Menopause Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
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Resources from today’s show:
Lisa’s
https://www.liberatedmenopause.ca/
https://www.instagram.com/lboate/
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/transforming-45/id1666079631
From Educator to Advocate
Lisa's path from teaching to becoming a menopause and empowerment coach is inspiring. Like many, she faced burnout and perimenopause, leading her to reassess her life. Her passion for coaching and understanding systemic challenges motivated her to help women navigate menopause with confidence and informed choices.
Creating Empowered Workplaces
A report by the Menopause Foundation of Canada highlighted that one in ten women leave their careers due to unsupported menopause symptoms. Lisa's mission is to reduce this impact by providing education and support, ensuring women make informed decisions about their careers and personal lives during this critical transition.
The Magic in Menopause
While menopause can seem daunting, Lisa emphasizes the magic it can bring. Understanding and managing your body's needs through movement, nutrition, stress management, and more can lead to a liberating transformation. It's about reclaiming your identity and living life fully.
Getting Started on Your Journey
If you're unsure whether you're experiencing perimenopause, start by journaling your symptoms. This practice provides clarity and aids healthcare consultations. Lisa's method also includes writing a midlife manifesto, helping you define your values and guide your decisions.
A Future of Knowledge and Empowerment
The importance of understanding and researching menopause's impact on health is emphasized. By equipping ourselves with knowledge, we not only improve our quality of life but also pave the way for future generations.
For further resources and connection, visit Lisa's website at liberatedmenopause.ca. Listen to her podcast, "Transforming 45," for more inspiring stories and insights.
Thank you for joining us on Hormone Heaven. Subscribe to stay updated, and remember to consult with your healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen. Embrace the journey and discover the magic within menopause.
Transcript (unedited):
Hi, welcome to hormone heaven. This is Dr. Angel, a thyroid and perimenopause expert with 15 years experience. This podcast is for women who are struggling with thyroid or perimenopause and are looking for natural solutions. It's a micropod because I like to give quick bite size information that you can implement immediately in your daily life.
Please keep in mind, I'm a doctor, but I'm not your doctor. So please check with your healthcare provider before beginning or ending any supplements or medications. Let's get started. So today I'm so excited because I have my first guest on the show. Her name is Lisa Boat. Lisa is the founder of Liberated Menopause Coaching and Consulting.
She is a passionate advocate for creating menopause empowered workplaces with a background in education and a deep understanding of the systemic challenges faced by women during the menopausal transition. Lisa brings a unique blend of expertise to her work. As the host of transforming 45 podcasts. So y'all need to download that one as well.
Transforming 45 podcasts. She holds space for candid conversations about midlife transformation, exploring topics, ranging from menopause all the way to emptiness parenting, which I am interested in as well, Lisa is a mom and when not working, you'll find her with bare feet on her in the earth or hands in the dirt.
So thank you so much for joining us, Lisa. Well, thanks so much for having me. I mean, what better way to start a day than having a conversation with another powerful advocate in the menopause space makes for a great, it makes for a great day. Absolutely. Well, I'm a former educator too, so I'd love how you got from that space to this space.
Yeah, it's a layered story. , part of it starting with I loved teaching children. That part always felt good to me. The system of education though, always was telling me that I didn't really. And I tried to change that system for a long time, for 20 years. And to, to the point where I was, I came to the realization that the system is much bigger than I was, and that all of my advocacy was.
Having a detrimental impact on my health. So things like my hair was falling out and anxiety attacks and all of, you know, all of the things that come with burnout. , and as I realized later, also perimenopause, which was underlying a lot of that and I didn't even know. And at the same time I was experiencing the shift in parenting where my kids were sort of older teenagers and I was having this.
Thought of I am on the other side of everything I ever imagined for my life. But I still like, I don't feel like I'm at the end of my story. I feel like in many ways, I'm at the beginning. And so I had to make some choices around how do I really want to live the rest of my life, the next chapter.
And, , in part of that as well, the last decade of my career, I was a coach and provided professional development for other educators. And I really loved that part of the work as well. I loved the coaching component. So I thought, well, I've got those skills. , the empty nest space is something that feels like it's really under supported.
And so that's where I resigned from teaching and I started coaching in the empty nest space. And because I like to approach things from a holistic perspective, women were always bringing physical issues as well to our conversations. And I was experiencing things, things in my own body. I was like, what, what is happening?
So. I found a menopause coaching course. I took that course and was completely overwhelmed by how much we do not know about our own bodies and how that plays out, not only in our health. But how it plays out in the decisions we make in all, in our relationships, in our careers, in, in everything that also surrounds us or surrounds our physical bodies.
And so that's how I got to where I am. That is a great story. I love it. Thanks. So you also work on you, , empowering that workforce. How did that get started? Yeah. So at the same time that I was finishing my coaching certification. There was a report that came out from the Menopause Foundation of Canada, and I know now that there's also very similar data in the US, there's similar reports that have been released, and it was sharing that 1 in 10 women are leaving the workforce at the peak of their careers due to unsupported menopause and perimenopause symptoms.
And it's costing the Canadian, the little Canadian economy, like 3. 5 billion every year. So the impact is significant. And as I was, , I had done all of the learning about menopause and what was happening in my physical body. And then I was reading that report and the two, it was like, there was that intersection moment of, Oh, Oh, that's what happened to me.
Yes, exactly. That's like, I am reading my story. As someone is telling it to me because I didn't even put those pieces together until that moment, and I would not change my decision to leave education, and it would have been really helpful to have had all of the information I needed to make a really informed choice.
And so with my knowledge and my personal experience, I just thought, I don't want any other woman to feel like they have to leave if they don't want to, or if they do
feel like, no, it is time for me to make a choice. I can support both of those positions and those experiences and make sure that every, every menstruator is making the choice.
That is fully informed before they make, you know, a change that completely changes the trajectory of their life. And then, I've had women come to me after getting divorces and say it was the rate like the peak of perimenopause. I didn't realize it. I didn't know the way that was, that was interacting wth my relationship.
And now I'm divorced and I don't really want to be, or, you know, I, I felt like I was in the early stages of dementia. And so it was really impacting my work. performance and I was starting to feel really like I'm not respected , by my colleagues and the amount of energy it took me just to get out the door, to go to work in the morning was astronomical.
And so I left my career. But now that I know and know how to treat those symptoms, maybe that wasn't the choice that person would have made. So that's my motivation. And what a beautiful motivation. And I have to believe there's so many educators that are probably drawn to you because of this. Yeah, well, that I mean, that's the first workforce I'm working with.
Because I know that area so well, and, and I do really care, like, especially at this juncture of time, anyone who is in a caregiving. Profession is taxed well beyond their limits. No matter where you are or what you're doing. It is a they are impossible jobs right now. And so we need those brilliant health care providers.
We need those brilliant nurses. We need those brilliant teachers to stay and support the humans that they are working with. but they're in conditions that are making it seem almost impossible. And so that's,, that's actually where I've started. I've started working with teaching, teaching unions and locals to provide professional development so that menstruators know what's happening in their bodies and what they can do about it.
Absolutely. And I have found in my experience, nurses are one of my number one clients and it's because they don't want to go the route that they see happening, you know, but they know they need help, you it's amazing. So you talk about how there's magic around menopause. So we kind of talked about the negative part.
What are some things you can help our listeners with to bring the magic in? Yeah, and I think that's really important because it can feel like a bit of a doom and gloom story, right? Like, I'm sure you see that in the work that you do as well, where especially at the beginning, like when I'm doing the professional learning sessions, I always say, you know, we are going to go on a journey.
And the first part might feel really scary because when you're going through this, these are all of the ways that estrogen protects you. the systems of your body, right? This is what's going to happen as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone start to fluctuate in your body. That part sounds scary where the magic comes in is when you start to realize that there are ways that you can feel better, right?
That that is not the end of your story. Go to a practitioner who says to you well, you're just getting older. Like, yeah, that's how it is. Accept it. No, that that is not the right answer. The five pillars ofcare, right? Movement, nutrition, stress management, sleep, and then the pharmacological pillar.
So there are lots of ways. And perimenopause, when you position it this way, the symptoms that we are experiencing are an invite, well, not an invitation, a demand from our bodies to come back, right? For many of us, our bodies haven't necessarily been the safest place to spend time. And so we withdraw into the brain and we try to conquer.
Whatever it is that we feel in our bodies, right? We try to push it down. We try to ignore it. We push it down or, or we try to solve it, whatever that means for you. So perimenopause demands that you pay attention to this body. And when you can understand that symptoms are messages from your body telling you what needs attention, and then you take all of the love and care that you have been pouring into everybody else.
And you pour it into yourself and care for those systems that are telling you, we need help and support. And it's also a time where when you are doing that, and you are giving your to yourself, it can be this great time of liberation, right? The expert, the societal expectations, the childbearing years, that's behind us.
And while there can be some grief in that as well for, a variety of reasons and context. Now is my time to actually get connected with that girl I was before all of this other stuff started to mess with my, my vision of who I was, of my identity. And I get to reclaim all of that and live that now.
And that really is where the magic is. And I'm sure you find too, we have to sometimes remind ourselves that we're worthy of that every day. All day long. All day, every day. Yes. So I know you do some kinds of group coaching. How does that work? How do you work with people? Yeah. So there's a couple of different ways that I work with people.
So some is just, traditional one on one coaching. I have a group coaching program called finding the magic in menopause and it's a really, yeah, it's a very holistic look. So it's 12 modules. And it goes through everything from, it actually starts with that with self worth because we need that foundation to build on when we're looking at like, Figuring out who I am now, what does it mean for me to be in the empty nest?
We go through menopause, perimenopause. We go through, , how to implement movement and nutrition routines that will stick. , it ends with building community because more than ever in this phase of our lives, we need each other. We need community. So that's that, those are the last modules. It's about how to do that and how to have sustainable relationships and community.
, so it's also a hybrid. So while there are 12 modules and there are videos and there are action tasks in each one. You also get three one on one sessions with me. So one at the beginning, one in the middle, one at the end, and there's a weekly group coaching session as well and a Facebook group. So it's a very supported model to work through.
Absolutely. And yeah, yeah. And it's, it's a really beautiful place for women to be able to come together as well. So those end modules where we're talking about community, some relationships can start being built along the way. Definitely. So if somebody is like feeling so overwhelmed and they're like, I don't even know if I'm in perimenopause, what would you say like their first step should be?
So the, first thing I say is. Start writing down what you're experiencing, have a journal, write down all of the things, because then you can start to, it feels so overwhelming when it's in our brain all the time and, we're using energy just to try to hold it in one place. As well as It's the energy it takes for our bodies to be adjusting to all the hormonal shifts that are happening as well as all of the life shifts that are happening because it's not just what's happening within the body.
This is also a time of life where there are significant shifts and changes right so like you. You indicated you're interested in the empty nest. I'm there myself. Both of my kids started university, their first year of university at the same time, making me an instant empty nester. So it's, and there's so, there's so much in that, in that sort of shift.
So there's, there can be that there's often shifts and changes that are coming in our career. Like we talked about earlier on, caring for aging family. Right. It's, a time where it's a really big squeeze. It's kind of the best way I describe it is there's just, there's a lot that is shifting and changing around us, within us.
And so it's really important to give yourself some time and some grace. To think about, yeah, I'm going to start writing these things down. I'm going to start keeping track of them. And then when I reach out to a healthcare practitioner, I can take that with me and say, this is the like full picture of what I am experiencing.
And then when women start working with me, it's that self worth part that that's always where I start. It's like, I actually take them through a process called writing your midlife manifesto. Yeah. So yeah, it's, you know, working through what are all of the things that are really important to you. And we come up with one phrase that becomes your foundation and helps you make decisions because if something comes into your world that doesn't align with what your midlife manifesto is, it makes it a lot easier to say like, not for me, not right now.
So yeah, so starting with the journal and a midlife manifesto, they're really good places to start. That's awesome. I love that. And I'm thinking this may be I've experienced this with clients. This may be the first time somebody has ever really sat down and said, this is what's happening with me and like written it down.
Most of the time they've been so busy. They just don't even think about anything. And I will have people come to me and say, they haven't done that. They haven't, And they, I don't know, I don't know if I've had a bowel movement every day. It's like really basic things they don't know. And yeah, absolutely.
And again, that comes from that disconnection that happens from our bodies, right? Like we're so the call of our generation in terms of success was dizziness. Which also was a really powerful distraction from really living our lives and being connected with ourselves and what's happening in ur bodies.
And so more, more than ever, I sometimes also refer to myself as a stopping coach. Like we're just going to stop. We're going to slow down and stop looking at busyness as being the hallmark of our success. Thanks. Because if you stay in that, it is going to have significant impacts on your quality of long term health.
And I think some people are addicted to busyness. We have conversations. Yeah. Totally agree. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. And even in myself, like going from being an educator to an entrepreneur. And it's still fairly new for me. Like I'm really only a year into this business, but going from that speeding train of every day, just like one foot in front of the other, like powering through Monday to Friday was a blank Saturday.
I'd have a little bit of respite. Sunday felt like another work day because I was just getting myself ready for the rest of the week. And yes, like that, I was using that. As a numbing strategy in a lot of ways. And I think that's where the addiction comes in because when we're so busy that we can't actually think about our experiences and our lives, that keeps us in that numb space.
And so it can be scary to step away from and feel all the things we have been pushing away so intensely for so long. And it's also. Once you get through the fear and start doing it, you get the ability to actually live life as opposed to racing through life. Absolutely. And I feel like the work that you're doing is going to help the next generation as well, because, our moms didn't tell us anything, so hopefully this is going to go further.
I'm sure you may have even experienced that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I,, I just had this, I had guests on my podcast yesterday too, and we talked about this as well. So it's a theme that's important. And so my mom died when she was 52 and had a hysterectomy in her thirties. So we, we didn't really have this conversation because she had a very different, uh, but I asked when I started doing my menopause coaching course, I talked to my grandma, to my mom's mom, who is in her nineties.
And I said, grandma, what was it like when you were going through menopause and through the empty nest? And she looked at me and said, well, no one's ever asked me that before. Oh, wow. Yeah. So not until she was in her nineties, did someone ask her or did she have the opportunity to talk about it? And when she started to talk about it.
She articulated all of the things, same things that I was experiencing, but lived in a time where you just didn't talk about it. Well, they thought you were hysterical, literally. Yeah, and the other part of that that makes me a little sad as well is that there wasn't the kind of care that looked at quality of life, of lifespan.
So in her 90s, I look at her and she's frail, right? Like, she's had broken hips, she's had pneumonia, she's had all of that. Now that said, she's an incredible trooper. Like last year, she had a reaction to her COVID shot. She had two, she had a broken hip that had to be replaced because it fell apart in her socket.
And then she had pneumonia and she's still like, she's still spicy and kicking it. That's awesome. Yes. And when I take her out places, You know, her mobility is really limited and she, it's, I take one step and then I wait and I take one step and I wait. And when we, when we think about how we want our last years of life to be, it means knowing what's happening in our bodies now and starting to build those habits and routines.
And so, as you know,, weight bearing exercise and movement is key in that. And I think if someone had told my grandma that, you know. 40, 50 years ago, her quality of life might be better now. And that's also the gift we have to give to ourselves and to the generation coming up behind us.
And hopefully the gift of research, because, things are just coming out about low estrogen and soft tissues, tendons, ligaments, things like that. And I'm experiencing things myself and in my clients going, we need more research. So hopefully this will keep going as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it is, it's great that that research is coming out and that we're starting to have some data around the muscular skeletal impacts of, menopause.
And it's also infuriating that it's. 2024. And we're just starting to get this information. Um, that said, I am grateful for the trailblazers who are doing this work and who are leading us forward. It's in many ways, an exciting time to be a woman because of the new knowledge that we have about our bodies.
Now the trick is like claiming the power to actually take control of our bodies and how we want to have them. Health going forward. Absolutely. Well, tell our listeners how they can find you. Yeah, you can find me almost everywhere, but start with Instagram., it's at L boat and my website is liberated menopause.
ca. And all of my contact information is there as well as the links to my podcast, transforming 45. Cool. And her last name is B O A T E, y'all. Yeah. So thanks for the tricky E at the end. Thanks for listening to Hormone Heaven. All of Lisa's resources are going to be listed in our show notes, so don't worry, you can get there and get to them.
Please subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you can get the podcast as soon as they are available. And if you have any questions, check the show notes as well. And remember, don't make any changes with your medications or supplements. And these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. And thank you so much, Lisa.
You're welcome.