SE3: SP5 Making Sense of Menopause: Sexuality and Relationships

“Menopause isn’t a problem to be fixed, in fact, it can be the most powerful time of a woman’s life.” Says this week's guest renowned women’s health practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife Susan Willson

Today’s generation is the first to speak openly about menopause yet the medical community and popular culture focus almost exclusively on treating its symptoms and clinging to the appearance of youthfulness. 

In her book Making Sense of Menopause Susan reframes this experience and offers a powerful guide to experiencing perimenopause and menopause as a natural gateway into a new, exciting, and meaningful phase of women’s lives.

Sexuality and Relationship is a key part of the book and we take a deep dive into sex and culture, how sexual identity is shaped, how sex changes at midlife and how to create good sex in the middle years.

in particular, we talk about

• how important communication is with oneself and one’s partner. and that it is a time of exploration
• how when the hormones have shifted and we are at a place where we can look at sex outside the context of reproduction, we can explore new things, new roles, new ways of being. 
• busting the false myths that women absorb about sex, sexuality and libido
• why it's OK to a break from sex during perimenopause to allow changes to work through

“Making Sense of Menopause is written out of profound respect for women, the human spirit, and what women at this time of life, when our culture wants to diminish us, have to give.

The key is that the book is not only for those "in the thick of" going through menopause but useful as well for women who have completed that part. the role and the work of the wisdom years….what we have to give and how much we are needed right now.

You can obtain a copy of the book here:

Making Sense of Menopause: Harnessing the Power and Potency of Your Wisdom Years 

by Susan Willson, CNM

 Sounds True / February 15, 2022/ Hardcover / 280 pages / US $18.99 / ISBN: 978-1-68364-744-7 / Menopause; Women’s Health / Rights: World, Exclusive