Hello Menopause‪!‬ Let's Talk Menopause

Meet entrepreneur and advocate Monica Molenaar. She’s the co-founder of Alloy, a telehealth platform that helps provide medical expertise and treatment to people experiencing menopause. At 40, Monica elected to remove her ovaries to reduce her risk of breast and ovarian cancers after testing positive for the BRCA gene. The effects of this procedure sent her into surgical menopause overnight. 

Tune in to hear about Monica’s family history with breast cancer, the weight gain and lost sleep she experienced when she hit menopause and her struggle to get sound medical advice about hormone therapy. She talks with Christina and Robin about the various menopause treatments she tried and how she started Alloy in order to educate women and empower them to make informed choices about their treatment options.


Learn more about the nonprofit Let’s Talk Menopause: www.letstalkmenopause.org.
Download a symptoms checklist here (lista de síntomas aquí).

Check out Robin’s Comedy & Funny True Stories at www.robingelfenbien.com
Follow Robin on Social: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & Facebook

Thank you to Always Discreet for sponsoring this episode of Hello Menopause. Always Discreet because we deserve better.

Meet Samantha Frankel, the Chief Strategy Officer at Bloom UK, a professional network of women whose mission is to promote equal opportunity within the communications industry.

In this episode, Samantha details her push for a menopausal policy in the workplace. She also speaks with Robin & Christine about her unexpected intro to perimenopause, how menorrhagia (heavy bleeding) sent her to the ER, and how discussing menopause made her feel like she was in the Illuminati. Tune in to hear how listening to other people's menopause experiences validated her own and why she believes stories are more important than facts and figures.

Learn more about the nonprofit Let’s Talk Menopause: www.letstalkmenopause.org.
Download a symptoms checklist here (lista de síntomas aquí).

Check out Robin’s Comedy & Funny True Stories at www.robingelfenbien.com
Follow Robin on Social: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & Facebook

Thank you to Always Discreet for sponsoring this episode of Hello Menopause. Always Discreet because we deserve better.

Meet Emily McDowell: writer, illustrator, speaker, entrepreneur and host of the podcast “Quitted.” Emily left working in advertising to launch her own greeting card business called Emily McDowell Studio (now Em & Friends). She wrote and illustrated cards that speak to the genuine, sometimes difficult, relationships we really have. The brand is best known for its Empathy Cards designed to help people connect more authentically and honestly with loved ones experiencing major illness, loss, and yes, even menopause!

In this episode, Emily details her unique journey with medical menopause and tells Christine and Robin about her heavy and long periods, joint pains, brain fog, migraines, exhaustion, irritability, night sweats, and mood swings after starting perimenopause at just 39. Emily also talks about the power of quitting things that don't serve us, her vulnerability to admit she was struggling during a time of intense achievement, and her new commitment to focus on personal contentment.

Learn more about the nonprofit Let’s Talk Menopause: www.letstalkmenopause.org.
Download a symptoms checklist here (lista de síntomas aquí).

Check out Robin’s Comedy & Funny True Stories at www.robingelfenbien.com
Follow Robin on Social: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & Facebook

Thank you to Always Discreet for sponsoring this episode of Hello Menopause. Always Discreet because we deserve better.

Content Warning: Suicidal ideation is discussed in this episode of Hello Menopause. 

Meet Gabrielle Calvocoressi: award-winning poet, UNC Chapel Hill Associate Professor, Editor at Large of the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Poetry Editor at Southern Cultures.

Gabby, who identifies as nonbinary, speaks with compassion and gratitude about coming to terms with a body that never fully felt like their own. They talk about how their gender identity played a role in obtaining the medical care they needed. They also share the compassion they have for post-menopausal cis women and nonbinary/trans people who know what it’s like to feel invisible.

After experiencing heavy bleeding, depression, and suicidal ideation leading up to their period, Gabby was inspired to write the poem, “My Perimenopausal Body Cistern Disappointing How Surprising," which they recite in this episode.

Learn more about the nonprofit Let’s Talk Menopause: www.letstalkmenopause.org.
Download a symptoms checklist here (lista de síntomas aquí).

Check out Robin’s Comedy & Funny True Stories at www.robingelfenbien.com
Follow Robin on Social: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & Facebook

Thank you to Always Discreet for sponsoring this episode of Hello Menopause. Always Discreet because we deserve better.

Meet professional speaker, paralegal, former Miss USA pageant contestant, and mother of conjoined twins, Emily Stark. Emily started experiencing signs of menopause in the midst of grieving the loss of her mother to pancreatic cancer. 

Join Emily, Christine, and Robin as they talk about hot flashes, mood swings, thinning hair, and the similarities between grief and menopause.  Plus, hear how Emily adjusted her idea of what midlife would be like and how menopause taught her to learn new things like how to build a yurt!

Learn more about the nonprofit Let’s Talk Menopause: www.letstalkmenopause.org.
Download a symptoms checklist here (lista de síntomas aquí).

Check out Robin’s Comedy & Funny True Stories at www.robingelfenbien.com
Follow Robin on Social: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & Facebook

Thank you to Always Discreet for sponsoring this episode of Hello Menopause. Always Discreet because we deserve better.

Meet All-American Ironman triathlete, professional health and fitness writer, and host of the “Hit Play, Not Pause” podcast, Selene Yeager. As an athlete, Selene is no stranger to building a relationship with pain, yet menopause made her reassess her connection with her body.

In this episode, she talks with Robin and Christine about finding out she was in perimenopause after experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, reduced muscle composition, and anxiety while in the midst of a semi-pro bike racing career. Selene says these symptoms made her want to disappear and almost give up racing. Selene also shares how educating herself about her body’s changes, slowing down, and “living forward” helped her get excited about the future and encourage other post-menopausal women to do the same. 

Learn more about the nonprofit Let’s Talk Menopause: www.letstalkmenopause.org.
Download a symptoms checklist here (lista de síntomas aquí).

Check out Robin’s Comedy & Funny True Stories at www.robingelfenbien.com
Follow Robin on Social: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & Facebook

Thank you to Always Discreet for sponsoring this episode of Hello Menopause. Always Discreet because we deserve better.