Most women drawn to inner work in midlife aren’t new to self-awareness. They’re often the ones who’ve held a lot… who’ve coped, adapted, and learned to be the strong one. They can see their patterns, they understand themselves… and yet something still sits just out of reach. Especially in menopause, when things feel less buffered and harder to override, there’s often a quiet sense that something deeper is asking to be felt… alongside a hesitation to really go there. This episode speaks to that space… the part of you that knows there’s more, but isn’t quite sure how to meet it.

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Most menopause conversations focus almost entirely on hormones. But what if that’s only part of the story? In this episode, Sally Garozzo explores emerging neuroscience on estradiol, fear circuitry, and trauma exposure, including a 2025 study suggesting that estrogen interacts differently with the brain’s threat regulation system depending on prior stress and trauma history. We unpack why HRT helps many women but isn’t always the whole answer, how the nervous system shapes our menopausal experience, and why understanding the intersection of menopause, trauma, and nervous system regulation can offer a more complete picture of midlife wellbeing.

Research referenced in this episode

• Stevens JS et al. (2025). Estradiol modulation of threat circuitry and PTSD vulnerability.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12745815/
  
  
• Sartin-Tarm A et al. (2020). Estradiol Modulates Neural and Behavioral Arousal in Women With PTSD.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7606348/
  
  
• Glover EM et al. Estrogen and extinction of fear memories.
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25796471/
  
  
• Wegerer M et al. (2014). Low estradiol and fear extinction responses.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4256064/
  
  
• Zeidan MA et al. (2011). Estradiol enhances fear extinction recall via vmPFC–amygdala interaction.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3197763/

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Work with me 121: www.sallygarozzo.com

Join Becoming Waitlist: www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

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In this episode we explore what it's like when your 'felt sense' isn't believed especially in childhood and how this impacts our health and our menopause. We look at how subtle, repeated invalidation shapes the quality of our attachments, why women often become the emotional regulators of their families, how functional freeze develops, and why menopause can feel like all of this unravels at once. We also examine the difference between attunement and optimisation — and why healing begins with being met, not fixed.

It's a good one for anyone who feels there's more to menopause than 'just' hormones.

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Work with me 121: www.sallygarozzo.com

Join Becoming Waitlist: www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

Send me a direct message

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