Girls’ trips are growing up — and this time, they’re trading hangovers for hormone help.
At Miraval Arizona, female guests are offered programming designed to help them navigate the menopause transition in the pampered setting of a luxury resort.
“It’s an opportunity to tune into not only how we survive this stage, but also how we can find pleasure and joy in our day to day lives,” Lyndi Rivers, an integrative wellness expert and sexuality educator, told The Post.
At the resort, nestled at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains, women can take workout classes — including yoga designed to improve pelvic floor health — and book one-on-one appointments with nutritionists to create meal plans tailored to their needs.
Other programming includes everything from the serene (guided meditations, breathwork, tea rituals, manifestation) to the fit (pickleball, hiking, barre, Zumba) to the fun (ziplining, archery, taco making, a crystal oil-infusion workshop).
“This time at Mirival is often their only moment to pause and do some self reflection around what they need,” Rivers said.
“Then they have a little bit of time to even create a plan about how they want to implement this realistically once they go home, and I think that’s what makes a resort setting kind of a sweet way to do it.”
Rivers also instructs a popular “Making Sense of Menopause” class. During the 90-minute session, she walks attendees through a general overview of the menopause transition, including the 32 most common symptoms that come with it.
“To make it fun, I do it as a bingo game,” Rivers said. “If you have the symptom, you get to do an X on your card.”
She also opens up about her personal menopause journey and invites participants to share theirs.
“Hearing from other women having similar experiences is what also allows them to feel better about what they’re doing and understand that there’s a wide range of experiences that encompass normal,” she said.
The women who sign up for the class span a wide age range, from those in their 30s who are curious about what lies ahead to others actively navigating the transition.
“I’ve also gotten some women who are post-menopausal but really didn’t have any education on it who are still trying to figure out what happened to them,” Rivers said.
Female guests can also sign up for Miraval’s “Better Sleep in Menopause” class, led by sleep specialist Leah Bolin.
During the session, Bolin covers common sleep challenges women experience during menopause and strategies for managing them.
Research shows that roughly half of women in perimenopause experience insomnia, with the rate climbing past 60% after menopause. Common complaints include trouble falling asleep, waking too early and difficulty staying asleep, often fueled by symptoms like night sweats.
One treatment Bolin highlights is cognitive behavioral therapy, which has proven to be highly effective for addressing menopause-related insomnia and sleep disturbances.
Miraval also offers “Healthy Lifestyles Through Menopause,” which focuses on how women can eat and exercise in ways that best support their changing bodies.
“This class gets more into the nitty gritty of what the research says about which kind of diet we should ideally be on during the menopause transition,” Rivers explained.
“They also discuss what kind of movements we should be engaging in to really support our bodies as we’re navigating this time,” she added.
For example, research suggests that increasing strength training and maintaining good cardiovascular health can help ease hot flashes.
“It kind of looks at all these different pieces combined,” Rivers said. “You want to get good sleep, you want to change the way you’re eating and you really want to be mindful about how you’re moving.”
Miraval isn’t the only resort taking notice of the growing menopause market. More and more women are seeking out luxury getaways that offer tailored wellness and educational programming to help them navigate the physical, emotional and mental challenges of menopause in a calm, supportive setting.
Rivers said it’s long overdue for a health issue affecting half the world’s population to finally get the spotlight, allowing women not just to get through the menopause transition, but to thrive while doing it.
“This is the stage of life in which we need to get almost fierce about our own self care, as well as adding in a lot of kindness and compassion towards ourselves throughout the journey,” she said.
