Jackie's Take: What's on My Mind in Women's Wellness ✍️ 🤔 

Midlife Isn’t a Crisis—It’s the First Time We’re Allowed to Want Things

This week I listened to a podcast by Dr. Becky Kennedy called “Calling All Good Girls”—and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. The phrase “good girl” is something we’ve all heard, but maybe never questioned. It sounds sweet. Innocuous. Even aspirational. But underneath it? A blueprint for female compliance.

Good girls don’t inconvenience people.
Good girls don’t want too much.
Good girls make things easier for everyone else.

And here’s the kicker: good girls definitely don’t want—not in a way that disrupts, takes up space, or makes people uncomfortable.

As Dr. Becky asked: “Were you allowed to want things for yourself, even if it inconvenienced other people?” I audibly exhaled, and then stopped to really think.

Because that is the question at the heart of so many women’s midlife unravelings.

We spend decades being praised for our ability to tune into everyone else’s needs—building lives around caregiving, productivity, and keeping the peace. Society tells us this is where our value lies—and where there’s value, there’s power. So, of course, we run toward it.

Then perimenopause arrives like a hormonal wrecking ball, and suddenly…the mask slips.

Our estrogen drops, our tolerance for BS thins, and—almost involuntarily—we start asking dangerous questions like: What do I actually want? Not what’s expected. Not what’s efficient. But what feels real, even if it’s messy. Even if it makes other people uncomfortable.

Perimenopause isn’t just hot flashes and weight gain. It’s a neurohormonal unmasking of your deepest truths—what you want, what you need, and who you’re no longer willing to be. The strategies that once served us—pleasing, producing, perfecting—start to feel hollow, misaligned, or simply unsustainable. And in their place, something quieter but more honest begins to rise: clarity.

That clarity is uncomfortable. It often shows up first as grief, resentment, rage, or exhaustion. But it’s not dysfunction. It’s data. It’s your nervous system handing you the truth on a silver platter: “This version of life no longer fits.”

This is the reckoning that brings so many women through the doors of my practice. It’s also at the core of my clinical framework, the unBridled Longevity Blueprint™. I don’t believe midlife is a crisis by default—but it is a confrontation with who you were told to be. And what lies on the other side of that confrontation is not just relief—it’s reinvention.

You don’t need to burn it all down. But I do implore you to stop and consider whether being agreeable is the same thing as being happy.

We were taught that pleasure is selfish.
That asking for more makes us difficult.
That being a “good girl” is the safest way to be loved.

But those rules were never designed to serve you.

Midlife isn’t the end—it’s the moment you stop auditioning and start taking up space.

Because the most radical thing a woman can do is want without apology.

The Tea: What's Trending in Women's Wellness & Culture 🍵 🛍️ 

💊 Medical Benchmarks and the Myth of the Universal Patient This beautifully written piece about childhood growth charts is, at its core, a story about medical mismatch—how rigid, universal health standards can fail to reflect real, thriving bodies. The author questions whether his small but healthy daughter is truly "malnourished" or just misclassified by outdated metrics that ignore biological and cultural diversity.

So what does this have to do with women’s health and menopause? Everything.

Because these same universal standards—based on limited, often Eurocentric data—are the ones guiding how we define "normal" hormone levels, bone density, body composition, BMI, and even menopause symptoms. Women, particularly women of color, are routinely misdiagnosed, overlooked, or undertreated because the tools we use were never built with their bodies in mind.

This was validated in real time by a viral reel I recently created about how so many women are told their labs are “normal”—but they still feel awful. That’s because normal doesn’t mean optimal, and women are left feeling gaslit, dismissed, and confused by a system that doesn’t speak their body’s language.

This piece is a call for personalized, contextualized care—for both our children and ourselves. It’s a reminder that if you feel dismissed or wrongly labeled by lab values or percentile charts, your biology isn’t broken. The benchmark is. (The New Yorker)

🔥 Research Spotlight: Inflammation Does Rise During Menopause: A new JCEM study (March 2025) confirms what so many women in midlife already know: Inflammation ramps up during the menopause transition. Using 21 years of SWAN data, researchers found that markers like hs-CRP and IL-6 rise starting one year before the final menstrual period—and can stay elevated for years after. This isn’t just about aging. It’s hormonal and a massive metabolic inflection point in our wellness trajectory.

🧬 Quick hits:
• Women followed one of three patterns: low, rising, or high inflammation
• Inflammation was higher in Black women, and lower in Chinese and Japanese women
• Higher inflammation = higher cardiometabolic risk

The menopause transition is a full-body event, not just a phase to “get through”—and it’s great to see the research catching up.

🫦 At 50, Chelsea Handler Has It All Say what you will about Chelsea Handler, but one thing’s clear—she’s not slowing down, and she’s definitely not asking for approval. This week, she drops her third Netflix special, The Feeling, thematically linked to her new book I’ll Have What She’s Having. Together, they double down on her signature blend of bold comedy and personal clarity, tackling aging, sex, solitude, and self-ownership with zero apologies. (Los Angeles Times)

The Group Chat Edit - Send This to Your Besties📲 👯‍♂️ 

🎧 Podcast: In this episode, Mel Robbins gets real with sex therapist Vanessa Marin about what’s actually getting in the way of intimacy and how to rebuild sexual connection with clarity, confidence, and zero shame. Vanessa even interviews Mel’s husband! Whether you're in a dry spell or just tired of pretending you're “not that into it,” this episode is a masterclass in rewriting your sex life on your own terms—desire, boundaries, communication, and all. 🛏️🔥 (The Mel Robbins Podcast)

📖 Read: If you are confused about what the heck is going in American politics, our justice system and how that impacts women’s preventive health - you are not alone. In this informative and important article, Carolyn Witte sits down with Natalie Davis, CEO of United States of Care, to unpack what’s at stake and the SCOTUS case we ALL need to be paying attention to right now. 👩‍⚖️⚖️ (The XX Factor)

📲 Wellness Influencer You Can Trust: A sought-after DJ, radio personality, and licensed clinical therapist (yes, really), Hesta Prynn is where nervous system regulation meets killer playlists. She brings movement, music, and mindfulness together in a way that’s equal parts healing and hype. Check out her most recent birthday playlist on Spotify here 🎶🧠✨

FSH: Facts, Snacks & Hacks ✅ 🥨💡 

✅ Fact: Did you know that menopausal hormone therapy contains approximately a 1/3rd of the amount of hormones that are in a standard birth control pill? If this is surprising, you are in good company! I dive in deeper over on IG if you want to learn more.

🥨 Snack: One bite of these TJ’s flaky rosemary crackers and suddenly you’re in Campania—perched on a sun-drenched terrace, Aperol spritz in hand, wondering why you ever settled for boring snacks. ☀️🍷🇮🇹 

💡Hack: How the heck are we supposed to get all this protein?? One of my favorite hacks: outsource it to ChatGPT. Seriously—tell your Chattie what you like, what you don’t, any dietary restrictions, even what’s sad and wilting in your fridge… and boom: a weekly meal plan with 30g of protein per meal. High-protein, low-overwhelm.

↪️ Copy + paste this into ChatGPT to get a realistic, high-protein meal plan you’ll actually use: