Balanced Body Podcast

Beyond Hormone Balance: Reclaiming Pleasure, Purpose, and Vitality in Midlife with Carla Wayne Wright

Hormone balance can support energy, mood, sleep, metabolism, and sexual wellness, but physical treatment may be only one part of a woman’s midlife transformation. Sherri Griggs and midlife wellness coach Carla Wayne Wright discuss stress, pleasure, body awareness, identity, relationships, and the opportunity to create a more vibrant life during perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.

When Hormone Balance Is Only Part of the Answer

Hormone changes can affect nearly every part of a woman’s life. Energy may decline, sleep can become less predictable, stress may feel more difficult to manage, and mood, motivation, metabolism, body composition, confidence, and sexual wellness may all begin to shift. Personalized hormone and wellness services can help address the physical side of these changes. Metabolic care, nutrition, lifestyle support, and functional medicine can also help practitioners examine the broader health picture. But what happens when a woman’s physical health is being supported and she still does not feel fully connected to herself? In this episode of the Balanced Body Podcast, Sherri Griggs sits down with holistic wellness coach and midlife alchemist Carla Wayne Wright to explore the emotional, relational, and deeply personal side of midlife wellness.

Meet Carla Wayne Wright

Carla describes herself as a midlife alchemist, a name inspired by the historical idea of transforming ordinary materials into something more valuable. For Carla, midlife offers women a similar opportunity. It can be a time to gather their experiences, wisdom, physical changes, creativity, disappointments, desires, and dreams and transform them into a more intentional way of living. Carla began her career in science. She was trained as a wildlife biologist and earned a master’s degree in conservation biology. Her personal journey later led her toward yoga, somatic practices, homeopathy, trauma recovery, embodiment, and sexual wellness. After operating a yoga studio for 22 years, Carla entered her own midlife transition. Perimenopause affected her despite the healthy lifestyle she had already created. That experience inspired her to combine her scientific background with her work in holistic wellness. She describes her current approach as a bridge between the scientific and the sacred.

Why Hormone and Metabolic Health Matter

Sherri and Carla agree that physical health creates an important foundation for a woman’s energy, confidence, creativity, resilience, and sexual wellness. Hormones can influence areas such as:

Energy and fatigue
Mood and motivation
Sleep quality
Metabolism and body composition
Stress response
Sexual wellness
Cognitive function
Muscle strength and recovery

Sherri explains that metabolic health should not be separated from hormone health. Insulin is also a hormone, and blood sugar regulation, nutrition, sleep, body composition, and chronic stress can all influence the broader health picture. Women who want a clearer understanding of their metabolic baseline can learn more about resting metabolic rate and PNOĒ metabolic testing . Women who feel that standard testing has not fully explained their symptoms may also benefit from learning what comprehensive hormone blood work may reveal .

What Happens When the Numbers Improve but You Still Feel Stuck?

A woman can have physical support, improved laboratory results, and a thoughtful wellness plan while still feeling that something is missing. She may have spent decades:

Caring for children, parents, patients, or family members
Building a career or business
Managing a household
Meeting everyone else’s needs
Performing under constant pressure
Ignoring fatigue or emotional discomfort
Measuring her value through productivity
Putting her own desires last

When life becomes quieter, she may realize she is not sure who she is outside of those responsibilities. Carla’s work helps women begin listening to their bodies and identifying what they need, want, enjoy, and value during this new stage of life.

Midlife is not necessarily about returning to the woman you were. It can be about discovering the woman you are becoming.

Learning to Listen to the Body

Many women have never been taught to recognize the physical signals associated with stress, safety, pleasure, exhaustion, desire, or emotional discomfort. Instead, they learn to override those signals. They keep moving when they are tired. They dismiss discomfort. They continue saying yes. They fill every quiet moment with another responsibility. Carla encourages women to develop a more attentive relationship with their bodies. That process can include:

Guided body-awareness practices
Breathwork
Mindful movement
Somatic exploration
Intentional rest
Sensory awareness
Recognizing physical tension
Identifying what feels restorative
Exploring pleasure without judgment

The goal is not to force an immediate answer. The goal is to become quiet enough to notice what the body may have been communicating.

Why Pleasure Matters in Midlife

The word pleasure is often interpreted only in a sexual context, but Carla uses it much more broadly. Pleasure can include any experience that creates enjoyment, comfort, connection, warmth, beauty, creativity, presence, or a sense of being alive. It may be:

Warm water during a shower
The smell of coffee or flowers
A favorite song
Time outside
A soft blanket
A meaningful conversation
A nourishing meal
Creative work
Physical affection
Sexual intimacy

Many women become so accustomed to urgency and productivity that pleasure begins to feel unnecessary or indulgent. Carla encourages women to stop treating pleasure as something they must earn after completing every responsibility. For more discussion about chronic stress and practical ways to support a calmer nervous system, listen to Cortisol Hacks: Simple Ways to Calm Stress, Support Sleep, and Reset Your Nervous System .

The Five-Senses Pleasure Practice

Carla shares a simple practice that listeners can begin immediately. Intentionally notice at least five pleasurable experiences each day, with one connected to each of the five senses.

1. Sight

Look at something that brings you joy. It might be a pet, photograph, garden, sunset, piece of artwork, or peaceful room. Pause and give it your attention.

2. Sound

Listen to something that feels calming, energizing, or meaningful. It might be music, laughter, birds, rain, or the voice of someone you love.

3. Touch

Notice a physical sensation that feels comforting. This could be warm water, clean sheets, soft clothing, sunlight, a hug, or the feeling of your feet on the ground.

4. Smell

Pause when you encounter a scent you enjoy. Coffee, flowers, soap, food, spices, or fresh air can become opportunities to return to the present moment.

5. Taste

Slow down and fully experience something you are eating or drinking. Notice its flavor, temperature, texture, and the experience of enjoying it. The practice does not need to take a long time. It is about noticing moments that might otherwise pass without your full attention.

Are You Resting or Feeling Guilty About Resting?

Sherri points out that many women associate inactivity with laziness. When they are not helping another person, solving a problem, working, cleaning, organizing, or accomplishing something, they may feel guilty. This can be especially common among caregivers, healthcare professionals, mothers, business owners, and women who have been expected to hold everything together. Rest is not the same as laziness. It can be an essential part of physical recovery, emotional regulation, clear thinking, creativity, and sustainable health. The discomfort some women experience when slowing down may reveal how deeply productivity has become connected to identity and self-worth.

Midlife Can Bring Greater Clarity

Carla describes one of the potential gifts of midlife as greater clarity. A woman may become less willing to continue relationships, routines, responsibilities, and expectations that no longer feel appropriate. She may begin asking:

What do I actually want?
What am I doing only because it is expected?
Which relationships nourish me?
Which commitments consistently drain me?
What parts of myself have I neglected?
What would I create if I had more energy?
What do I want the next stage of my life to become?

Women experiencing unexplained symptoms during this stage can also review the differences between perimenopause and menopause symptoms .

How Midlife Growth Can Affect Relationships

Personal growth can affect a long-term relationship. When one partner begins changing, the established roles and routines within the relationship may also need to change. A woman who has historically avoided conflict may begin expressing her needs. A woman who prioritized everyone else may establish stronger boundaries. A woman who felt disconnected from her body may begin discussing intimacy more openly. These changes can be uncomfortable, but they can also create opportunities for a relationship to evolve. Some couples may discover a more honest and connected version of their partnership. Other women may recognize that a relationship no longer feels healthy or compatible. Significant relationship decisions are deeply personal and may benefit from support from an appropriately qualified relationship or mental-health professional.

Reclaiming Sexual Wellness After Menopause

Sexual wellness does not automatically disappear with menopause. Hormonal changes, vaginal discomfort, sleep disruption, medications, chronic health conditions, stress, relationship dynamics, and body-image concerns may all affect desire and sexual function. These concerns deserve thoughtful evaluation rather than dismissal. As women become more connected to their bodies, they may gain confidence in:

Expressing preferences
Discussing discomfort
Asking for support
Setting boundaries
Exploring intimacy
Seeking appropriate medical care
Releasing outdated expectations

Sexual wellness in midlife is highly individual. There is no single definition of what a healthy or satisfying intimate life must look like.

The Heroine’s Journey Through Midlife

Carla compares midlife transformation to the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar does not simply grow wings. Its former structure breaks down before a new form emerges. Midlife can sometimes feel similar. Old identities may no longer fit, but the next identity has not completely formed. This uncertain period may involve grief, frustration, reflection, healing, and difficult decisions. It can also create space for greater authenticity, creativity, strength, and freedom.

Transformation is not always comfortable, but discomfort does not necessarily mean you are failing. It may mean you are in the process of becoming.

Connect With Carla Wayne Wright

Carla offers a free resource called the Vibrancy Guide. The guide includes five practical ways women can support their energy and reconnect with their capacity for pleasure. Download Carla Wayne Wright’s Vibrancy Guide Carla can also be found on Instagram at @CarlaWayneWright.

When to Seek Medical Support

Emotional exploration and wellness coaching are not substitutes for medical evaluation. Persistent fatigue, sleep disruption, brain fog, mood changes, unexplained weight changes, menstrual changes, vaginal symptoms, or changes in sexual function can have multiple causes. A comprehensive evaluation may include a review of:

Current symptoms
Medical and family history
Medications and supplements
Menstrual history
Sleep quality
Nutrition and activity
Stress and lifestyle factors
Metabolic health
Hormone levels
Thyroid health
Relevant laboratory markers

Visit the Balanced Body Hormone Therapy FAQ for answers to common questions about symptoms, testing, treatment, and individualized hormone care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can hormone therapy address every midlife symptom?

Hormone therapy may help appropriate patients address certain symptoms associated with hormonal changes, but midlife wellness can also be influenced by sleep, stress, nutrition, metabolic health, medications, relationships, mental health, and other medical conditions. Treatment should be personalized after an appropriate evaluation.

Why can women still feel disconnected after improving their hormone levels?

Physical improvements do not automatically resolve long-standing stress patterns, relationship challenges, unresolved trauma, identity changes, or a lifestyle built around constant productivity. Some women benefit from combining medical care with appropriate emotional, relational, or wellness support.

What does pleasure mean in this episode?

Pleasure is used broadly to describe experiences of enjoyment, comfort, connection, creativity, presence, beauty, and intimacy. It may be as simple as enjoying music, warm water, a favorite scent, time outside, a good meal, or a meaningful conversation.

What is the five-senses pleasure practice?

The practice involves intentionally noticing one enjoyable experience connected with sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste each day. Its purpose is to help women slow down and become more present during positive everyday experiences.

Is it normal for relationships to change during menopause?

Relationships can change during any major life transition. Hormonal symptoms, changing family roles, personal growth, stress, intimacy concerns, and new priorities can all affect a partnership. Honest communication and appropriate professional support may help couples navigate these changes.

Can women have a satisfying sex life after menopause?

Yes. Many women continue to experience satisfying intimacy after menopause. Hormonal changes, vaginal symptoms, medications, chronic health conditions, stress, and relationship dynamics can affect sexual wellness, but evaluation and treatment options may be available.

When should a woman seek help for menopause symptoms?

A woman should speak with a qualified healthcare professional when symptoms interfere with sleep, work, relationships, sexual wellness, emotional health, or quality of life. Severe, sudden, or concerning symptoms require timely medical evaluation.

Does Balanced Body offer telehealth?

Telehealth may be available for eligible services and patients. Availability depends on the patient’s location, the care being provided, applicable regulations, and whether an in-person examination is required.

Continue Listening

Explore more interviews, health education, and practical wellness conversations in the Balanced Body Podcast archive .