In this episode of Mornings with Megan, we are talking about one of the most overlooked pieces of perimenopause care: the pelvic floor.

Leaking, painful sex, prolapse, constipation. These are being dismissed in seven-minute appointments across the country. Women are being sent to three different specialists, and told it is just part of getting older. It is not. Most of it is treatable. Much of it is preventable. And there is an entire specialty dedicated to helping you with exactly this.

My guest is Marlene Handler, a licensed pelvic floor occupational therapist and founder of The Lifted Lotus in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After being dismissed by a well-known OB-GYN in New York City despite being a healthcare provider herself, Marlene went back to school to specialize in pelvic floor rehabilitation. She came out the other side without pelvic pain, without leaking, with a sex life she loves, and she now helps other women do the same.

This is Part 1. In the Perimenopause Matrix, the Regulate pillar is about how your nervous system holds tension and stress in the body. The Connect pillar is about intimacy, pleasure, and sexual health. The pelvic floor sits at the center of both, and this episode is everything I wish someone had told me sooner.

We cover:

• What the pelvic floor actually is and what it governs across bladder, bowel, sexual health, arousal, and even lymphatic flow
• Why the OT lens is different from the PT lens, and why the biopsychosocial framework changes the care women receive
• How perimenopause care has become fragmented across specialists who are not connecting the dots and not referring to pelvic floor therapy
• Why leaking, painful sex, and prolapse have been normalized for generations and what it costs women who keep grinning and bearing it
• The shame that keeps women from making that first phone call, and how Marlene uses her own story to meet her clients where they are

Part 2 drops next week. We are getting into what actually happens in a first pelvic floor therapy session, how to navigate insurance, and three things Marlene wants every woman to do for her pelvic floor this week.

If any of this is landing for you, you do not have to live with it.

👉 Full show notes

About the Perimenopause Matrix:
The Matrix is my framework for navigating perimenopause across 6 pillars: Fuel, Move, Recharge, Regulate, Connect, and Clean. But this episode isn't about optimizing all 6 - it's about choosing the ONE that matters most in YOUR current reality.

🧬 Ready to stop guessing?

I help women interpret their labs so they can make nutrition decisions based on data, not diet trends.

👉 Book your personalized Lab Review here

🎁 FREE RESOURCE: Download the free Perimenopause Decoder . It helps you understand what's happening during perimenopause so you can make decisions from a place of clarity, not chaos.

📱 CONNECT WITH ME:

Website⁠
⁠Instagram⁠
⁠LinkedIn⁠
Facebook ⁠
Youtube

You're not crazy. You're not broken. You're not alone. And you absolutely deserve to feel like yourself again.

Listen to Mornings with Megan Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Wednesday!

Apple
Spotify
Amazon
Youtube