Midlife Advice | Perimenopause, Hormones and Midlife Women’s Health
You're a woman over 40, you're in the thick of perimenopause or menopause, and lately you keep coming back to the same thought: I just don't feel like myself anymore.
You're doing everything right. Showing up for your family, your work, everyone who needs you. But you feel exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix. Work feels harder and less fulfilling than it used to. Your relationship feels distant. Your body is changing. You’re overwhelmed with the neverending decisions. And no matter what you do, you just feel off. Disconnected from yourself.
Midlife Advice is the podcast for intelligent midlife women who are ready to stop white-knuckling through life and feel next-level good.
Each week, host Jessica Long brings you honest conversations about navigating perimenopause and menopause, hormones, overwhelm, relationships, confidence, and the identity shift nobody warned you was coming. Not as a patient. Not as a problem to be solved. As a woman who deserves to actually feel GREAT again.
Jessica is a holistic health coach, certified menopause coaching specialist, breathwork facilitator and fellow midlife woman navigating all of this right alongside you.
If you've ever searched:
- Why am I so exhausted all the time?
- Why does work feel so hard lately?
- Why do I feel so disconnected from my partner?
- Why do I have low libido and will it ever come back?
- Why don't I feel like myself anymore?
- Is this perimenopause or something else?
This podcast was made for you.
💌 If you’re a midlife woman navigating perimenopause, hormone shifts, personal growth, and just not feeling like yourself, you’ll fit right in to my community. Join my email list where I share personal stories, nervous system regulation tools, favorite products, high-protein recipes, book recs and exclusive discounts. I’ll send you my FREE 10-minute breathwork session to get better sleep tonight to get you started!
✨For more midlife advice on perimenopause, hormone health, nervous system regulation, and living with purpose in your 40s and 50s follow me: @midlifeadvicepodcast | @heyjessicalong
⚡️Ready to feel f*cking GREAT again? Learn more about working together at belongwellness.com.
Midlife Advice | Perimenopause, Hormones and Midlife Women’s Health
Low Libido in Midlife: What's Really Shutting Down Your Desire
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Low libido in midlife is likely not just your hormones. There are other factors at play that are important to know about. Let’s talk about what's actually shutting down desire for midlife women, and what helps bring it back.
Brooke Bralove, LCSW-C and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and I talk about what women over 40 actually need to know about low desire, sexual ruts in long-term relationships, and how unresolved trauma can live in the body and affect intimacy for decades.
Here’s what we cover:
- Why familiarity and too much emotional safety can kill eroticism in long-term relationships
- The myth of spontaneous desire, and what's actually more realistic
- How mental overload, exhaustion, and resentment shut down libido faster than any hormone shift
- Why "willingness to try" is more useful than waiting to be in the mood
- How trauma, big and small, can show up in the body and affect intimacy years later
- What Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is, and how it's helping women resolve sexual trauma in as few as one session
- One thing you can do this week to reconnect with your own desire
Brooke Bralove, LCSW-C, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, psychotherapist, and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist with over 20 years in private practice.
brookebralove.com | @BrookeBralovePsychotherapy
Chapters:
00:00 Understanding Low Libido in Midlife Women
03:11 The Role of Familiarity and Newness in Relationships
05:57 The Myth of Spontaneous Desire
08:55 The Importance of Communication and Willingness
11:49 Addressing Resentment and Unmet Needs
14:21 Exploring Root Causes of Low Libido
17:03 Healing from Trauma and Its Impact on Desire
19:49 Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) Explained
22:37 Practical Steps to Reconnect with Desire
I want to hear from you. Send me a text or voicemail!
😴 Sleep better tonight with my free 10-minute audio breathwork session! (https://your.belongwellness.com/sleep)
⚡️Join the waitlist for Hello, Next-Level You, my upcoming 3-month group breathwork experience for midlife women who are ready to feel f*cking GREAT. Program launches in September. (https://www.belongwellness.com/work-with-me)
✨For more midlife advice on perimenopause, hormone health, nervous system regulation, and living with purpose in your 40s and 50s follow me: @midlifeadvicepodcast | @heyjessicalong