The Women We Celebrate Didn’t Wait ✨

What if your calling just needs a first step? ​
PLUS: Estrogen patch shortages and a policy shift in menopause care

​
​Hello friends 👋🏻

Welcome to the March 3rd edition of Menopaussible—bringing you the news you can use and the ⚡ energy ⚡ you need to support your menopause journey.

I’m Maria Caracci Ciccolella—mindset coach and menopause advocate. (Connect with me ​IG​ or ​​LinkedIn​​!)

Welcome to Women’s History Month—a celebration of the contributions, achievements, and sacrifices women have made throughout American history and beyond. In that spirit, I first want to acknowledge and honor all of you. Books and TV specials tend to spotlight the grand acts—the inventions, the firsts—but lasting change is built through the collective, incremental efforts of the many. So for all of you who refuse to settle for less in your life—👏👏👏

Speaking of refusing to settle for less, perhaps something is stirring within—something that feels bigger yet remains undefined. Perhaps it’s introducing a tension in your life because you are waiting for a big reveal—a sign, even, of what “it” is. That could be your heart calling. But it's not looking for you to wait—it’s looking for you to act.

We’ll explore what to do below.

When Your Heart Calls

During months like this one, we are showered with examples of great achievements and great achievers—people who surmounted the impossible, broke through barriers, believed when no one else would. Held up against this standard, it can feel hard to believe you could have a calling—or that it wouldn’t be crystal clear from the start. After all, these heralded individuals had vision.

When you get past the summaries of these lives, though, you often learn that the vision wasn’t clear from the start—it was actually acquired. A desire for something more, something different, was the actual driver.

• One of the greatest first ladies in US history, Eleanor Roosevelt’s vision for the United Nations was born from years (decades!) of volunteering, traveling, listening, and writing—witnessing the struggles and challenges across every stratum of society.
  ​
• Maya Angelou had a varied career as a composer, singer, actor, civil rights worker, journalist, and educator, before creating the works that gave the world a shared vocabulary for resilience and dignity.
  ​
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg was rejected from major law firms leading her to take on a teaching job and small gender discrimination cases before becoming the iconic jurist who helped transform women’s legal status in America.

In each case, the “WHAT” was an outcome of taking a journey, not the starting point.

What Is a Calling?

You may stop here and wonder: in the context of your life, is what you are experiencing even worthy of being called a calling? Is it big enough?

In her book, Playing Big, Tara Mohr describes callings simply as a “longing to address a particular need or problem in the world.” Size and duration are not the qualifying factors, but rather, “the sense of passion and longing” specific to the need. Importantly, Mohr also notes that we may receive many callings over the course of a lifetime—some even overlapping.

The question then is not, What is your life’s purpose? But rather: What calling(s) is showing up in your life right now?

The “Calling Cards”

With a sense of passion but destination unknown, what signals us to pursue this journey? What can we take as hallmarks of potential callings? Mohr outlines several signals that tend to mark the beginning of a calling:

• Pain and frustration around a particular issue or topic
• Resistance, signalling that you may be stretched beyond your comfort zones
• Ownership, a sense of work that is yours to do
• Specialness—a combination of boldness, energy and alignment
• And notably, fear. Fear that you are not yet equipped or the person you need to be

That last one—fear—often plays devil’s advocate and adds to the tension: Why move forward when “there’s no time,” “I have to work,” and “I don’t know enough”? But what could you gain if you did?

Therein lies what Mohr calls the dual purpose of our callings: they are not just intended to grow and heal others—but, in the pursuit, to grow and heal ourselves as well.

Answering the Call of Your Heart

We tend to think we need the entire plan laid out to move forward, when quite the opposite is true. So how does one act? What can you do to take a step toward your call? Start here:

1. Notice the feelings.
   Are any of the above feelings—frustration, resistance, ownership, specialness and/or fear—showing up in your life? Do they linger below the surface rather than come and go?
2. Focus the attention:
   What is the one thing(s) that consistently generates these feelings? What is it that keeps rising back up?
3. Do just ONE thing:
   • Don't feel there is enough time? What could be accomplished in just five minutes?
   • Have to work? What can be pursued on a weekend—or while waiting in the morning coffee line? (I can’t tell you how many searches I’ve done standing in line!)
   • Afraid you don't know enough? Who could help you learn more? What can you discover with a simple search? ( 💡There is a wealth of information on YouTube!)

A speaker offered this as a parting thought at a recent workshop, and it has stayed with me: find out just how good you can be. Not how perfect. Not how prepared. Just: how good.

Your calling—it’s the opportunity to find out.

Calling Attention to Other Matters

If you are among the many women unable to get the transdermal estrogen patch right now, you are not alone.

While the removal of the black box warning on estrogen products was an important step toward improving prescribing practices, increased demand may be outpacing available supply. OB-GYN Sarah Berg explains why the system is straining under renewed demand—and what that means for menopause care access today.

And on the policy front, following last year’s veto of menopause legislation, California’s new 2026–27 budget proposal includes expanded coverage and provider education for midlife women. Advocates view it as a step forward—but also a reminder that progress often comes only after sustained pressure and public attention. When women call attention to access, the system eventually has to listen.

The Bold Retirement Dispatch Elaine Belansky, PhD Most retirement newsletters are about money or hobbies. This one is about the part nobody prepares you for: who you are when the career ends.The Bold Retirement Dispatch is a Monday morning newsletter for professional women 50+ navigating the identity, purpose, and structure side of this transition. Real talk, psychology-grounded tools, and the occasional hard question — from a retirement coach and former university professor who has been through it herself. Join 1,000+ women who are figuring out what comes next. Subscribe​