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What The Peri? - With Kirsten Cooke
You're not going crazy. You're not broken. And no — it's not "just stress."
Somewhere in your 40s or 50s, your body starts doing things nobody warned you about — the weight that won't shift, the broken sleep, the brain fog, the anxiety from nowhere, the feeling that you've lost yourself. And when you finally go looking for answers, too often you're dismissed, brushed off, or sent away still confused.
What the Peri? is the podcast for women navigating perimenopause and menopause who are done being dismissed and just need someone to make it all make sense. Each episode cuts through the noise, the myths and the medical gaslighting — with honest conversations, real science, and plain-English answers about your hormones, your symptoms, and what actually helps.
I'm Kirsten Cooke — a personal trainer, women's health coach, perimenopause and menopause coach, and mum of four. I'm not talking to you from the outside looking in; I'm walking this road myself. These are the conversations I wish someone had sat me down and had with me years ago.
You are not imagining it. It is not your fault. And you are not alone.
The change you didn't ask for. The conversations you need.
Follow now so you don't miss an episode.
Episodes
9 episodes
Perimenopause & Exercise - The 3 Jobs Nobody Told You About (Ep 9)
(Ep 9) You've been doing the same thing for a year. You trained through Christmas, and through the cold of Winter, and right through the school holidays. You did not miss a session. And at the end of that whole year, you feel like you have very...
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The Mid Section Weight Gain (Ep 8)
You haven't changed a thing. Not one thing. You're eating the way you've always eaten and moving the way you've always moved, and somewhere in the last year or two your body has quietly rearranged itself. Jeans that still do up, but sit somewhe...
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Perimenopause & Mental Health - Mood, Anxiety, Depression & The Mental Load (Ep 7)
(Ep 7) You get through the day. But you are not the woman you were, and you cannot work out where she went. The sadness that turns up with no reason attached. The rage that goes off before you can stop it, and the guilt at eleven o'clock that n...
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Brain Fog & Perimenopause - You're Not Losing Your Mind! (Ep 6)
(Ep 6) Have you ever been mid-sentence — mid-thought — and had the whole thing simply vanish? Not slip away and come back a moment later. Gone. Or walked into a room and had no idea why you were there? Or reached for the simplest word — banana,...
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The 3am Club - Perimenopause, SLEEP, and How to Get Your Nights Back (Ep 5)
Have you ever fallen asleep exhausted, only for your eyes to fly open at 3am — wide awake, heart pounding, mind racing through everything you forgot to do today and everything you have to remember tomorrow — while the whole house sleeps around ...
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Hot Flushes & Night Sweats (Ep 4)
Have you ever been mid-sentence in a meeting, or standing at the front of a room full of people, when a wave of heat rolls up your chest and neck, your face flushes, you start to sweat — and you have to carry on as if nothing's happening? Or wo...
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HRT Debunked - What the Science Actually Says (and Why It Matters for You) (Ep 3)
If the words "hormone replacement therapy" make you nervous — you're not alone. For over twenty years, women have been quietly suffering, too frightened to even consider HRT because of something they half-remember hearing: that it's dangerous, ...
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How Your Hormones Actually Work - Oestrogen, Progesterone & Testosterone in Plain English (Ep 2)
Have you ever felt like something has shifted — like you don't quite feel like yourself anymore — but you can't put your finger on why? So many women are living with anxiety that came from nowhere, bone-deep exhaustion, broken sleep, w...
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Is This Perimenopause? The 34 Symptoms & Counting (Ep 1)
You're not going crazy. You're not broken. And no — it's not "just stress."Somewhere in your 40s or 50s your body starts doing things no one warned you about — the broken sleep, the rage out of nowhere, the anxiety, the brain fog, the ac...
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