This conversation is not about ‘surviving’ menopause.
It’s about claiming power, pleasure, and potency on the other side of it.

Sally sits down with Carla Wainwright, holistic wellness coach, sexual awakening facilitator, and self-described midlife alchemist, for a deeply grounding, myth-shattering conversation about what really happens when women cross the threshold of midlife.

With a background in biology, homeopathy, and over 30 years of embodiment work, Carla bridges science and the sacred in a way that feels both practical and deeply liberating. This isn’t woo for the sake of woo, and it’s not cold science either. It’s the place where metabolism, trauma, hormones, pleasure, and power actually meet.

In this episode, we talk about why menopause is not a decline but a rite of passage. Why so many women feel unprepared for it, and why the years after perimenopause can become the most creative, sexually alive, and authentic chapter of a woman’s life…if she’s supported properly.

Carla shares how her own journey — from wildlife biologist working with endangered species to guiding women through sexual healing and midlife transformation — came full circle when she entered perimenopause herself. What emerged was a model she calls sacred metabolism: tending not just to blood sugar and hormones, but to the nervous system, the inner child, and the feminine life force itself.

We explore why unstable blood sugar can keep women stuck in fight-or-flight, amplify trauma, worsen menopausal symptoms, and quietly erode desire. Why pleasure isn’t indulgent. And why many women lose touch with intimacy, not because something is wrong with them, but because no one ever taught them how to stay connected to their bodies as they change.

This episode also dives into sex in midlife — honestly, tenderly, and without shame. We talk about why desire changes, why stress is the ultimate libido killer, and why reconnection always starts with the relationship you have with yourself. No pressure to perform. No swinging from chandeliers. Just curiosity, safety, and choice.

You’ll also hear:

• Why menopause can make women less people-pleasing and more clear about what they want
• How sexual energy shifts when menstruation ends — and why some traditions call this phase “the second spring.”
• The link between trauma resurfacing and perimenopause
• Why women initiate most divorces between 45–55
• How sacred feminine practices reconnect women to intuition, creativity, and embodied wisdom
• The myths about menopause that quietly serve patriarchy
• Simple daily practices that build momentum when you feel stuck in survival mode

This is a conversation about remembering who you are — in your body, in your desire, and in your power — at a stage of life that has been deeply misunderstood

📲 Connect with Carla:

Website: https://www.carlawainwright.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlawainwright/

Free Gift: https://www.carlawainwright.com/vibrancyguide

Sally's Links:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£

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Your Cycle Isn’t the Problem — The Way We’ve Been Taught to Live Is

What if the days you feel flat, emotional, tired, or “off” aren’t something to fix…
but something to listen to?

In this episode, Sally is joined by Claire Baker — menstrual cycle educator, author, and founder of Cycle Coach School — for a grounded, honest conversation about menstrual cycle awareness, agency, and the long-term impact of ignoring the body’s rhythms.

We’re not asking you to ‘love your period’, we’re just saying it might be nice to stop fighting with your body.

🔥 WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

🩸 Claire’s journey off hormonal birth control — and what it was like to experience a natural cycle after 10 years on the pill
🌙 The four phases of the menstrual cycle, explained with nuance (not rigid rules or social-media trends)
📉 Why cycle tracking is about curiosity, self-trust, and noticing patterns — not biohacking or optimisation
🧠 “Cycle amnesia” and why writing things down helps us understand ourselves over time
💔 The shame, silence, and secrecy many of us grew up with around periods — and why inner-teenager repair matters
🔄 How cycle awareness remains deeply relevant in perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause
🌱 One small, practical way to begin building a kinder relationship with your body today

“Everything is cyclical — our energy, creativity, relationships, and lives.”

🧭 ABOUT CLAIRE BAKER

Claire Baker has spent over a decade teaching women how to work with their menstrual cycle rather than against it. She is the author of 50 Things You Need to Know About Periods, creator of Adore Your Cycle, and founder of Cycle Coach School. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health.

🎧 Listen if you’re tired of powering through — and ready to meet your body with more curiosity, compassion, and trust.

📲 Connect with Claire:

Website: www.clairebaker.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/_clairebaker_

Sally's Links:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[On-Demand Workshop] Redefine Your Values at Menopause and Live Life in Alignment With Them [£27]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/redefine

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

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As we know, menopause is not a downfall, it’s a metamorphosis, and Petra Coveney—former BBC journalist, founder of Menopause Yoga, bestselling author, and unapologetic menopause rebel—joined Sally to tear down every stale narrative about “the change.”

And trust us… this conversation goes there.

Petra went through perimenopause early, alone, confused, and dismissed by doctors who had nothing to offer her except a pat on the head and a “good luck.”
The frustration, shame and rage… she tapped into all of it.

And what came out of that fire?

Menopause Yoga—the world’s first specialist yoga program built to support the physical, emotional, and psychological rollercoaster of perimenopause through second spring.

In this episode, Petra breaks down:

🔥 Why rage is a superpower (and what it’s trying to wake up in you)
🔥 The moment she realized NO ONE was helping menopausal women—and why she decided she would
🔥 The resistance she got from BOTH yoga studios and doctors (spoiler: everyone thought she was “too much”)
🔥 Why community circles are non-negotiable for healing
🔥 How yoga, breathwork, and evidence-based education can literally rewire your menopausal brain
🔥 The truth about “brain fog” and why it might actually be your brain upgrading itself
🔥 Why we need to stop whispering the word menopause and say it out loud—with pride

Petra’s mission is bold:
Break the taboo. Reclaim the narrative. Connect women back to their power.
Menopause isn't an ending. It’s the doorway to your second spring—a phase of clarity, leadership, and fierce selfhood.

If you’re in the weeds of perimenopause, waking up drenched, snapping at your loved ones, losing words in the middle of a meeting, or wondering “Is it just me?”—this episode will feel like a giant exhale.

And if you’ve ever felt ashamed of these changes?
Petra is here to hand you permission to drop that shame today.

ORDER PETRA’S BOOK WITH AN EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT

Get Menopause Yoga and Wellbeing: A Daily Practice Guide
Use the discount code: %PETRA25
Only valid on the Singing Dragon shop.

If you loved this episode…

Share it with someone who needs to hear:
“You are not losing yourself — you are becoming someone new.”

📲 Connect with Petra:

Website: www.menopause-yoga.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/menopause_yoga
Facebook: Menopause Yoga

Sally's Links:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[On-Demand Workshop] Redefine Your Values at Menopause and Live Life in Alignment With Them [£27]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/redefine

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational H

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In this episode, Sally sits down with Dr. Lara Briden, naturopathic doctor and bestselling author of Period Repair Manual, Hormone Repair Manual, and Metabolism Repair for Women. She’s been called the period revolutionary—and after this conversation, you’ll understand exactly why.

We talk about the massive paradox in women’s health:
Society suddenly worships estrogen and progesterone when women hit their mid-40s…
…yet spent the last 60 years casually switching those same hormones off in teenage girls.

Yep. We’re going there.

What We Get Into

• Why regular ovulation is not just “nice to have” — it’s literally how young women make hormones
• How we got stuck in a 60-year loop of shutting down women’s ovarian function (hint: the pill’s “regulate your period” pitch started as a cover story)
• The weird disconnect between medical guidelines that say periods are a vital sign… and the normalization of medicating them away
• What a healthy period actually looks like (spoiler: it shouldn’t hurt and it shouldn’t require you to white-knuckle your way through PMS)
• Why so many modern symptoms aren’t “women being women”—they’re the result of environment, lifestyle, and a system that never prioritized female physiology
• And the big one: Did menopause evolve? Or is it some biological glitch because women are living longer?

The Mic-Drop Moments

• Lara breaks down why menopause absolutely evolved on purpose—and why humans are more like killer whales than we think
• The “grandmother effect” and why older women have always been essential for the survival of the tribe
• The wild fact that among the Hadza, and other traditional-living communities, menopause brings zero symptoms
• The reality that our cycles are meant to be signals, not punishments

If You’ve Ever Thought…

“I guess this is just how my period is.”
“This is normal for my age.”
“Maybe my hormones just hate me.”

…this episode might flip your worldview upside down (in a good way).

About Dr. Lara Briden

Lara practices in Christchurch, New Zealand, helping women navigate PCOS, PMS, endometriosis, perimenopause, and other hormone-health challenges. Her work bridges biology, history, anthropology, and real-world clinical wisdom.

📲 Connect with Lara:

Website: https://www.larabriden.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larabriden/

Sally's Links:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[On-Demand Workshop] Redefine Your Values at Menopause and Live Life in Alignment With Them [£27]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/redefine

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching:

Send me a direct message

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Everything went wrong before this interview even started: lagging audio, frozen screens, “Can you hear me?” chaos… which, honestly, became the perfect metaphor for today’s topic: women being told to accept dysfunction as normal.

And fittingly, this conversation marks a huge milestone — our 200th episode! Two hundred episodes of unlearning, reframing, and giving women permission to trust their bodies. And today’s guest delivers exactly that kind of truth.

Because once Nicole Jardim (women’s health coach + author of Fix Your Period) finally got connected, she dropped a truth bomb most women never hear:

👉 Statistically common doesn’t mean biologically normal.

Cramps, mood swings, missing periods, heavy bleeding — we’ve been conditioned to believe it’s “part of being a woman.” Nicole is here to burn that narrative down.

In this raw and revealing conversation, Nicole takes us back to where it all began — age 12, pads in the backpack, intuition on point — and then straight into the trauma, the chaos, and the hormonal storm that followed after the sudden death of her father. From survival-mode teen years to being handed the pill as a “solution,” Nicole walks us through the cascade of symptoms that no one connected to the pill, stress, genetics, detox pathways, or trauma.

This episode breaks the script. We talk:

• Why period pain can be a red flag
• How trauma + puberty + synthetic hormones created a perfect hormonal disaster
• The COMT gene, stress metabolism, and why some women feel like live wires
• Why your period is basically your body’s early-warning system
• The hidden stressors no one warns women about
• Why we’ve normalized suffering — and why that needs to end

Nicole doesn’t sugarcoat. She also doesn’t catastrophize. She reframes powerfully. Because the same genetic profile that makes you sensitive to stress might also be the source of your creativity, drive, memory, intuition, and fire.

If you’ve ever been told to “just deal with it,” this episode will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about your cycle, your symptoms, and what your body has been trying to tell you for years.

This is your permission slip to stop normalizing pain.

And to start listening to your biology instead of fighting it.

📲 Connect with Nicole:

Website: https://nicolejardim.com/

Nicole’s Membership - The Fix Your Period Collective: https://www.fixyourperiod.com/

Nicole’s Practitioner Program: https://instituteformenstrualhealth.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicolemjardim/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolemjardim/

Sally's Links:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[On-Demand Workshop] Redefine Your Values at Menopause and Live Life in Alignment With Them [£27]: https://www.sallygarozzo.co

Send me a direct message

Support the show

Perimenopause can feel like a 10–15 year hormonal remix, but why is it so much harder for women in 2025?. Dr. Jessica Drummond busts myths, challenges outdated narratives, and explains the overlaps nobody talks about: long COVID, autoimmune flare-ups, endometriosis, stress overload, digital overwhelm, and why so many women enter midlife already running on fumes.

🔥 The Big Myth That Needs to Die
Perimenopause is NOT:
✨ “Menopause-lite”
✨ A single moment in time
✨ A sudden cliff-drop hormonal event
✨ A one-size-fits-all hormone prescription
✨ Something you can fix with a supplement stack from Instagram

💥 Why Perimenopause Feels Harder Now
Women today face extra layers:
• long COVID risk
• autoimmune triggers
• endometriosis
• digital overstimulation
• constant work-life overlap
• the “3–5 full-time jobs” workload
• modern toxic load
• stress culture
• chronic under-resting

🚨 The Overlap Nobody Talks About
Fatigue, brain fog, pain, mood swings aren’t just hormones — they can be:
• viral injury
• metabolic dysfunction
• autoimmune activation
• chronic stress fallout
• endo flare-ups
• nervous system dysregulation

🌡️ HRV: The Underrated Biomarker
Heart Rate Variability shows stress resilience — and many women in their 40s have HRV scores of someone in their 90s. Rest isn’t optional; it’s vital.

💆‍♀️ Skincare = Self-care
Gua sha, facial massages, and skincare rituals aren’t just vanity — they support the vagus nerve, lymphatic system, and nervous system. Ten minutes a night can do more for your hormones than you think.

🧠 Integrative Medicine, Demystified
Not woo. Not extreme. Not pills or plants. Science + lifestyle + nervous system + personalized care — because every transition is unique.

💬 What You’ll Walk Away With:
• How hormones ACTUALLY change in midlife
• Why symptoms feel inconsistent or contradictory
• Why one-size-fits-all prescriptions fail
• How viral load, toxins, and stress complicate perimenopause
• What HRV reveals about resilience
• Why rest matters
• How integrative care supports the whole woman
• Practical strategies for real resilience

🌙 There Is Light on the Other Side
Stable moods, better sleep, grounded energy, and a deeper sense of self — it’s possible, and worth it.

📲 Connect with Dr Jessica Drummond:

Website: https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/integrativewomenshealth

Sally's Links:

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[On-Demand Workshop] Redefine Your Values at Menopause and Live Life in Alignment With Them [£27]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/redefine

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Transformational 30 Day Rewire (Includes RTT) [£497]:

Send me a direct message

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💥 THE DISRUPTION

Forget the pastel “self-care” nonsense. This episode gets raw about perimenopause, womb work, and what it actually means to reclaim your creative power from the inside out.

Sally sits down with Melanie Swan, a true rebel priestess of womb wisdom, healer, author, and embodiment guide, currently thriving (and sweating) her way through perimenopause in Northern Thailand.

They dive deep into the real feminine: the kind that doesn’t float in flower crowns but breathes fire, bleeds with purpose, and knows when to pull the curtains, strip off the bra, and waft.

⚡️ WHAT WE EXPLORE:

• Why Melanie left the chaos behind to do “absolutely nothing” and how that saved her sanity
• The radical beauty of perimenopause as a pause from men, noise, and overdoing
• The misunderstood magic of womb work and why it’s not just woo-woo poetry
• What the womb actually represents (spoiler: it’s way more than baby-making)
• How our cycles are ancient maps for creation, rest, and power if we’d only listen
• Why “the feminine” isn’t all softness and how divine masculine energy lives inside us too
• Melanie’s unfiltered take on Instagram spirituality and “the feminine is flowy” clichés

If you’ve ever felt the urge to burn everything down just to breathe, this conversation is your permission slip.

It’s not about hormones or hot flashes; it’s about coming home to your body’s wisdom and reclaiming your sovereignty as a creator.

🔥 ABOUT MELANIE SWAN

Melanie helps women heal the physical and metaphysical womb, restoring the divine balance of masculine and feminine energy. Currently writing her first book, The Sacred Womb, she lives in Northern Thailand, where she swims, writes poetry, and celebrates the art of doing absolutely nothing.

📲 Connect with Melanie:

Website: https://www.thesacredwomb.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_sacred_womb

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredwombmswan

Sally's Links:

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[On-Demand Workshop] Redefine Your Values at Menopause and Live Life in Alignment With Them [£27]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/redefine

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Transformational 30 Day Rewire (Includes RTT) [£497]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/redefine

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

Send me a voice clip via WhatsApp: https://wa.me/message/FTARBMO7CRLEL1

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Forget everything you think you know about periods. This conversation blows the lid off the cultural conditioning, shame, and linear thinking we’ve been fed, and replaces it with a radical new paradigm: menstruality as a source of power, creativity, leadership, and spiritual awakening.

In this episode, Sally sits down with Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, the visionary co-founders of Red School and co-authors of Wild Power and Wise Power. With over 60 years of combined experience, they’re not just talking about women’s health; they’re pioneering a whole new language and leadership model rooted in the menstrual cycle.

🔍 What We Explore

• The Calling Within – Alexandra shares how deep menstrual pain cracked her open to a deeper intelligence, triggering a spiritual awakening that’s governed her life’s work. Menopause, she says, didn’t slow her; it unleashed her.
• Creativity Flowing Through the Cycle – Sjanie describes how regaining her cycle post-contraception reconnected her to intuition, emotional truths, and her life’s purpose. The menstrual cycle became a living conduit for creativity and confidence.
• Four Inner Seasons = Four Powers – How menstruation (inner winter), pre-ovulation (spring), ovulation (summer), and pre-menstruum (autumn) mirror nature, and how honoring these phases restores your inner ecology and breaks the burnout cycle of “more is better.”
• Death, Rebirth & the Menopause Initiation – The transition into menopause is a profound psychological death. Surrendering to it allows a rebirth into your most powerful, purpose-filled chapter.
• From Inner to Outer Evolution – When you reclaim your cyclical nature, you deepen empathy, reorient your relationship with nature, and become a catalyst for collective change. It’s not just personal, it’s planetary.

🎯 Why This Conversation Is a Must-Listen

If you’ve ever felt pressure to hide, suppress, or push through your cycle, this episode flips that paradigm. Alexandra and Sjanie are not simply reframing menstruation; they’re inviting you into a radical new way of living, leading, and creating, one that is cyclical, embodied, and in harmony with nature.

This is not about coping.
This is about activating the wild, wise power that’s always been inside you.

🔗 Want to Go Deeper?

If this conversation lights something in you and you’re ready to step into more understanding, embodiment, and power around menopause and the cycle, I invite you to explore Menopause: The Great Awakener by Red School. Use this link (affiliate) to learn more or sign up:
👉 Menopause: The Great Awakener

📲 Connect with Alexandra and Sjanie:

Website: www.redschool.net

Instagram: www.instagram.com/red.school/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redschoolonline

Sally's Links:

[Free Guide] Healing The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtraumatheguide

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

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