Women Mastering Midlife

A cancer diagnosis changes far more than the body. It can shake a woman’s confidence, her relationships, and her sense of control, and for many women it arrives during the same years she is already moving through perimenopause or menopause.

Sue Weldon was 39, with three young children at home, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer 22 years ago. Her treatment included a bilateral mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy, which pushed her into medically induced menopause with hot flashes every hour, poor sleep, bone pain, and depression. She found that acupuncture, yoga, and nutrition helped her manage those side effects and stay on treatment, yet none of it was part of her medical care or covered by insurance. That gap became Unite for HER, the national nonprofit she founded to fund and deliver integrative therapies for people affected by breast and ovarian cancer.

Sue and I talk about why emotional health belongs alongside physical treatment, how financial strain can quietly determine whether someone stays on therapy, and what she hopes her new book, Heal Empower Restore: A Revolutionary Road Map to Support the Body and Mind Throughout Cancer Care, offers a woman holding a fresh diagnosis. She is clear throughout that these therapies work in partnership with a woman’s oncology team, not in place of it.

We also spend time on the people walking alongside a patient: how to ask for help in specific, concrete ways, and why saying yes to a friend’s offer can be a gift to them as well.

• How chemotherapy can bring on menopause in younger women, and what helped Sue with hot flashes, sleep, and treatment side effects
• Why Sue frames acupuncture, yoga, meditation, oncology massage, and counseling as additions to medical care rather than alternatives
• The connection between emotional distress, food and transportation insecurity, and staying on treatment
• How Unite for HER’s one-year Wellness Passport covers integrative therapies, nutrition support, and groceries at no cost to patients
• Practical ways to advocate for yourself, including bringing someone to appointments, recording visits with your clinician’s knowledge, writing questions down, and seeking another opinion when you feel dismissed
• How to turn “let me know if you need anything” into real help, from frozen broth to weeding the garden
• What caregivers can keep in mind, including showing up without trying to fix, and caring for themselves too
• Inside the book: expert-contributed chapters on reiki, ecotherapy, sexual health, and more, plus a recipe section for treatment-related symptoms like mouth sores and low appetite

Sue Weldon is a 22-year breast cancer survivor and the founder and CEO of Unite for HER, a national nonprofit that provides integrative therapies, education, and community for people affected by breast and ovarian cancer. Before founding the organization, she worked as a gymnastics coach and in sales. Heal Empower Restore is her first book, written with contributions from Unite for HER’s network of physicians and integrative practitioners.

• Unite for HER: uniteforher.org
• Apply for Unite for HER support: uniteforher.org/apply
• Heal Empower Restore by Sue Weldon, available in print and audiobook (narrated by Sue) from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and other booksellers

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Order the Women Mastering Midlife Book Now!

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @women_mastering_midlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

If your skin seems to have changed its mind about everything lately, from how it holds moisture to how it reacts to products you've used for years, this conversation will help it make sense. My guest is Dr. Corinne Erickson, a board certified dermatologist, Menopause Society certified practitioner, and owner of Georgia Skin Specialists in Atlanta, who turned her focus to midlife skin after her own mid-40s brought hormonal acne, hair thinning, new sensitivity, and a chin hair she named Fred.

Dr. Erickson walks us through a framework she and colleagues call the pilocutaneous syndrome of menopause (PSM), which links the skin and hair changes of perimenopause to two drivers: declining estrogen and the relative androgen excess that follows. Estrogen was quietly supporting collagen, elastin, hydration, blood flow, and antioxidant protection in the skin, so as it falls, skin often becomes thinner, drier, looser, and more reactive. At the same time, testosterone takes a more prominent role, which can show up as jawline acne, facial hair, and patterned thinning on the scalp. Seeing it this way can take some of the personal blame out of it, because your routine didn't fail you; your hormones changed the rules.

We also talk about how to cut through the skincare noise on social media, starting with a simple morning and evening routine she recommends for many of her patients. From there, we get into estrogen face creams and what the current research does and does not show, the real difference between drugstore retinol and prescription retinoids, and how to approach Botox, fillers, and lasers with a clear sense of your own reasons. Dr. Erickson also shares why she came home from Seoul with a suitcase full of sunscreen, what a new UVA filter could mean for American sunscreens, and why skin cancer tends to show up more often on the left side of the face.

• The two hormonal shifts behind dryness, laxity, sensitivity, hormonal acne, and hair changes in perimenopause and menopause
• How Dr. Erickson brings hormone therapy into dermatology conversations, and why skin changes alone are not an approved indication
• Why waiting to see a pattern before buying new products can save money and irritation during the hormonal swings of perimenopause
• A "protect in the morning, repair at night" routine built on vitamin C, sunscreen, a gentle retinoid, and a barrier-supporting moisturizer
• What the evidence currently shows for estrogen face creams, and why she considers them an active hormone treatment rather than a beauty trend (Dr. Erickson discloses her advisory role with Alloy Health)
• Retinol vs. tretinoin and tazarotene, and why starting with a gentler over-the-counter option for three to six months is often the better path
• Annual full-body skin checks, the hard-to-see places skin cancer can hide, and Vicky's mother's experience with stage 0 melanoma under her chin
• Questions to ask yourself before Botox, fillers, or lasers, and how to choose a qualified injector
• Korean skincare, buzzy ingredients like PDRN, and how to try new products without overwhelming your skin barrier
• UVA vs. UVB protection, UVA exposure through car windows, and the newly approved UVA filter coming to the US
• Sunscreen and vitamin D, including her general approach to supplementation and monitoring levels

• 00:00 Welcome and introduction to Dr. Corinne Erickson
• 01:18 What led her to focus on midlife skin
• 04:24 The pilocutaneous syndrome of menopause (PSM) explained
• 08:40 Where hormone therapy fits in dermatology care
• 10:15 Non-negotiables for a simpler midlife skincare routine
• 14:45 Estrogen face creams: what the research shows
• 17:38 Retinol vs. prescription retinoids
• 20:03 Skin cancer prevention and when to schedule a skin check
• 22:45 Botox, fillers, and lasers: starting with your why
• 26:29 How to choose an injector or dermatology practice
• 29:59 Korean skincare and French pharmacy trends
• 34:14 Sunscreen, UVA filters, and car window exposure
• 37:43 Sunscreen and vitamin D
• 39:48 Where to find Dr. Erickson

• Substack: The Skin Pause
• Social media: @themenopausederm
• Practice: GeorgiaSkinSpecialists.com

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Order the Women Mastering Midlife Book Now!

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @women_mastering_midlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Released the day before World Osteoporosis Day, this episode welcomes back Dr. Jenny Han, PharmD, a board-certified ambulatory care pharmacist and co-founder of SEEN Nutrition, a woman-owned company in Ithaca, New York, that makes a calcium chew from real food ingredients: milk minerals, organic dates, almonds, and vitamin D from mushrooms. Jenny's path into this work began with a diagnosis most of us would never expect, pregnancy and lactation-associated osteoporosis, discovered when she fractured her back two months postpartum during the early days of COVID.

Roughly one in two women over 50 in the United States will break a bone because of osteoporosis, and many of us don't think about our bones until one breaks. Jenny and I talk about what women in their 40s and 50s can do now, before the rapid bone loss that follows menopause, along with what has changed at SEEN since her first visit to the show and what it looks like to use a PharmD in a way most pharmacists never consider.

In this episode, we talk about:

Why synthetic calcium supplements are so bulky, and how a food-based calcium chew delivers 500 mg of dietary calcium (about a glass and a half of milk, without the lactose)

What vitamin K2 (MK-7) does for bone health, and why eating chickpeas won't give you the K2 that SEEN sources from fermented chickpeas

Why SEEN chose a nutrition facts label over a supplement facts panel, and what that extra regulatory oversight means for trust

Winning $500,000 in the Grow New York Food and Agriculture startup competition, and growing from two founders to a team of five

Why Duke orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein joined SEEN's scientific advisory board, and her work on the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause

Adolescence as the most important window for building bone, peak bone mass around age 30, and the accelerated loss in the years after menopause

The difference between a DEXA body composition scan and a DEXA bone density scan (only one of them diagnoses osteopenia or osteoporosis)

Why getting a baseline bone density scan before 65 may be worth the out-of-pocket cost, and the advocacy work to lower the screening age to 50

Treating osteoporosis like any other chronic condition: nutrition, calcium and vitamin D, protein, resistance training, and medication when appropriate

Why "I reversed my osteoporosis" claims on social media leave out the most important part

Moving from patient care into entrepreneurship, and Jenny's advice to pharmacy students who want a path outside retail or hospital practice

The growing role of pharmacists in menopause care, from hormone therapy titration to managing estrogen patch shortages

A note from Jenny for women listening

Bones are living, dynamic tissue, and your skeleton renews itself roughly every decade. A diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis can feel final, but the choices you make consistently, day after day, still shape your bone health, even when you can't feel the difference in a month or two.

World Osteoporosis Day (October 20)

To mark the month leading up to World Osteoporosis Day, SEEN Nutrition launched its Generations of Strength campaign and donated $10,000 to the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation and the National Spine Health Foundation. Listeners can use code SEENSTRONG at checkout for an extra 10% off a first purchase.

Connect with Jenny and SEEN Nutrition

Website: www.seennutrition.com

Social media: The Calcium Queens

Jenny's first episode on the show: 72. Bone Health, Calcium, and Clean Supplements” Pharmacist Jennifer Han on Creating SEEN Nutrition for Women’s Wellness

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Order the Women Mastering Midlife Book Now!

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @womenmasteringmidlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Registered dietitian Ashley Koff explains why weight loss rules can backfire in perimenopause and menopause, how GLP-1 hormones connect to gut health, bone, and muscle, and how to use AI for health questions without handing it your decisions.

If you are in perimenopause or menopause and the eat less, move more advice is no longer working, this conversation offers a different starting point.

Victoria Byrd, RPh, talks with Ashley Koff, RD, USA Today best-selling author of Your Best Shot: The Personalized System to Optimize Your Weight Health, GLP-1 Shot or Not and founder of the Better Nutrition Program. Ashley has spent more than 25 years in personalized nutrition, and she explains why she moved from weight loss language to weight health, and what that shift means for women in midlife.

In this episode, you will learn:

Why Ashley views weight as a health signal made up of bone, muscle, fat, and water

How GLP-1, GIP, and other weight health hormones are produced in the gut lining, and how shifting sex hormones in perimenopause and menopause can affect them

What to consider before starting a GLP-1 medication, and why Ashley calls it a tool rather than a solution

Her perspective on pairing transdermal estrogen with a low-dose GLP-1, and why she urges caution with the word "microdose"

Why population-based guidelines for fiber, calories, and protein may not fit your body

How Ashley suggests using public AI for research and organizing your week, and where she says it falls short with labs, diagnoses, and recommendations

What private AI is, and how it differs from tools like Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT

How "better, not perfect" can replace all-or-nothing thinking about food

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and how consumers are using AI for health

03:45 Why Ashley moved from weight loss to weight health

08:41 Weight health hormones and midlife

13:13 Why personalization matters

21:00 Talking with women who are curious about GLP-1 shots

28:44 Estrogen, GLP-1s, and the microdose question

33:49 Using AI as a health tool

39:00 Public AI vs. private AI

47:03 The emotional and cultural side of food

52:41 Better, not perfect nutrition

58:24 Where to find Ashley

Connect with Ashley Koff, RD:

Grab her Book: "Your Best Shot,"

Check out her website: https://thebetternutritionprogram.com/

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Order the Women Mastering Midlife Book Now!

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @women_mastering_midlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

October is Menopause Awareness Month, and Dr. Sara Berg, an OB-GYN who stepped out of the exam room to build an education and advocacy platform, joins Victoria for a second conversation about where menopause care and policy stand right now.

They begin with the FDA panel on testosterone for women. Dr. Berg explains that the research supports use for low sexual desire once other contributing factors have been sorted out, and Victoria raises the pharmacist concerns about cost and controlled substance scheduling. From there they turn to the long estrogen patch shortage, what it took for it to be acknowledged, and why letters to legislators and agencies can move things faster than most of us expect.

Dr. Berg also talks about preparing for the first Perimenopause and Menopause Hill Day, and previews The Appointment, her new short-form podcast that gives patients the wording to bring hard questions to their doctors, starting with brain fog.

Also in this episode: the difference between brain fog and a mental load that never lets up, adding menopause symptom questions to routine intake forms, Victoria's public comment to CMS on pharmacists and remote patient monitoring, why peptides and unregulated supplements call for caution, cultural attitudes that keep women whispering the word menopause, and how to raise menopause at work without it feeling like a liability.

Timestamps

01:38 Dr. Berg's path from OB-GYN to advocate

05:49 How to read health claims on social media

09:36 The FDA testosterone panel

14:27 The estrogen patch shortage

17:30 Hill Day and writing to your legislators

23:31 Brain fog versus overload

28:38 The Appointment podcast

33:55 Asking your doctor about symptoms

42:01 CMS and pharmacist remote monitoring

48:16 Peptides and supplement marketing

54:08 Menopause Awareness Month

1:02:22 Menopause in the workplace

Links and where to find Dr. Berg: www.selfority.com

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @women_mastering_midlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Many women reach perimenopause doing what has always worked and find that it no longer does.

Kristi Bowlby (physical therapist, holistic nutritionist, Pilates instructor, and certified perimenopause and menopause women's health specialist) explains what changes with food and metabolism in midlife, why calories in and calories out are only one piece, and how to build a way of eating that fits a real week. We also talk about her free Thrive Through Perimenopause and Beyond Virtual Summit, where I am a speaker in October.

What We Talk About

When your numbers shift despite doing everything right

Kristi shares her own blood work and continuous glucose monitor data. Her LDL cholesterol, inflammatory markers, and glucose swings changed even though every value stayed in the standard range, and she connects them to falling estrogen and progesterone and a long stretch of stress.

What eat less, move more leaves out

Gut health, liver function, nervous system state, and muscle mass all influence whether food is used to build hormones, muscle, and bone or stored as fat.

Breakfast, protein, and blood sugar

A protein and fiber breakfast can shape cravings, afternoon energy, and 3 a.m. wake-ups. Kristi's starting point is about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight, with 30 to 40 grams per meal. She suggests building up slowly, since digestion and absorption change with age and extra protein can crowd out fiber.

Estrogen, the gut, and hormone therapy

We cover the estrobiome, the gut bacteria that influence estrogen metabolism, and why she describes the research as promising but early. Fiber diversity and a calm nervous system support digestion, and she suggests watching symptoms if you use hormone therapy.

Nutrition on GLP-1 medications

With a smaller appetite, nutrient density, enough carbohydrate, protein, and strength training matter more.

The summit

More than 25 women's health experts, free to attend, with an optional VIP upgrade.

About Kristi Bowlby

Kristi is the founder of This Meal by Design, creator of the Metabolic Health Reboot Program, and host of the Thrive Through Perimenopause and Beyond Virtual Summit. She holds a BS in Human Physiology and a master's in physical therapy, and has more than 20 years of experience coaching patients and clients.

Connect with Kristi

• Register for the free summit: thrivethroughperimenopauseevent.com

• Website: thismealbydesign.com

• Instagram: @thismealbydesign

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @women_mastering_midlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Menopause doesn't happen in isolation. It ripples out to the partners who love us, and for many women, that partner is a man with no roadmap for what she's going through. Victoria talks with Simon Salt, a writer, speaker, and certified menopause coach whose work, The Quiet Transition, looks at menopause from the other side of the bed.

Simon shares how it took four years and multiple misdiagnoses before his wife's symptoms were correctly identified as perimenopause, and how that experience shaped the evidence-based approach he now brings to couples and workplaces.

In this episode:

• Why 72% of men say they're part of the menopause conversation, while 72% of women say they had to start it themselves
• Moving from "fixing" to acceptance and grace as a partner
• Building curiosity and vocabulary instead of relying on a partner to educate you
• Why joining OB-GYN appointments matters, and how to do it well
• Andropause, and why men's midlife health deserves attention too
• A University of Michigan study on the emotional and physical labor gap in long-term relationships
• What the "meno-divorce" statistics actually show, and what they don't
• The story behind the name The Quiet Transition
• A simple "easy win" strategy for partners who resist the conversation
• What real allyship looks like in the workplace, from policy to locker-room talk
• Why education about women's health needs to start with our sons

Connect with Simon Salt: www.thequiettransition.com

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @women_mastering_midlife . Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Vicky talks with Andrea Giancontieri, known online as The Whiny GYNie, about a condition that affects an estimated one in nine women and still takes most doctors by surprise: lipedema.

Andrea was diagnosed with lipedema after years of being told to eat less and exercise more, even as she trained multiple times a day and tracked every calorie. In this conversation, she explains what lipedema actually is, how it differs from ordinary weight gain and cellulite, why hormonal transitions like puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause tend to trigger progression, and what conservative treatment (compression, low-impact movement, anti-inflammatory habits) can look like before surgery ever enters the conversation.

The conversation moves beyond the clinical picture into the systems that make care harder to access: insurance companies that classify medically necessary surgery as cosmetic, the ongoing estrogen patch shortage, PBM practices that squeeze independent pharmacies, and the mid-year formulary changes that can strip coverage from a prescription that was already approved.

Andrea also shares how she turned a dismissive nickname into a trademarked platform for advocacy, what it's like to testify at a statehouse, and why she believes non-clinicians have a critical role to play in moving women's health legislation forward.

• What lipedema is, how common it is, and why it takes an average of decades to get attention or research funding
• How lipedema differs from cellulite and ordinary weight gain, including the symmetry, texture, and "cuffing" that can signal it
• Why hormonal transitions (puberty, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause) tend to trigger progression
• Why conventional weight-loss advice can actually worsen lipedema-related inflammation
• The conservative treatment path: compression, dry brushing, low-impact movement, a Mediterranean-style approach to eating, and where GLP-1 medications fit in
• Why plastic surgery is typically framed as a later step, and why insurance so often refuses to cover it
• The estrogen patch shortage: why it isn't showing up on the FDA's official shortage list, and what women can ask about instead
• Oral versus transdermal estradiol, and who is (and isn't) a good candidate for oral options
• What "bioidentical" actually means as a marketing term, and where the confusion started
• The downstream health consequences researchers are now connecting to the post-WHI drop in hormone therapy use
• How Andrea turned a dismissive nickname into a trademarked advocacy platform
• What it's like to testify at a statehouse, and how non-clinicians can move health policy forward
• Andrea's upcoming work on Capitol Hill and what listeners can do to support it

Andrea will be on Capitol Hill on September 22, 2026, lobbying for menopause legislation, and again on September 23 for breast cancer legislation and funding. She encourages listeners to write to their legislators and to make time to meet with the advocates who will be there.

Change.org petition link

Connect with Andrea

• Website: thewhinygynie.com
• Instagram & TikTok: @the_whiny_gynie
• LinkedIn: Andrea Giancontieri — for her political and social advocacy content, including a webinar on preparing written and oral legislative testimony

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Vicky sits down with Ashley Chandler, founder of The Teenage Guide, for a conversation about the shift every parent faces once their child hits middle school: moving from "boss" to "guide." Ashley draws on nearly two decades in education and coaching, along with her own teenage years in the 90s, to explain why the teen years don't have to be something families just survive. They talk about the real skill behind getting a teenager to listen (hint: it starts with listening to them first), why a mother's identity often goes through its own reconstruction right alongside her teenager's, and how to build a friendship-shaped relationship that lasts long after the kids move out.

If you've ever wondered why your once-easy elementary schooler suddenly feels unreachable, or found yourself grieving a version of parenting you're not ready to let go of, this one is for you.

Ashley's path to this work (03:33) — A dual-credentialed educator with 18 years in schools and coaching, Ashley shares what led her to found The Teenage Guide, including her own experience of feeling under-guided as a teenager in the 80s and 90s.

From boss to guide (08:04) — The invisible shift that happens around middle school, why parents feel like they're losing control, and what actually changes underneath that feeling.

Midlife as adolescence in reverse (12:20) — Ashley's framework for understanding why so many women's mental health dips right as their kids hit adolescence, and why the loss of the "PTA mom" identity deserves more attention than it gets.

Redefining self-care and permission (16:00) — Why self-care isn't about bubble baths, and the very Gen X habit of waiting for someone else's permission to rest.

The one move that gets a teenager to actually listen (32:14) — Ashley's approach to validating a teen's opinion before offering your own, even when you strongly disagree, and why "you shouldn't believe that" backfires every time.

What you actually control as a parent (40:00) — With friend groups and outside influences largely out of a parent's hands, Ashley walks through what's left to work with: how you show up, what you allow in your home, and the example you set.

Building perspective and resilience (43:11) — Why exposure to different ways of living matters for teens' emotional intelligence, and Ashley's take on letting kids struggle enough to find out what they're made of.

The sandwich generation, reconsidered (50:23) — A conversation about the parents' side of adolescence: aging parents, kids preparing to launch, and the identity work happening for women in midlife at the same time.

A generational thread (54:19) — Vicky and Ashley trace the throughline from their grandmothers' limited options to their own "you can be anything" upbringing, and what they hope changes for their daughters' generation.

Ashley Chandler is the founder of The Teenage Guide, where she coaches parents to become guides rather than bosses inside their own homes. A dual-credentialed educator with 18 years of experience across public and private education and adult and teen coaching, Ashley blends neuroscience, behavior change, and communication strategy into practical tools for families navigating the middle and high school years.

Connect with Ashley: Website: theteenageguide.com

• The Confident Connected Blueprint (Ashley's live class)

Have a question about navigating the teen years, or a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Reach out through Women Mastering Midlife.

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

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This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Most women don't think about their brains until something catastrophic happens. A stroke. A diagnosis. A parent who no longer recognizes them. But your brain is quietly sending signals long before that, and in perimenopause, those signals get louder.

In this episode, Victoria talks with Christine Despres, a registered nurse with more than 30 years in healthcare and a certified dementia practitioner who spent much of her career working in hospice and dementia care. That work, combined with losing her mother at 57 and learning she carries the APOE4 gene, is what pulled her toward brain health as the starting point for her coaching practice.

Christine and Victoria talk through what is actually happening to the brain during perimenopause, including research suggesting women can lose up to 30 percent of brain function during this transition, and why symptoms like brain fog, word-finding trouble, and forgetfulness are common but not something to dismiss as normal aging. They walk through the four lifestyle areas the Alzheimer's Association and the US POINTER study identified as having the greatest impact on cognitive decline: exercise, the MIND diet, cognitive engagement, and knowing your numbers.

The conversation also covers genetic testing for Alzheimer's risk, where alcohol fits into a brain-healthy lifestyle, why hormone therapy and brain health is such a contested topic online, and why willpower is not the answer for lasting change. Christine's core message is a practical one: brain health does not require a complicated program. It requires small, consistent shifts that fit into a life you already have.

• Why women account for roughly 75 percent of memory care residents, and what that statistic actually reflects
• The four lifestyle factors the US POINTER study found move the needle most for cognitive decline: exercise, nutrition, cognitive engagement, and knowing your numbers
• What the MIND diet is, how it differs from the Mediterranean and DASH diets, and what a 2025 study found about its impact on cognitive decline
• Why brain fog and forgetfulness in perimenopause are signals worth listening to rather than symptoms to push through
• What genetic testing for the APOE4 gene and P-Tau involve, and how to think about whether testing is right for you
• Where alcohol fits into a brain-healthy lifestyle, and how to think about risk versus reward instead of an all-or-nothing rule
• Why hormone therapy and cognitive health is such a divided conversation online, and what the evidence currently supports
• How cognitive engagement works, including specific ways to build novelty into a life that is already full
• Why willpower is not a reliable strategy for long-term change, and what to focus on instead

• 00:00 Introduction to Christine Despres and her path from dementia and hospice nursing to brain health coaching
• 05:10 Why 75 percent of memory care residents are women
• 12:13 What brain fog and forgetfulness actually signal in perimenopause
• 13:24 The US POINTER study and the four habits that move the needle most for cognitive decline
• 16:39 Where alcohol fits into brain health, and the concept of joy span
• 21:18 The difference between telling someone what to do and coaching them toward lasting change
• 25:37 How to build cognitive engagement into a life that already feels full
• 31:22 The MIND diet explained: what to eat, what to limit, and why consistency matters more than perfection
• 35:38 Genetic testing for Alzheimer's risk, including the APOE4 gene and P-Tau testing
• 38:27 Hormone therapy and brain health: why the research feels contradictory and how to navigate it
• 43:01 Christine's closing thoughts on shifting from willpower to identity-based habits

Christine Despres is a registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare and the founder of The Wellness Navigator. She is a board-certified health and wellness coach and a certified dementia practitioner. Christine spent much of her nursing career working in dementia and hospice care, including 15 years as director of nursing at a skilled nursing facility. After losing her mother at 57 and learning she carries the APOE4 gene, which raises Alzheimer's risk, Christine shifted her focus toward helping midlife women protect and strengthen brain function through lifestyle change.

• US POINTER study, Alzheimer's Association
• Dr. Lisa Mosconi's research on the perimenopausal brain
• The MIND diet
• BrainHQ (cognitive training platform used in the POINTER study)
• Recode program, Dr. Heather Sandison and Dr. Bresnan
• Amen University brain coaching program
• Dr. Kerry Burnight's concept of "joy span"

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.