Dr. Cari Schaefer on 5 Critical Things We Need to Know about Menopause
Let’s talk puberty first.
It’s a hard time, no doubt. But even with all the wacky things happening to our young selves, from the moods to the breakouts, there is an understanding around it. We know puberty is a growth phase. And for those of us fortunate to have support, we’re buoyed by our loved ones also knowing what’s happening.
Cut to perimenopause. The awareness around this time, which is generally the transitional period leading up to menopause, tends to be different. There’s less of a this-is-a-time-of-change sentiment and more of what Cari Schaefer, DACM calls “a big blank.”
Schaefer, a Santa Barbara-based health practitioner and “menopause midwife,” experienced her own “blank”: a health journey filled with misconceptions, confusion, and lack of helpful guidance around what was happening to her body pre and during her menopausal years. Even as a medical professional with an extensive background in Chinese medicine, she couldn’t find solid answers around the symptoms, natural hormonal shifts, and imbalances she was facing. “I’m an avid studier. I’ve been practicing for 20 years. I’ve taken more hormone classes than you can imagine, and nobody is talking about this more severe stuff,” she says. “And yet when you go on Facebook groups for women, they’re all talking about it.”
So that is what Schaefer is doing: Talking about menopausal change—loudly. With a mission to fill the “blank” with positivity, support, and truth, she’s building a peri/menopause educational platform called Wise Woman Emerging. She’s also partnering with like-minded individuals including those at Kindra, a brand offering supportive estrogen-free peri/menopause products and accompanying education to spread awareness.
To gain greater insight, we asked Schaefer about the critical truths we need to know about menopause. (We also included Kindra’s helpful ‘Menopausal Quiz’ below.) Of all of Schaefer’s priceless wisdom, there’s one piece we want to shout from the rooftops: “Menopause isn’t just the cessation of menses. Menopause is this transition where women step into this new powerful role.”
5 Truths about Menopause
#1: This phase warrants embracing.
We need not balk when it comes to perimenopause and menopause, but rather embrace the change, says Schaefer. “It’s really about stepping in and saying, ‘there’s nothing wrong here. I’m out of balance and I need support. This is a normal process.’”
#2: Support should be normalized.
Just like during puberty, a woman’s body goes through great changes during perimenopause and after, but Schaefer says honest talk around the change is lost in our culture. This inspired her concept of the menopause midwife, which “is to help people through these physical, emotional, and psychological changes and to help them balance their body and their life again.”
#3: A great hormone shift takes place.
When women go into their fertility years, Estradiol, a type of estrogen, becomes the dominant hormone. When women transition into perimenopause, Estradiol levels decrease and Estrone, another type of estrogen, increases. This is important to know, says Schaefer, because there’s often great confusion and misunderstanding around the hormonal changes and potential imbalances that can arise due to stress or other issues.
#4: Stress plays a role in the experience.
The adrenals play an important role in the production of estrone. Therefore “for perimenopause, the experience a woman has is really dictated by how healthy her adrenals are and the level of stress that’s on her body,” says Schaefer, who has seen through her experience that much of the classic symptoms associated with perimenopause, such as hot flashes, may, at times, be the result of other latent immune challenges that have gone undetected or unresolved.
#5: Menopause is about ‘Claiming the Wise Woman’
In watching women go through this hormonal transition, Schaefer says that Estradiol and Estrone are fundamentally different and bring out different attributes in a woman. While these attributes vary person to person, Schaefer says higher Estradiol levels are often linked to a “superwoman” ability to multitask and focus on others. But that can diminish as Estrone becomes dominant. “We now don’t need to be focusing on a million things at once, we need to be focusing inward,” she says of perimenopause and menopause. That is because the new role women take is one of “the wise woman,” which requires looking inward and distilling all that has been learned and experienced so it can be shared. “Now we’re the healer or the midwife or the priestess or the wise grandma. This is a time in a woman’s life where she gets to pull her energy back from everything else.” She continues: “It’s an amazing time for women.”
You can learn more about Schaefer’s menopause midwife offerings here.
To gain greater insight into your own personal peri/menopause journey, Kindra has designed this helpful Quiz.
Click HERE to learn more.
This article is solely intended to provide information and inspiration. This interview is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. The views are those of the expert.
