You Are Welcome To Join Us
The third chapter of a woman's life begins at perimenopause.
Not with a single event. Not on a specific date. But as a gradual, continuous unfolding — a biological and psychological transition that science is only beginning to understand in its full complexity.
If you are in your 40s, your 50s, your 60s or beyond — this article is for you. Because menopause is not a fixed point in time. It is a process. And that process continues, shifting and evolving, for the rest of a woman's life.
What science is still learning
Here is something that surprises most women — and many doctors.
We tend to think of menopause as a hormonal cliff. Oestrogen drops. Progesterone disappears. And everything declines from there.
But the hormonal story is far more nuanced than that.
Take testosterone. Most people assume it simply declines and stays low. But recent research — including a large Australian study of over 1,000 women aged 40 to 69 — tells a different story. Testosterone levels do decline gradually from around age 40, reaching their lowest point at approximately 58 to 59 years. And then — quietly, without fanfare — they modestly increase again.
Interestingly, this pattern appears to be driven by age, not by menopause itself.
Science does not yet fully understand why. And that honesty — that we are still learning — is itself important. Because it means the story of a woman's hormonal life after reproduction is far from written. It is still being discovered.
You are not a fixed biological event. You are an evolving, complex, still-being-understood human being.
The journey you are already on
You are already on this journey. You have been since your first perimenopausal symptom — whether you recognised it or not.
The question has never been whether to take this journey. The question is how you want to travel it.
The third chapter of a woman's life begins at perimenopause. You can travel it with current knowledge, a deeper understanding of your changing self, and tools you have consciously chosen. Or with whatever you have inherited, adopted, or been sold along the way. There is no wrong path. But knowledge, and freedom of choice, when available, is worth having.
What five weeks of honesty has been building toward
Over the past five weeks we have covered:
The symptoms — weight, mood, libido, brain fog — and why they are not random but expressions of the same shifting hormonal and neurological landscape.
The science — allostasis, the grandmother hypothesis, CBT, somatic practice — and why your body and mind are not against you but asking for a new kind of attention.
The reframe — from fear to curiosity, from fixed to evolving, from losing yourself to meeting a version of yourself you haven't encountered yet.
And the playfulness — the radical, evidence-based idea that small, joyful, experimental daily actions are not a distraction from the serious work. They are the serious work.
What the course offers
Mastering Menopause is a 6-week evidence-based program built on CBT — grounded in the science of your physiology, your psychology, and the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, body and environment.
Each week has a focus. The physiology of what is happening in your body. The role of stress and allostatic load. Your thoughts — how to understand them, work with them, and choose what to do with that knowing. Sleep and rest. And in the final week, consolidation — bringing it all together in a way that is yours. Week 6 also leaves space for what the group most wants to explore — often sexuality and intimacy, if the group chooses.
But the structure is not the point.
The point is that somewhere inside the program, most women find something they weren't expecting. Not an answer. Not a cure. But a reason. Their own reason to understand. Their own reason to try. Their own direction to move in.
When a woman finds her why — she finds the door. And when she finds the door, she finds her own way through it.
You are welcome here
If you want to know more before making a decision — come to a free information evening. That is what they are for. An honest, evidence-based conversation about menopause and what the course covers, with Q&A at the end. No obligation.
Wattle Medical Group, Yarraville
Wed 17 June | Wed 1 July | Wed 8 July @6-7pm
📞 03 7073 2822
Maxwell Medical Group, Braybrook
Thu 18 June | Thu 2 July | Thu 9 July @6-7pm
📞 03 7036 2450
The course begins:
Wattle Medical Group — Wednesday 15 July @ 6 pm-7.30 pm
Maxwell Medical Group — Thursday 16 July @ 6 pm-7.30 pm
Visit doctorivana.com.au for more information.
And if this is not the right time for you — keep following. Share this with a woman in your life who might benefit from reading it.
Menopause can possibly be the best part — the most stable, wise, free and grounded chapter of a woman's life. For me, it feels like that.
You are welcome here. Always.
I'm Dr. Ivana — GP, Lifestyle Medicine Physician, and a woman.
This is the fifth and final article in the Mastering Menopause blog series. But the conversation doesn't end here.
If you want current, evidence-based information on midlife women's health — translated into everyday language, without the noise — continue following my posts and blogs. New articles monthly. Weekly posts on Facebook and Instagram @doctorivana.
All five articles in this series are available at doctorivana.com.au.
