Moien dear readers and listeners, and welcome back to a new season of your favorite parenting podcast, Mom Life in Luxembourg! Although this show does cover parenting, it also aims to cover every aspect of life that women of a certain age and stage go through besides raising kids – and that includes perimenopause and beyond. Since October is World Menopause Month, and this show is airing on the radio on World Menopause Day (tune in to RTL Today 93.3 on Sunday at 5), I thought we should kick off our season with a little hot flash. Just kidding!
I will start with a funny story. Over the summer, I experienced rage for the first time in my life. The kind of rage where a tiny voice inside your brain is saying "Wow! Where did this come from?" while the majority of your brain is exploding. This is not good when summer is 6 weeks long and summer camp for 3 kids is basically €1,000 a week.
I also became really sensitive to sounds. A loud bang (caused by a child dropping a cup, for example) would cause me to jump. It was almost painful, full "fight or flight" activated. Since I have 3 boys, loud bangs happen a lot. So, I sent a note to my WhatsApp group of perimenopausal women to ask if they too are having rage and sensitivity to sounds. The answers were hilarious. One woman said her husband does this "little dance" with his fork and knife that she suddenly can’t stand. My own guest said she got mad at her husband for chewing! And get this - breathing too loud!
To talk about all this and more, I’m joined in the studio by Cathy Cribben-Pearse. She is an expert in menopause with an outstanding resume: a nurse and midwife with over 25 years in women’s health and leadership, a Postgraduate Certificate in Menopause Medicine, British Menopause Society training, and Dr. Louise Newson’s menopause training under her belt. She spent eight years helping open Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and now runs corporate workshops and executive coaching on menopause – work that earned her the 2024 Global Women Power Leader Award. She trained alongside Dr. Suzanne Folschette, co-founder of Luxembourg’s own Let’s Menopause Society, which is how she ended up leading workshops here too.
Cathy talks about the science behind all of the mental effects of perimenopause and menopause with humor and empathy. She gives vocabulary to help express what’s happening that makes you feel so alone – but really 50% of the population in a certain age group is going through it! Of course we cover rage and sensitivity to sounds, but we also cover things like losing your words, impostor syndrome, anxiety, depression and more.
This episode is for every woman who has wondered if she’s losing her mind, her edge, or her marbles – and for the husbands, partners, and bosses who love her and just want to help. Tune in to this episode of Mom Life in Luxembourg wherever you listen to podcasts, on RTL Play, on RTL Radio Sunday’s at 5, and follow @momlifeinluxembourg for more.
One more thing: Mark your calendar for Monday, 16 November – that’s the official launch of the Let’s Menopause Society, and Cathy will be flying in for it. Details and links to her coaching and workshops are in the show notes.
