The Power of Shared Experience in Perimenopause

When GPS launched a support group, the goal was simple: Create a structured space where people navigating perimenopause and menopause could talk openly, reflect together, and feel less alone.

What quickly became clear is how deeply needed that space is.

Participants came into the group carrying experiences that often felt confusing, intense, and difficult to name. Irritability that didn’t match the moment. Sudden emotional shifts. Brain fog. A sense of not quite recognizing themselves.

And perhaps most significantly, many had been navigating these changes in isolation.

Perimenopause is incredibly common, around 1.3 million women enter menopause each year, yet it remains under-discussed and frequently misunderstood. Many people don’t immediately recognize what they’re going through, and even when they do, information alone doesn’t address the lived experience. That’s where this new GPS group made a difference.

Using the GPS model, sessions provided a consistent framework where participants could share what was actually happening in their lives, without pressure to fix, diagnose, or explain it away. Instead of advice, the focus was on reflection and connection.

Over time, a shift emerged.

What started as individual, often isolating experiences became shared understanding. Participants began to hear their own stories reflected in others. The things that once felt strange or personal started to feel recognizable, and, importantly, valid.

This was the type of space I have been searching for. Menopause isn’t talked about enough. These support groups helped me realize how much I needed to talk with other women who understood what I was going through. And how I didn’t need to feel ashamed or isolated.

— Marcy L., GPS Support Group Participant 

This is something we see across GPS groups, but it felt especially powerful here. Perimenopause isn’t just a biological transition; it intersects with identity, relationships, work, and caregiving. It often arrives at a time when people are already carrying a lot.

Having a space to pause and name that experience—together—matters.

The Reclaiming Ourselves: GPS for Perimenopause and Menopause Support Curriculum was designed with this in mind,  not just to provide information, but to create structured, trauma-informed spaces where lived experience leads the conversation. Where people can show up as they are, and where connection becomes part of the support.

Because what this group reinforced, again and again, is something simple but powerful:

You are not the only one going through this.

And you don’t have to go through it alone.