There are seasons in life when everything seems to shift at once.

You lose someone you love. Your body begins changing in ways you don’t fully understand. Your emotions feel bigger, your energy disappears, your patience thins, and the strategies that used to carry you through life suddenly stop working.

Many women blame themselves.

They wonder why they can’t keep up. Why they feel anxious, overwhelmed, forgetful, exhausted, or unlike themselves. What they often don’t realize is that they may be navigating two profound transitions simultaneously: grief and menopause.

In this episode of Crying Out Loud, I sit down with Zanne Hollingshead, trauma-informed wellbeing advocate, certified life coach, and founder of Midlife Magic, for a conversation about an intersection that affects countless women yet is rarely discussed.

For Zanne, this topic is deeply personal. After losing her mother at age ten and later losing her sister, who had become a second mother to her, she found herself searching for answers about grief, hormones, and the profound ways both shape our emotional and physical well-being. What began as a personal journey became a mission to help other women understand what is happening in their minds, bodies, and hearts during midlife.

Together, we explore what happens when grief and hormonal change arrive at the same time. We talk about the sudden waves of rage, the exhaustion that rest doesn’t seem to touch, the brain fog, anxiety, overwhelm, and the feeling that you’ve somehow lost access to the person you used to be.

We also discuss why so many women have been left uninformed about perimenopause, how outdated medical messaging has contributed to unnecessary suffering, and what women can do to advocate for themselves and get the support they deserve.

Most importantly, this conversation offers a different way of understanding what you’re experiencing. Rather than viewing these symptoms as evidence that something is wrong with you, what if they are signals that your body is asking for care, attention, and a new way of living?

This is a conversation about loss, hormones, identity, resilience, and self-compassion. It is a reminder that you are not failing. You may simply be carrying more than anyone can see.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• Why grief and menopause can intensify one another in surprising ways

• The symptoms of perimenopause many women overlook or dismiss

• How hormonal changes can affect mood, memory, sleep, and emotional regulation

• The hidden burden of being “the strong one”

• How grief impacts the nervous system and why that matters in midlife

• Why so many women feel like they’ve lost themselves during this season of life

• What women need to know about hormone therapy and other forms of support

• How to stop fighting your body and start listening to what it may be trying to tell you

To learn more about Zanne Hollingshead and her work, visit her website and/or her menopause community, Midlife Magic, where she offers education, resources, and community to women navigating midlife. 

And if you’re moving through grief, heartbreak, or a season of profound change, know that you don’t have to do it alone. The Grief Healing Collective offers support, connection, and a community that understands the unique challenges of rebuilding life after loss.

If this conversation resonated with you, we’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, questions, or story at cryingoutloudpod@gmail.com.

Because healing happens in connection. And no one should have to carry life’s hardest seasons alone.