176: Yoga-Based Interventions for Menopause: Community Conversation with Stephanie Ketter

In this episode of the Yoga Medicine® Podcast, host Rachel speaks with Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist Stephanie Ketter about her 1000-hour research project. Inspired by her own experiences with sleep disruption and forgetfulness, Stephanie’s project examined the effects of a yoga-based intervention on menopause symptoms related to sleep, mood, and concentration.

Stephanie walks through the eight-week group intervention, which combined live online lectures, yoga, pranayama, meditation, mindfulness, and acupressure with short at-home on-demand video practices, sharing the challenges she faced and what she learned along the way. The episode ultimately highlights how complex and varied this life phase can be, and the importance of giving people practical tools they can use to respond to their symptoms.

“I can definitely talk about sleep problems and not falling asleep and staying awake and I met so many women who reported the same like…being awake every night, impossible to fall back asleep for weeks or a month and it takes a toll on your health, on your well-being, and also on the concentration.” — Stephanie Ketter

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“We talk so much about the negative side of menopausal transition with all the symptoms and the gray hair and the wrinkles or whatever but it is a time of getting really clear about your boundaries about what you want, what is important to you and not being so dependent on what other people think about you.” – Rachel Land

Show Notes:

• What inspired Stephanie’s 1000-hour research project [03:49]
• The eight-week intervention: lecture, yoga, acupressure, pranayama, mindfulness [08:22]
• Measuring outcomes, improvements in nighttime waking & forgetfulness [15:15]
• Project challenges, including finding participants [18:40]
• Stress and self-compassion emerged as important themes [24:41]
• Increased awareness of symptoms can result in them feeling worse [26:47]
• Most helpful acupressure and mindfulness practices [32:51]
• Active morning practices versus calming evening practices [39:20]
• Mindfulness tools change the experience of waking during the night [42:50]
• Shedding societal expectations: findings related to mood [46:36]
• Helpful tools from the Yoga Medicine Menopause Live Online Teacher Training [55:48]

Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• LIVE Online Menopause Teacher Training
• Connect with Stephanie Ketter:

“In the course we always highlighted the importance of individuality. So, no person has the same symptoms or so, but I wanted to challenge this and see if I can come out with a group class anyway to help more people.” – Stephanie Ketter