BREAKING THE STIGMA: Understanding Perimenopause Beyond Missed Periods | N18S

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]And few people have spoken about health, healing, [music] and female body as openly as our next guest. Lisa Ray is an actor, [music] author, and founder of New Her. She has previously spoken about her journey with cancer, about motherhood in her 40s, and now about perimenopause. Thank you, Lisa, for joining us, and let's take a look what has been her experience so far. So, Shireen, I have an unusual um story as to how I entered menopause because I went through chemo-induced menopause, which means that because of my cancer treatment, I went into menopause overnight. So, it's a really radical change for your body, but I was not given any guidance, support, or medical advice around this. I had no clue where to turn, and I just literally pushed it deep inside.

[00:00:46]However, having said that, I normalized a lot of my symptoms. Uh I experienced insomnia for almost a decade, and anyone who's experienced insomnia knows how difficult it is to function that way.

[00:01:00]I had very low energy in the afternoons.

[00:01:04]I also, now reflecting back, experienced a lot of mood swings that my husband can attest to can attest to today. And today I can look back and reframe that as [music] part of my postmenopausal um experiences or my fluctuations in my uh hormones or my hormones had basically bottomed out post my stem cell transplant.

[00:01:25]I um I was aware that I was in menopause, but I did not understand what that meant, and I did not know that there were any options. I didn't understand what was going on in my body. I didn't understand [music] that I could stabilize my hormones. I didn't understand how to support my body >> [music] >> and to ensure that I didn't become frail and unhealthy. So, I think that it's a tragedy.

[00:01:49]Perimenopause is a very difficult time for a lot of women, not every woman, but a lot of women. It's a time It's often a time when your resilience takes a hit and let's face it, anytime when your resilience takes a hit, especially when a woman, for instance in her 40s, is either the height of her career or is juggling family responsibilities, you know, and many [music] other things, creates a lot of emotional impact as well on women. So, you know, it's it's a multi-layered approach. We have to approach not just the physical symptoms and hormones. We are also going through identity issues. We're approaching emotional changes. We're approaching It's a multi-faceted kind of approach that is required. And that's why at New Harbinger trying to create an ecosystem as well. So, we have an endocrinologist. I didn't even know what an endocrinologist is until recently until I started getting interested in my hormonal health. An endocrinologist is a hormone expert.