From Pause to Power: Rethinking Menopause as a Leadership Breakthrough 🔥

In this episode,  Laura Rowan, pelvic health occupational therapist and founder of Essential Pelvic Health, sits down with Edi Pasalis, founder of the Be Your Power menopause leadership program, to explore a powerful shift in perspective—what if menopause isn’t a breakdown, but a breakthrough?

Together, they unpack how menopause is not just a collection of symptoms, but a transformational stage of growth, self-awareness, and leadership evolution. From navigating physical changes to redefining identity and power in midlife, this conversation reframes menopause as an opportunity to reconnect with yourself, deepen your awareness, and lead from a more authentic place.

This episode is especially meaningful for high-achieving women who may feel challenged during this transition, offering a refreshing perspective: instead of fighting the body, what if we learned to listen, adapt, and grow with it? 💡

🔑 Topics Covered

✨ Reframing menopause from a “problem” into a growth opportunity
 ✨ The idea of menopause as a developmental stage (like adolescence)
 ✨ Why symptoms shouldn’t be the only focus during this phase
 ✨ Leadership shifts during midlife and stepping into authentic power
 ✨ Letting go of control and embracing care, curiosity, and awareness
 ✨ The connection between physical symptoms and emotional awareness
 ✨ How menopause can deepen self-connection and decision-making
 ✨ Workplace awareness and the importance of normalizing menopause
 ✨ Moving beyond symptom management into personal transformation
 ✨ Navigating grief, identity shifts, and new possibilities in midlife

📚 Learn More

🔗 The Be Your Power menopause leadership program
🔗 Menopause awareness and support in the workplace
🔗 Mindfulness, yoga, and self-awareness practices
🔗 Pelvic health and whole-body connection
🔗 Emotional awareness and nervous system connection
🔗 Resources and conversations around menopause as growth

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Essential Pelvic Health Podcast, where we break the silence on the topics that matter most to your well-being. This podcast is for all gender diversities, for individuals looking to better understand their bodies, and for medical and wellness professionals looking to better support their clients. I'm your host, Laura Rowan, proud pelvic health occupational therapist, helping clients and clinicians live their best lives through pelvic rehabilitation, education, and advocacy. Join us as we explore the ins and outs of bladder, bowel, and sexual health. No topic is too taboo. We'll also dive into the role of hormones, the nervous system, and of course the pelvic floor to empower you to self-advocate for the care you deserve. Together, let's unlock the secrets to a vibrant life so you can keep doing what you love and feel good doing it. Welcome. I'm Laura Rowan, pelvic health occupational therapist and founder of Essential Pelvic Health, and I'm here with Edie Pisalis. Tell us you are a CEO founder, you work at Kropalo. Tell us a little bit about your background.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yeah, I am the founder of Be Your Power, the Menopause Leadership Program. I'm also on faculty at the Kropalo Center, and my background is a long, long, long history of working at the intersection of well-being and leadership.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Yes. So I love that specific focus for us today is that leadership and that, especially with menopause, when we come into this transition of life, it's we are really coming into our career paths, right? Hitting those kind of higher achieving levels, and things start to change drastically for us. Um, so this is wonderful. Um, and I love how you put, you talk about reframing menopause as a path to power. Um, and that really resonates because I I called my membership um menopa cycle breakers because I really I really want to emphasize the breaking the cycle pattern of this silence or this like negative mindset. Um so and really it's from pause to power, right? Like this is this is coming into our own. So, and that's it sounds like exactly what you get into. Um, you talk about as a transformational guide for women in midlife for leadership. Um, and uh a beautiful question that you pose, I think, is on your LinkedIn or your website, which will we'll link everything. Um, what if menopause isn't a breakdown but your breakthrough? Yeah, yeah, and a doorway, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, I um I'm so grateful that we're paying more attention to menopause now. There's a lot to pay attention to and a lot of experiences that we have. Um we're you know, we're more aware now of the 78 symptoms that we might get during the menopause trans transition. Checklist. Yeah, yeah, launching. But um I also uh my hope is that we don't get lost in the symptoms, that we are able to have at least part of our attention focused on what we're growing during the process. Um, I think of the symptoms as the labor pains and that we're birthing ourselves, right? And so how do we how do we at least create some space during this time to focus on that?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I love that. And and really being able to highlight the the power and the wisdom and the coming into of this phase. Okay. So tell us a little bit about how you got into this.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yeah, well, I mentioned that I have worked for a long time, many decades, at the intersection of well-being and leadership, uh, rooted in mindfulness and the wisdom traditions of yoga. Um, and so the essence of well-being and leadership, in my view and in this worldview, is really the relationship we have with ourselves and the world. So if we have an open, deep, uh rich connection with ourselves and with the world, then our well-being and our leadership flourish. Uh, and for many women, menopause is a moment when we if we if we haven't already been in a fight with our bodies and ourselves, it's a moment when we we begin to fight our bodies because of the aging that it's like a symbol of aging. And so my um my path set me up to want to meet menopause not as a fight but as a f as a friend. And um it was hard. My own, I'm now post-menopause, uh, and my own menopause experience kind of rocked me. I had had lots of the 78 symptoms. Um, and it also required a lot of support, yours included, to to um come through this with a sense of posity and wholeness. So uh, and I'm aware that for however many decades I spent working on well-being and leadership, not once in all those years before this work that I'm doing now, did we ever, ever, ever, ever, ever mention menopause in the workplace. And so for me to create awareness uh of menopause, to let our maturing bodies be welcome in the workplace, like just to name this is happening is uh one mission. Uh and then on top of that, I'm also really devoted to this um view of menopause as a developmental stage. Right? It is like if we think about um before 1910 or so, we had no word for adolescence. We had no concept that there was a you know 10-15-year window of growth that is instigated by our hormones. Um we just thought you're like child, adult, dead. Right? And so I feel like we're on the cusp now as a culture of understanding that there's a middlescence, there's a that and that menopause, the hormonal transformation that is happening in midlife, is an instigator of that growth for our um the way we make decisions, the way we, the role that we have in the world, the relationship do we have ours ourselves. Um, and so I'm all about helping us uh make use of that growth opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, and I love so yeah, the these different transitions, you know, are when we hit puberty, we have this kind of first big hormonal shift, and then we have other ones along the way potentially for um pregnancy and postpartum. Um and then we have this menopause transition that's kind of like that like final transition, right? Into kind of who we're gonna be. Um, and for me, I know like I'm kind of in this perimenopause phase of just you know all this information coming and getting curious about it and starting to notice um really what my my rhythms, my hormonal rhythms were. Like I didn't really pay attention too much. Um, so I was doing a um a presentation on the like postpartum and perimenopause kind of overlap and uh not only just how similar the the experiences can be because of those hormonal uh changes, but also some now we are seeing them overlap, literally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

You know, we talk about changes in body temperature, changes in like even your sense of smell, changes in your digestion, all the like all sorts of things that happen during pregnancy that also happen in menopause. But in pregnancy we celebrate them. So part of what's challenging, part of the reason it's difficult to meet menopause as a growth moment is that there's so much cultural stereotyping around it's a negative, it's it's about getting old, and getting old is bad. And yes, we are getting old from the what I think of as the outside. You know, yes, I have wrinkles, uh, you know, my underarms aren't quite as firm as they used to be. Um, but I'm not I'm not actually getting old on the inside. I'm I'm growing wiser, I am growing more comfortable in myself and also more more comfortable wielding the power of the moment. And that's really, I think, one of the when we think about leadership, um, you know, we we might spend our careers, our lives working beyond our center, like working um over-efforting.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

And menopause, I think, really brings us home to like, no, this my seat of power is right here, and what I'm gonna do and what I'm gonna offer is gonna come right from this this seat of power. And so that's one way. And I and I believe that our uh bodies support us in this transformation, in it um in this waking up and growing up. So I'm um really glad for the full suite of support that we have, as I mentioned, your your care and um others that can help us kind of find our way through the symptoms in a way that's friendly with our bodies.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah, and you know, speaking to as a pelvic health therapist, not really until recently did I really realize how much I was supporting menopause specifically. Um, I mean, I'm very familiar with uh pregnancy and postpartum and all those transitions and everything else. I mean, uh I work with all gender diversities. Um, but then in this research and just discovery, I'm like, the hormones are all throughout the body, and that's what I'm always talking to, is that it's not just the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is interconnected throughout all the systems of the body, just like the hormones. So I have been working with these um without specifically identifying that that's what I was doing. And now that I can really embrace it more specifically, I just see so much more.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah. And uh like looking at the um, you know, when we come into this transition, especially for like I think you you serve like high-achieving leaders, um, we are, you know, we're kind of going, going, going, and we just do what we're so used to doing. And then it's like really, you know, then we are hit with additional challenges. So those things aren't as easy. So now we're like struggling with the things that got us that that were easy or we were good at. And then we also have to now try to figure out why am I doing it this way? Like, is this really serving me? Is this how I want to do it? And then we get to like in our self-discovery, also discover how we want to proceed and spend the rest of our years.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yeah. So many of the women that I work with, and I count myself among this group, kind of um were s have been successful because of the discipline and the the intentionality that we bring to kind of managing ourselves, managing our health, managing our families, managing our work. There's a kind of I'm organized, I'm disciplined, I'm gonna control what's happening. And menopause is not really an experience that thrives in in control. And and so um to learn how to bring care rather than control to the situation, to our bodies, to our lives, is one of the blessings, one of the the growth opportunities that that impacts not only our well-being, but it also impacts our leadership. It's a much more spacious way to walk through the world and allows for much more expansion. Um, and that is true, whether that's at home with our families or in the context of our work.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah, and I think it's beautiful, right? And I think um, you know, when we think about all the things that are happening, and we're so used to just keeping the train on the tracks, I like to say. And when we can't, it's almost like we lose our identity, right? It's like we're starting to be like, oh no, everything's going to crumble. Like so many people leave the workforce at this transition, right? So tell us a little bit how you support women to thrive in this and to keep, you know, so we can still use, I mean, we we have so much to offer. So like we need, you know, to be able to support ourselves. So thank you for some of that.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Thank you. So I offer programming that's appropriate uh for menopause conversation in the workplace, and I offer two foundational programs and customized support around that. The first uh foundational program is an introduction to menopause at work for for everybody, because um a woman shouldn't have to be the one to introduce her boss or her peers to menopause. Like this is a some this is like this is um something that should be understood in the context of the workplace.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So so the workplace we have like we've we've had transitions where um they know how to support breastfeeding and they know how to like to put in those other supports.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

We have FMLA for a whole variety of reasons. We have we have um all sorts of ways of being being human in the context of the workplace. Uh and menopause is just one of those ways of being human in the workplace.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

And so being able to bring it to the work, not just to the individuals, the consumers, but the workplace itself. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Yeah, so that's that's one um program that I offer. And then the other, my this is my passion project, is a deep dive for women leaders to explore menopause as a developmental opportunity to reframe this this time, not only as a suite of symptoms, but as a time for growth, and then to really focus on what does that mean for how we meet it. So, of course, we need to bring care. We can't, we don't, you know, there are things that happen during menopause that we need to take care of and things that create suffering that and we don't want to suffer unnecessarily. So, what are some of the basic um lifestyle factors, um mindful awareness, like being aware for yourself practices that might help anybody because I work I work broadly, I'm not trying to create a custom plan one person at a time. I'm working for what's appropriate in general. Yeah. And um, so creating care uh and then moving beyond care. Because if we stay with care, we'll spend all our time and energy like going down the rabbit hole of fighting all the symptoms and you know trying to stay 35, which none of us is going to.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

And so um and I like that you say that um in the fact that if we are always focused on the care, it it's kind of just where we stay. Yes, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Exactly. It becomes obsessive. And so we have to move beyond care to actually curiosity and learning from the experiences. So one of the examples that I use from my own my own personal life is um that hot flashes were what has introduced me to my own anger. Like I always thought I always thought, like, oh, I'm nice, I'm friendly, nothing but like I'm you know, everything's fine. And uh I I brought lots of care to my hot flashes. So I learned first that sugar was a trigger for me, but but I kept paying attention. Like, so that's care for my hot flashes, but then I I was like, I'm still having a hot flash now, even though I've been good about the sugar. So what's going on? And for I came to realize, oh, just a moment or two ago, something irritated me. I got a little agitated, like a little angry. And so this cracked the door open for me to become more aware of and more comfortable with my own um what I think of as less pleasant um emotions. And now I'm much more friendly with my own anger, and I have choice. If I do I want to act on it, do I not want to act on it, rather than being kind of naive to my own truth? So that's a way that we can um move into and deepen our self-awareness through the practice of learning.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Yeah, and I do I do a ton of that with pelvic health and the fact that we're connecting to the nervous system, and what are the signals that we're getting that we often miss, right? Absolutely. So, like a lot of times people come to see me, they've either got pain or they've got these, you know, they're leaking, or they've they've got ETIs, or you know, the like things that are really disrupting their lives. And it's like, yes, we want to calm that down, but let's get underneath it and behind it. What are the drivers, right? It could very well be emotions, right? Often emotions.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Yeah, absolutely. And so so that actually, I I was leading a weekend program once, kind of going into this um opportunity for inquiry, and one of the women said, What good is there for incontinence? Like what, like, like how could we be learning from incontinence? And none of us wants to be incontinent, right? But I I thought to myself, if you find um that going through the door of incontinence brings you into a more present relationship with yourself and with your pelvic floor, and and um invites you to have care, like you can offer, then that is a big win, right? Nobody wants to have incontinence, but also no one wants to be um not known to themselves.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah, a lot of times people are like, Wow, I can't believe I'm how old and I'm learning how to breathe, or I'm learning how to connect to this part of my body. Right. Even doctors I've worked with, and they're like, This I must have learned about this part of my body, but it's just kind of a black box. So it's it's almost an opportunity to now, it's like a little sounding alarm, like, hey, pay attention to me, something's offline. And you know, the lot, there's lots of reasons that could be happening, but then it it just offers you an opportunity to discover your yourself and your body and your your connections um on such a deeper level.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Yeah. And there are things particularly related to uh leadership that are that are also learning. So one of the um big questions that like in the context of the workplace, brain fog is one of the big symptoms that women are afraid of and that has a big impact on how we're able to do our work and the work that feels um pleasurable for us. And so, yes, we want to do all the things we can to mitigate and calm the brain fog, but then if we still have some, what is that, what door does that open to us in our leadership, whether that's about bringing more presence or about getting out of the weeds? So many times women are um senior women, even in the you know the highest levels, can be like the senior most admin. You know, like we're the ones who are keeping track of everything and managing everything. And what happens if we choose not to be that one and to focus more strategically with more influence instead? Like so, so that's a doorway into a different kind of strategic uh uh potential. Um so we have to learn. And uh I guess so I'm I'm still we're here we are, I'm describing my my deep dive program. Yeah, and then also in this deep dive program, we create space for the moving through that is required for menopause because um we can't just care and we can't just learn, right? Because we could we could cycle around with all of those. We have to allow things to let go and let come. And so what is it that we're letting go of? What is it that we're allowing to come into our lives? And I for many women the era of menopause is an era of grief, right? Like letting go of so many of the things that our culture says are what makes us valuable. Yes, and um maybe it's also a time of empty nesting, or it's a time of um facing our mortality that that's um can bring a lot of grief, but but also as we move through the grief, there's a lot of possibility on the other side, and so like opening to that possibility is is part of what I'm about in the work that I do.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

But I love it. I love it. Um what would be um some like uh parting words of wisdom or any resources? How can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Great. So I am you can find me at edpasalis.com. You can also find me, I post quite regularly on LinkedIn, and I'm actually hosting a LinkedIn live next week with two um professors who focus on uh menopause in the workplace who are also looking at it from this growth perspective. So if you find my feed, it'll that that'll be in my in my feed. Um and I'd love to have you sign up for my newsletter and to connect with me on LinkedIn and stay posted so you know when the next Be Your Power, the Menopause Leadership Program, is and uh we might also then be able to talk about your workplace.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Wonderful. I love it. I'm excited to check out those places. Um and uh oh, I had a question and I forgot it. Hold on, let me think. Oh, yes, it wasn't a question, but so if we've got pumping rooms, what wouldn't it be nice to have like a hot flash room?

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Actually, no, I feel absolutely the total opposite. Yeah. I've I believe that um claiming the experience. Right out in the open is the way to go. And actually, um Alicia Grandy, the the faculty that I'm talking with next week, she has her her her research, which isn't yet published, but um she she talks about how in the context of the workplace, if we claim our experience, I'm having a hot flash. Give me a moment, just without any embarrassment or um self-denigration, yeah, then we keep our power in the context of the workplace. But if we're like, oh, you know, I don't want you to see that I'm sweating, then that hiding is what is what actually diminishes our power. So I'm all about no, let's let's actually have let's all have our hot fleshes out in public.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

I love it. I would think more of like a cool space that you could like.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Well, we need to be able to windows for sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Um like little fans or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Um great. And actually before we we go, I want to just uh um comment that we're sitting here at Wander Cafe. Oh, yes, where we both were here for the M Factor documentary screening. And uh just want to celebrate this place that that we're in. Yes. Do you want to say anything?

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Yeah, so Wander Cafe, from my understanding, so they are um LGTBQIA and friends friendly. Um they host event space, so they're actually setting up, you've probably heard. Uh you can uh rent spaces. And Edie, thank you for inviting me. Um she hosted the M Factor screening um after our screening, and it was another amazing showing. Um again, shows shows the need and the interest um for more information and resources and support.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

And actually, I just want to say that it was Wham Theater that ho I was just the facilitator. Wham Theater um hosted that screening. Wham Theater is a feminist activist theater, very uh pro menopause. So I just want to give a shout out to Wham.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Okay, so if you're in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, we've got some great um great resources and uh locations and and people out there doing great things.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah, thank you.