Understanding the Perimenopausal Gray Zone: Hormones, Fertility & What to Do Next with Dr Elissa Chambers

What do you do when your body feels different… but everything still looks “normal”?

In your 40s, many women enter the perimenopausal gray zone—a phase between fertility and menopause where hormones begin to shift, even if cycles still appear regular.

In this episode, we break down what’s actually happening with your hormones, why you can feel “off” despite normal labs, and how symptoms in midlife are often dismissed or misunderstood.

One of the biggest takeaways?
 👉 You don’t have to guess.

Getting the right labs and having informed conversations with a doctor can help you better understand your body and support your health. 

In this episode:

• Perimenopause symptoms in your 40s
• Hormone changes (even with regular cycles)
• Why you may feel off but be told everything is “normal”
• The role of labs + working with a doctor
• Fertility and hormone shifts in midlife

Featuring Dr. Elissa Chambers, a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner specializing in women’s health and fertility.

Connect with Dr. Elissa:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drelissachambers/

Website: https://www.drjanelevesque.com/

If this episode resonated, share it with a friend and make sure you’re subscribed for more conversations on midlife health and hormones.

If you want more from me, visit: https://www.livingwellwithkatie.net/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What do we do in the space between fertility and menopause? That in between where your body is cycling, but your energy is different, and your sleep is off, and things just don't feel the same. You're told everything is normal, but it doesn't feel normal. This is the perimenopausal gray zone. And most women have no idea what's actually happening here or what to do about it. So today we're breaking it down. Welcome to Wellness After 40: Health, Goals, and Manifestation for Women, the podcast that empowers women in their 40s and beyond to embrace aging with vitality and purpose. I'm your host, Katie, an older millennial navigator, and the artist. This podcast will be difficult to more fast at every stage of life. Let's dive into the journey of not just surviving, but thriving after 40. Welcome to the podcast Well Dust After 40. I am your host, Katie, and today I brought a very informative and important guest to the podcast, Dr. Elisa Chambers. Let me tell you a little bit about her, and then I'm going to dive into so many questions that I have for her. Dr. Elisa is a chiropractor and a functional medicine practitioner specializing in women's health and fertility. She works closely with couples to identify the root causes affecting hormonal balance, metabolic health, and reproductive function. Her approach combines comprehensive clinical testing, lifestyle changes, and personalized guidance to help both men and women better understand what's actually happening in their bodies and how to support optimal fertility and long-term health. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Elisa.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Hi Katie, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yes, I am so thankful that you're on today. The topic that we're going to talk about, I find I feel like I'm currently in this zone. And we were just jokingly talking about the topic before we decided to hit record. And um it's this idea of living kind of in this gray zone of the hormonal landscape that I feel like so many women in their 40s are living in. So I am so thankful that you're coming on today to talk a little bit about this kind of murky environment that so many women in their 40s are are living in and just really kind of dive more into hormonal care and understanding hormones. And so I am very thankful that you're on today. Well, so let's maybe start with that. You know, so many women in their 40s, you know, are hopefully are coming into your your practice. And I find myself in particular, I'm just very confused about what I'm supposed to be feeling like in this stage of my life. And what are what are the hormones, what are the changes, and what is this gray zone of hormones between moving out of these times in our life that we are, you know, in our most fertile understanding of our menstrual cycle, 20s and 30s. We were kind of in this one area, and now we move into this gray zone. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing when women come into your office and you know, what is their most confused moments of hormonal care?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, so unfortunately, we've set a precedent and a standard that it is that like transition or kind of like a hard stop. And so typically when we're seeing women late 30s, 40s coming to see us, my primary goal in the practice that I'm in is working on fertility and getting the goal of the healthy pregnancy. A lot of times when women are coming in and it's second, third baby, they're starting to struggle and they don't really know why. Um, we have to look at the bigger picture. And so we tend to zoom in and focus just primarily on like, oh, it must be uh my hormones, or it must be, you know, this diagnosis or whatever that I had. But if you gotta look at the bigger picture, and so our bodies are a bunch of cycles that all work together, and so your immune system, your endocrine system, um, all of these systems have to play a role for the other systems to work. And so we tend to have that just like hyper focus of okay, so maybe it's progesterone or maybe it's estrogen because we're led to believe that that's that's it, that's the only thing. But we have to look so much bigger of like, how are you sleeping? Um, how you know, what is your lifestyle like? Are you moving your body because all of these systems work together or they don't work together? So I think the biggest confusion is like, like, why am I feeling this way? Or like, what are my hormones doing when we should be taking a step back? And it's like, let's work at how your look at how your systems are working together because now you're starting that transition to where it doesn't happen overnight, right? You don't just turn 40 and you hit carry menopause, or you turn 50 and you hit menopause. Like it's a that gradual change that's happening within your body. And I think we need to do a better job of learning how to support ourselves during that transition.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

I I really, really appreciate that perspective because I think it is so true. You know, we are gradually changing, but I do find that some of the changes kind of are larger markers. Like, you know, our menstrual cycles start to maybe completely do a 180 and they're either like longer apart or heavier or lighter. So I I do find that these while these changes are gradual, there's some things are kind of like big hits for us. And so I I wonder too, you know, how do we start to understand when we talk about these changes in this gray zone? Like, how do we start to understand like, well, what is a normal change and what is not? And I know that you talked a lot about it's like all these systems working together, but if we were to like kind of dial in on changes alone, what would you say is like where should we start to know what's normal and not?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, so I think we need to start having this conversation sooner because anything that's like a big like marker change within the body is your body trying to tell you something. So I think that there's a stigma behind the word like perimetopause, whereas you don't think about it until you start noticing these things. But I think we should start having these conversations with women much sooner. So, like 35 is a little bit more realistic of when we start seeing those changes happen before the symptoms start yelling at you. And so it's a lot more about knowing your body and um tracking your body. And so the your cycle and those symptoms are gonna tell you, right? That's like a red flag, that's like a light going off telling you something's wrong. But there's always two, three, four steps back that you have to look a little bit deeper. And so looking at what the hormones are doing over time, so getting some testing done, like a test, like a blood work is like one blimp on the radar, right? And so we want to look at those changes over time. So getting, you know, your blood work every six months, every three months in a perfect world, but also looking at like the nutrients within your body because those nutrients feed those systems that we were talking about earlier. And so, like vitamin D levels, calcium levels, thyroid function, adrenal function, those are all things that also drive these hormones. And so it shouldn't be this steep, like step off the ledge where, oh, now all of a sudden my cycles are going crazy, or you know, like things are really, really changing for me. If we're looking at those changes over time and we're starting this conversation earlier, you shouldn't have that quick, like all of a sudden my body is changing. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

It does. Yeah, it does. It really does. And it it kind of goes back to what I was asking, and you answered it perfectly because it's like, okay, well, if you are having these really big changes, like that's uh that's a we gotta really put the pause button here and dive in. It should be more of like just slow changes. And your advice is to try to get tested as soon as you can, potentially, or just finding your baseline so that you can start to measure these changes and what are really big changes, what are serious changes, and then but if you don't really know where you're starting, then it's gonna be harder to mark if it's a significant or not.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Yeah, and I think we notice these changes too. Sometimes we just normalize them, so it can be as simple as not sleeping as well, more moods, having a lot of fatigue. It can go into the menstrual cycle, so heavier bleeding, spotting before and after. Um, you know, it can it it kind of goes both ways, but we tend to normalize these things as women, but like pain is not normal. Symptoms are not normal. And so tracking is really, really helpful. So something as simple as like your aura ring can tell you a lot about how you're sleeping, what's your HRV doing, um, which links back to all of that as well of knowing when those changes are happening, because those are tend to be the things that are gonna happen first. We just don't notice them as often.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Okay, and this is gonna probably sound like a really silly question, but I was when you were talking about when we've been talking about this, I'm like, I really want to ask her this because I I know that we look a lot at symptoms, and this is how we know that we're in perimenopause. But can you maybe dumb it down for some of us? Because I think we talk about it so much in like the symptom land. Like, what is happening? What is happening in our body? Like, what are these changes? Is it loss of estrogen first? I mean, I'm really I'm just kind of curious. Like, what is perimenopause? Like, what are these changes that are happening into our body?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, so um changes in the brain, but also changes in like reproductive function. So you're gonna see a decrease in ovarian reserve, you're gonna see a decrease in AMH. Um, essentially, it's like the aging of the ovary. And so when that happens, you're gonna see a change in hormone production and hormone function, right? Because it all works together. And your cycle is what's stimulating, you know, from your brain, stimulating those things to be released. And so over time, right, as your body ages, as your reproductive system ages, that's when we start to see those changes where you're moving towards menopause, right? When that stops, but it's that over time of gradually it's essentially just the aging. I mean to like really make it super simple. It's the aging of your reproductive system, which causes a decrease in that. But what you want to do is you want to support those things, and so you're not gonna stop time, right? We're not gonna turn back the clock, but you want to be able to support your body during those changes, and so that's when we peel back that next layer of like there are things like hormone replacement therapy that are super, super helpful. And we have clients that are trying to get pregnant, and you know, we're supplementing progesterone, and you know, we're doing these things because that's what their body needs to support those those organs and those reproductive systems, but it's also like can you slow that process? You know, how are you eating? How are you sleeping? Are you regulating your nervous system? Um, are you getting enough sun, enough vitamin D? And so it's so complex, yet so simple.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Well, I think it's also complex because it's so personalized. I think every person is going through different symptoms and they are measured in in different ways. So it it would all I really feel for the medical field because it seems like almost so impossible to figure out what's going on with one woman because it's completely different for someone else. And then, you know, like you're saying, and then people are coming into a different varying stages of their lives in perimenopause, and you're like, oh, if you would have just came to me at 35, we would know how this is different. So I love that original advice you gave. Like, the sooner that you can start to understand your baseline, your cycle, the easier it's going to be for you. So we should share this with all 35-year-old women. Um, but now that we're here, it does seem like still a very confusing time. But thank you for kind of breaking that down. I love simple as best, and that's part of my my my podcast theme. Like, how can we simplify this really complex idea of science and and make it something that we can understand? So thank you for taking some time and feeling about the layers of like what is actually changing in our body.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yeah, absolutely. That's a a point that I like to make a lot, is that every body is so different. And so what's happening to you is different than you know, the person that I talked to before I got on this call with you. Like, and it it really matters too, like if you're looking for help and you're looking for a provider, like a provider that's going to look at your body and not just give you, you know, some regimen that is kind of like cookie cutter, one size fits all, because all of our systems are so different and we all need different things to support this stage or to support this transition.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Well, I want to dive a little bit more into fertility, but also fertility when it comes to menstrual cycles, because I think that's kind of really the the main two pillars that we have in this gray zone. Because we're told that we're still fertile, but our cycles can become very different. And so I'm curious how do you help patients understand like what's realistic about fertility? Because I don't know. There may be listeners here that are in their 40s and are still thinking about having children or in that in that area. And so what role does fertility play really in in paramenopause?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah, so it's not a no, like it's it's never a no until you hit that that menopause marker because your body still has the ability, your body still has the capability. You just may need to give it a little bit more support. And so a lot of our clients are above 35. Like the like the large percentage of our clients are, and it's been that you know, cycle of like I can't get pregnant, I have unexplained infertility, I did IBF and it didn't work. But there's like there's always a root cause, like there's always a why behind everything. And so I'm gonna try not to get onto that tangent because that'll take us down a whole different, a whole different avenue. Um, but you just may need a little bit more support in that part of life if fertility, you know, if a healthy pregnancy is something that you're still looking towards, or if you're like, okay, I'm in this stage, I don't want to get pregnant. You may still need to protect yourself from that. And so that, you know, it's gonna keep going back to this like, how are you supporting your body in other ways? Because a good way to think about it is um your body is gonna prioritize what it needs the most, right? And unfortunately, sometimes hormones and reproductive and all of that gets a little bit lower on the list. Like if you're stuck in fight or flight and your body is working really, really hard to just regulate everything else, it's not gonna think about, you know, what is your ovarian reserve or what is are you gonna release a follicle this month? Like, so you want to support yourself kind of in kind of in every way, and you want to look a little bit deeper. And so I think I'm going on a tangent here and I'm not really answering your question.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

No, no, no, no, absolutely you put can you pull me back? No, I was just asking about, you know, this is it, we are having so many changes in our hormones, and I was just curious like what this element of fertility, like how does that change or or support this hormonal, you know, imbalance that we're having is, you know, because we are told we're still fertile, um, but we're expecting so many changes. So is this true? And I I think you answered it perfectly. You're like, yes, you're gonna potentially need more support because you're having hormonal changes. And at the same time, you still can get pregnant, even though you're having all these hormonal changes. So this is kind of like when what I think so many women in their 40s are thinking about fertility, it's they're either thinking about, oh, I I would love to get pregnant one more time, but your advice is you're going to more than likely need a little additional support for like for the medical arena. But at the same time, too, if you're not wanting to get pregnant because of this stage in your life, you still need to just be mindful that it it is a possibility. So I think you answered it perfectly when it comes to confirmable. No, no, totally. We're talking about hormones, girl, and everybody's already confused. We're all confused.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Um and just to kind of keep going on menstrual cycle. So I have a question about that too, from your perspective. So, how does perimenopause change the way we should be tracking our cycles? Or, you know, I think there's um, I don't know if you've ever looked into cycle sinking when you're doing certain types of workout or certain types of food during your different phases of your cycle through the month. How does that is how is that challenged in perimenopause? Like how should we understand our menstrual cycle?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

So I think cycle tracking and cycle thinking can be a really daunting topic or what's the word I'm looking for? It can be a little bit overwhelming. So I think when we're looking at, you know, like how should I work out? How should I eat? I think you need to get really comfortable with listening to your body. You need to build a relationship with what your body is telling you. And so different parts of your cycle, you're gonna have different levels of energy. And you may notice that fluctuate a little bit more, you know, going into that peri-menopause, metapause stage where you may want a little bit lower impact more times per month. You may want, you know, you may still have those spikes where you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go weight train and do all of this, but then you know, you're coming down from that and you're like, I'm gonna go do some yoga, or I'm you know, gonna be a little bit easier on my body. So I think it's less about like finding like a rigid rule book and doing a little bit more of listening. Now, when it comes to food, I mean, you should always be fueling your body with, you know, good whole foods, um, quality meats and vegetables and and giving yourself, you know, the colors of the rainbow and trying to eat a cup and a half of vegetables a day. And like there's there's different, you know, standards, but I think you should just focus on fueling your body and giving your body really quality things. Um, but then pattern recognition. So when you're looking at the changes happening in your cycle, it's not just like like even when we're talking about like the the term irregular periods, like that's such a broad term, and there's so many differences and nuances that can come to that term, but it's more so like going back to what does that look like for you? Because your cycle could have been 28 days for your entire life. Now it's changing. Okay, so we're looking at those changes that are happening over three, six months time because it can vary. Based on different things from month to month. But rather than, okay, I'm looking hard every single month, like what is that pattern? How has that pattern changed over time? It's gonna tell you a lot more about those changes than if you just look at, like, like we said before, one blimp on the radar, like just looking at one month versus, you know, how is that happening over time?

unknown 22:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

And I think that's for a lot of us is where kind of the confusion lies. Because like if you were to Google, how do I know I'm in menopause? And the first thing that you read is you've gone 12 consecutive months without a menstrual cycle. And so that's what we're told. That's how you know that you're in menopause. You know, you have all of these symptoms kind of bubbling up until you get there is kind of what I've read um through the research. And so, you know, but that's where it gets confusing because our cycles are changing at this stage in our life. And like you said, like sometimes they're further apart, um, or they're are they're different and how they used to be like in our 30s. And so that's kind of where I find very confusing about you know, understanding our mental cycles in this gray zone. Like, you know, we are changing, but then how do we know that this is it? Are we in how do we know we're in parametopause? Is it just the age or is it the a change in the pattern?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Yeah, so it's symptoms are just a picture, right? Symptoms give us one piece of the puzzle. So if I was to give advice for any of it, and may not be super realistic for anybody or for everybody, but I think the more you know about your body, the better set up you will be in this transition. And so getting some testing done, so getting some blood tests done when you start noticing symptoms, and then you know, three months get another set done because it's gonna change and it's gonna vary. And the only way you're really gonna absolutely know is testing your system and getting that like clear 100%, like this is what's going on inside of my body, because symptoms are really important, and symptoms lead us into as clinicians, like different, you know, avenues of like what could be going on in your system, but you'll never 100% know if you don't test what's going on inside of your body. And so again, it's may not be super realistic for everybody, but there's a lot of different options of getting your blood tested and to like see what's what's going on, but that's the best 100% way to actually know what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

And if I can, I want to dive a little bit more deeper into testing because I have a lot of questions about testing. And then you you kind of mentioned in the in the beginning of our our chat about HRT. And so I'm curious first just to kind of go into testing. So we should get I've I've heard this advice as well from um from medical um professionals. You should be tested more than once before they give you a plan. There is like a snapshot over maybe that's probably my first question. Like, how often should you be tested? You know, is it at once every three months, once every six months? Like, what is a, in your opinion, the right amount of testing to be able to actually be diagnosed? Um, and then the you know, second question to that would be like, you know, where should we go?

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Absolutely. So in a perfect world, um, we would all love to have our blood tested every three months, maybe more realistically, six months. Um, and that's for anybody, right? You're gonna have a lot of information given to you from that. And so we do want to look at testing over time as well, because we want to see trends, we want to see correlations, and we want to see changes. And so when someone's coming to see me and we're taking their blood, or I mean, we do a whole host of other tests, which we can dive into too, but we're taking that, we're looking where their deficiencies, you know, where you know, we're also looking at cholesterol, we're looking at liver function, we're looking at all of these going back. Every system plays on another system. We're looking at your hormone levels, we're looking at all of these things, but we're starting with our protocols then we're testing them again in three months, and we're seeing what changed. Because one thing that I never recommend anybody do is just try a bunch of things and see what works. Because you can over-supplement, you can supplement incorrectly, or a lot of women just get that one size fits all. Like, here, take this essentially like a multivitamin type of a thing where all of these levels are just like low to you know, not even what your body needs, and you're getting maybe over-supplemented in something and then under-supplemented in another thing. So, my biggest advice is you have to know where your starting point is and then retest yourself from there. So, in a perfect world, every three months, more realistically, maybe six months, then you have a bigger window into what's going on into your body. And, you know, you have a few options. Um, you can find a functional practitioner that will run a functional lab test on you, blood work. You can go to your um gynecologist. Um, you might have to push a little bit harder to get the you know the test that you want run. Um, because what I see too often that's really, really frustrating from a more like holistic perspective is that you're going in with symptoms and they're gonna give you like a progesterone cream or you know, something that they're gonna hope is gonna change, and then you come back three, six months, a year from now, and nothing's changed. Now they're gonna run some blood work. So learning how to advocate for yourself and asking for those things is really important. And then there's also some like online um places, like I have, you know, I've had a little experience with like function labs. Not my first recommendation because they don't hit all of the markers that I would like to see as a functional um clinician, but it could be a good starting off point to like see what your body's doing and kind of take you into a different avenue if maybe you know finances are uh a roadblock.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Yeah. Well, that's so that's so empowering because that I think is the first hurdle that patients are trying to figure out. You go to your doctor who you trust, and you're like, Well, can I be tested? Because I I just don't, you know, I have these symptoms. And it's like, well, how do we know what tests they should be doing versus they're not? I think that's our first hurdle. So it sounded like you answered that with it should be a comprehensive blood work. And it's not just on, well, your estrogen or your progesterone or your testosterone. It's should be a comprehensive look at a lot of different systems because they can be piggybacking off one another, causing these problems. And it should be not just one test once. It should be over a span of time, but a comprehensive look at a lot of different systems before you're potentially diagnosed. Is that what your that kind of your advice?

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah, and it doesn't even have to be a diagnosis, right? It can be a deficiency, it can be an infection. So something that you know we like to do is I want to look at your microbiome. So this could be a whole nother topic for a whole nother podcast. Oh what is your gut doing? You know, what is your reproductive and like vaginal microbiome doing? So we you know take a snapshot of that as well, where sometimes we're harboring an infection that's you know causing our body to shunt all of its energy to that and you know, decrease. And so again, it's a whole nother topic, and we could we could go down a whole nother rabbit hole, but like there's so many things that you look at when you're looking at like what is the body doing that's causing these other things to happen, and like metopause is like a natural thing that's going to happen to your body, but it doesn't have to be miserable, like there's so many root causes as to why you're having symptoms or you're feeling terrible that can be addressed that can make that transition so much easier for your body and for you.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

That's that sounds like that is the most perfect answer I've heard in a long time. Like, okay, hold on. Like, we can this is fixable and it could be a myriad of different things. You know, I definitely want to ask your you pick your brain on HRT, but before we even get into that, you're like it it could be something else totally separate that is affecting the hormones. But if we could fix that and by just testing the the general body and spending time understanding you as a whole person and then diving into the actual hormonal issue, I think that's that's very refreshing. Um, and then because you know we we've spoken about it a couple times now, so we can maybe just dig in a little bit from your perspective. How should men life women start thinking about HRT, like as part of kind of this bigger picture, or is it just like a quick fix? Like, you know, I that's probably a pretty loaded question with 14 different ways to spurt off of it. But you know how should we how should we approach HRT?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yeah, so I think it goes either way, right? Like it can be a band-aid, like it can be a quick fix, or it can be a tool, like you can utilize it. And so that goes back to the same conversation that we just had is understanding what's actually happening inside of your body and understanding what your body needs. So it's I mean, it's the same with any other type of like medication. Like, is there a root cause or does your body need that tool? And so we will supplement most commonly we will help women in and supplement HRT um progesterone because to ovulate, you we know we need to have good levels of progesterone. And so using a bioidentical rather than you know a synthetic is gonna be more helpful because that's gonna mimic the most of what you're actually producing within your body, like the actual hormone that's happening within your body. But I think if you're going to go the route of HRT, you need to find a provider that's going to look at your body and see what your body needs and then use it as a tool rather than a band-aid.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Okay. That that makes a lot of sense because it is it's an additional thing. Because you we already kind of talked about it. It's like we're working on the whole system. That's just one piece of the puzzle, and it can't be the full solve, especially if we're looking at the body as a as a whole system. So that makes exactly that makes a lot of sense. And I think you know, we we are just bombarded with advertisements for HRT. And so it seems like one of those things that is the only solution to these problems. But it sounds like there there's so many more avenues that we could also take.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Yeah. Um I think it can be really good. I think I think we have a lot of things, you know, that works in our favor in like the medical system. But I think your results are only as good as the person that's reading your labs and the person that's, you know, gonna help you address what is on your lab work. And so if my piece of advice to anybody is, you know, to find a provider that you trust that's you know gonna listen to you, that's you know, going to look at your labs and read them because a lot of times people show up on the first call with me and they have all of this lab work, and then I start asking them questions. They're like, I don't know, nobody ever interpreted it for me.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Oh. So they took your blood and they did all this work, and then you know you didn't get a solution. And so we need to use the tools that we have. Um, but I think it's it's just I'm gonna keep saying it, it's so much bigger than just the three or four hormones that you know, the media and that Instagram and that everybody's like shooting at you. Like you have to look at the nutrients because you know, the brain and the endocrine system and all that stuff is building the hormones, right? Like there's a precursor to this. And so you have to look back a little bit deeper rather than just potentially using it as a band-aid.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

And I think the other piece of advice you gave us makes it seems not so uh overwhelming was that this is gonna take time. This isn't just a one test, here you go. It's giving yourself that that permission to be like, okay, this is something that I'm gonna work on for a little bit, and I'm gonna find a doctor, a practitioner that's going to spend time with me. So I think that that's the two rules. Start early, get a comprehensive test. Well, I guess then the third rule is just give yourself some time and just know that it'll take a little more time to get your answer. So I think that that's I think it's really important information because we are in a quick fix anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

And we live in a world of Amazon Prime that everybody wants everything so fast, but anything that happens within the body takes time.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

It took time to get you there, it's gonna take time to get you out.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Perfectly said.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

So maybe two more questions because you are just so oh my gosh, you are so helpful. But kind of going back into just like this gray zone. So if fertility is kind of off the table for us, if that's no longer our goal, what should we be paying attention to hormonally to support our energy, our mood, our long-term health?

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Yeah, I mean, it's the same answer, right? Like, even though I'm working with couples that are trying to get pregnant, we always say like a hundred percent of our people get healthy. 100% of our people feel better. And so the first step is never like, okay, we're gonna, you know, give you some supplements, we're gonna run a detox, you know, we're gonna do uh a killing protocol or a cleanse, and then you're gonna get pregnant. No, you're gonna start feeling better first. So addressing, you know, if there are inadequate levels, addressing if there's an infection, addressing, you know, all of these other things, your gut, what you're eating, how you're exercising, you're gonna start feeling better first. And ultimately that's the goal, right? Like our goal is long-term health. Our goal is like living a life and and participating, right? Like you don't have to have cardiovascular disease. You don't have to have, you know, like metabolic dysfunction. Like all of this equals health. And so when you're looking at all of these avenues and you're addressing hormones and you're addressing nutrient levels, you're going to feel better. That's like the fun bonus that happens when you start learning things about your body.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Yeah. And I think that's our goal. We're just trying to feel better, just trying to make it through the day.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Yes, and survive your probably teenage kids and make it through the day and sleep good at night. Like it all equals each other.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Well said. So for anyone who's listening and they're curious about starting to get help, where should they start? I know you mentioned a functional medicine doctor, maybe your gynecologist, but could we come to your practice? What would that look like?

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Yes. So I am working with the Dr. Jane LeBec. Um, we work with couples who are trying to get pregnant. Um, our goal is, you know, healthy pregnancies, healthy babies. Um, we do have some clients that work one-on-one with us, some women that are looking, you know, to clean up their health, clean up their body. If you want to learn a little bit more about our practice, um you can find us on Instagram. So uh Dr. Jane LeBec, or you could also hop over and listen to some of her podcasts, um, Natural Fertility with Dr. Jane, and just learn a little bit more about what we do in the functional medicine route. It's gonna be different than what you would get if you were to go to your gynecologist. We spend a lot of time with our with our patients. Um, we do a lot of functional testing. So what we talked about today just kind of glazed the surface. We're looking at your blood, we're looking at your gut, we're looking at your liver. Um, you know, we look at even taking it a step further, environmental toxins, have you had mold exposures, like certain things that could be, you know, impacting your body's ability to regulate or detox or function. And, you know, do a little bit of research. Um, and then if you need help, like reach out, fill out an application. Um, we would love to connect you with our um fertility, what do we call our strategist? Yes. Alicia, she can do um a 30-minute call with you and just kind of dig a little bit deeper into your story and what's going on. Um, like I said, we primarily work with couples who are trying to get pregnant, um, but but we're not trying to turn anybody away who's trying to better their health or better their life.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

Oh, wow. Awesome. I I'll I'm gonna put all of those resources in the show notes as well. So if someone's on the go listening to this and they want to be able to find out a little bit more about your practice. And your practice is located outside of Atlanta. Am I correct? Atlanta George.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

It is actually a virtual clinic. Um we're kind of all over the place. So I'm in Atlanta, you know, we have a practitioner, a couple practitioners on the East Coast. Um, Dr. Jane is actually in uh Canada. So we help people in Canada and in the US. Um, so all of your consultations and everything is online. We send the tests to your house. Um, we give you the resources on where to go get your blood drawn. We interpret all of the labs ourselves. Um, and we hold ourselves to a very high standard of what we're looking at for people. And we're not, we're not cutting corners, we're not giving you a one size fits all. Everything that we do is very specific to your body, which I think is super, super important. If you don't come find us and you're looking for another practitioner, you know, like asking the questions um, is this gonna be specific to me? Like, are we gonna run some testing? Like, are you gonna interpret this and explain this to me? Um, are we gonna look at multiple systems in the body or are you just looking through one lens? Um, but you know, you also have to interview your practitioner. And that's you know how you're gonna get what you what you want out of whatever, whoever you whoever you find.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Well, that is very empowering. Very empowering. I mean, truly. And even how how wonderful that you're a virtual. So I will for sure link all of that in the show notes because anyone will be able to access your care. So that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Well, Dr. Elisa, this was an amazing conversation. I cannot thank you enough for trying to explain a little bit more about this gray zone. We're not crazy. This was a work in progress, and so I can't thank you enough for coming on today.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Thank you for having me. This is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Yes, thank you so much. Well, the one thing that we can take away from this conversation today is that the gray zone is a very real phase of life. Even if your cycle still looks normal, there can be a lot of things shifting under the surface. Hormones are changing, patterns are Are becoming less predictable, and the way we support our bodies in this season starts to matter in a very different way. One of the biggest takeaways that I learned is that you do not have to keep guessing. Getting the right labs and having informed conversations with your doctor can give you a much clearer picture of what's actually going on in your body. A big thank you to Dr. Lisa Chambers. If you would like to connect with her and learn more about her work, you can find all of her information in the show notes. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who might be in the season too. And make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so you don't miss any upcoming conversations about midlife health, hormones, and everything in between. And if you want to stay connected, head over to my website for more resources and updates. As always, thank you for being here and taking care of yourself in the season of life. Until next time, this is Wellness After 40.