The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast: Real Talk on Hormones, Work, and Wellness for Midlife
Welcome to The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast — your go-to source for science-backed, expert-led insights on menopause, perimenopause, and midlife wellness.
We cover everything from hormone therapy to hot flashes, brain fog to bone health, workplace policies to personal empowerment. Whether you're navigating menopause yourself or supporting others, this podcast offers practical tools, real talk, and trusted guidance.
Brought to you by MiDOViA, the first and only U.S. organization offering menopause-friendly workplace accreditation, we’re on a mission to change the narrative—at home, at work, and in society.
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This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have.
The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast: Real Talk on Hormones, Work, and Wellness for Midlife
Episode 054: A Guide To Gender-Affirming Menopause Support
Start with the lived experience, not the label. We sit down with gender-affirming menopause educator and advocate Lasara Firefox Allen to reframe menopause as a human transition that deserves respect, nuance, and choices. From the first hot flash to postmenopausal clarity, we map the terrain for trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people who are too often erased by narrow clinical language and outdated protocols.
Lasara shares how dysphoria and euphoria can shape the menopause arc, why “hormones have no gender,” and how surgical or chemical menopause intersects with identity and safety. We break down what affirming care looks like in real clinics: pronouns honored, intake forms that fit, and treatment menus that don’t force people into boxes. You’ll hear the tough realities—erratic bleeding for transmasculine folks in unsafe environments, GSM that worsens on testosterone without local estrogen, and the data on late ADHD and autism diagnoses—paired with clear, actionable guidance.
We dive into hormone strategy with a practical lens, exploring when high-dose testosterone, physiologic-dose estradiol, and micronized progesterone make sense, and why prior side effects with birth control don’t predict menopausal HRT outcomes. We cover workplace disclosure, accommodations that reduce risk, and the hidden burden of eating disorders in the trans community. Access matters, so we point to resources you can use now, including Planned Parenthood and FOLX telehealth, plus training pathways for providers who want to deliver competent, compassionate care.
This conversation is about more than symptoms; it’s about agency. Menopause can surface grief—about fertility, identity, and change—while opening real space for post-traumatic growth. If you’re seeking care that fits who you are, or you’re a clinician ready to do better, you’ll leave with language, tools, and a roadmap. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find affirming menopause care.
Lasara Firefox Allen (they/them/theirs / Mx.) is a gender-affirming menopause educator, coach, writer, and advocate committed to uplifting genderqueer, trans, and queer-bodied folks navigating perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. With a foundation in social work and lived experience in midlife transition, Lasara centers marginalized voices and reclaims menopause beyond binary narratives.
Website: https://www.genderqueermenopause.com/
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Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your trusted source for information about menopause and midlife. Join us each episode as we have great conversations with great people. Tune in and enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome back, everybody. Welcome to the show today. April is not able to be here, so it's just me, and we're going to have a great time. I am joined today by Lasara Firefox Allen. Lasara is a gender-affirming menopause educator, coach, writer, and advocate to committed to uplifting gender-queer, trans, and queer-bodied folks navigating perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. With a foundation and social work and lived experience in the midlife transition, Lasara centers marginalized voices and reclaims menopause beyond binary narratives. Welcome to the show, Lassara. We're happy to have you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much, Cam. It's a pleasure to be here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Hey, for our listeners, you should know that I stalked Lasara for a very long time to come on our show. So I'm really excited to have you here. Could you, you know, introduce yourself beyond what I said and how your journey led you to find the genderqueer menopause coach, genderqueer features work that you're doing?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So um I'm uh let's see, where do I start? I'm 54 and I'm uh solidly postmenopausal now. Um as a genderqueer person entering into perimenopause, I became aware that I was in perimenopause uh in 2016. Um, and but I had already been experiencing the impacts of perimenopause for quite a long time at that point. I realized, you know, now from my more educated um standpoint, uh, I had already been experiencing perimenopause for quite a long time by then. And, you know, the the thing that finally clued me in was my first real full-blown hot flash. But before that, I had been experiencing extreme PMDD, so premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which I think also, you know, as I've learned more, may have been more um solidly classified as PME or premenstrual exacerbation syndrome. Um, and it took me a long time. Actually, I didn't realize until post-menopause that uh that I was, I I had identified as genderqueer like basically my whole adult life. Uh, even as a child, I was not compliant with gender norms, um, always was very sort of uh uh, you know, ambiguous and androgynous in my sortorial sense. I loved wearing ties. My parents were hippies, so it was hilarious that I loved wearing ties. Um uh so from the time that I was very small, I sort of like gender didn't make a lot of sense to me, um, roles, uh, identity, any of it. Um, but I didn't realize until um postmenopause that I had been that part of my PMDD and PME was actually gender dysphoria. Um, and so that's something that I hope we'll talk about a little bit more today, a little bit later on. But uh suffice it to say that as a genderqueer person in perimenopause in you know, 2016, there were literally no resources for me that were affirming to my gender identity. Uh, I would go into appointments with providers and I would say, I'm genderqueer, my pronouns are they, them, and they would say, my ladies this and my women that, and um, you know, use female pronouns for me. And I don't fault them. I don't, you know, it's not entirely their fault, it's a systemic issue. Um, and so coming out of that long experience of just a ton of like low to medium to high level medicalized trauma, um, I decided that I wanted to change the landscape for my community and make it so that there were at least minimum resources available, which is why I decided to write the book, Gender Core Menopause. And I started coaching my community members in the menopause transition. Uh, but since I wrote the book, I actually realized that my work really lies with medical professionals uh and and menopause supporters, uh, you know, whether they're coaches or doulas or midwives. Um and the reason for that is that I teach a lot about self-advocacy in my work with my community members and in the book. I realized part way through writing the book that I don't want to have to educate my community on self-advocacy all the time. I want there to be options where my community does not need to self-advocate for basic levels of affirming care.
SPEAKER_02:I love when people see a gap and it's just like, I'm gonna go solve this problem. That's so that's so good. And I love your story. Tell me or tell our audience, there's a couple of terms that you use that um are not everyday terms that people may not um connect with easily. Talk about gender dysphoria. What does that mean and what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So um before we talk about gender dysphoria, I want to say that I think that the medicalization of trans identity is problematic. And I think that defining transness by dysphoria is a terrible model. I do not think that the the experience of dysphoria is what defines someone as trans. Unfortunately, that's currently the metric that we have on a social, you know, on a medical and social basis. So dysphoria is, and gender dysphoria specifically is what I'm talking about. Dysphoria is is a sense of extreme discomfort with one's uh physicality. Uh people can experience dysphoria separate from gender. Uh cis people can also experience gender dysphoria. Um, some of the basic levels of menopause uh might induce dysphoria for a cis woman, for example, with all of the front loading. Uh, you know, we're we're we're taught to believe that we're gonna lose our sexual relevance. We're taught to believe that we're gonna, you know, that so much of our identity is tied up in our reproductive capacity. Um, so cis folks may experience gender dysphoria and menopause. Gender dysphoria currently is the sort of um litmus test for trans identity in a medicalized setting.
SPEAKER_02:And that is your brain and body don't match.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. So you experience your body as not being aligned with your inherent sense of yourself.
SPEAKER_02:And someone not experiencing that has a really hard time imagining how that's even a thing.
SPEAKER_00:Correct, which is why I kind of love to sort of push the edges out on it a little bit and give people a place where they may understand to some extent what gender dysphoria, full-blown gender dysphoria would feel like. Um, when for a lot of cis women, I think, uh especially the way that menopause is currently packaged socially, you know, and and advertising-wise, um that it's such a hustle to try and maintain our, you know, our youthful identity and our youthful relevance. And because in this culture, unfortunately, aging in the female population and the assigned female at birth population is tied to irrelevance. We are expected to step back, we are expected to become invisible, we're expected to be all right with that, which is absolutely bullshit, right? So we're we're gonna we're gonna call that out for what it is. Um that experience may give someone a template for kind of a little tiny taste of what gender dysphoria would feel like, where your experience of yourself is not lining up with how other people are perceiving you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, interesting. Okay. So what do you mean by gender-affirming menopause care? And why is it important that that we focus on that as a part of the you know change that you're advocating?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So gender-affirming care in general is medical care or other forms of care that take someone's gender into account in a proactive way. So, for example, um, as I was saying in my story, right, an example of non-affirming care is me going into a provider, stating my pronouns and my gender identity and not having that respected. Yeah. Right. That's the opposite of gender-affirming care. Sure. Um, gender-affirming care would be me walking into a provider's office, knowing from the outset that they are going to understand my identity, that they're going to respect my pronouns at base level, and that they're going to give me care options that fit with my identity.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I don't, that makes sense. And it's hard enough to find a menopause doctor if you're a cis woman, a cis white woman, right? Um, but when you add in the gender issues, you add in the race issues, and finding a doctor that can meet you where you are is really tough. So um how help help my help me understand how menopause can be different if you're trans, nine, non-binary, gender diverse. How is it different for that group of people rather than the cis woman?
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, it can be different in so many ways, literally so many ways. One of the things that I like to point out is that folks who um are trans may experience variations on menopause multiple times in their gender trajectory. So, for example, some folks, when they if if someone is transmasculine and they start using high-dose testosterone for gender-affirming hormone therapy, they may go through a period of time that feels very similar to menopause. And honestly, the long-term impacts of, you know, we don't, we don't know too everything there is to know about gender medicine yet, gender-based medicine, right? So the some of the long-term impacts of uh high dose testosterone can be similar to some of the long-term impacts of uh menopause, post-menopause. So like cardiovascular, increased cardiovascular risk, uh, increased risk of osteoporosis. Um, I my my hope and belief is that someday we'll we'll be able to move away from such extreme genderization of hormones, right? Uh Dr. Kasperson likes to say hormones have no gender. I completely agree. And I have adopted that terminology myself in my work. Hormones have no gender. Um, our ovaries produce all three of the dominant sex hormones, so estrogen, uh progesterone, and testosterone, right? Uh the majority of our of our endogenous testosterone, as cis women even, is produced by our ovaries. So as, and this is not paid attention to in our culture in a way that makes sense because we're so phobic around transness, honestly. I believe that that's the crux of it. Um, but that said, uh, as our ovaries start sort of slowing down and coming to a kind of a halt over time, uh, we're not just becoming deficient in the levels of estrogen that our bodies are used to or progesterone. We're also becoming deficient in the levels of testosterone that our bodies are used to producing and having on board. So it's worth taking a really comprehensive look at that and saying, you know, this this is something that we need to update. Um, to get back to the concept of where trans folks and and gender-expensive folks in general may experience menopause differently, in addition to chemical menopause, right, which may be gender-affirming hormone therapy, it may be induced by um cancer treatments too. It can be induced by chemical menopause can be induced by a lot of things. Um in addition to that, surgical menopause is something that a trans person may experience. So a trans person, a transmasculine person or trans non-binary person who has ovaries and a uterus and elects to have them removed, will experience surgical menopause if they have a bilateral oophorectomy. So if they have both ovaries removed with their hysterectomy, they will experience precipitous menopause. So that's where you don't have any perimenopausal symptoms. You just go from zero to a hundred. You're like pre-menopausal premenopausal to postmenopausal, literally in a matter of hours. Um, and that can be very challenging. And I I think it is really important for you know any any gender-affirmed care providers who are listening to this um segment to um to realize that that uh probably a little bit more extensive counseling around the menopause transition in those cases of surgical menopause would be really helpful for for most people. And I've heard honestly of an a few cases of folks who had zero counseling about menopause before their uh hysterectomy. So it is it, and even at base, right, if the provider is is going to give a uh a surgery that results in chemical in surgical menopause, taking a menopause history, right, would be a great practice to integrate because we have no way of knowing what that person's risk factors are for cardiovascular disease or any of the other long-term impacts unless we do that work beforehand, right? And I think also a certain amount of counseling around what the menopause transition can look like in a precipitous way. Um, so those are a couple of ways that trans folks and gender-expensive folks may experience menopause differently than cis women. Um, there are other ways. So, and some of them are softer, right? They're not as sort of pragmatic and medicalized. They're more like um the experience of gender dysphoria in the arc of menopause or perimenopause, the experience of gender euphoria, which I talked about a little bit, um, I think maybe I didn't. So, gender euphoria is the opposite of gender dysphoria. It's where our gender identity and our experience of our gender and how our gender is being received is all lining up and it feels euphoric. It produces a sense of euphoria. So for me, when I um stepped into my post-menopausal reality, I had like a very profound experience of gender euphoria, which was actually the trigger that made me realize that I'd been experiencing gender dysphoria previously.
SPEAKER_02:It makes a lot of sense. And I can't, and I can only imagine that if you had gender dysphoria for all your life, that when you're able to match that up, that that is definitely a place of euphoria. Um and some of the things that you talked about with chemical um in that induces menopause are very similar for for cis women as well, because they go through those surgeries and no one ever talks about what's going to happen after the fact.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:But add on that some you know, gender identity issues, and I can see that that that's a case for uncomfortable, uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00:If if there's another component that I think is really important to talk about too, and especially I talk about this with providers who are who are preparing to work with gender-expansive folks. Um one of the elements of dysphoria in the perimenopause transition for a trans masculine person um may be tied to erratic bleeding, which not only is going to cause like a higher level of anxiety because of the dysphoria, often related to not all people have menstrual dysphoria who are trans, right? I don't want to say that, but there are folks who are trans who experience dysphoria with their menses. So erratic bleeding can cause that level of anxiety. But I want to point out the social climate right now, obviously, is not doesn't feel safe for trans folks. And so a trans masculine person who is actually passing as a cis man, for example, in a climate that is socially not progressive, may actually have fears of their safety around erratic bleeding. Right. Say they don't have access to hormonal um options for gender-affirming care where they are, right? Say they don't, say that they don't have a medical profile that allows them to do high-dose testosterone or suppress their menses in another way. Um, right. There are a lot of reasons that a trans person would not be on high dose testosterone and might experience mences just like a cis woman would, you know, on a regular basis, et cetera. As that trans masculine person goes into perimenopause, they're gonna experience the same thing of erratic bleeding, long, you know, more bleeding, uh, you know, hemorrhaging, all of those things that are possible in in perimenopause, but they're gonna experience it with an added edge in some cases of physical danger.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh man. We talk in our training about, you know, everyone's menopause experience is different. And if you're trans masculine and you're trying to be trans masculine and all of a sudden you're having menopause symptoms at work, and you're not right, you don't want to come out and you don't want to talk about it at work. I can only imagine the challenge that that must be for someone trying to just be themselves, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And and so one of the things when I in gender care menopause and my chapter on self-advocacy, um, you know, studies do show that actually um being open about the menopause transition in the workplace uh leads to better outcomes uh uh across the board. So the work that y'all are doing is so important. Um and I do encourage those who feel safe coming out in that way at work to do so if it is safe to do so, right? Um, because the accommodations that will be available to them are different, because the uh, you know, um the symptom, you know, one of the things that you know that I that that is true about perimenopause and menopause is the like the increase in diagnosis of neurodivergence, right? So there's a statistical um increase in diagnosis, late, late diagnosis of ADHD, um, you know, menopause-related anxiety, right? Perimenopause-related anxiety um is a thing, um uh autism. Uh, and also there's a statistical increase in uh recurrence or onset of eating disorders. And in the trans community, um the the instances of eating disorders are I think eight times higher than in the cis community. Um and and interestingly, right, and maybe obviously, but not to everyone, um, the sort of the the etiology or the the sort of progression of of an eating disorder, why it starts, how it happens, what the what the um uh reasons for it are are different from cis folks. So when a trans person who has an eating disorder seeks care, if they do not have a gender-affirming eating disorder specialist, they may actually get advice that is going to compound their problem, not make it better. So all of these things coming up, right? The the the complications of um, you know, I mean, I don't want to make it all sound tor horrible, but but there, but there's a lot that is complex about the uh gender expansive experience of menopause. That said, I do also think it is one of the most empowering opportunities for self-knowledge.
SPEAKER_02:I like that. That's a that's a I mean that's a good way to look at that. And I'm sure that you're if you've been battling this, battling is not the right word, but if you've been challenged with this your whole life, you haven't even considered what menopause is going to be to look like, you know, all of those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Well, and there hasn't been a resource to even point you in the right direction until now.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, I love that you're doing this work. But you talked about this a little bit. What but what role does mental health, trauma, body dysphody dysphoria play in the menopause for people and how do you support them during this time?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, I mean, again, it it it I mean, honestly, it comes down to healthcare providers being prepared to um, you know, treat gender, queer, and trans and expansive folks in an affirming way. And that doesn't just mean learning how to use the right pronouns, right? That's the baseline. Like if there are providers listening and you take one thing away from today's segment, you know, it's people who menstruate, not women who menstruate.
SPEAKER_02:Is that the right way? Or people born with ovaries?
SPEAKER_00:That's usually what absolutely. That is an absolute, but I'm just saying a lot of people say women, it's like a mantra, women who menstruate, women in menopause. And and we need to move beyond that frame. It's very limiting. And I believe that if we can move beyond that frame and see people as people, everyone's gonna get better care, not just trans folks. Um because the options for treatment will open up.
SPEAKER_02:Well, sorry, that is a crazy idea. Treat people like people.
SPEAKER_00:I know, wild, right? Yeah. Um, so so you know, so so it's like I said, you know, that kind of languaging is is the baseline, but the but the deeper levels of affirming care depend on your specialty.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So if you're a mental health provider, your your training toward gender affirming care is going to have a different context and flavor than a surgeon or a medical provider or a coach or um, you know, or an eating disorder specialist, right? An eating disorder specialist, if they are going to specialize in trans health care, has a whole other area of study and research to look into to become an affirming care provider. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What would you say are the biggest barriers to integrating integrating that into the healthcare system?
SPEAKER_00:Um implicit bias is the first one, right? That's that's the comprehensive one. But I think, you know, that goes tandem with socialization. Right. They're they're very interconnected. So implicit bias, our own internal process about uh, you know, our our limitations, sort of putting us into a, you know, having blinders on that don't allow us to see outside of our spectrum, right? So implicit bias coupled with systematic oppression.
SPEAKER_02:You're you're out to change big things.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, hopefully we all are, right?
SPEAKER_02:No, yeah, I know. But I mean, they're there, I mean, it's hard enough, as I said earlier, finding a medical support person than to find someone that can meet you where you are.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, and on on that note, I do want to give a shout out to two really great resources for folks that that don't have easy access to affirming care. And those two resources are Planned Parenthood, which is absolutely a standby. I got my early gender affirming care from Planned Parenthood in a rural community. And they were amazing and um honestly, you know, turned turned turned the corner for me, right? That care, that affirming care while in a rural community um made things possible for me that hadn't been before. Um, and the other resource, if you do not have a Planned Parenthood near you, is Folks F O L X. And Folks is a telehealth uh agency, that medical agency that is available in every state in the union at this point in time. And they started out as a gender affirming care um telehealth uh organization, I believe, during early COVID. Um, and they've grown, you know, extensively and they've branched out and they do offer affirming menopause care, which, you know, there there are very, very, very few, especially national resources that are operating on that level. But Planned Parenthood and uh, you know, and again, you know, I mean, with Planned Parenthood, even your your mileage may vary, but but if you find the right provider, um, they do have more training than your average clinic in gender-affirming care. Fulks is 100% gender-affirming in their practice, and they do offer menopause support. So that's that's where I recommend for folks who are um don't have uh an in-person option.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. Thank you for that. Um, still staying on the medical piece, but slightly taken a left, if you will. Um, what are some of the unique considerations when combining gender-affirming hormone therapy with menopause hormone therapy? Is it different? Is it the same? What do I think about? What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's such a great question. And um it brings me back to a point that I was circling around earlier with the whole hormones have no gender comment. Um as I said earlier, like we don't know everything there is to know about gender-affirming hormone therapy yet, right? We don't have enough, there hasn't been enough money put into it, there hasn't been enough research. It's, you know, in some ways, I mean, it has a long and august history, but but it but it's in in the levels that we're seeing it performed now, it's a relatively young art, a young science, right? So there's a lot for us still left to to learn um collectively as as a as a as as as humanity, right, around that around that topic. My my hope and my hunch is that as we sort of move societally away from this hyper-gendered um reality around hormones, that there may be room for folks treating uh trans folks who are seeking gender-affirming hormone therapy with a combination potentially of high-dose testosterone and low-dose estrogen. Um, and and there hasn't been a lot of research done on this yet. We don't know if it would be highly effective. Um my hope is that sooner or later there will be enough research put into it that we would have a definitive answer on whether high-dose testosterone coupled with low-dose estrogen might uh remove some of the long-term impacts uh that are less positive for our bodies. Um, and you know, I don't know. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a researcher, but but that's, you know, I have looked at the research that's out there and they're it's not exhaustive. It's not to the point where we can make a call on that one. Um, but right now, where things are at, um uh if someone is in perimenopause, um, I want to say, like for a lot of us in perimenopause, our gender journey just keeps moving, right? So we may hit perimenopause and realize, oh, I actually want to be on high dose testosterone. That is a valid way to treat menopause symptoms. So um it'll be more effective for some and less effective for others, but it is absolutely a valid way for a practitioner to help you attain your gender outcomes that you're seeking while also treating menopausal symptoms. Um, so that's one way that it can be different. Uh, for me, as a non-binary trans person, I uh I use all three of the hormones I of the of the you know sex hormones. I I take uh medium dose of estrogen as a patch. I use bioidenticals because I'm more comfortable with it, but and they have a different um risk profile a little bit and a different feeling in my body. Personally, I'm very hormonally sensitive. So um I was very hesitant, by the way, to use estrogen at all after I had been postmenopausal and was like, oh my god, I own my body for the first time in 40 years, you know, um, or 35 years, whatever it is. Um uh I was very hesitant to um to try estrogen. But I wish someone would have told me earlier on that just because I had had negative experiences with estrogen previously didn't mean that they would graph over. Um they they it's not the same experience. So uh hormonal birth control always made me homicidal and suicidal, honestly. Made me, you know, it really worked. It was like, don't touch me, you know. But um that experience is not what uh having steady state low to medium dose estrogen on board is like for me at all. It actually feels great. Um, so I so I use a medium dose uh estrogen patch twice a week. I use I'm I'm on a hundred milligrams of progesterone a day because my uterus is still intact. I thought about having it taken out, but I've had too many surgeries for them to feel really safe doing that. Um, and then I take a moderate dose of topical application testosterone. I also use estrogen genitally to counteract any risk. And I did experience GSM, so genital urinary syndrome of menopause. I did experience that pretty severely in my early postmenopause trajectory, partially because I was on a pretty good dose of testosterone, and partially because I just wasn't taking care of my anatomy in the way that it needed to be taken care of. So I use a pretty substantial dose of um genitally applied estrogen as well. So I use a tablet internally and I use a gel externally.
SPEAKER_02:Uh, that's a great story because I was very nervous about all of those hormones too, especially estrogen. And now you're gonna have to take it out of my dead cold hand. All right, exactly. I've probably said that a million times on our podcast. It's just it made a world of difference for me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Right. And and so, you know, because we haven't been having these conversations, none of us know that. Right. And also because there's been so much negative press around hormonal sub, you know, hormonal um therapies, uh, because of that one bad study that happened in the 70s, um, you know, uh, that we're having to do a lot of like um rehab around that. And and anyone who doesn't have updated menopause information, any provider who is not staying up to date with menopausal news and training is going to have an outdated opinion about hormones.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Talk about all the time about hey, if you're if you know you want to do this and your doctor says no, it's okay to divorce your doctor and find one that will listen to you, right? It's just so important.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, coupled with that, the the other thing is like, um, you know, for me, I know now that I was entering into perimenopause in probably my late 30s or, you know, my my very early 40s, and I didn't know it until I was in my mid-40s, and I didn't get treatment until I was almost postmenopausal. Right. So that's practically 15 years of not getting adequate care. Um, and so uh, you know, if you think that you might be experiencing symptoms of perimenopause, you probably are. It doesn't matter that you're 38, it doesn't matter that you're 41. Go get the help that you need, get the support that you need, get the medical consult that you need. Don't suffer.
SPEAKER_02:For sure, don't suffer. So, given this political environment um and where we're where we are right now, where do you see the field of queer affirming menopause care in the next five, 10, 10 years?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's a that's a hard one. Um, I uh I think that it will, you know, we've always been here. We've always been here. Trans people have always been here, and we've always found ways to get the care that we need. It's evolved over time. Sometimes it's been underground. Lately it's been more above ground, but that doesn't mean it's gonna stay there. Um, so we all know how to get the care that we need, even unfortunately, the more underground it goes, the less accessible it is, um, you know, financially uh as well as like just circumstantially. Um, I do not know. I I don't have a crystal ball to consult on this one, but but I would say that the social trends are definitely pointing toward more of a an underground specialization. Um, and I don't see at this point in time um wholesale uh, you know, um adoption of gender affirming menopause care in the next three to five years in this country. Um that said, I'm gonna still do my work and I'm gonna still educate whoever's willing to listen. And uh, you know, I have a course coming up starting the 28th of October. Oh, this will probably come out after that, but um I have a course, a certification course for gender-affirming care for providers, uh, menopause care providers specifically. So everyone from doctors to coaches to midwives, as I said earlier, anybody who wants to become a certified gender-affirming menopause care provider should get in touch with me. We can do work one-on-one, we can do work in a classroom setting on Zoom. Um, you know, uh the only way to get to the point of feeling competent and capable uh of treating trans folks and menopause with care and compassion is by getting the training that you need.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, there's so much unless you're in that place that you don't understand. You can't possibly understand if you've never been in that kind of situation that you're, you know, gender dysphoria is if you've never experienced that before in a way that you understood, then it's hard to be able to be understand what someone needs at that point. So I love that you're doing that. Okay, so given that, where can people find you?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, they can find me. My Linktree is the thing that I update the most often. I just have so many things going on in so many different places that I just drop my my links into my Linktree. And that's my Linktree is at Lasara Firefox Allen. Folks can find me at Lasara Firefox Allen on most of the socials uh or at genderqueer menopause, um, or both. So um I have a really minor TikTok presence. I'm not there as often as I as I could be. Um, I have a more consistent Instagram presence and uh intermittent Facebook presence. Uh so um any of those options are good, but my LinkTree is the space that is updated the most often. And I believe you can subscribe to my Linktree. Um so uh that would be probably the best option for ongoing updates.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so if you are a gender queer person approaching perimenopause, in perimenopause, on the other side, trying to navigate symptoms, identity, et cetera, what what piece of advice would you give someone on how to self-care in in this time of their life?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, honestly, my my point blank would be get a gender-affirming care provider. And and if you can't figure out a way to access a gender-affirming care provider, find a gender-affirming coach or or doula who can help you to advocate for yourself in a medicalized setting. And how do I find that? Um, you know, that again is gonna be uh you can find me and I can help you locate someone if I'm not available. Uh, I do occasionally still take a one-to-one coaching client. Um, in the case that they don't have other resources available. Uh, there are not many of us uh doing this work yet, but that will change over time. Um, and and again, if you're a provider and you want to be doing this work, find me and and let's make it happen because we're needed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, I love this conversation. I could talk to you about this for a long time. This is most people don't know all there is to know about menopause and then top it on top of that with all of the things that we discussed today. It's a challenge to be able to talk about and do something about and feel supported. So thank you. Thank you for the work that you're doing. Now we thank you. Yeah. Well, okay, so you know, we end all of our podcasts with the question what's the best piece of advice you've ever received? And and I know when we when we opened up this before we pushed go, you were thinking of a few of them. So where'd you land?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I think one thing we didn't get a touch on today um was uh the role of grief in menopause. And it is a very substantial one, I believe, uh whether your grief is like endemic to the menopause experience and being caused by your relationship with your menstruation or your reproductive capacity, right? A lot of folks have grief that comes up around that, grief about identity, grief about um, you know, sexual um realities, uh, all of that, right? Uh and because it is a substantial amount of time and it is placed at a time in our life when we're gonna be experiencing losses, right? External loss also plays a role in the menopause trajectory. And grief and menopause can exacerbate each other. So the the intensity of grief can exacerbate our menopause experiences, and our menopause experiences can exacerbate our experience of grief. I think the thing that has been, and I I personally experienced a very severe loss in in my menopause trajectory. I think the two things that I would say about that are one, the concept of post-traumatic growth and how we sort of can lay the ground for that um potentiality um is is so essential. And so I actually heard about post-traumatic growth on NPR on a radio show while I was deep in grief. And it I think it might have saved my life. Right. Um and the other thing is as far as grief goes, we don't we don't get over it. We don't get past it. You know, at best we integrate it and we go grow grow around it. Um, but that loss will define us and uh and it will temper us. And how how how what kind of impact that has, we do have some engagement with. We can do things, we can adopt uh protocols that will help us to grow out of that rather than shrink.
SPEAKER_02:Uh that feels like a whole other podcast to me. I'll come back if you want me. I would love it. That would be great. Well, thank you for your time. It was um it was well worth the wait, Lisara, as I was stalking you across all the internets. But thank you for joining us today. And to our audience, until we meet again, go find joy in the journey. Take care.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for listening to the Medovia Menopause Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe for future episodes, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend. Modovia is out to change the narrative. Learn more at Medovia.com. That's M I D O V I A.com.
