Episode 062: How Menopause Changes Inflammation And Why Your Joints Hurt

Pain that shows up in midlife has a special way of messing with your confidence. One day you’re fine, the next day your knee, hip, back, or shoulder is changing how you sleep, move, work, and show up for the people you love. We wanted a smarter answer than “that’s just aging,” so we sat down with Stacey Roberts, a longtime physical therapist and chronic pain expert, to talk about what’s actually happening and what you can do next.

Stacey shares the moment that changed her own thinking: a sudden knee “pop,” a swollen joint, and an appointment that rushed straight to total knee replacement and a cortisone injection. From there, we unpack a key takeaway for anyone dealing with arthritis, joint pain, muscle pain, or chronic pain: imaging does not equal destiny. You can have significant arthritis and still be pain-free, and you can often reduce pain by finding the real drivers instead of chasing a quick fix.

We also connect the dots to perimenopause and menopause. As estrogen and other hormones decline, you lose natural anti-inflammatory support, which can turn up pain even when your habits haven’t changed. We talk HRT as one possible tool, plus practical lifestyle strategies that matter just as much: reducing ultra-processed foods, checking biomechanics and movement patterns, considering gut health and food sensitivities, and taking stress hormones like cortisol and thyroid function seriously. If you’ve been told to just push through, this conversation offers a different path: curiosity, personalization, and a plan.

If this helped, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What’s one pain trigger you’re ready to investigate first?

Stacey Roberts PT, RN, MSN has over 30 years of experience helping patients live pain-free while achieving their health goals. She is a Holistic Master’s Prepared Registered Nurse, a Musculoskeletal Specialist, a Pelvic and Sexual Health Physiotherapist, and a Functional Medicine Specialist. Stacey owns the New You Health and Wellness Practice in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, combining cutting-edge technology, advanced manual therapy, and functional medicine to help patients attain optimal health.  Many of her patients, including herself have avoided surgery, drugs, and injections. She is the author of the #1 best-selling book, ​​

The Pain Free Formula: Solving The Puzzle of Muscle and Joint Pain Without Surgery, Drugs, or Injections and the host of the #1 podcast on chronic pain, The Pain Free Formula 

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Transcript

Why Midlife Pain Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your trusted source for information about menopause and midlife. Join us each episode as we have great conversations with great people. Tune in and enjoy the show.

Stacey’s Knee Pop Wake-Up Call

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome back to the Medovia Menopause Podcast. You know, I've been thinking a lot lately about something we don't talk about enough when it comes to midlife and menopause, and that's pain. I've had some, and not just the occasional angst and stiffness, but the kind of pain that starts to show up more frequently in your joints, your muscles, your back, the kind that impacts how you move, how you sleep, how you feel in your body, and even how you show up at work and in your life. And what I hear from so many women is this quiet question is this just how it is now? So today we're digging into that because what if pain isn't something we just have to accept? What if it's something we can actually understand and address in a completely different way? I'm really excited about this conversation. Today we're joined by Stacey Roberts. She's an expert in chronic pain who is helping people rethink everything they've been told about their bodies. She's the author of the number one best-selling book, The Pain-Free Formula: Solving the Puzzle of Muscle and Joint Pain Without Surgery, Drugs, or Injections, which was a great read. I highly recommend it. And the host of the top podcast on chronic pain, the pain-free formula. We're going to talk about what it's real what's really going on in your body and why so many people stay stuck in pain and what actually works, especially at midlife. Welcome, Stacey. We're so glad to have you.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited about our conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Well, you've got some great stories in your book, which always compels me to keep reading to find out the next story and what happened to that person. And you have some personal stories. You open your book with some personal stories. Can you talk about what led you to focus on pain?

Sleep Disruptions And Cooling Bedding

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Absolutely. I've been a physical therapist for you know over three decades. So really my whole life has been about getting people back to what they love to do, whether it was, you know, sports medicine in the beginning and now it's really it could be picking up your grandkids, right? So anywhere in between. So pain has always been a focus, but uh in physical therapy school, it was always musculoskeletal, right? So that's was the primary focus. But what I found was over time, um, some of those patients who are doing everything that they're supposed to do, um, just you know, they weren't getting they weren't getting better. So those pay so sometimes I would notice that those patients wouldn't get better despite doing everything that they were supposed to be doing. And it's very easy to blame the patient and say, uh, they're probably, you know, not doing their exercises as much as they should. And, you know, who does really? But they should still have been getting better. So I started looking into what other causes of pain were, and that could have been, you know, the from the psychological aspect to the physiological aspect. But fast forward to more midlife, um, you know, as I was in postmenopause, because I I was lucky enough to fly through menopause, you know, I think be due to nutrition and working on gut health and things like that early in life due to other issues that I've had from a joint pain perspective. But then post-menopause, I started having this pain coming, you know, coming and going, stuff that I couldn't control, even though I have a background as a PT. But then the catalyst to everything in the book was I went to a wedding uh for my niece and my son, who was 21 at the time or 22, was doing the polka and not doing it very well. And if you're from the Midwest, you have to represent. So I was a little, I was a little um worried about it. So I went out there and we we were doing the polka together, having a blast. And then all of a sudden I just felt and heard this pop in my knee. And I thought, what was that? And I could literally couldn't put my foot down on the floor without searing pain, felt like a hot poker was going through my my knee. And I was stopped suddenly, and my son's like, Are you okay? And he kind of gave me a hard time, like, you know, toughen up. And then he saw the tear kind of coming down my face, and he's like, Oh my, oh my gosh, because you know, he never really sees that. So I kind of limped off and and shooed him back, you know, said go have fun, you know, that type of thing, as we do. And when I sat down, I my my dress hiked up a little bit, and I could see my knee was now twice the size of the other knee, which was crazy. And I wish I had a video of me trying to get back to the car by myself and then and then driving home with my left foot because it was my right leg, or driving to back to the hotel. So I made it to the hotel, got in, put ice on it, did everything that I should. Um, my son at 2 a.m. in the morning, grabbed me crutches from you know, uh Walgreens, you know, what because we were traveling home the next morning. And then I treated it with something called softwave, a modality in my clinic that significantly reduced the inflammation, significantly reduced the pain. And after three treatments, I was able to walk again, still with one crutch, but gradually unable to get rid of that. But I really wanted to know what that pop was. So being a physical therapist, I was like, what was that? I had had surgery probably 40 years prior, but I wanted to know did I sprain a ligament? Was it you know meniscus? Was it scar tissue? So I wanted to have a discussion with a colleague. So I went to an orthopedic surgeon and and um they did X-rays and MRI. And they put the x-rays up there and um she, you know, barely kind of moved my knee around a little bit, um, which is a little pet peeve of mine that you if you don't put the hands on the person, how do you really know what's going on? Yes, I'm sure. But um, so then uh she sat me down and she said, uh, you know, while looking at your knee and the x-rays, um, I can tell you you need a total knee replacement. And I'm like, whoa, what? It's like it didn't, my knee didn't hurt at all prior to this incident. I came here to kind of find out what that pop was. And she said, Well, that really doesn't matter. Your knee's in such bad shape, it could have been anything. And I I was obviously very irritated with that response because I thought, well, I'm not getting a knee replacement, and now my knee's feeling better, right? So um, so I looked at the x-ray while she was pointing to it, and I could see there was a significant amount of arthritis, but I had a huge aha moment at that time because what I didn't really realize before is that you can have severe arthritis and not have pain because I didn't have any pain prior to that incident. So that really helped me be able to relate to my patients and say, look, I understand that you have arthritis in your in your knee and your ankle and your hip, wherever it is, but that doesn't mean you have to have pain. And being able to explain that to them is is huge because that's a big paradigm shift for a lot of people. So we, you know, we believe that if we have arthritis, we must have pain. Um, but then the conversation progressed to, okay, well, if you don't have the knee replacement, there's the only other thing I can offer you is a corazone injection. And I said, no, thank you. And and I was really trying to be a patient. I really was. I was really trying to not, you know, be a provider and you know, um cite research and do all that stuff. But she said to me, um, would you mind if I asked you why you don't want the corazone injection? And I thought, well, she asked. So so I started talking about the research about corose injection and that it it actually is shown to degenerate the joint. So if my knee is already degenerated, why in the world would I want to put something in there that's going to degenerate it more? Right. Then I'm almost, you know, for sure gonna need a knee replacement, right? So she said to me, Oh, you'd have to have a hundred of those injections for that to happen. Now I was feeling the heat now rising up in my body. Your blood pressure is rising. Yeah, it wasn't a hot flash. It was uh it was definitely some stress and uh irritation going on there. And um, I just, you know, wanted to end the conversation there. And she said, Well, I'll see you, I'll see you back when the pain gets so bad that you can't stand it anymore. And I thought to myself, fat chance. There's no problem coming back here. Yeah, yeah. So that really, as I was walking to my um car, I just thought, I have to let people know about this. How many other surgeons or physicians are saying this to people? And it's just not true. Like, why do we why is surgery the first option or injection the first option when there's so many other non-invasive ways to address things and potentially avoid something that, you know, is very expensive and uh as far as surgery goes, very expensive and takes you out of your activities for a long period of time. Now, I'm not completely against it. I I refer people to have surgery, especially when those really effective non-invasive methods aren't working. But um but yeah, in my opinion, it it's oftentimes recommended too soon. And even the Journal of American Medical Association back in 20, uh it was either 20, 2008 or it might have been 2003, said that a third of all joint replacements are unnecessary. And that's one of the most conservative journals we have.

Pain As A Puzzle With Triggers

SPEAKER_00 9:17

I don't know about you, but sleep has just changed. Some nights I fall asleep fine, and then I'm up at 2 a.m., overheated, kicking off the covers, trying to get comfortable again. And if you're in perimenopause or menopause, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not just bad sleep. It's disruptive, it's inconsistent, and honestly, it's exhausting. That's exactly why I started paying attention to what I'm sleeping in and on. I recently tried Cozy Earth's sheets and pajamas, and what stood out to me right away is how breathable they feel. They're made from Fiscos from Bamboo, and they really do help regulate temperature. So when your body's doing its thing in the middle of the night, you're not waking up drenched or uncomfortable. And for me, it's those small shifts that make a difference. Because when sleep's already harder to come by in this stage of life, comfort actually matters more than ever. It's not about fixing menopause, it's about supporting yourself through it. And sometimes that starts with something as simple as what you're sleeping in. If sleep has been a struggle for you too, you might want to try them out. They offer a hundred-night sleep trial so you can really see if it works for you. You can head to cozyearth.com and use code Modobia for 20% off because better sleep, even just a little better, can change everything. Talk about pain. You describe it as a puzzle. So this is a great place to just ask you what you mean by that. What what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 10:53

There are so many facets to pain. Like when I was trained as a physical therapist, you really just kind of thought of muscle and joint pain as musculoskeletal, right? And that's still absolutely part of it. Uh, and patients are kind of confused sometimes when I talk about their gut or their hormones and things like that, and how that can impact pain. But besides, if if if when I work with somebody and we we watch them walk, we watch them raise their arm, we see how they're moving, and if when we correct those things and get the pressure off of the area, remove the triggers. I talk about my book about intangible and tangible triggers, remove the triggers that we can see which are tangible, um, and they're doing what they should be doing, and they still have pain, there's usually some sort of other factor. So that's the pieces of the puzzle. So biomechanics, um, you know, the the actual injury uh are one piece of the puzzle. And then the other pieces are how's our gut health? What are our hormones doing? Um, what's happening with our stress levels? Uh, what foods are we eating that might be contributing to inflammation? And all those things that we don't really connect to muscle and joint health, um, really with new research, we're seeing a direct causation, not just correlation, but causation of symptoms.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah, it is interesting. I think we want quick fix. I know we want quick fix, right? We we don't uh we don't, we're not patient. You know, humans are not patient.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Um, I think we've been conditioned to be not patient. And this was a big uh also a big revelation for me when um, you know, PT school, we didn't really talk about NSAIDs back then. That was back in, you know, I graduated in 1990. So they're kind of there, but it wasn't uh, you know it wasn't advertised on TV. There wasn't, you know, those types of things. So we've been conditioned over a period of time. And I had a moment when I was, I used to have a clinic in Australia and I was flying back and I was in LA taking a bus from the uh international to the domestic terminal. And there was a mother with her son sitting across from me. And I think I kind of noticed them because my son was about the same age and he was back in Australia, so I was missing him already. And but what I noticed is his head was in his hands, and he was saying to his mom that he had a headache. So the mom rustled into her her purse. So this was probably I would say early 2000s, no, mid-2000s. So the mom was wrestling in her purse, and um, she grabbed a you know, some sort of pill out of the purse and said to her son, here, take this. And he still had his head in his hands and he's like, No, I don't want to. He shook his head. And she's like, I said, take it. And he said, No, I don't want to. And then, you know, when you get that look from your mom, um he grabbed his coat, pulled him in, and he looked up at her face and she said, Take it. And right then I thought, wow, for me, when I had a headache when I was a kid, it was go outside, have some water, eat a banana, right? All these things that we, you know, other stuff that wasn't available wasn't offered to me for the quick fix. So I really think we've been conditioned to look for that quick fix and that it's not going to be harmful to us. And if it's done very occasionally, it probably isn't. But the way that we often do it and the way that now we're conditioning our children to utilize those medications can slow down healing, can cause more pain in the long run than we even knew before. Um, we knew that with opioids and pain medications, but the same is true in many instances for NSAIDs and other types of anti-inflammatories or or other pain meds.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah. What do people get wrong about pain? I think we're just talking now about like you're gonna solve it really quickly and move on, right? But what do people get wrong about pain? And um, I think your book talked a lot, you know, almost about um not welcoming it, but understanding it and make and and being able to, you know, connect with it. Being curious.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Yeah, and and we just want to be like, get this, get this data out there, get get rid of it, right? It's a it's a message, right? So I think that's it's the you know, the parent or the the aunt or uncle that we always don't want to listen to and kind of want to, you know, you know, keep out of our purview, but it's something where we need to listen to in order to figure out what is it trying to tell me? Because really ultimately your pain is trying to protect you, right? It's trying to keep you from harm. So if we cover it up, uh Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, said to me once, he said, it's like it's like taking the batteries out of the smoke detector. The fire is still gonna be there, right? You're just gonna pretend it's not, or you're not gonna hear about it. And if that message, and I think it this is true for many people, is if that message is ignored the first time or the first 10 times, then it gets louder and it gets louder and such to the point that we we can't ignore it anymore. And I think that's where people, I would say, I don't know that they get it wrong, if that would be that uh that bold to say that, but I think that that is a way, again, that we've been conditioned to just ignore it until it becomes so bad that we and push through it. You know, you hear that no pain, no gain, you push through it. In some cases, that's okay, and some in many cases it's not. So I think we need to change the paradigm around pain, is that it's trying to help us. Uh and it's not trying to, it's only trying to limit us to protect us from further injury. And when it becomes chronic, that's where the signals from the brain become hypersensitive. And those medications I talked about increase that signal. And then we have to really educate the brain to say, we're okay, you know, I can I'm gonna be okay. Because people I work with have a really hard time remembering when they didn't have pain. They they acknowledge that they didn't at some point in their life, but when they think about in the future, picking up their grandchild or playing pickleball, they can't see themselves a lot of times without pain because it's kind of been uh ingrained as a as a way of life, or like you said at the beginning, Kim, you know, something that is just gonna be this way from now on. And that that's not necessarily the case. And when I say pain-free, I don't mean you're never gonna have pain ever, but free from pain that you know limits you from doing all the things that you love to do. Yeah.

Menopause Hormones And Inflammation

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Um I I think hope is important for patients. You know, um I remember I had back surgery, two back surgeries, and I remember um having various PTs and you know, back surgeons that I interviewed before I had my second surgery. And I I chose the second surgeon um not just because of skill set, but because that individual gave me hope. You know, it was you you can get out of pain. You can you can move from where you are right now to a better place. Um and I think that's really important for physicians to help patients understand. To your point, Stacy, you know, otherwise we stay in this loop in our head and we've convinced ourselves that we can't get out. Chronic pain is really hard. I I want to switch gears and um kind of bring the conversation back to menopause, because there are so many things that happen, so many changes that happen in our body during perimenopause and menopause that impact pain. I'm not sure that we always connect the two. So, can you help us to understand what changes are happening during that time period that impacts pain?

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Absolutely. So when our hormone levels are decreasing, what people really don't realize is estrogen and to some extent, testosterone and progesterone as well, they're actually our anti-inflammatory molecules or some of our anti-inflammatory molecules in our body. So when they're in their normal ranges or healthy ranges, they're helping to combat inflammation. So as those levels decrease as we go into menopause, we lose that protection. So the things that we were doing, maybe we were able to get away with eating certain things or drinking, you know, more alcohol or you know, doing more activity that was, you know, contributing to some inflammation in our system, but our body was fighting that. It was keeping things at bay. We lost those protectors or we lose those protectors as we go through menopause. Um, and then the same things that we were doing, because I hear this all the time, I'm eating the same, I'm not doing anything different, um, you know, I'm even eating better than I was before, or things like that. So I don't get why this is happening. Well, it's because we're losing some of that protection from the hormones. That's why HRT, when done correctly and timed correctly, can be really, really beneficial for helping with pain. So I think that's where kind of there's a disconnect, right? Is that we don't realize that these molecules that, you know, we've we've sought to control with, you know, a contraceptive pill or the other things like that through the years, or with NSADs and all that type of stuff as far as pain goes, um, were really helping us in regards to keeping that inflammation at bay. So if we, I think if we were armed with that information going into menopause, into perimenopause, we may do some things earlier and make some changes earlier that can help us get through menopause. Like I like I did because I had joint pain, I was changing the way my eating plan and my patients taught me that. Um, one of my patients who ended up having celiac disease when I referred her to the doctor to get that checked out. One of the things she wasn't seeing me for pain at that time, um, but one of the things that she noted to me was her joint, when she gave up gluten, her joint pain went away. And I thought, oh, that's really interesting. So then made me think about me giving up gluten. And when I did that, from and gluten is not an issue for everybody, but for me, um, based on my genetic predisposition, uh, it was significant in regards to relieving um joint pain and aches, even as early as in my 30s and 40s. And I really think that helped me through menopause then. So, yeah, so I think there's a more education around not just HRT, because that's a valid intervention, but why? Why does it work? Right. And um, and can we do some things as well to prepare ourselves so we don't have the big swings and we don't have the the the pain to the same extent. And then use HRT, you know, they say doing it earlier is fine, and that's okay too. But you know, there's so many people who would rather not take stuff if they don't have to for a period of time. Um so if we do some things to prepare our body and then add an HRT, we may not need as much or we may not have the negative reaction that people have to it. Um that they do some people.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

That's you know I love that point. Like we don't often don't think about food as medicine necessarily right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

You know, we we hear uh often too a lot of I would I'll say younger women in their 30s um that are in workplace sessions that will say oh I'm not there yet I don't need to worry about this you know I'm not menopausal yet and you emphasize uh a really important point here that it's it's really important to educate before you reach menopause so that you can begin to implement lifestyle changes because HRT is great but it's not the magic pill it's not going to take care of everything even if you choose to take it it can help but lifestyle changes and diet changes nutrition is really important um to recognize that and have that information. Stacey are you seeing more women in their 40s and 50s um coming in with new or worsening pain? What are you seeing?

SPEAKER_02 23:07

I'm seeing women in their 40s and 50s first of all not not connecting that that pain is related to the hormone changes number one and I'm seeing them to go to and do more things without success right so that they're so frustrated. But what's wonderful about women in their 40s and 50s today is we don't often settle for that's just the way it's going to be we're continuously looking we're like there's got to be a solution right there's got to be a solution. So I'm seeing that more and more and I am seeing I would say probably from what are we 2026 probably 2010 2014 I would talk about nutrition and gut health and how it um how it relates to pain and people would kind of cross their arms right and be like whatever but now when I talk about it not everybody because I remember I'm in Milwaukee Wisconsin beer and cheese right but whatever whenever I talk about it now I would say a good half to you know three quarters are leaning in like they want to know more. They they don't understand it maybe right away how you know maybe even blueberries for somebody so like how a healthy food could affect someone negatively. So the more information that I give them and the more research that I show them the the people who are open to that will again lean in and start to be more um more proactive because they they do want to do the things that they love and they don't want to be limited if they don't have to be.

Food Sensitivities And Gut Repair

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Wait blueberries what's wrong with blueberries oh my gosh I was going to ask the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Wait a minute yeah so when when I do food sensitivity testing with with my patients who aren't you know progressing like they should be in their program. So if somebody by the third treatment third treatment after evaluation isn't 50 to 100% better I'm looking at shifting gears. I'm not going to treat them forever and ever and ever without because they should be seeing some improvement. So um we do we look at gut health hormones and then one aspect of gut health that are food sensitivity. So I mentioned that I have food sensitivity to gluten. I am not celiac and it's been shown to be 100% true I am not, but I do have a non-ciliac gluten sensitivity issue. But when we do these food sensitivity tests we also see that you can react to things that are should be generally healthy for us. So um and every and this is where personalized medicine comes in because your system the three of us would get different results on our food sensitivity test. Now the food sensitivity test needs to be accurate some of the ones that are out there IgG tests have been shown not to be accurate. So that's capital I, capital G as in George, capital G is in George have been shown not to be very accurate, but there are some great tests like I do the LCAT there's another one called MRT that do show the accuracy is is pretty good based on research that's been done on them. And so that could come up so one of my patients I mentioned blueberries because everybody thinks blueberries are healthy and they are right they're full of antioxidants, procyanothidins they're great for our overall health but for some people you could react to that or I have people that react to white potato which would be crushing for me personally. But so and and then you don't have to give up blueberries or white potato or whatever it might be for you forever with them we work on rebuilding the gut number three or six months to and then some people are lucky enough to be able to add those things back in and have no more reaction to it, no more pain. Some people that have that you know have chocolate's been one of the things and they add it in there and they're like it's the weirdest thing I eat chocolate my ankle aches. It's so strange um but sometimes they'll eat chocolate and they'll just say okay I know my ankle's gonna ache for right so at least but we at least we're empowered with that info information. And it usually really comes down to like only two or three things that you really need to eliminate or really watch for a period of time versus like this mountain of things that we end up not thinking we can eat. Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Yeah yeah I thought um April and I are both gluten free for different reasons and I thought I was gonna die and I didn't I haven't I'm fine because you can't have gluten you mean yeah having to give every you know give up the things that you know that you know I know I'm gonna feel terrible the next day. Exactly you know what you're walking into right you have a choice right so if someone's dealing with daily pain where should they start?

SPEAKER_02 27:44

I would always start with food. That would be the number one place. I would for well if they're taking medications on a regular basis I would try to start weaning off of those and then look at my food. So I think it's pretty well known now that ultra processed foods are just not good for us in general and they're not good for our muscles or joints either. So starting with that cutting back on those things or eliminating them if if they're in in the diet that would be number one. If you've already done those things like I have patients that come into me and they're like oh my God I've already done all that right and it's still I still have issues I'm eating healthier than I ever have. So then the next thing I would ask is uh if you have pain all the time, was there an injury? If there was an injury within the last let's say six months to two years, then we start looking at how are you moving, right? So if your body's still moving in a way that you're triggering that tissue to be inflamed, let's look and look at your biomechanics, adjust those. You might need to stretch some muscles, strengthen some muscles, stabilize some joints. So see somebody who's knowledgeable about those things um and that can help you move better, right? And move more efficiently. If you do all that and it's still an issue, then that's where I would say let's get some, let's dig a little deeper into your into your eating plans, dig a little deeper into your hormones, let's dig a little deeper into how stress might be impacting you because cortisol is a stress hormone and it's another hormone that can be very protective for us. But when it's too high or too low, that can actually contribute to pain. Looking at your thyroid hormones if your thyroid hormones are sluggish that can also contribute to muscle and joint pain. So that's where seeing somebody like myself who does functional medicine as well is really beneficial to if you've not been able to manage it for yourself, all the normal you know PT and biomechanical stuff has been addressed. That's where seeing somebody that can look at more of the physiological connection is really beneficial.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yeah I was going to ask you that I think um obviously it's great advice I know individuals that ask the same questions of us where do we start can be a little bit uh overwhelmed like okay but who do I go to? Who do I see? Do I go to my general practitioner? Do I go to functional medicine? Do I see a PT or do I have to have 10 people that are helping me and then they just shut down because they don't know who to call where to go for help. And it can be really frustrating. So thank you for just kind of calling that out functional medicine.

Finding The Right PT And Team

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah I think it's it not everybody has to do it. I would say that most of the people 70 to 80% of the people that come to see me are do extremely well one thing I will say about physical therapy I'm very proud of my profession but also very disappointed in where it's gone because of insurance restrictions, decreasing reimbursement has made a lot of what we call PT mills out there where they're seeing three patients in an hour and trying to balance everybody out and there's no hands on there's no really assessing those biomechanics there's just here and here's an exercise program go over to the corner and do that or go home and do this exercise program or physician saying ah you don't need to PT and just do these exercises. I bet patients come in after the you know surgery and they're walking horrendously like I you know I'd be in I'm just in pain watching them walk um simply begin if they would have gone to PT that would have helped them with their gay pattern or whatever right after surgery that a lot of that would have be would be avoided. So I think we have to go in and it's very frustrating but we have to go in um and and be realistic and say okay I don't feel like this if this person's not putting their hands on me if they're not watching how I move I've got to find somebody else right so that's what we talk to other friends we talk to people we get on the internet um I talk a lot of my podcast about it you know just try to educate what to look for and who to find because sometimes it feels like a needle and haystack but if you keep looking there's a good chance you're gonna find somebody that fits and that's the same with functional medicine. You can go to somebody who will prescribe 50 different pills right or I try to stream whereas I'm more of the adage of streamline things. So when somebody prescribes all those pills it's almost medicalizing right instead of polypharmacy we have poly supplementation. Yeah yeah um so it and again that's it can be harder to find as well too so you know keep looking to find the that team that can work with you. And unfortunately the the primary care providers uh that really recognize this integrative approach are few and far between right now I'm hoping that's going to change. So again finding somebody like that I I'll just acknowledge that it can it can be very frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah yeah we talk a lot about divorcing your doctors right Kim Kim is an advocate like divorce your doctor go see someone um that will help you if you're not getting the help that you need. So but I think it's hard you know we've been trained to just listen to our medical providers and take what they say at face value. And so I think it's it's going to take a little bit of time um you know to change that paradigm. It's a paradigm shift. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Oh yeah and I mean as women we tend to want to please if somebody tells us to do this right and so we've got to break out of that and I think we're we're doing that. But also there's proven research about gaslighting for women you know in conventional medicine too you know like oh you just you're just getting older or oh you have kids and you know you expect to be like this and um you know things that are not healthy for us. So we do need to be accountable to ourselves and and do the uncomfortable thing which is at times stand up for ourselves and say no this isn't you know this isn't it and like you said maybe fire fire your PT or your doctor or whomever isn't helping you get where you want to go.

The Core Takeaway On Control

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Right. I love this conversation because I think that along with this sometimes it takes time. So be patient. You know but you have to trust your gut if your doctor is not helping you in the way that you want and you know you're not seeing any results I think it's important to advocate for yourself. So I really appreciate that. So if there's one thing that you want women to walk away with from this conversation, Stacey, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02 34:19

To make the connection of that pain can be due to that hormonal change pattern, right? And to recognize that that you're not losing it, you're not going crazy. It's not just a part of life that you have to deal with that once we realize that and can get to the the triggers whatever they may be you are now in control and empowered to do something about it. So instead of feeling like oh my gosh I don't know what to do next or there are what definitely ways out there that you can find a path to feeling much better.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

I definitely took that away in your book. So yeah I just want to go back to the pain free formula I took that away and um and I really appreciate your perspective and your wisdom on that. Thank you I really I appreciate it.

Best Advice And Where To Find Stacey

unknown 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Stacey we ask one question of all of our guests before we close and that is the what is the best piece of advice that you've ever received I can't remember if it was from my mom or my dad it probably was from both of them but you know treat people how you want to be treated whether you're speaking to a janitor or you know a billionaire really what they do or how much money they have shouldn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Just treat people like you want to be treated yourself. So that I really tried and I'm not perfect but I really try to apply that to life for sure. I think that's has governed my life for a very very long time. So where can people find you so a couple different places thank you for asking um my name of my clinic is New U Health and Wellness. So at new health and wellness.com all spelt out N-E-W-O-U-A-N-D. They can find me there uh we do telehealth um we have uh if they're local or near us in the Midwest they can certainly come to the clinic as well too uh for some softwave treatment um but I do a lot of coaching online as well to help people like what they should ask their doctor and how they you know should um you know uh proceed with things or could I shouldn't say should and then uh the pain free formula podcast um and we talk about pain and different ways to address it whether it's you know biomechanical or physiological or just um interviewed an orthopedic surgeon which I couldn't couldn't stop talking to him it's gonna be a two part two part podcast yeah because he's he's holistic and I'm like wait where where are you and where have you been all my life um so that was really great to hear some perspective so I'm really encouraged by the people out there who are trying to to make changes um and then the book is available on Amazon if people want to read that and and see if they resonate with what I talk about in there.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Oh it's great yeah and we love the books and it is a book that you're gonna want to underline and you know dog ear. So get the hard copy is always my recommendation with books like this. Thank you for what you're doing. Uh podcasts are great as we know to listen to on our nice walks now that spring weather is coming. So tune in to the podcast and we just thank you for being here. This is a really important conversation so thank you for taking the time to be here today Stacey.

Closing Thoughts And Listener Requests

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Oh you're so welcome and thank you for having me it really this is a certainly a passion project of mine and really want people to understand that pain doesn't have to be a life sentence. Yeah for sure we don't have to suffer.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah yeah take care and with that audience members go find joy in the journey until next time bye everyone bye everyone thank you for listening to the Medovia Menopause podcast if you enjoyed today's show please give it a thumbs up subscribe for future episodes leave a review and share this episode with a friend Medovia is out to change the narrative learn more at medovia.com that's M Idovia dot com