January 2025 @ Chautauqua’s Community House
The "Putting Menopause on the Map" January 2025 Speaker Series in Boulder, CO, was a resounding success, creating a powerful community aimed at breaking the silence and confusion surrounding women's midlife health. Hosted at the Chautauqua Community House, an intentional location recognized for its learning environment, the event instantly sold out, with 110 tickets snapped up in just 24 hours.
The series spanned three distinct, equally important sessions, all geared toward helping attendees chart their own highly individualized "MyMenoMap".
Session Highlights and Key Takeaways
The PMotM series featured a diverse range of local experts, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, dietitians, and certified strength and conditioning coaches. A cornerstone of the series was fostering a supportive, engaging atmosphere, punctuated by humor and vulnerability.
Menopause 1.0: Chaos & Confusion focused on establishing foundational knowledge, covering the stages and symptoms of the transition. The most notable takeaway focused on overturning widespread misinformation, specifically addressing the flaws associated with the 2002 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study concerning Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Participants felt validated, realizing their perimenopausal experiences were common and motivating them to track their symptoms and advocate for themselves ("That I am the boss of my body!!!"). Community and humor were immediate takeaways, with attendees celebrating the shared experience and praising the moderator, noting humorously that the discussion proved, "Katie’s mom is having the best orgasms of her life". The session closed with the empowering directive: "Know your vulva".
Menopause 2.0: Understanding Choices shifted focus to actionable treatment options, particularly concerning hormone and pelvic health. The session delivered game-changing insights into Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM), with an urgent emphasis that Vaginal Estrogen is safe and crucial for preventative care, a realization many participants cited as eye-opening ("It will save lives!"). Physical experts emphasized the importance of dedicated strength training to counteract the impact of menopause on bone density. The mantra for strength training quickly became "Keep lifting heavy shit". Interactive movement breaks, which involved jumping and squatting, prompted attendees to check if they "peed yourself while doing the jumping session," creating a relatable, humorous, and practical segue into learning about pelvic floor physical therapy. Key session takeaways prioritized Sleep, Protein, Plants, Hydration, and Stress.
Menopause 3.0: Thriving Forward centered on prioritizing long-term health and preventing age-related diseases impacting the bones (osteoporosis), heart (cardiovascular disease), and brain (dementia). Attendees were encouraged to utilize diagnostic tools such as DEXA scans for bone density and CT scans to assess heart health. Discussions reinforced that high-intensity training (HIIT) effectively reduces metabolic risk factors. Ultimately, the session stressed that the habits incorporated now will protect long-term health, with the final MyMenoMap Opportunity encouraging women to define their ideal "future identity as a 75-year-old woman" to inform their current health decisions.
The series successfully distilled complex information into accessible dialogue, cementing the core goal: empowerment through awareness and connection. Attendees uniformly voiced a desire to keep the community going, requesting forums and regular meetups to connect with the "100+ sisters in one place with one mission".
