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38. Your Plain-English Guide to Midlife Hormones · Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on where you are in your menopause transition, this might sound familiar.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: You are doing everything right.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are eating well mostly.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're moving your body, you're trying to get enough sleep.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, somewhere recently, depending on where you are, the past few years, past several years, something has shifted.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: You have more of a belly than you did before.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And your energy that used to carry you throughout the whole day now disappears by two o'clock in the afternoon.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you've got mood swings without warnings, and sleep that used to come easily now feels like something that you have to work hard at.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe the strangest part is you still feel like you, but it's a version of you that you don't quite recognize.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're playing the same game that you've always played, but the rules have changed and nobody told you what the new rules are.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if this sounds familiar, I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is hormonal, this is biological, this is chemical.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And today is your plain English guide to midlife hormones.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there will be no medical jargon, hopefully no overwhelm, just a clear conversation about what's happening inside your body during this season of life.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And why understanding it is one of the most empowering things that you can do for your health today.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Midlife Glow Up Podcast, where we simplify fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits for women over 40.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Joan Dandineau, your midlife health and wellness coach.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are ready to feel strong, consistent, and confident in this season of life, then you're in the right place, my friend.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start with a quick but important note.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am a health and wellness professional.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I am not a physician.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm sharing with you today is general education.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely not medical advice.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are navigating significant symptoms, please seek out a healthcare provider who specializes in the female menopause transition.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And stay tuned because I have somebody incredible coming on this podcast for my first ever interview in July.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she is someone who does exactly that.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: She is a specialist in cardiometabolic and hormone health for women in midlife.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I cannot wait for you to meet her.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But here's why this conversation matters even before you see a doctor.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So many women that I work with are experiencing very real changes and disruptions in their bodies, and they're just chalking it up to aging or stress or not trying hard enough.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like somehow it's their fault that these symptoms are occurring.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're doubling down on the same strategies that worked in their 30s, wondering why nothing is changing today.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer almost always is your hormones.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when you understand what is actually happening, then you can release that blame and that shame and start working with your body instead of against it.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, I want to back up for a second because I know we throw the word hormones around all the time.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want us all to be on the same page as to what they actually are.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you can think of hormones as your body's text messages.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're little chemical messengers made by glands that are all over your body and they travel through your bloodstream and they tell your organs what to do.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like when to burn fuel and when you should sleep and when you should feel hungry and when you should stress out and when you should calm down.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You've got dozens of them running in the background every second of every day, keeping your whole system in balance.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: A few of the hormones we're talking about today are called sex hormones.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And those are estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And these are the ones that are most directly tied to your reproductive system and your menstrual cycle.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they're the ones that shift most dramatically in perimenopause into menopause.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when people say my hormones are changing, these are the three that they're usually talking about.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are two other hormones that I really want you to pay attention to that are not sex hormones at all, which are cortisol and insulin.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So cortisol is your stress hormone and insulin is your blood sugar hormone.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they're working in every single body, male or female, all the time.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to include those today because they don't operate on their own.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're very entangled with your sex hormones.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So when your estrogen and your progesterone start to drop, your cortisol and your insulin are affected by that.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's a huge part of why midlife can feel like everything is just so chaotic and happening all at once.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the lineup.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about three sex hormones: estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, plus the two big supporting players, which are cortisol and insulin.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And before we get into that, I want to start by telling you a personal story because this is a big part of why this episode and honestly why this podcast exists in the first place.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I personally started having symptoms of perimetopause, I did exactly what you're supposed to do.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: I went to go see my doctor.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out that my doctor had retired and I loved her.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I had been seeing her for a decade, and that was monumental in my life because we moved around a lot as a kid and early on in our marriage.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so the fact that she knew me for so long was so comforting.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So when I got to my appointment, I didn't know who my new doctor would be, and it was the only time I ever saw him, but he was definitely an older, balding man in his early 70s.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I told him my symptoms.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was having crazy night sweats.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: I had put on about 10 pounds.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was feeling a little bit uh lethargic during the day, just things that were totally not me.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember he just looked at me sort of very condescending and he told me, Oh, sweetie, that's just part of being a woman and getting older.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I requested to run my labs because obviously I want to get the information.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Oh, they probably won't tell us much anyway.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: He totally dismissed me.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that experience really lit a fire in me to seek a better path for myself, but also to help other women who might be experiencing a similar situation.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I went, I found a new practitioner, one who took me seriously, and we ran all sorts of tests, got all sorts of information.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I am where I am today managing my symptoms.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't even imagine if I had just taken his advice and just, you know, tough it out.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what the heck?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, I'm not telling you this to scare you away from doctors, but I am telling you this because you deserve to be taken seriously.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are being dismissed and you're experiencing symptoms, then you are allowed to go find a provider who actually listens to you and takes time and explains what's happening in your body and walks you through how to feel better because we deserve that.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to walk through the five key hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, and insulin.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And these are the key players that have an enormous influence over how you feel, how your body composition changes, how you sleep, how you respond to stress.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to need a medical degree to understand them.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I will just be giving you the overview.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So before we get into the hormones themselves, I want to spend a moment on defining perimenopause.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think there's still a lot of confusion around this.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Perimenopause is also known as the menopause transition or the transition into menopause.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this can begin as early as your 30s and 40s, and it can last anywhere from a few years to over a decade.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Menopause itself is one day on the calendar.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is the point at which you have gone 12 months without a period.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everything leading up to that is perimenopause.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where most of our symptoms actually take place.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: After that one day on the calendar, you are now considered postmenopausal.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But during perimenopause, your hormones are not just declining, they are fluctuating, they are rising and falling and they're unpredictable.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why your symptoms can feel so inconsistent and confusing.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like one month you feel fine, and the next month you feel like a completely different person.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's because perimenopause is a season.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the more you understand what's happening, the less frightening it becomes.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Most women I speak with are well into their perimenopause journey before they even realize it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been told that, oh, your labs look normal, everything is fine, what you're experiencing is normal.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are really struggling, then that is not fine, right?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So testing is not useless by any means.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it is still good to understand that the numbers can swing day to day, month to month.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it's powerful to see, for you to see and for your provider to see the bigger picture of what is going on.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So one normal-looking result should never be used to wave off any symptoms that you're having.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I want this episode to give you language for what you might be living through so that you can advocate for yourself with more clarity.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: We will start with estrogen.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is the hormone that most people associate with being female, and for good reason.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen influences an enormous range of functions.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's influencing your menstrual cycle, your bone density, your cardiovascular health, your mood, your sleep, your skin, your cognitive function, and even your metabolism.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: During parametopause and into postmenopause, estrogen levels decline.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: But as I mentioned, they're not just like on a straight path downwards.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: They can spike and then drop.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what is producing hot flashes, night sweats, brain fog, mood changes, vaginal dryness.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen plays a role in how and where your body stores fat.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: When estrogen declines, fat storage tends to shift from your hips and your thighs towards your abdomen.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen also helps protect your muscle and your bones.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So as your estrogen declines, you can lose muscle more easily and your metabolism slows down.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why we need to take a different approach when it comes to our nutrition, because what used to work will no longer work because of your estrogen declining.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: But estrogen actually influences a lot more than body composition.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is a system-wide hormone.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when it declines, it shows up in a lot of other areas.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Cholesterol and heart health is a huge one that most women have never connected to the menopause transition.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So estrogen keeps LEL, the bad cholesterol, down, and HDL, the good cholesterol, up.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And as estrogen decreases, LEL and total cholesterol tend to rise and HDL can drop.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: It also can trigger blood pressure to become a little bit higher.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this is why a lot of women are getting this diagnosis of cholesterol going up, and they all of a sudden are like, oh shoot, I got to change my diet and I got to exercise more.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: When the reality is that estrogen is a big part of this story.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there are supplements and natural ways that we can combat this, but it is an important one to really focus on because heart disease is the leading killer of women.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So this definitely matters.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned bone density.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk a little bit more about this because when estrogen declines, bone loss really speeds up, which is why osteopenia and osteoporosis start to sneak in.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why strength training is so important in this phase of life.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen also interacts with serotonin and dopamine.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your brain and your mood and your sleep and your memory is all impacted by this as well.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then less talked about, but also very common is vaginal dryness, discomfort with sex, more frequent UTIs, urinary urgency, or even leaking.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen has receptors all throughout that tissue.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to see symptoms there as well.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then estrogen also supports collagen.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So women can lose a meaningful chunk of skin collagen in the first years after menopause.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Skin gets thinner and drier, and your hair thins, and your nails tend to change.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, our joints and our muscles.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen has an anti-inflammatory role.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when estrogen drops, it can result in achy joints and even frozen shoulder and faster muscle loss.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's all related to the decline and decrease in estrogen.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, progesterone is our next one.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is often called the calming hormone.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is the one that promotes restful sleep, supports a stable mood, and it helps to counterbalance some of estrogen's more stimulating effects.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: In a healthy cycle, estrogen and progesterone work together to create a balance.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what happens in perimetopause.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Progesterone tends to decline before estrogen does.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So progesterone is produced after you ovulate.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So as ovulation becomes less regular, progesterone is often the first hormone to drop.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for many women, the very first signs of hormonal change are not hot flashes, but they're actually sleep disruptions, increased anxiety, heavier or more irregular periods, and just a general sense of being more reactive than usual.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've noticed that you're more easily overwhelmed or your sleep is lighter or more fragmented, or you feel anxious without a clear reason, progesterone might be the cause.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: When progesterone drops, the nervous system feels it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be edgier and you'll have more sleepless nights and you'll be more emotionally sensitive.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And again, these are not things to feel guilty for or feel like you have some control over them because you don't.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: But understanding the distinction here is really life-changing for the women that I work with because you can stop thinking that something is actually wrong with you and start asking the right questions about your physiology, about your biology, about your chemistry.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, testosterone is the next one.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one that women are often generally surprised to even hear belongs in this conversation because we think of testosterone as a male hormone, but women produce and need testosterone as well.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, across much of your life, you carry more testosterone in your body than you do estrogen.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is made in your ovaries, your adrenal glands, and even in your brain.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And testosterone matters more than most women think because it actually supports your sex drive, your energy, your motivation, your mood, your focus, and your ability to build muscle and hold on to muscle and bone.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So when testosterone drops, the effects can be easy to miss or misread.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, like with the other hormones, testosterone gradually declines through your midlife years.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And when it drops, women often notice lower libido, a dip in energy, a dip in motivation or drive, more brain fog, and a harder time maintaining strength and muscle, even when they're training.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because these symptoms overlap so much with everything else that's happening.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Testosterone usually gets overlooked.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have experienced your get up and go has gotten up and left, and your desire and your drive feel flat, that is just not you being tired.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: It could be that testosterone is driving.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is interesting.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: So testosterone therapy for women is not currently FDA approved in the United States, even though many menopause-informed providers do prescribe it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not me telling you to go get a prescription, but I do think that it's important to be informed and that you understand that testosterone is real and relevant and it deserves a place in the conversation that you have with your doctor, which we will also dig into with my friend Stephanie when she joins us here in July.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: But what you can do on your own, starting today, is strength train, which is one of the most powerful levers that you have for supporting healthy testosterone and lean muscle and drive.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, protein, getting enough protein, sleep, managing your stress, that all can support your testosterone as well.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And those are things that are within your control.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, next up is the big dog cortisol.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is your primary stress hormone.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's produced in your adrenal glands, and its job in the short term is to mobilize your body's resources in response to a perceived threat.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what happens when you feel danger or stress, your heart rate goes up, your blood sugar rises, your digestion slows, your body is ready to either run or fight.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: That system is designed in our brilliant body to protect you.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that in modern life, for many women especially, the stress response never fully turns off.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So work feels stressful.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Family feels stressful.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Aging parents, that feels stressful.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Financial pressure, that's super stressful.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: The mental load of managing everything for everybody else is making your nervous system run all day long.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's starting to read stress as just normal, as your baseline.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: So chronic cortisol does not only make you feel tired and wired, but it actively works against your health goals in midlife.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Elevated cortisol promotes fat storage, particularly around the midsection.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: So combine that with estrogen, and this is what's happening, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we see this extra belly fat.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you have elevated cortisol, it also disrupts your sleep quality.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: So as your progesterone is going down, that's decreasing your sleep.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: As your cortisol is in that fight or flight state, it's also disrupting your sweet sleep.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you have elevated cortisol chronically, it drives sugar and carbohydrate cravings up.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then it blunts the effectiveness of your workouts.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it can amplify all of the other hormone swings of perimenopause by adding more strain to a system that's already kind of in chaos, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are eating well and exercising and still not seeing the results that you expect, we might need to take a look at your cortisol.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I could do a whole full episode on stress and cortisol, and maybe I will someday, but we have to talk about cortisol when we are talking about midlife hormones, even though it is not a sex hormone.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much that you can do when it comes to your lifestyle to combat this issue.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that you can do is really protect your sleep.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're in a vicious cycle.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So high cortisol wrecks your sleep and poor sleep raises your cortisol.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not sleeping a good seven to eight hours on a consistent schedule, that could be the first thing that we could do to combat this issue.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Next, you want to really make sure that you are matching your exercise, your training to your recovery.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: So many women are still stuck in this diet mentality of I gotta punish myself by working out so hard.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta do long, steady-state cardio, and I gotta lift heavy and I gotta get into zone two cardio and I gotta walk for 10,000 steps.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in midlife, more intensity isn't necessarily better.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the cortisol fix is doing less.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, really stabilizing your blood sugar.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: So this ties straight into your insulin.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: When your blood sugar crashes, that triggers cortisol.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when you get protein and fiber at your meals and you stop skipping meals and you go easy on the caffeine, and alcohol too disrupts your sleep and it raises your cortisol.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to let go of all these things.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: We just need to be intentional and really take a good look at our lifestyle.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And are we helping ourselves or are we actually really hurting ourselves?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the fifth hormone that I want to touch on is insulin.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: So insulin is produced by your pancreas, and its primary role is to regulate your blood sugar.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you eat, particularly carbohydrates, your blood sugar rises.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Insulin is released to help shuttle that glucose into your cells for energy.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: In midlife, your insulin sensitivity generally tends to decline.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: This happens to men as well.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: This means that your cells become less responsive to insulin signal.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so your body has to produce more of it to do the same job.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens is you have energy crashes after meals, you have stronger cravings, you have difficulty keeping your blood sugar stable, you're beginning to store fat, especially around the midsection.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the reasons that protein And fiber are so important in midlife, is because both help to stabilize your blood sugar.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: They both help to decrease that spike in insulin after your meals.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they both keep you feeling full and energized for longer.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have been listening to me for a while, you have heard me talk a lot about protein, especially at breakfast.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a big part of why.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: When we manage our blood sugar in midlife, it's not just about a number on the scale.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's about energy and mood and focus and how you feel in your body every single day.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this isn't about trying to be perfect or follow a rigid, strict eating plan.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just understanding that your body needs certain things in this season, and it's our job to give it what it needs.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to close out today's episode with just this deep breath.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, huh, sigh it out.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to walk away feeling that you understand your body better, and that there is a meaningful amount that is still within your control, even though your hormones are wacky right now.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: The hormones just give us context.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And with that context, the lifestyle choices that you make have a real and measurable impact on how you feel and how your body performs.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So when we choose to lift weights, then we're preserving our muscle and we're supporting insulin sensitivity and we're supporting healthy testosterone.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when we prioritize protein at most meals, then we're stabilizing blood sugar and we're protecting our metabolism.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we really dial in our sleep hygiene and we manage our stress and we build in recovery into our week, all of that can directly influence our cortisol.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then that ripples out into every other hormone that we talked about.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And these are levers that you have access to pull.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can't control every shift in your hormones, but you can build a lifestyle that supports your body through those shifts.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what we're doing here together.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode, I hope, is your foundation.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's just an overview that might help everything else that we talk about on this podcast make a little bit more sense.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm super excited to dive into this more with an actual expert.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Stephanie.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: She owns a menopause clinic here in my area.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: She works with many of my own clients.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: She has referred me, several of her patients, and she's just such a wealth of knowledge.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's also warm and personal and has a real knack for boiling this stuff down and giving us practical information that we can digest and utilize to help us not only live longer, but to live better for this second half of our lives.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so just to tease a few of the things that we'll be talking about, she will be helping us understand what test you want to get, what the tests actually tell you, what your options are for treatments, including the conversation around hormone replacement therapy, or it's now called metapausal hormone therapy.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: This way you have a more informed conversation with your own healthcare provider.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know what we don't know.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super excited to shine a light on some things that might be really confusing and overwhelming when it comes to what's happening inside our bodies at this stage of life.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And here is where you come in.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I would absolutely love to hear what questions you already have about your hormones, your symptoms, what you should be thinking about when you go to the doctor's appointment.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear it.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Would you please send me a message on Instagram at Jones FitZone or in my email, and I'll include that in the show notes as well.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be gathering questions before the interview, and I would absolutely love to bring your question into the conversation.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, my friend.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, progress over perfection and consistency over intensity.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep growing, keep flowing, and bye for now.