Menopause as a Reckoning: BRCA, Grief, Hormones, and Health with Johanna Swanson

083: If you’re navigating perimenopause, menopause, hormonal changes, or the grief of not feeling like the woman you used to be, this episode is going to feel like an exhale. Johanna Swanson, certified menopause and wellness coach, joins me to talk about BRCA, medically induced menopause, self-advocacy, progesterone, grief, and what it means to rebuild your health in a way that actually honors this new stage of life.

This conversation is also such a powerful doorway into the deeper question I’m exploring inside my free class, Pleasure Independence: what does it mean to stop outsourcing your connection to your body, your desire, your healing, and your inner authority?

If your body has been asking for your attention — through hormones, pelvic symptoms, disconnection, numbness, grief, desire, or a new season of life — I’d love to invite you into the class on July 8th.

Tune in on Apple or Spotify, or catch the video on YouTube.

Feeling the Pulse on

• Testing positive for the BRCA mutation at 38 and the decisions that followed

• The emotional and physical reality of medically induced menopause

• Rage, depression, anxiety, and the symptoms women are often left to navigate alone

• Why self-advocacy matters when it comes to hormones, surgery, menopause, and quality of life

• The role progesterone played in changing Johanna’s wellbeing

• Learning to honor a more mellow energy instead of pathologizing it

• The grief of no longer feeling like the same version of yourself

• The “radical sabbatical” that helped Johanna realize she needed to mourn

• Menopause as a stage of new strengths, not just loss

• Perimenopause as a reckoning and an invitation to finally tell the truth

• What time with Native Colombians taught Johanna about modern life, rhythm, and health

• Why she isn’t interested in biohacking, and what actually helped her rebuild her metabolism and circadian rhythm

If this conversation with Johanna has you reflecting on your own relationship with your body — your pelvic health, your pleasure, your changing seasons, your grief, your sensuality, or the ways you’ve learned to disconnect from yourself — I’d love to support you deeper.

Start with my free class, Pleasure Independence, happening July 8th, where we’ll explore what it means to reconnect with your body, your pelvic floor, your pleasure, and your own inner authority.

And if you’re ready for the deeper body-based journey, Vaginal Alchemy is the place to begin.

You can get started here or join the live cohort experience beginning in July, learn more and sign up here.

Connect with our guest, Johanna

• Website: https://navigatemenopause.com

• IG: https://www.instagram.com/navigate.menopause

Connect with Dr. Brittney

• Website

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For our listeners only

• Freebies for pelvic health, including Arousal Anatomy Adventure and the Pool of Presence

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