020: Perimenopause: When It Actually Starts, What’s Normal, and What You Can Do Early

Episode Summary

If you’ve started noticing changes in your body, your sleep, your mood, or your energy but you’re not quite sure what’s going on...this episode is for you.

Perimenopause is the phase before menopause, and it can begin earlier than most women realize-sometimes as early as your mid-30s-and last for years.

In this episode, Fredricka breaks down what’s actually happening in your body during perimenopause, the most common symptoms women experience, and the foundational steps you can take to support your body early...without guessing, overloading your system, or relying on random advice.

She also shares her personal experience navigating perimenopause, including the unexpected symptoms she faced and the shifts that helped her restore balance, improve her skin, and ultimately support her body in a way that changed everything.

 Key Insights

•  Why perimenopause can start in your 30s and last up to 15 years 
•  What’s really happening with progesterone, estrogen, and hormone fluctuations 
•  The early signs of perimenopause most women overlook 
•  Why symptoms like anxiety, sleep disruption, and weight gain are often hormonal-not just stress 
•  The biggest mistakes women make when trying to “fix” their body during this phase 

 What You’ll Learn

•  How to recognize perimenopause symptoms early 
•  The connection between hormones, blood sugar, stress, and sleep 
•  Why supporting your body matters more than pushing harder 
•  The first 3 foundational shifts that can help stabilize your system 
•  What to focus on before adding supplements or extreme routines 

✅ Actionable Takeaways

This week, focus on supporting your body in simple, effective ways:

•  Add protein to every meal and stop skipping meals 
•  Stabilize blood sugar by reducing excess sugar and simple carbs 
•  Set a consistent sleep schedule and reduce late-night stimulation 
•  Incorporate walking and strength training instead of overtraining 
•  Pause before adding supplements and assess your foundation first 

✍️ Here’s a question to reflect on this week:

What changes have I been noticing in my body that I’ve been brushing off or explaining away?

💬 Join the Conversation

If this episode resonated with you, come join us inside the Limitless Living community-where you can GRAB YOUR “Am I in Perimenopause?” Quick Self-Check Guide...CLICK HERE 

This is where we continue these conversations, go deeper into real solutions, and support you through every phase of your wellness journey.

📢 Share + Review

If this episode helped you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

And if you haven’t already, leaving a review helps more women find the show and get the support they’re looking for.

🌿 Closing Thought

Your body isn’t working against you.

It’s asking for a different kind of support

Grab Your Free Reset Guide and more at www.fredrickadavis.com

Continue the conversation inside the here: Limitless Living community.

If this episode resonated with you, you can also send Fredricka a message through the Fan Mail link in the show notes. Your questions may be featured in a future episode.

And if you know someone who needs to hear this conversation, please share the episode with them.

Your reviews mean the world to Fredricka and help other women discover the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Limitless Living podcast. I'm Frederica Davis, your host, wellness expert, entrepreneur, and the creator of the reset method. So today is a wellness reset Thursday. And this is where we talk about habits and shifts and strategies that help your body, your mind, and your nervous system reset so that you can feel your absolute best again. So if you're under 40 and you're listening to this, and maybe you've started noticing changes in your body, and maybe it's your sleep, your mood, your energy, your skin, whatever it is, or maybe you're already in your 40s and wondering where some of these newer symptoms are coming from. You might already be in perimenopause and not even realize it. And I know, don't hate me for saying it. It's not a dirty word, I promise. So I want to break this all down for you today. We started doing our uh menopause series last week, and I would be remiss if we didn't talk about that pre-stage, that perimenopause stage. So this is where so many of us get confused because you don't really feel like you're in menopause. You're still getting, you know, your period, you're still functioning, you're you're still doing everything you've always done, but somehow things might be changing a little bit. So most women start to chalk up some of these changes to stress or the kids or work life or or work-life balance or caretaking or whatever phase you're in right now that brings you a higher level of stress. It's easy to blame that when in reality, this is often the beginning of hormonal shifts that literally can last for years. Some women have reported their perimenopause or pre-menopause lasting for 15 years. So as we take a step back here and talk about what this actually is, perimenopause is that phase before menopause. And the part that shocks women the most is that literally this can last for four to 15 years. And and you know, less or beyond that, because it's very individual. But yes, it can last for years, and it's a lot of years. So it can start in your 30s, mid to late 30s, which is the average, but I've actually seen it start earlier than that, totally dependent on your stress levels, your lifestyle, genetics, your overall health, all those are a factor in that. And most women actually have no idea that this is what's happening when they start to experience some of the changes that take place. So here's the simplest way to understand this. Progesterone is usually the first hormone that starts to drop. And I want you to think of it like a seesaw, if you will. Remember back when you were a child and you got on the playground and you were on the seesaw, right? One person would go up, one person would go down, and it would just, you know, go wonky. Or like a scale, you know, where you're trying to get them equal and you just can't quite get them equal. Well, progesterone is kind of like the middle of that seesaw or the scale that helps each side of it stay close to balanced or balanced. So when progesterone drops, estrogen doesn't just drop, it actually fluctuates. So when you're getting this up and down and up and down, like a seesaw or like a scale, like the scales, depending on what you're putting on them, testosterone, testosterone can actually be affected as well. So your body is now dealing with, at this stage, instability. And that's not just from low hormones. The instability, that's what actually creates the symptoms. And these symptoms can be both physical and more subtle in other areas or ways in your body. So you might actually notice things like sensitive breasts, irritable periods, um, shorter or longer menstrual cycles, anxiety or irritability out of nowhere. And okay, I know some of you ladies are thinking, geez, I already have that. Maybe you're somebody that did have instability because maybe you've had fluctuating hormones the whole time. But when we get into this period, it can be even worse. So maybe you're feeling weepy when that's not normally like you. Or I know that was an issue for me, or you're waking up between 2 and 4 a.m. in the middle of the night when you didn't use to, or you're anxious and irritable out of nowhere, and it's more often. Maybe it's brain fog for you, or random fatigue. I had the random fatigue, weight gain, especially around the midsection. That was also one an issue for me. Uh, low tolerance to stress, that can be another thing. Things that didn't once bother you all of a sudden start to bother you. Skin changes like cystic acne. That was something I suffered with greatly until I got my hormones back in balance during my perimenopause. Again, that's the pre-menopause. And hair changes, that can be hair growth, how fine your hair starts to get. There's a lot of things. And these are some of the biggest ones. These are the ones I hear all the time, some of which I've experienced myself. And, you know, you just don't feel generally like yourself when you're going through these things, but you don't always have an explanation for it because most women honestly don't realize that this is often the beginning of perimenopause. We think we're in our 30s, and that can't possibly be. It's like the furthest thing from our minds. So for me, I can tell you, I really started noticing things around 36 or 37. And the biggest thing that hit me was my skin. It was the most visible, bothersome thing. And I developed cystic acne. It was all along my jawline. And most people who see my skin now would never ever ever think that. But I wound up having cystic acne. And honestly, given my background with decades in the skincare industry and training and experience and the wellness industry and all of the things that I know and do, and all the things that I was already doing, nothing I was doing was touching it. And it just didn't matter. It didn't matter what products I used or how I changed my diet so much or anything, or what supplement I added in, because it was coming from the inside out, and it was because my hormones were dysregulated, because I was in perimenopause. And it took me a little bit to figure it out. Once I did, though, I knew okay, this is not a surface issue. There's no product I can throw at this that's going to help this. Not a prescription, not anything. These are all masking agents, even if they do help. This was an internal problem. And as my periods became irregular, they got heavier for me, not lighter. Some people have had them get lighter. I also noticed PMS type symptoms, which is something I really never had before. And I noticed fatigue creeping in more often. And um, you know, I've always had a weight resistance, a resistance to weight loss and issues with that, being carbohydrate sensitive. And uh this period of time, it was worse. It was just worse, and of course, went wanted to go right to my belly. So these are all signs that that was happening. Now, I wasn't sure at first and tried to do symptom by symptom or thing by thing, and then I put all the pieces together, all the puzzle pieces together, and I knew right away that, oh, this is something else going on. I'm in perimenopause. So let me walk you through what I actually did because this is where things started to shift for me. And these are things I've walked client other clients through over the years since, because I'm well past that now. And they really have made a big difference for people along the way, for most people. Now, one of the first things I looked at, that was at-home hormonal support. Now, that means specifically progesterone. I used a natural progesterone cream. Now, I want to say this very clearly. This can be incredibly supportive for some women, but it's not something you should just grab and, you know, totally run with and not do it the right way. The timing matters for me. I did one pump of the cream in the morning and one pump at night. Each pump is a metered dose, and I would rub that on my body twice a day. It had to be consistent in order for it to work. That matters so much. And the quality of it matters. So I had a quality product. You can find one at your local health food store. They can steer you to one that doesn't have additives and fillers in it and actually has in it what it's supposed to have in it. I recommend going to your local health food store for something like that. Now, that said, using the progesterone cream for me helped bring back things into balance. It brought back my estrogen level balance, which helped regulate my symptoms. So interestingly enough, it helped my skin. And after years of trying to get pregnant, you're gonna love this one. After years of trying to get pregnant and never being able to, once I was supported in my body properly, I got pregnant. And that was honestly the greatest gift I ever got in my whole life. Gift from God, quite frankly. But greatest gift ever now. So just so you know, when your body is supported correctly, things can happen and it responds. So just know that up front. So progesterone is one of those things, too, that if you are low in it, you can have a hard time getting pregnant. If you are low in it, you can have a hard time carrying to term. So when you regulate, if progesterone is something for you, and I'm not a doctor here giving you medical advice, but if it is something for you, then what can happen is uh your body can become regulated, and then maybe you can get pregnant, or maybe you don't want to get pregnant, just be aware of that and take precautions. So, number two, the blood sugar in nourishment. Now, this is a thing, this is an area that a lot of people, when they're addressing hormones and they're talking about 30 menopause, they really don't always address this enough. And this was the second thing that I really, really looked at, and this is where a lot of people get it wrong. It is nutrition and it's stopping the guesswork in it. So I reduced sugar and simple carbs in a pretty big way. I didn't go carb free because carb-free also can become a stressor to the body for women in particular sometimes. So, especially if you do it for any length of time, it depends on your body totally. So, for those of you out there doing keto all the time, it some of you can do that for a long period of time and not have as many side effects, but many of us have side effects when we do that. So, look, I looked at reducing sugar and simple carbs and not eliminating them again totally, but choosing the really good carbs only and being strategic with that. I made sure that I had protein at every meal and I stopped skipping meals, which was an easy thing for me to do sometimes. So when your blood sugar starts to be more stable, things get better. When it is unstable, it literally affects your energy, your mood, your sleep, your stress response. And indirectly, that can affect your hormones. So you cannot out-supplement a system that is malnourished. You must have the nourishment. And a lot of the symptoms that we have in menopause can be amplified when we are not nourishing our bodies correctly, staying hydrated with half your body, weight and ounces of water a day and getting the nutrition that you need. So, number three, the third thing I did was I really looked at stress and recovery for myself. And this is something, again, that I have worked with a lot of clients to do for various reasons. But when it comes to perimenopause or menopause, this is huge. This is a huge piece of it. So I looked at what stress I had, but not in the way most people think. So it it you can't eliminate stress. I am never going to tell you just cut the stress out. Like, you know, just turn it off or walk away from it. It's impossible. The one thing we can count on in life is having more stress. Now, the way we handle it, that's another story. Reducing it, yes, we can absolutely reduce it if we are looking at the things that we allow to cause us stress. Because there's a lot of things if you start taking a look at your life and how it's structured and the things that are bringing you any kind of stress, chances are there's going to be a list of things that are bringing you stress that don't necessarily have to be there in your life. You're just allowing them to continue to. So you really can reduce some of that, but more importantly, learning how to recover from it. That's really the key. So I was running, like literally physically running outside on the road for five to six days a week. All right, not just running hard and fast in my career, which I was also doing and in my life. And I was really pushing hard. I was training intensely. I had to stop over-training at the time. I was caretaking my mom at the time as well for a lot of years. And all of that put together was a lot on my body. Now, I'm not going to eliminate every single thing there, but I had to stop or shift and change some of those things. So I stopped over-training. I built recovery into my training and into my day more than I ever had. I built it into my week more than I ever had. And instead of numbing out or pushing through, you know, numbing out in front of the TV or pushing through and pushing harder or doing another boot camp or whatever, I started pausing long enough so that I could actually regulate my system. And I started looking at sleep very differently. You know, in your 20s, you push through your teens, your 20s, you feel like you don't need sleep, or you or you get too much sleep or you get too little sleep, it's just how we operate. But at this point, especially when the hormones are changing like that, sleep became non-negotiable. Now, no matter what time you go to bed, I want you to treat it like it is gold, a big, giant safe filled with gold. I created a sleep window that was consistent. And again, this is ideally, you know, if you can get up with the sunrise and go to bed with the sunset, that's all awesome and fine and dandy, but it's unrealistic for most of us. So regardless of what time you go to bed, if you can make it a consistent bedtime, your body starts to get into a rhythm with it. And it will at least help your body to feel like there's a level of safety and consistency there. And and keeping that consistent sleep window, seven, eight hours, so that you have enough time to recover. So I reduced late-night stimulations, such as cell phones, screens, laptops, all of it, TV screens. And then I focused again on protein and carbs at night. Okay. I talked about protein before and getting the right kind of carbs, but I strategically chose a protein and carbohydrate dinner because that supports your cortisol at that hour of the day and your sleep cycles once you go to sleep. All right. So I I've done a lot of experimenting with this. We can do that in another show. But knocking out carbs or trying to go carb free or keto often will be part of the reason for a woman, doesn't seem to be as bad with a man, but for a woman, if they are doing that, uh their sleep can often get interrupted. But and then if you add in one healthy carb at dinner, that can bring your sleep cycles back in. It's quite fascinating. So strength training, that's another area. I reduced all the excessive running and um cardio that I was doing. And I added in a little more strength training than I was already doing. So I was already strength training two times a week. I added in a third time a week and reduced the cardio load so that it was a better balance to my body, also um swapped some of my training for flexibility training, which was a very big help at the time. Because muscle supports your metabolism. It also supports your insulin res uh sensitivity, and it also supports your hormone balance. And it's less stressful on the body when done correctly. So keep exercising, but all of these pushing throughs and these boot camps that so many of us are doing now, and and you might be doing can actually be further dysregulating you at the same time as you're trying to have it make you healthy, right? Get healthier. So I believe in getting baseline tests. Let's talk about testing. Testing is something I absolutely believe in having baseline tests in your, you know, physical in your teens, your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, and so on, because you can compare changes over the decades and there will be changes. I promise you. So when you get them, I want you to ask for a full thyroid panel, okay? Not just the standard, but a full thyroid panel, a vitamin D, your vitamin D levels, your iron ferritin levels, and your glucose. Now, these are fairly standard. They don't always give you the full thyroid panel very easily. You should be asking for these because understanding these is a piece of the puzzle. And hormones fluctuate. So getting hormonal testing done at this stage, they don't typically want to do it for perimenopause unless you have tons of symptoms. If you can, that's even better. But don't go by just your hormonal test. So let's say you get your estrogen, testosterone, you know, progesterone levels checked. And they all look like they're within the normal range. You and only you know your body and what's going on. And a lot of times your hormones will fluctuate. You are in the stage where they're fluctuating, they're not just plummeting, they're going up and down. So completely dependent on whether they're up or down, your tests will look very different. So the tests are not always conclusive in this stage of things. So one test will not tell your full story. You have to listen to your body. So here's what is not to do as I wrap this up. And it is just as important, okay? Do not crash diet now. Your body's under stress because of the hormonal changes. And when you crash diet, you add more stress to it, and then that affects your hormones some more, and it's a vicious cycle. Do not over-exercise. Keep exercising, but get smarter and more strategic about the way you exercise. Do not start stacking a bunch of random supplements. Okay, you want to try progesterone? Great. Try progesterone. You, you know, want to add a hormonal balance, tincture, okay, great. But don't do them both at the same time. Do one at a time so you can see what's working, what's not. Do not ignore your symptoms. Your symptoms are more than likely real and more than likely telling you a story. It's your body talking to you. And do not let anyone dismiss what you're experiencing. Many, many, many doctors will. You know your body better than anyone. So this week, here's what I want you to do, and I want to keep it really, really simple. Start paying attention to patterns, add protein to your meals, set a consistent sleep time and stick to it all week. Walk daily, get a little bit of movement daily that's not stressful, something that actually reduces stress on your body, even while you're exercising. Reduce anything that is unnecessarily stressing to you or your body? So I've got a question for you for this week. This is your reflection question to sit with. What changes have I noticed that I've been brushing off or pushing through or explaining away? What changes have I noticed that I've been brushing off, pushing through, or explaining away? If the conversation has resonated with you, please come join us inside the Limitless Living community. You don't have to figure all of this out on your own. If it helped you, share it with somebody else who might need to hear it, and your reviews help more women find the show. So, in closing, I just want to say if you are noticing any changes in your body, your emotions, your mind, your heart, your soul, wherever it is, don't ignore them and don't wait for them to get worse. This phase does not mean your body is failing you either. And it's not the end of something, it's simply your body asking for you to support it differently. That's all it is. And the sooner that you understand that, the easier the transition becomes. And this might be your reset moment. And I want to add one more thing. I talked about getting pregnant with my daughter once my hormones are regulated at that stage. And for a lot of women who have not been able to get pregnant or haven't taken the time, because maybe you've been building your career. And now you still want to get pregnant and you've and you might be realizing that you're in perimenopause. Do not, do not get caught up in that. Do not get discouraged. Do not get, do not start sweating the small stuff here. Because if you get regulated, there's no reason unless you've got some other extenuating circumstance. There's no reason why you can't still have that dream come true. I know it came true for me, and it was the shock of my lifetime and the biggest blessing I've ever had. Until next week.