Ready to Pop
Right now, anger swells inside me like a balloon about to pop. But it doesn’t. Instead, it simmers just beneath the surface of my skin, perfectly expanding into every space of my being, yet so neatly confined. This anger—buried beneath sadness, or perhaps the sadness...
Pre-Menopause
Céline wrote in German.Use Google translate to read in English or another language Prä-Menopause Es kam schleichend… Wie fast alle Veränderungen,die unser Körper im Laufe des Lebens durchmacht, passierte auch die Veränderung von meinem Zyklus so langsam, dass ich es...
Carlin’s Bodysex Research
Covid lockdown happened on the heels of our Goop episode. We'd received thousands of emails - our workshops were booked with wait lists - then everything went dark. Betty was dying and I was making healthcare decisions over the phone. With a broken heart, I put...
Menopause Blogs
We wrote about our experiences with menopause. Browse the links below to read the full post.Womanhood in a Broken System "At this point, if you’re having this many issues, it’s not the birth control, it’s you. You should think about seeing a psychiatrist."by Lakota...
My Menopause Story
I’ve been taking hormone replacement therapy for nearly 30 years. It’s improved my quality of life and physical health. I wouldn’t want to live without it. At age 37, my periods stopped abruptly. I would awaken at night, hot and drenched in sweat. These episodes...
Womanhood in a Broken System
When I was 17 I decided I was ready to have penetrative sex with my then boyfriend. I went to planned parenthood with my mom and they put me on the pill. I gave it a good try for a few months and the mood swings were not working for me. I went back in, told them and...
Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just Me?
Revisiting Menopausal Hormone Therapy When I was a new Nurse Practitioner (NP), the Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) evidence-based medicine guidelines scared the sh * t out of many prescribers. I was one of them. HRT went from being the miracle drugs for treating...
Menopause Resources Recommended by Forest
Art by Betty Dodson No one is paying me for this compilation. I’m just sharing my bumbling around and what’s worked. I hope you find it helpful. I also don’t necessarily agree with 100% of what each source preaches. Please also take what resonates and leave what...
The Life Process of Menopause
Menopause is a Life Process not a medical condition. And it’s not something that’s unfortunately wrong with 51% of the human population and toothed whales. I’m still learning how to menopause in a good way. The last four years have been the hardest health years of my...
Hemorrhaging
As wild as they are, the hot flashes I’ve started having the past couple months are easier than the hemorrhaging I was experiencing the last couple years. Depending on who you talk to, hemorrhaging is a sign of perimenopause and also caused by environmental factors....
This Is How I’m Going to Do Menopause
The only information I had about menopause came from vaginal dryness commercials, sit com punchlines, and Betty’s description of her “heat orgasms”. At the stroke of 50, I started to feel like I was losing my grip on reality. I felt angry all the time. I woke up...
We Were All There to Heal, to Feel Something Other Than Fear
We thought we’d be celebrating the first Madame President but instead we packed up and headed out for Bodysex with heavy hearts. As my flight took off, I thought about how I would open the workshop. I feared that the election may create tension between the...
My Abortion
December 26th, 2007 was the day I found out I was pregnant. I was a 22-year-old college student still living at home, so I took the test in a Walmart bathroom so I could easily destroy the evidence, as my mother was very much against elective abortion. I knew from...
Abortion
We wrote about our experiences with abortion. Browse the links below to read the full post.Abortion: A Self-Reflection "Pregnancy can be a natural process until it goes horribly wrong."by Grace OasisThe Abortion Issue is a Red Herring ". . . our rightful place as...
My Abortion Experience
Amber Thurman, Carman Broedster, Candi Miller, Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, Nevaeh Crain, and Josseli Barnica bled out or succumbed to infection in hospitals since Roe v Wade was overturned. Most were carrying intended pregnancies – most were mothers who left children...