128: Female Sex Hormones Explored

If you’ve ever been told hot flashes are “just part of aging,” we’re calling that out for what it is: an incomplete story that keeps women stuck in unnecessary suffering. We sit down and get brutally practical about the hormones most people reduce to sex and reproduction, even though estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone influence your brain, mood, sleep, joints, muscle, bone density, cardiovascular health, and day-to-day drive. When ovaries start to go offline, the swings can feel like a roller coaster, and it can start earlier than you think.

We break down what each hormone does, what “estrogen dominance” can look like, and why progesterone often shows up in the conversation as the calm and sleep-supporting counterweight. Then we go straight into the most misunderstood one right now: testosterone. We talk about the real-world care gap women face, why some clinicians still hesitate, and why other countries are far more comfortable treating it. Sam shares her personal journey through hysterectomy, outdated medical guidance, and the long road back from feeling depleted, plus what she wishes she had done sooner.

We also map out the major treatment paths people actually use: patches, oral progesterone, creams and gels, pellets, and targeted options like vaginal estrogen or vaginal DHEA that can be a game changer for tissue health and recurrent UTIs. We explain why labs can be a snapshot in time and why symptom tracking and patient feedback matter so much, especially when your goal is to optimize rather than just survive.

If you want deeper learning, we name the experts and shows we trust, including Dr Stacey Sims, Dr Vonda Wright, Cynthia Thurlow, Dr Kelly Casperson, Dr Sharon Malone, and Dr Mary Claire Haver. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs the memo, and leave a review so more women can find this conversation.

Follow Coach Polly @getbusythriving and Coach Sam @thesamanthapruitt 

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Transcript

Why Sex Hormones Matter

Polly Mertens 0:28

Hey superstars, welcome back. Polly here and Sam Pruitt. What's up, beautiful humans? Today it's all about your homeworms and your power, what women need to know. How about this topic for us, right?

Samantha Pruitt 0:42

Just thinking about it.

Polly Mertens 0:44

Have we been talking about this a little bit or a lot of bit lately with people in our lives? And I was like, I was telling somebody, I was like, oh yeah, you should go. Samantha, I'm sure we've recorded an episode. And then I looked back at our episodes and I'm like, I'm sure we've talked about this, but never done like a whole episode on this. So this is all about the sex hormones. As we, you know, we did our last episode was on the feel-good hormones, right? Dopamine and serotonin. Today is about what? Sam.

Samantha Pruitt 1:08

I'm sexy, and I know it. People think that they are hormones that just are specific to your sex organs and your sexuality and your sexual function, etc. That is a misnomer, radically inaccurate accurate. We should not even call them sex hormones. Okay, it is true that based on if you're born male or female, then the hormonal makeup and the organ system that you have that produces sense hormone hormones is unique to that sexual identity at birth. But I don't mean shit. I mean, these these hormones are critical. A lot more to the story. Yeah. And I've been pretty hardcore into this for like maybe the last five years because my personal story, I really should have gotten more involved and more educated earlier. So that's why I guess I'm so passionate about it now, is I feel like, hey, don't do what I did. By the way, this is a common thread in my life. Don't do what I did.

Polly Mertens 2:16

Let me be able to do that. And now we're the evangelist. We are like women, like we want to bring the hormone and the menopausal conversation out of the freaking closet. It's like, talk, talk, talk about it, people. Talk about it, you know.

Samantha Pruitt 2:35

Yes, talk about it. And last year I got certified under Dr. Stacey Sims. It was specifically hormones, perimenopause, menopausal women, and body function in fitness and health and performance. And I have all that knowledge, and that's a whole other subcategory, if you will, deeper dive over here. We'll have to do it a later date. Today we're basically like introducing the three types of hormones. Actually, there's technically four, because there's a couple different types of estrogens. And then why should you care? Yeah. So why should you care?

Polly Mertens 3:09

So let's go into the three top, you know, like tell us what the three are. What are we going to talk about? And then what do you, you know, what do they do? Like just a little overview on, you know, like a cliff notes. Because people probably heard these names, but and maybe if there's anything unusual that like people don't know this, you know. So share, share with us the three. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Samantha Pruitt 3:27

Well, most people are have awareness around estrogen, and there's different types of estrogen, and they have different functions in your body, but there is a bucket called estrogen, okay, and then there is progesterone, which is the counter to estrogen, the the balancing hormone to estrogen. And it has progesterone has its own tasks and responsibilities in the body, just like the estrogens do. Yeah. And then there's testosterone. Okay, and this is the hottest thing in women's health right now because forever it was thought of as a men's hormone that men made testosterone and women, women didn't, which is complete bullshit. And also men make estrogen. They don't just make testosterone. So we make all the sex hormones, we just make them in varying degrees, and at different times in our life, they serve different purposes. But again, they're like elemental to the foundation of this physical body I'm walking around in the world trying to operate with and stay healthy.

Polly Mertens 4:27

Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's surprising when I so in my 20s, I had a thyroid, you know, I'll call it a malfunction or dysfunction, right? And that's when I learned like how much thyroid interacts with all these organs and all these things, regulates your blood pressure, regulate, you know, all these things, your body temperature. It's like, damn, you get out of whack with that. Shit gets off, you know. And so I think estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, they surprisingly, yeah, sexual function, or think we'll think of your ovaries or you, you know, stop bleeding, menopause, things like that. But you've told me things that I was like, seriously? You know, so so let's start with estrogen. So estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Start with estrogen. Why is it important beyond like sex hormones or reproduction?

Samantha Pruitt 5:12

Yeah, and just another quick side note on why they're called sex hormones is because in Western medicine, drugs have been created to you know, offset or support or however you want to do it, the dysfunction of these hormones. And those drugs are generally categorized by sexual function. So, for example, if a female is trying to get pregnant and make babies, whether they're successful or not or whatever, generally we look at their hormones to see if they're functioning or not. So it's how Western medicine has taught us and educated us around therapies and especially drug therapies to cure or solve reproductive nature issues or sexual function nature issues. And that's why we think of them as sex hormones. But we don't go into our regular doctor or MD or our natural path or whoever we see, and we're like, hey, we'd like to examine all the hormones and make sure that these hormones are meeting all the systems of the body. We're just they don't look at us like that, so we don't think of ourselves that way. So that's the empowering part is we need to understand that all of these have a role, and it's our responsibility to understand the role and then go forward proactively with those conversations. So I just wanted to kind of double rant on that.

Polly Mertens 6:32

Yeah, so estrogen, you know, a lot of I think it comes into a conversation. And it's funny, as as you were talking, I was thinking, like, actually, I know somebody, like a lot of women, as they go into perimenopause and menopause,

Estrogen Beyond Reproduction

Polly Mertens 6:44

the estrogen levels start to fluctuate and sort of drop, is what we typically see. And I know a couple of women that actually have an abundance, like too much estrogen, right? Like they're they've got the antithesis of it, and I'm not sure exactly what the causes are of that. But so what are you know some some implications of estrogen in the body? What what or what function is it helping? What is it tied to? What if you yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 7:08

And by the way, all those things do happen. You'll get basically swings. So most females will experience both swings, so the ebbing and the flowing. And it's basically you have ovaries, right? And your ovaries are going offline. They are slowly dysregulating, and then eventually they completely go offline. They go to sleep, they're no longer serving a purpose. You have only so many eggs and only so many years for the body to have a need for said ovaries.

Polly Mertens 7:39

So and estrogen is produced from the ovaries, or it's signaled by the body to produce it because ovaries are it's produced by them.

Samantha Pruitt 7:47

Yeah. Okay. And you can have other estrogens in your body stored in your body over your lifetime that will also sometimes cause what's called estrogen dominance, is sort of a common term for it, too. So it does get stored in your body fat. So there's other things that happen with that estrogen circulating. Or circulating and unopposed, and that will lead to estrogen dominance, like you just sort of were referring to, where there's too much in the body and it's free circulating and it's wreaking havoc. So that can be a lot of bleeding, a lot of additional body fat all of a sudden, lots of mood swings, lots of hot flashes, lots of really uncomfortable stuff. And that actually can happen in men too, and does happen in men. And sometimes we have to be honest about the conversations of like, what's in our environment? What are we taking in? What's my body composition? What's the overall health of my body? And why do I have so much free circulating estrogen? When I say free circulating, I mean that the other hormones haven't come and attached themselves and put that estrogen to work. Okay, progesterone, okay, testosterone, now let's go do something. What's our function in the body? Where are we gonna go? Do we have work to do?

Polly Mertens 8:59

So with too much of it floating around. So if you have like twice as much estrogen to progesterone kind of thing, then the estrogen is just free and it's like not doing its job or what it's designed to do because it's not attaching the other system.

Samantha Pruitt 9:12

Yeah, you can kind of think of it like a free radical because it causes inflammation too. Yeah, so it's very pro-inflammatory when you have excess estrogen on board. So in pyramenopause, that's a pretty normal state for women to find themselves in. High inflammation, aka high suffering, right? Like that's where the symptoms are coming from. And then there can be that chasm of the dip where it goes away and now they're depleted. Or you could have like I had a hysterectomy, so I had my o my ovaries stayed in, but I lost my uterus, uterus to surgery. Uh, you know, I opted into that. When I was 43, I had to actually do the math. I was 43, and that's because I was already in perimenopause in my late 30s due to my autoimmune disease. Wow. So lots of women go in early and lots of women go in late. So there is no set timeline for this peramenopausal to menopause, which is a day in your life, post-menopause world. There's no one way, there's no right way, wrong way, there's no number. So we really want to make sure we impart that to women too, is it can be happening at any time, and you need to have awareness to what's going on in your body.

Polly Mertens 10:26

Yeah, so let's hit the other two just to get them on the table here. So, so estrogen, it's it, I mean, some of the things it impacts brain health, skin, mood, cardiovascular, bone. Uh you have told me like cellularly, you know, it triples down and stuff. So progesterone, tell us what what is progesterone's function or what does it impact, or it sounds like it works a lot with estrogen.

Samantha Pruitt 10:47

Yeah. And the latest research on estrogen that's coming out that's super cool, is about how it affects your microbiome, which is your gut health. I need to hear that, of course. Is everything as we've discussed a thousand times about I'm gonna get a shirt and I heard this shirt. How's your gut? No, it says my microbiome made me do it. I have to have that shirt. I'm freaking you need that shirt. You're even much you're a bigger than me.

Polly Mertens 11:15

Well, and you know, well, oh, that's a whole episode right there. That was fascinating because we're basically driven and living by our bugs, you know. Wow, okay, all right. Let's talk about progesterone, progesterone, progesterone. Okay, so I'll just say a couple. So calming effects, right? Sleep support and anxiety, you know, it's related to soft tissue.

Samantha Pruitt 11:35

It's really important in soft tissue regeneration and quality of the

Progesterone For Calm And Recovery

Samantha Pruitt 11:39

soft tissue.

Polly Mertens 11:40

So, is that like the joint?

Samantha Pruitt 11:42

So it's your tendons, your ligaments that are supporting your joints. It's, you know, what's going on with my the quality of my skin. But like, so a lot of women that have estrogen and progesterone imbalances and feramenopause and menopause start having joint issues, pain, more tendinitis, more are more prone to injuries. And it's because of the depletion of those hormones to help support the soft tissue. That to me is a really important thing that many we'll we'll give a list of experts at the end because the science is there. It's just you in going into a traditional annual exam, if women are even doing that, by the way, um, they're not going to be able to have these conversations in 15 minutes with a practitioner who's also doing their pelvic exam and their breast exam, right? Like they're in and they're not really experts in this a majority of the time because they went to school whenever they did. They got the knowledge that was available in the Western medicine space, and they're highly educated in that. And most of that is disease treatment. Or in this case, it would be the birthing of babies and getting pregnant and all that stuff. And they're they're experts in that, but they just it's just kind of bizarre to think that that isn't part of the educational program.

Polly Mertens 12:55

Not enough. Yeah, you and there's so much coming out about it, too. I mean, like from when a lot of the doctors today got educated and less, I mean, and they're working in their practice, they're like head down with cases and files and insurance and stuff like that. Okay, let's put the third one on the table. Testosterone. And why so testosterone energy, muscle, motivation, libido, confidence, drive, like things you think, you know, masculine energy, right? Like, you know, muscular and stuff. So tell us what what are why are women talking about testosterone these days? Like what's the what's the bone?

Samantha Pruitt 13:26

And even bone.

Polly Mertens 13:27

Bone.

Samantha Pruitt 13:28

So, and it's like power output and things of that nature, balancing power output. So if you think about the whole body, this is all the rage right now because it just be got basically FDA approved in Australia. So now 50% of the women in perimenopause and menopause in Australia are on testosterone. This is totally normal. Come over to the USA and we're like, well, that's not approved for women, we got to do a lot more research on that. We just don't know. Really? We just don't know. No, we do not. And that just happened to me. That just happened to me.

Polly Mertens 14:01

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 14:01

I know, and I want you to show your story. But if a man walks in and says something very simple like, I can't get an erection, hey, no problema.

Polly Mertens 14:10

Triple L and you actually, I think okay, so I do want to say if you

Testosterone And Women’s Health Gap

Polly Mertens 14:14

are looking at it for those purposes from my experience. So from somebody that I know, two men that I know, I wouldn't call them menopausal, but older, you know, mature, let's say 40 plus. Definitely the test as the testosterone leaves, you know, the drive, the motivation, the sex, things like that, and the impotence, whatever, like that's very related. And so a lot of them have to go to specialists. Like I knew somebody that would drive two hours to a specialist, get shots, and drive back every week, right? And now I know somebody here in San Obispo who's there's this capsule or some whatever pellets they can put in your butt or something like that that lasts for six months, like $1,000 for testosterone for six months. And people raving about it. I'm not, we're not, I'm not saying do it or whatever like that. I'm just saying some people that I know that it's kind of a thing, you know, a little trendy thing these days.

Samantha Pruitt 15:06

Well, all these hormones come in oral or topical, and a lot of them can be implanted prescription for all the hormones. Prescription. That's a whole other side note, and people should kind of look at each one and see understand how it works in the body and what's going to work for them and all that kind of stuff. But testosterone is very popular for, yeah, lots of reasons. But for women, specifically, since we're talking to our female audience right now, also their sexual drive and sexual function and motivation and quality of muscle and quality of bone, all of those things should also be important to them. So I was just kind of saying how interesting it is if a man goes in and asks for something, and you they can get these prescriptions. Actually, most MDs will actually prescribe testosterone. They don't have to go into a men's specific doctor. You're saying talking about people who are, and they're really looking for probably more nuanced conversations or higher doses beyond like what the normal denosage is that's something because they really want to optimize. Conscience level, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And to be clear, optimizing is what we're talking about. So when we say for our females in the audience right now that these hormones are important to your health, can you live without them? Yes, you can. But will you optimize your physical health, your mental and emotional health and well-being, and the quality of your life without them? No, you will not. So, this is a very personal conversation and it's a very personal choice. We are not like pro, you and I do whatever the hell we want. Okay, we're not telling anybody what to do, we're just saying these things are available to you. And if you're interested in knowing more, go get educated. Today we're just gonna scratch the surface and figure out what your value system is and align with that and find practitioners that support your value system. If you're an optimizer, you and I are optimizers, then you're gonna go all in on optimizing. Yeah. You know, if you're cool with the cruise and this is a little bit like how you roll in life, and that's how you feel about your physical body or these things we're talking about, there's no judgment from me. Like more power to you.

Polly Mertens 17:22

Well, and I think you know, there's a group that's just the suffering, you know, there's like a subpar, you know. And so I think a lot of what I love the things that we talk about often is like some people don't know things are available, or some people don't know that that's subpar. Like, no, no, no, you're you're actually, you know, like if we were grading you, it's like your body's not at an A or you know, C level. You're in a D or an F, right? Some people, when they're an F, they know it, the red lining, whatever, you know, go get some treatment. But we're like, there's, you know, there's more available, and we want to let people know.

Samantha Pruitt 17:55

Yeah, well, I'll speak for my own personal story. So I just mentioned that I had a hysterectomy at 43. He, the surgeon, kept my ovaries in, which was a surprise to me, by

A Hysterectomy And Medical Misinformation

Samantha Pruitt 18:04

the way. So the reason I went in is I was bleeding all the time. I was totally anemic. At the time, I was racing and competing and training at a high level in Iron Man, and I had a beer, I was running a business, I was a mother, like all these very busy life. And so, and I had an autoimmune disease. So I had a lot going on, right? And really, it was a pain in my rear to just bleed three or four times a month. And I mean like lots, including that Iron Man that year before I went into surgery. I basically led the whole race. And when I came to the finish line, I was covered in blood all the way down my and people were like, and I was like, this is just normal. That's not good. No, so I he didn't take my ovaries out, and afterwards he informed me that he didn't take my ovaries out because I was too young to have my ovaries taken out. So the ovaries stayed in and proceeded to be the next problem, which was I had polycystic fibroids on my ovaries, I've had hormonal chaos going on because the uterus had been removed, but the ovaries were still around, and they were trying to, so they were still wreaking havoc. Just you know, the housing for the baby was taken out, yeah. But the troublemakers were still hanging out, having a party, trying to do their job. Like, yeah. And at the time I really didn't know better, so I went in complaining of just how horrible I felt and all the pain and all the things that were going on. And the doctor said, We'll put you on birth control. That was the solution at that time. Yeah. Okay, hello. First of all, I can't get pregnant. Second of all, artificial synthetic hormones after I've just had a hysterectomy is insanity. Why would I do that? So, anyway, that was the solution that was available at the time. So I didn't do hormones for a long time because basically I was labeled as high risk based on the women's health study that now has been completely debunked. And basically, back in the day, my parents' generation, for example, and beyond that, a lot of most women used to be on hormones, and then there this women's health study came out and said it's too dangerous, cardiovascular disease, high risk. Well, the reality of that study in hindsight is that those women were 60 years plus. They had been post-menopause for 10 to 15, sometimes 20 years, and they had plenty of other health factors that were indicating towards those disease states. So it wasn't actually correlated with the hormonal therapy. Yeah. And they put me in that bucket because my mother had had breast cancer, and so they put me as high risk, and my grandmother had to have ovarian cancer. So I just dropped into that bucket and they said, Hormones are not for you.

Polly Mertens 20:59

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 20:59

Go home. And they're like, Help me.

Polly Mertens 21:02

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 21:02

Yeah. So I went for a long time with no hormones, and then I just was so miserable. I started to do alternative health care and functional medicine and study holistic health. And I started slowly started dabbling in it. But again, it took a really long time, really up until five years ago, for me to really be like, okay, I'm figuring this out. This is a high priority for me. And again, I want to optimize my health. So I'm going to figure this out. And yeah, finding the practitioners and the resources and all that stuff. Now it's mainstream conversation. Flash forward to the year 2026. It's mainstream conversation. Well, and we're continuing that, you know, like it makes me so happy. Yeah, we're part of that movement. And there's so many highly intelligent scientists, female scientists, and doctors, and I'm a sentence saying the males aren't in on it too. But like women have really taken this on, medical women and professional and scientist women to figure this stuff out. And it's just it's awesome.

Polly Mertens 22:01

Well, it's been under researched. So the amount of funding going on underfunded, sorry, under underfunded, so it's been under researched for so long. It's like, oh, and now people are really throwing it. So let's let's stay on track with like women who are, you know, let's give them some signs and symptoms.

Early Signs You Should Not Ignore

Polly Mertens 22:19

You know, like when when either read a symptom list, it's depressing. No, I'm just kidding. Oh no. I'll add anything that you forget. And no, you don't have to check every box to still look at your hormones, right? You check one of these boxes, it's like hmm, start a conversation, right? And it doesn't have to be redlining, you know, this doesn't have to be extreme, because you're a big fan of like before it gets to, like you said, like stage four, like get on it, right? Optimize. So what are what are the earliest signs of hormone imbalance, either in perimenopause or something that, you know, what should be well honestly, I know you have a little symptoms list, but there's about 30 to 40 symptoms.

Samantha Pruitt 22:57

So there's lots of things that you would never think of that are connected to hormonal disruption and your ovaries going offline specifically. I mean, but the big things are what most women kind of identify with, I should say. They're maybe big or small for whoever it is, right? But like it's night sweats, hot flashes. And you can flash during the day. Lots of women flash during the day, you know, disrupted sleep, weight gain, brain fog, and then just not having drive, whether it's sexual drive or just drive, life drive, motivation, uh, you know, feeling really emotionally turbulent, which is all makes sense if you understand how the hormones work, and you see that they're literally like a tidal wave or a roller coaster is happening during pen perimenopause, which could last for one to ten years, by the way. That's a long time to be suffering. Wow. Yeah. That that feels like shit. And any of those things, plus the other 20 things, if they are actual symptoms that you're experiencing, then you need to be like, huh, I wonder if I'm in perimenopause. Yeah. Now you're still menstruating. So it's not like during perimenopause, you're have to be spotting or have to be irregular or whatever. That doesn't have to be happening at all. You can be totally menstruating. It can be very normal for you, whatever normal is for you, right? Because again, that's completely individual. And you can still be experiencing these things at any level, scale one to ten. And any of those should be like, huh, I wonder if there's a shift going on in my body. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna say it is, because of course it is, and depending on the age, you know.

Polly Mertens 24:47

So, what's the earliest age that people like you said you were what, early 40s or late 30s? You started to have some symptoms.

Samantha Pruitt 24:53

I was late 30s, but it is recorded. There's women in their 20s, honestly, so that can happen, but that's not normal. It's usually about 35. So mid-30s-ish to mid-40s, and then the average age of menopause. So, menopause is a day in your life, one singular day, where you have no longer menstruated for a 12-month period prior. And that average age is 51 in the United States. It's different in other countries. But that number doesn't mean shit. No, I don't want people to get attached to that and be like, well, I'm not 51. So when I'm 51, I'll go into the doctor's office.

Polly Mertens 25:32

It doesn't happen. You could be a high achiever doing it like you, 30, late 30s, going in.

Samantha Pruitt 25:39

An overachiever in this area. But also what I learned for myself, and something that I think is really, really important, the more research and study that I do, and the more knowledge I get about the what's coming out in science is you know, you have to proactively work on this stuff.

Polly Mertens 25:54

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 25:54

What I experienced is I got so depleted, it took me forever to come out of that valley. I mean, I was in a dark valley, right? So, and I just started taking testosterone fairly recently. And I mean, mine was at zero. Okay, that's not okay. Yeah, that's not okay. Yeah, and so zero, if you start at zero and you're trying to get to a hundred, it's gonna take a long ass time for you to get to a hundred because doing hormones however you decide to take them into your body is incredibly nuanced. And then depending on the other state of your health, you know, like what's the function of all my systems in the body to even process these hormones. Right. So I don't want to become estrogen dominant, right? I want to have this connection between these hormones to be working in sync. And this is so individual over time, so they can get up to what I would like to see as my own personal baseline. And again, that's a unique number.

Polly Mertens 26:56

So I'm just gonna not rattle off some symptoms just so we can get them, you know, in people's minds. So you mentioned a bunch of these. So brain fog, anxiety, sleep disruption, night sweats, or hot flashes during the day, or in what do they call them in Australia? Flushes, hot, hot flushes, weight gain, rage or irritability, oops, low libido, right? Exhaustion. Hello. Cycle changes. I have a friend that went from it's uh every time it's 24 and now she or it was 21 and now she's at 24. I have friends that like skipping, some are bleeding more, you know, so life changes. The cycle is changing, right? It's getting longer, you're missing some. Joint pain. That was a surprise for me. Depression, you know, like emotion, right? Loss of motivation and dry skin and hair. That one's I've I checked about like eight of those when I was going through it. Hair loss. Oh my God, the hair loss was crazy. I'm just starting to get a little backup here. I'm happy about that. But yeah, totally, totally. Okay. And again, um let's talk about the treatments and therapy because there's HRT, or maybe that's not what it's called anymore. I think you told me there's something else.

Samantha Pruitt 28:05

Yeah, they don't use the term replacement anymore. And it's because you're not replacing

Hormone Support Options And Tradeoffs

Samantha Pruitt 28:09

what your body was naturally doing, right? So you're either taking bioidentical hormones or synthetic hormones, whatever the hormones you're taking. You're simply supporting its hormone support, like or supplementing with, like we would take vitamins. Okay, I'm gonna take vitamin C, but am I eating an orange? No, I'm not. I'm taking the vitamin C. Am I taking the omega-3 or am I eating salmon? Right. So you can kind of think of it that way. So they just don't call it replacement. You're never gonna get to the body's natural way it was at 25 again, if you're 55. And so having that kind of in your head is just not healthy. And so medical professionals are just have kind of done away with that terminology.

Polly Mertens 28:50

And then you started to touch upon so, like, what are the most common treatments? So so, and I think one thing I want to, or what I've experienced, and you tell me if this is the case, is bioidentical is a little more costly, and you don't get bioidentical from, let's say, prescription from your regular Western medicine doctor. Is that would you say that's accurate, right?

Samantha Pruitt 29:10

Like you have to go to a specialist. Compounded frames, or like you were mentioning, the pellets. So most of those things, a traditional GYN or MD is not going to probably prescribe, and your insurance probably wouldn't pay for those, but they are available. So the pellets go under the skin, and basically the challenge can be again, it's totally personal, that you're putting in a mega dose of whatever this thing is, and then over time it's slowly dripping into your system. So you can easily become overwhelmed, especially with something like an estrogen or a testosterone, which are very powerful hormones. All of a sudden I have a six-month dose you just put in my butt. I mean, I might freaking win some gold medals, but I could also be a lunatic and go off the rails very easily, right? Like some too much of these hormones can also be problematic. Or, like we discussed, having too much estrogen on board at one time in your body and your progesterone and your testosterone not able to balance that can be problematic.

Polly Mertens 30:14

And I definitely think that there's really good experts out there, you know, professionals that that I'm pretty sure is. I remember the person who used to drive two hours. This was, you know, 10 years ago that I'm speaking about this. I'm sure it's changed. But I think he was getting a blood test every time he was going. So like he was Oh God, I hope so. Was monitoring it like on the weekly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was very, you know, but that was not a six-month shot, that was a once-a-week shot. So these six months, I don't know, the monitoring of that. So that's people who want bioidentical, or you want, let's say, the concierge level, maybe the super supersize me instead of optimize, you want supersize. Okay. And then what other ways can you administer or receive estrogen, progesterone, testosterone? What do you think?

Samantha Pruitt 30:55

Yes, we talked about compound creams too, right? So a cream or a gel. So creams and gels are very common, and you basically spread them. Right? Like it's low dose over time, and then it can be progressed. So that's normally what would be a standard experience was with a good practitioner. You get a big, very small amount, see how you do, see how you do this. This does take a lot of feedback between the receiver and the provider to be like, hey, not just is there something in my blood or saliva test? Because there's a saliva test too, the Dutch test, what's showing up in that, but like, how do I feel? Yeah, you know, am I feeling better? Do I notice any difference? Like, I was on an estrogen patch for probably a freaking year, and I was like, I'm not noticing anything, nothing is happening. What's going on? And I was like, it's not sufficient. And finally at the end, I just had to go in and say, No, we got let's go. You know, I had to really, yeah, kind of pound the desk a little bit. And I've had the same thing recently with testosterone. She gave me such a small dose, and I was like, but I'm literally freaking at four. I'd like to be at a hundred. So how long is it gonna take me to get to a hundred?

Polly Mertens 32:07

You're like, you're like lathering it off.

Samantha Pruitt 32:10

So I am pretty highly educated on this enough, and it's also my own body. I'll do whatever the hell I want, by the way. So I double dosed. Okay. And I was like, yep, yep, yep, here we go, here we go, here we go. And then I went in and got the blood work, and then sure enough, I was up to 80. And I was like, okay, if I had stayed in her dose for six months to a year, yeah, I'd maybe be at 20. Yeah, not at night. This is a year in my life. I don't really have many, many years to be like figuring this out because I already am a little bit behind the eight ball. I'm 57 this year. Yeah, like that's true.

Polly Mertens 32:44

And you want your libido, you want your energy, you want their brain, you know, like you want these symptoms like up to you know, optimized for well-being, right?

Samantha Pruitt 32:51

Like it's yeah, so other countries are doing tests on this all the time. So if you want to read of lots of science coming out of Australia and Sweden, and some other countries are far more advanced than us on this. But there was just a recent study, I can't remember the name of it. Dr. Kelly Kasperson talks about it on her podcast, and it was testosterone. She's the leading expert in testosterone, so we'll give the experts names at the end. But get a pen and paper, whoever's listening to this. But this recent study came out, this was fascinating. So it was an older female who had hip fractures, bone fractures, basically had fallen and injured themselves because low bone density, low muscle mass, all the things that hormones are supposed to be doing. So in the process, they treated, and this was a huge study, it was thousands of women, half of the women in that kind of recovery period, if you will, with testosterone, and half with a placebo. And the ones that had the testosterone after they had recovered from their fall surgery or whatever, were given walking tests, so brisk walking tests. And it was extraordinary, extraordinary the amount of muscle that they retained, bone density that they retained. So they were 50% faster and more resilient and more capable of power output from their physical body than the placebo females.

Polly Mertens 34:16

Damn.

Samantha Pruitt 34:17

Okay, that means am I using a walker? Am I using a tane?

Polly Mertens 34:21

Right?

Samantha Pruitt 34:21

Am I in a wheelchair now? Could I possibly be red ridden at this point? Because I have fallen so many times, or whatever.

Polly Mertens 34:29

Yeah. What the hell? Okay. Get the memo, people. Get the memo. Good. That's some cool stuff. So women too. All right. So one thing I just want to throw in there a couple of examples of from, so you explained. So I've been on the estrogen patch. You had the too low, I need more. I started on.0375 of the patch twice a week. And I was like, and I forget what I was still experiencing at the time. But I said, oh, you know, I think I want to try the 0.05. Or you know what happens too, at least in my area, California, is they run out of the damn stock. There was a couple months where I was like, Doc, okay, let me get I literally had a friend in San Diego ship it to me. Like I had to like send it to the pharmacy down there. I was like, ship that shit to me, you know, whatever. I think that's one month. And then it wasn't down there. I was like, what the hell? So I asked the doc to bump me up to 0.05 because I was like, I was asked, I was like negotiating with the the local pharmacy. I was like, so do you have 0.05? And it's like, do you have 0.3? You know, and all that. And it's always like, okay, we've got 0.05. I was like, bing, you know, hit the end, get that. So did that for a little bit. And I was like, well, I'll clip some off, right? And I was like, well, and I think to start, I was like, well, let me see how 0.05 does for me. Not good. Didn't did not like like I just I can't remember what the symptoms were, but I was like, this isn't good for me. I think one of them was bleeding, if I remember correctly.

Samantha Pruitt 35:48

Anyway, so I was like, Oh, you had breakthrough bleeding.

Polly Mertens 35:50

I think that I think there was like, yeah, it was like, oh, okay, and then some cramping. I was like, uh-uh, back down. So you know, I clipped it and just cut off some of it until this came back in stock. And I tell you, I go between different pharmacies because this stuff still is, you know. So that was even there was a shortage is menopause was having a moment. Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 36:08

So more and more women are being empowered, so they are a little behind protection.

Polly Mertens 36:12

So we probably shouldn't put this episode out until make sure there's enough stock out there. I'm just kidding. I'll stop. So, so just know that, like, and you you went for a year. I would hell no, I would not go for a year of what I was experiencing. I'd be like, oh no, let's go back down or do something, or like you put more on. The other thing that I experienced with the project, and so I went in to my OB, had the whole PAP and all that stuff. I'm in per I'm in menopause. And I was like, yeah, I've got all the XYZ, like all the symptoms of test low testosterone. And she's like, well, we really don't do that here. And I was like, oh, for frick's sake. So gotta go see someone else. Anyway, so that can happen. Not that that happens everywhere. Anyway, and then the other one was I do want to mention you can, so progesterone is one that creams of low dose are available over the counter. I don't know at what maximum, whatever, but I can remember an excellent naturopath that I was seeing. This was when I was pre pre perimenopause, before perimenopause. And he was like, you know, and just had like painful periods and bleeding and stuff. And you can have progesterone at certain parts of your cycle too, can help with the, you know, the painfulness or whatever. And that's a whole nother topic of like, you know, just having irregular periods, having painful periods, all of that stuff. That's there's whole science about like the what your hormones need, what you need to be doing to support your hormones at those periods as well.

Samantha Pruitt 37:41

Well, let's just double-click on this for a whole second. Because if you think about what perimenopause is, it's reverse puberty. Yeah. Right? So everybody seems to, well, not everybody, a bulk of the population can have a conversation about puberty and can identify with puberty. And so if you think about what a girl is going through in puberty, a lot of times we do have females, it's very common now, that are having challenging periods in a every kind of thing under the rainbows happening, right? For lots of reasons we won't get into right now. But anyway, they go to their doctor and the doctor will put them on birth control, even if they're not sexually active or whatever. They'll put them on hormones to help regulate the symptoms of really hardcore puberty periods and all of the hormonal chaos that might be happening. Skin issues, blah blah blah, right? So, really, what we're talking about is perimenopause is the reverse. Hormones are coming on raging in, you know, when you're in puberty, and now they're depleting, they're going offline. So it's so kind of fascinating that you were so proactive about like, or you whoever you were working with, about like, let me help you be more comfortable with these cycles over your time. And a lot of women will go on birth control for their skin and also to regulate their periods for these kind of symptomatic things, not necessarily not to get pregnant or whatever. And they'll use IUDs and they'll use all kinds of other things. So you've talked about the patch, you've talked about creams, I mentioned gels.

Polly Mertens 39:14

And progesterone does come orally, so uh you and I, I think you do it too. So I'm on 100 mg of the progesterone at night in a tablet or a little pill, and the patch, you know, twice a week. So that little combo is like the sweet spot for my body, anyway.

Samantha Pruitt 39:29

Yeah, and it's so unique. Some people need the estrogen and they don't need progesterone yet. Some people need progesterone and they don't, they have too much estrogen. Right again, that's that unopposed concept I was talking about about estrogen flying around, and the progesterone's like, well, there's 10 of me and there's a thousand of you. I'm kind of overwhelmed here. I'm not sure who to attach myself to. So the rest just goes and stocks up somewhere, right? It stores in body fat, yeah, which is a huge bummer. And now we have all kinds of other challenges going on around that. Um, we should just talk real briefly about cancer patients. So a lot of times it's very common for women to be told they cannot take hormones. That is also no longer true. It is very unique to the individual. Your oncologist is obviously the expert. There are

Vaginal Estrogen And Cancer Nuance

Samantha Pruitt 40:19

expert oncologists in women, in perimenopause, and menopause, and hormone's. So those people do exist. It is now a sub-specialty of oncology. Shh. Thank you, Lord. So if that is you, find those resources. They are available. There is research, there are studies, and it is very nuanced, but there's so many things that the female who is either in cancer treatment or is a survivor can be doing. One thing we didn't mention was vaginal estrogen, vaginal DHEA. So these are again topicals that go on your parts, your lady parts, and that actually doesn't go into free circulation into your blood. It is a targeted therapy for that soft tissue that is depleted, and that can lead to not only a lot of discomfort for the female, okay, but bladder infections, urinary tract infections, your rear end parts. So all of those parts down there are tissues that need to be supported, and they're greatly supported on a cellular health perspective from these hormones. And so lots of people maybe can't take an oral or a patch or whatever, but they can treat their specific parts, and that is a freaking game changer. And any good urologist or any good doctor will also prescribe those.

Polly Mertens 41:49

Nice, nice. So what are there any so you alluded to, I just want to put out there, so miscon any big misconceptions about hormone replacement theory, because therapy or hormone supplement theory, now we're calling it. Thank you for clarifying that. Like what, because I, I mean, you and I, I remember when you were going through your phase of like really studying this, and you're like, you're like firing off these things to me, and you're like almost like you should be on a nutrient forever. And not I don't think that's what you said, but like that's what I interpreted. Like, look at this not as like just during perimenopause or whatever, but like it supports so much. So, what are some of the misconceptions that people have about getting hor, you know, people that just aren't doing it are like they've heard about the old studies and haven't been brought up. Anything else?

Samantha Pruitt 42:35

A big one is people that have cancer risks. Like I was a cancer risk patient. I wasn't a cancer patient or cancer patients. So that's a big, no longer true, no longer real. There are plenty of things that can be done, and it's very unique to the individual, and of course, the relationship they have with their oncologist and their it's all you know very specialized stuff. And I ended up actually, by the way, this is a side note, but having a DNA test specifically to see my cancer risks because I was put into this bucket and not able to be looked at a certain way, and I have zero, zero, zero, zero point zero of those particular DNA elements in my physical makeup to put me in that bucket. And I would have lived in that bucket my whole life. So I think that was a total grant, but I had to share that. Well, that's that's helpful. Oh, yeah, sorry, go ahead. So I guess age is a total false bullshit thing. You're not old enough yet. Um, when I went in and I was having some challenges and going back on hormones and trying to work out some some things, and I would go to my regular MD not to be confused with my gynecologist. So, first of all, women, women, please. Your MD is not a gynecologist. Okay. MDs love you, you're amazing, you know a lot about a lot of things, but they know you know this much about all the things because they're a general medicine doctor. Okay, they don't specialize in your hormones and your legal parts. So if you're using them to do that work on your body or to do those tests on your body, that probably is not the right decision. And it's definitely not going to be nuanced enough. For you to get the care that you really need. So find a qualified gynecologist who specializes in hormones. And then if you have other issues, right, urology is a whole specialty. So if stuff is going wrong down there, like that's a urologist, you know, if you're gut microbiome, it's a gastroenterologist. So there's people who specialize in these things. Or you can go to functional medicine. Obviously, I've done that. You do that quite a bit.

Polly Mertens 44:44

So And there's also hormone specialist female, you know, like practitioners outside of, let's say, you know, a hospital or an MD, like they belong to a medical group or something. There's, you know, like even, I believe, I'm not sure about this, but I've heard in my area, there's a oriental medicine practitioner that prescribes female all the hormones, right? If you will.

Samantha Pruitt 45:08

Totally. Yeah. Oh, yeah, there's amazing practitioners. I mean, generally those are out of pocket, not a lot of insurance of that, but it's it's your freedom to choose whoever your team's gonna be.

Polly Mertens 45:19

If you can optimize, optimize. Like if you can afford it or whatever, like get it.

Samantha Pruitt 45:23

But even if you cannot go in informed to said doctors, so I have a cardiologist, I go in informed about things specific to my menopausal body and stage and blah blah blah related to my cardiovascular health. I do the same with my honestly, my gastroentinologist and gut microbiome and all those things. I go, so here's all the things going on home only. I mean, because all otherwise they this is not their specialty. So you coming in as the informed patient and the empowered patient is really, really important, right? Yeah. And then yeah, not having a timeline. It's gonna happen whenever it's gonna happen. And by the way, I just said paramedical pause can last 10 years. So hey, have fun with that. That's a long interface.

Polly Mertens 46:09

Oh, no, no, no. Okay. So anything about labs, like any particular tests they should or shouldn't take, or your your take on it is some test for that. And my understanding was like it's symptomatic, like like make when you feel better, that's that's

Testing Limits And Foundational Habits

Polly Mertens 46:24

the right level or something. But what what is what are are there labs they should be asking for, or it's not that labs are worthless, but they're a snapshot in time, right?

Samantha Pruitt 46:35

So it's very challenging to get labs once a year at your annual gynecologist exam when you get your tap smear and you get your breast exam, and think that for the next year my labs will look just like that. Really? On the daily tomorrow at noon, they will look totally different.

Polly Mertens 46:53

On the daily, too, because women, you know, cycle and stuff. You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 46:57

Okay, so don't so there's a Dutch test, which is a saliva test, and a lot of functional medicine doctors will use the Dutch test. Yeah. But in general, it is symptom scales, and then again, maybe micro dosing of things based on the symptom scale, and then getting feedback from the client, right? So it's it's very individualized custom medicine, which makes sense. I'm pretty unique. You and I don't have the same body, right? No two people have the same body. So I think it's important to be open to that and not feel like, well, the doctor gave me this, it didn't freaking work, so it's not for me, or whatever.

Polly Mertens 47:35

Yeah, you don't feel any different or something. It's like, yeah, if you're still having the symptoms, like keep going. Keep going.

Samantha Pruitt 47:42

But I mean, let's not should be squeezes in here now or what? Like, I just want to point out if you're not doing the basics for your health, and this we've talked about the basics a thousand times on this podcast. Yeah, how would you expect that this would be the solution? Right. So if you have other underlying health challenges and you're not working on your nutrition and your gut microbiome associated, right? Your exercise strategy for whatever age group, and there's all kinds of this is Dr. Stacey Sims, this is her jam, and I'm all about it. And did study under her, is like there are specific protocols for pyramenopausal and menopausal women now. This is all scientifically based. If you are not the person who is like just sleep regimen, and sleep hygiene is not a thing for you, your hormones are not ever going to regulate. I mean, there's so many things that are just what we call foundational health. You know, to build that house, you better be doing some basics.

Polly Mertens 48:47

So, and physical with the sleep deprivation, too.

Samantha Pruitt 48:50

Yeah, if you're totally stressed out, cortisol overloaded, if you're drinking a lot of alcohol, you're smoking. I mean, so blood sugar, clean up the house, get these basics under control, or at least some kind of strategy around working towards that on the health meter, moving in the right direction.

Polly Mertens 49:10

If you had to prioritize, you know, those, those, you know, so if we said sleep, training, working out movement, protein or net nutrition, stress management, alcohol reduction, blood sugar regulation, like like what would we what would be like one or two? Like if you start somewhere, make sure these two are like check, check. Those are good. What would be your top?

Samantha Pruitt 49:30

Sleep and nutrition and then exercise. Sleep and nutrition, got it, got it, got it. Because those three are can be so disruptive in a really detrimental way. So talking about pro-inflammatory again. So if I'm constantly inflamed in my cellular being, and then I'm just pumping estrogen like there's no tomorrow, I basically have a fire and I've decided to pour a can of gasoline on it, right? Because I didn't sleep, or I consumed a bunch of crap, or I poured booze on it, or I didn't exercise, you know. So again, yeah, those are really just like foundational things. And there's like foundational what to avoid and then what to do, you know, kind of in different categories.

Polly Mertens 50:14

But and I would just say two things that so I went through, you you know me and my passion for the the gut microbiome. So I went through a test. I did a gut microbiome test, which is like a little kit that you can order and you send your poop away. And it's not a lot, you just send a little bit, and then they give you all this information, which turned out fantastic. I was like super stoked. And there's a little upgrade you could do to get a little pellety thing or a little monitor in your arm, and it regulated my blood sugar and a couple other things, and it actually told me about them during sleep and all that stuff. I learned so much through that. So, two things that I just want to add here as a part of my journey. I was I was on that in perimenopause. So I was, you know, not a heavy drinker, but I was drinking at night and weekends and stuff like that. So the what I learned blood sugar-wise, sleep regulation-wise, about alcohol consumption. I don't care if you're doing one glass of red wine at night or five, whatever, like alcohol will F you up sleep-wise, right? And the other is like kind of surprising, is cannabis and things like that. I wasn't, but I've heard that also. So just know that there's things in THC that can people think that they're helping it with sleep, like it mellows you out or whatever, but you might look at that because studies have shown otherwise. And then also for me, it was protein because I think the blood sugar and the protein levels, because I do pescatarian, but I tend to eat and I have a thing about eating earlier in the day, or I stop my meals, you know, earlier in the day, don't not go sleep full. I was just having these drops in blood sugar and I meet and all this stuff. It's actually like during menopause, it was like like frightening how low things were getting blood sugar-wise.

Samantha Pruitt 51:58

Because I wasn't happening in the middle of the night or early morning.

Polly Mertens 52:00

Yeah. Yeah. Waking you up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but but having both pieces of information, you know, like looking at hormones and looking at blood sugar and you know, nutrition and stuff, I was like, wow, this is amazing to have that. I would just like everybody I know, I'm like, you should try that just at least once. Because I think I had it for two weeks or a month or something. I was like, everybody should do it at least once in their life, just because you would be shocked what you can learn. So especially if you're looking at either menobelly where you have extra weight gain, and it's like what, you know, like it will tell you things that are contributing to that that you might not know, or you're just looking at you've got extra weight as a lifestyle. You know, it can tell you some of the foods that are probably causing you these spikes that could lead to pre-diabetes, you know, pancreatite, you know, things like that, right? It's just amazing, amazing. So anything else that during your learning or your journey that either surprised you or you'd want to pass along, you've shared a lot of stories, which was super helpful.

Samantha Pruitt 52:54

I mean, yeah, no, this is a topic we could talk about forever, right? So basically, if we're just kind of circling back to what are you doing now?

Polly Mertens 53:02

What are you doing now that you wish you'd started earlier? Like what what what are you all the things?

Samantha Pruitt 53:07

Do it sooner, yes, right? Do it late. If I hadn't have dug myself that hole for those five years, yeah, I mean, because I had a lot of health impacts from that. Yeah, polycystic fibroids alone, like I would have them burst. I ended up in the emergency room, they were so disruptive to my life, like there's so many things, and I just didn't feel good. And here I was really trying to perform at a high level, running a business, having a family, being an athlete, all these things. I feel like that's BS, right? So now at this age, I do do pretty much all the things. Trying to think if there's anything I don't do. No, I do have a hormone kind of to take progesterone tonight. I I'm on testosterone. I kind of wish I had started that earlier, too.

Polly Mertens 53:50

Me too.

Samantha Pruitt 53:51

Anyway, the science is relatively new on that, so that's cool. And again, I went into my doctor, OBGYN, who prescribes my other hormones, by the way. And I said, So anyway, hey, I'm back. Remember me? Now I want to talk about testosterone.

Polly Mertens 54:08

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 54:08

The way I went in this time, just you know, you get such a small window of time with these people. Yeah, I literally just went in and said I had all the symptoms. I don't have all the symptoms, but I know how important this hormone is. And I was like, Hey, see these 10 things, I got these 10 things. Can I get that? And she's like, Okay, didn't even blink. So I'm not saying I was lying, I might have been exaggerating a little bit. But again, I know how critical that is to my health. I didn't want to have a battle.

Polly Mertens 54:34

And she's a little bit behind this, she's a little bit behind on the eight-ball on that, you know. Yeah, she gave me the micro dose, I told you, and I was like, double up, double up.

Samantha Pruitt 54:46

So, anyway, let's just touch on one other thing, too. Plenty of women don't want hormones and maybe can't utilize hormones. So I mentioned some cancer patients cannot, and that's very nuanced and super, super. Tend to one, they're not listening to this.

Polly Mertens 55:01

They wouldn't have clicked on this if they were.

Samantha Pruitt 55:03

Yeah, they wouldn't be listening to this. Well, it's possible, but if they are not sure or not a fan of it for whatever reason, there are adaptogens. So that's a whole subcategory of adaptogens that are they've been around forever. You mentioned Chinese medicine, okay. They've been around for freaking ever, okay, in native and Chinese medicine, and there's plenty of other modalities out there, way before Western medicine had even a shingle to put up. Okay. So if you want to research that, under my certification with Dr. Stacey Sims, that was an entire part of the program, was just on adaptogens. So can you name one or two? Like something that we're gonna do. Oh, Ashwaganda, I mean, yeah, black kohash, there's all these things, wild yam, blah, blah, blah. So there's all these things depending on what your symptoms are. So those are specifically for symptom support. And if the female, they're not putting bioidentical hormones back, they're simply for symptom support, right? So if you say, I don't want to try and put back bioidentical hormones to optimize, but I want these symptoms to go away, you can go that direction. And then you just drill down on that knowledge and information. It's pretty much everywhere. There's whole books on it and whole programs on that.

Polly Mertens 56:18

I wanted to mention that. So, you know, there's probably a couple of different people that are listening, either they're parry and maybe they're having some funky things going on. And and you were talking about people that aren't doing anything because they're they're take they're sort of like not taking it for granted, but they're they don't think it's serious enough. And you want to speak to them, right?

Samantha Pruitt 56:41

So what would you say if somebody's like, yeah, they got one or two of these on the list, maybe they're not a raging 10, but you know, but well, I come across women a lot who want to talk about it, they have a curiosity, but the feedback I hear probably 50% of the time is like, it's not time for me yet. When it's a problem, I'll deal with it. Or I do have people that have other health challenges and things, cancer patient survivors and whatever. And um, like recently, I was blown away by one I was having a conversation with, and she's a breast cancer survivor, and she carries the estrogen-dominant breast cancer gene and all that stuff. So, you know, legitimately that's concerning, and she needs to talk to a specialist about that. But I did ask her about her vagina and the health of her urinary tract and her private parts and her sexual life, and she hadn't even had a pelvic exam in five years. And I was blown away because she wasn't even looking at that body part, wasn't even thinking about that body part, and I was like, whoa, because it's very common for older women to get urinary tract infections, and actually, as females age and become less continent and less psychologically or physically able, it can actually be really dangerous because they get these infections and it travels to their brain. Like, this is a huge problem. Yeah, and I was like, okay, we need to immediately get on that. Yeah, and then by the way, you can do topical vaginal estrogen. And she was like, What? Right. So, or the female who just says it's not time yet, I am gonna deal with this when it's a problem. That's not proactive health care. That's not optimizing how you feel in this one body that you get to own and your one life. That's not me saying, Sam, you're my highest priority. My value system is my health, my fitness, my capability, my contribution to society, my human connection. That's not that's me not living by my values. If I were to say, hey, I'm gonna wait till you're sick or it's a real problem, and then we'll talk about it. It's just not, I do that's just a no.

Polly Mertens 58:56

So what if a woman is perimenopause because she's you know in the age range that we talk about, let's say 40s, you know, late 30s, 40s, but it's not like severe, you know. Would you still say go talk to your OB, you know, like tell them what you're having? It would you think that that's a valuable conversation, or like we said, wait till later? Or I think I think I know your answer. It's an imperative conversation. Yeah, yeah. Anytime, anytime it starts to change, I would say.

Samantha Pruitt 59:24

Well, lots of women don't have a lot of symptoms. I mean, not lots. Plenty of women don't have a lot of symptoms. And because genetically and lifestyle and whatever, they are lucky. Cool, you be a lucky one. Yay, you okay? Yeah, but it doesn't mean the ovaries are not shutting down, yeah, and that realistically your physical body and every system within your physical body on a cellular level is now depleted of critical hormones. So even if you're not symptomatic, it is happening inside of you, and yours is just a two out of a ten instead of those of us who are nines out of ten, right? So it's happening, right? Aging is happening, and all of the things associated with that decline of said symptoms is happening. So the thing is, women are just living so much longer. They're outliving men, they're healthy, happy, they have full lives ahead of them into their 70s, 80s, and 90s. And that wasn't a thing for a really long time. If we look back a couple generations, right? Or if we look at prior generations that didn't get the health support they needed, they died of other diseases.

Polly Mertens 1:00:38

So if we look at the other spectrum, so they're maybe post-menopausal and they're like, oh, okay, on estrogen or not, but you're now introducing, you know, even if you are on estrogen, maybe have a conversation and look at the symptoms around testosterone, because maybe there's a gap there that, you know, just aging and feeling exhaustion or limpness, you know, just like low libido, those types of things, like, oh, I'm just, you know, getting older or whatnot. Like it's a natural thing. You're saying, no, like you can still optimize that as you're well, there's two things.

Samantha Pruitt 1:01:08

I want to speak to that age thing. Because you said, what are the you know, misconceptions? It's also not too late to go on hormones. So you will be told that by your doctor if they're not educated. They will say, Well, you're past your prime. Um, when I went to my regular MD here, that's no longer my MD. I should side note, obviously, I fired that MD, but anyway, um, when I went to them and I told them I'm on hormones or whatever, that's cool. You can be on that, just make sure you get off, go off at 65. I said, Why would I be doing that? This was the original women's health study that they totally debunked. She was trained that in Western Medicine MD school whenever she went to there, and that's in her head, and that's what she's telling women. And I said, That's no longer true. It's been proven that's not real. You need to go back and reread the science. And she argued with me. And I said, You're fired.

Polly Mertens 1:02:00

So, what is so what is the truth? So, women can stay on past 65, is what you're saying.

Samantha Pruitt 1:02:04

They can go on it late if they miss the window, and they can stay on it. So, that's something to really have savviness about. And then the other thing I wanted to say that is just like an overarching, really important reason that somebody should early on or later on consider these therapies if you are remotely interested, is your cardiovascular. The high probability of a woman dying is going to be cardiovascular disease, or it's going to be cancer. Okay. So cardiovascular disease. There's a whole book on this, and a whole specialist, and I'll leave those people off, about all of the nuances around these hormones and how they actually support a healthy cardiovascular system and combat cardiovascular disease. Same with cancer, pro-inflammatory, hormonal dysregulation, high estrogen cancers, etc. Bone and muscle breaking, break down, etc. And then neurogenerative. I was just gonna say, what about all the you know, uh partners and Alzheimer's that we're seeing?

Polly Mertens 1:03:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 1:03:17

I mean, this is all the new science that's coming out. It's mind-fricking blowing.

Polly Mertens 1:03:21

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 1:03:22

And if you're interested in getting those diseases, okay, then let's be really slow to come to the conversation. But if you're not interested in those, start educating yourself and say, what am I doing? Because all of these things might have a genetic component, but the genetic component generally is pretty small. It's 20 to 40 percent, depending on the type of cancer, the type of disease. But but we are told that you've got the genetics for it, so there's nothing you can do. It's completely not true.

Polly Mertens 1:03:49

So if you're so if you're 35 and above and you're a female, you should be having a conversation with your doctor about around hormones, whatever.

Samantha Pruitt 1:03:59

Just like if you're younger and having symptoms, you should still be doing it. But yes, if you're asymptomatic and you're in that bucket, that window 35 plus, then just start having the conversations. And if you find your practitioner is resistant to those conversations or has some ideas that may or may not be true, you need to go educate yourself and then go back informed or find a new practitioner.

Polly Mertens 1:04:23

So it's so it's not too late and get on it if if you haven't already gotten on it. Good. Okay. All right. So so, and why do we need to advocate for themselves in this area? You've you've given a couple of examples. Like I had one that you know said no to testosterone the first time, so I'm going to someone else. I'm like, okay, you know, if you won't prescribe it, then you've had some that, you know, said you should get off of estrogen at 65, right?

Samantha Pruitt 1:04:46

So yeah. I mean, I'm not throwing these people under the bus. I just they're not educated, and they're not educated on the latest science. And this is all science. It's just not, you know, people trying to sell us stuff or making things up. The people who are doing the science and doing all the research are not making money off of this. So, you know, it and and medicine is science. The science of the human body.

Polly Mertens 1:05:10

Right. All right. Okay.

Samantha Pruitt 1:05:12

Yeah. So, but some practitioners are more uncomfortable with it. And I get it, maybe liability or lack of knowledge, or whatever the reasoning is. So just, you know, navigate it gracefully and exit the building or try and re-educate them like I did. I like my gynecologist. I'm happy with her in every other way and shape or form. She just wasn't really totally, she wasn't resistant to the testosterone, but she wasn't as educated as I kind of like her to be. So I educated myself and went in empowered.

Polly Mertens 1:05:42

Great, great. So let's do a couple of rapid fire questions. So, what would you say maybe is the most misunderstood hormone of those? What's maybe most misunderstood?

Samantha Pruitt 1:05:51

Oh my gosh.

Polly Mertens 1:05:52

Well, currently I'd have to say testosterone. Testosterone. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What's the most overlooked symptom?

Samantha Pruitt 1:05:58

What do you think? The most overlooked symptom. Yeah, whatever. In my experience, it is soft tissue, so it's it's sort of um damaging of joints like tendonitis, torn this, dislocated this, or even uh stress fractures. So anything in the bones and the joints and the connective tissue.

Polly Mertens 1:06:20

What's one thing women are told is normal and it isn't? What do you think they should one thing?

Samantha Pruitt 1:06:30

I'm gonna give you two things. One is that you're gonna get fluffy and there's nothing you can do about it. Okay, that's bullshit. Right. And then the other is that you're just aging, and therefore, because of your aging, you know, your sexual function and desire, and you know, your desire for living life and joy and all of that stuff are just gonna wane with age. Yeah literally, I had a doctor one time, I was like, What did you just say? Have you lost your effing mind? First of all, I was sad because I'm an empowered person, and I was like, Is that what you're telling me? Yeah, are you telling people that? You cannot say this to other women. You cannot be saying this. First of all, you shouldn't be thinking this, and you shouldn't.

Polly Mertens 1:07:22

How was it? Do you remember what it was? How did he how did he say it?

Samantha Pruitt 1:07:25

Yeah, that it was basically natural aging, and I shouldn't be concerned about it, and I should accept the slowing down of all of these things that make me me and bring joy to my life. I literally almost jumped off the table. You can have a life that just goes, you know, slides into home base. That's what I had to say. That might be choices that you're making for yourself because we were about the same age. And it was like I had just turned 50 or something like that. Um, I said, but that's unacceptable for me. It's not how I live my life and subscribe. And I really wish you wouldn't talk that way to any other woman again.

Polly Mertens 1:08:02

I know. All right. So what's uh what's what do you think is the one most impactful lifestyle change that they can make?

Samantha Pruitt 1:08:10

Oh, geez. There isn't one. It's those three that we said. So it's sleep, sleep, yeah, right, nutrition, and exercise. Please, please. Okay. Please, I'm begging you.

Polly Mertens 1:08:22

All right, all right. So let's hit that list of experts, books, podcasts, anything. Like, who do you who do who do we want to like give praise to? That you guys should definitely check these people out.

Samantha Pruitt 1:08:31

So much good work in the world right now around this. We mentioned Dr. Stacy Stems a hundred times, but basically that's fitness and exercise

Best Experts Plus A Better Conversation

Samantha Pruitt 1:08:39

specific. So if you're into that, Dr. Vonda Wright, her book, Unbreakable, is remarkable. Dr. Vonda Wright, her book Unbreakable, and that is about bones and muscles and joints and connective tissue because she operates on those ones and puts them back together when they fall apart. Got it. Got it. Cynthia Thurlow is a nurse practitioner. She has a podcast called Everyday Wellness, and it's a pretty well-rounded podcast for all things paramenopause and menopause. She's great. I'm currently obsessed with Dr. Kelly Capp, Casperson, Casperson, C-A-S-P-E-R-S-O-N. She's freaking hilarious, and I could hang out with her every day. Okay. Her podcast is called You Are Not Broken. And she is a urologist, but her specialty really is in hormones and testosterone in particular, but hormonal therapies for women. And she's hilarious. And how she disseminates the information on the plants is brilliant. Awesome. Okay. Awesome. The podcast, The Second Opinion by Dr. Sharon Malone is great. Dr. Sharon Malone, cardiovascular doctor. So again, these are women at a very high level, very high educated, who are now 50 plus, or they're in parametopause, menopause, and they're like, hold up. Not just for me, but for my women clients, I'm going to specialize in these things. Hers is called the Second Opinion. And then Dr. Mary Claire Harvard Haver, H A D E R Haver. She has a podcast called Unpause. And she's also great. And she's a doctor too. So these are all medical professionals who study the research, follow the science. And Dr. Stacey Sanders, she's a PhD who does the actual research in science too. So highly educated women, highly empowering. I'll put all of them in the notes of the podcast so people can access those names or podcasts and see what's going on there. But there's so much great work going out there. It makes me really happy to be alive in this time.

Polly Mertens 1:10:43

I know, I know. Thank gosh. You know, and I just want to say if you're listening this far, we would love to hear from you any comments that you have, any questions that you have, things that you want us to cover around this. You know, if we can answer that, we would love to. You know, there's just so much that we couldn't get to today. I think we covered quite a bit. We hit a lot of the same things over and over, which is our favorite, like the foundational, right? Like take care of your well-being and get into action, be proactive. I love this, you know, like don't accept, you know, let's say society or other people's expectation of normal as your normal, right? It's optimized. What's so what's your what's your takeaway? What's your one thing that you want people to take away from today?

Samantha Pruitt 1:11:21

You know, what I am so passionate about right now, and what I'm finding is a common need is just for people to be able to have a conversation about it. So we're having this conversation. Lots of people are having the conversation, but it still is not the norm. Yeah. Right? With your spouse, with your partner, with your doctor, with society, with your girlfriends. So I have these girlfriend cluster groups like you do. You know, we have our little 18 posties, and I will wind up there in regular bases. I'm like, so anyway, who's on hormones here? Who wants to talk about testosterone? And they're like, We're going to coffee and talking about testosterone. Yeah, yeah, we are. Uh-huh. Because if you make it comfortable for all the players at the table, even the ones who are quiet and never say anything. Like sometimes I just shoot out to these groups different podcasts for things I want them to read. And there's the quiet one in the room that's never going to talk to anybody about their vagina. But she's listening and she's getting information. And later they'll come back to me and go, damn. That was amazing. I learned a lot. Thank you for sharing, or being willing to bring the subject matter to the table. Can I talk to you about this other thing? What about this? So now I've opened them up to a conversation about their body and their things that they considered private or socially unacceptable to talk about. And to me, that's freaking magic, dude. That tells you.

Polly Mertens 1:12:47

Well, you know, I think about the study that we're in around, you know, a year to live, which is, you know, basically bringing death out of the closet. You know, it's like we're putting that on the table. And this is like your sexual, you know, hormones, your well-being, female needs, men needs as well, you know, and talking about it. I mean, like, I have open conversations. I welcome it, especially when I was going through paramontals. I was talking to everybody about it. I was like, I don't care. I was like, I am the person I am advocating for this. I am the evangelist. I am here to learn as much as I can, have other people talk about it. Ask me about it, you know, like, and teach me about it, you know, tell me how you're doing with it. So it's like, let's talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Because you could be having a symptom that you don't even realize is quite a symptom that could be that. And a friend could help you, you know, go, well, maybe that's your hormones. And you're like, I didn't think of that, you know? So just get talking about it with friends, with other women, something, you know, being comfortable and learn these excellent podcasts that you just shared. I'm sure there's fantastic episodes that you and I have both digested and loved. And, you know, don't wait. Don't wait, right? Don't wait for level 10 symptoms or you're not sleeping for, you know, six months or whatever. Like, hell no. Like I had a few half-flashes. I was like, I'm installing a fan. All right, that didn't do it. All right. I was like, no, you know, I was like, nope, not dealing with this. Or, you know, I'm dealing with this. I'm not living.

Samantha Pruitt 1:14:08

You don't have to live that way, right?

Polly Mertens 1:14:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 1:14:11

And no matter what anybody's trying to tell you otherwise, you actually don't have to live that way.

Polly Mertens 1:14:16

Exactly. Their normal does not have to be your optimal. Like, nope, thank you. That can be okay for you, but that's not okay for me. So we're all about optimize. Awesome, team awesome here. Okay. All right, let's close it up. What do you want to say to them before we wrap up?

Samantha Pruitt 1:14:30

How your beautiful paramenopausal, menopausal, aging body looks is not that damn important, but how it feels is.

Polly Mertens 1:14:39

And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.