Noone Warned Me · Second Spring

Noone Warned Me

If you’re reading this, you’re likely somewhere between 40 and 60. You might be dealing withhot flashes that ruin your sleep, joint pain that makes you question every movement, chronic brain fog, or a metabolism that suddenly stopped listening to you. Oh, and let's not forget the irritability that makes you consider if violence really should be an acceptable way to handle disagreements with your partner. You might also be exhausted by a world that tells women our value drops the moment we stop reproducing.

I know this terrain because I’m walking it right now.

I’m 53 and post-menopausal. While I knew this part of life was inevitable if I lived long enough, I did not expect it to include hypertension, high cholesterol, liver fibrosis, and tinnitus. The hypermobility I thought was cool when I was younger and showing off has suddenly resulted in random dislocations of an ankle when I was wearing heels on an uneven surface, as well as of a pinky when I hit it, reaching for something in the closet. I’m on HRT (as well as blood pressure medication).I’m redesigning my workouts so I don’t tear myself apart. I’m fighting to keep my muscle mass while my body tries to shed it. And I’m doing all of this while running a mental healthpractice, rescuing dogs, trying to get my daughter through college and completing my own doctorate in social work. I now understand the phrase: tired, but wired.

I have never been a woman who must see female providers. What matters to me is that a doctor is good. However, I am rethinking that after the orthopedist who diagnosed my severe lower back and hip pain as arthritis flatly told me this is what happens at my age. While that may be true, dismissing every ache and pain to age and menopause felt rather dismissive, especially without a subsequent treatment plan and not just a referral to PT.

Since perimenopause around age 47, I have steadily gained weight despite eating less and less (even becoming a vegetarian for a year), working out hard, giving up alcohol, trying to get more sleep. My weight lifting sessions are working because I am getting progressively stronger, but it is not reflected in the image I see in the mirror. I have developed bat wings and thunder thighs and, always having had a more boyish build with no curves, I suddenly have breasts that threaten to suffocate me and a butt that must be someone else's.

As a therapist, I know that I am not alone in this struggle as there are many women who come to see me who are in the same boat, trying to find their place in a society that wants to make us irrelevant once we hit a certain age.

This community, Second Spring, is built on the premise that midlife does not have to be a decline. It can be a metamorphosis. But we can’t navigate it alone, and we certainly can’t do it with the fragmented, profit-driven advice sold to us by Big Pharma and Instagram influencers.

Here, we combine clinical science with radical self-care. We talk about hormone

optimization without shame. We discuss metabolic health without diet culture. We address the political realities of healthcare access. And most importantly, we support each other in building bodies and lives that feel strong, capable, and ours again.

What to expect here:

Real Talk: No toxic positivity. We’ll talk about the hard days alongside the breakthroughs.
Actionable Insights: Weekly threads on nutrition, gentle strength training, stress management, and navigating medical systems.
Community Care: A space to ask questions, share wins, and vent when the system fails us.

We are not shrinking. We are expanding.

Welcome to the spring. 🌱

Diana

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Noone Warned Me