coming, you can buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/karenamy.

In love, light and laughter — Karen

Gertrude has spent her life being the one who is there. For her family, for her community, and for people in the last hours of their lives.

She was raised by women who built something solid out of almost nothing, and she learned early how to keep going. Then, in a single moment, the future she had been counting on was gone. This is the story of what she built on the other side of it, and of a woman whose steadiness turns out to have been wisdom all along. Gertrude is the last Crone of Season One, and that was on purpose.

A note before you listen

This episode holds the sudden death of a husband, and time spent at the bedsides of people who are dying. It also touches on racism, and there is some strong language. Nothing here is graphic. But if loss sits close to your own life right now, you might choose your moment for this one, or come back to it when you have a little more room.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

About Gertrude

Gertrude spent twenty-five years in administrative work before becoming a personal support worker with a specialty in palliative care. She is Board Secretary for Making Change, a Black cultural organisation in Simcoe County, Ontario. You can find Making Change at makingchangesc.com.

If Gertrude's story stayed with you

If it was the loss that caught you, the future that can be gone in a single moment, listen to Angie's story, The Woman Underneath. Angie's story is about learning to live alongside what you have lost.

If it was the passing on that caught you, one woman showing another a door, listen to Wendy's story, The Wisdom Spreader. Wendy went looking for her own answers, and now she hands them to every woman she meets.

Mentioned in this episode

No One Dies Alone, founded by nurse Sandra Clarke in Eugene, Oregon, where volunteers sit with people who would otherwise die alone.
Hospice Georgian Triangle, in Collingwood, Ontario.
Rainbows, where trained volunteers support children and young people through a loss. You can find them at rainbows.org.

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Tell me your story

I am gathering stories for Season Two now. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. You can share your story anonymously if you would rather not use your name. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

What comes next

This is the final story of Season One. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a recap of the season, along with stories of the women in my own life and lineage. Season Two begins in early January.

Find the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moveyourmagic
Website: karenamy.com

If these stories mean something to you and you would like to help keep them coming, you can buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/karenamy.

In love, light and laughter — Karen

Miel has spent her life being the one who shows up. The one who plans, who fixes, who sends food before anyone thinks to ask.

At fifty-one, the same age her mother died, she was handed something she could not organise her way around, and found herself alone in a room with nothing left to manage. This is the story of what she found there, and of a woman slowly learning that she was never required to earn her place.

A note before you listen

This episode holds a cancer scare, and Miel speaks briefly about being abused as a child. She does not go into detail, and nothing here is graphic. But if either of those sits close to your own life right now, you might choose your moment for this one, or come back to it when you have a little more room.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she speaks to you directly. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

About Miel

Miel lives in the Philippines, where she manages a team and has spent most of her working life being the person everyone relies on. She has been keeping a journal since she was a girl, and she has recently come back to writing poetry. She also crochets, mostly for the counting.

If Miel's story stayed with you

If it was the saying no that caught you, the years of being the one everybody wants a piece of, listen to Bari's story, Stopping the Shoulds. Bari knows what it costs to live by a list of obligations you never agreed to.

If it was the not being cared for, the woman who holds everyone and never gets held back, listen to Lisa's story, I Matter Too. Lisa's story is about what happens when a woman finally puts herself back inside the frame.

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

Find the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moveyourmagic
Website: karenamy.com

If these stories mean something to you and you would like to help keep them coming, you can buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/karenamy.

In love, light and laughter — Karen

Lisa has been doing hair for twenty-two years and raising her son mostly on her own. She has also always run hot, so when perimenopause arrived it hid inside a trait she had carried her whole life.

Nobody sat her down. Nobody explained it. She found the word herself, alone, the way so many of us did. This is a story about a woman learning to fill her own cup after years of pouring from an empty one, and about the sentence she finally said out loud in the middle of the hardest season of her life.

A note before you listen

This one holds some tender ground. Lisa speaks openly about a hard season with her teenage son, about getting sober, and about living with PTSD. Nothing here is graphic, but if any of that sits close to your own life right now, be gentle with yourself and come to it when you are ready.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

About Lisa

Lisa has been a hairstylist for twenty-two years and is a Reiki practitioner.

If Lisa's story stayed with you

If the part about not understanding what your body was trying to tell you resonated, listen to Wendy's story, The Wisdom Spreader, next. Wendy spent years trying to understand what was happening in her body and eventually turned what she learned into something she now shares with other women.

If the part about finally deciding you matter resonated, listen to Lucy's story, The Pile Under the Rug. Lucy's story is about the point where keeping everyone else's peace began to cost too much, and she finally put a boundary in place.

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

Next time

The next story arrives on Friday, September 25.

Find the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moveyourmagic
Website: karenamy.com

In love, light and laughter — Karen

Kimberley Raeburn-Gibson has spent her life holding rooms together with sound. A choir director, a teacher, a minister's wife, a woman who learned early that the decent thing to do was keep quiet and hold it in.

Then her body stopped cooperating. For six years the ground would not stay still beneath her, and nothing she tried made it stop. This is the story of what she looked for, what failed, and what she finally heard when she stopped trying to fix it.

A note before you listen

This episode sits with chronic illness, and with the long stretch of looking for an answer that does not come. If you are in the middle of something similar, you may want to choose your moment for this one. It will keep.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

A word from Kimberley

Kimberley is a choir director, music teacher, and worship leader. When I asked what she wanted to send people toward, her answer was children and music. Find a vacation bible camp or a performing arts camp at a church in your area, and give the children in your life a way in. That is what she would want you to take from her.

If you want to look further

On mal de débarquement syndrome: the MdDS Foundation is a volunteer-run nonprofit working on awareness, research, and patient support. They describe the condition as persistent rocking, swaying, bobbing, and pulling sensations in the absence of actual motion, with symptoms lasting at least thirty days and easing during passive motion such as riding in a car. They also note that the average person sees more than twenty doctors before getting a diagnosis. mddsfoundation.org

On somatic therapy: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk is the book that brought the body and trauma connection to a wide readership. Somatic Experiencing International holds a directory for finding a practitioner near you. traumahealing.org

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

Next time

The next story arrives on Friday, September eleventh.

Find the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moveyourmagic
Website: karenamy.com

In love, light and laughter — Karen

Lucy is not her name, and that is on purpose. She asked to stay unknown, and I have honoured that. Everything else you will hear is true.

Lucy spent her whole life being the one who kept things smooth in her family. The oldest daughter. The one who absorbed it. Then, almost four years ago, one moment changed what she was willing to carry, and she drew a line she has held ever since. This is a story about boundaries inside the hardest relationships of all, about a forty-year marriage that became her spine, and about what it costs, and what it gives back, when a woman finally trusts her own gut.

A note before you listen

This episode holds a hard family fracture and the long silence that followed it. If your own family is a tender place right now, go gently with yourself as you listen. You are allowed to pause, and you are allowed to come back another day.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

A word from Lucy

Lucy stays unknown in this episode, but she asked me to pass one thing along. A friend of hers runs a YouTube channel called Traveling Senior Tools, full of practical tips for seniors who want to travel with confidence, from staying connected abroad to handling money in another country. Lucy and her husband live that life half the year, and she vouches for it. You can find it at https://www.youtube.com/@TravelingSeniorTools

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

Next time

The next story arrives on Friday, August twenty-eighth.

Find the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moveyourmagic
Website: karenamy.com

In love, light and laughter — Karen

Charley spent more than thirty years holding on tight. Tight in her body, tight in her emotions, certain her life was something that happened to her rather than something she had any hand in. She was good at what she did and quietly in pain, sure she was a victim of her own circumstances, until a single small act of letting go cracked her whole world open. This is the story of a woman who learned, late and against everything she had been taught by her own life, that she was never as powerless as she felt. It is about surrender, and how it is not the same as giving up. It is about becoming brave in the second half of your life.

· · ·

A note before you listen

This story touches on a hard childhood, chronic pain, and a health scare that arrived without warning. Charley moves through all of it toward something lighter, but if any of that sits close to home for you today, listen gently, and in your own time.

· · ·

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

· · ·

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

· · ·

About the guest

Charley Lewis is a medium, an energy healer, and after a lifetime in real estate, a woman who now does a great many things she was once too afraid to try. You can find her at facebook.com/thevillagemystics.

· · ·

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

· · ·

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

· · ·

Next time

The next story arrives Friday, August 14.

· · ·

Find the show

Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube · karenamy.com

· · ·

Sign-off

In love, light and laughter, Karen

Bari was forty-five when the word cancer came into her house. She had just left a government job of many years, opened her own coaching business, and was living in a body she trusted. What she found inside her diagnosis is not what most of us expect to find. A shower. A question. A body that stopped feeling like hers. And a slow shift in the voice that had been telling her, her whole life, how she should feel. This is Bari's story of what happened when she stopped obeying her shoulds.

A note before you listen

This episode holds the story of a breast cancer diagnosis, a double mastectomy, and the medication that followed. It is told with care, and the material is real. If you are in the middle of your own cancer story, or if that word carries something heavy for you today, come back to this one when it feels right.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

About the guest

Bari McFarland is a former HR director, life coach, and Passion Test facilitator. She is now retired in the word only. She keeps herself busy with golf, line dancing, travel, time with friends, and the ordinary daily work of living well.

Mentioned in this episode

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada · bigbrothersbigsisters.ca

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

Next time

On July 31, Charley's story.

Find the show

Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube · karenamy.com

Sign-off

In love, light and laughter, Karen

Wendy is forty-one. She owns Fearless Vanity, a salon she opened in 2011. She has spent fifteen years inside a medical system that could not figure out what her body was telling it, and she figured it out herself. With pH strips. With ingredient labels. With a pharmacist who finally said the right word. With a Botox doctor who finally noticed. With an OB who finally listened. This episode is her story, and it is also the story of any woman who has been quietly told it was in her head.

A note before you listen

This episode holds years of medical dismissal. It includes a brief reference to a pregnancy loss and a pregnancy that was not planned for. If any of that is tender for you right now, take what you need from this episode and leave the rest. The Sitting at the end is for you.

About The Crone Stories

Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing

The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. And I hope you will too.

About the guest

Wendy is a hairstylist and the owner of Fearless Vanity, a salon she opened in 2011. She has been doing hair since she was fifteen, and after twenty-six years in the chair, she has become one of the women her clients quietly turn to with the questions they cannot ask anywhere else. She is an open book and welcomes women who want to reach out for a conversation. She is also slowly building toward leading women's groups in the future, when the time is right.

Find Fearless Vanity at fearlessvanity.com.

If Wendy's story stayed with you

If the part about not being believed about your own body resonated, listen to Kimberley's story, The Woman Who Learned to Listen. Kimberley's story is about learning to hear what her body had been trying to tell her for a long time.

If the part about figuring out your own body without help resonated, listen to Lisa's story, I Matter Too. Lisa's story is about a woman who could not tell what her body was doing, and had to find the word for it herself.

A note on choosing your own path

I want to say something carefully here, because Wendy's story has a specific medical answer at the centre of it, and I do not want anyone to listen to this episode and feel that there is only one right path.

Progesterone worked for Wendy. It has worked for the two women in her salon who tried it after she told them about it. It has worked for many women I know.

It is not the answer for everyone.

Hormone therapy in perimenopause and menopause is a deeply personal decision. There is real, evolving science about who benefits from it, what the actual risks are, and how the original concerns from the early 2000s were significantly overstated and misreported. There is also real reason for some women to choose a different path entirely. Genetics. Personal history. Other conditions. Personal preference. None of those reasons are wrong.

The bigger message of Wendy's story, the one I want every woman listening to carry forward, is not take progesterone. It is this.

Stand up for yourself.

Listen to the women in your life who things are working for, and ask them what worked, and how they found it. Then take that information and decide for yourself, with the support of practitioners you actually trust, what your own path is going to be.

You do not have to do what Wendy did. You have to find what is true for your own body. And the women around you who have done the work to find their own answers are some of the best teachers you will ever have.

I am here to tell Wendy's story.

What you do with it is yours.

A note on Plan B

Wendy's story includes information about how Plan B actually works. For listeners who want to look into this further, here is what we know.

Plan B (levonorgestrel) prevents pregnancy by delaying or preventing ovulation. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration's own labelling, it has no direct effect on fertilisation or implantation, and it does not work if you are already pregnant or if ovulation has already happened. Sperm can live inside the female reproductive tract for up to five days, which is roughly the same window Plan B can delay ovulation by. This means timing matters enormously, and many women who take Plan B do not realise it may not protect them at all if they have already ovulated, or are about to.

If you need options, contact a women's health clinic directly. They can speak to you about the full range of emergency contraception, including options that work differently and may be more effective at different points in your cycle.

Wendy went to the Women's Health Clinic in Barrie, Ontario. She called them the wise holders of all answers. If you are in that area, you can find them at https://www.beoptimal.ca. If you are not in that area, look for a women's health clinic near you. They handle perimenopause and menopause care as well, and they are often the right call when your own doctor is not getting you somewhere.

Sources and further reading

A list of the research referenced in this episode, and a few additional sources for women who want to go deeper.

On women in clinical research

NIH Office of Research on Women's Health. History of Women's Participation in Clinical Research. orwh.od.nih.gov

Society for Women's Health Research. NIH Revitalization Act of 1993. swhr.org

On medical gaslighting

Khan, S., and Majeed, R. Psychological Impact of Medical Gaslighting on Women: A Systematic Review. Journal of Professional and Applied Psychology, Volume 5, Issue 2 (2024), pages 110 to 125.

On perimenopause and menopause training in medicine

A 2023 needs assessment published in the journal Menopause found that fewer than one third of obstetrics and gynaecology residency programmes surveyed in the United States offered formal menopause training. The Menopause Society reports that fewer than one in five primary care physicians receive formal menopause training. Cited via The USC Center for Health Journalism.

On the Women's Health Initiative and HRT

The 2002 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, published in JAMA, prompted a generation of women to step away from hormone replacement therapy out of cancer fear. The study has since been reviewed and critiqued by multiple sources, including UCLA Health (2002 HRT Study Comes Under Criticism, 2023), Contemporary OB/GYN (Misreporting and Poorly Presented Results Shrouded Benefits of HRT), and a 2017 review in the journal Climacteric noting that highly unusual circumstances in the early termination and reporting of the trial resulted in misinformation and hysteria that persist today. For many women in perimenopause and menopause, hormone therapy started within ten years of menopause is now widely considered safe and beneficial. It is not for everyone. It is a conversation to have with a practitioner you trust.

On Plan B

United States Food and Drug Administration. Plan B One-Step Information. fda.gov. The FDA's official position is that Plan B works by inhibiting or delaying ovulation, with no direct effect on fertilisation or implantation.

GoodRx. How Effective Is Plan B? Here's What Experts Say. For a public-facing summary of the science.

Healthline. Why Plan B Doesn't Work During Ovulation and Alternatives. For information on alternatives.

On sperm quality and pregnancy outcomes

Research on paternal contribution to miscarriage and infertility is ongoing and well documented in fertility medicine. Sperm DNA fragmentation, diet, alcohol, smoking, and other lifestyle factors are now recognised as significant contributors to fertility outcomes. Most fertility clinics now test both partners. If your clinic does not, ask why.

On vaginal pH

A healthy vaginal pH typically sits between 3.5 and 4.5 on the pH scale. pH testing strips are available over the counter. The Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic both have public-facing resources on vaginal pH and what disrupts it.

Credits

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Share your story

The Crone Stories is always looking for the next woman. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, or you know a woman who is, I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story at karenamy.com/tell-me-your-story.

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The next story arrives on July 17.

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In love, light and laughter, Karen

The Woman Underneath · Angie's Story

Angie lost her brother, her father, her mother, her mother's partner, and her parts of her home, in the span of a few short years. This is the story of what happened underneath all of that loss. The woman who was always there, quietly carrying a dream she had never said out loud, who finally got the room to show herself when every other identity had been taken away. A story about grief, and what it reveals when you let it all the way in.

A note before you listen. This episode speaks openly about grief and the loss of people we love. If you are in the thick of your own loss right now, come to it when you are ready.

About The Crone Stories. Every episode begins with a short opening that sets the ground for the story. Then comes the story itself, one woman's life told in my voice, shaped from an hour we spent together. After the story, she answers a few questions in her own voice. And every episode closes with The Sitting, a few quiet minutes to carry something with you. The women here are not on a podcast. They sat down with me, I shaped what they gave me into a story, and I read it back.

On witnessing. The Crone Stories is a place of witnessing. These are real lives, told as they were lived. I am not here to judge how any woman's story played out, or to tidy it into a lesson. What each woman did with what she was handed is hers. My part is to listen, to tell it back with care, and to honour it. I hope you will do the same.

About Angie. Angie Vancise is a writer and publisher. Find her at advancise.net and ravenlanepress.com, on Instagram @vancisea, and on X @ADVanciseauthor.

If Angie's story stayed with you. If the part about the woman underneath all the roles resonated, listen to Bari's story, Stopping the Shoulds. Bari's story is about what happens when a lifetime of obligation finally gives way to permission.

If the part about the dream she had never said out loud resonated, listen to Charley's story, What She Wrote on the Fridge. Charley's story is about naming the thing you want and letting yourself be seen wanting it.

Produced and edited by Madison Aurora.

Music: "Yearning Heart" by Ritchie Everett and "Beloved Farewell (For Nina)" by American Legion, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Next time. The next story arrives Friday July 3

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033vrMZvOHui62DaZ7ae73
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896907264
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iamkarenamy
karenamy.com

In love, light and laughter, Karen