Should You Take Birth Control For Perimenopause & Menopause Symptoms?

Education As The Missing Link

Education is how we bridge that gap. Totally. Once you know, like I feel this way because of this, now we can address it. But if you never know, and if you think it's normal to feel like this, man, how do we ever move past it?

Midlife Awakening And Guest Introduction

Welcome to the Midlife Rebel Podcast. It's time to rewrite the midlife story for women who refuse to be put in a box. Because maybe midlife isn't a crisis. Maybe it's an awakening. Today I'm joined by Thiara Duncan, a women's wellness educator, certified coach, and author who isn't afraid to challenge the status quo. Tiera is rewriting outdated narratives around hormone cycles and women's health with practical science-based insight and a bold commitment to informed choice. Because when we understand our bodies, we don't just empower ourselves, we become a source of wisdom and support for daughters, friends, sisters, and the next generation. Welcome for uh welcome to the podcast. Oh my god, my tongue is getting tangled. I'm blaming it. So I don't I am into astrology, Tiara. And today there's this massive lineup of um planets in Aries that's never happened before. And and so no one knows what's gonna happen, but I'm blaming it on that. My tongue tie.

Yeah, I'm I'm here for it. Yeah, I am I'm I'm a Scorpio. Okay. Um yeah, and I I just uh all I know is the uh kind of the stereotypical, you know, uh attributes that they apply to Scorpios, yeah. Uh I guess depending on you know what part of the uh month you were born in. Yeah, yeah. So intense. That's one of the key words, I think. Yeah, yeah, intense, uh, but passionate. Yes.

And also like investigating things, right? Getting to the bottom of things. And I think that that's something you've been doing in your work, isn't it?

Yeah, so I'm falling right into the stereotype.

There's always nuances. Um, so I didn't actually mention in the intro what it is that you do, and I just want to flag, because before we do get stuck into it, I just want to flag that when um you first came into my um sphere of consciousness, um, I was like, oh, I don't know if this topic is relevant to midlife women. And then I was like, yeah, hang on. Midlife start probably starts, you know, let's say in our early 40s. And I certainly know a whole bunch of women that this would be relevant, still be relevant for, even though for a lot of women in midlife, we're talking about when we talk about hormones, we're talking about perimenopause, menopause, um, and they're the big topics. But in fact, what we're gonna talk about with you today, uh I you notice how I haven't said the words. Um I'm creating some mystery. Um, yeah, what we're gonna talk about today is very relevant to the listeners, especially if you're in your at the early parts of your midlife, still very relevant.

So, do you want to tell what we're gonna talk about? Sure, sure, yeah.

Why Reproductive Hormones Are Whole Body

So, my my book um that I wrote is called The Birth Control Illusion, Reclaiming Hormones, Health, and Your Cycle. And it's really um an educational guide for women. The first part of the book is all about hormones, it's all about education that we all should have received when we were in our teenage years. And kind of the crux of this and why it is so applicable for perimenopause and menopausal women is reproductive hormones are not just reproductive. They are in fact full body. And that's why when we go through these transitions, understanding what estrogen and progesterone and testosterone really do helps to explain the physiological changes that we have. And, you know, so many of our um transitions get dismissed or you're crazy, or and really, if you understand how hormones are supposed to work, it that really empowers you to kind of see those signs and then potentially make changes, consult with a provider, have the questions that you need where you can make informed consent. And whether that's for something like birth control, which is often prescribed in the perimetopausal period for symptom management or later on HRT, right? Um, these are things that women um and I I'm 40, so look at looking down the the road there, um, that are often part of our conversations. But I think it should really start with education first.

Yeah, I agree. And yeah, that's something that's really been pushed aside for many women. And I feel like I'm 52, and I had kids when I was 40 and 42. So I really started getting much more connected with my hormones and you know how it affected my mood, times of the month, energy levels, even hunger patterns, energy in the gym, like physical strength, all of those things. It really didn't come into my awareness until quite late in in my life. And uh I feel like that's still quite relevant to a lot of women. Like I we've evolved so much and we know so much more, but still there are those old paradigms that need to be changed, shifted, um, for us to move forward and understanding our cycle and accepting our cycle and some of the things that are happening in our body.

Yeah, acceptance is a is a huge word. Uh uh the uh the culture around periods and menstrual cycles and all that has always not always has at least for me, um, to my experience, been one of shame, been one of inconvenience, been one of um I have endometriosis, so pain, right? A lot of like negative connotations, but you're so right. When you understand what's going on, uh that changes the game, you know, no matter and again, no matter I'm also kind of an older mom. I had my my my first uh uh my my daughter at 38. And yeah, it it's it's very uh interesting to go through pregnancy and postpartum when you do have something like perimenopause kind of knocking down your door. Yeah, hormones become so relevant when it feels like such a short window. Um, but if we had known about it when we were in our teens, we've had all that time to kind of better mentally prepare.

Yeah, I agree. And that's one of the things that I was thinking about as I was preparing for this conversation is like there are women that are younger than us that we can share this information with um so that they can make more informed decisions. But we've also got our daughters um that we can make more informed dis decisions for, but also respect them a bit more. Oh my gosh. Oh my god, you know, that whole you know moody bitch thing. Yeah, she must be on her rags mentality, and that's and yeah, uh not oh god, it's just yeah, no, I mean puberty puberty, right?

As women, we go through these dramatic hormonal changes, menopause in puberty, and then we have like you know, our reproductive years, and on both ends of those spectrums, you're a bitch, you're moody, you're you know, what's wrong with you? What's your problem? We actually have the science, right, where we can support women, whether they're 14 going through puberty or they're 54 going through menopause. We have the ability to support them, not just uh um physically, but emotionally with the education, understanding these changes and giving them that space. And it's really a shame that so many of us still don't have that. Yes, yeah, totally. But like, but you're right, the conversation is changing. That's a really cool thing about social media. Yes, there's a lot of noise. Yes, there are a lot of grifters, but then you know, women can find channels like yours and they can find a community, right? And and oh, you're having that experience. Oh, that's what that means. Uh, and it's really um it's kind of cool to to have other women um that are not looking to box you in um based on your you know your symptoms.

Yes, definitely. So

Birth Control Prescribed Beyond Pregnancy

when we think of birth control, you know, we kind of go birth control, it's called birth control, and therefore we're not gonna have children. But if we're not thinking about having children, your book actually covers the fact that birth control is being prescribed to um for other symptoms for other things that are going on in uh a person's a woman's life, you know, regardless of age. Um and yeah, this is one of the challenges that I have with any kind of prescription medication, is it's masking symptoms. And and again, is that it's that story, isn't it, of like you don't want to be a bitch, you don't want to be moody, you don't want to have this or that. You you basically want to suppress that experience. Yeah, um, and not accept again, not accept it.

Yeah, and I uh man, it's such a complicated thing, right? Because for a lot of women, hormonal birth control, just to be kind of more specific with your audience. So meaning like the pill, the patch, the ID, not talking about um contraceptive methods or any kind of non-hormonal methods. Uh-huh. But for a lot of women, it's allowed them to balance that career, family, or make plans for um building a life. And so I don't want to be um someone that I don't want to be someone that sounds judgmental against it. Right. Right. But to your point, uh, yeah, you know, I'm 16, I have acne, birth control. I'm 16, I have heavy periods, birth control. I'm 44 and I'm feeling a lot of fatigue and I'm getting more visceral fat around my abdomen, and I'm just don't feel like myself, birth control, like, you know, as opposed to, well, why are these things happening? Okay, we understand that we we have this hormonal knowledge, and what can we do in the lifestyle or supplements or other things that maybe don't have much of a as much of a strong trade-off that could support this? You know, do we need to be on something that suppresses our natural hormones? Um, and the answer might be maybe, right? I'm not here to judge any woman that wants to take it. Um, but what if I told you, hey, if we address X, Y, and Z, you might feel better. And then you don't have to put that in your body. You may make that choice as well.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I was um shocked actually to hear um someone quite recently uh that I was speaking to talking about potentially putting their daughter on um on the pill for for acne. I was like, oh my god, I didn't even know that was a thing. And and also I've been shocked um in recent years speaking to women who are my age, like late 40s, early 50s, still on the pill. And one woman said to me, Well, I've always been on it, so she didn't have any kids, she didn't want kids. I've always been on it, and so I might as well just keep being on it.

I was like, but you don't have your you but you don't have your period anymore. That was my that was my mentality. It it took somebody else challenging my belief system. So kind of just a backtrack on kind of my experience.

Flatlined Cycles And Lost Body Signals

Um I was I was on birth, I was on different forms of birth control, and I was also coaching women in the fitness and nutrition space that were on birth control, and I kept running into the same kind of questions and problems. They were doing everything right, um, you know, everything right, but we were still having gut issues or fatigue issues, mood disorders. And it took somebody else asking me about my cycle, and I was like, Well, I don't, I don't have my period, I'm on the hormonal UD. And I got really defensive. And in this, I think I was about 30 when this happened. And when I finally like got out of my feelings, I was like, oh, wait a minute. I'm a I'm coaching women and I don't even know how my, I don't even understand how my cycle works. It was such like a life, like shaking, like, whoa, I need to, I need to educate myself. I need to be better at what I'm doing. And that's what started me on that journey to to learn all that stuff, learn about how important your cycle really is. It again, it's not just about having a baby or not having a baby. Your cycle, when you are in your reproductive years, is how you produce meaningful estrogen and meaningful, meaningful progesterone, strong bones, great cardiovascular health, cognition, um get back to those mood disorders, calming, not being feeling depressed or anxious. Uh not that you can't have those things, but those hormones and meaningful levels are what makes you feel stable and good, uh, and you know, and vibrant. Um, so even more than just stable.

Yeah. So there's kind of like a um, there are stages, I guess. Um there's that because often people are like you said, stable. Often people are unstable, aren't they, in their hormone balance, and that's when things can can go awry, I guess, with mood and and um energy and that sort of thing. So it's like one thing to become aware of what all of the hormones do, and then another thing to become aware of like what are my own hormones actually doing right now, and how can I manage that? And the first port of call for many people is manage it through the pill, um, or um birth control. You talked about some other different types of of birth control as well, like the the thing that you get put in your arm, what's that?

Or that's the implant. Yeah, the implant. Yeah, that's the that's that's like a long-lasting um progestin-based, so synthetic progesterone method. But yeah, so the the and I want women to know uh the type of birth control you use and also the application, how it's absorbed in the body can drastically affect your um side effects. Not all birth control methods suppress ovulation, which is which is good to know. Okay. So, like the hormonal IED does in some women, but doesn't in doesn't in every woman. And it really comes down to your personal, um, your biological profile and how you respond to the medication. But what happens is that your uterine lining is so thin uh is that you may still not bleed. You may not, you could be ovulating, but you have no idea because you are just in this weird um synthetic rhythm. And your body's not not doing what it needs to because we're we're suppressing those brain signals. Uh and you know, I don't know how like clinically I'm gonna get into it, but that's literally what birth control is meant to do. Your brain and your ovaries are always communicating unless you take something to suppress that. And basically what birth control says is nope, we have enough hormones here. Don't you worry, you don't need to do anything. And yeah, it just has a ton of downstream effects. Um, and again, not every woman will feel these things or have those um impacts. But if you've never tracked your cycle and you've always been on the pill, you may not know what it feels like to not be off of it. I know that's like an obvious statement, but how good it may feel if you know if your normal has always been flat.

Yeah. Wow. I have to flag as well, I was on the pill for many years. So I'm not like you know, yeah, I'm not kind of judging. I'm just yeah, now that I know more about my body and the experience I went through to conceive I had to have IVF, I don't know if that had anything to do with being on the pill for years. You might be able to tell me if there is a knock-on effect. Um but yeah, I am super curious about um about it all and yeah, just waking women up to like the power of our cycle as well. Like we've just been taught to hate on ourselves so bad.

Ovulation Progesterone And PMS Myths

Yeah, yeah, and the cycle is a lot of people think of their peer their their cycle as just the bleeding, but really ovulation is the star of the show. So basically during the time where the um follicles are maturing in egg for ovulation to release the egg, or I'm sorry, to release the egg and then um to be implanted, that's when estrogen is rising, the follicular phase. That's when we get all those really awesome, like I feel motivated, I feel ready to go. Estrogens doing its thing. Ovulation happens, that egg gets released, and then what's left behind is that's what starts producing progesterone. Like I feel good, I feel smooth, I feel stable, right? And then when those hormones drop um from menstruation, that's when some women do feel don't fucking tell them to be. Yeah, but you don't have to, and that's and that's another thing. We've really normalized PMS or PMTD, but those are you having extreme pain, having extreme mood swings, having um just you know, a lot of gut dysfunction, that's actually not normal, even though it's common, and that's something too, you do not have to hate your period. Will you potentially have mild symptoms? Sure. Mild cramping, a little, eh, I cried at that dog commercial. What are you gonna do? But those like crazy swings, that's actually your body telling you something's off.

Okay.

So when we suppress it with something like um birth control, guess what? Your body's still off, even though you're not feeling those symptoms. The underlying root cause of whatever's causing those symptoms is still happening.

You talked about um you had that you have endometriosis, you mentioned that. Um is that why you were taking or were you had the what do you call it? The IED. Uh the IUD. IUD. That's can you describe what that is? Okay, so that's kind of yeah, you describe it.

Yeah, yeah. So um, when I was 17, I wasn't I just at work and I was in so much pain. I went to the emergency room. Nothing was wrong with me, you know, you're it's all in your head. Uh shortly after, after numerous appointments, I was

Endometriosis Diagnosis And Treatment Trade-Offs

diagnosed with endometriosis. And so that was it. I was put on birth control. Um, the first birth control I was put on was the patch, um, which is just a transdermal patch. It's like a, it's it's similar to the pill. You do the three weeks, you take it off, you have a withdrawal bleed, which a lot of women think is your menstrual cycle, but it's actually not. Uh, you can't have a menstrual cycle if you don't ovulate, and you don't ovulate when you're on combination of birth control. Then I went to the depot shot, deprovera, deprovera, which has significant bone density uh warnings attached to it. Uh so after a few years after that, in a bone density scan in my early 20s that was concerning. I went to the hormonal IUD. So that's that's the um little device that goes uh through your vagina. Uh and that is a progestin, synthetic progesterone basically.

Oh, so it still releases some kind of.

So they say that it's local. They say, oh, it's just a local release. But that's not how it, that's just not just not how it works. It still gets through your bloodstream, right? And there are there are still systemic effects. Um, and so yeah, we and again, every woman may feel things or may not feel things. I it nothing is definitive, but understanding the type of birth control you may be on and what side effects you may feel is really important. And I did want to touch on the fertility thing briefly. If you've spent years shutting down the process, because ovulation is what releases the egg. It's that's that's where we were the most fertile. If we continually shut down the hormones associated with that, follicle um follicle stimulating hormone, estrogen, lutinizing hormone, progesterone, the expectation that your body's just gonna wake up and be ready to have a baby isn't the case. And so there are there's something, it's not medically clinically approved, but there is like a post birth control pill syndrome. And a lot of it is symptoms come back, right? Sometimes worse because your body's been flatlined. And there are women that do have issues with fertility because again, we've been cutting off that signal for so long. Uh and it just takes sometimes it takes the body a long time to re-engage.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What should we go to next? I'm curious. I I'd love I know I've spoken to many, many women who do have endometriosis. And although it's kind well, it's a hormonal thing, I think. Um I didn't explain it well, I'm sorry. Well no, no, I just thought it would be something that would be interesting to hear a bit more about your experience and like how you now manage it without um and does it ever go and no, no, no, I don't apologize. And does it ever go away?

Yeah, so endometriosis is a inflammatory disease, basically, in its full body. And when it's what's happening is endometrium-like tissue uh that would normally stay in the uterus finds its way outside. Um, and the amount of tissue that you have isn't an indication of how much pain you will be in. So, and they've found it everywhere. They found it in people's brains, they found it in their wrists, they found um, and it's really driven by inflammation. Um, so for me, when I decided to finally transition off of birth control, a big part of my recovery, which took a few years, was managing my inflammation. And for women that are uh that do suffer from endometriosis, everyone's gonna be different. Um, but something, some kind of common misconceptions is hysterectomies don't necessarily fix the problem. You can still have lesions. Like I said, if it's outside of your uterus, in other places in your body, removing that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to remove the tissue and the lesions that are that are causing some of those problems. Um same with laparoscopies, right? Uh so for me, everyone's different. There are lots of different ways to treat it, but managing inflammation was huge. Managing my stress, I had to change my diet, I had to change uh kind of my priorities. And I personally um still have issues during ovulation time. It's painful, it's very painful for me. Um, but I just know in that window, again, I might up my fish oil, I might just relax a little bit more that time. Um, everyone's gonna be a little bit different. But for me, menstruation no no longer hurts, okay, which is amazing.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, everyone, every woman's um experience with endo is very unique into their own. But yeah, I had like extreme gut issues and then the pain just you know in the fetal position, tears, you know, and I don't have that level of pain anymore. Yeah, which is nice. But yeah, it's it's really inflammation, and they're still studying it.

Yeah. Because there's still a lot of messaging out there that it is a female problem. Do men get it as well, or is it is it specific to women?

I'm not I'm not aware. Uh number one, I'm not an endometriosis expert by any means. Um, I'm not aware of that. Uh no, I'm I'm I'm I can't speak to that, sorry.

No, no, no worries. Um thank you for sharing what you do know.

Yeah, I won't I won't uh I won't lie to you. What I know and I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know very much either. I've just heard different people talk about it, but I did hear something on our uh on the news a few months ago here in Australia where there was like a um that yeah, there was more research going into it for for women with endometriosis. Um but yeah, I didn't it's I still didn't realize that it was in a you know something that could be found in other parts of the body.

Oh it's still very much related to totally and um it's very underdiagnosed. It's often IBS is a common diagnosis when it's really endometriosis. Um a lot of women will go to the doctors for years and just be told, well, get on this gut medicine, or get on this, or get on that. And then and the symptoms can really vary um depending on where the lesions are and how your body just responds. So there's a lot, there's a lot that goes into it. Um, but yeah, I'm not I'm no expert, but thank goodness there are there's much more noise around it, and there is a lot more research being done. And there are women like um Dr. Jolene Brighton, who's doing fantastic work um with endometriosis.

Cool.

So you went you've been on your own journey, and that was so you've um experienced the pill, and then you you decided to stop all of the the hormones um and the birth control for yourself. And is that the point when you started to teach other women about it? Um how is that journey sort of yeah?

So I started um I found CrossFit in 2013. Ah, I'm a CrossFit. Yeah. And by 2015, I started coaching. Okay, yeah. And it started off as just like group classes. Um, and then I got so into it that I started getting other certifications outside of the CrossFit world, um, like in nutrition and programming and just really deep diving. And so I started working with individuals in 2016,

Lifestyle Foundations Before Any Prescription

2017, one-on-one. And that's around the same time as I was working with men and women, that I was on my own journey. And I was like, oh, whoa, whoa. Not just the reproductive hormones, but cortisol and melatonin and dopamine and serotonin. Like I was just like learning all these things blew my mind and blew up my world. So as I was getting this information and kind of digesting it and sitting with it, I was in having those conversations with my clients in at the level of, well, let's talk about your sleep hygiene. Let's talk about, you know, I've never been out of, I never go out of my scope. I'm not a dietitian. I'm not your medical provider, right? It's not, you know, I'm not here to prescribe you anything. But if you're telling me you're working 12-hour shifts, you're sleeping four hours a night, you know, you're eating Doritos and monster energy drinks, I can help you, right? There's a lot I can help you with. And it sounds so simple, but really, truly, cleaning up those lifestyle factors have a significant um impact on how we feel. And I often find that before you jump to a medication or jump to um not a quick fix, but jump to some sort of prescription, the lifestyle stuff is huge. So my journey just really been working with um folks. I no longer do one-on-one. I just don't have the time. Um, and I wrote a book instead. But I spent years doing it, and that's what kind of informed all those experiences, is what informed me. I was like, I just need to write all this down. I'm having the same conversations. I want everyone to know what I've learned through this process. And yeah. And I started writing a little over four or five years ago and was just my research writing, and then finally got it out. But that's kind of how that journey. I never had any intentions of doing any of that. It just kind of fell into place and I fell in love with it.

It's really refreshing to to hear, you know, that that that lifestyle stuff makes such a big um impact on people. We had I had a guest on a few weeks ago, uh, Patricia Hernandez, that that coaches women with um in menopause and perimenopause, and she was um in a very, you know, very similar to you. Let's test all of the all of your health markers first, let's change your lifestyle, change your diet, um, get your gut health um improved. Yeah. Yeah. That's the starting point. And then, like, do we still then we might try HRT and retest. Yeah.

I I find um, you know, in conversations I would have with clients would be like, well, what about cold plunge? What about sauna? What about I'm like, bro, we need to get outside for 20 minutes in the sun, right? I need we need to take a big step back. Like those things are great. Um, and I'm all about us, like especially HRT, that's phenomenal. But I've also found not everybody responds to it well. And some women actually do not do well on it. So uh again, yeah, if you're not sleeping, your body's not absorbing nutrients because you're you constantly have you're constantly constipated or you have diarrhea all the time. You can't expect hormones or drug to fix that. You're not yeah, we're not at that root cause.

Yeah. Oh, I'm gonna tell you one more slide about lifestyle and how much impact it can have. And it was to do with my dad, so it's nothing to do with hormones. But my dad had uh a heart problem. Um, he's had ongoing stuff over the years, but he went to a surgeon and was gonna have a thing called an ablation where they kind of laser something in your heart to rewire it. And the surgeon said, um, and this was really cool too. The surgeon said, Uh, you need to go away, you need to clean up your lifestyle, stop drinking, you know, lose some weight, blah blah blah blah. And then he came back six months later and he was like, You don't need the surgery. And that is relevant for many of us, isn't it? Like yeah, all of us. It's like what you know, we might have someone come to us and go, what's the best supplement for X, Y, and Z? It's like, well, you know, no supplement's gonna be any good. Well, it's not gonna have a great impact on you if you're not doing all of those other things, if you're not sleeping well, if you're not eating clean, yeah, and all of those things.

There is no magic pill. There's no magic pill. And the surgery thing's great, like people that even something maybe as but seems as benign as like a shoulder or a knee or nagging joint pain, it may be dietary. Yeah. If you are drinking a lot of alcohol, if you have a lot of ultra-processed foods, you don't have any movement, you're not moving your joints through full range of motion, you're not helping yourself. So maybe having to get that surgery may or may not be the right choice. Yeah.

Your book, I would love to know a little bit, well, not just a little bit more about it, but a bit more about it, because that's what we need to talk about. But just sort of like you wanted to get all of this information out. You didn't feel like one-on-one, you know, you can't you can only coach as many people as there are hours in the day, and that's pretty tiring. I uh acknowledge that. Um, so having it in information form in a book is, you know, really handy. But was there someone that you had in mind when you wrote the book? And like what do you hope the outcome is of like getting this out to people?

That's a really good question. Yeah, I kept thinking back to my 17-year-old self. Not that this is for 17-year-olds, but I kept thinking about what would have happened if the sex education I received was this book? What would have happened if I had like ever after every chapter, I have questions you can ask your doctor. What if I had that as a guide? And maybe I would have made the same decisions. Maybe I would have stayed on birth control. Maybe you know, you're 17, you think you know everything. But that's who this is for every woman that's gone to an appointment and had questions and not know where to even start, not even know where to look, don't understand your body. Because again, a lot of the sex education, a lot of things that we were taught was really just pregnancy prevention. But our bodies are magnificent and intricate and interesting. And I think we deserve to know that because it touches every facet of our being, how we feel, how we sleep, how we engage with others. And again, when you know that, like it's just so empowering. So that's kind of the thought I had in my head. And my goal, I just kind of give you my long-term goal. I plan on writing a lot of books about these types of things. I my second book is on GLP1s and weight loss. Oh, because I kind of call these like my four horsemen. You know, you get on the birth control pill or

The Medication Pipeline And GLP-1 Basics

whatever, and maybe you get off, you start struggling with weight, look at weight loss, you have depression. So we look at depression meds, we have focus issues, especially for women in perimetopause, menopause. So now we look at um 80, 80 HD meds. And I want to have, I plan on writing a book about each one of those.

Okay.

Not to judge, but to educate. Before you go on birth control, here's what you should know. Before you take a GLP one, here's what you should know. And that's my larger mission. I want, I just want you to know what you're putting in your body. Yeah, totally.

Do you mind if we go down that little rabbit hole a little bit? Because I'm really curious about some of those things. It sounds like you've already done it, started doing a little bit of research with some of that stuff. Do you feel like those four things are all connected?

Like oh, absolutely. Really? Yeah. Well, when you think about, when we think about like again weight loss, let's talk, let's just talk about estrogen, right? When we go into perimenopause, menopause, the we have our dominant estrogen, estradiol, right, that is from that ovarian production. But when you're going through that phase, you're going up and down and it's fluctuating, and that's when we feel all the symptoms. Some women will start noticing more visceral fat, right, around their abdomen. And so the response for them may be to do to do something like a GLP1. But now we're looking at slowing your gastric uh emptying. We're impacting the brain signals that influence hunger. But that stuff also influences things like dopamine and serotonin, which are directly impacted by estrogen. So there's this crazy kind of hurricane of, uh, or tornado, maybe it'd be better, um, uh changes in your hormones. And now you're trying to add something into all these changes, right? And the same with like um, I haven't done my research yet on uh ADHD meds, but I've started a little bit on depression and anxiety, and kind of that same idea. We have this flat line from birth control or you know, flat line from maybe even lifestyle factors. And then we're adding in something that suppresses you know, our emotional regulation. So yeah, it's it's all actually connected. And there's really that's why it's so common that women are prescribed multiple medications throughout their life to, you know, dismiss our symptoms, dismiss the way we feel because we don't understand it.

Yeah, right. So is coming off birth control that can actually cause weight gain, can it? Is it used as a way of managing that in younger years?

No, I don't want, I don't want that to be not exactly.

No, sorry, I'm just getting to trying to get clarity because I'm you know yeah, no, I'm sorry.

I might have I might have come I might have conflated that a little bit by talking about just the process of GLP1s and uh um and estrogen. So estrogen is is having meaningful amounts of estrogen helps with insulin sensitivity, meaning our body, instead of storing, uses um glucose. And it's really good for um our fat distribution. So when we have really stable, healthy levels of estrogen, fat distribution goes to the buttocks, the hips, and the thighs, right? When it's unstable, uh our body's less more uh more apt to store right uh glucose, so fat, and also distribute that fat more to our abdomen. So it may seem like you're gaining weight, or it may seem as you're going through like perimetopause and menopause, but really it's a body composition thing that's happening. Yeah. But if you couple that body composition change and you're not resistance training, you're not getting sufficient nutrition. And let's say you were on birth control, you were suppressing your symptoms, we already had a hormonal imbalance, you're getting off of it, you're going through this transition, it just becomes like this snowball effect. Is that more clear? I think so, yeah. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Sorry.

Yeah, no, no, no, don't apologize. Um, yeah, I'm just I was just yeah, getting some clarity on that. Um, okay. So what are what are the other things? What were you saying about the G the GL GLP one? That's so that's what a lot of people are being prescribed at the moment for weight loss, isn't it?

Yes, yes. The GLP1s were they are peptide, isn't it? It is, yeah. It's uh it's it's GLP1 isn't is a hormone that we naturally produce after we eat. Okay. And so this is like a peptide to mimic that. And okay, doctors were originally investigating type 2 diabetes and they found that the saliva of a um lizard, a gilla monster, contained a similar structure to our the GLP1s, okay, but it lasts a lot longer. So the problem with GLP1s, if I were to give you like the actual uh hormone or peptide, I mean, uh, you would just metabolize it, just it wouldn't have no effect. So they had to find something that actually lasted in the body, and those are the those are the shots.

Okay.

Um and so its job is to not only slow, so it slows like how your bot your stomach empties out the food, processes food, but it also turns off those signals. Um, it amplifies your satiety, like I'm full, I'm good, and it dampens your hunger signals. Okay.

Okay.

I feel like was that what the question was? Was how did it work?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Definitely. Yeah.

And yeah, and one of the things that you're hoping to do with writing a book about that and the other topics is again to keep people informed because often there are side effects, aren't there, with um with these types of medication. I mean, I think with the from what I've heard from some friends with aid with ADHD medication, and I think that varies as well, is that it's an appetite suppressant, and so people can lose weight that way.

But a lot of people have used it historically, that's been a thing, right? Yeah, it's just again, you know, you make whatever choice that you want to make with your body, but you should understand what's actually happening. And the interesting thing about the GLP1 specifically is that the research for obesity and type 2 diabetes is is very well researched. It there's a lot of benefits if you have metabolic dysfunction. My book more goes into the people that I just want to lose 10 pounds, I want to get on this drug. So there are a lot of really positive benefits for people that have metabolic dysfunction.

Yeah.

Uh, and and the research is really interesting. It also, there's this really cool growing research around inflammation, endometriosis, long COVID. Um, GLP1's it's it's ongoing, but there seems to be some maybe potential positive benefits with that. So, and these are things that I mentioned in the book. But when it comes to the weight loss perspective, what are we really aiming for? What are we really losing when we start using a drug um in place of nourishment?

Yeah.

Right. And that's a different conversation than someone that has type tube diabetes or has obesity or has other kind of um other core morbidity morbidities wrapped into that. So that's really kind of the the book educates you on all that, or will hopefully educate you on all that, but also talk about those uncomfortable parts where you know you see that celebrity who's now very gaunt, who's now uh, you know, the clavicle uh, you know, bones are showing. No one wants to seem to talk about that part of the GLP one use.

It's almost like an abuse of the use of it, isn't it?

Yeah. So I I mean, and so I talk about it. Yeah, with both aspects. But you know, back to like, and this applies to women of all ages. We are held to a certain standard uh of beauty, and that becomes harder to maintain when we get into things like perimenopause and menopause. So I completely understand women finding that to be an attractive option.

Yeah, I'm totally with you because it's such a um tangle of things going on, isn't there? I was talking to another guest a little while ago about um beauty and and like that perception of ourselves. And it's like, well, yeah, are we do we want to do it? Do we want to lose weight? Do we want to look better? You know, have our 20-year-old body, whatever it is, because we want it, or because that's what we think we should have, or because that's what celebrities are saying is important.

Body Image Reframes For Midlife Health

Um, and like, how do we sort of determine our own needs and wants uh compared to what's what we're being influenced by externally? So yeah, it's such such a big thing. Um, but it has come up a couple times in the last in the last couple of interviews that I've done. So yeah, it's really interesting. Um, and I don't have the answer.

I I think the more that you understand your body, the more at peace you can become with those types of things. And then the more that you again, like your period as an example, it's not an inconvenience, it's not this thing you have to hate. You don't have to hate the way that your body's changing. You need to understand it. And I think that the the more understanding we have, it helps us shift to well, I may not have that six-pack, but I'm nourishing my body so that I feel good and I have energy for my kids. And I am, I'm I'm gonna prioritize my sleep so I can be the best at my at my work. And I'm gonna move my body because I freaking love to walk with my girlfriends and I want to be able to hike and I want to go on this trip, and it's not about what I look in a swimsuit, but I want to be able to go do all these cool things with my grandkids, right? Like, I think if we have we can start reframing that to energy to maximizing our energy, longevity, quality of life. I think that's I think that's the key. That's part of it.

Yeah.

You've got a daughter, have you? I do, yeah. She's uh two and a half. So I'm curious about um, yeah, just hearing a bit about well, I'm just thinking about the young, I've got a daughter as well, she's 10. Um, so she's getting close to her hormonal years. And it yeah, I I don't know exactly where I'm going with with this, but I just feel like right at the beginning of the conversation, uh the in the introduction, I said that you know, you're a chat, you're a change maker and you know, a way shower. Um, and I'd love to sort of hear, you know, what your ideas and values around bringing up your daughter into this world with things that you're learning now and like what you want to see for her in the future, and like you know, inspire