Hot Flashes, Cold Facts and "Ohhh… It’s Hormones!" (mini-sode)

It’s 2026 — and somehow, we’re still not talking enough about menopause.

In this unfiltered minisode, Lauri and her friend and fellow coach Kelly Myerson swap real stories about navigating hormonal shifts, medical gaslighting, and the mystery symptoms so many women are told to “just live with.”

From sleepless nights to sudden clarity, they shed light (and laughter) on what really happens when your hormones start changing — and why breaking the silence might be one of the most powerful things you can do.

If you’ve ever thought, “Is it just me?” — this one’s for you.

TAKEAWAYS

1. You’re not crazy — it’s chemistry. Midlife challenges are hormonal, not personal failings.
2. You’re not too young. Hormonal changes can start in your 30s or early 40s, and early diagnosis matters, and your body deserves care, not confusion.
3. Self-advocacy is essential. Don’t let “You’re fine” be the final word. Keep asking, researching, and trusting your body.
4. Talking about it helps everyone. Speaking openly about menopause breaks stigma and builds community.
5. There’s hope (and help). From holistic care to hormone therapy, relief and renewal are possible.

Connect with Kelly:

Substack: https://substack.com/@kellymyersonvoiceamplifier?r=3bsi5i&utm_medium=ios
Website: https://www.kellymyerson.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-myerson-b6217843/

Transcript

00:00 Girl, Let’s Talk: Kelly opens up about the perimenopause rollercoaster.

Kelly 0:32

Girl, let's talk. Okay, because this whole perimenopause thing is bananas, right? I'm like, how am I 48 years old? It's 2025, and we're still like, oh what wait, so you're saying like all these women with all this pain and they can't sleep and they got the sweats and all that stuff. It's it's perimenopause. Oh, it's just because these hormone levels are dipping and dropping, and so their body doesn't have what it needs. So we could just give them those hormones and they could actually function again. And um, yeah, yeah. I'm so with you on that.

Too Young? Think Again: Kelly’s long road to answers after years of being dismissed.

Lauri 1:13

Yeah, I was mystified, like I was deep into perimenopause without knowing it until another woman in the middle of a conference who was also of a voice and women, you know, kind of like us, turned to me and said, Has anybody talked to you about perimenopause? And I was like, No. And then she just told me how many of the symptoms, and now I'm in full-blown menopause. And some people in my life are very some are surprised. Like I remember talking about it after playing a role in a show where I talked about like finding the voice of the character and how women's voices can change after menopause. And I did a little bit more of that, like on purpose. And I said, you know, I was just like talking about it, and the other women were like, wow, she's just willing to talk about it. And I was like, Well, you know, it's kind of my thing. I'm a podcaster, I'm about authenticity, I talk about things that nobody else talks about. And I think this is how we help help other women. Amen. So somebody listening to this is like 44 and their neck is tight all the time, and they're thinking that they need to like spiritually take a look at themselves and do a deep dive because they're not letting go of tension, and it's like, no, it might be hormonal.

The Research Deep Dive: From reels to real doctors — how Kelly found her way back to balance.

Feeling Normal Again: Hormones, healing, and the joy of finally feeling like yourself.

Kelly 2:41

It probably is. It probably is. Yeah, I think I so agree with you. Uh, I don't know if people are sick of hearing me talk about perimetopause and hormone replacement therapy and all of these things. Uh, it's fine. They don't, not everybody is going to be excited about the topic. However, I'm like, I work with a bunch of women, you know, some are older than me, some are younger than me, like from like their 20s and to like 60s, right? So there's a whole bunch of us, uh, particularly because I work with OTs and PTs, and there's like 40 of us in a small office space. So we're we're close together. We have lunches together. I feel like nobody talked about this. Um, my experience is kind of unique in that I did not have my son until I was in my late 30s. So, right around the time I turned 40, um, I I had just finished breastfeeding. I felt like maybe I just wasn't getting back to normal after having my son. And I just did not feel right from 40. Um, and over the course of years, like I literally felt like I was aging and just like tanking, tanking, tanking. I had pain, I couldn't sleep, like, and like it just got worse and worse. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then I thought it was just like hormones after pregnancy and nursing and getting back to normal. Um, now I look back and realize that it was early perimenopause. And so um I really, if you talked to me a couple years ago, I was considering uh leaving my profession because I couldn't get up and down off the floor. And I work with kids all day. I'm running and chasing kids. I went in January 2023 and I had connected with a naturopath doctor. She had me go do blood tests, and it came back that my hormone levels were in the menopausal range. And so I took that information to my OBGYN, and they were like, You're too young. This can't be. Like, you're yeah, you're too, you're too young. No, no, it gets better and better. So they're like, how about we put you on birth control pills? And I was like, but I I was like, fine, okay, I'll try it. It was free, let me try it. Didn't do anything, gave that up. Um, and so I continued on, just feeling worse and feeling worse. At one point, I went to see a specialist for my hip, and he's like, you just have a lot of degeneration in there. And he's like, because you're aging. And I was like, but I'm at like not even 50 yet. How can it be? Um, but you know, that's one of the things they talk about. You're not having the hormones in your body, your body starts to degenerate very quickly. That's why women have so much pain. I had lack of mobility, I couldn't sleep on my left side, like all this stuff going on, right? So I finally last year, 2024, in August, I went back to this holistic doctor and I was like, I had like a laundry list of problems, went through all of them. That was one of them. And I was like, I would like to try hormone replacement therapy. Of course, you all figured out now I love to do research. So I had done all the research, I'd followed all the people, I watched all the reels on Instagram. If you don't know, um, sorry if your phone is listening because now you're gonna get all the reels about berimenopause. And I was like, I I want to try. And she's like, okay. And she prescribed it for me. Uh, so it wasn't my OBGYN that and I went through, you know, a few different people in the practice, but they all are like, no, you're too young. I started listening to podcasts with doctors talking about this who specifically work with women in menopause and some of the associated challenges. Um, and I was listening to one, and this woman came on, I believe she was from the Netherlands, and she was talking about a few different things about perimenopause that I didn't know about. So, one of them that she talked about that I was not aware of is that early onset menopause puts women at a higher risk of issues with heart attacks, dementia, uh osteoporosis, um, and as well as gut issues. Okay. Then she says something that nearly floored me. So she says, and women who have ADHD are at a higher risk of experiencing early onset perimenopause, thereby going through menopause earlier, and all of these risks ensue, and they are at even higher a risk of the bone, heart, uh, and brain issues. Um, I was like, I had always thought that I had ADHD. I really truly like uh started to think that in my 40s. But there's such a high association of women who were never diagnosed, and that's a whole other thing, um, starting to show signs and realizing whether they're self-diagnosed or diagnosed in their 40s because of the diminished hormones in your body, which causes less creation of dopamine, ADHD is dopamine deficiency, and so it's like the perfect storm for you feeling like your whole world is collapsing. So I went through all that. So I've been on hormone replacement therapy for a year. I started ADHD medication in August. And I'm like, hey, what the heck? Is this what normal feels like?

Lauri 8:57

It's been so long.