SEEN & HEARD: Breast Cancer at 38, Menopause, and My One Chance at Motherhood

Breast Cancer at 38, Menopause, and My One Chance at Motherhood

What changes in healthcare when we stop starting with the expert and start with the woman who lived it?

Seen & Heard is built around lived experience. Real women tell their health stories in their own words: what happened, what it felt like, where care worked, where it fell short, and what they wish their healthcare professionals had understood. Healthcare professionals join the conversation not to explain away those experiences, but to listen, reflect and explore what we can learn from them.

In this episode, Sarrah Strimel Bentley sits down with clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel L. Goldman for an extraordinarily personal conversation about breast cancer, treatment-induced menopause, fertility loss, surrogacy, motherhood and the emotional reality of having your life and body change almost overnight.

Sarrah was 38 when she found a lump in her breast. After initially being reassured that she was young, had no family history and was low risk, she trusted what she knew about her own body and kept pushing for answers. She was ultimately diagnosed with stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma and underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation.

But cancer affected far more than her breasts.

Treatment forced Sarrah into menopause and eventually left her without ovarian function. Before chemotherapy, she and her now-husband went through IVF and created one viable embryo. They called him Chance: their one chance at having a genetically related child.

That embryo ultimately became their son through surrogacy.

Sarrah and Dr. Goldman unpack the parts of these experiences that rarely fit neatly into a medical chart: grief and joy existing at the same time, the loss of control, the pressure to be “brave,” fertility decisions made in the middle of a cancer diagnosis, navigating surrogacy, and the importance of healthcare professionals seeing the individual rather than simply the diagnosis.

They also talk about something at the heart of Seen & Heard: using your voice. When Sarrah encountered healthcare professionals who understood her story, she felt held as a whole person. When she didn’t feel seen or heard, she learned to speak up, ask questions and make herself part of the conversation.

Because lived experience isn’t an anecdote sitting outside of healthcare. It is information healthcare professionals can learn from.

Sarrah Strimel Bentley is a former Broadway showgirl, motivational speaker, women’s health advocate and toddler mom. She is the founder of A Chance For Life Foundation and Damn Good & Co.

Follow Sarrah on Instagram and TikTok at @sarrahstrimelbentley.

Rachel L. Goldman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, author of When Life Happens, and Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Her work focuses on helping people navigate the moments in life they cannot control and developing practical tools to respond to stress, uncertainty and change.

Learn more about When Life Happens: When Life Happens

Seen & Heard is a Perry podcast built around a simple belief: better care starts with listening.

Each episode begins with a woman’s lived experience. Healthcare professionals are invited into that story to listen, ask questions and reflect on what her experience can teach us about delivering better care.

These aren't conversations about the “perfect patient journey.” They are about what healthcare actually feels like from the other side of the exam room.

Seen & Heard is brought to you by Perry, with this episode created in partnership with Bonafide.

For healthcare professionals who want to take these lessons further, Perry Academy provides multidisciplinary education in perimenopause and menopause care, helping professionals translate women’s lived experiences and the latest clinical knowledge into better everyday care.

Learn more at Perry Academy and the Perimenopause Certificate.