Trauma and Perimenopause with Dr. Laura Anderson & Dr. Sulla Windgassen

From Postpartum to Perimenopause: Pamela Brown & Dr. Sharon Malone on Women’s Changing Bodies Women go through so many changes, yet we’re often left to connect the dots ourselves. In this episode of SEEN & HEARD, CNN’s Pamela Brown, joins Dr. Sharon Malone for an honest conversation about motherhood, perimenopause, and understanding your body when things start to feel different. Pamela shares her personal experience with postpartum OCD and brings that openness to a broader conversation about women’s health. At 43, she reflects on a stage of life familiar to many women: raising children while trying to understand changes in your own body, often with more questions than answers. Dr. Malone brings her clinical perspective to the transition from the reproductive years into perimenopause. Together, they make space for the questions women don’t always know when, where, or how to ask. How do you recognize a new chapter when you’re still in the middle of another? Where do you turn for clear information? And how do you make sure your concerns are heard? This is a conversation about the experiences behind those questions. About sharing what we’ve been through, learning what may come next, and feeling more confident asking for the care and support we need. About our guests Pamela Brown is a CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent and the host of Body Language by CNN. Through her reporting and willingness to share her own experiences, she brings attention to women’s health stories that too often go unspoken. Dr. Sharon Malone is a women’s health physician and author of Grown Woman Talk. She helps women better understand their bodies, navigate healthcare, and advocate for themselves throughout their lives. Explore more from Pamela and Sharon • Watch Body Language by CNN, hosted by Pamela Brown, for more candid stories about women’s health. • Read Grown Woman Talk by Dr. Sharon Malone for guidance on understanding your health and taking an active role in your care. Continue learning with Perry Academy Women’s experiences are at the heart of better perimenopause care. Perry Academy helps health professionals build the knowledge to recognize perimenopause, ask better questions, and support the whole person. Through the Perimenopause Certificate® and ongoing multidisciplinary education, Perry Academy brings together expert perspectives from across specialties to support more informed, patient-driven care. Explore the certificate, membership options, and CME/CE opportunities at Perry Academy. Looking for community? Visit heyperry.com. SEEN & HEARD by Perry brings lived experience and expert perspectives together for honest conversations about women’s health.

What does it feel like to face breast cancer at 19—and experience menopause symptoms while your friends are in a completely different stage of life? In this episode of Seen & Heard, actress, content creator and women’s health advocate Miranda McKeon shares her experience of being diagnosed with stage 3 hormone-positive breast cancer at just 19. Now 24 and almost five years cancer-free, she speaks about symptoms that can be difficult to explain, feeling isolated from her peers, and the emotional weight of a cancer diagnosis. Joining Miranda is her own oncologist, Eleonora Teplinsky, MD, author of Beyond The Pink, a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in breast and gynecologic cancers. Together, they talk about the grief, trauma and everyday experiences that survival statistics don’t capture. This conversation explores: Facing breast cancer as a young adult.

Breast Cancer at 38, Menopause, and My One Chance at Motherhood What changes in healthcare when we stop starting with the expert and start with the woman who lived it? Seen & Heard is built around lived experience. Real women tell their health stories in their own words: what happened, what it felt like, where care worked, where it fell short, and what they wish their healthcare professionals had understood. Healthcare professionals join the conversation not to explain away those experiences, but to listen, reflect and explore what we can learn from them. In this episode, Sarrah Strimel Bentley sits down with clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel L. Goldman for an extraordinarily personal conversation about breast cancer, treatment-induced menopause, fertility loss, surrogacy, motherhood and the emotional reality of having your life and body change almost overnight. Sarrah was 38 when she found a lump in her breast. After initially being reassured that she was young, had no family history and was low risk, she trusted what she knew about her own body and kept pushing for answers. She was ultimately diagnosed with stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma and underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. But cancer affected far more than her breasts. Treatment forced Sarrah into menopause and eventually left her without ovarian function. Before chemotherapy, she and her now-husband went through IVF and created one viable embryo. They called him Chance: their one chance at having a genetically related child. That embryo ultimately became their son through surrogacy. Sarrah and Dr. Goldman unpack the parts of these experiences that rarely fit neatly into a medical chart: grief and joy existing at the same time, the loss of control, the pressure to be “brave,” fertility decisions made in the middle of a cancer diagnosis, navigating surrogacy, and the importance of healthcare professionals seeing the individual rather than simply the diagnosis. They also talk about something at the heart of Seen & Heard: using your voice. When Sarrah encountered healthcare professionals who understood her story, she felt held as a whole person. When she didn’t feel seen or heard, she learned to speak up, ask questions and make herself part of the conversation. Because lived experience isn’t an anecdote sitting outside of healthcare. It is information healthcare professionals can learn from. Sarrah Strimel Bentley is a former Broadway showgirl, motivational speaker, women’s health advocate and toddler mom. She is the founder of A Chance For Life Foundation and Damn Good & Co. Follow Sarrah on Instagram and TikTok at @sarrahstrimelbentley. Rachel L. Goldman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, author of When Life Happens, and Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Her work focuses on helping people navigate the moments in life they cannot control and developing practical tools to respond to stress, uncertainty and change. Learn more about When Life Happens: When Life Happens Seen & Heard is a Perry podcast built around a simple belief: better care starts with listening. Each episode begins with a woman’s lived experience. Healthcare professionals are invited into that story to listen, ask questions and reflect on what her experience can teach us about delivering better care. These aren't conversations about the “perfect patient journey.” They are about what healthcare actually feels like from the other side of the exam room. Seen & Heard is brought to you by Perry, with this episode created in partnership with Bonafide. For healthcare professionals who want to take these lessons further, Perry Academy provides multidisciplinary education in perimenopause and menopause care, helping professionals translate women’s lived experiences and the latest clinical knowledge into better everyday care. Learn more at Perry Academy and the Perimenopause Certificate.

SEEN & HEARD: It Starts With Listening to Women Welcome to the first episode of SEEN & HEARD, a new special series from Perimenopause WTF? We are launching SEEN & HEARD during Perimenopause Awareness Month with a message we believe needs to be at the center of this month: Awareness starts with listening to women. For too long, women have been telling us what is happening to their bodies. They have talked about the anxiety that seemingly came out of nowhere. The sleep that suddenly changed. The brain fog, exhaustion, changes in their periods, libido, mood and sense of self. They have asked whether these symptoms could be connected. And too often, they have been dismissed, treated symptom by symptom, or simply told that they are too young for perimenopause. SEEN & HEARD starts somewhere different: by listening to women. Because women’s lived experiences are not an afterthought to the healthcare conversation. They are where the conversation should begin. In our first episode, we meet Kristin Cohen, Perry Community Manager, who was just 37 when she first began experiencing symptoms of perimenopause. At 37, perimenopause wasn’t the obvious explanation. Kristin’s experience represents something we hear again and again in the Perry community: women know when something has changed in their bodies, even when they don’t yet have the language to explain what is happening. Kristin shares her story with Dr. Alyssa Dweck, MS, MD, FACOG, MSCP, practicing gynecologist and Chief Medical Officer of Bonafide Health. And importantly, the conversation begins with Kristin. Her experience. Her questions. What she noticed. What she needed. Dr. Dweck brings the clinical expertise to help put that lived experience into context. That is the soul of SEEN & HEARD. Listen to the woman first. Then bring in the science, expertise and care. Because if we want to build better healthcare for women, we have to get better at hearing what women have been telling us all along. Kristin and Dr. Dweck explore: • What it can feel like when perimenopause begins in your 30s • Why women may not recognize that seemingly unrelated symptoms could be connected • What happens when women feel their concerns aren’t being heard • The questions women are really asking inside the Perry community • How lived experience can help inform better clinical conversations • Why listening to women has to be part of improving perimenopause care This episode also marks a broader collaboration between Perry and Bonafide Health built around making trusted perimenopause education more accessible to women. Together, we are launching Perry Shorts with Dr. Alyssa Dweck: short, digestible educational videos that take the real questions we hear from women and bring them directly to a trusted healthcare expert. The principle is the same: Start with what women are asking. Start with what women are experiencing. Start by listening. Dr. Alyssa Dweck, MS, MD, FACOG, MSCP is a practicing gynecologist, Menopause Society Certified Practitioner and Chief Medical Officer of Bonafide Health. She has decades of experience caring for women, with a particular focus on menopause and female sexual health. At Perry, listening to women is only the beginning. What we hear from women also needs to make its way back into healthcare. Through Perry Academy, we bring the lived realities of perimenopause together with multidisciplinary, evidence-based healthcare professional education. The goal is to help more healthcare professionals recognize the whole-person experience of perimenopause and have better, more informed conversations with the women sitting in front of them. That connection matters. Listen to women. Learn from women. Bring their experiences into healthcare education. And ultimately, change the way women are cared for. That is what SEEN & HEARD is about. 🎧 Follow Perimenopause WTF? wherever you listen to podcasts and stay tuned for more SEEN & HEARD conversations.

Welcome to Perimenopause WTF!, brought to you by ⁠Perry⁠—the #1 perimenopause app and education space. The Perry Academy was created for 🎓 Healthcare Providers, to help Transform How You Support Women in Midlife. ⁠Perry Academy⁠ is built for providers ready to lead the charge in perimenopause care. Grounded in the lived experiences of over 500,000 women, our CME- and CE-accredited training gives you the tools, insights, and real-world strategies to recognize, assess, and support women through perimenopause and beyond. Join a growing movement of clinicians and allied health professionals committed to closing the midlife care gap. 🔗 ⁠Join at www.perry.academy⁠ A membership grounded in evidence-based training, expert-led modules, and the lived insights of 500,000+ women—designed to transform midlife care. Today’s episode is titled “PMS to Perimenopause” with Dr. Nanette Santoro and Dr. Nancy King Reame. In this episode, we explore the intricate transition from PMS to perimenopause with renowned experts Dr. Nancy King Reame and Dr. Nanette Santoro. The discussion dives into the "PMS continuum," clarifying how to distinguish between cyclic premenstrual symptoms, PMDD, and the early hormonal shifts of midlife. You’lll gain a deeper understanding of topics like "menstrual magnification" and the latest clinical breakthroughs in using low-dose SSRIs to manage both mood and physical symptoms during this complex life stage. You’re not crazy, and you’re not alone! Download the free Perry App on ⁠Apple⁠ or ⁠Android⁠ and join our live expert talks, receive evidence-based education, connect with other women, and simplify your perimenopause journey. The ⁠Perry Menopause Journal⁠ Looking for a meaningful way to prioritize your well-being? The Perry Menopause Journal is your companion through perimenopause offering: Thoughtful Prompts to reflect on your journey.