Which Hormones Matter Most in Meno(pause)

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25 milligrams of CBD and 25 milligrams CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. Which hormones, which hormones really matter the most in menopause when you are contemplating hormone replacement therapy? And there's so much to contemplate there, isn't there? It's like, should I, shouldn't I? Do I want to? Can I? Is it healthy for me? So there's that decision. Do I want to, do I not want to? Am I open to learning more about it or am I right now closed? And look, we're women. We have the prerogative to change our mind. Whatever decision you made so far, you can change it. But I also think we have a lot of information still that we can still gain and learn from in regards to which hormones you want to be looking at. And let's be very clear, I am not giving the impression that I am a physician. I don't I don't diagnose, and I do answer questions within my scope of practice and then do a lot of referring to experts that I love. Case in point, my guest today, Dr. Sharon Stills. We're talking today about so many things. We do talk about sex, so you may want to really jump ahead to the juicy stuff if you're looking to do that. But we first talked about some of the biggest myths that still are lingering for us all in menopause. And we talked too about, I think, the problem with getting accurate information. I mean, let's face it, we don't just Google anymore. We, we go to Instagram and use it like a search engine, which is crazy to me. And while there is good information there, there's also other information there. And there are influencers who really are not even in, in a medical exercise specialist field or strength and conditioning field talking about fitness. And there are those influencers there talking about hormones who are not physicians. And it's, it's a very challenging world today because we can all talk about anything we want to talk about. And if you have the right conviction in your voice, you potentially will be followed. And unfortunately, on a picture-rich profile or timeline, if you look good, you may garner more attention whether or not what it is you're saying is right. So we unpacked that a little, and that was unknowingly a part of our conversation. But I wanted to get Dr. Stills and her reputation as a, as a true menopause expert in the area of hormones and naturopathic medicine. I wanted to get her take on the information that is out there and, and how she fears or feels about the way it might land for you. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your top struggles and concerns, but most of all, we hope to lighten things up a little bit and help you be optimistic optimistic, not just about midlife and menopause, but about the next 40 or 50 years. And so that you expect and demand better services and better products to help you do it. I share what to eat, how to move, how to change your mindset so you can have the energy and the vitality that you want, need, and deserve in this second and better half. My guest again is Dr. Sharon Stills. She's no stranger to these parts, by the way, and she's actually sometimes a dinner companion for me. She's a naturopathic medical doctor who helps perimenopausal and menopausal women pause and evaluate life so they can live the second act of their story stronger, healthier, and sexier while aging backwards. Using her 20-plus years of experience and extensive training and background in European biological medicine, pro-aging therapies, and bioidentical hormone replacement, she's successfully helped thousands of women transition gently through the different stages of their lives with all-natural methods. Dr. Stills is passionate about spreading the word about her signature RED, capital R, capital E, capital D, Hot Sexy Menopause program, the philosophy she developed for you to reinvent your health, explore your spirit, and discover your sexy so that you too can create the life and live the life that you desire and deserve. She founded and ran one of the largest and most successful naturopathic clinics in the country for a decade and is the host of the Science of Self-Healing podcast. She's an expert physician for Women's Health Network and was chosen to educate other physicians as the co-lead North American lecturer for Paracelsus— and I promise you, I may have mispronounced that— Academy in Switzerland. That I did not mispronounce. And that, my friends, is a big deal. Patients work with Dr. Stills in a variety of ways— telemedicine consults and her life-changing retreats for individuals or small groups in healing and rejuvenating locations around the world. Many patients fly out to see her or fly in just to get the chance to work with her one-on-one. By the way, if you're looking for the next step, if this resonates in her voice and answers or we pique curiosity, she is hosting a summit. We talk about it later or toward the end in, and that will be in the show notes, so you can flip right over there— see what I did there— and get the information about that. Dr. Sharon Stills, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me. It's always fun to be with you.

You too, even at dinner. I suppose we should tell them the behind the scenes that we do dinner sometimes.

Yes, we do. We're the Scottsdale Health girls, right?

It's true, it's true. And we don't do shots, or at least we didn't last time, so there's no—

but we, but we do work We should, we should clarify, we're the early dinner crew. It's a few of us and we all appreciate— we all live healthy lifestyles, so we're all like, yes, we want to get together for dinner at 4:30 or 5 o'clock so we could be digested and home sleeping by 8:30. Thank you very much.

It is so true. We're a fun crowd. We are so rowdy. Exactly. All right, so let's dive into this. We've, we've covered all the essentials of how to officially declare you're in midlife. But, um, let's talk about this, and I want to talk about it like right now. I mean, you work with so many women in menopause. You are the epitome. I can't even remember where it was when I was talking with someone about you or sharing a picture. I think of us at dinner, and they're like, I know her! Are you kidding me? She's my doctor! That's— she's the best, you know. And it certainly wasn't anybody local. I mean, people come in from all over to work with you, so You are the epitome of the person to ask. What are the current, still lingering biggest myths about menopause?

Oh gosh. I mean, there's so many and they're so upsetting because just like the overall arching one is that you're going to suffer, you're going to get fat, you're going to be in pain, you're not going to want to have sex, you're not going to sleep, you're going to become, you know, unnecessary. And, and it's kind of like you're told it's the beginning of the end. And you're also, if you go into a doctor who isn't really educated and has taken the time to understand how to help a woman through this hormonal transition, you're often told, ah, you're getting old, this is how it goes, you know, suck it up, this is what you got to go through. Or you're offered the birth control pill like in your late 40s, which is beyond absurd to me. And so there's so many conceptions. And there's so much misunderstood even in how to help a woman with hormones and then all that goes around it. Because yes, bioidentical hormones are fantastic, but you also got to do the lifestyle things too. You have to really be committed to like, I'm going to take care of myself.

Yeah. Talk about the biggest lifestyle things when you're working with patients. Is there an area where it's kind of a black hole that they feel like they could jump ahead and have the hormones and maybe not do the heavy lifting.

Yeah, and, and there are lifestyle— but before I even go there, one of the— you, when you said black hole, I immediately thought of this— a lot of it is just mindset and really realizing like you don't have to have your mama's menopause, that you don't have to— because I think we really have this this ingrained in our minds that getting old is, is bad. And getting old means we don't do anything more anymore and we're not active and we couldn't possibly be working out and in shape and enjoying our bodies and contributing to the world. And if we think about it, that's sort of what we were modeled by. I mean, I remember thinking like my parents' generation, by the time they were in their 50s, they kind of were old. And forget about, you know, my grandparents in their 70s, they were super old. And so we have to like really step back and say, that's because they didn't have the knowledge we have. That's because they didn't have all the support we have. That's because they weren't doing the right things for their health. They were, were eating pasta and sitting on the couch and watching TV. And so when we really get into the lifestyle, when we, you know, and of course you are the queen of working out and being fit and fabulous in your menopausal years. When we enhance and eat the right diets, when we really prioritize sleep, when we get into our mindset of aging is a privilege and an opportunity and we can and do it in an amazing way so that when the generations behind us look at a woman who's in her 50s, in her 60s, in her 70s, in her 80s, in her 90s, they're not surprised when she's out hiking or she's on the dance floor or she has a head full of hair and looks healthy and is in shape. They're like, "Well, of course, that's what it is to be 80 years old." So, we've really gotta shift that.

I love that, and I am of the exact same camp. It's like we're all sharing the images of now 92-year-old Sister Madonna Buder, who does triathlons, you know. And it's like, I know we keep sharing that and sharing it, but I can't wait for the day when we don't share that because it's just your mom or mine or my— you know, it's just us. It's just everybody. This is normal.

Exactly, exactly. You know, I think of my granddaughters all the time. They don't think of me as old. They're like, get on the floor, Bubby, let's play. And I want that, you know, I'm in my mid-50s now, but I want that to be the case in my mid-60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, beyond. I want them because then it changes. It changes what they think about someone who's quote older. And my eldest granddaughter, She says to me, how old are you? And I go, I'm 55. She goes, you're 5? I'm like, no, 5'5". So now she calls me, she goes, Bubby, I'm 3 and a half and you're 5'5"5".

So much better than 6'5"6", right?

Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to make it to 5'5"5".

But you're not old. You're just a playmate, right, to her? Exactly. That is your total value. Okay, what do I— I'm going to ask you this question, and it's, it's really not in the things that I had prepared, but based on what we've just covered and said, what do you think about the fact that there is a little more open communication now about menopause on social media? However, I mean, do you have any reservations? Are listeners gaining something or are they losing something from some of the content that you see?

Yeah, it's a great question. And I, I think from my content or content like yours, they're gaining. But I think there's still a lot of people who have your ear that are in a position of power or influence that are still not really singing the right song about menopause. And so I think it's really important that we really think about where we're getting our information from. And one of the things that, that sets me apart is I'm a naturopathic medical doctor. So my, my training was rooted in natural healing methods and not pharmaceuticals. And so I really understand the power of the body to heal itself and when it comes to menopause, we have to remember it's not a disease state. So a lot of times women will say, you know, if they want to be natural, well, I'm going to be natural, so I'm not going to take hormones. I'm just going to let my body naturally go through menopause and I'm going to take some herbs or some vitamins. And I, I say that, well, we're not really deficient in herbs or vitamins at that point, that our hormones have declined because we're no longer in our childbearing years. That's not our purpose anymore if we chose to have children. And if we want to really age gracefully and in a healthy way and protect every system in our body, it's not just about preventing hot flashes. It's about protecting our bones and our immune system, our urinary tract, our cardiovascular system, our brains, so on and so forth. Then we really need to be thinking about bioidentical hormone replacement in a smart, sane way.

I love that, that you brought that up, because I do run across several women that are— or not a great way to say it, but there's, there's either— there's a taking sides, you know. And, and women, I think we still have this, some of us, a sense of this is wrong to do this, or this is like cheating, and somehow I'm not honoring life, or maybe a higher power, if I do bioidenticals. Like, I want to do it by myself. Comment on that a little more.

Yeah. So one, there's never anything that's 100%. Like, you hear me speaking and I'm a big proponent of bioidentical hormones. I take them myself. The majority of my patients are on them. My mother was on them in her 80s before she passed away. You know, I did have a patient like a few weeks ago and she just was doing, you know, there's always like these rare unicorns who like, her bones were great, all her testing looked great, and she wasn't on hormones. And you know, sometimes if it's not broken, you don't need to fix it. But for the most part, I have seen women who have come in and said, yeah, I just want to honor the natural process, and either they are taking some herbs or some vitamins, or they're doing nothing and they're suffering. And then when they take the bioidenticals, every time they're like, oh my God, I wish I wouldn't have wasted the last 5 years because what a difference it has made. And I'm not talking about overdosing you or making you 18 again. I'm talking about subphysiological doses of the proper hormones that are bioidentical in the proper combinations, just to give you that support, just to keep your brain protected from an Alzheimer's diagnosis, just to keep your bones protected from an osteoporosis diagnosis, to keep your cardiovascular system protected from stroke and so forth. And so we really have to look at— I think sometimes we self-sabotage ourselves because we, we get on a, like, we're on a soapbox. You know, I was a I was a devout vegan in my early 20s. And you want to talk about soapboxes? I was on it. And then the Blood Type Diet book came out. And while I was a devout vegan, mind you, I was very sick and had severe hormonal imbalances. I don't think PMS came any worse than it did in my body. And I was in Oriental Medical School at the time, in the naturopathic medical school, and everyone was telling me, you know, you really need to eat meat. You're blood deficient. You're chi deficient. I was like, no, no, no. I am a vegan. I am not eating meat. And then, the Blood Type Diet book came out and I knew it. I was like, I'm going to be type O. I'm supposed to eat meat, aren't I? And sure enough, a nurse took my blood, told me I was type O. I had to restrain myself. I wanted to kill her. I was so mad. And so, I went home. I bought an organic steak. I put it in my freezer. And I journaled about it for 3 months. It sat in my freezer because it was so my identity. I was an Earth Save. I used to make my boys walk around with pins that said, "We don't eat anything with a face." We would celebrate Thanksgiving at the Hare Krishna Govinda's restaurant where they would serve tofurkey and they would have a live turkey walking around. It was like my thing. And when I finally ate the meat, I was like, "Oh my God." It was almost instantaneously like, "Oh my God, I feel so much better." And, I just had to have this moment with myself where I've got to be in the best health I can be in so I can go out, participate in the world, do my job, help other people, show up in my relationships, be a good mother for my children, and so forth. And yes, I like the idea of veganism, but it doesn't work in my body. I'm going to eat grass-fed and finished meat. I'm going to eat organic. I'm going to pray over my meat. I'm going to give thanks, etc., etc. And so I think we get on soapboxes and often we get in our own ways. And so when we're on this soapbox about wanting to do it naturally, we live so much longer. It's not natural for our bodies to be devoid of hormones. And so, we're not deficient in, say, maca or dong quai, the hormone herbs that are often used in menopausal situations. We're deficient in estrogen and progesterone and testosterone and DHEA and melatonin and cortisol and thyroid and all these beautiful hormones. And so, we're using bioidentical natural sources. It's identical. When we say bioidentical hormones, we mean just that. They are biologically identical to what your body produces.

I love that. And I think it's, it's so very true that we just kind of get committed to this one thing. Or I think you can— maybe it's an influencer who, who does or doesn't, you know, have another agenda. And if somebody speaks in a very convicting way, I think it's easy to sway somebody who's not quite sure of their own opinion. And that's, I think, the danger. Of—

the other thing I'll add to that is often, not always, but I have seen a lot of people who are promoting not to take hormones are often people who are not licensed physicians who can't prescribe hormones. So they're saying, don't take them and eat my diet, or don't take them and eat my supplements, or don't take them and just fix your gut. And it's like, well, you need to do all those things, But post-menopausally, you know, putting the hormones back in is such a key piece. And again, it's not the only thing my patients have to do. They have to do the work because when you take the hormones, you feel really good because your body's like, oh, thank God, thank God I've got some estrogen back on board or some progesterone back on board, etc. But you also have to commit to moving your body, to hydrating your body, to eating the right diet, to prioritizing sleep, to checking what's going on in your gut. When I see patients for hormone replacement, I'm checking their adrenal function, their cortisol rhythms. I'm checking their thyroid hormones. I'm checking their lymphatic system. I'm checking their gut microbiome. I'm investigating their liver and their bile flow. And so these hormones need to go into a healthy, balanced body.

I love that, and you really have touched on my next question, is like, which hormones matter most? What about— I, I think I hear this quite often, and of course, in the, in the instance, in the realm that I work with people, when we're talking about lean muscle mass, they probably hear me talk most often about— we talk about the need for sleep and how important that is. And if you're not sleeping, the good things you're doing probably are not going payoff because you need that extra little— you got to go to the bank, and that's the sleep. And they hear me talk about, you know, cortisol will be wonky and testosterone and growth hormone will be. And they may hear me talk about that more than anything, but often they will say something like, how do I get testosterone? Um, I need to work with somebody who will prescribe that. And that's their question. And my answer to that usually is— and I am totally open to throw darts at this if you want to, and I will correct it going forward— but I usually say, you know, it's a, it's a really a comprehensive kind of a thing. You may want to look at the big picture, and you may need to look at all of the sex hormones and the precursors. How would you respond to that when somebody is thinking, oh, I need testosterone?

Yeah, if someone needs testosterone, which most women do, you can look at DHEA because some women will create enough testosterone from DHEA if their adrenals aren't totally trashed. You know, it definitely helps by working out and getting the sleep. I mean, I sing that song as well. It's like, if you're not sleeping, you're not healing. It's just the bottom line. But a lot of times women need— I have to give them some testosterone and it has to be in conjunction. It's very rare. Maybe before menopause, a woman might just need a little testosterone or a little progesterone, but it's very rare after menopause that a woman would just need testosterone. She often always needs the estrogen. And the progesterone with it at a bare minimum. They really do work together. And, there are schools of thought out there and doctors out there who prescribe testosterone pellets like nobody's business, and I'm very not for that. I'm against testosterone pellets. What they end up doing is inserting— it's like a little mini surgical procedure and they insert a pellet into your— beneath the skin in the buttocks, and it just secretes testosterone for 3 months. And it almost always, in my experience, what I've seen, overdoses a woman. So she might be on a testosterone high for a couple of weeks, and then she crashes, and it's like she's jonesing and waiting for her next pellet. And so I do not like pellets. I like to have a way of administering it. We do them in syringes, and where you can control day to day what you're getting and what you need, because our needs can vary according to our stress levels, our sleep, and so on and so forth. And so I like testosterone for women in a cream. We use a cream, it's bioidentical, and we apply it vaginally. And it can— testosterone is— we think of testosterone for sex drive and for muscles. It's also really good is linked in with dopamine, so it helps with our motivation and getting us off the couch. It can be protective against breast cancer. It could help reduce anxiety. So there's a lot of other things. It's really important for our cardiovascular system. So there's a lot of things that testosterone can do for us in addition to raising our sex drive and our muscle mass. And for men, in case there's any men listening, or there's women listening who have men in their lives. For men, doing— I do testosterone injections. Men can handle, you know, that's a more dominant hormone in a man. Like, men have progesterone and estrogen too. We all have all the hormones, they're just in different ratios. So for men, doing a shot once a week or twice a week can be important. And if you are on testosterone, now that I'm on a testosterone roll, make sure you're having— make sure you're having your DHT, which is dihydrotestosterone, checked in your blood. Because testosterone, that's a metabolite, it can convert to DHT. And if your DHT is too high, your hair may be falling out. And so we want to make sure that— because I've seen that often, like, women will go on testosterone and their hair is falling out and no one checks their DHT. And, and it's a, you know, a fairly simple fix. It doesn't mean we have to stop the testosterone, we just need to give the right nutrients and herbs, uh, to stop that conversion from happening.

Question for you on skin issues. So I have heard two different things. One, that breakouts are common with too much or too little testosterone, but others also have said no, no, no, it's the progesterone. If you're having too much progesterone, you're going to break out.

Comment? Yeah, I, I don't really see that many breakouts with progesterone, honestly. I see it more clinically, and I don't really see it a lot with my patients because I don't overdose them. But if you're overdosed with testosterone, you might get those breakouts on your, like, on your back, your upper shoulders. The jawline is a common place where we'll see it. And then you have to look at, are you getting bioidentical testosterone? Are you getting overdosed? Some of my patients, you know, a typical dosing can be anywhere from 1 milligram to on the higher side, maybe 5 milligrams a day. And so you might just be overdosed. And then you also need to be looking just at your liver function and your gut function to make sure when you're taking these hormones that your body knows how to use them and then excrete them.

So good, so good. Okay, so let's come back to testosterone. And we were talking about one thing that I know somebody was probably hoping— certainly she won't just skim over that. So let's talk about the sex. Sex on the table, sex on the bed, sex on the floor, sex anywhere. Um, it's a, it's a thing that, you know, right, right next to constipation, honestly, in The time that I've worked with midlife women, these seem to be two things that we don't, we don't actually talk to our good friends about. We don't talk to our spouse about. Maybe you're just not having it. And I've been shocked to, to learn that this is such a big issue. So I think a lot of women want to know, how do I get my libido back? We used to be so hot, now we're not. That's literally a question people write in and ask. What's the answer?

I'm chuckling as you said that because it's, it's kind of a joke among naturopathic physicians, not the sex part but the constipation part. Like, we're always talking about poop. We're talking about it at the dinner table. Like, it doesn't fade because it's like, of course you got to be pooping. And I've learned over the years to, to not just trust, uh, at words' value that, oh, I'm not constipated. When I'm working with a patient, I'm like, well, So let's really dig in. Like, how often are you pooping? You should be pooping after every meal optimally. It should be formed. You shouldn't be straining. It shouldn't be little pellets. It shouldn't float. It should be a nice brown color. So that is a big thing. And that's like we said, you can't be healthy if you're not sleeping. You can't be healthy if you're not pooping either. And then for sex, yeah, I think that goes back to what you said in the beginning, like, what's the biggest thing that women are told that's not true about menopause? And one of them is that you're, you're not a sexual being anymore. Like, you're not sexy, and sex often hurts by now because your hormones are depleted and your vagina is like the Sahara Desert and it's very dry and it hurts. And so who wants to do that? And so it— I My patients and I always joke I'm like a really popular person in my patients' husbands' life because they're always like, oh, thank God you're seeing Dr. Stills today.

Good.

You know, we're having sex again. You're not in pain. You know, they're all, they're all happy about that. And so I used to, when I had my office, I used to get flowers from patients' husbands. They're like, thank you. Thank you for giving me my wife back. But again, it's kind of this misconception. And if you don't feel good, our body is designed first to survive. And so our stress hormones will deplete our sex hormones. So if we are stressed out, our body's gonna just be focused on surviving rather than having fun and having pleasure and thriving. And so we have to really look at— there's many different components. And so Well, even though I believe that most illness starts more in the energetic realms and then comes into the physical body, I kind of take a different stance with menopause because, again, as I said before, it's not a disease, it's a natural transition. It always pisses me off that there's ICD-10 codes for menopause. I'm like, "It's not a disease, it's a natural transition." Wow. But, you know, and I have to use them to get my patients' blood work. Covered, but I'm like, this stinks. This is— this needs to change. And so once we rebalance the hormones, we see, does the sex drive return? And often it does. Often. And it's not just the testosterone, it's estrogen, it's oxytocin, it's progesterone, it's DHEA, it's thyroid, it's adrenal function, it's all of them. But say we have all your hormones properly balanced, I would say 80% of the time the sex drive just returns. And internal estriol is a godsend for a dry vagina. I've been prescribing it to women for over 20 years now, and it's kind of one of those sure-hit home runs. It pretty much works all the time for making sex less painful. And yes, you could use something like coconut oil as a lubricant, but I want to like actually heal the tissue because the tissue is very dry and friable, and that's because it had— there's no estrogen. So, but if you're in the 20% who, after your hormones aren't properly balanced, you still have a low sex drive, we need to look at other things. We need to look at emotions. We need to look at your relationship. Is there something going on there? Are you blocked? Do you have trauma that you haven't, you know, dealt with yet? We have to look at, are you eating a lot of sugar? Are you out of shape? Do you have body issues and you don't feel comfortable in your body? And so we start to look more in that realm.

So good. Yeah, I mean, first of all, you gave, you gave hope to a lot of people. I think that this is one of the things, and I think this is so important, where it's buried. It's like we buried the lead. But this is— intimacy is such a big part of our overall health and wellness. You know, why would you give up that part of yourself for 40% of your life.

Yeah, I mean, I think it also goes back to like changing our mindset that, oh wait, we can still have great sex when we're in our 90s. Like, it's okay to feel good. It's okay to, to enjoy pleasure, whether it's self-pleasure or pleasure with a partner. That, you know, we're one of the few species that has sex just for pleasure. And just because to me it's like a— it's a better time to have sex. You don't have to worry about getting pregnant, and hopefully you are feeling more confident in yourself as you are going through these menopausal years. And it's a— it's a great way to really connect with someone and speak your truth and speak what makes you happy and discover that for yourself. And so often I just find that if women are not having sex sex. Um, they're tired, they're stressed out, and so they're not even thinking about it. And honestly, one of my favorite prescriptions, um, is to have an orgasm at bedtime to help you sleep.

And every, every partner everywhere is like, please write that for her, please.

I will write it on my prescription pad. It's one of my favorite things to write.

But every woman out there is Just one, or is that overachiever in me? Okay, I might or might not be flushing. Okay, we talked earlier about this because I think this is a huge concern, is like, okay, the conversation about menopause is more wide open than it used to be. Definitely when, when I was growing up. And you, you mentioned, you know, this is not your mama's menopause, and and that's true, but my mom never talked about it, you know. And it's such an interesting thing that I hope we're now talking more about it. I have a son, I don't have a daughter, a daughter-in-law, so I can go there. She actually— she won't listen to this, so I can say this— she actually said— she's a daughter-in-law-to-be, I should clarify— but she said, do you have any pelvic exercises? Because I heard you should start doing that a couple years before you have kids. And I'm like, I think you just kind of told me that I'm going to be a grandma, but all right. But I'm like, how cool that you would ask me for that.

That's pretty neat. But I—

we are concerned about where people are getting information. We want to make sure that it's right, it's not confusing. And then, and although there may be a difference of opinion, it still, I think, should be somewhat congruent in what questions you're asking. And you are the epitome of a guide, and you are hosting a summit. So I want to be sure that we get that information out to everybody. Would you— could you tease a little bit without giving away the whole thing? Give away some, some aha moments, some things that, that women who might attend would get out of this.

Yes, and I, and I am hosting this summit, and it is free, and I, and I do it for just that reason, because I'm really passionate about getting the, the real information out there. So even if you're not a patient of mine, because I can only see so many patients, that you are armed with the right information so you could go to your doctor and say, this is what I want, this is the kind of testing I want, this is the kind of hormones I want, and you can, you know, advocate for yourself and get educated. And so We are going to be talking about the proper type of testing. And is that blood or is that in your urine or your saliva? We're going to be talking about your blood sugar and how that's related to your hormones. We're going to be talking about the fascia, which is the, the interconnection throughout our whole body that covers all our, our bones and our organs. We're going to be talking about the liver and the power of glutathione and some new information on glutathione that even made me change the way I'm practicing. And we're talking about autoimmune disease and bile flow. And so we are talking about, as I said in the beginning, it's not just— yes, you're gonna get, you know, I'm passionate about hormones and you're gonna get the truth about that too so you can get educated. But we're going to really be talking about all the things in your body that are important to be addressing so that you can not only just go through menopause and not have symptoms, but that you can be planning for a long, healthy life.

Love it. So wonderful. I want to ask you one more question before I let you go, and that is, what about the the best time to start? So we're kind of talking here about what, what hormones matter most in menopause. When is the best time for a woman to be thinking about her menopause? Today, whatever day that is.

Okay. I mean, right, if you're 30, you're not really thinking about menopause. I know I wasn't at 30. I had already had my kids, but I was thinking about about how am I gonna stop being so bloated every time I'm getting my cycle that people think I'm pregnant. And so I was balancing my hormones for that stage in my life. But because I did that, because remember, it's not just our hormones in menopause, it's our whole hormonal journey from puberty and beyond. And so if you are struggling or know someone who's struggling with fibroids or endometriosis PCOS or infertility, et cetera, et cetera, migraines, weight issues, then you want to start thinking about your hormones then because that's a sign that your menopause is going to be troublesome if you're already struggling with hormones. And so I talk a lot about pre-gaming because I was pre-gaming and balancing my hormones while I was cycling. When I went through menopause, I never even had a hot flash. And I always like to remind people, I'm not like anyone special. I've had my share of health issues and was born and dealt with a lot of things. So it's not like I'm just like one of those people who's healthy no matter what. That's not true. So we want to be thinking about it, you know, always. And if you are someone who you're like, hey, I'm 40 or 45 and I've never had any of those issues you just thought about, and I'm still getting a cycle, that's great. You might just want to get someone to do some baselines on you, to look at your bone health, to look at your hormone health, and just track you even once a year, just so you can kind of see what's going on. Because everyone's menopausal transition will be different. There are some women, they get a period every month, and then they don't get a period, and they never get a period again, and that's it.. There are some women who don't get a period every month and it's always irregular. There's some women who get a period every month and then all of a sudden they start bleeding really heavy, or they go 3 months and— or they're bleeding all the time. And these are signs that your hormones are out of balance. And there's some expectation there's gonna be some imbalance as things are winding down, so it becomes really unique. So that's why, even if you're— yeah, I'm a naturopathic doctor, so I'm all about prevention. It's a lot easier to prevent. So even I always talk about my dream is that people wake up in the morning and they say, I feel freaking fantabulous, and I'm gonna call Dr. Stills or whoever my healthy doctor is, and I'm just gonna talk to her so I can keep finding out how I can keep feeling this way. But that doesn't tend to happen. We wake up and feel fine, and the last thing we think about in this society is our doctor. It's not until, especially as women, we're really struggling that we're like, okay, I'm gonna go take care of myself. Health now. So I think it's a good time, even if you're not suffering, just to get a team together and, and be prepared for when you are going to need replacement.

Beautifully said. Thank you so much for that response. Okay everyone, I, I've got you covered. I'm gonna put in the show notes the link to Mastering the Menopause Transition Summit hosted by Dr. Sharon Stills, who's here, and that'll be at flipping50.com/pause. That's link to the summit. For the show notes for today, you can go to flipping50.com/whichhormones and listen to this again or get links to follow her on social. And what are you waiting for? Let's start flipping 50 today, maybe with better sex.