Menopause After Paralysis: Hormones, Catheters and Competition with Edie Perkins (Episode 231)

Hit Play Not Pause

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.9 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Edie Perkins was a 46-year-old elite runner and cyclist when a catastrophic accident left her paralyzed from the chest down—just as she was entering menopause. In this candid conversation, Edie reveals how her hormonal changes intersected with her spinal cord injury recovery, leaving her with misdiagnosed UTIs, sheet-soaking night sweats she blamed on her injury, declining bone density, and a huge struggle to sort through her challenges and get quality care. Yet, through all of it, Edie continues to race (finishing second place in the handcycle division of this year’s Boston Marathon), ski, and live an active life. We talk about it all and more this week.

Edie Perkins served as Executive Director of the Kelly Brush Foundation from 2021 to 2025. She previously spent over twenty years managing businesses and developing curriculum products for Pre-K-12 schools. In 2017, Edie was struck by a driver while riding her bike and suffered a spinal cord injury (SCI). She is now paralyzed from the chest down. Always an athlete and active in the running and cycling communities, she sought out support after her injury and is now a competitive handcyclist and finished second at the 2025 Boston Marathon. She is thrilled to bring together her professional background, passion for sports, and new experience living with an SCI to help others thrive.

Resources:

The Kelly Brush Foundation

Get 25% off all courses through the end of June 2025! Purchase a Feisty On-Demand Course: learning.feisty.co

Subscribe to the Feisty 40+ newsletter: https://feistymedia.ac-page.com/feisty-40-sign-up-page

Feisty Menopause: @feistymenopause

Hit Play Not Pause Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807943973376099

Support our Partners:

Hettas: Use code FEISTY20 for 20% off at https://hettas.com/

Midi Health: You Deserve to Feel Great. Book your virtual visit today at https://www.joinmidi.com/

Nutrisense: Go to nutrisense.io/hitplay and use code: HITPLAY to get 30% off

Previnex: Get 15% off your first order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Podscribe - https://podscribe.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, feisty listeners, Feisty founder and CEO Sarah Gross here.
0:05.0	I am super excited to let you all know that our brand new suite of digital courses is
0:10.3	officially live and on demand starting June 9th.
0:14.8	And these courses are designed for one purpose to give active women like you the tools,
0:20.5	knowledge, and support you actually
0:22.8	need to thrive. For far too long, women's health has been treated like an afterthought. But
0:29.2	not here, not anymore. Whether you're dialing in your nutrition, building strength, navigating
0:35.9	hormonal shifts, or just trying to stay sharp and feel
0:38.8	like yourself, you'll find expert-led science-backed courses built for real life and real bodies.
0:45.6	And to celebrate this launch, you will get 25% off all courses through the end of June.
0:51.7	Check them out now at livefeisty.com.
0:55.2	The link will be in the show notes because your health deserves more.
1:19.0	You are listening to Hit Play, Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
1:24.5	I am your host, Celine Yeager. Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform you best no matter what your
1:28.6	hormones are doing. This show is a production of Live Feisty Media.
1:35.9	Hello, Strong Feisty Women. I hope you all are well. So I have a really fascinating and
1:43.0	honestly pretty important show for you this week because it digs into a serious topic that never occurred to me to cover before.
1:52.0	What it's like to navigate menopause as a spinal cord injury survivor.
1:57.0	And there are a lot of levels here.
2:00.0	For one, navigating life with a spinal cord injury, especially in a wheelchair, is incredibly
2:06.1	challenging and incredibly isolating in and of itself.
2:09.6	But when you add menopause to the mix, you have a whole suite of added challenges.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 13 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hit Play Not Pause, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Hit Play Not Pause and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.