Courtney Moniz

I am a writer, recovery advocate, and health leader in the Opioid Use Disorder community. A Massachusetts girl, shaped by years living in West Virginia, now living in Florida where I’m raising my 19-year-old daughter Gabi and homeschooling my 7-year-old son, Pryce. In January of 2024, I began changing my educational narrative by earning my associate's degree, and I am currently in my final year of my Bachelor of Applied Sciences. I share my life, recovery, health journey, laughs, and personal growth on my platform, “The Courtnologist,” and am the proudest of dog moms to Shivakamini, Ruxin, and Oliver.

At 36, I began experiencing symptoms that made me feel like a stranger in my own body. I suffered with intrusive thoughts, sharp waves of unregulated emotions, and unrelenting hot flashes. When I sought out answers, I was often told that I was “too young” for perimenopause. But the problem was, I had never even heard the term in the first place.

Now, being almost 40, this experience has deepened into something that goes beyond the physical challenges, and into the spiritual/psychological as well. Perimenopause is often defined as a hormonal shift, but for many women, it can feel like a profoundly exhausting and completely jarring internal reckoning. Through my writing, I aim to bring awareness to a stage of this life that far too many women enter without any preparation, education, conversation, or support. I hear you, I see you. Let’s relate.

Click here to read all of Courtney's articles on Menopause-Community.net.