Since this thread pertains to a woman shooter and defensive shooting, I'd highly recommend that any woman considering an LCR, even in .38spcl, goes and test fires one first. "Hyper light" revolvers, even in .38spcl, can be pretty severe in the recoil department. The LCR isn't bad, but I've had several women resell LCR's after a short time because they couldn't handle the recoil for practice. The .38spcl/.357mag SP-101 (about the same size and grip, but twice the weight) is usually what they end up getting.

I'm prone to believe in the adage: 10 hits from a 22lr are better than 7 misses from a 45acp. Shoot what you can handle well, and make sure you can handle it before you drop money into a defensive pistol.