Midlife Madness Podcast

The Emotional and Physical Impact of Midlife Hormonal Changes & Hormone Replacement Therapy.

• Martha Savloff, Dr Marty Nalda, Dr Donna Pontoriero • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Have you ever wondered why, despite eating well and exercising, you still can't shake off that stubborn midlife weight gain? Join us as we reveal personal stories of battling unexplained weight gain, health issues, and the discovery of hormonal imbalances. You'll learn how anxiety, brain fog, and sleep disturbances are often tied to hormonal changes and the importance of getting the right medical care to address these issues.

In this episode, we tackle the emotional and physical tolls of midlife, from post-childbirth weight struggles to ailments like plantar fasciitis and frozen shoulder. Hear our discussions on the significance of proper nutrition and sustainable health practices in navigating these challenges. We also explore how these changes impact not just our own lives, but also our relationships with family and friends, and the importance of understanding and managing these dynamics.

Dive into an eye-opening conversation about the power of personalized hormone replacement therapy. Discover the difference between being within the medical range and striving for optimal health through functional medicine and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. We share inspiring stories of overcoming fatigue, mood swings, and low libido, and emphasize the transformative impact of hormone replacement therapy for both men and women in midlife. Learn how addressing hormone imbalances can significantly enhance vitality, well-being, and overall quality of life.

Speaker 1:

all right, let's talk about life-changing experience. We all had. What is this life-changing experience in our midlife madness?

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna get started with this, because I was the one who got us all started with this that's true, that is true so I'm and typically I think it works out that way Like I'm usually the one to try all the random stuff first. I don't know why I'm like the easiest person sold ever. Like you want to talk about being influenced?

Speaker 1:

Remember your posh spice, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but I think everything happens to you first and then it trickles down to us.

Speaker 2:

It could be that as well. So here's here's my personal story, and then I think it's going to ring true for a lot of people that are listening, just because I know that in my friend circle it has now rang true for every single person as they hit a certain age, right. So, as I don't know if you guys know or not, but you know we are inspire weight loss. We all own weight loss centers in our respective towns and my weight kept going up and up and up and up about two years ago like horribly I think it was you know, I don't know what it was.

Speaker 2:

It could have been menopause. It could have been post COVID, it could have been you know a variety of you know of stressors, of things, what have you? Uh, but remember how puffy you were too. I was so swollen Like I felt so unhealthy and I could lose maybe 10 pounds and then I would gain 15 back as soon as I like ate anything out of. You know our protocol which isn't.

Speaker 3:

You didn't eat bad.

Speaker 2:

You don't eat bad. You know, I have days that I don't eat well.

Speaker 3:

You like your sweets, like a lot of us, but I don't you know, like it's just.

Speaker 2:

It's one of those things I was like this is not normal, this is not right. I know that I'm doing most things well and I know that, for what I do, I should not be at this point in my life, and I think you know it's. It's a moment of like being honest with yourself. Like, do you eat clean most of the time? Are you a heavy drinker? Are you eating a ton of fast food and processed junk? And if those are yeses, then you know, maybe change those things a little bit, because there's no hormone that's going to fix your bad habits. However, um, if you are genuinely trying and you're not seeing any positive change, you should really consider checking out your hormones and the reason. So it was the most random thing. I Googled a doctor in my town and when they answered the phone they were the most pleasant, right. So you never know, cause I called like three different offices and they were honestly not nice and I was like I'm not gonna give you a impression.

Speaker 1:

It's really important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm not talking to you, I agree, and so I went to see this wonderful doctor, and you know, it turns out that, even though some of my lab panels were showing normal um, they were that it was not normal for me. So that's something else that you also need to consider when you go to these places is, if somebody is telling you that everything is normal, but you don't feel normal, find somebody who's going to look deeper at what your normal is supposed to be.

Speaker 3:

You know. You know how you feel and you know how you're supposed to feel, especially if something has changed.

Speaker 2:

And so it turns out, you know, my thyroid, even though it was showing within range, was not um, my inflammatory markers were through the roof and basically I wasn't in full menopause. That's the interesting thing, I wasn't in full menopause. That's the scary part, right, like what would have happened if I had waited two more years? Um, I wasn't in full menopause, but all my hormones were all jacked up. So you know, doc, put me on everything. Okay, like he. You know he, um, this guy is treats aggressively. I think he, this guy is treats aggressively. I think more so than other hormone people. But it's worked for me and everybody has a different process, right? But I guess what I'm trying to get at is the importance of going through this process of middle age with balanced hormones will make you feel substantially less insane.

Speaker 3:

But that's, that's a valid statement. That's a valid statement as we all chuckle, as you said that, because I think the three of us have certainly experienced that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we have the WTF moments, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But listen. It affects everything it does. It does. It affects whether you can lose weight and keep it off. It affects whether you could go to the gym and see a difference in your workouts. Right, if you're exercising like a beast and you're not seeing your muscles grow. You're not seeing your body lean out. And again back to being honest. Right, if you leave the gym and treat yourself to McDonald's on the way home because you did a great job, there's a good chance your workouts aren't going to work. Right.

Speaker 1:

It affects everything. I mean it affects your sleep. It affects if you're nice to people or not. It affects your mood. It affects your anxiety. It affects if you're nice to people or not. It affects your mood. Anxiety yeah, you can start like if you you haven't been like an anxious person your whole life and all of a sudden you're anxious. You know vaginal dryness. I mean there's like every full intercourse, painful intercourse. I mean there's like so many different things, even thinking for the day.

Speaker 1:

Yes, Brain fog, concentration, memory loss. It's crazy, that's crazy. That's why it's midlife madness.

Speaker 2:

It's a freaking madness, but I guess here's the thing and it's so different and men go through it too to an extent. It's called andropause and men go through some of it, but I think the huge difference is that men's testosterone. Men are basically testosterone dominant and they are driven by testosterone majorly their entire life. Yes, they have some estrogen, they have other hormones in their balancing, but primarily it's a testosterone driven body right For men and they start losing their testosterone slowly but surely in their mid thirties and it's just a steady, it's a steady decline, right, it just starts dropping, dropping, dropping, so they might not be as interested in sex. They might just kind of lose interest in general. They might just kind of lose interest in general. They start getting puffy around the middle. They get the dad bod right and that is a decrease in testosterone.

Speaker 2:

Women have all these cycles that go up and down every month and that's you know. That's why sometimes we get moody, like all those things. Yes, it is, it's valid, right. We have all these cycles. Our bodies work cyclically. Men are just our bodies work cyclically and when those cycles just stop, right, it's like the weirdest thing, like all of a sudden your body has no more progesterone. It's done, it's over.

Speaker 2:

It's no more estrogen, no more testosterone there's all those things play a role in women's bodies. We're not. We're not simple. We're not simple. Critters, right. And if most medical practitioners have no idea what to do with your hormones, they just don't. It's not that they don't want to, it's just not something that they've been taught.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it's not something that they're. They really are taught to look at the numbers in a different way. They'll run the numbers and they say oh yeah, you're in menopause, You're okay, you know, you're just. You're just in menopause, You're okay. Yeah, no, I'm not, you know. And a big telltale sign is you know, Dr Marty, you brought up going to the gym, and if your nutrition is good and you're going to the gym and you're doing good resistance but you're not building muscle, then why? What's going on? You have no testosterone, you need to build muscle. You have no testosterone, you need to build muscle. You know so. So there's a lot of different things that that happen. That that puts, puts us through the ringer it does 100 percent um.

Speaker 1:

And also, not to mention we've mentioned, like all these different symptoms, but also you're more prone if your, your hormones are out of whack. You're more prone to certain chronic diseases too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, prone to some cancers as well. Like it, way back when and I think this is like the fear that all of us had before we started it, because I because I mean I was scared. You know, I grew up my mom saying hormones are really bad for you.

Speaker 1:

Hormone therapy is awful for you, you're supposed to suffer through all of this, yeah, suffer through all of it and not do anything about it that's still the mentality, yeah that's still the mentality you know I get it from, like some of these.

Speaker 3:

Some of the medical doctors see the primary. You know the ob-gyn. Oh oh, you shouldn't be on estrogen for longer than a certain period of time because of this, but they don't see the studies on it too. So you know there's a lot of different factors of what you're taking and how you're taking it and the reason why.

Speaker 1:

Mm, hmm, yeah, and with everything, with every everything under the sun, you have to monitor and take you know and make sure you have follow ups and make sure you check your counts and all these type of things to make sure that you're good. But you don't have to suffer through all of these, all this madness, all these symptoms, yeah, all these negative symptoms. Yeah, all these negative, horrible symptoms, symptoms so what have you started your your hormone replacement therapy? How do you feel now, after that?

Speaker 2:

well, um, adulting still sucks, so the hormones didn't fix that, um, but okay, so I sleep at night, which is nice. The hot flashes went away instantaneously, so that whole. You wake up at four o'clock in the morning and you're like you're drenched in sweat. No, that, that, no, no, no more. Thank you. I've been able to keep my weight steady. I was able to lose the weight because I had gained like almost 70 pounds. I'm five foot four. That's a lot. Okay, that's a lot if you're six foot tall, but at five foot four, that's a lot, especially when you know my entire life, growing up up until I was up, until I had kids, honestly, which I think is when my hormones went downhill. I was always very small, I was always very petite, and so I've been able to lose weight, um, and I've been able to keep it off. I think this is the first year in my adult life, post children, that I have weighed the same for a year straight post-children that I have weighed the same for a year straight.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and and and. Your nutrition is still the same as as it was. I mean some changes in things, but essentially it's the same. And it's so powerful to know that, hey, this can be adjusted, this can be fixed, it can make your life a little bit easier, you know it's such a it's, it's such a freedom to know that.

Speaker 2:

Okay, this weekend I'm meeting some great lifelong friends at the beach with our families, and this weekend I'm not going to be eating the cleanest and I probably will have a couple of drinks, not a lot, because alcohol is not my friend any longer Since I've hit middle age, you know. So I'll moderate, obviously, because you know I don't want to come back feeling awful all week. Right, it used to be a hangover, was a couple of hours, and as you get older now it's like a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so. So I'll moderate myself, obviously, but it's just so. It's such a relief to know that this weekend I don't really have to watch myself, and even if I gain a pound or so over the weekend, it'll come right off but that's part of that, but what you just said is part of like a normal and natural, sustainable way I understand, but it hasn't happened in 20 years I know.

Speaker 1:

Dr Mari, what about, like the shoulder pain that you had too?

Speaker 2:

You had some like pain that you were going through. Okay, and that's all part of the inflammatory process, of all your hormones leaving. Okay, I did not know this. I did not know this. I had plantar fasciitis for almost two years straight. I couldn't exercise, I could barely walk. Listen, I couldn't go shopping. You know how tragic that is. That's a problem for you.

Speaker 1:

That's a problem. That's not a problem for me, but for you it's a problem.

Speaker 3:

I kind of got tired of hearing her complain about her feet hearing her complain about her feet.

Speaker 2:

It hurt, I know it was. It's an awful kind of pain and nothing would take care of it, nothing would fix it. I tried acupuncture. I tried. It was like oh my gosh and my frozen shoulder. I could not move my arm, this arm right here could not move. It couldn't do anything. I was literally like this, getting dressed. It was horrible and I'm like I am 50 years old, like is this it? Is it over? Am I done? Yeah, because, yeah, I literally couldn't. Um, I couldn't move my arm, I couldn't walk comfortably. I was like why am I eating clean? Like what's the what's the point? Yeah, here myself, if my body's gonna betray me, which is honestly what it felt like now you're living your best life.

Speaker 1:

I am.

Speaker 2:

I don't know about my best life.

Speaker 3:

I could imagine a better well you're definitely not as crazy always I can vouch for that. You're definitely not as cranky I can vouch for that.

Speaker 2:

You're definitely not as cranky, much easier now to deal with her. I think it's a lot easier to not hate the world when you feel like yourself yeah, when you feel like yourself, and I think that's when the anxiety is gone, when the panic attacks are not happening for no reason. I mean every once in a while it's a valid reason to have a panic attack. But you know depression a lot of people go through depression when they're mental health the life change.

Speaker 1:

You don't know how to deal with it, like what's the hormones affect that you know, when you look in the mirror and you hate everything you see.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's depressing, and how you feel you're trying. Yeah, you feel awful, you look awful, but you're trying, but nothing's working. And if this is where you are, if you're somebody's listening and this is where you are, we can help you with that. Yeah, we've discovered.

Speaker 1:

We've discovered a way, yeah, we can help you with that also, like, not only dealing with how you're, how you're feeling and like this new version of yourself that you that came like almost overnight, um, also you have to deal with how, how to deal with people around you that don't understand the why you're feeling that way and why you're operating this way and and and. Sometimes you don't want to operate this way. Sometimes you know you. You just you're just trying to figure out how to deal with this new you yeah, um, and new symptoms and all these different things that that are happening. You have to deal with yourself and you have to deal with those around you too.

Speaker 1:

And then you have to stay productive, like if you work, if you have children, if you have like you have to push through, push through the fatigue, push through, like all of these things that still function in life and do the things that are required in your life. So it's a lot to handle. It's a lot.

Speaker 3:

Listen, we women, we women really go through a lot, but we still really try and focus and get our stuff done. A lot of things don't slow us down and it's harder, harder. We just keep going.

Speaker 1:

You know, your hormone.

Speaker 3:

So Dr Marty became the guinea pig. Um, you know, we were talking, I'm like, when she was telling me about this, I'm like, no, I haven't, I haven't, I haven't experienced hot flashes, I haven't. And then I remember, I can tell you exactly. It was like about four years ago. I'm cleaning and all of a sudden I'm like, oh, where's that heat coming from? I'm like, huh, I'm like, oh, like I started like getting flush. I'm like what's going on?

Speaker 1:

Knowing outside, but you're in Florida.

Speaker 3:

I actually I was in Florida I'm like I'm just cleaning the counters. I'm like I'm not breaking it. I'm like, okay, I'm like I'm just cleaning the counters. I'm like I'm not breaking it. I'm like, okay, I'm like, well, let me, let me bring the AC down a little more. So I had it 65 and I'm like, okay, I'm like it was just hot in here, and then it kept happening, and then it kept happening. Now let's back up a little bit. Now I had lost over over 100. I want to say it was like 130 pounds right Years ago and I've always, you know, I had maintained it.

Speaker 3:

You lost a whole human. I lost the whole human diet and exercise. It wasn't easy, but I did it, you know, and I maintained it and it was easy to maintain. And then, at that same time, I started noticing huh started creeping up, like despite, like my diet, you guys know, like my diet, you know pretty good, I don't drink sodas.

Speaker 3:

I don't, you know, really, I don't. I don't even know how to order vegetables yeah, I like vegetables, right, um, I don't even know how to order at a fast food place I very rarely go and we cook meals at my house, you know and I started noticing, like this weight creep creeping up and I'm like what the? You know what's going on. And then I started to notice now, you guys know I am not a good sleeper. No, no, to begin with, I've never, I've never been a good sleeper. But I noticed that that little bit of sleep that I get at night, the quality changed. And then I noticed that I wasn't sleeping, or sleeping less, and I was tired. And then I noticed that I used to love to read books and I noticed I didn't have that focus anymore and Donna's sitting on her couch, falling asleep on her couch.

Speaker 3:

I mean, just have that visual it's, but it's true, right, like you guys joke, right, we've been together where you guys turn on a movie and you guys aren't watching the movie, you're watching me fall asleep as soon as that movie turns on. It's entertaining, yeah, so guilty of that. I am so guilty of that, yeah. So you know, all these different things started happening and I'm like, huh, you know, dr Marty's, like you really should go see. You know, it's gotta be your hormones and I'm like you know what? I think you're right, it's definitely, it's definitely my hormones.

Speaker 3:

Because you know, I started seeing all these different changes and the interesting thing for me is I never felt inflamed. Did I have some knee pain? Yes, but I think that was more because we used to run, we used to do a lot of mileage, we used to run like a lot, and so I had some injuries to my knee. I never really attributed it to that, but I'm sure that played a part in it. But I wound up getting the blood work for the hormones.

Speaker 3:

My hormones, unlike hers, mine were like all low, like there were things that non-existent. But what was really interesting was my cholesterol has always been up like high, despite my good, healthy eating habits, and what we discovered was is I had an autoimmune condition and Hashimoto's. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. It's related to the inflammatory state that your body goes into with with a lot of different things, but what I, what we also discovered, is I had an issue with the thyroid. All of this can tie into the hormone changes, and so my thyroid's under control, my Hashimoto's, my numbers are in a good spot.

Speaker 1:

How good is it, Dr Donna, to know like those sports right, Because? If you hadn't gone through that you wouldn't know that you have Hashimoto's and all these types of things.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and you know what?

Speaker 1:

Knowing is powerful because now you know what to do about it.

Speaker 3:

But the other thing that I didn't know in all my reading and all my research and all this I didn't know that the thyroid related to the high cholesterol, that the Hashimoto's related to the high cholesterol. I got that under control and my cholesterol is perfect.

Speaker 2:

Well, what happens is, if you, another thing that's related to your hormones being out of whack is insulin resistance.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that was going to go right there with it Because I, you know, when I first did my lab work, I turned up, you know, insulin resistant and again we go back to we eat fairly clean, right, but if you know, your hormones play a huge role in keeping all those systems in place. So, once again, if you're going through, you know, and I think like we were made to feel crazy to an extent as women yeah, right, it literally just sounded like something exploded in the building next door to me. That's nice, I think. I think, as women, were made to feel crazy when we start experiencing a lot of these symptoms midlife.

Speaker 2:

Even if you're just crazy even if you're younger right, even if you're in your twenties and thirties and you're having these wild up and down swings during your cycle. That's not normal. No, not normal, right? So you know, take um kind of take stock of yourself and see where your habits can improve, and that's always the first place, right? You don't just want to start taking medication and taking stuff to counteract your bad habits. That's not at all what we're advocating. But I do feel that a lot of times you're doing everything the way you feel is right and you're not seeing any difference. You're not seeing results. Things are getting worse. You're not seeing an improvement. You still have the inflammation. Consider that it's something you haven't looked at yet. Or consider that it's something that maybe your provider isn't versed in, just like they're versed in nutrition.

Speaker 3:

It's not what they do, yeah, but you know what? It's something to keep in mind too, that it's not an overnight change. It takes, um, it takes a good solid year, maybe even a little more, to balance everything out. And and Dr Marty and I are fortunate because you know we, we actually go to the same doctor, um, but you know, um, as long as you find somebody who validates you and who knows what what they're doing and who does testing, the blood testing, because that's important. So they know how to things and how to change things, based on what your lab say and based on how you feel, because how you feel is important.

Speaker 1:

So how do you feel, Dr. Donna?

Speaker 3:

I feel pretty good. Actually, you know I feel pretty good. Um, it's interesting because I I'm in the middle of changing some stuff too. You know, um, to kind of perfect it. To kind of perfect it because, um, I was having issues with gaining muscle, despite me being active and, interestingly enough, in the past, uh, I want to say like maybe three, four months, I gained like five or six pounds of muscle. I didn't change anything of my routine, it's just my hormones were balanced.

Speaker 2:

You know, so that's a nice thing it makes a huge difference.

Speaker 3:

Dr Marty, you brought up, like even young people, like as we, as we women, as we go through our cycles, it affects it. You also have to remember, and you brought it up as well your nutrition plays a part in that, plays a part in in the inflammatory state of your body. The inflammatory state of your body, even though you're not going through the menopause, affects those hormones, yeah, and so there's even a lot of women out there that have infertility, that are overweight and their doctors say you got to lose weight. You know there's a lot of reasons why you got to lose weight, but losing that weight can affect those hormones to balance out that's very in line with like young ladies that have pcos yes, diagnosed with pcos you know, 100 super in line with that.

Speaker 1:

So your quality of life has increased, dr Donna, and you're. You're smiling and is awesome. So now I'm going to tell my story. I was the third one to join the hormone therapy train.

Speaker 3:

She's late, but she's. But she's also younger than us.

Speaker 2:

The funny thing is that I think it was like she went to one. She had lab work done. Let me tell you from my perspective, and then you could tell us what actually physically happened to you, Because Dr Donna and I have been on this like hormone wellness journey, right now for a couple of years now.

Speaker 2:

And so you know, of course we're telling Martha about it and she's like hormones are perfect. I still have all everything I'm supposed to have. I went and had my labs done and I, everything is great. And then, all of a sudden, one month well, this is what happened.

Speaker 1:

I I was having, and that's one of the reasons why I went to get the blood work done. And when I went to get the blood work done with my regular doctor, okay, all my counts were within range. So, and that was told, I'm way far from menopause, which it was confirmed, that that's true, with my functional medicine doctor, but, um, I'm as fertile as a 15 year old. That's what they told me. I'm like, oh crap, I don't.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if that's good news or not, but um, not having a baby at 49 years old, that's for sure. Uh, so I was like man. You know, the doctor's like my counts are perfect. They're within range. They're within range.

Speaker 2:

And now, and I was, that's when you feel crazy and that's one of those?

Speaker 1:

yeah, exactly, and it's. It's cool that we're talking about this because we're it's. My story is a little bit different. I'm 49 years old. I'm a little bit younger than you guys. You guys are more far along in the menopause thing, right? Um, you're our. Each of us, our stories, have different symptoms and different things that we walk through, right. So it's cool for the listeners to to see all the different stories and how everything went down. But, um, I was like man, I'm supposed to be perfect, but I don't feel perfect. You know what I'm saying? So, and being that we're in this industry, I knew something was off. I, because we know we talk to our clients, we guide our clients, right. So now I became the client and I'm like hell, no, it's not perfect. I, my hormones are out of whack. I'm gonna go to a functional medicine doctor that doesn't just look at if the counts are within range. They optimize you. You want to. You don't want to live life within range.

Speaker 2:

You don't want to be average, right, you don't want to be average. You don't want to be average. I want to.

Speaker 1:

I want to kick ass and take names, and in order to do that, I need to feel that I'm I'm walking in optimal health.

Speaker 1:

That's what I want to kick ass and take names and in order to do that, I need to feel that I'm walking in optimal health. That's what I want to feel like Now. For me, I'm the sporty spice. I love working out, I love all the things, and I was feeling like really fatigued and tired so I wasn't like working out as consistent as I always. I mean, I'm a 75 hard person, meaning I like to work out twice a day. I love that purpose.

Speaker 1:

She does this on purpose I do, I do this on purpose, I do um and I just don't. I I was so tired and I wouldn't, I wouldn't work out every day.

Speaker 1:

I'm not a sweets person, and now it's like you know the hormonal cravings at nighttime. So now I want something sweet. My breasts were so dense that I couldn't do a mammogram because they were so dense and hard that I had to do ultrasounds because we had to really see if, make sure my breasts are okay. But there was so much pain. My breasts were tender and in pain three weeks out of four weeks a month. I was fighting. I was bleeding three weeks out of four weeks a month. Not only that, I was super irritated. I was snap on my husband for no reason whatsoever and then it's like an out of body experience. I snapped and then I was like what the heck? Why did I snap? Why did I do that?

Speaker 2:

it was like you feel crazy, yeah, and then it's just. It's hard to explain sometimes yeah only a woman going, only a woman going through. It understands what the heck.

Speaker 1:

Um, I was. I'm super productive, I'm a very um my, my every minute of my day is earmarked to get something done and I would. I wasn't as productive. I had a lot of brain fog, memory loss, like I cannot even remember what I did last week. You know, it was just bad, yeah. And low libido, like sex wasn't a thing for me, because I it's like no, there's no desire whatsoever. All that I had all of those symptoms. So I was I'm like, okay, I gotta go optimize my hormones. So I went to I I I actually I think it was you, dr Marty I called or texted Dr Marty, I'm like I need to go see a hormone specialist. Help me find somebody. So I went to a functional medicine doctor and he did the whole panel, the hormone panel, and looked at all the things and he did confirm that I'm in good health. I also have the high cholesterol cholesterol too, dr Donna, and being that I work out every day and I eat healthy. You know it is in my family, but still right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So anyways, long story short, I'm estrogen dominant, so that's the only thing with my hormones. Is that too much estrogen? So my functional medicine doctor put me in a very low dose of progesterone bioidentical hormone and I felt the results like the benefits of it right away. Like right away.

Speaker 1:

I bet your breasts don't hurt of it right away, like right away. I bet your breasts don't hurt my breasts. Listen, my breasts have not hurt a day since I and I've been on it for three months. Um, a day, I I'm not bleeding anymore. Um, I, I'm always, I've always been a good sleeper. Like too much sleep, because I can sleep nine or 10 hours a day.

Speaker 3:

So jealous of both of you because you guys are both good sleepers.

Speaker 1:

So now I'm an even better sleeper. I'm not sure if that's good or not, but I'm an even better sleeper. I don't have any of the symptoms. I'm super productive as well. I'm back at working out, so I'm good. We're still tweaking a little bit because there's some things. I'm not 100% yet. I just started three months ago.

Speaker 3:

And as you get older, things will change.

Speaker 2:

because when I first started they didn't put me on the estradiol because I didn't need it. Same thing with me and then, all of a sudden, I don't know if I'm nicer now.

Speaker 1:

We'll have to ask my husband, gus. I don't remember snapping on him anytime lately, but I am, I, I can, I can tell that I'm like like my mood, um, is it's better? Uh, so yeah, and even even when, like life is good, like you, know, life is. And then you're in these moods like why am I in this mood? Life?

Speaker 3:

is good, you know it's almost like everything that everything irritates you, like the smallest little thing irritates you and can send you over the edge like a crazy person.

Speaker 2:

You feel crazy.

Speaker 3:

That's the best way to say it you feel crazy.

Speaker 2:

And then when you have your labs done with your you know regular practitioner, and they look at you and they tell you everything is normal, yeah, and in your mind you're like, well, maybe I am crazy because I don't feel normal.

Speaker 3:

I don't better, that's what they do Just lose weight, you'll feel better. You gain 10 pounds. If you lose that 10 pounds, if you lose that 20 pounds, you'll feel better.

Speaker 1:

Look, last night I went I have a client, 55-year-old, female. Okay, all of us and I was going through the hormone replacement therapy assessment that we go through at Inspire and I was asking her about her energy levels, I was asking her about her libido, I mean everything, depression, sweating, all the things like, and she's like and the options are never. And she's like and the options are never, rarely, occasionally and severely, and she's like severe, severe, severe, severe. And as I was asking her the questions, her eyes were like opening, like, oh my God, somebody understands me.

Speaker 3:

Somebody believes me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, finally somebody understands what I'm going through and so we're putting her. So she, she, um, opted in for hormone replacement therapy at inspire uh, with our partners, youthful md and um. She's starting, she's gonna get her lab work done and she's going to go through the medical clearance and she's so excited because you know, just like we were there, finally somebody understands her and doesn't just say, no, your hormones are good, just go you're fine, just go lose weight and lose weight like no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1:

There's so much more to that, there's so much right. So then, from our stories, we're like dude yep we are. Inspire weight loss like we're we are the avatar. We are our clients.

Speaker 2:

I have to bring this to inspire I fully think that all of us began our offices like this weight loss portion of our offices as a result, to think changes we made our personal story, yeah absolutely. You know, we didn't just say like a weight loss center sounds like a good idea. We all did something and it was transformational to our lives and then we brought it.

Speaker 1:

We want to pay it Right.

Speaker 2:

So this is kind of the same thing, same thing yeah.

Speaker 1:

Like now we know something else.

Speaker 2:

Now we're trying to show you what else we've learned right, we're on a hormone mission, yep, so yeah.

Speaker 3:

So now, we brought it to Inspire and we're super excited about.

Speaker 1:

Like you said, help our clients because, look, we have a weight loss right and our clients do amazing on our weight loss. Imagine that we can also help them with their hormones and they're going to be their weight loss is going to be off the charts, amazing. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

They're going to keep it off.

Speaker 3:

They're going to be able to keep it off, but not only that those are, those are really those are really nice things, but we're validating how you're actually feeling and we have a solution. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

You might actually be crazy and we understand that, but there's a reason why it's your hormones.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's all hormones. Man, we're a ball of hormones, right? Yep Wow.

Speaker 3:

And you know what? That's the difference between men and women. Because all the women come into the office and they say my husband's overweight, but if he thinks about it the next day, he's down 10 pounds, and it's. It's. That's the difference. It's the hormones that are really, really messing us women up, and they change.

Speaker 1:

And let me tell you the men, we have hormone replacement therapy for men too at Inspire, and let me tell you that I have a couple of men around me that that has had to do hormone replacement therapy for the testosterone is very common that they have to start age 35. Yeah, 35 is taking a dive and it's very depressing for men because, you know, I am a man, you know yeah, vitality that's their vitality, but it's not talked about.

Speaker 3:

It's not talked about like it is for women. You know, and and and men don't talk about it.

Speaker 2:

Maybe they'll mention to their buddies, I think when men in general let let's just in general when we talk about testosterone, you're thinking bodybuilders in the gym, in a back alley, taking the stereotype, taking stuff that's probably not even necessarily legal You're going to look like this. That is not what we are discussing. Yeah, that is not what we are discussing. Yeah, that is not what we're discussing for women or for men. Um, you know, we're talking about optimizing not you know, optimizing for your best.

Speaker 3:

You yeah, whatever that is, these all these hormones are present in our bodies.

Speaker 2:

We're naturally present in our body.

Speaker 3:

As you get older, they change, they deplete, and so you're not going to feel the way you felt in your 30s, in your 40s. Why? What's the reasoning? You know, bring the hormones back up.

Speaker 2:

Feel good again. But this is what we get old, especially women. This is what we get old. This is why our bones get frail. This is why you become weak. This is why you lose your muscle. This is why because it's the lack of hormones. So, if you want to, you want to not get old fast.

Speaker 3:

This is how I sometimes. I sometimes think about and I'm like huh, one day when I'm old and in a nursing home hopefully that never happens in a nursing home but I'm like, huh, how am I going to do my hormone replacement therapy while I'm there?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I told. I told doc. I was like, uh, you're not allowed to die. I'm like you're not allowed to retire, you're not allowed to die. He just started laughing.

Speaker 1:

Well, listen, I and we all are super excited that now we have this service line for our clients, and fire and and I I'm hoping that we can interview our, you know, in midlife madness podcast are a client that that have conquered the midlife madness and can can smile and laugh on the other side.

Speaker 1:

They're on the other side and and that's why you know it's so we're. I'm super grateful I'm sure you guys are that we get to do this. You know every single day, and so let's continue this podcast. We're going to talk about everything midlife madness.

Speaker 1:

you know the good the ugly all the things, because there is a lot, but I have to tell you, this topic this topic is pot is probably the top of the list man, Top of the list for anybody out there that's going through through these, all these symptoms that we've talked about, and so, yeah, I'm so glad that we're talking about it.

Speaker 2:

I would have to say nine out of 10 people experience very symptomatic life changes during middle age men and women and I think they've been just led to believe that it's normal, that it's okay.

Speaker 3:

Well, they may not even recognize that it's happening.

Speaker 2:

But that's what I'm saying. They're told it's being normalized and it's being told this is just what happens. Yeah, yeah, and we're telling you that that's not the case that well that's, that's what happens with our mothers.

Speaker 3:

Right, yes, it happens. Right, you gotta live through the hot flashes they eventually stop. You gotta live through the craziness it eventually stops. Or you get used to it or you remain crazy, you know. And so that's not the case now, because there's so many different things that you can do to help alleviate all these symptoms and to go back to a normal self Hormone replacement therapy is one of those things.

Speaker 1:

So if you're listening out there, you know Inspire Weight Loss. We have functional medicine now at Inspire Weight Loss. Make sure you seek help. It's okay to seek help and, yeah, let's keep the conversation going because it's not something that's talked about as freely and it needs to be.

Speaker 2:

All right till next time Word.