Women's Health World Conference 2026

Abstract

Perimenopause is often discussed through a medical lens, with attention given to menstrual changes, hot flushes, sleep disturbance and hormonal symptoms. While these experiences are important, many women first encounter perimenopause not simply as a physical transition, but as a profound psychological and embodied shift. They may arrive in therapy describing anxiety, irritability, low mood, emotional overwhelm, loss of confidence, relationship dissatisfaction, brain fog, changes in sexual desire, body image distress, or a sense that they “do not feel like themselves anymore”.

This presentation explores perimenopause as a biopsychosocial life transition in which hormonal change, nervous system sensitivity, identity, relational roles, cultural expectations and women’s lived experience intersect. Rather than viewing midlife distress only as pathology, it considers how perimenopause may bring previously managed or suppressed issues to the surface, including burnout, self-neglect, relational imbalance, masking, perfectionism and the cumulative impact of decades spent caring for others. Drawing on integrative psychotherapy, somatic practice and women’s health education, the presentation will consider how therapists and healthcare professionals can better recognise the psychological dimensions of perimenopause. It will discuss why women are often mislabelled as simply anxious, depressed, difficult, burnt out or “not coping”, when their distress may be connected to a major embodied transition that has not been fully understood or supported.

The presentation will also introduce a somatic-informed therapeutic perspective, exploring how body awareness, grounding practices, breath, movement, emotional regulation and reflective enquiry can support women to rebuild self-trust during this stage. The aim is not to position the body as the problem, but to help women understand the body as a source of information, regulation and agency. By reframing perimenopause as a psychological and embodied life transition, this presentation highlights the need for more integrated, gender-sensitive approaches to women’s mental health. It invites practitioners to move beyond symptom management alone and to consider the deeper questions many women face at midlife: Who am I now? What do I need? What am I no longer willing to carry? And how can I return to my body with greater compassion, confidence and self-respect?