
Is This Me, Or Is This Perimenopause?
From The Vibrant Mom Podcast by Cara Maiolo, LPC
May 19, 2026 · 25 min
About this episode
This episode explores the emotional and hormonal challenges faced by midlife moms during perimenopause.
There's a question a lot of midlife moms are carrying around in the background, usually somewhere between pickup and bedtime, when the evening hasn't gone the way they hoped and they find themselves distant and down, or anxious and sped up, or irritable and annoyed. Is this me? Or is this my hormones? Key Takeaways: Why most moms minimize the hormonal influence, and why it's almost always both/and, not either/or How hormone fluctuations during perimenopause directly affect mood, and why irritability, anxiety, and reduced stress tolerance are biological events, not character flaws The gap nobody is filling: why the perimenopause doctors and the parenting experts are both missing the inner emotional layer mom’s are experiencing What becomes possible when you stop pushing through a difficult moment and turn toward it instead with updated emotional wellbeing tools This episode is for the midlife mom who is doing everything right on the outside and still finding some moments unexpectedly hard, and who is ready to build a real skill set for her inner world. Ready to go deeper? Explore the Vibrant Mom Collective at caramaiolo.com
People in this episode
Host: Cara Maiolo
Topics covered
- perimenopause
- hormonal influence
- midlife moms
- emotional wellbeing
- mood fluctuations
Keywords
- perimenopause
- hormones
- mood
- anxiety
- irritability
- emotional wellbeing
- midlife moms
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- You're Not Behind. You're in "May-cember." Here's What Actually Helps. · May 5, 2026 · 22 min
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