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Monday Mini: Perimenopause · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told your protective I heart.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Radio, and welcome to another edition of Monday Money, where
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I ponder where I am in life and then make
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: y'all ponder for me as well. That's all about right,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: right Annie?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, So this is the first episode of the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: new Year. I think it's appropriate because we're all thinking
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: about health and stuff.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: It's true, we are thinking about health, and I guess
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: because I'm coming upon officially being mid forties, this is
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the year and if it was a Korean age, I
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: would already ground up a year, which I already do
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: in my head that I am also thinking about the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: midlife crisis thing that doesn't really exist anymore for those
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: who are genet slash millennials. It's just more like a
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: crisis and like that's happened for the last ten years.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: But with that, it's like all the things that are changing,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and now I'm starting to question, well, why am I
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Why are things changing? Why is my body doing these things?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: And you know, we typically make jokes about being old
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: or all these things, and yeah, and I have reached
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: that age where I now have the several all the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: several feelings and concerns essentially, and well all the elements,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: it feels like, not all the elements, but like just
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: definitely things that are like this didn't happen two years ago.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: What is this? This is neat And I say that sarcastically.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: And of course a part of my information circle includes
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: TikTok now and it's FYP that seems to both haunt
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: me and taunt me and teach me things, so all
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: of those those like it's the good, the bad, and
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: ugh type of situation. So and recently I have made
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: it onto Harry menopause TikTok menopausal TikTok, which, by the way,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: has started to become a money maker, especially on TikTok.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: And there was a whole blue article that I could
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: not access and I didn't want to take the time
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: to subscribe to it, being real honest, y'all about other
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: articles talking more about money makers, but not specific to TikTok.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: And we're going to talk about that, not the TikTok part,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: but the money making later on in this episode. But
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: it has apparently like a fifteen billion dollar industry that
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: has surged, so quite interesting to me, of course, people
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: want to make money off of this, but of course
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: things have been lacking. So first, here's some facts about
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: things you may or may not know about perimenopausal and menopause.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: And this is according to the Mayo Clinic quote. Perimenopause
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: means around menopause and refers to the time during which
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: your body makes the natural transition to menopause, marking the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: end of the reproductive years. Perimenopause is also called the
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: menopausal transition. Women start perimenopause at different ages. You may
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: notice signs of progression towards menopause, such as menstrual irregularity,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: sometimes in your forties, but some women notice changes as
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: early as their mid thirties. The level of estrogen, the
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: main female hormone in your body, rises and falls unevenly
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: during perimenopause. Your minstral cycles may lengthen or shorten, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: you may begin having minstral cycles in which your ovaries
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: don't release an egg or ovulate. You may also experience
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: menopause like symptoms, such as hot flashes, sleep problems, and
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: vaginal dryness. Treatments are available to help ease these symptoms.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Once you've gone through twelve consecutive months without a menstrual period,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: you've officially reached menopause and the perimenopause period is over.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: So that was all from Mayo Clinic. So that is
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: very succinct information, because when you start really digging into this,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you may be surprised by the amount of symptoms there
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: actually is. And I will say I find this kind
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: of confusing for me, who has not had a period
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in five years, mainly because I have an ied and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: shortly after it was placed, my period is pretty much
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: just stopped, which has been a delight. I do go
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: through what I feel like is PMS, some of the cramping, headaches,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: breast pain, all of that, so I feel like I
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: do have symptoms of it, but I don't actually bleed,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: so I'm a little confused by that since I am
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: at now forty three, okay. And of course, these are
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the symptoms that most of us with vaginas and uteruses
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: know about, such as hot flashes, irregular periods, changes in
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: sex drive and estrogen mood changes, and decreasing fertility. We
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: have always been warned. I say, that's the one thing
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: that many of the people who have uses and are
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: able to actually carry a fetus, that you start losing
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: eggs quickly, and most to the point that people like
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: you should start having babies around eighteen. I'm like, hw, no,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: thank you, But that conver station actually has happened to
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: many So we do know those things. But there are
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: other symptoms you may not have known about, and in
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: fact hasn't really been noted until more recently, and I
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: mean like the last three years that people actually talk
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: about this. And here's a quote from a recent BuzzFeed
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: article written by Megan Liscom quote, however, perimenopause can come
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: with other symptoms that you might not expect. So she
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: interviewed a doctor specifically from TikTok that has been sharing
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: a lot of this information, and this is the doctor's
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: response to her. But then there are the symptoms that
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: just now, the latest research and different societies are starting
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to recognize as menopausal symptoms. And they really were just
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: attributed to just aging or you're getting older, or you're
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: more stressed out, and these are kind of the forefront
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: of research right now. Many people and unfortunately doctors, tend
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to brush off these less obvious perimen apausal symptoms. We
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: see increasing panic, anxiety, depression, new onset and worsening of
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: someone who is really well controlled. Migraines and headaches tend
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: to get a lot worse. We also start to see
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: a dramatic increase in asthma, autoimmune disease, lupus all start
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: really spiking. At this time of our life. Heart disease
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: begins to accelerate, especially the younger you are when you
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: go through menopause, the more likely you are to have
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: an earlier heart disease or conditions such as coronary artery disease.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: And our gastrointestinal system completely changes. Our gut microbiomes become
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: like that of a man's. And then they say there's
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: more that includes skin changes, hair changes, nail changes, vertigo.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: That's a big one, and I'm like, oh, that could
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: be me. Dental changes are another huge one. And there's
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: really a lot of resource coming out about muscular skeletal
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: joint pain and frozen shoulder. So yeah, all these symptoms
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: comes with the added headache. Again, with the lack of
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: studies and diagnosis in regards to perimenopause and menopause, and yeah,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of conversations about the doctors not completely
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: understanding what these are and diagnosing it correctly. From what
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I gathered from some of the conversations, a chunk of people,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and I do mean professionals, refuse to even acknowledge that
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: it just literally like, yeah, it's changing, get over it.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: But things like heart disease and skeletal pain, that seems
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: like something that we should be paying attention to when
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: it comes to menopause. And let's be honest, it wasn't
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: until the last fifteen years, fifteen twenty years that they
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: acknowledge that women are dying of heart attacks, like that
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: there are symptoms, and those symptoms are different from men.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: So I find that fascinating. We're not going to talk
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: much about this, but the misinformation on hormone therapy, which
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: more doctors have been using to treat patients, have been rampant,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to the point that it scared people to death. They
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: literally are saying, if you do hormone therapy, you could die.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Because there was this bad study I think in early
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: two thousands, which had a few miscalculated misunderstandings, and so
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: people really really backed off about hormone therapy. But today
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: more and more obgyn and doctors are realizing, ay, actually
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: that was wrong, and this is really really helpful for
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of women. According to one obgyn who wrote
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: about perimenopause in Orlando health dot com. He said, hormone
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: treatment is a great option to decrease the symptoms that
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: show up as estrogen levels drop. You may think your
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: only option is to replace estrogen, but there's another HRT,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: a testosterone pellet and started under the skin. Now we're
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: talking about this because I'm just talking about what they're
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: saying are the new things and discovery. We are not doctors.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: We are not recommending you should go and do this.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: We are not saying that everyone uses this, And I
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: cannot verify other than what he wrote, what this specifically is.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So please take this with a grain of salt and
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: understanding that we're just reading up on new options. All right.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Moving on, So testosterone works as a stand in for
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: other hormones. Replacing estrogen comes with a slightly increased risk
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: of breast cancer. Replacing testosterone has not been shown to
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: increase this risk. The under the skin pellet option works
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: for about four to five months. Again, that increase, that
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: slight increased risk of breast cancer is part of that
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: information that was widely overestimated. I believe not that it
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: can't happen. That's not what we're saying, and that's not
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: what the studies are saying, but just saying that it
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: was over exaggerated when when it was essentially first talked about. Yeah,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: but of course these types of treatments cost money. Not
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: only does it cost us money, but apparently it costs
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: society as a whole a lot of money. And once
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the conducted by the Mayo Clinic completed, I believe, or
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: at least like released in early twenty twenty three, so
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: this year they estimated more than twenty seven billion dollars
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: a year with the amount of sick leave taken and
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: health care costs for both the US business and in
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: the individuals. So twenty seven billion dollars a year, and yes,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: this is in the US alone, and it's even resulted
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: in people losing their jobs. They surveyed a small group
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: of people, and with the people that they surveyed, about
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: point three percent had been laid off due to their
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: menopause symptoms or because of them taking sick leave. And
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: then two twenty four point eight billion dollars of that
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: estimate were attributed to medical expenses related to menopause so
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: it's not even I mean, a few billion dollars is
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: a lot, don't get me wrong, because I don't have bans.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: But the fact that is literally what eight times more
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: being spent on actual treatment. My god. So what's happening
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: in general? The lead study author, director of the Mayo
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Clinic Women's health person, doctor Stephanie Fabian. Sorry if we
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: have said that wrong, but she said, our research suggests
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: a critical need to address this issue for women in
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: the workplace. Clinicians need to ask women about menopause symptoms
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: and offer guidance and treatment, and employers need to create
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: and implement workplace strategies and policies to help women navigate
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: this universal life transition. Since the workplace doesn't really care
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: about women in general, especially if they get pregnant, heavular periods,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: go through anything. I don't know if that's really gonna happen.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: It would be lovely to see. But hey, it's a
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: good thought. And yes, that means there's a sudden interest
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: in profiting from this specific demographics. Goop. Gwyneth Paltrow's company
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: is a big part of that. Of course, there could
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: be both good and bad. A search of women led
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: tech companies have stepped up to help people suffering through
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: perimenopause and menopause. The expression femtech came up a lot,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: and I was like, what is that? And essentially is
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: females centered problems, like techs that focus on female centered problems,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: so people with uters essentially. And I was like, Okay,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: that's interesting. I guess that makes sense. This is a
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: short episode, obviously, and we should probably do a big
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: deep dive into all of that because I'm always suspicious
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: about who is doing this and who's making the money.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: It's because they're definitely finding ways to make a profit.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: And here's a quote from FastCompany dot com in a
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: recent article, and they said the healthcare industry today is
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: rife with telemedicine companies like Row thirty Medicine and Hymn's
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: and Hers, which have found a lucrative trade and offering
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: online consultations and prescriptions for previously stigmatized conditions such as
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: erechto's function, premature ejaculation, and hair loss. In March, Row
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: waste five hundred million dollars out of five billion valuation.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Hymns and Hers, which went public in January via an
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: spac has a market cap of more than two billion.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: These startups, which emerged over the past five years and
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: now cover everything from dermatology to birth control, have focused
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: primarily on millennial consumers, but companies from high tech to
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: homegrown are realizing that six thousand women who enter perimenopause
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: each day are an undertapped market, one that's starved for information,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: services and community, and tends to have a disposable income.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: They're now embracing telehealth models to offer products for older women,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: from ultrasound devices designed to stimulate vaginal lubrication to specialized
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: hair products. Even rows women focused website Rory offers the
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: telehealth services for vaginal dryness and hot flashes. According to
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: one firm, the market around hot flashes and other symptoms
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: is expected to rise from ten point twenty six billion
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen to eighteen point ninety nine billion in
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven. So people are realizing there is a
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: money to be made, and you are going to see
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: so many supplements and apparently I have seen. I have
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: a feeling I'm going to get more. Damn Google Search.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Probably so many supplements being offered. Uh. The woman the
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: doctor that spoke with busfeed, who was on TikTok. She
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: has a whole regiment. She calls it her perimen Apostle Toolkit.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: It includes doing HRT individualized, which I would hope that
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: would be for all cases, but you know how it
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: goes with doctors anyway, but in general, trying to make
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: sure that they have everything they need, because there is
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: something to be said about supplements being useful for things
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: like sleep and anxiety and all those different things. But
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: if it's hormonal, that's a whole different conversation and what
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: that needs to look like and because that could look
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: like and then again you have homeopathic types of companies.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I guess Goop would be that. I mean, they do
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: love their jade item, no hate to that felo jade stones,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: but like that they have jumped in head first with that.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Drew Barrymore apparently was a big conversationalist and a big
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: proponent to talking about perimenopausal situations and her jumping into
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: that as well, her being in that as well. So
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: that's great to know that people are talking about it,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: but also concerning as to what's out there and who
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: is creating these products, because yeah, hearing about Hymns and
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: hers who profited off of a rectile dysfunction. Using this
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: as a way to make money going after millennial consumers
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: with disposed income could be a really big red flag.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know we've talked about this before, but
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: so many of you listeners have written in with truly
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: heartbreaking stories about going through menopause, perimenopause or even something
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: that's just kind of like uterus based and not being
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: able to find any treatment and basically being told like
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: that's how it is, what are you complaining about? And
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I think for a long time that has been the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: mindset and it has been just expected that, I mean
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: even talking about periods. To me, it blows my mind
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: that like once a month is it could be an
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: incredible pain, You're expected to just go about your day
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and not say anything about it because it's so stigmatized.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: There's no information about it. It has been ignored, and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: so it's one of those things where I think there's
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: still a lot of work to do here, but it
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: is good people are talking about it because it just
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: for so long, it feels to me it's just been expected,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: like you sweep that under the rug, you don't say
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: anything about that, You just deal with it, right.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: And if you are. Here are a few sites that
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: people have been talking about. I can't vouch for them.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I just know it exists, so if you want to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: look it up and maybe get it at least educates people.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: There is a Perimenopause Hub which offers webinars and newsletters
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: about that women living better, and I think it talks
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: about just in general women's health and electra health E
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: L e K t r A health, and that's kind
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: of a place also you can get seminars and conversations
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: about how to kind of get diagnosed, how to get
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: talked to a doctor about everything, and what that can
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: look like if they are giving new products to buy
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: research that. Oh we will always say that obviously, but yeah,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: those are three that I've seen pop up as female
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: led or led by people who know and have a uterus.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: So that is very helpful and are trying to spread
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: information and education about perriman pols.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: And there's still so much more to learn.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I just gimmed the twenty articles I pulled up.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it will probably return to it in the future,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: but for now, listeners, if you do have resources or
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: experiences with this, stories, you can let us know You
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: can email us at Stephanie Momsteph at iHeartMedia dot com.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: or on Instagram and TikTok at stephan I've Never told you.
• 18:46
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• 18:48
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• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina, our executive
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: producer Maya, and our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks
• 18:56
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