Menopause and aging are coming out of the shadows with Gen X and Boomer celebrities talking candidly about it publicly and on social media and women reacting to ageist and misogynistic commentary making too many headlines these days. To start a conversation about this, we asked Dr. Sheryl Kingsberg to join us. She is a clinical psychologist and researcher at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center where she is the Chief of the Division on Behavioral Medicine in the Department of OB-GYN and professor of reproductive biology, urology and psychiatry at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She is an expert in female sexual disorders, menopause and reproductive mental health and has been working in this field for over 30 years.

Tune in to learn about GSM (genitourinary symptoms of menopause), which she says 50-80% of women will develop symptoms of, and HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) and the array of treatments we are likely not even aware of.

More about Sheryl Kingsberg, PhD

University Hospitals' menopause site

Dr. Jen Gunter ("Vagenda" newsletter) instagram @drjengunter

Terms and medications mentioned in this episode:

Intrarosa, Estradiol, Vagifem, Ospemifene, SERM (selective estrogen receptor modulator), Addyi, Vyleesi, AndroGel, Veozah, WASO (wake after sleep onset)

RBL hosts Samantha and Cathy are both single, over 50 and living in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Rust Belt, USA. They have lots of feelings, thoughts and questions about love, friendship, relationships, family, single life, dating and more…

Samantha is a master’s level independently licensed clinical social worker supervisor, licensed chemical dependency counselor supervisor and DBT-Lineham Board Certified Therapist with over 20 years of experience in field of mental health therapy. She has two children.

Cathy is a program manager in a local healthcare system and is a certified yoga instructor and coach. She has four children.

Subscribe and tune in to hear their stories and conversations about life and relationships. Find and follow Rust Belt Love on Instagram @RBLovePod

Podcast music: Outside Friend https://on.soundcloud.com/W197DLsn7WDGrJDo9

Podcast artwork: Good Parts @goodpartscle