The media says menopause is costing companies billions in lost productivity. We dug into the research - and found the story is backwards.

Jen has been researching menopause and leadership, and in this episode we unpack how the media's "business case" framing - positioning menopause as a profit problem - actually sets women up for judgment and failure at work. We get into what the research really shows (spoiler: it's far less conclusive than the headlines suggest), and make the case that the real culprit isn't menopause at all - it's productivity culture that punishes women exactly when they're wired to lead.

You are going to find out why:

• The "business case" framing backfires: Positioning menopause as a cause of lost profit makes women feel judged as the problem, and that judgment itself drives the stress response that worsens symptoms.
• The research doesn't back up the billion-dollar headlines: A literature review Jen found couldn't establish a conclusive link between menopause symptoms and work outcomes. The media's loss estimates are outrunning the actual science.
• Productivity culture is the real system at play: Corporate culture rewards visible, tangible output over strategic and creative thinking, right at the life stage when women are neurologically and biologically primed for exactly that kind of leadership.
• It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: Pressure and judgment raise cortisol, cortisol worsens symptoms and clouds higher-level thinking, and that "lost productivity" becomes the very evidence used to justify the original narrative.

Meet Your Hosts:
Sheri and Jen are twin sisters, modern medicine women, leadership coaches, limiting belief busters and co-founders of Midlife Women Rising.

Join us in Costa Rica, October 2026 for our Retreat: Soul-Aligned - Design Your Extraordinary Next Chapter! Click here for details.

Find us on instagram:

@midlifewomenrising

@jenreimercoaching

Why Your Brain Fog Might Be Your Leadership Edge. You’ve been losing your train of thought in important meetings way too often these days. Laughing it off but silently cringing and wishing it would just stop happening so your colleagues won’t judge you.

Perimenopause can get the best of us. Especially when it’s brain fog, memory loss, or distracting hot flashes at work, making you feel less productive than ever before.

This is the paradox of menopause for women leaders. All the hard-won experience and maturity over several decades should set you up to be a great leader at the top of your game. And perimenopause makes it feel like the rug is being pulled from under you - undermining it all.

And what if the exact thing making you feel like you’re falling apart at work is actually the thing that makes you the best leader in the room? Today we’re playing with the idea that menopause might not be the end of your career peak; it might be the start of it.

You’ll hear:

• How this paradox plays out for so many women
• What is making it worse
• 3 ways you are uniquely set up to lead powerfully and intuitively as a menopausal woman (that are not your experience and capabilities)
• What to do to not only sustain your leadership edge, but step into an even higher version of yourself in this chapter of your life

Walk away feeling seen, with a new perspective on your career, and a path toward finding your most aligned and meaningful next chapter.

Get our free Guilt-Free Boundaries Scripts to say "no" easily.

Join us in Costa Rica, October 2026 for our Retreat: Soul-Aligned - Design Your Extraordinary Next Chapter! Click here for details.

Find us on instagram:

@midlifewomenrising

@jenreimercoaching

What Orcas Know About Aging That We've Been Missing All Along

Trillions of dollars are being put towards an industry to fight a perfectly natural process.

The anti-aging industry…that bombardment of marketing and advertising we get daily about all the creams and things women should buy to look "better."

What if this patriarchal story that being youthful is better was completely wrong? What if we gracefully aged into wise women the way our ancestors did? You’ll be shocked at the answer.

This episode is part 2 of our “Grandmother hypothesis” series, where we take it out of “theory” and turn it into a working blueprint. You’ll learn the four mistakes that sabotage women in midlife, why your "symptoms" are actually your body's most honest messages, and what leadership looks like when it's not about managing a team but about becoming the woman your family, your friends, and your future self actually need.

What you'll walk away with:

• How to stop managing decline better and shift into a completely different philosophy of the purpose of this life stage.
• The mistakes that are making midlife harder: the "strong and capable" armor, the need to be needed, fighting your symptoms instead of listening to them, and chasing the anti-aging narrative
• Contrary to popular opinion - why your creativity, intuition, and leadership are sharpening right now, not fading.
• A simple 3-step exercise to identify the identities you're clinging to and start leading from where you actually are (family, friend group, work, or just yourself)

"Putting up armor doesn't help you step into a leadership role. That doesn't make you a leader; it makes you a doer, and it makes you exhausted."

Resources:

Midlife Women Rising website

Liz Wiseman leadership website

Join us in Costa Rica, October 2026 for our Retreat: Soul-Aligned - Design Your Extraordinary Next Chapter! Click here for details.

Find us on instagram:

@midlifewomenrising

@jenreimercoaching