The Grief No One Talks About: Menopause, Caregiving & the Weight We Carry

Menopause Mastery | The Grief No One Talks About: Menopause, Caregiving & the Weight We Carry | Ep. 296 solocast

🌿Welcome to The Menopause Mastery Show!

What happens when you're the one everyone depends on—but you never get a chance to stop and feel what you're carrying? ❤️‍🩹

In this deeply personal episode of Menopause Mastery, Dr. Betty Murray talks about the grief that can surface in midlife: losing parents, caring for aging family members, losing a beloved pet, and mourning the dreams and parts of ourselves we had to put aside. This is the side of menopause and midlife that doesn't show up on a hormone panel—but it can profoundly affect how we feel, function, and move through everyday life.

Dr. Murray shares her experience navigating her father's death, her mother's catastrophic stroke and nearly three years of caregiving, and the sudden loss of her dog, Bradley. She also explores disenfranchised grief, the emotional burden of the sandwich generation, and why grief doesn't necessarily disappear when we stay busy. Sometimes it simply changes shape.

If you're caring for a parent, managing a household, building a career, navigating perimenopause or menopause, or quietly carrying a loss you haven't had time to process, this episode is a reminder: you don't have to wait for life to calm down before giving yourself permission to grieve. 🌱

00:00 — Why I'm Talking About Grief Today

The original recording was lost, and the conversation returned at a time when grief was still very raw.

00:43 — Losing Bradley: When Grief Makes You Go Still

A sudden loss and the unexpected physical and emotional response that followed.

001:51 — The Grief of Losing a Parent

How the death of Dr. Betty Murray's father—and later her mother—changed her understanding of grief.