What the Church Needs to Know About (Peri) Menopause | Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young & Tara Beth Leach
IVP
Why is the church still reluctant to discuss a topic that half its community will experience?
In this episode of Hear Women, hosts Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young and Tara Beth Leach take the microphone together for an honest, personal conversation about perimenopause and menopause: the symptoms, the grief, and the questions women are quietly carrying. From night sweats and sleepless nights to the deeper question of what it even means to be a woman on the other side of fertility, Dorina and Tara Beth share what they've experienced and what they're still learning.
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Together, they also bring Scripture into the conversation, from Mary's posture of curiosity to Anna's devoted witness in the temple, and they ask what it would look like for women to embrace what this unique season truly holds. They also name the ways the church's emphasis on the nuclear family can send unintended messages to women who are single, childless, or post-menopausal—and what some helpful correctives might look like.
More than anything, this episode is an invitation to ask not "what's wrong with me?" but "what's happening in me?" and to find community, laughter, and grace in a season that too often goes unnamed.
Whether you're in the thick of perimenopause/menopause/postmenopause or supporting someone who is, or if you are just ready to have a conversation the church rarely starts—this episode is for you.
This episode highlights the following themes:
✅ The real, physical, and emotional weight of menopause—and why women are finally talking about it
✅ What Scripture says about women, aging, and worth beyond reproduction
✅ How the church can create space for women in midlife to be seen, supported, and still lead
Links from this episode:
✅ Read Weathering Change (https://www.ivpress.com/weathering-change?utm_source=ivpod25&utm_medium=ivp_hw&utm_campaign=show_notes) by Courtney Ellis
✅ Learn more about The ‘Pause Life
