The High Guide Podcast: 130. Psilocybin and Perimenopause: Two Clinicians Reframe Midlife for Women

September 3

130. Psilocybin and Menopause: Two Clinicians Reframe Midlife for Women

Episode Summary

Estrogen regulates the serotonin system, and psilocybin reaches the same receptor. That is where this Salon starts, and it is the most specific version of the psilocybin and menopause conversation I have heard in public.

Kelly McGinty, a nurse practitioner, told a full room at Town Hall Seattle that the drop women feel in perimenopause is physiological rather than imagined. I asked whether that means psilocybin replaces estrogen. She said no, and that she would like more research. Her co-author, Dr. Trish Singh, added that research on menopausal women barely exists at any phase of the transition.

Two clinicians describe what they see in their patients, then draw a line at the point where the evidence ends. Most people selling a reframe of midlife will not draw that line on a microphone.

What sits on the other side of it: anxiety as a knock on the door rather than a malfunction, why women microdose intuitively instead of on a protocol, and the archetypes we inherit about aging women. Kelly's oldest client is 85, and she says the younger generation is watching to see how the older one heals.

A woman in perimenopause deserves an explanation for what is happening in her body. Psilocybin is not what delivers that. A provider who knows the full symptom list is.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

2:15 Why these clinicians reframe menopause as a rite of passage

6:20 Estrogen, serotonin, and what psilocybin cannot replace

10:10 Anxiety and brain fog in perimenopause

14:55 Why women microdose intuitively instead of on a protocol

18:10 What the microdosing research actually shows

19:20 Consciousness, unnaming, and identity in midlife

21:35 Ending the shame around menopause

24:25 The FDA hormone therapy warning change, explained

25:30 Goddess, crone, and the archetypes of aging women

30:35 Elders, psychedelics, and the wellness industry problem

Guests

Kelly McGinty, C-FNP, MSN is a family nurse practitioner accredited by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, with a master's in nursing from Gonzaga University. She spent more than a decade as an emergency department NP before training in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and she now works with first responders, people at end of life, and patients with treatment-resistant conditions. She is the clinician in this conversation who names the physiology and then names its limits. Kelly's website

Dr. Trish Singh, PhD, LPCC is a licensed mental health counselor in New Mexico and California with twenty-five years in behavioral health. Her doctorate is in mind-body medicine with a specialization in integrative mental health, she is certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy through CIIS, and she founded A New Awakening Counseling, which serves people reentering society after incarceration. Her current research is on holistic weight strategies for menopausal women, and she is the reason this episode ends up talking about archetypes rather than symptoms. Trish's website

Together they co-authored Mycelopause: Uncovering the Magic of Menopause with Psilocybin.

Original Substack post: ⁠⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/psilocybin-and-perimenopause

Resources

Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle - ⁠2026-27 Schedule⁠

⁠⁠SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠⁠

⁠⁠Women in the Wild application⁠⁠

The Next Chapter virtual live screening - RSVP here

More about Mycelopause on Substack + Instagram

Hosted by April Pride

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