Sonya Lovell

🎙 Speaker | Podcaster | Advocate | Workshop Facilitator | Cancer & Menopause Ambassador| Women’s Health Champion

I help women feel seen, heard, and supported through one of life’s biggest transitions: menopause. With lived experience of medically-induced menopause following a breast cancer diagnosis at 47, I bring real-life insight, empathy, and evidence-based conversations to the forefront of wo

men’s health. As the host the Dear Menopause podcast, I’ve spent 3+ years interviewing global and local experts, sharing lived experience stories, and sparking vital conversations. My background includes over a decade as a personal trainer and studio owner, 10+ years as a speaker and workshop facilitator, and a deep commitment to empowering women with knowledge, confidence, and community. Whether I'm speaking on stage, behind a podcast mic, or facilitating transformative group sessions, I advocate for better awareness, education, and support for women navigating menopause — especially those going through it as a result of cancer.

🎤 Available for speaking engagements, podcast interviews, brand partnerships, and collaborative projects focused on women’s health, menopause, and cancer survivorship.

📩 Let’s connect or chat: sonya@sonyalovell.com

29/04/2026

We need to talk about s3x and menopause after cancer. Here’s why it matters more than the data usually shows.

A large real-world app-based cohort study (published in Cancers, March 2026) compared menopause-specific health-related quality of life in women with and without a cancer history, using the Cervantes SF-16 scale.

Key finding: global quality-of-life scores were broadly comparable between the groups, but the sexuality domain was significantly worse in women with a cancer history, with the gap largest for non-gynaecological cancers.

Depression was the strongest consistent predictor of poor quality of life across all domains, in both groups.

This is quantitative confirmation of what many MACS women report: the thing that most erodes quality of life is often sexual health and intimacy — and it’s the thing least likely to be raised in a 15-minute oncology follow-up.

The depression finding is also important: it points to the need for integrated mental health support within menopause-after-cancer care, not as an add-on.

28/04/2026

She came in frustrated, unheard, and quietly exhausted from fighting to be taken seriously by her own medical team.

By the end of our Clarity Session, something had shifted.

“Our conversation was so easy — that both surprised and relieved me at the same time. It was like my words were being mirrored in your comments of knowledge and support.”

This is what happens when a woman finally gets to speak to someone who understands the specific, layered, complicated reality of menopause after cancer.

Not generic advice. Not a rushed GP appointment. A real conversation where nothing needs to be explained from scratch.

This beautiful woman has now scheduled a Telehealth appointment with a menopause informed GP who specialises in care after cancer. That next step existed. She just needed support finding it.

If you’ve been feeling dismissed, unheard, or like you’re navigating this alone, a Clarity Session might be exactly what you need.

DM or comment SUPPORT for more info.

27/04/2026

Nine years ago this week, my life split in two. 💔

Before. And after.

I remember driving home from my GP’s clinic thinking… how do I walk through that door and tell my beautiful boys, Conor and Ethan?

That right there, that’s the moment that broke me open. Not the diagnosis itself. The faces I was about to see. The upheaval to their lives I was about to cause.

What came next was surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and my last period on May 11th, a few days after surgery, when I barely had the capacity to register what it meant. I knew it was probably going to be the last one. My Oncologist flagged it, and then I tucked that away, because a fight for survival doesn’t leave room for grief.

Here’s something I’ve not said out loud before.

I was so scared of my own fear. I pushed it down. Refused to look at it. Told myself that acknowledging it would make it more real, more powerful. That if I felt it fully, I might not be able to keep moving.

So, I kept moving.

What I didn’t expect was how long “the after” would take. That the end of treatment wouldn’t feel like the beginning of better.

That I’d spend years not recognising the woman looking back at me in the mirror, not just because of the hair, or the weight, or the night sweats at 3am, but because I couldn’t find that woman I was the day before my diagnosis, anywhere.

Getting back into the gym wasn’t just about fitness either. It was about finding her again. Reclaiming what was mine. Proving to myself that she hadn’t gone, she’d just been waiting for me to come back for her.

Nine years and I now know she’s still here. 🫶🏼

If you happen to be somewhere in the middle of this. Scared, exhausted, grieving a version of yourself nobody told you to grieve. I see you.

That fear you’re pushing down? Let it exist. You don’t have to perform “okay”. For anyone.

You’re allowed to want your life back. All of it. ❤️

24/04/2026

The numbers are in and they are worth celebrating.

70% of cancer patients now survive 5 years or more. The highest rate ever recorded. That is real progress, and it matters.

And I want to name something else in the same breath. More survivors means more women living with treatment-induced menopause. More women whose bodies changed because of their treatment, who finished active cancer care and expected to feel better, and instead felt lost.

Hot flushes. Joint pain. Brain fog. Broken sleep. Weight that arrived and wouldn’t leave. A version of themselves they stopped recognising. And a medical system that, far too often, has nothing useful to offer them.

Survival rates are climbing. The support available after treatment is not climbing at the same speed. That gap is real, it is significant, and it is exactly why MACS exists.

If you are navigating menopause after cancer and you are exhausted from trying to figure it out alone, you are not alone. And there is support available that actually understands what you are going through.

Drop SUPPORT in the comments and I’ll send you more.

menopauseandcancer menopauseaftercancer cancer

22/04/2026

🥱 73% of you said sleep is a problem. That tracks. And it makes sense, because sleep doesn’t sit on its own. It’s both a symptom of menopause after cancer and a side effect of your other symptoms. And when it’s disrupted, it turns the volume up on everything else...

🧠 brain fog
🎢 mood
💥 pain
🫩 exhaustion

Brain fog is a good example. It’s a symptom in its own right. And it’s also made significantly worse by a bad night’s sleep. Round and round it goes.

🔄 It’s a cycle. A very frsutrating cycle at that.

But it’s one worth addressing, because small, sustainable changes to your sleep quality can create a ripple effect across every symptom you’re dealing with.

Comment or DM me the word SUPPORT and I’ll send you details on how we can work through this together. You don’t have to figure this out alone.

22/04/2026

The evidence says yes. Your oncologist may even agree. So why weren’t you offered it?

Researchers are now naming what so many women in our community already know in their bodies, hormone therapy is being underused in cervical cancer care, and the barriers sitting between you and that conversation are systemic, not personal.

This is not a you problem. This is a capacity gap. And it has a cost.

You are entitled to a real conversation about your options. One where your quality of life, your values, and your concerns sit alongside the clinical evidence. That is shared decision making, and it is the standard of care, not a bonus you have to fight for.

If you’ve been told no, or told nothing at all, MACS exists to help you bridge that gap. To walk into your next appointment knowing what to ask and feeling confident enough to ask it.

Comment or DM me the word CLARITY and I’ll send you the details for a one-hour Clarity Session. 💛

Save this if it resonates. And share it with a woman who needs to see it.

16/04/2026

Whether you’re newly diagnosed, in the middle of treatment, or trying to make sense of what comes after… there are often questions that don’t get answered.

Not because they don’t matter. But because the system isn’t set up to hold this part well. So many women find themselves trying to piece things together alone. Symptoms, decisions, what’s “normal”, what’s not.

This is the space I support women through.

Comment SUPPORT and I’ll message you.

08/04/2026

It’s exciting to see an increase in recent articles and studies on hormone therapy and breast cancer survivors!

“Use of transdermal testosterone to treat menopausal symptoms in women with a history of breast cancer: a small, retrospective, open-label study” has been published in the Journal of the Menopause Society.

A small study, with very promising outcomes!

Thanks to Dr and et al for their continued work and advocacy 👏

I’m curating a library with current and relevant research, articles and resources. If you’d like to learn more, DM me LIBRARY and I’ll send through the info.

07/04/2026

This is why I’m doing this support work. Because too many women leave active treatment feeling like they’ve been dropped into something they don’t understand… and are expected to just figure it out.

No roadmap.
No real support.
No one connecting the dots.

So when someone says they feel more confident, more informed, more able to advocate for themselves… that matters. This is what support should feel like.

If you’re navigating your way through menopause after cancer, or have been recently diagnosed and are feeling unsure about your next step, you don’t have to do it alone.

DM me “SUPPORT” or head to the link in my bio.

31/03/2026

Up to 80% of women navigate menopause after cancer. But what’s not talked about enough is the gap in care and support that comes with it.

The gap when treatment ends, support has dropped off, and you’re left trying to make sense of what’s happening to you physically, mentally and emotionally.

For many, it feels like falling into something you were never prepared for and then being expected to climb out on your own.

And we feel like it’s a personal failing. But please know it’s not. It’s a systemic gap in care.

And it’s exactly why I created Menopause After Cancer Support (MACS).

29/03/2026

Join me to chat all things menopause after cancer with

🗓️Tuesday 31st March
⏰8pm (Sydney time)
🎟️ Free
🎥
✅ RSVP link in my bio

In this Expert Insights session, Ceri and I will speak about the realities of menopause after cancer, where current care is falling short, and what better support could look like, shaped by lived experience and evolving evidence.

See you there!

26/03/2026

I’ve learned (even perfected) how to look ‘fine’ when I’m not.

I’ve heard it.
I’ve smiled.
I’ve said “thank you.”

All while feeling like my body and mind were somewhere else entirely. Even belonged to someone else entirely.

I know this place, where how you look and how you feel are worlds apart.

It’s one of the hardest parts of survivorship. And menopause after cancer.

To my sister survivors… I see you. I know this is hard.

But I also know this: it’s not forever. There is strength here. There are lessons here. There is something, and someone, in you unfolding.

This won’t break you.
It will change you.
And there is so much more of you still to come.

✨ Share something people don’t see about your experience in the comments

✨ Or share this post with someone who needs to see it.

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Frenchs Forest, NSW

Website

https://sonyalovell.com/

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