Thriving Through Menopause: Andrea M Slominski of Regency Rising On Wellness Tips for Women Over 45

An Interview With Shawna Robins

Shawna Robins
Authority Magazine
Published in
20 min readJul 12, 2024

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Perimenopause and menopause are not diseases. They are natural bodily processes. Because they are not diseases, they do not have a cure, but there are many approaches that can make the process less difficult. Can it be hard? Yes, but it is not the end. It is the beginning of something new and powerful.

Menopause is a significant transition in a woman’s life, often accompanied by various physical and emotional challenges. However, it is also an opportunity to embrace wellness and thrive. How can women over 45 navigate this phase with grace and vitality? As part of this interview series, we had the pleasure to interview Dr. Andrea M. Slominski

Andrea M. Slominski, Ph.D., is a women’s midlife and menopause coach, speaker, and author. She went back to school at fifty-five and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in women’s psychology and mythology, focusing on the triple transformation women must navigate in midlife.

In her Ph.D. research, she identified the new life stage that has emerged for women over the past 120 years, which includes perimenopause, midlife, menopause, and post-menopause. She names this new life stage from ages 45–70+ “Regency” and identifies it as women’s new power years.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you’. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your backstory?

Of course, I’d be happy to. I’m sixty-five; I’ve been coaching women through perimenopause, menopause, midlife, and post-menopause in my private practice for ten years. I’ve survived thirty- three years of marriage (it wasn’t easy), during which time I’ve raised three kids, six dogs, and a garden full of Old English Country roses. The beach is my favorite place to be. I’m originally from the East Coast and currently live in Southern CA. Since childhood, I’ve always loved stories. I’ve been fascinated by archeology, myth, and the great tales. My early career in theatre allowed me to share stories with audiences across the country and experience the transformative power within them. Before returning to school, I was an adjunct college professor of theater. I was teaching, directing, and producing live theatre when I entered my menopause years.

My OBGYN kept me on the pill from age thirty-eight to fifty because of my family history of ovarian cancer. When he told me it was time to come off the pill, I said, “What about menopause? Will I go through menopause if I stop taking these hormones?” He replied, “Oh, I’m sure you’re through all that already.” Within 30 days of going off the pill, my life was turned upside down. I went into instant menopause. The life that had felt so focused and comfortable the month before felt like it no longer fit. Not only was my body changing, but my inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions were changing, too. After twenty years of caring for everyone and everything else, I wanted to do something for myself.

Like many women in midlife, I decided I needed to change my life. I wanted to rediscover who I was and reclaim my life. That is when I decided to go back to school.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to your particular career path?

At first, I thought I wanted to make a career change from live theatre to TV or Film, so I went back to school for that. I soon discovered that the processes of creating film and TV did not interest me in the least. Working with people, collaborating on stories, and discovering their transformational potential continued to interest me the most. That’s when I discovered a graduate program that focused on the intersection of stories, myths, tales, and Depth psychology. My subsequent studies of women’s midlife psychology and mythology in my M.A. and Ph.D. programs allowed me to take a deep dive into the challenges women experience at this time of life. The stories within women’s mythologies, folktales, and fairytales offer models and maps for navigating the difficult terrain of midlife and menopause.

The study of women’s midlife psychology and physiology offered profound insights into the triple transformation that women go through in this stage of life. I was living through the experiences I was studying. It was the discoveries I made about how to influence, direct, and participate in the changes I was going through that inspired me to start my practice and to help other women who are crossing the same territory.

Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the menopause and women’s wellness fields? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

I spent six years studying and researching the physiological and psychological changes in women’s bodies and psyches during midlife and menopause. I have my own experience and the results from my research with hundreds of women going through this time of life. Additionally, because I can access other medical and psychological studies, I can keep up with current research and incorporate it into my practice.

From my research, it became clear that there was a fundamental flaw in women’s midlife medicine. Women’s lived experiences were split in two, separating their physical experiences from their psychological ones. Women’s bodies and cycles are deeply tied to their psyches; it’s impossible to separate them. Midlife Women live embodied lives; our physical and psychological lives are woven together into a living tapestry. You cannot help women through these changes without considering the whole woman.

During my research, I discovered that Boomer women and all the women coming up behind them are the first generations of women to live as a cohort past menopause in the history of humanity. There have always been individual women who lived past menopause since the time of Plato, but never have entire generations of women lived past menopause together. In 1900, in the U.S., statistically, women of color were dead by forty-three and white women by fifty-one. By 2000, Women’s life spans had doubled for women of color and increased by one-third for white women. I documented and announced the arrival of this new life stage for women, and I named it Regency.

This new life stage, Regency, offers another 20–30 years of productive and creative life for women after menopause, from ages fifty to eighty or more. By 2030, there will be over eighty-seven million U.S. women over forty-five. Women who are currently in this life stage or are aging into Regency are pioneers in crossing new territory and developing new methods and approaches for the most difficult aspects of this time of life.

My unique contribution to women’s wellness is four-fold,

  1. By identifying a new life stage for women, I’m helping to clearly identify the journey ahead. I’m sounding a clarion call to women and their healthcare partners to focus on the physiological and psychological needs that will be experienced by millions of women who are in Regency or aging into Regency.
  2. By sharing accurate information on the peri-to-post menopause and midlife journeys, women learn they are not broken, that the changes they are experiencing are not diseases, and that there are multiple options for making these changes easier. Women benefit from assurances that they are not alone and that there are millions of other women going through the same transformation.
  3. It is vital that women understand that Midlife is much more than menopause. Women’s midlife is unique and different from men’s. We go through a triple transformation; one is physical, the menopause transformation, which is woven into the systems of our physical bodies; one is psychological, the midlife shift, which is a fundamental shift in thinking and perspective in the psyche that is also pre-ordained. The third is the spiritual shift that is created from the combination of the first two, which often results in a change in one’s view of purpose, meaning, and belonging and often brings up the idea of legacy.
  4. The coaching method I have created invites women to look at who they are now, identify what their key issues are, how to reclaim themselves from their householder years (the 20 to 30 years of tending everyone else’s gardens except their own,) and to begin the journey of becoming their most authentic selves. My coaching and teaching is based in the proven principles of depth and archetypal psychology within a mythological or narrative framework. Myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and great tales, contain within them all the problems and challenges of living a human life. By working within a mythic perspective, I empower my clients to take a top-down perspective on their lives and problems instead of feeling like they are underneath or buried by them. My methodology also deals with the multiple issues within Regency, which contains women’s new power years and the challenges of aging.

Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

“Life really does begin at 40. Up until then, you are just doing research.”

C. G. Jung

Jung is telling us that until we have some life experience, we don’t have the perspective to see life as a whole. Each act in the drama of human life is a mystery until you have lived through it. No one tells us or educates us in our culture about the changes that lie ahead as we grow and mature through life. Life is change. A woman’s middle name is Change. From her first period to her last, a woman goes through hundreds of physiological and psychological cycles of change. Midlife is another harbinger of transformational change. When you are in the throes of change, having perspective on your situation and struggles can be challenging. But, for example, if we look back at our teen years, we can clearly see the struggles, mistakes, and choices we made as we grew through adolescence. Clarity comes with perspective. Jung felt that it was with the development of a midlife perspective that we can start to see and understand the patterns in our lives. I’ve lived through the Householder years with all their blessings and trials. Living now, in the back side of Regency, I can look back and see the patterns, archetypes, and innate structures of growth behind me, as well as some possibilities still unrealized in what lies ahead. When we embrace the midlife shift from the outer world of accomplishment to the inner world of soul, psyche, and spirit, we travel toward wisdom. The entire process of peri to meno to post-meno and midlife can last five, seven, ten, fifteen years or more. There is no set timeline. Every woman goes through it individually. This is why it is impossible to create a standard treatment protocol for women in midlife.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Let’s start with the basics. What lifestyle changes have you found to be most effective for women to thrive during menopause?

The first, and I think the most important consideration for a woman entering this time of change, is to find an OBGYN who specializes in menopause treatment. Most OBGYNs do not have a lot of training in menopause. Finally, because so many women are entering into the Regency life stage, including the menopause and midlife transition, there is a lot more information available to women and many more practitioners who are specializing in this field. If you’re not sure where to find a physician, you can do a simple Google search of “OBGYN who specializes in menopause in my town.”

One of the reasons that I suggest this is there are many women are experiencing menopause indicators such as mood swings, hot flashes, headaches, angry outbursts, unpredictable emotions, irregular periods, painful periods, and so on, who are not sure if they are entering into perimenopause. Many of these women meet with resistance from their primary care physician or their OBGYN when they request the ordering of hormone blood panel tests to see if they have entered perimenopause.

Whether a woman is interested in exploring the new, safer hormone replacement therapy or wants to make the transition without hormone supplementation, it is helpful to know where you are in the biological transition. Blood tests are the way to find out.

Each woman is going to go through the menopause/midlife transition in her own way. Each woman’s journey will be as individual as she is as she crosses through this unknown territory.

Some lifestyle changes that women can implement to support their physical and mental health at this time of life are;

  1. BONES. Take care of the health of your bones. As estrogen production wanes in our bodies, the rate at which our bodies produce new bone decreases over time. This is what leads to osteopenia and osteoporosis. It is extremely important to maintain your bone density as you go into the perimenopause/menopause stage of life. Working out with resistance weight machines, learning to work out with free weights, and learning how to “lift heavy” helps to stimulate your bones to stay strong. Find a professional who can help you learn these skills without injuring yourself. Please check with your physician before you start or change an exercise plan. Find out what is best and healthiest for you. Bone strength is key to thriving in Regency and maintaining vitality in your wise woman years. Get a baseline bone scan as soon as your doctor will order one. We can start to lose bone mass in our thirties!
  2. SLEEP. Sleep is the Empress over all of our bodily functions. Whatever you have to do to get between six and, preferably, eight or more hours of sleep per night, try to make it a priority. Your body goes through so many restorative and repairing functions during sleep. When we don’t get enough sleep, our entire hormone cascade can be thrown off in our body, which includes a lot more than just estrogen and progesterone. To get enough sleep, please stop using electronics and watching TV, ideally for two hours or at least one hour before you’re going to try to go to sleep. If you want to read, hold a book, not an e-reader. Sleep in a cool, dark room. Try to limit your caffeine to 12 noon or before. Set a regular schedule for sleep and a bedtime routine. It also may help to be sure you are not eating your last meal of the day within two hours of the time you plan to go to sleep. A good night’s sleep is vital to helping your body maintain its healthiest state. If you are having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or if you think you may have sleep apnea, please consult with your physician.
  3. SUGAR. Get refined sugar out of your diet. Research studies have found that the consumption of high-sugar foods has increased vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats). Consumption of a lot of sugar can also increase your potential for weight gain and/or developing a metabolic disorder such as type II diabetes.
  4. WATER. Drink 80–100 oz of water each day.
  5. MOVE. Do some exercise 3–4 times a week that will help you break a sweat and get your heart rate up. The more lean muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be. Doing weight resistance exercises with free weights or weight machines will help to build lean muscle. It also helps stimulate your body to build new bone. Stretching after exercise helps your body to maintain flexibility. Please check with your physician before you start or change an exercise plan. Find out what is best and healthiest for you.
  6. DRINKING. Give up alcohol. Alcohol can make menopause indicators like night sweats, hot flashes, and interrupted sleep worse. A recent study from the Mayo Clinic’s Women’s Health Center notes that using alcohol during menopause can increase a woman’s risk for serious health conditions such as heart disease and osteoporosis.
  7. SMOKING Stop smoking. Do we really need to be told that smoking causes disease?
  8. DIET. Eat a well-balanced diet, with protein, veggies, fruit, and fiber. Orthopedic Surgeon, and menopause specialist, Dr. Vonda Wright suggests one gram of protein per ideal lb. of body weight. So, if your idea weight is 135 lbs., you should be consuming 135 gms of protein each day. There are many books and articles on healthy eating for menopause. Please consult with your physician or a nutritionist to address your particular situation and health concerns.
  9. SUPPLEMENTS. In consultation with your physician, you may want to consider supplements. Popular supplements used to address discomfort and maintain menopause health include Calcium, Vitamin D3, Vitamin K, Collagen with Fortibone, B vitamins, Turmeric, Krill Oil, Magnesium Threonate, and more. They may help preserve or build your bone density, reduce inflammation, support your immune system, reduce hot flashes, support dietary needs, and address other physical indicators of perimenopause and menopause. Do not start an herbal or supplement program without consulting with your doctor. There can be contraindications to taking over-the-counter supplements with medications.
  10. WEIGHT Try to maintain a healthy weight. This is one of the chief complaints of women in menopause. Losing weight or maintaining weight may mean a big change in your dietary program. Consult with your doctor or a nutritionist to be sure you are getting the right balance of nutrients.
  11. STRESS. Reduce your stress. I know this is easier said than done but find something that works for you. Whether it’s listening to music, meditating, coloring mandalas, going for a walk, playing with your dog, doing a craft project, or whatever, make time to relax and offload the stress of your day.
  12. COMMUNITY. Nurture your friendships. Deep, meaningful friendships with other women can be one of the lifelines for thriving during this time of life. Having other women that you can have meaningful conversations with and with whom you can share your struggles, joys, challenges, and victories is life affirming. It’s in community and through relationships that we realize that we are not alone, and we are writing our own unique stories in the living of our lives.
  13. PLAY. Did you know that the opposite of play is not work? It’s depression. Play is something that you do for the pure joy of it, not for an outcome. Not because you’re going to win the game, or you’re going to have a cake to take to your grandmother, or you’re going to have cookies to share with the neighborhood. Play is something you do that has no result other than enjoying the activity itself. Think of what you used to love to do when you were a child and do that. Was it taking a book and reading in a sunlit nook? Was it going for a walk with your dog in the woods? Playing catch? Was it building a fort, coloring, playing dress up and pretend, or swinging on swings? Do that thing that you love doing so much that you lose track of time. You look at the clock and say, “Oh, my gosh, I hit a time warp. Where did those two hours go?” That is called a state of flow when you’re playing and you lose track of time. It is a necessary component of happiness and contentment, so get out there and play regularly.
  14. JOURNAL. Keep a journal. At the end of each day, write down a few sentences about how you felt, what was good, and what was challenging about your day. Keeping track of your peri- and menopause indicators is also a good way to track for your next doctor’s visit and to see if any of the changes you are making are helping. Remember, change and results take time. Building good and new habits, like building muscle, takes time.
  15. CHECK UPS. Go to all your health appointments. Get all your regular checkups, pap smears, breast exams, colonoscopies, annual physicals, and vaccinations if you take them. Bring your journal to share any changes and concerns that need to be considered.

Can you share any specific dietary recommendations that help alleviate common menopause symptoms?

Four important changes to support health during menopause are to remove sugar and processed foods from your diet, increase the amount of protein you eat (as detailed above,) and increase the amount of water you drink if you don’t drink 80–100 oz of water daily.

Many of my clients find that eliminating gluten from their diet helps reduce bloating, and eliminating alcohol reduces hot flashes and helps them maintain their weight and mental sharpness. They have also found that the extended length of their recovery time from a few drinks or glasses of wine is no longer worth it.

The juice of ½ a fresh lemon in water first thing in the morning, before eating or drinking anything else, may help with joint pain and stiffness. This is a long-term natural approach. Consistency is the key.

Elimination diet. If you think you may have new food sensitivities, eliminating one food from your diet for 7 days and seeing if it makes a difference can help narrow down any issues.

Knowledge is power. Remember, no one can tell you what indicators you’ll experience. What works for one woman may or may not work for you. Whether you should seek relief from a menopause specialist, do your own research, or seek the help of a coach, it’s your journey, and you can make decisions as to how to navigate it. Do not hesitate to seek medical or psychological support if you need it. The changes of menopause and midlife are real.

How important is mental health during menopause, and what strategies can women use to maintain it?

Mental health is just as important as physical health in all stages of a woman’s life, and menopause is no different. What many women don’t know, because we are not taught it, is that our changing hormones are linked to not only physical changes but to our midlife psychological changes, too. Women’s midlife is especially challenging because we go through menopause and midlife simultaneously. The changing hormones can affect our mood and feelings. Just like your feelings would shift, and you may have been more sensitive when estrogen was low during the days right before your period, during menopause, estrogen disappears for good. The lack of estrogen, which is the hormone that encourages women to take of everyone and everything, can once again make you feel more emotional and sensitive. In addition, frustrations and anger that you repressed to keep everything running smoothly during the householder years can come boiling up unexpectedly. Add to this the midlife reassessment of our lives, including all things we did and didn’t get to do, becoming conscious of our own mortality, and questioning our meaning, purpose, and belonging, and you can see how women’s mental health at this time of life can be in constant flux. The ups and downs of women’s mental health during the Regency years can influence our lives for better or for worse.

Women need to take time to rest, take stock of their lives and themselves, and think about what they want to do in the next 20–30 years.

If your perimenopause and menopause indicators are overwhelming or bothersome, find a menopause specialist and get an appointment to discuss your options.

You may need to set new boundaries on your time and attention as you go through your changes.

Enlisting the help of your loved ones in managing the household and everyday tasks can go a long way to alleviating stress and overwhelm.

Effective and clear communication about what you are experiencing can help loved ones understand what is going on for you.

Find support from other women going through menopause or who have been there.

With so many changes, such as career issues, finances, an empty nest, health changes, shifting relationships, and potentially becoming a caregiver to elderly relatives or family, there is a lot to manage. Get support from a coach or a therapist who specializes in menopause and midlife if you need it; it can make all the difference in reclaiming your life for you.

What role does exercise play in managing menopause symptoms, and what types of exercise are most beneficial?

Exercise is vital. We have to keep moving to keep our bones strong, our joints mobile, our hearts healthy, and our stress levels lower. The best exercise to do is one that you enjoy or that you can commit to doing! As mentioned above, weight-bearing and muscle-building exercises are great for menopause and bone and metabolism health.

Walking outside in nature is great for your whole body. Time spent in nature is good for the psyche, too.

Medical research shows that continuing or starting an exercise plan in menopause helps avoid obesity and all of the problems that can come with it, such as hypertension, glucose intolerance, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Long-term physical exercise has also been associated with reduced rates of cancer, dementia, cognitive decline, mood, and anxiety problems; it helps reduce osteopenia and osteoporosis and helps to prevent falls and fractures. Another benefit is, of course, that regular exercise promotes cardiovascular fitness through aerobic activity, muscle strength through resistance activity, flexibility through stretching, and improved balance.

Can you please share “5 Things You Need to Know to Thrive Through Menopause”?

1. Perimenopause and menopause are not diseases. They are natural bodily processes. Because they are not diseases, they do not have a cure, but there are many approaches that can make the process less difficult. Can it be hard? Yes, but it is not the end. It is the beginning of something new and powerful.

2. You are not crazy, and you are not alone. The changes that you are feeling and experiencing are real. If your physician is not listening to you, believing you, and supporting you, find a better one. Find a physician who specializes in menopause medicine.

3. Women’s Midlife is much more than menopause. Women’s midlife is a triple transformation that includes menopause. One part is the physical transformation from perimenopause to post-menopause. The second part is the psychological transformation of midlife. This includes reassessing our lives, asking who we are now, and what we want to do with the time we have left? The third part is the spiritual shift that emerges out of the first two. We find ourselves asking the questions of what is our purpose, meaning, and belonging now? To successfully navigate the triple transformation of midlife women have to navigate 7 realms of change.

4. The Seven Realms of change I identified are your changing Body, Self-Image, Feelings, Needs, Roles, Priorities, and Goals. Some of these realms will be harder for you to cross than others. Some of them may come back around even if you think you have crossed them. You may find you need to re-navigate multiple realms as you age. It’s possible to discover your map, your mile markers, and road signs to guide you through your Regency years in world mythologies, folktales, and fairytales. These ancient stories tap into the collective experiences of being a woman, providing solutions and a greater understanding of our deeply personal experience of a universal right of passage.

5. Women who are starting perimenopause and menopause or are living in post-menopause are the first women in the history of humanity to live past menopause together as a cohort. It has never happened before. We are creating a new life stage as we are living it. There are no models, there are no maps, there are no examples. We have a unique opportunity to live into a new life stage from ages 45 to 70+ that I call Regency. Regency has emerged in the 120 years since 1900, when women of color were dead at 43 and white women at 51. We have an additional 20 to 30 years post-menopause to become our most authentic and fulfilled selves. All our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and great-great-grandmothers are cheering us on because we have an opportunity that they never had. Our cultural power is growing, our financial power is growing, and our political power is growing. By 2030, there will be over 87,000,000 US women over forty-five. These are your power years, what will you do with them?

Can you discuss any alternative therapies or natural remedies that have shown promise in supporting women through menopause?

Many of my clients use supplements, dietary changes, meditation, yoga, sound bathing, journaling, dream work, and nonprescriptive remedies to manage the changes of menopause. I encourage each woman to do her own research and try different approaches to find out what works for her. As always, check with your physician if you are planning to try something new. There has been a lot of recent research that has evaluated the use of bioidentical low-dose transdermal hormone therapy and found it to be effective and safe. However, each woman’s circumstances are particular to her; women must discuss any treatment with their trusted physician to determine if it is appropriate for them.

Wonderful. We are nearly done. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Maria Schriver. She has been working tirelessly on behalf of women and their health. She is an inspiration.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Your readers can join my email list, find my coaching practice, classes, workshops, and follow my blog

“Too old for HRT” on starting HRT at 65, on my website https://www.drandreaslominski.com

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

About the Interviewer: Shawna Robins is an international best-selling author of two books — Powerful Sleep — Rest Deeply, Repair Your Brain and Restore Your Life, and Irresistibly Healthy — Simple Strategies to Feel Vibrant, Alive, Healthy and Full of Energy Again. Shawna is the founder and CEO of Third Spark, an online wellness hub for women over 40 who want to reignite their sleep, reset healthier habits and respark their lives. Shawna is a sleep expert, hormone health expert, and a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBHWC). She has been featured on many podcasts including Dr. Mindy Pelz’s “The Resetter Podcast” and in Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, and The Huffington Post. A free download of her latest book can be found at www.thirdsparkhealth.com/powerful-sleep/ You can follow her on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine

Published in Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Shawna Robins
Shawna Robins

Written by Shawna Robins

Shawna is the founder of Third Spark, an online wellness hub for women over 40 who want to reignite their sleep, reset healthier habits & respark their lives

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