You have started to wonder whether you can keep doing this. Menopause and divorce rarely get talked about together, yet for a lot of women they arrive at the same time, and it gets hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
You are more tired than you used to be. Small things land harder. The patience you once had for your marriage feels thinner, and you cannot always tell whether that is the relationship or something happening inside your own body.
The hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause reach far past hot flashes. Estrogen affects nearly every system, including your brain, which is part of why the brain fog, the anxiety, and the shorter fuse can feel so unfamiliar. Add menopause to a full life and the body can shift into something close to survival mode. You are not the same woman you were at thirty-five, and that is not a flaw.
This panel sits right in the middle of both. One speaker walks through what is actually changing hormonally and why your stress capacity is lower right now. The other helps you look honestly at your marriage and your options, without assuming divorce is the only ending. Sometimes, when you tend to your health first, the picture changes. Sometimes it confirms what you already knew. Either way, you deserve to make that decision with clear eyes.
A third voice rounds out the picture: once you have a clearer sense of what you are feeling and why, the practical question often follows — what would leaving actually look like? Our family law guest walks through the real paths divorce can take, so “should I stay or should I go” doesn’t have to mean stepping into the unknown.
You will leave with a clearer sense of what your body is doing, what your options actually are, and where to turn next.
What You Will Gain
- A plain explanation of what estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are doing in your body right now, so the way you feel finally makes sense
- A way to tell the difference between hormonal shifts and something real happening in your marriage, instead of guessing
- A realistic look at what divorce actually involves later in life, including the financial questions women worry about most
- A clear, judgment-free overview of how divorce actually works — contested vs. uncontested, and the paths between (mediation, negotiated settlement, litigation) — so the legal side feels less like a black box
- Language for what you have been carrying, so you can explain it to the people in your life
Who This Is For
- Women who keep asking whether it is the marriage or the menopause, and cannot tell anymore
- Women over forty who feel like a different person than they were a few years ago
- Women who want to understand their bodies and their options before anyone hands them an answer
- Women weighing a decision they haven’t made yet, and want clear eyes before they make it
About the Speakers
Claudia Taboada
Claudia Taboada is The Midlife Success Mentor™, an international speaker, author of Burnout to Unstoppable, and high-performance coach specializing in menopause, metabolic health, and stress resilience for women over 45. After transforming her own health at 56, losing over 20 pounds and rebuilding her metabolism, she made it her mission to help women understand that midlife is not a decline. It is a power chapter. (Claudia Taboada Enterprises)
Nanette Drouillard-Murphy
Nanette Drouillard-Murphy is a Divorce and Life Reinvention Coach for women over 40, specializing in gray divorce. Having navigated this journey herself, she understands the emotional, financial, and practical weight of ending a long-term marriage later in life. Her work helps women move from fear to freedom and from uncertainty to empowered decision-making. (Second Act Divorce Coaching)
Jolee E. Vacchi, Esq.
Guest Speaker, Vesta Divorce Known as “The Compassionate Divorce Attorney,”
Jolee Vacchi is a Certified Divorce and Family Law Mediator and collaboratively trained attorney who helps families navigate divorce with empathy and expertise. She emphasizes conflict resolution and negotiated settlements, and her work includes supporting survivors of domestic violence and guiding families through high-conflict cases. Jolee co-hosts the Divorce Detox podcast and volunteers with the Vesta divorce organization. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law. (Foundations Family Law)