Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez

#108-Hormones, Health & Happiness: What Every Woman Should Know Part 1

• Leslie Martinez • Season 5 • Episode 108

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Your body is sending you signals, but do you know how to interpret them? That overwhelming fatigue, unexplained weight gain, brain fog, and emotional rollercoaster might not be a midlife crisis or mental health issue—it's likely your hormones running the show.

This eye-opening episode dives deep into the world of women's hormonal health, particularly perimenopause. What makes this conversation so crucial is the shocking lack of medical education around women's hormones: 60% of OBGYNs receive little to no formal training on menopause during medical school. No wonder so many women feel dismissed, misdiagnosed, or told to simply "welcome to the club" of aging.

From the science of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and cortisol to the comprehensive list of symptoms affecting everything from your sleep to your sense of self, this episode serves as both validation and education. You're not going crazy—your body is undergoing profound biological changes that deserve proper attention and care. Learn practical strategies for hormone balance, including nutrition adjustments, appropriate exercise (strength training trumps cardio during perimenopause), stress management, and when to consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

Most importantly, discover how to become your own health advocate. With proper knowledge and the right specialists, you can navigate this transition without suffering through symptoms that impact your quality of life. Whether you're experiencing these changes yourself or know someone who is, this conversation provides the foundation for understanding what's happening beneath the surface and taking back control of your wellbeing. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear they're not alone—it might just change their life.

Connect with Leslie:

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Website: https://www.yourjoyfulorder.com/

Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
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Speaker 1:

Have you ever felt like your body is just sending you mixed messages physically, emotionally and even spiritually? Have you ever woken up, just completely feeling off, like you're living in someone else's body that no longer feels like your own? You just don't feel like yourself. One minute, you're fine, the next you're overwhelmed, you're anxious, exhausted. One minute you're fine, the next you're overwhelmed, you're anxious, exhausted or just plain frustrated. What if I told you that your hormones might be running the show more now than you realize?

Speaker 1:

Today, part of our Whole Woman's Wellness Month, we are talking about hormones and their profound impact on every area of our well-being. So get ready to learn a lot about hormones in this week's episode. Hey everyone, I'm Leslie Martinez and you're listening to your Joyful Order podcast. Each week, I will bring you joyful stories that will motivate and inspire you and, at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say the show will be and inspire you and, at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say the show will be a mixture of preaching and teaching, with a kick of motivation from your girl here. Welcome to your Joyful Order podcast, hey friend. So today's episode, very different from what my normal topics of conversation are here on the podcast, but today we're talking about hormones, and this has actually been a long time coming episode that I have wanted to do, and let's just say that this episode has been like six months of research in the making. You are probably wondering why in the world am I talking about this on the podcast when this is not my area of expertise? And you're right, it is absolutely not my area of expertise, which is why I also must give a disclaimer and tell you that this episode is strictly for education and entertainment purposes. I am not a medical professional, so please go and seek out your own medical advice. Do not take any of the advice that I give you you know for what it is. I am not an expert, but as a lifelong learner and an advocate and an educator, I am here to share with you some of the wisdom and insight that just might change your life.

Speaker 1:

Women's health is a topic that is very, very broad and challenging. There's so many dynamics to it, but more recently, this topic of women's hormone health has been at the peak of many conversations, because many women now are talking about the topic of perimenopause, menopause and hormonal health, a topic that not very many people first talked about or even knew a whole lot about. So, as I am in the thick of it, going through perimenopause, I have been doing my own research, learning things, learning how to offset the lack of hormones that my body is no longer producing. And as I have been learning, I have gained so much insight into this topic reading books, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube, going online and looking up in medical journals and looking up research. And when I say that this topic has been like six, seven months in the making, I literally mean it. Y'all I have been living in it, going online and looking at research, watching documentaries, following doctors on it. So, again, I am not a certified doctor of any sort, but I have pieced together a bunch of information to bring to you, because this is information that I wish I had learned sooner and earlier, rather than when I was in the thick of it. Now. This topic of hormones is a topic that often gets misunderstood, and yet it affects every single woman. Our bodies are biologically made in a different way, so every woman goes through this phase of perimenopause or menopause, when our body just stops producing hormones, and it's not a topic that is talked about too often and it's not a topic that is talked about too often and, as women, our hormones dictate how we feel physically, how we think mentally and even how we connect and feel spiritually. So they impact everything from our metabolism, our mood, our energy, our focus, our ability to sleep, how we manage stress and how we even find joy. So this is not an area of expertise for me. However, I thought it was so important to discuss this topic during our whole Women's Wellness Month.

Speaker 1:

Now, for many of you, women that are in your 30s and 40s, especially those entering perimenopause, these hormone fluctuations can feel like just an emotional or physical roller coaster. I know this firsthand. Like I said, I am in the thick of it with you. My own journey with perimenopause has been eye-opening. Some days I feel like I'm thriving and other days I just like don't even recognize myself and I just want to punch somebody in the face, like literally, that's how I feel, because the range of emotions is just like a roller coaster. So today we are getting into the science, the solutions and the self-advocacy that you need to navigate this season of life with confidence and you are, if you are a woman that maybe you're in your like, early 20s, early 30s, and you're like this isn't for me. I'm not gonna be going through that until I at least hit my 40s or 50s.

Speaker 1:

Please still listen to this, because, one, you can know a woman that is going through this. Okay, I am certain that you know a woman that is going through perimenopause. But, two, do not dismiss your age and when you can go through perimenopause, because there are some women that start to experience the symptoms as early as their mid-20s and they can go into full-on menopause in their mid-30s. So do not dismiss this. No matter what age you are, I am certain that there is a woman in your life that this applies to. You might be able to understand them a little bit more, or you might be able to help somebody. So let's start by understanding just first what is happening with our bodies. There is so much to unpack here y'all. Okay, I have so many notes on this, so if you're watching on YouTube, you're going to see me like looking down on my notes, all right, so forgive me in advance for the lack of eye contact to the camera, but I want to get all of this right for y'all, so I'm going to be reading a lot of my notes Now.

Speaker 1:

Hormones are our body's chemical messengers. They regulate nearly every function in our body, including our brain, our metabolism, our immune system and our emotions. So the most influential hormones for women are estrogen, and estrogen affects our mood. It affects our cognition, bone health, heart health and even skin elasticity. Progesterone this helps with relaxation, it helps with sleep, it helps with stress. It is a stress regulator for us. Cortisol this is our stress hormone that, when chronically high, it leads to weight gain, fatigue and anxiety. And then testosterone it impacts our energy, our libido, fatigue and anxiety. And then testosterone it impacts our energy, our libido and our muscle mass. So when these hormones fluctuate or decline, especially during perimenopause, these effects can be felt in every area of our life. So mentally, it can cause increased anxiety, mood swings, brain fog and depression. Physically, that's where you get like the hot flashes, the night sweats, the disrupted sleep, joint pain, weight gain and fatigue. Spiritually, it affects us. Spiritually. We feel disconnected, we feel irritable, we have loss of motivation and just difficulty finding peace.

Speaker 1:

Now there was a Harvard study found that nearly 40% of women in perimenopause experience symptoms of depression. Yet many doctors fail to connect this emotional struggle that these women are going through with hormonal imbalances. They're just quick to write it off as oh, you're depressed, let's give you you know, whatever they give for depression some drug. I should know what drug it is. Is it Xanax? No, I don't know Some opiate, probably To regulate your emotions or to just suppress that depression, so to say, without even looking at the hormonal health of the women. And yet, shockingly, 60% of OBGYNs receive little to no formal training on menopause and perimenopause during medical school.

Speaker 1:

Many women are dismissed or misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression or even autoimmune diseases, when the real culprit is hormonal imbalance. And this all is information that I found in Harvard Health and also the New England Journal of Medicine. So these are facts and statistics that I pulled from credible sources that are giving us the insight as to some of the challenges of women's hormonal care. And that's why there is such a big push and advocacy for this right now because there is not proper care and proper education out there for women to get the proper care. You probably know if you are not a woman that has been misdiagnosed, you probably know a woman that probably, like in her maybe mid 30s, early 40s, started struggling with some health issues and could have been diagnosed with some mental disorder or some chronic autoimmune disease, and a lot of that has to do because doctors are not checking hormone regulation. There's no hormonal tests that are done. There are panels that you can get done and doctors are not quick to go to that. They automatically want to diagnose you with oh, you have a chronic disease, you have an autoimmune deficiency, you have anxiety, you have depression. Let me write you a prescription for this.

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately, that is the world that we live in Now perimenopause. I just want to explain to you what happens during perimenopause. It is the transition phase leading up to menopause, so it is characterized by fluctuating hormone levels, and this period can last several years. It can last anywhere from seven to 10 years, ladies, and it brings about various changes. The most common symptoms include, like irregular periods due to fluctuating estrogen and progesterone, hot flashes and night sweats from sudden hormonal dips, brain fog and memory issues due to declining estrogen affecting your neurotransmitters. It can cause anxiety, depression, mood swings, and that's all due to unstable cortisone levels. And then we have sleep disturbances, which, in turn, lead into more fatigue, irritability and more stress. This is just the surface. This is the surface.

Speaker 1:

These are some of the symptoms that most doctors are familiar with you know, but a lot of times they come with these symptoms and, based on your age and based on expertise of women's health and specifically women's hormonal health, they may not be quick to say let's check your hormones. They may be quick to say here's a prescription for your depression, here are some sleep medicines that will help you get to sleep quicker. And they will ask you questions like have you been under a lot of stress that causes, you know, irregular periods? Also, yes, it does. But understanding and being aware of your hormones and having doctors that do the same is imperative for us to get proper health care.

Speaker 1:

Another one of the symptoms y'all is waking. This is something that belly fat, that like when, once you hit that perimenopausal phase, it's what's known as visceral fat. It's not your friend and that visceral fat comes from estrogen levels that just like drops your metabolism. Now I doubted kind of going into death with some of the symptoms. I don't even know how many, as I'm looking at this list right now. It's a lot. But I doubted sharing the entire list of symptoms with y'all because I, first, I don't want to overwhelm you, um, and also I don't want to, I don't want for you to feel that like to freak out, basically right, just I want you to know and understand what some of the symptoms are. Because, as I started to do my research and I started to realize like, oh, I have that, I have that, like it all started to make sense. Research and I started to realize like, oh, I have that, I have that, like it all started to make sense.

Speaker 1:

It was like this piece, this puzzle that I couldn't put together because I didn't have a picture of what it looked like. I didn't know. I had all these like random pieces and I'm like all of this is going on with my body but I don't know what it means. Like, am I going through like a midlife crisis? Am I suffering from some type of mental illness? I just didn't feel like myself in my own body anymore. A lot of heavy emotions, and not only when I started first experiencing my perimenopausal symptoms. It was at the beginning of COVID y'all we were isolated. I think we all suffer some form of depression or anxiety during that time, so I just attribute it to that. But then, like the belly fat started coming, like this weight gain started coming very highs and lows of an emotional roller coaster and there were tons of other symptoms that I didn't attest to perimenopause symptoms until I learned of them.

Speaker 1:

So I have compiled an extensive list and this is again doing my research. I compiled this list that women can experience during perimenopause. If you want the full list of this and I also created a symptom tracker that you can go down and actually make a checklist of hey, these are symptoms that I have experienced please send me an email at almartinez at your joyfulordercom or click the text button. If you're listening on the podcast, there is a text button where you can text me and just let me know that you want the perimenopause symptom tracker and I will give you the list of the symptoms in addition to the tracker. But you have to email me or send me a text in Um. If you're listening on the podcast, if you're watching it on YouTube, make sure to just send that email and all the information will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Now, perimenopause affects every woman differently, but the list of possible symptoms is extensive and I'm about to read off a lot of the symptoms right now. It is a comprehensive list of symptoms that may experience due to fluctuating hormone levels during perimenopause, and there are physical symptoms. There's like emotional and mental ones, sleep-related ones, sexual reproductive-related ones. So here we go, let me start. It's a long list. Y'all Don't even try to write it down, I'm going to tell you that right now. Just email me and I will send you the list.

Speaker 1:

So here are some of the physical symptoms Irregular periods, hot flashes, night sweats, chills, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, breast tenderness or swelling, weight gain, especially around the belly, that visceral fat that I was telling you about. Slower metabolism, bloating and digestive issues, thinning hair or hair loss, increased facial hair growth, dry skin or itchy skin, brittle nails, joint pain and stiffness, muscle aches or cramps, fatigue or extreme exhaustion, frequent headaches or migraines, dizziness or lightheadedness, tingling sensations or numbness in your hands and feet, heart palpitations, feeling like your heart is skipping a beat, increased allergies or food sensitivities, changes in body odor, changes in bladder control, frequent yeast infections or UTIs. So those are some of the physical symptoms that you may experience going through perimenopause. Here are some of the mental and emotional symptoms Frequent mood swings, increased anxiety or panic attacks, depression or feeling of hopelessness, brain fog that's like trouble concentrating.

Speaker 1:

Forgetfulness, trouble finding words, memory lapse, irritability or sudden anger, sensitivity to stress loss or confidence of self-esteem. Increased feelings of loneliness or sadness, increased sensitivity to noise or light, crying spells without any clear reason why. Lack of motivation or interest in activities that you used to enjoy. Here are some sleep-related symptoms Insomnia waking up frequently during the night, waking up too early or unable to go back to sleep, feeling unrested even after a night's sleep. Vivid dreams or nightmares.

Speaker 1:

Here are some sexual and reproductive symptoms Painful intercourse, lower arousal or difficulty reaching orgasm. Clitoral sensitivity changes spotting between periods, periods skipping months or suddenly returning heavier. Now here are some other uncommon symptoms Burning tongue or metallic taste in your mouth. Electric shock sensations. Shock sensations, tinnitus like a ringing in your ear, gum problems or increased tooth sensitivity. Increased body aches where you have flu-like symptoms. Increased risk of osteoporosis. Your bones are a lot weaker and, lastly, is worsening PMS symptoms before periods stop completely.

Speaker 1:

That's a long list, y'all. Of this list, I probably have like 20 symptoms. Yeah, so your girl is in the thick of it. So that's why I'm like such an advocate for this right now, because when I talk to other women about this, they just have no clue. They go to the doctor. They just think that something is wrong with them. They think they're going crazy. They think, like, why do I feel like this? I'm just going through a depression. There's a huge emotional roller coaster, you know.

Speaker 1:

You think that midlife crisis has sunk in and, oh, I've just hit that age. You go to your doctor, you share some of these things with their doctor and they might tell you like, oh yeah, you're probably going through perimenopause. Welcome to the club, it's a part of aging. Like it's a crown that you should wear or something. That's crap. Y'all like seriously, I'm just gonna call it out as it is, that's straight bs. That is not the response that a doctor, a licensed, board certified doctor, should give you. Is here's a sticker, welcome to the club, it's part of aging. And you know what's sad is that was somewhat of the response that I got from my doctor, who is a female doctor same age as myself, going through it herself, and she was like oh yeah, join the club.

Speaker 1:

What does that mean? How do I manage this? How do I feel like myself again? How can I make my life not suck, feeling these symptoms? Like I want to get back to, feeling like Leslie, the woman that I spent 40 something years in my body, like I want to get back to that person. I want to feel like that person again. Now.

Speaker 1:

I know that aging is part of it and our body there are certain parts of our body that we I'm just never going to get back. But mentally, I think that has been the biggest challenge for me the brain fog, the ADHD kind of thing, the forgetting of words. I'm a podcaster, y'all. That's why, when you see me, I have an outline and I have notes, because I will be talking, and then I'm like wait, what is that word? What am I supposed to say? What am I trying to say? I cannot clearly get certain words out, y'all. It is crazy. So, as I have, you know, as anything that I have gone through any challenges or struggles like I go all in, I'm like how can I fix this? How can I teach other women about this and hopefully help them to not face the same struggles or challenges that I did, or give them the education and the knowledge that they need to maybe navigate this much easier? So here I am. This is why I'm doing this episode.

Speaker 1:

Now you're probably wondering what causes these symptoms. What is it in our body that is causing these symptoms that just suck? Clearly, they suck. So here is what causes these symptoms. Most of these symptoms are caused by fluctuations and declines in estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, and as well as increased cortisol, which is our stress hormone. So some women will experience only a few of these symptoms, where others may experience many. I'm the lucky one. So some women yeah, there are some of you right now where you're just like, oh yeah, I just get hot flashes every now and then and sometimes I get insomnia and you function fine. I will say I have been fortunate enough where I am not necessarily in the thick of like tons of hot flashes. Night sweats yes, I get them Not too often. But I do know women that are in perimenopause right now that are experiencing those hot flashes like all the time. I'm not one of those, but I have an onset of many of the other ones, like I said, brain fog, the aching of the bones and lots of other stuff that I. You heard the list. I don't want to give you all the stuff because some of it is just like TMI. You don't even know the whole list.

Speaker 1:

The emotional and the mental stuff is what I've most been struggling with. Y'all. That is where I've really, really been struggling with and these hormonal shifts. They just don't affect our bodies. They impact our sense of identity, they impact our confidence, they impact our joy and many women feel like they are just losing themselves. But you don't have to accept this as your new normal and that's why I'm here to tell you I am fighting to get like myself back, because I don't still fully feel like I am.

Speaker 1:

Leslie, right, I struggle and typically I'm like that very optimistic, outgoing type of person and I don't feel like that person anymore. I'm kind of like you know what? I just don't give a crap anymore. You do you boo and just let me sleep because I'm tired. That's where I'm at. I have days where I'm just like oh yeah, I feel like myself, everything's great, yay, I'm joyful, leslie, let's go climb a mountain. And the other days I'm just like I, I just want to sleep, I, I just need a nap.

Speaker 1:

I yesterday afternoon PMS hit. I needed a nap. I got a bad migraine, um, which typically wasn't the case before perimenopause. Like my cycle was pretty normal for the most part. When my cycle comes now, I get like extreme fatigue, y'all Extreme, extreme fatigue, super bad migraine, headaches, and I just want to punch people in their face. I'm being real with y'all right now. Okay, um, but I just want to tell you like I am in the thick of it right now and I have been looking for ways on how I can try to get back to myself, try to balance these hormones, and I'm going to share some of it with you. So I want to now just kind of move on to how to support your body and mind through this season, and I can't tell you that all of this is going to work. I'm still going through it Again.

Speaker 1:

Go talk to your doctor, do your own research and become your own advocate also Now, while hormone fluctuations are normal, suffering through them is not, so here are some science-backed ways to get control of your hormone health. Okay, so this is some stuff that will help you to figure out where are my hormones at. What can I do to help to try to balance them somewhat? So the first thing is go get tested. Yeah, don't take a guess. Don't take my symptoms like oh yeah, I have all these symptoms, I must be in perimenopause. Go get tested. You can ask your doctors to do a panel that will allow you to know if you are truly, truly in perimenopause. Get your hormones checked, ask your provider or even go and seek a provider who specializes in hormonal health. Make sure that you get your estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and your thyroid levels checked. There is a menopause panel, basically, that they will do and it is checking all of those levels your hormones and your thyroid levels.

Speaker 1:

Second is making sure that you are eating the proper nutrition to help for hormone balance. You want to eat more healthy fats, like avocados, nuts, olive oil, to help you produce hormone. It helps with hormone production. You want to increase your fiber intake. You want to balance your blood sugar with a high protein diet. So eating high protein rich meals, avoiding processed sugars and then also increasing your fiber intake and this can help to kind of like detox that excess estrogen that you're getting, like the too much estrogen. That fiber can help with that and then the fiber can also help to offset the increased protein that you are getting in your body.

Speaker 1:

The next is to exercise smarter, not harder. Strength training is huge right now while you are in perimenopause. Strength training helps to balance testosterone and your metabolism. Walking, yoga, Pilates also are all great forms of exercise. It helps to support your cortisone regulation and it helps to reduce stress. High intensity workouts and short spurts can be beneficial also, but too much cardio can actually worsen your stress hormones.

Speaker 1:

So for you cardio girls, like you, runners, you, you know, like I don't know, you crazy Zumba ladies that love to do all that intense cardio, and you could be one of those people. You're doing the intense cardio and you have no idea why you're not losing weight. They're like normally. The cardio helps me to keep the weight off. While your body is going through these shifts, you have to do proper exercise and strength training is huge. Building that muscle up we go through. One of the symptoms of perimenopause is we actually lose muscle, ladies. Our bones start to deteriorate. That's why, like women, a lot of women after menopause start to experience osteoporosis and arthritis, and all of that because our body is not producing the hormones that our bones need. So it is so important that during this time we strength train, we strengthen our body so that our muscles are strong and it helps to eliminate the stress on our bones. All right.

Speaker 1:

Next is you want to prioritize sleep. Magnesium and melatonin can aid in your sleep quality, keeping a cold, dark bedroom to help minimize those night sweats. Also, if you get night sweats and then try a nighttime routine like you want to wind down, you want to avoid screens, caffeine, all of that stuff before you go to bed. If you struggle falling asleep at night, this is one thing I always struggle with falling asleep. Well, I shouldn't say I can fall asleep pretty quickly, but I always need like some kind of white noise going on to just shut my brain off. Once I'm asleep, for the most part I'm good, but I do experience often like night sweats, and I will say if I'm awakened. A lot of times I get awakened by my dogs, first and foremost, not from a night sweat or not from, like you know, my brain going, but if my dogs wake me up, it's hard for me to fall back asleep and I know that I am not getting proper sleep.

Speaker 1:

Okay, next is managing your stress and cortisol. So this can be deep breathing exercises, meditation, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer this all can regulate cortisol levels. Adrenaline, prayer, prayer this all can regulate cortisol levels. Journaling, getting those loops, open loops out of your head onto a piece of paper. Journaling can help to manage your stress and cortisol. There are also supplements that you can take, like ash. I'm going to totally screw this up, but I think you all know what it is. The ashagandha supplement. That is something that came up as something that can definitely help manage stress and cortisol, along with rhodolia I'm reading it y'all. Okay, do your research on this, but ashwagandha and rhodelia can help to reduce stress and those are supplements that you can take and y'all.

Speaker 1:

Protect your peace during this time to manage your stress. Create those boundaries. I did a whole series on boundaries. Go back and listen to those from like just a month ago. Learn to say no, learn to protect your peace, learn to live within the boundaries that keep you safe to eliminate stress. Eliminate those cortisone levels from going up that, just like, causes all kinds of ruckus in your body. And, lastly, would be consider hormone therapy.

Speaker 1:

Hormone therapy, and that's biohormone replacement therapy, which is known as BHRT. It's an option for women that are experiencing severe symptoms. I'm not going to lie. I actually have my annual Well Woman's exam next week from when I am recording this, and I'm going to talk to my doctor about the possibilities and learn more about hormone replacement therapy. I have been going on two years now where I have officially been in full-on perimenopause and the symptoms aren't getting better, so I want to look at what the options are.

Speaker 1:

I myself have done my own invasive research on bioreplacement hormone therapy and there are some definite pros and cons to it. You got to do what works for you. Do your research. There are different forms of bioidentical hormone replacement therapies, too, like there's pill form, there's creams, there's patches. There's lots of different options that are out there and available for women so that they can balance more. So the estrogen, I think, is what causes a lot of the craziness.

Speaker 1:

But you want to work with a specialist who totally understands perimenopause and maybe not just your general OBGYN, so you can maybe talk to your OBGYN and ask them to refer you to a specialist that is more knowledgeable with hormone replacement therapy and go from there. And that actually is the step that I'm going to take, because I know that my doctor is not a specialist in hormone replacement therapy. So I'm going to ask her if there is a referring doctor that she can send me to, especially being that my last visit she was like welcome to the club, like it's not a badge, I want to wear woman, all right. It's like seriously, that's not the response that I wanted to get when she was telling me what my lab results were, that like, oh yeah, you're a full-on perimenopause. Welcome to the club. That's yeah. That right there tells me you don't give a crap. So I'm specifically going to ask to be referred to a doctor that does give a crap and will give me better guidance in all of this, rather than just like giving me a high five for joining this really crappy club. All right, ladies.

Speaker 1:

So in part of all of this, you have to become your own advocate. Just like I am sharing, I am going full on in. I literally have a list on my phone of all of my notes, of everything that I'm going to talk to my doctor about and become my own advocate and fight to get a hormone specialist, because I know she's not. I know and this is no like diss to my doctor whatsoever because that's not what she signed up to be Right. I mean, if you wanted to be a hormone specialist, you go and get certified in it. That's not her cup of tea. So I want her to refer me to someone, but you have to come in being knowledgeable of what you're fighting for. Even just some of this knowledge like fill in the gap, right.

Speaker 1:

It's crucial for us to become our own advocate at our own health and this just doesn't go for women in perimenopause. This goes for all areas of your health, of your emotional health, your spiritual health and your physical health. It all intertwines your spiritual health and your physical health. It all intertwines. You have to advocate for yourself. You have to take the time to learn about it, which is what you're doing right now. So I absolutely love that you're listening to this episode right now because you're learning about it. You're understanding about it. So when you come to your doctor, your medical professional, you're not completely clueless and you're not completely clueless and you're not completely giving everything into their hands Like you. Gotta invest some time and educate yourself about your struggles that you're going through, right. So educate yourself.

Speaker 1:

Familiarize yourself with symptoms and stages of perimenopause. Go in with the symptom tracker that I'm offering for you and bring it to your doctor and say look, these are all the symptoms that I am experiencing and I really think that they align with me struggling with perimenopause. I want to get my hormones in check. Look how many symptoms I'm struggling with. All right, you want to seek comprehensive care. Find those health care providers again who specialize in women's health and have a deep understanding of hormonal changes. Y'all go online. Look for these doctors in your area. It's a really easy Google search or even search and chat GPT Request a hormonal evaluation.

Speaker 1:

Do not hesitate your doctors to test and check your hormone levels and allow them to. This will actually allow them to have insight into your symptoms and allow them to guide you into a treatment plan that works best for you. When you go to your women's wellness exam, ask them to do a hormone panel and it should not be any charge. From my understanding, if you get it requested during your well-woman exam, it's part of your well-woman exam, which most insurances cover 100%. All right, and that's like if you have an HMO, ppo or well-woman exam is it's a well-woman's exam, so therefore it's it's covered. But check with your insurance, check with your doctor in requesting a full hormone panel and just make sure that it's covered. I know that also, if you don't have insurance that covers it, there are tests that you can purchase online. Just research. Do a Google search of women's hormone tests at home and see what comes up. They might be like you know, a hundred bucks, couple hundred bucks, rather than having to go through your doctor and the lab and pay who knows how much. They charge you if your insurance doesn't cover it.

Speaker 1:

Now, ladies, I gave you a basic like 101 on this, of understanding what our bodies are going through, the science behind it, the symptoms, learning to advocate for yourself. And just know that if you've been feeling off, if you've been feeling exhausted, anxious or disconnected completely, you're not alone and you're not crazy. Literally you're not crazy Because I know that when I started going through this, I'm like, oh my goodness, like I'm going crazy. I was thinking the worst of things. Y'all you know these are real biological changes that happen in our body. But the good news is that the more you learn, the more you educate yourself, the more you gain knowledge, the more power it has for you to think about what is good for you. You know your body, you know and understand. No doctor can tell you what is right for your body. Only you can tell yourself what is right for your body. But understanding your hormones, advocating for your right for proper medical support, making small changes to your lifestyle can really reclaim your health, your happiness and your peace, and I am excited to share with y'all now for Whole Women's Wellness Month. I was months ago.

Speaker 1:

I knew that I wanted to do this, like in December when I planned out the whole season of the podcast. I'm like March is women's history month. I want to do a series about women's health and what like all the parts that are important to it, or mind, body and spirit, all of that and understanding our hormonal health is so important. So I was looking for a doctor that is a hormonal specialist, and this was a hard, hard find, y'all. I did reach out to a couple of doctors and just like never got any response, which I'm thinking like maybe I mean maybe it was a no. Maybe they read my email and they're like, oh, I don't even know who that is, she doesn't have a reputable podcast, so they just like didn't respond. It took me some time but I found a doctor who said yes, to be on my podcast. The only challenge is that I don't have her booked until next month. Like I'm going to be interviewing her in mid-April.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to do this series. I was hoping to get her on for this month for this thing. However, I said, I'm still going to like prep my audience for this, because what I want to do is I gave you, like the 101 of women's hormonal health. What I want to do is. I want to pull you my audience. I want to have my interview with the doctor and I want her to explain some of the stuff more in depth, but through the questions that you might have for her. I know I have a list of questions for her that I'm going to ask, but is there a question that you want to ask this hormonal specialist doctor that specializes in perimenopause and menopausal care for women? I want you to send me your questions, email them or text me the questions with the text here feature that is on the podcast, and let me know what do you want to know about women's hormonal health? I'm going to accumulate a lot of these questions and I'm going to ask the doctor, but I want you to do your research from now until when I interview her. You'll have a month from when you're listening to this episode. Right now, you got a month to get these questions to me, all right. And when I do my interview, I want you to have a good understanding of this topic, so one. You started by listening to this episode, so now you're familiar and it's on your radar, go and start to do your own research. Familiar and it's on your radar, go and start to do your own research.

Speaker 1:

There is a doctor that I follow. She has written books, she's been on so many podcasts and she has a great IG where you can learn a lot from her. Her name is Dr Mary Claire and that's M-A-R-Y Claire, c-l-a-i-r-e. Go, look her up. I have probably shared some of her information to my social media. I think I have, if not I've like DM directly to some of my like friends and I know you guys listen, friends or family but Dr Mary Claire, if you Google her, you will find a ton of podcasts that she has been on, all about perimenopause and like menopause, hormonal health, all of this stuff. She recently was on the Hooperman Lab. If you all know who the podcast the Hooperman Lab. It's a great podcast. He has like one of the top podcasts out there and it was like a two and a half hour conversation but I listened to it in preparation for this podcast. Y'all like so dang good. I learned so much from her. She's also been on the Mel Robbins show.

Speaker 1:

She has a docuseries called the M Factor. If you guys do a Google search and look up the M factor, the M factor stands for menopause. Basically, she rallied together with a posse of other great doctors that put together this docuseries all about menopause, basically, and the struggles that women go through during perimenopause. So these are just some resources that I want to throw out at you that you can go and do your own work. Become your own advocate, educate yourself, get knowledgeable enough, take action.

Speaker 1:

If you are struggling with the symptoms, like I said, go, schedule a hormone test, do your research. What you need to do. Also, share this episode y'all. If this message, if you're like this is going to change somebody's life or maybe you have a friend, a sister, your mom, I don't know somebody that you're listening to all those symptoms and you're like, okay, my mom's not going crazy, she's just going through perimenopause Send this episode to her so she knows she's not going crazy, so she knows she's not losing her ish and that it's just like a hormonal balance and she needs to get her hormones checked and regulated and figure out what's going to work for her, and just tag me on Instagram. Y'all, tag me.

Speaker 1:

If you see something that you've learned about this topic, send it to me via DM. I love to you know DM reels and like memes back and forth to my community online. Send me some information of what you've learned. I want you to get yourself educated, but I want to prep you so that when that interview comes, I can have some of you get your questions answered by a hormonal specialist doctor. So I just want to thank you for just spending this time with me today. I'm not a hormone specialist, I'm not a doctor. I'm not any of that. Again, this is just to educate you and entertain you, but also just to give you some insight and say, girl, you're not alone.

Speaker 1:

This is a topic that many people don't want to discuss. We come from generations like my mom, my grandmother, my aunties and stuff like that. They never talked about this stuff so we didn't know. Y'all, in prepping for this, I went to go have the conversation with my mom. I'm like Mom, I didn't even know Mom, when did you go into menopause? How old was grandma Like? For the first time I had that conversation with my mom because this came up.

Speaker 1:

It's not a topic that we openly talk with people, but I think it's time that we break that stigma of it and have the conversations, support each other, learn to advocate for yourself, learn to advocate for others also and help them through this journey. We're not broken, ladies, we're not broken. There's just changes in our body that we have to learn and understand, and we have to learn how to supplement and make the needed changes in our body for this next transition in our lives. But it first takes with you learning, understanding and advocating for yourself. So send this to somebody that you know that it'll help and it might even change somebody's life. Your body is changing. You are allowed to ask for help and prioritize your health. Until next time, friends, stay strong, stay informed, take care of your whole self and remember to keep chasing joy.