Psychedelics 101 for Menopause: Myths, Mechanisms, Must-Knows Grace Blest-Hopley, PhD (Episode 241)

Hit Play Not Pause

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

4.9 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Buckle up for a trip (pun intended) into the midlife brain. This week we sit down with neuroscientist Dr. Grace Blest-Hopley to connect the dots between cannabinoids, psychedelics, trauma, and the menopause transition. We cover CBD/THC for sleep, anxiety, pain, and inflammation; how the endocannabinoid system works, and how psychedelics like psilocybin act on serotonin pathways, reduce neuroinflammation, and promote neuroplasticity—potentially countering some brain changes seen with estrogen loss. We also dig into trauma (including why PTSD risk and expression differ by sex), the importance of set, setting, and skilled facilitation, who should not use psychedelics, the legal/clinical landscape, and much more. Curious about midlife brain health and whether these therapies are worth exploring? This one’s for you.

Dr. Grace Blest-Hopley is a neuroscientist with 12 years experience researching cannabis, cannabinoids, and psychedelics. Grace completed her PhD in Neuroscience at King's College London and currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at NWPharma Tech. She is the Research Director at Heroic Hearts Project, a charity that supports combat veterans with mental health challenges resulting from trauma and is also the founder of Hystelica, a community focused on understanding women's biology for safe and effective psychedelic use. In addition to her research and professional roles, she has served as an officer in the British Army Reserve. Dr. Blest-Hopley advocates for the therapeutic potential of these substances and strives to advance the field of psychedelic research. Her work contributes to promoting a better understanding of women's biology in relation to psychedelics. You can learn more about her and her work at hystelica.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Hit Play, Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
0:14.6	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 hormones are doing.
0:25.0	This show is a production of Live Feisty Media.
0:31.1	Hello, strong feisty women.
0:33.4	I hope you all are well.
0:35.5	So, like maybe some of you out there, I went through a little experimental phase in college.
0:43.1	Smoked some pot, which I never really did take to.
0:46.9	As much as I hate to admit it, I tried cocaine once. Yes, cocaine. It was the 80s.
0:53.4	And I was like, you must never, ever, ever, ever,
0:56.9	and I mean ever do that again, like cocaine. I want to be the usual amped up me just on cocaine.
1:03.2	I mean, what was I thinking anyway? I could really see why people had so many serious problems
1:09.0	with it at that time. I also dabbled a little in psychedelics, which I actually very much enjoyed.
1:14.6	I liked watching the trees dance and feeling like I was Dorothy and Oz,
1:18.6	but I only took them a couple of times because they lasted way too long,
1:24.6	and I figured I didn't want to tempt fate and have a bad experience. And then after
1:30.0	that point, honestly, I never really thought about any of it again until I was about 46, and found
1:36.7	myself waking up, pouring sweat, and staring into the darkness, feeling like the world
1:42.2	was crushing down on me at 3 a.m. every night.
1:46.0	And I got some CBD, THC tincture, cannabis tincture, and it really did help.
1:52.4	More recently, my friend and sometimes mountain bike race teammate, world champion Rebecca Rush,
1:58.5	was going through crippling depression following a concussion
2:02.7	and what finally pulled her out was psychedelic-assisted therapy. We did a podcast series
	...

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