Your Perimenopause Game Plan

After 4.5 years, I'm about to get serious

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Things have changed so much since I started Hotflash inc. At this point, I’m not sure whether I’m covering the new industry around perimenopause and menopause, the people and players, or if I’m actually helping anyone get through perimenopause in one (hopefully better) piece. (My dream is to do it all)

The last one is what I set out to do because like so many of us who ended up diving in to awareness and education, I had such an awful, lonely, scary anxious time, for so so so long, that I just don’t want anyone else to suffer like that. So as I look ahead, I’m trying to think about organizing the content I have so it helps the maximum number of people. (I’m also obviously looking to monetize, because that is really the only way to sustain myself and do more to help other people. And now the I’ve been through menopause, I can be honest with myself – and you – about that.)

My first attempt at all this is giving you Your Perimenopause Game Plan. I recently gave my first workshop at Google Dubai and I learned a lot. Women are so smart. They need help. And they are still getting bamboozled. (One of the women was given anti-depressants for her early perimenopause mood symptoms. Sigh)

I’m going to be developing that event into a short workshop, then a book, then a longer course. I’m inviting you to follow along as I create and shape the content and offer your advice and comments and criticism and any direction you have for me as I go. Please share wherever you can and tell your friends that this is happening over here. I want this to be simple, comprehensive and actionable. And as with anything on Hotflash inc, I want it to be evidence, expert and/or human experience-based, truthful, as objective as possible, and to scope out (and in) on the full scope of beliefs and options out there. The more I ask questions about treatments and beliefs in mainstream medicine, and research, the more I’m learning they do not stand up to scrutiny. We can talk about that too.

If you are here, you know that I ask questions about everything, even uncomfortable things. Things like ‘in what cases is hormone therapy not a good idea’? And ‘is there more than one way to go through this’? (Of course there is.)

Today I’m starting with a framework.

Yes. I did fill my purse with free energy balls from the micro kitchen.

Many people talk about perimenopause being a bio-psycho-social transition, and that is true. But the missing link is the spiritual aspect. This isn’t for us alone – people have been making fun of midlifers and their crises since people first noticed that many of us can only stay on the planet for so long before we wake up and realize we are living someone else’s idea of what our life should be. This intersects so sharply with the perimenopause-menopause transition that it cannot be ignored. Neither can the normal process of aging that takes a jump in midlife, for all of us, that is so thoughtfully covered in Maryann Jacobsen’s Substack Midlife Strong.

So from now on I’m approaching it as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual transition, with lots of intersections, and I’m going to segment help and assistance, information and context, and questions, into those categories.

The important thing to remember is that all of these things are interwoven and linked. That’s why stress and relationships have an impact on our symptoms, why things buried in your subconscious can cause you anxiety that seems to come out of nowhere, and why ignoring the spiritual side of life – the growing and expanding our souls are called to do, in whatever way that means for us – can torpedo even the best perimenopause care plan.

It’s my firm belief that taking a one, two or even three-part approach and leaving out the fourth is why many people continue to struggle, long after that last period.

To be clear:

Bio: What is happening to you physically

Psycho (not the meme kind): What’s happening in your emotional world

Social: Relationships, community and the world around you

Spiritual: When your soul is being called for more, and we need to recognize it and learn how to answer. Also known as a “heroine’s journey”.

My hope is that when it’s all said and done, you will have a game plan that you can use if you are already in perimenopause, if you have passed into menopause and are still having issues, and it’s still years away but you just want to be prepared. I could head off some people at the pass, that would be swell.

Confession: I am picking up the pieces after the maelstrom of my own menopause, and it’s all a bit of a mess. Hotflash inc was conceived of and produced during my last crazy years of perimenopause, the transmenopausal year (just, wow – I’ll explain this in a forthcoming Substack) and then in the months from the end of menopause, when I felt like one of those little newly born ponies getting their feet under them combined with Harry Potter when he first got his magical powers. And then the last year grieving my dad’s death just added layers on top.

It’s been a lot, but I’ve kept going, and I know you will too. My point is, this is helping me get organized for the next chapter of my life too. So I hope you are in and on board.

Housekeeping:

>> I’m going to make these open to everyone for 24 hours, then put them behind a paywall. Hotflash inc Pro subscribers will be able to access the whole guide as it is produced and updated.

>> I don’t know how many parts there will be; I’m doing it as I go.

>> I am working on a challenge for the new year to go along with this, so keep an eye out.

Thank you for being here! Let’s get our shit together. Together.

AMx

PS: Let’s get started, shall we?

Drop me a comment with what you’d like to see covered.