The Sisterhood Circle Podcast
Welcome to the Sisterhood Circle Podcast our vision is to connect us as women, cultivate an empowered community and build a network that inspires change in the world.
The Sisterhood Circle Podcast
Grass Roots to Full-Blown Bush – The Ultimate Hormone Deep Dive 🌿🔥
🎙️ SEASON FINALE: “Grass Roots to Full-Blown Bush” – The Ultimate Hormone Deep Dive 🌿🔥
It’s the grand finale of Season 6, and Shivs & Nats are going there — from puberty to perimenopause and every wild wave in between! This episode is a no-BS, laugh-out-loud, soul-nourishing deep dive into female hormone health — aka your superpower.
We’re talking:
The 4 game-changing phases of your cycle (yes, you need to know them)
Why understanding your hormones = unlocking your full potential
How to ride the menopause wave like a QUEEN (with grace, grit & a good sense of humour)
Plus: real talk, raw stories, and the truth about what’s really going on down there
Whether you're in your follicular prime or navigating hot flashes in style, this convo will leave you feeling empowered, educated, and 100% seen.
Because when you understand how your body works with you, you stop working against it — and start showing up in full alignment.
Sisterhood, it’s time to reclaim your rhythm.
Hit play, share with your bestie, and let’s talk hormones like never before.
#HormoneHealth #CycleSyncing #EmpoweredWomen #BiohackYourBody #MenopauseMatters #WomensWellness #TheSisterhoodCircle #SeasonFinaleVibes
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Hi, I'm Shivsi and I'm Nat, and together we are the Sisterhood Circle podcast.
Speaker 2:Our vision is to create connections with our community and inspire change in the world, so be sure to subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to, to find out more. So let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker 1:So welcome to episode six, the last of series 1. How did that happen? Just like that, Wowza. Now today you've got all things grassroots to full blown. Bush Now did I say it right? You definitely said it right, but I have never seen a name so appropriate for a podcast to chat about all things hormones. So this is a meaty one today. So we're just going to get into the absolute nutty gritty of grassroots this is a.
Speaker 2:This is a topic that I'm super, super passionate about. You're passionate about it as well, and I think that you absolutely need to be, as a woman, because we, it's vital, it's so vital that we know our own bodies. Um, and one one. I don't really get shocked massively. A lot right, and, as I said in one of the previous podcasts, I had written um a program called Unwritten Female Master Plan. Um, not last year, the year before, yeah and launched it in 2024.
Speaker 2:And um, in the course, there is a like. It's like a two-hour seminar, basically that we talk about hormone health and what that is. And in my first course, I ran a course in irvine and up in paisley and I had women raging ranging from 20 up to 70 coming along to do this course, which was amazing. Now, when we did this, this seminar on um, on hormones, it completely blew my mind that women up to the age of 70 had no idea what was going on in their bodies for their whole entire life.
Speaker 2:And I think that when you're really, really involved in the industry, you just think it's a given yeah, when it's actually not. And I think that the reason that I'm really, really passionate about it is. I believe your cycle is your superpower yeah, like it genuinely is, and if you can get in control of what's actually happening in your cycle and what that looks like, and also, if your cycle is right, I think that actually like if it, if your body's working properly, I think that it becomes a superpower for you Massively. It really really does. So I really wanted to kind of deep dive into that. Yes, I'm excited for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, as you say, you call it your cycle, it's your superpower. I think your cycle is such a big part of you and it is with you for such a long period of your life that if you don't know what's going on in it, it can run riot, it can go a wee bit mental. Yeah, and everyone I'm not everyone, sorry a lot of people talk negatively about their hormones or like their cycle. But oh, I've got my period and you're like do you know what? Like it's actually a gift that you get that every single month. Yeah, like it is a sign of good health.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly this is in a period, every single month. Be like do you know what my body's healthy? Yeah, it's doing what it's meant to do. But I think the reason why I'm always like, oh my god, people need to know more about this is, I think, back to when you first get introduced to what your cycle is, what your period is right, and I remember sitting in the drama room at whitehorse park primary school with a nurse and all those girls sitting like that, and it was pretty much right round. About every four weeks you're going to have this bleed. Go to like your mum, she'll sort you out with what you need to get, and that's it. Yeah, there you go, and I think that it might be different now.
Speaker 2:So if there are any teachers listening.
Speaker 1:Right then I'm on here going oh my god, that was terrible. Please let us know if it's different, because it's been a wee while since I was in primary school and a little bit longer for me. I was not going to say that mad adunka, but you've got to know what goes on in your body. You've got to know the stages of the cycle, how long it should be roughly to know when something's not right and this is huge.
Speaker 2:So your normal cycle, a normal cycle would be anywhere between 28 and 32 days. That would start off with your period, your period coming in. For any girl, that can last anywhere between three right up to seven days, as normal, but during that time your, your hormones are at their lowest possible ebb Oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone are all as low as they can possibly be. So the effect that that then has on your mood, how you're feeling, your energy levels you're more injury prone. At that point in your cycle you probably get a lot less va-va-voom and a lot less patience.
Speaker 1:Your va-va-voom got up and gone, man, at the point of your period. But yeah, energetically you're going to start to feel some changes there. You're likely going to be a lot more tired, going to feel like things that normally are all right to do in life all of a sudden become that little bit more challenging to be able to do.
Speaker 2:But understanding that makes you feel like it's going to be all right like you're not just bonkers, like, firstly, because this is what a lot of, like a lot of women that I speak to think do you know what? Like these two weeks that are leading up to my period and the week in my period, I'm like a crazy person and I'm always starving and I'm and I'm like whoa, calm down, it's okay. Like, let's get in tune with what's actually happening here. Let's start accepting what's happening with the body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rather than fighting it off and, yeah, to understand it, and as we go through the the different four stages of your cycle, it's important to monitor what's happening at each point of it for you. Yes, because as much as we're going to come on to them, we're going to be like, right, okay, so when you've actually got your period, this is what happens. Then you're going to go into your phase and this is what then happens. It's easy to take that as gospel. Yeah, as in every single one of our bodies is so different. We will all go through the stages, but we'll start to experience different things throughout those stages.
Speaker 1:Even if you and I compare like our cycles, yeah, we go through the same stages, but like we're at different points of creativity and different points of energy, yeah, that you're at in comparison to me, which is really important. So I think this probably ties in a wee bit further than what was expected. But one thing absolutely track at all. Oh, yeah, if you're looking for something really easy to track on, there is the app flow. Yeah, that allows you to track not only when you've got your period, but the symptoms that come with that and throughout the other stages as well.
Speaker 2:Definitely, it's a great app. Yeah, it's really good. But so, yeah, definitely. I think that when we are talking here, just to be very clear, as this is a normal cycle, this isn't for anybody that has polycystic ovarian syndrome, fibroids or any of those types of things this is where we would say our normal cycle would come in. So, as we said, you've got your period. Yeah, your hormones are pretty low oh, they're lowest kind of possibly but after three to four days they start to rise a little bit and you're moving into your follicular phase. Now this is quite nice, because estrogen's your bestie. She's starting to come to the party. Yeah, like you're starting to feel a wee bit more creative. You ain't quite as hungry, which is good your patience has returned, which is really good.
Speaker 1:Normally, at this point in your cycle, if you're training consistently, it's when you're starting to feel a bit more at yourself when it comes to training again. Your strength is starting to feel like it's the way it was, rather than maybe 7 days ago when you were raging that all your hard work's not been paying off and your want to train can often be a wee bit higher at this phase as well, which is a nice thing to have in your sights, yeah so energy levels starting to increase, feeling a wee bit more like yourself, starting to feel like you've got a bit of a supercharge about you.
Speaker 2:This is really really nice. You're in a good mood. You want to be a bit more sociable as well. You're quite happy to be around other people and connect with other people because you're starting to see these rises in your hormones, um, so that's really really nice that that's starting to happen, um. And then then good old ovulation yeah, I think so it does.
Speaker 2:And with ovulation, then comes your release of your testosterone and estrogen. At the same time, I'm on the test. On the test, this is where you're going to be rattling out personal bests running the gym. Your mood's great. You're going to be horny, right? Yeah, you're going to want to jump the bones of anybody that's coming near you not if you're married the only one, but anyway, I just just find that just on bone.
Speaker 2:So just to go back here, um, because I think that we were going to jump forward onto the tail phase is the follicular and ovulation phase. See, if anybody is trying to get physical results, whether it be like fat loss or weight loss, those are your prime times. Yes, right, those are the times where your your appetite is going to be quite a significant amount lower and your mental strength and resolve, and probably like determination and drive, are going to be a lot stronger. So it's quite a good way to kind of break your month up that if you were trying to get, say, weight loss results, that you would say, right, these are the two weeks of the month that I'm going to try and get weight loss or fat loss, and the next two weeks are where you maintain because your body needs totally different things when it comes to nutrition at points of your cycle and you've got to really get in tune with that, because see if you know that you can manage your expectations oh my god, right, and see if you can manage your expectations.
Speaker 1:The consistency then comes. Yeah, I think people feel like they're really motivated at points in the month and then, like I was dead motivated last week and I'm just, oh, I can't really be bothered. And when you look at it you're like right, okay, so she's been from. Like that follicular heterovulation's starting to come into that little phase where things are starting to get a little bit harder again. Hormone levels are starting to change. It's starting to get ready for your physical period. Energy's going to start to drop ever so slightly. That strength that was feeling like it's absolutely best is going to start not automatically, but it's going to start to feel like it's getting a little bit harder as you prepare to actually have like your bleeding phase of your, of your cycle. From there and when you get to really know that, that's when you can manage what you can do, yeah, throughout the month?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely. And I think like it's so important to know these, like these points of your body, like see, when you start going through that point, your lateo phase, it's when progesterone starting to rise and that's like it's the make the baby hormone, right, and if you're going to make a baby, your body is then going to say, right, it's time to hibernate, right, like come on, start chilling out a wee bit, and you maybe find that yourself you're a wee bit. All people do yeah, that's what I like to call it. Have you ever noticed me being off? People dot nacks I am.
Speaker 1:It was funny when you said about like patience at one point. I would never say shivsies, not, not patient, but you can definitely see a little change and it's not a bad thing. Like I am like I know you so well that when I see it whether it be like energetically or maybe just your wording of something's been slightly different I'm like, oh, I must be nearly the time of the month. Yeah, and you know that it's not a negative thing, I know. For me personally, it's very easy because you say, hi, nats, how are you? And I will literally cry you a river right and you're like, oh shit, shouldn't have asked her, but you've got to get in check with these things. Yeah, we talked about, obviously, like the four stages of and of what like your ideal cycle would be and what should really be going on within your body. But the reason why it's so important to know that is to know what's different if that's not happening. Yeah, right, and I think that's a really, really powerful one when you're tracking things is to understand, or to know, first of all through education, yeah, what should be happening with your body so that you see when you're maybe got a period that is slightly different, yeah, to what you're used to, whether you've had a period that is slightly later and you're like, oh, what's going on here, like this is all we like knocks at the door, as you would call it, to like your hormones been like something's not right here, not quite right here. I think the reason that I probably feel so like passionate about it is, I think, if we can notice from a younger age we get so much in tune with our body yeah, and the more in tune we are with our body the whole round, better that everything is going to then become so. If we can educate our younger people on what should happen in their body, they can identify when something's not right. And we spoke about what tends to happen historically in younger years is you start to take your periods and your mum is likely going to end up with you at the doctor's if maybe something's not right or she's like that right, ok, she needs to be on some form of contraception. You go to the doctors and, for talking sake, say we're saying that there's something not right, whether it been it's not really that 28 to 32 days, it's shorter or it's longer, or these periods are really heavy and they're absolutely floating or you end up at the doctor been like something's not right here. Any experience that we've really heard or that we've experienced personally. Yeah, like for me I went to.
Speaker 1:It was a nurse that I went to at the time and I knew something wasn't right. I knew that I was ticking a few boxes for, um, like something called picosopolisis ovarian syndrome, and I was like I need to go get this checked out. And I sat down and it was like how can I help you, peto? And I was like, right, so I'm here and like there's quite an inconsistency with my period, like this is what's happening. Um, I'm finding that there's no regularity to it, finding that things like facial hair are starting to appear, and I'm just, I think that I might have PCOS.
Speaker 1:And she literally went right, let's check your blood pressure. I was a bit like, hmm, right, okay, let her check my blood pressure. And she was like right, give me two seconds. So, um, what do you want? And she handed me a family planning leaflet with any form of contraceptive that I could have wanted to have, because my blood pressure was okay. And I remember saying to her why do I need that? And she was like oh well, we've got a hormone imbalance, so this will sort it. And I was like but if I've got an imbalance, how do I know what it is? And she was like it'll just sort it regardless. If it's like you've reached your new progesterone, if you've got slightly higher testosterone levels like, it'll sort it out. And I was like right, okay, I'm just going to leave that. Thanks, do you remember? You phoned me. Honestly, I came out me quite a lot of time to get to the point of going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, first of all, so I'd like work myself up, did it right, okay, I need to go to this come out, and I remember getting in the car and I phoned you. Know how did you go on? I was like she gave me a family plan and off my neck I'm laughing right because I'm like I was strong enough at the time to go. That's not what I need. And I managed to get a doctor's appointment and get the right steps put in place. But see, if you're not, what then is going to happen is I could have taken, for talking's sake, the contraceptive pill off of her that day, because I jumped into the chemist, got my prescription, started taking it and it would have started to sort out my cycle because it would have been putting synthetic hormones into your body to sort that. But all it would have been doing is giving me a synthetic period and putting a band-aid over the situation, and this is the challenge that we're having right now.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is the huge challenge that we're having right now, and I think, like one of the things that I feel very passionate about is medicating children. Right, we're just so passionate about all right. So see for me, right, this is the way I look at it the brain up until the age of 25, your brain is still developing, and we know that hormones play an absolutely vital part in development of the brain. So what we're going to do with some young girl so that we're not even talking about you here, we're talking about a girl that's 13 or 14 and she is bleeding through pads. If the first thing that we do is give her medication, instead of saying why is she bleeding through the pads, why are we not saying why is that happening? Instead of, this will fix it, and I think that this is maybe like this. I feel wildly passionate about the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 2:Now, that is a story for a whole different day, a whole different day. That's a podcast, that's. That's like a season. Right, there's a season within itself, but I think to myself are we doing our girls a disservice by not allowing us to maybe explore why that period is like that, or why she's got cystic acne, like why is that happening? What's what? The link? What are the links? There is a huge link between these things and insulin resistance, which again, is a story for another day.
Speaker 2:We don't have enough time to talk about all of this, right, but you are your hormones are. They are your absolute superpower and they are guiding you towards, like, what we had said. Those gentle knocks at the door and if we are then saying, right, okay, do you know what? Go out in the jag or go on these tablets or whatever it is, are we really giving our bodies the chance or sorry, allowing ourselves to explore what's going on in our bodies like that? Our bodies are trying to tell us things and I know so many women that this has happened to that they have been given the pill and they've been on the same pill from when they've been 13 until they've been 50, right, they've taken a wee break to have their children.
Speaker 2:How much does a female's hormones change in that point in their life? And they're still on these same pills. But as well, I know a lot of women who have had issues with polycystic ovarian syndrome, my brother's girlfriend for a start. This was wild years ago. She had really big problems and I was like that. She was at the doctors all the time and I was like, listen, why don't you ask them about this PCOS and sure as hell that that's what it was, after all these years of suffering and them putting her on everything and no really looking into it? You just think what a disservice to the females there.
Speaker 1:It's huge. I think you do feel like there's that massive disservice when you go for help and it is just like that solution, I think, as we spoke about earlier, like step one's education Starting to educate on what's going on. Step two has to be willing to explore. Yeah, now don't get me wrong when we're coming on and we're chatting about this today.
Speaker 1:By all means, all forms of contraception have their place and for some people, oh yeah, and I'm using the contraceptive pill as the right answer, like whether it be the jag, the implant, whatever that may might be, is going to be a solution for people at a point in their life. But I firmly don't believe it's a solution to your cycle's not normal. There you go, I fix it right. Yeah, I think like that's got to be able to be explored and you just go.
Speaker 1:There's a disservice at that early age when it starts to go wrong, but then that carries through the disservice and in later years, when people are starting to experience perimenopause, they're starting to then be menopausal and they've been so out of touch with their hormones because the solution has always just been take that prescription, just take that as in. See, if you know what is going on in their body, if there was a bit more blood work done, a little bit more consistently, what would that start to show over a period of time? And you go how can there be a better female health scheme? Because, as our health like, when you look at when we get in the later stages of perimenopause and menopause, how debilitating that is on people's life, you look at suicide rates in females highest amounts of suicide rates happen. And that perimenopause, menopausal stage highest amounts of divorces. Yeah, happen in that perimenopause, menopausal stage.
Speaker 2:Highest amounts of divorces happen in that stage as well, and women dropping out of their jobs and thinking like they're losing the place. And you?
Speaker 1:go. We really need to get in touch with those overall hormones a little bit more. I think something we actually spoke about when we popped down that we've kind of missed over is there's two really good books that we would recommend. Whether you be a young person listening to this and going do you know what? I know nothing about my cycle, what's going on in my body. Whether you be a mum thinking about it for your daughter and wanting to really know so that you can help support them when these things start to come up.
Speaker 1:So the first one would be period pillar and by maizey. It's like an absolute introduction to what your cycle is, what to experience through it and what you can expect. I genuinely believe. See if they gave that to you in school oh, my God, yeah, gave you dedicated time to read that rather than putting you in the drama room and going back to be. You're going to bleed, your mum's going to have pads and a tampon for you and there you go right. See if they give you that, how empowering would that be for that generation then grown up understanding their body yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:And another book is how the Pill Changed Everything, or Changes Everything. So definitely worth a wee look, a wee listen and a wee read to for sure. We had a question set to us. We popped a post on in our curves uh, members page and um, we had megan and leslie ask us question and it was how do you stay on track when your hormones are running wild? How do you stay motivated and should you be doing the same amount as what you were doing when you're not?
Speaker 1:he's super hormonal I think it comes down to you've really got to understand your body. Yeah, at the point in the cycle to know there is going to be that point, when you've got your period, that your energy levels are very, very low, are you going to be high motivation at that point? Absolutely not. Are you going to find you're a little bit hungrier and you're wanting more food? Yes, see that, manage the expectations round about right. Okay, I've got my period just now. If you are counting calories, allow an extra two to three hundred calories and at that point, if you're not counting calories, allow yourself an extra meal, a bigger snack, those side of things, so that you go right, this is okay. Yeah, because what happens is people get their period, they feel all this stuff and they go shit.
Speaker 2:I don't know what to do here.
Speaker 1:I barely have someone else in the local shop getting the biggest bar of chocolate they can possibly find, because that's what they believe the the solution is. So I would say, on an attritional front, yeah, that would definitely be my advice. What would you say about it? More on a training front shifts from a training front.
Speaker 2:Firstly, don't give up like I think, like that's really important. You're not going to hit any personal bests at that time. You might right I'm generalizing here, right, and I'm generalizing take it. Take a wee bit slower, but still do your stuff. You might want to change up your style of training. So if you're used to going like really really high impact classes or like really really long runs, make it a wee bit slower, take it down a few notches, allow yourself to still feel, but exercise.
Speaker 2:See, when you're feeling at that low ebb, when your hormones are really being real period, exercise is very likely gonna lift you, even if it's just temporary um, and it can actually help you manage like your um, like your pain levels and all that kind of stuff as well. So I would say like that, that's a like, there's a big part in that. But also knowing at like kind of what time, what points in your cycle, like different foods, actually work well for you as well. So like seeing that last week, just before you get your period, um, you need a little bit more carbohydrates to help you build progesterone, like that's needed. And I think that a lot of the time people go like that or um, like, I'm just so starving this week and your body's preferred energy source is sugar, right? So naturally you're going like that right, and it's what I eat everything right.
Speaker 2:But if you know that that's what's happening, what you do is you just add a wee bit more carbs to your meals. You manage that. You make your portions just that wee tiny bit bigger. You make sure you've got enough protein in there to keep you fuller for longer. Um, but when it comes, so I think, like there's, you've got the two sides and you know what it's like. Like I said, your period is like your superpower. You get to know that. You get to know what's happening in your body. It's so. It's actually so exciting, you know, I think so no, it's huge and you just go.
Speaker 1:You've just I don't know I've said it maybe about 20 times in this podcast you've got to get to know it. It is not a one-size-fits-all. When it comes to it, we can absolutely say what the trends and what roughly is going to happen. But the more you get to know your body, the more you experiment with what's going to work, the more you really get to know what works for you and that way you can absolutely start to thrive in your cycle, rather than feeling like two weeks of your cycle you are thriving and the next two you're struggling to survive. You're thriving and no striving. I like that. I didn't mean it good job.
Speaker 2:I like that, but also own it, don't. I've got my brain in it, I can't do it again. Generalisation here I know that some people really, really struggle and I am not like taken away from that. Like there's definitely like I know um one of my coaches in one of my clubs like it's completely debilitating for her, um. So I am generalising here when I say that like obviously if you cannae do it, you cannae do it, but you know, don't blow smoke up your own arse just because you see an instagram quote been like oh, be in touch with your cycle.
Speaker 1:If you need to take the day off, take the day off. And because you're feeling a bit low, don't just patch it when you're actually, it's gonna do you some good. Like I think that's a big thing, honestly. Personally, training when I've got my period and in that week up to it is my absolute saving grace, like it's a pure mood booster, even just temporarily. I like at that point you're just like right, okay, I feel good. Managing symptoms of it is huge. Oh yeah, like just being able to get a bit of movement, increase a bit of blood flow, get things moving. You're like right, I feel better for that and it's good to know what then works for you because, I mean, you can be a wee bit mad at that time yeah, definitely, if you get any stories of you being a bit of a crackpot during that time 100%.
Speaker 1:I think I'm like a super emotional wee person, like so, if you imagine I'm emotional like in life, right at the best, no, you are not. There's only certain people that see the emotional side of me. So there's many people that listen. I think I see it. I'm only kidding anyway, anyway, move on. So yeah, I remember picking up. This was during lockdown, actually training in the house, and there was 10 kilo dumbbells. I don't know if it was because I was like hating life because we were in lockdown, but it was hormonal and I remember just picking it up and like pure crying, like this is so hard.
Speaker 2:But like what is going on here, it's wild it is, it's crazy and it just like see the thing, like your logical brain at some point during your cycle like you cry at stuff, like I've dropped stuff and cried like uh huh, and then the next day being like, or something's happened and I've got so upset about it. And then the next day I was like am I bonkers? Like that was, that was wild, it's.
Speaker 1:I think personally, for me, my chimp runs a lot more wild for a hormonal Like there's no rationale, there's no cage for a couple of days, and like there's some wild stuff goes through those two years like brain-wise. But again, you get to know it. You know that that's going to be a we talk a lot about, like creativity as well, where your creativity feels at when you're in your cycle, and it's something that's actually quite different for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in your cycle, and it's something that's actually quite different for us. Yeah, would you say you're most creative within your cycle. Oh, I would say, definitely those middle two weeks for me, yeah, definitely, like I would say, my creativity starts to rise, like my want to be around other people, starts to like, um, arrive, arrive, right. This is. This is funny, actually, because I am on day 23 my cycle right now and I lose words at this point, don't, uh, you do right, this is a thing that happens to me and it's probably going to really nicely move us on to the next point, because we're not just going to talk about pa2, we're going to talk about perimenopause and menopause, and that is a massive like byproduct of and I'm no perimenopause what I don't think quite all right just now, but losing the place, your words, yeah, that's a big, big challenge. And what? What am I like?
Speaker 1:I'll be like that, what is it? And I'm like is it this? I'm not the greatest words to be fair, so I'm like isn't this, isn't that?
Speaker 2:but you get there eventually, but that's something you identify right and I was just like I know where you're at in your cycle from there, yeah, and it can be so frustrating and I think like that, as I said, moves on really really nicely to this next point where we're going to speak about perimenopause and menopause and just how much of an effect it had they were used to it about some really cool stats there earlier on about menopausal women and like their health, like their mental health.
Speaker 1:Honestly, like it was wild. It was again down an IFS event and there was two girls taking aim on a talk, one of them being amelia thomas thompson and is it emma story gordon or something like that who are all about like hormone health. Um, they've got some really cool stuff on like their social media as well, and they were sitting and I was just watching away. A lot of it was like information that I kind of already knew or I'd heard about. And see, when they put out that stat that most divorces happen in those menopausal stages, the highest percentage of suicides in females happen in that mid-40 to early-50 stage. That's scary, right, because that is exactly where a lot of people are going through this hormonal transition of perimenopause or menopause, depending at what point that they're actually at, and you go see if there's not a support for that, see if there's not again, the education given to that, you can totally understand, right, how some people go. How do I get out of this like there is no solution?
Speaker 2:and you know what. Actually, to even go back to the last podcast that we just did, this disconnect. So at this point in the woman's life, our hormones are starting to really change. Like all of these hormones, they're either flying high or they're going really, really low. And she doesn't have a social circle, she doesn't have like a structure, a support around her and she doesn't know who she is and she doesn't feel like herself. She's changing, yeah, and, by the way, like going through the menopause is also a very powerful stage for a woman. There are lots, there are really challenging parts of it, but there are like there's, there's good stuff at the end as well I think you made that really valid point.
Speaker 1:Like there's at that point, I disconnect, right. Things are starting to change within their body that they're like what is going on here? I've never experienced this before. A lot of people at that point in their life when they are in like if they're married, and long-term relationships we hear this quite a lot. I don't know if, like, I actually still like my husband now. I get to spend time with him. Yeah, right, so, like kids are maybe away, they've now got time where they can. They can go out on a date night or they can go on a holiday them to ourselves, and they joke about that. But it's a really sensitive point in a female's life where she's kind of out of touch with herself. Yeah, at the point that, like, estrogen, progesterone levels are all starting to change.
Speaker 2:No wonder those stats sit where they're at when people don't know what's going on and see, if you think about, like, if you think about when a female's hormones, when you're in a normal cycle, are at their lowest ebb and what then is affected there? Right, so you're more injury prone, right, your mood's lower, your energy's lower, you're not sleeping as well, like you don't feel great, you don't want to be around a lot of people. If you're looking at that, when you're getting your period and then into your luteal phase, and that is when, like, your hormones are going all over the place, you know. So if that is that, then what a woman is going through consistently. The byproduct of that on physical and emotional health is absolutely massive, and there's a lot of things that a lot of women probably don't even you even notice. Yeah, as a gentle, knock at the door because we talk about this. Don't wait for the whole front door to get booted in before you start taking action. This is something we speak about all the time. It's about getting in tune and listen to what's not normal for your body and if you are on a synthetic cycle and you're a woman of a certain age I've heard this so many times, oh no, but I've got a regular period, siobhan, when I ask the question when she's saying you know what shiv's?
Speaker 2:Actually, my joints are getting pretty achy and you know what? My eyes are a wee bit dry. And do you know what? I'm just I'm, I'm really no feeling myself and I'm like that how's your hormones? I am fine, I'm on the pill. How long you been on that? For? Oh, 30 years. Do you think there might be something in that? And then they go to the doctor or the nurse and they maybe get their bloods checked and they're normal. How do you know they're normal? Because there's never been any bloods taken before and it's. And then, how many women have you had that have came to the gym, that they've been, they've went to the doctors and what's happened is or the nurse, and they've felt like a failure when they've left. No, I'm fine, my hormones are fine. You know what's happening in your body. You're in control of that, like you know what's happening and it's different and I think this is what's worrying us.
Speaker 1:When they come out of that doctor's office or nurse's room, when they've taken the courage to go in in the first place and, as you say, they've done blood work, it's normal last time that that blood work done was when, if ever right, they then are like this is just the way I'm meant to feel.
Speaker 1:This is what and I'm just going to pick on random age here, because it's really important to know that like this is absolutely hormone-related, not age-related, and not age-related it's not to say, right, at 45, you're going to experience this, at 46 you're going to experience that, but they might get to mid-40s and go. This is what my life is meant to be absolute socks off my entire life, bringing up my family, keeping a roof over their heads. I was getting excited for that point in my life that me and my husband could do whatever we wanted to do, and this is how I feel. And then what tends to happen in turn with that is their mood and their mindset is so low that all the things that can help them better this they tend to step away from because it's just so hard. Yeah, you can understand. Oh, yeah, you definitely can. If I think about where my hard five to six days on my period is, or in my cycle, sorry, before my period.
Speaker 2:Yeah see, if I had to live like that forever, oh, without any end, like, without any point there was nothing else out there that you could do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's huge. I think the really exciting thing is there's loads of things that you can then put into place. Yes, that can start to help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, like one of the empowering things about it is it's going to happen to every woman, right, and we don't know when it's going to happen, but it's going to happen to every woman. You can't control that's going to happen, but what you can control is how you manage it. Yes, and this is that this is where we've got to get really, really passionate about it and we've got to say, okay, do you know what? Grab this by the balls and let's go right. And I think that for us, we, we can't say that this is what it's going to feel like when you go into your period, but what we can look at is we can look at a couple of different things that would be highly beneficial to a woman going through sorry, like our menopause or our perimenopause. And the first thing is really really looking at holding on to your muscle mass massively. So we've got it. We've got to maintain your muscle mass, don't we? That's going to be step number one. Yeah, step number two, I would say we need sleep and recovery. Yep, you've got to allow your body a rest and recover now. Sleep that's another series. That's another series, but not a bit sleep.
Speaker 2:We talk about this and any woman that's listening to this is going through the menopause, shouting at me I can't get to sleep. But this is a big, big issue right on you go. You're gonna ask me right, is it? See, when we consume enough protein, our body can synthesize more amino acids. They're the foundations for all hormones. So if we consume enough protein, we in turn, should be able to produce more serotonin. More serotonin should then be able to. We should produce melatonin on top of that, which should help us sleep. So if we are feeling low or feeling great, great, we're going through perimenopause and we're struggling with our sleep, the first thing that I direct a female to do is get that protein up. Let's see if we can try and start these building blocks for your hormones. So I would say that that's a big thing, and then that can only help with the strength training, huge preserving muscle mass, I think also the basics of your sleep, though as well, can't be underestimated.
Speaker 1:So, like your sleep hygiene, oh yeah, how many people? Oh, I, just, I get a shite sleep every single night, right, okay, what time are you going to your bed? Oh, maybe like 11, half 11, right, what are you doing before that? I'll come, like watching the telly, and I just align my bed on my phone, yeah, and you go. You've got to be able to start to have a routine.
Speaker 1:You can't expect. Think about a baby. Yes, I take it back to absolute basics. Babies absolutely have routine for their sleep and they get their circadian rhythm sorted right out. As we kind of become an adult and as we age, we kind of unravel all that good work into the complete opposite. So see, when you're getting to a point where sleep is really hard, you've really got to be able to dial back to the basics of setting yourself a limit on screen time. Yeah, when is that going to go down?
Speaker 1:Making sure that, like, bare minimum, half an hour before you're getting ready to shut your eyes right, having something that is going to help you relax for some people that's listening to white noise, it's having a guided meditation on or reading their book and then having a time that you're going to be like lights out and an environment that you're comfortable, like, making sure that your bedroom is a place that you feel relaxed, now, shut up. I'll be honest, I like and I've been decorating my room for three weeks. Fyi, if you listen to podcast one, this was something I should have outsourced, right. But anyway, moving on, see when you're going.
Speaker 1:Okay, almost night sleep is not an issue, but I'm like, see if I struggled man. Would I feel relaxed? Yes, no, I wouldn't. So it's important that you've got to be relaxed. And then going right, my sleep actually isn't good. See, if you're not doing any of that pre-work. Yeah, can you expect the outcome to be a solid eight hours sleep? No, at night, also for females at this age, set yourself a limit when you last drink water, because the next comeback is I just get up and go for a pee. Yeah, so I would say that, yes, protein as you touch on, is massively important, but I think, even before you get that, there's so many basics.
Speaker 2:Even with doing that, you've got to make sure you're doing the work on that side of it, definitely, and just being really protective of your time when you are going to your bed. Uh, for sure, because I think that if you don't create the habits and the routines like we're talking about and we let things just kind of slide, then everything's just going to get a bit, a bit tougher, absolutely. Uh. Alcohol, oh my god. We spoke about in the last one, in the last episode, about how alcohol, um, your body metabolizes it really really differently as you get older and how you handle it's different. You might be noticing that if you have a glass of wine, you're getting the wine rash, the wine go, and you actually feel really, really different the next day.
Speaker 2:But alcohol has such a big effect on your sleep yeah, like you cannae get into the last sleep cycle with it so that can have quite a negative effect. So if you're already going through the menopause, you're having hot flashes, you drink the alcohol, you're getting these flushes, and you probably know what I'm talking about. If you're listening to this and then you kind of get to sleep, try to go your best, aye, and then you wake up at three in the morning and you're roasting hot and then you're freezing and then you're pissed because he's snoring, like how's he getting to sleep? Do you know what I mean? Stab vest. We're going to talk about the stab vest. I don't know if we're allowed are we.
Speaker 1:My mum and dad will kill me for this, right, when they listen. I love yous dearly. We've got a joke. So my mum's name's Roslyn, we call our men Oroz, so that is step number one. She'll love us that, by the way. But my dad just. They always joke. He'd be like, oh, you'll stab vest on the day your mum's having one of those days, but I need a Kevlar vest to live with her and I think, like you joke about it, right, and my mum takes it in in good form. So she does, but I'm sure there's that wee bat in her head that probably goes. I hate being this way. Yeah, right, because your temperament changes. Yeah, your mood is all over the shop. You're on a roller coaster. Therefore, your patience one day is great, your patience the next day is absolutely not there. You've then got emotions that then come all over the all over the place. If you're naturally an emotional person, you then go into perimenopause, menopause, and it's just an absolute wild roller coaster.
Speaker 2:Right, you just need to say I love you, ross, and she's a darling, and she is a darling, but I think it's important that we also talk about it.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, right, because, as we say, every single female is going to go through this. We're all going to experience different experiences. It's going to be at a different point in our life. We're going to have our own challenges. See, if we talk about it enough, we can all share your own learnings. That might actually help. I think it is definitely talked about a lot more now than what it was, but I do think, through connecting groups of females together, it can only be talked about more and actually have solutions. Yeah to it. It's one thing to talk about something, but it's another type of solutions that you can actually put into any place, which is really, really important?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely, and I think you're right in what you're saying. See, probably over the maybe, I would say, since lockdown, potentially there's been a lot more. It's been a buzzword, it has been, and a lot of companies are like bringing on menopause experts into like their HR teams and all of that kind of stuff, which I think is great, because there are certain points that women just feel like you're potentially losing, like, as I would say, you're losing the place a wee bit, you're maybe like forgetting words and all that kind of stuff, and that can be.
Speaker 1:It can make you feel inadequate in your role and it's huge, but you can also see the impact that it has on like relationships at that point. Oh, yeah, definitely like that divorce rate of see. If men don't know about this, how can they understand and support when their wife flies off the handle over what they believe is the daftest thing ever? How can they not get annoyed at that? Yeah, they've got to know and they've got to understand that. Remember when I remember lisa and irving actually's work ran like a menopause course and offered it to all males and females so that they could support each other better in the workplace and I think that's huge but also so they could support in their home life a lot better.
Speaker 2:And you go wow, that is amazing. That's huge, that is amazing, and I think that if there are any men listening to this, it is absolutely your job to take care of your female right and she's going to go through this and you've got to know what to be aware of. I think I read this. It was like an open letter to men from a man right, and it was.
Speaker 2:I remember reading it and I'm going to say the F word here and it was like there was a part in it and it was just learn when to shut the fuck up right, just know that this is not her, but know that, like, what she's going to like go through here is going to transform her into this energy force. Once you get to this point where everything starts to settle at the end of it, you're going to go through this really hard time, this transformative time, where you're maybe going to be a little bit crazy, crazy emotional, absolutely tender and loving one minute and then stab vest in the next minute, but you're going to come out the other side of this like this well rounded, self assured, strong female, and I think we don't speak about that point enough.
Speaker 1:Yes, because it's the transition phase to get to that, yeah, right, and if you don't go through that transition, you don't get that good point where you feel you are at your absolute best, able to live your best life, feel you're ready for whatever life's ready for you, but we focus so much on all that really hard bit in between see if we can use of the solutions and the coping mechanisms to help. Yes, with that hard bit there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, I think the issue is a lot of people don't know or see that there is that little bit of glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. They've just got to be willing to put that bit of work in and get them to that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so to wrap that up, then we've got to stay active. We've got to get outside. We've got to do our strength training to help us control our bone density levels, maintain our muscle mass, connect with other females. We've got to make sure that we're consuming the right foods. We're staying away from high sugar foods, because we know that as our metabolisms change, that our insulin sensitivity can really change. That can have quite a negative effect on our cellular energy. We've got to make sure that we're doing that. We've got to make sure that we're sleeping well. Yes, we're consuming enough water. We need to be well hydrated. We always need to be well hydrated.
Speaker 1:Don't be afraid to reach out to the supplements that can actually help you. Yeah, I think this is huge. Let's say collagen yeah, at this point in your life when things are starting to feel a lot soarer, yeah, I like joints are really uncomfortable things that felt like they moved finer. I've got this pain. What's going on here? The changes that are then starting to happen, skin texture happening with your hair nails as your hormones start to change. Supplementing collagen back into that definitely can be a massive, massive benefit at that point as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely so. Looking at those things that can, they can actually help go to your doctor. If you're not happy, ask for a second opinion. Right, look at holistic health and wellbeing. Look at the different options that are available to you. One size does not fit all your female body like get to know it. Get to know it from just now, at my age, or if you're in your 20s, get to know it. It's going to get Like educate yourself. It's like your body, it's your responsibility.
Speaker 1:It's so, so important, and if you're at a point you've maybe never tracked your cycle and you're not really sure what's going on, start to research so that you know what's then actually happening in your body.
Speaker 2:There's a brilliant app. It's called health and her. Yeah, so there is. That's a really, really great app as well. Like that's for more kind of horrible women going through menopause and perimenopause.
Speaker 2:You said something about getting up for a pee all the time earlier on this one. It's got an app inside it that you can do your pelvic floor exercises and it reminds you every day to do those kind of things as well. So, yeah, so those are kind of the top tips, so you're never going to stop yourself going through it. But you can manage how well or how badly you go through it if you drop how well or how badly you go through it. If you drop the ball completely, then I it's probably going to be a lot harder, but if you pick that ball up and run with it to the end huge, there's light at the end of the tunnel and you're a superpower at the end of it there might be bits that you can't control of it, but there's so many bits that you can actually control and if you do that, you're're going to get a turning point.
Speaker 1:Yes, which brings us to this really sad turning point. So series one for us was always going to have six episodes in it, and the plan was do that and then take a short little break. Yeah, and that is going to be the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we are going to be coming back with the next season in july time, so make sure you set your alarms for that. There'll be loads on the page, but what I wanted to say, or what we both wanted to say, was thank you for like so much for listening is, um, we've absolutely loved this from something that was just an idea that we were a wee bit nervous about to kind of get off the ground because you're all of the things that you think, um, but we put that aside and we were brave and we said you know what? We've got a message that we want to present to the world absolutely, and see all those messages of support like they really really do spur us on.
Speaker 1:It's like we confidence boosts that we're doing the absolute right thing and we're going to be able to make a change. So we are buzzing to come back early july with a series two and there might be a wee cheeky vlog of a love trails trip. So we are heading down is it june, july, july, july, um? To a festival down in w called Love Trails, which is ultimately like a running festival. It's a running festival, yeah. So our plan is to vlog some of the experience on that and share that with you guys as well. But we'll be back real soon.
Speaker 2:So we will. So, if you can continue to follow us and share on the social media platforms that we have, we're also going to be having some coffee and catch-up dates, so if it's something that you would love to connect with us, we would love to see you all there. So keep an eye on all of the pages, add yourself into the group that we have on Facebook. You're all invited to come along and, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for listening to the Sisterhood Circle podcast Over and out. Bye.