Episode #60: The Truth About Women's Hormones, with Dr. Morgan Button

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Thank you so much for having me.

I'm so excited because you are about to launch an amazing summit. Tell us all about it.

Yeah. So it is called the Truth About Women's Hormones Summit. And I decided to put this together because I just feel like there's so much bad information out there when it comes to women's health and What women don't realize, or a lot of people don't realize, is women weren't really well researched until just a few decades ago. And when we finally do get some research to help us, it takes about 17 years for it to become implemented in conventional medicine practices. So, and this stems— my interest, my passion stems from my own struggles with hormonal issues, which I think we'll get into later, but What it is, what the summit is, is a meeting of the minds. I gathered over 20 experts in women's health and hormones from all over the world to come and chat and tell us what are the myths and what are the truths about what truly makes women thrive. I know from my own personal experience that, you know, when my mom was feeling great, the whole family was thriving. And when I see it with my patients, when when the mothers of the family, the matriarch of the family, or when, you know, the girl leader of the group is feeling great, like everybody else sees that and wants to emulate that. And we just have this ripple effect on our communities that when we're doing well, everybody starts to do well, and we can't keep putting ourselves on the back burner. So that's really what motivated me to do this. So, um, We're going to talk about things like low libido and anxiety and mood and GI issues and fatigue. Um, all the plagues that we're just seeing that are so common, but are just not normal.

Yeah.

Just because they're common does not mean they're normal for our physiology. And it's so easy to just push it off because everybody around us seems to be struggling with this. And even more so in the last year because of all the added stress of quarantine and you name it. So I just think this is a really important time to really get through to women especially, of like, come back to yourself, really start pouring into your own cup so you can show up as a better person and friend and sister and daughter and lover. So—

Amen.

Yeah, I—

you hit the nail on the head that we put ourselves last. We take care of everybody else and We expect our bodies to somehow keep functioning and doing their jobs and not, you know, have issues. And, and we add all of these medications and things that are recommended to us to help get rid of our symptoms, right? And they give us new issues and new problems. So like you said, we're just now starting to really understand that because women were not typically in medical studies. If they were, it was very— biased, or they're looking at one particular factor, and there's— things are multifactorial. There's so many variables, and there— our diet wasn't accounted for, our lifestyles, the stress, so many things. So I love that you have women experts coming on, breaking it down, telling people like, what the heck is going on? Why are women Overweight, can't sleep, anxious out of their minds. Like, I see so much anxiety and panic attacks now that I didn't at the beginning of my career. I feel like everything is just multiplying, you know? Is that what you're seeing as well?

Absolutely. I mean, especially in the psychiatric realm, unfortunately, um, anxiety, fatigue, and weight loss are the 3 hands-down biggest complaints that I see coming through my practice. And It's no coincidence. They're all connected. You know, like we are— have been conditioned to believe that we have this one thing, it must have this one cause. But generally, those 3 things are very much related. So yes, they're magnifying. I just— I mean, when you look at the numbers, just even in the last decade, it's almost like an exponential growth in how many psychiatric medications are being prescribed. And even into the pediatrics, like the stats for just children 1 to 5 are alarming for how many children are now medication— medicated with all these heavy psychotropic drugs. And that's not how we're supposed to be. You know, we are not supposed to be anxious. I love the book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.

Yeah.

Because it really illustrates why stress has become the leading driver of all these chronic diseases that we have. Like, we were meant to be stressed temporarily. We are meant to go out into the field and work or like run from a predator. You know, we're still primal beings, but we're shoved into this extra modern world that we just haven't adapted to yet. And so it's just chronic stress chronic challenges at every level. And it, it, it's common. It seems like they're just these benign everyday things, but they're not. We're not supposed to be staring at a screen all the time. Even just having our vision, you know, converging into a screen does tremendous deficits to our health and our brain health. So, um, no, it's, it's no surprise that we're seeing this, this rise in anxiety at all. Now that we're all forced into our homes and on screens and trying to connect with people through a screen, which is great if, you know, that's our one way of doing it, but it's just not natural for us. So I— my mission is to help people remember what we're supposed to be like, what we're really supposed to be like as humans, which is thriving and connected and touched and held and loved and Accepted in a group. And even though we're more like digitally connected than we are ever before, we are so disconnected from the heart.

Yeah.

And it's causing a lot of pain.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I just have so many patients and women who, you know, they're exhausted by the end of the day and they're sitting on the couch scrolling through Facebook, drinking their wine, and You don't realize it, but that is a stressful situation. You are pumping out adrenaline and cortisol because you're comparing yourself to the people that you're seeing. You're reading posts that are frustrating you and upsetting you, and it's driving all of this cortisol production, all this inflammation.

Yeah.

You know, and then you're adding wine, which is just sugar plus sugar on top of it. And it's so hard on the body. I just I really want women to realize, like, those choices are what's shoving you down this bad path of insomnia, anxiety, weight loss resistance, all of that. So, uh, your speakers are going to talk about all this, right?

Yeah, absolutely. We touch on a lot of this. So, you know, the, the reason why we fall into these kind of traps and these vicious cycles with the The wine and the social media scrolling is because we want to feel different.

Right.

We want to feel different than what we have been feeling, which is tired and sluggish and heavy and, um, you know, distracted and disconnected. So we reach for wine to change our energy state. It's going to change our energy state, but not in the way we want it. We reach for the phone and for social media to get that dopamine rush or that cortisol rush because it makes us feel different. Um, But it's not in a good way.

Yeah.

Like, it's not in a positive way that's gonna break that cycle, 'cause those feelings become addictive. And that's why alcohol is addictive. Social media, the phone is designed to addict you to these changes in state. So we'll definitely talk about all this in the summit and give you practical steps too, to help you break these cycles, 'cause that's just what they are. It's a cycle and they're habits. And habits take some effort to override, or, you know, we're not really functioning from our conscious state. Our, you know, I think our brain operates on basically 4% consciousness and the rest of all of our habits are unconscious. So awareness is the first step. So that's what we're trying to drive home with this summit is like being aware of these things that yes, of course, they're common and this is what your friends are doing, but your friends also aren't thriving. So then we're going to give you some really practical tips and tools to make sure that you can lean each interview with an idea of how to really step into vibrant health.

That's awesome. And I love that you're doing only one interview a day. So, you know, it'll be easily digestible because we're not trying to have you on your phone or computer all day long. Right. So you're just having one out a day, you know, for almost a month. Right. 25 days. Is that right?

Yep.

That is so awesome.

Yeah. So I wanted to design this to be just so full of information, really gather the top experts in the world on this stuff so we can really cut through all the, all the myths out there and give you what you really need to know, but also do it in a way that it might inspire you to, instead of, you know, sit at your desk and watch this or listen, you can actually just pop in your headphones and go for a 30, 40-minute walk and learn a bunch. So if, you know, exercise or movement is one of those goals Goals of yours, go for a walk, like make it 25 days of walking and listening to ways to improve your health.

Yeah, I love that. That's so good. So did you learn anything hosting this summit? Were you surprised about anything?

I'm not sure. That's a really good question. I know you've been doing this for a long time. Dr. Brighton, so she did say, um, She did say one thing, and it just like never really occurred to me. Like, I knew what hormonal contraceptive was doing to us, but she, she made the comment that hormonal contraceptives are actually pushing us into a chemical menopause. And, you know, her direct quote was like, it's pushing us into a chemical menopause, which sounds extreme, but that's pretty much what it's doing. And, and hearing it phrased that way was was really surprising to me because, I mean, my— go ahead.

No, I was just going to say, like, I think that we don't take a lot of time to think about what the birth control pill is doing, especially if we're not taking it for birth control, we're taking it to mask other symptoms. We're just like, oh, that's going to fix it. You know, we don't sit there and go, what is that doing to our physiology as women? And it literally shuts down the communication between your brain and ovaries so they stop talking. They stop sending hormone signals to each other. And if you stop that communication for a decade or more, it's very possible that they'll never talk again, right? And that's— that was your experience, wasn't it?

Yes. So that's pretty— the scenario you said is like, you know, you go on hormonal contraceptive to mask some kind of symptoms. So Um, I mean, my health issues started at birth, basically. Before the age of 3, I was on 15 different rounds of broad-spectrum antibiotics. So I just kept getting ear infections as a kid. And if you're a mother, you know, when your kid has an ear infection, they just scream all the time.

Yeah. In pain.

So that's kind of what I was doing. And of course my mother just wanted me to be healthy and that's what these doctors were telling me to do. So my gut was wrecked by all those antibiotics. So I had digestive issues. And by the time puberty hit, very early, which is no coincidence. Um, my cycles were terrible. And then I got full body cystic acne and was put on spironolactone and that wouldn't work. So then I was on 2 rounds of Accutane, which is a very aggressive drug. And so by the time I was 19, I, and I was a collegiate athlete, my body was just breaking down. I felt like I was 70, 80 years old getting out of bed in the morning because my joints hurt. You know, I had migraines every time I had a period and, and I was still on birth control and I got on birth control at 15 because I had fibrocystic breasts and they suspected cystic ovaries too, just by my blood work. But, um, neither here nor there, wasn't confirmed. But so I was put on this birth control at the age of 15, which is super common now. And it's even getting younger and younger because of all these period issues that are coming up at a younger age.

Mm-hmm.

So at 19, just like one sleepless night, I, you know, woke up with night sweats, which was related to all these medications too. And, and I was just like, I don't feel anything. I was on Paxil as well, which is an SSRI for anxiety, depression. And I just felt nothing. I didn't know who I was or what was going on. And, you know, I started imagining like, what if I lost a friend? What if I lost a family member? And I could feel nothing. No sadness, no joy. And I just knew my life needed to change. Otherwise, I was just— I was going down a path of pain and disease, even more so than what I was experiencing. So, you know, I went to chiropractic school and collected all the, all the letters, all the degrees. And by the time I got out, you know, I was just burned out. And that's what led me to functional medicine. And then I felt like, you know, I was finally getting ahead of things and I was working on healing my gut and, you know, started seeing all my, my symptoms just melt away. And I was Off all these medications except for birth control. And then I felt like that was like the last dragon to slay. And so, you know, I ended a long-term relationship, you know, wasn't planning on being in any others. I was like, you know what, now's a good time to come off this. And it was a really terrible experience. And I, I don't want to scare anyone who's considering coming off the birth control pill or knows someone who is. Not everyone experiences like this. But in 3 months' time, I gained 35 pounds and my hair started falling out. I lost my eyebrows, my eyelashes. Like I got ear-to-ear acne again. Um, it was almost like I was in this, in a menopausal state. And I like, the anxiety just got worse. And I just really didn't want to go back to where I was, but I felt like I already did. And so the last couple of years of my life have just like driven me down the path of studying women's hormones and becoming even more passionate about it because it's so widespread. I think 6 out of 10 women have some kind of hormonal imbalance, and I would even venture to say it's more than that, um, just from, you know, the people I talk to and who, who know someone who's experiencing any kind of hormonal symptom like we've talked about before. So yeah, it's definitely a passion.

That— I love that you turned your pain into purpose because I'm just like, my brain is flooding with past memories of patients upon patients, you know, probably over 100 girls I can think of who had that same scenario. And by the time they get to me, they've done the pediatrician and the endocrinologist, and they've had, you know, GI scopes done and all the psychiatrists, and they're on all of these medicines. And it just getting worse. And I just want to say to people, like, your body doesn't need all of that. That is— you were missing the, the big picture. Our bodies were never made to require all of these medications and interventions. Our bodies are amazingly resilient, and they just heal and balance if we remove the impedances, right?

Exactly.

So you had to remove all of the crap that was placed on you. Oh my gosh. I just think, you know, people listening are probably just like heartbroken for you because that is such a terrible story. But unfortunately, it's super common. Like, I will— I promise you, as an OB-GYN, I see it every day. And so we have to break this cycle of just adding more medications, thinking we're going to fix the problem.

Right.

So this summit is going to be amazing. So women need to listen to it for their daughters, for their— for themselves. Right? Like, tell me, does this summit cover the whole gamut of what's going on with women?

Yeah, absolutely. So that's what I wanted to, to make it is very comprehensive because even if you're 20, you can start preparing for perimenopause. And in the terms of hormones, it's not that far off, you know? So, you know, perimenopause generally starts around 35, 40. Um, and that's the period before we start to shift into menopause. So my goal, and especially with women who are on contraceptives now, is to figure— is to at least let them know, like, you need to start thinking about this stuff because if you just come off the pill, your hormonal system, your endocrine system, your nervous system need time to recalibrate and you need to figure out what your body really needs and how to give it that so it can repair and you don't have to have you know, a horrendous menopause because in Western society, it's just this like fearsome time of our lives and it, and it doesn't have to be like that. So we'll cover, you know, the, we'll cover the menstrual cycle and what that really looks like and what our hormones really are and how they connect and talk to each other and how the gut is connected to so much of it, what stress really does to the body and what it looks like and ways to mitigate it because it's inevitable in this world. But there are so many things that we can do and so many things that we have control over to help us thrive. And so we'll go from the menstrual cycle into perimenopause and then even dealing with menopausal type symptoms. So it's for everyone, um, preparing and who's been in it. We also were talking about fertility too. So I have a couple of fertility experts that are, are getting really deep into what it means to not just have a baby, but things that we need to do to make sure that we're healthy so we can host a healthy baby.

Awesome. That is so wonderful. I mean, this summit's going to be amazing. So I have the links in my show notes. We're going to, you know, get this word out to everybody. Ladies need to share with their friends, their sisters, their moms, their daughters, because this information is invaluable. Like, there's no price that you can put on it because once you know, then you can, you know, have that going forward the rest of your life. And you're just not going to get this comprehensive, you know, information anywhere else. So I'm so excited.

Yeah. And Dr. Tabatha's interview is awesome too. That'll be in the first week of the summit. So be sure to sign up early so you can hear all the interviews because the links are going to disappear for 48 hours after they air. So we'll give you some time, but we just want to make sure that you're, you're focused and ready to go and ready to listen and learn. You're going to want to take notes. That's for sure. Get a notebook specifically for Awesome. Good.

And they're going to get actual things that they can start to incorporate in their life to make changes, to move toward health, right?

So that's— yeah, absolutely. And I mean, on top of all the information in the interviews, each one of the experts, all 25 of the experts are giving out a free gift as well. So there's tons of guides, cookbooks, um, you know, ebooks, You know, Kira Foy, a nutritionist, is giving her whole book away. So these are things that you, I mean, just definitely don't want to miss. So much value inside, and it's free. Like, it is totally free to sign up and listen.

Oh, Dr. Morgan, you're such a blessing.

Likewise, dear.

Thank you for doing this. So yeah, click the, click the link now. Join, you know, sign up. It's free. And get to learning. Okay, well, thank you so much. I hope you'll come back again.

I'd absolutely love to. Thank you so much, Dr. Tabatha.

All right, bye. Okay, ladies, so I hope you sign up for this free summit. It's 25 days, a little bit every day, so that it's totally doable. It's not overwhelming. You're getting amazing information and Practical tools and tips that you can start incorporating into your life right now, and to make the shift toward better health. So I think you're gonna have some major aha moments because these women experts are teaching you what I learned when I went through my functional medicine and anti-aging training. So. It was aha to me, and I'm a medical doctor, so I can't even begin to tell you how much value you are going to get out of this summit. So please don't miss it. You have to check it out. So sign up now. The link is in the show notes. Take some golden nugget. I love the idea of committing to 25 days of walking and just listening to this summit every day as You take a little walk. So do some kind of little, you know, thing, add it to your regimen, and keep working on it, ladies. We're all in this together. It's a sisterhood. I'm here to support you and lift you up, and you got this. So stay tuned. We'll have a new episode coming up soon. This was just extra little for you. So sign up and go have a kick-ass week. Bye. Bye, ladies.