Rach Jobling- Part 1 - The silent shift of perimenopause

What if the symptoms you have been told to "push through" are actually your body asking you to be heard? In this deeply grounding conversation, Erica sits down with Rach Jobling, The regulated woman, to unpack the often misunderstood journey of perimenopause and hormonal change. Together they explore the physical, emotional, and mental shifts so many women experience. From anxiety, rage, exhaustion and brain fog, to the invisible mental load women carry everyday. This episode opens the conversation around what is really happening in the female body during this hormonal transition, why so many women feel dismissed, and how education, nourishment, nervous system support and a deeper understanding can begin to change the way women move through this season of life. This conversation is about awareness, validation, and finally feeling seen. 

If this episode resonated with you or you would like to know more about Rach, you can find her on instagram @theregulatedwomanau

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Sear Movement, Women in All Seasons. I'm Erica, wife, mum of three boys, business owner, and founder of Sear Hair Lounge. This podcast was born from the honest conversations women share in our salon chairs every day about change, growth, and the seasons of life we're all navigating. Join me as we share women's stories and gather insight from experts to help bring understanding to these seasons. Because no woman should have to navigate her season alone. For many women, perimenopause arrives quietly. It can begin long before we expect it, bringing with it changes that leave us questioning ourselves, our bodies, and sometimes even our identity. Yet despite affecting millions of women, it remains one of the least understood seasons of a woman's life. My guest today is Rachel Jobling, a women's health nutritionist whose work is helping women make sense of the changes they're experiencing and empowering them with the knowledge to navigate this season with greater confidence, clarity, and support. Rachel brings a wealth of wisdom, compassion, and evidence-based expertise to the conversation. She has dedicated her work to helping women understand their hormones, reconnect with their bodies, and feel seen during a season that can often feel isolating and overwhelming. In this episode, we explore what perimenopause really is, the signs many women are missing, and how nutrition, lifestyle, and education can become powerful tools to support and healing. Whether you're in the midst of this transition, approaching it, or supporting someone who is, this conversation is filled with insight that has the potential to change the way we view women's health. This is Rachel Jobling and the silent shift of perimenopause. Rachel, I'm so grateful to have you here today. Thank you for being part of this conversation. I really wanted to open this conversation in a way that meets women right at the beginning of this journey. So, because for so many it starts with a feeling, a quiet sense that something in their body has shifted, but they can't quite put it into words yet. So to begin, what actually is perimenopause and when does this phase of life truly begin for women? Thank you so much for having me here, Erica for a starters. Uh these conversations are so important, and you've started right at the point that I think can blinds eyed very many women. Like it's it's a small shift in some of the symptoms that they're experiencing. And perimenopause is different for every person. There's not a one-size-fits-all kind of response by many women. So, what we see is that from about age 35, um, things like progesterone and testosterone start to decline. This is a natural part of the perimenopausal journey. Um, alongside that, sort of as we hit our 40s, we can start to see something like estrogen fluctuate, and this is where some of the symptoms come to play. So many women will note that their sleep starts to go a little bit by the wayside, uh, that they are often feeling or noticing a bit more brain fog, that their tolerance levels have changed and they feel a little bit high stress. Um, things that didn't previously bother them now impact them in a different way. They'll note weight starting to slow down and and not shift as easy or storing fat in different areas like abdominal weight and those sorts of things. Um, and these are the silent, silent the violent, I think. Silent shifts towards perimenopause where declining hormones are, I guess, playing a big role in our symptoms, the way we feel, the way we show up in life, our energy, and then it's preparing us for menopause, which is you know the the period where we have no cycle, we're starting to experience different symptoms again. So it's probably the real shift is perimenopause is that in-between. So you've you've started to shift hormones. Um, it's probably the next hormonal big change after puberty. It is that one that, yeah, as I said, it's it's just a it's it's often quite silent, small little shifts that all start to add up. And what we know now is that women are more aware of those shifts, and you know, our parents, our mums, their mums, they just kind of got on with life and accepted that those things were happening, but they didn't really recognise them. But there are a number of factors that impact on the reasons that we're noticing them more, not to mention that it's becoming more widely spoken about, which is you know so important. So, what are you finding are the very first signs that women might be entering menopause or perimenopause, especially the ones that often get missed or dismissed? Um, look, cycle shifts is a big one. Um, I think that's the one most women are on to straight away. That's what they're kind of going, what's happening there? But for women who have experienced things like POS or adenomiosis or any of those sorts of things, that might not be such a big difference for them, or they've had children and their cycle has changed. Um, one big one we see is increased anxiety, often um uh misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression, but it's often that um uh starting point of lower progesterone, which is our calming hormone, so it starts to then present as heightened anxiety or heart palpitations and things like that. The other big one is sleep. Um, so the sleep disturbances, you know, multi-waking through the night, struggling to get to sleep, and yeah, probably brain fog is the only other one that you know you you see come in and out, but women just put that down to, you know, being busy, having being mothers, um, having you know careers, all those sorts of things, and um that is yeah, something that I guess gets overlooked because of life and busyness. Absolutely. Why do you think so many women feel blindsided by this stage of life? I think that we are busy. I think that women are their careers are heightened at this stage of life, so you know, mid to late 30s, they're starting to um come back to themselves and have more time, so they might take on more work, or their kids are starting to be at school, or they've progressed in their career, and so they're probably thinking that it's high stress or multiple other symptoms, and not recognising that it's actually a hormonal shift. That what we see is that it's realistically the change and the follow-on from the life that they were living pre-mid-30s. So, um, how we enter into perimenopause, you know, is determined by things like the things that we did in our 30s, the way that we managed stress, the way that we ate, the way that we showed up in life, our movement, our muscle mass, our cortisol levels, all of those sorts of things, in addition to what our parents went through and how they experienced peri and menopause. I can definitely relate to that myself. And I think we see so much of um, you know, perimenopause um is all over social media right now. Um and I think something else that's coming up is the stress and burnout stage, and it's really hard to determine which category we fall into, but I guess both of them can fall in under the same umbrella, can't they? Look, 100%. Like our nervous system plays a big role in our hormonal response, and the two of them are intertwined. So for example, something like stress can deplete further deplete progesterone, so it's very, very impacted by lifestyle, by you know, nutrient deficiencies, all those sorts of things. But I think the way that we respond, it's like sort of like a chicken and egg scenario. Like it's if you've already got high cortisol levels entering into that perimenopause phase, it's going to further impact our hormones, or your hormones have already started having that impact. So your tolerance levels are already lower, your stress management is is not impacted by what you were doing prior. And I think what a lot of us go into our 30s and 40s is thinking that we can still manage life and stress the way that we did prior, and our bodies and our brains and things would respond the same way, and that's where the shift starts to happen. Because something that we dealt with perhaps in our early 30s, if you were trying to deal with the same thing in our early 40s, we don't have the hormones to support it, which makes it a lot harder to manage when our cortisol stays risen. We're we're more susceptible to some of those symptoms, which makes you know, if you haven't got the energy to manage those things, that's one huge thing that you know. Energy is one of the biggest things that most women report is just that struggle waking wide and tired, struggling for energy throughout the day, all those sorts of things. You've got more energy in your early 30s because you have your hormones to support it, they haven't started on that trajectory downwards. Yes, again, can totally relate. I love the way that you talk about estrogen and progesterone. Can you explain the role of estrogen and progesterone in a way women can really understand it? Absolutely. So estrogen and progesterone obviously are sex hormones. Um, progesterone, particularly, as I mentioned, is one of the first ones to start declining. It is our calming hormone, it's responsible for many different roles, but of most, it is something that helps with stress management. So obviously, when we have decent progesterone levels, or sort of at a inner balance with our estrogen, we're able to have more brain capacity, we're able to maintain more energy, uh, we have you know better libido, things like that. Estrogen is it has like a lubrication role, it supports brain function, it they both sort of complement each other a little bit. It's you know, estrogen can affect our mood, our memory, um, as I mentioned, inflammation, those sorts of things as well. So when we have those fluctuations, a lot of people expect that you know, um, part and parcel of heading into peramenopause is a reduction in estrogen, and this is actually incorrect, is that fluctuations that are causing some of the you know most potent symptoms, I think, in perimenopause. So the combination of fluctuating um estrogen with low progesterone is what basically is a symptom storm for many women. So they both have different roles, they both, you know, we need to keep them within a ratio of each other to make sure that they're, you know, working effectively together. They kind of play different roles but come in together and complete that hormone cycle. So we have to kind of uh support them both in different ways. Wow. Did that explain it? That was a beautiful way to explain it. Absolutely. Why do symptoms feel so unpredictable during perimenopause? Because it they do sneak up on you, and I myself find one minute I can be really, really calm and everything's going really well, and the next minute I can just completely snap and feel really unhinged. Can you just explain that? Okay, look, first of all, that's really normal, and when I say normal, I mean common. It's really common, but it's not something that a lot of women have to settle for because I hear it so often, and there are so many factors that impact on that. As I mentioned, progesterone has already started declining. If you were to throw in nervous system regulation and the dysregulation, the things that dysregulate nervous systems, so things like your blood sugar, exercise uh, you know, heightened exercise, so heat exercise, um, late-night scrolling, all of those sorts of things are going to further disrupt things like mood. It's going to impact that final flight, and you'll notice that as perimenopause goes on, if you already have those declining hormones, you're going to be more susceptible to those mood fluctuations, to those changes, to the feeling on edge, and it's going to take more of an effort to manage it than it did previously. Bit of a tough conversation now, and what most women are very afraid to ask about, I want to talk about weight gain. So, why does it feel like nothing works anymore? Why do women feel more anxious and over overwhelmed when they're starting to see those changes in their body? Look, I think there's quite a few different areas that we can go to there, but I'll start with the ones that I see most common in the women that I work with, and that is first there's mindset and the impact of social media, body image, and that sort of thing. There is an expectation, like we're seeing um things like GRP1s, and we're seeing we're going back to those that skinny format and those sorts of things. So we have that, you know, in one part of women's brains where they're experiencing this overwhelm. The other side, we have the physiological changes. So not only um do we have declining muscle mass as we are getting older, our muscle mass determines our metabolic rate. So as we get older, it's harder to build muscle mass. And if you're not starting with a strong base, then obviously you're going to have to, you're going to see metabolic changes where it's slowing down. We're going to see more insulin sensitivity. So the um uh responsive the way that you respond to certain foods, we're going to see higher inflammation, which is where you know you could used to eat one way and now you feel like you're sensitive to everything. Cortisol levels are probably the highest one, as we mentioned, with declining hormones, our cortisol is impacting significantly, and it is harder to bring it down, which means our body's prioritizing bringing down the cortisol levels over fat loss. Then we have the metabolic changes, which are things like women who have eaten in a significant calorie deficit for a long period of time, which means our metabolic rate has adapted to that. So, you know, they might have been on the Mish Bridges 1200 diet, all of those sorts of things, and now they're noticing that they have to eat even lower than that to be able to stay lean. Outside of that, we have, you know, uh, as I mentioned, insulin changes, so we find our carbohydrate tolerance can be impacted. We're seeing ins insulin and fast insulin levels rise, so we're more susceptible to weight gain in that area. Not to mention those fluctuations in energy mean we're moving less, we're um, you know, experiencing more inflammation, we've got lymphatic drainage, which is then impacted by those hormonal fluctuations, for example, excess estrogen being, you know, filtering through the body, which is not being supported by the liver. You know, we've we've got all of those sort of things coming into play, which means that weight gain feels like it's overwhelming, like we should be losing the way we used to, we should be as lean as what we used to, and what we see are women uh still eating in a calorie deficit, they're still moving their bodies, and nothing is changing because hormonally there are some big things happening behind the scenes, not to mention the nervous system regulation or cortisol levels, which are also playing out in a different way as what they did prior to those years. And that is quite confronting for a lot of women too. I mean, we we go through so many seasons in our life where you know we have these babies and our lives completely change, and then we think, okay, we're raising these small humans. Now life's supposed to get easier, and then you see yourself change and develop again. It's almost like we're reinventing ourselves. But I feel like there's so many symptoms that are arising. These are just sort of borderline things that people are asking about. But another one that I think can affect our partners is libido and why it changes and how do we navigate that rage without the shame? Look, that's a really great question, Erica, because um libido is huge. It is one of the biggest shifts we see in women in that stage and age and phase, and it's you know, it's confronting because there is conversations that we need to have with our partners. We feel like we have to justify some of those conversations, and a lot of the time women are putting it down to you know low energy, hormonal changes, but the reality of it is that you know things like testosterone is a big driver of our um libido. Estrogen is something that also impacts lubrication. What's driving the libido changes? How do we have those conversations? And it is about being open, it is about um asking for support around the things that are impacting your libido because the nervous system is something that is driving those hormonal changes. So asking for support around the house, for you know, support with the kids to be to have this space. I had a client as an example, and I'm sure she'd be okay with me sharing this, but she had um experienced significant libido reduction, and it was a big driver of hers. We'd managed to excess estrogen and done all of this work, and then she went away for a weekend without her children, just her and her husband a weekend away, and she was like, My libido's back. And I was like, Of course it is. You've got no kids there, no responsibilities, you know the washing, you don't have to cook to anything. It was a perfect example of how life can drive some of those libido changes, and then you know, you throw in declining hormones, let lower energy levels, you know, dopamine and all of the um uh you know scrolling of a night time, circadian rhythm, which is out of whack when we're going to bed later and trying to get that time back to themselves, and then just those changes to their body, obviously, that is all going to impact on your libido because they're not comfortable in themselves any longer and they find themselves falling back. So it is it is about a communication with their partner, but it's also about um investigating the drivers of that, whether it be hormonal you know decline, whether it be nervous system impact, there are some you know great ways that you can absolutely manage that, and I think that's important to know. Absolutely. I don't know if you just heard, but I just did the biggest exhale and can totally relate to your client because you know, when you are going away and you don't have that noise around you, you do feel like yourself again, and I'm sure most of our listeners can relate to that as well. So I thank you for sharing that. That's a really valid point. Brain fog. I have recently been to the fridge three times to go and get a chopping board out of the fridge. I don't know about anybody else, but mine certainly don't live in there. What's happening there and is it reversible? Look, 100%. There's a lot of research to support that there are different reasoning for that brain fog. So obviously, um, estrogen decline is one of those. It's you know, it supports our neurotransmitter function, so we need it. So as that's declining, that's impacting. But the one thing with the estrogen levels is that when we have too much, so when I was talking about that fluctuation, that can you know cause inflammatory response across the body as well. So we've got two different sides of that. Then you throw in things like our screen time that you know we are overloaded, we're spending so much time on our phones, we are spending so much time in conversations, there, you know, there is noise all around us. We've got podcasts on, we've got our brains are flooded, and you're you know, no, that there's more diagnosis of things like ADHD, which is where that forgetful memory can sometimes interloop because ADHD is um heightened the symptoms often by things like perimenopause. But brain fog is one, particularly uh through perimenopause, it actually tends to get better in menopause before it declines again. So it is due to those fluctuating hormones. Um, part of it is due to the noise and exposure that we have all the time, but I think that it's a double-pronged kind of approach that we have to be mindful of to support the way that our brain functions and you know the lifestyles that we have and the amount of inputs versus output that we're having day to day. You know, for example, something that many women don't do is they'll go for a walk, but they've got podcasts blaring, they have no downtime. So I'm always saying, get some white noise, don't put anything in your ears, allow those downloads because we have so much coming in all of the time, and that is another stressor on our body. And so the brain fog is one of the places that it comes up. And it's almost like we've become a society where we don't stop, we always have to be have or we always have to have something going in the background, or if we're seen to stop, it means we're lazy. That's that old generational thing. Absolutely. Um, but if we simplify it, yeah, it makes a lot more sense. I had a question from a beautiful person on our social media, which really hit for me, and it was is it normal to feel disconnected from your partner, your body, or even your identity? And I I felt so sad when I read this question because I'm sure there's so many women that feel that way. 100%. Look, yeah, it's it's common. Um, does it is it normal? It depends on the language around that, but I think it's it is common. Things like tolerance levels are much lower through certain ages and phases, and that comes with those declining hormones. I think the disconnection is, you know, perimetopause in particular can be such a beautiful stage. It it is, you know, there are so many positives to it, but it depends on how we come into it and that awareness and how we. Managing it, the disconnection to ourselves. Some I I try and frame it with clients as a way to reconnect as a reminder that you're not going to be the same through every stage and phase to accept your body where it's at and to make sure that you are, you know, adjusting your lifestyle around that agent phase. And I think that's where that disconnection comes from because we're still trying to live like a 30-year-old in a 40-year-old woman's body, for example. We're still trying to, you know, do over and above the norm on a daily basis. We're trying to people please, and it's about coming back to yourself and understanding, you know, where am I at? What do I need? What's my body telling me? Because I think that disconnection for us starters is sometimes, you know, we are moving, you know, we're moving in different ways. We're we're more aware of different things, we're more passionate. Maybe it's we're changing, and sometimes we find, and and that's where we see a lot of you know, marriages and things start to question their whether they will remain together because particularly in this phase, women are starting to have different symptoms where they don't recognize themselves and and they're starting to disconnect as a result. So I think the biggest part around that is yes, it's common. Does it have to be normal? No, it's about understanding what your body needs at that time and where that disconnection is coming from, and I guess how you're supporting that age and phase in moving forward. Because if you're still trying to live like a 30-year-old and do the same things without supporting your body through nutrients, through blood sugar regulation, through lifestyle, through exercise, through all of those things, then you're probably not going to get the answers that you want at that point. Absolutely. It's almost like you're being reborn again, and I love that you have that beautiful positive spin on it. That was that's beautiful. It is, it is being reborn again, I think. That's the best way you can describe it. It's an opportunity to jump into a different phase of life and create almost a new version of you based on, you know, the next steps and where you want to go. Yeah, I love it. Rach, some of the misconceptions and misinformation that you're seeing everywhere right now, everyone's seeing it everywhere everywhere right now. What are some of the biggest myths you're seeing online right now about perimenopause? Yeah, okay. Um, I think the biggest one is that things like, you know, your um perimenopause starts in your 50s, you know, we we know that that's no longer the case. Around 35 is where we start to see those declines and shifts in hormones. I think we've seen the HRT conversation change. So HRT previously was said to be dangerous, and now there is upgraded research that has evolved to show the benefits of body identical. Now I'm saying body identical. HRT, which I think is something that needs to be investigated from all aspects, but it's no longer nuanced or it's no longer has has a negative spin that it was from those 2002 research studies. You know, that I guess that you have to push through now. Like we're women are understanding that there's things that they can do, they don't just have to keep living life like they are and feeling unsupported, feeling you know, experiencing those symptoms and doing it alone. The eat less, move more scenario that has been debunked. Like we know that calories in versus calorie out, calories out is BS when it comes to hormonal changes, cortisol levels, all of those sorts of things. We've seen so many women debunk that you know, you'll see traditional nutrition or fitness coaches still bang on about that, but it is absolutely incorrect. But yeah, look, social media in particular is so full of conflicting advice. There are lots of myths. Look, even in the practitioner space, we're still seeing a lot of practitioners with outdoor advice around HRT. You know, some will overgive, some will hold back, and it's just about you know doing due diligence and checking your sources basically. Are there quick fixes that you feel women should be cautious of? Ah, supplements, HRT, um, DLP ones, the list goes on. I think, you know, uh this conversation the other day, like supplementing for the sake of supplementing without having, you know, actual evidence and data to support the nutrient deficiencies or the things that you're supplementing. Like I don't can't tell. She went through someone's um pantry the other day and she said, I've got this and I've got this and I've got this, and I was like, What's that for? And it's like, oh, it's just a multi, and I said, but you know, like the the multi means that you're spreading it across, and probably the thing that you need doesn't have enough of it, and the things you don't need are in there, and it's what's the purpose? So I think making sure that you're supplementing what needs to be supplemented as the first point. Um, in terms of HRT, uh, you know, because my friend's sister's cousin said that that worked for her, I really want to try this, which is amazing, but it's fantastic that some of that stigma has been thrown away. But in the same instance, we're seeing a lot of cases being overdiagnosed, and if the foundations aren't in place, or for someone in perimenopause, it's the most common one I see is estrogen being prescribed to women who have extremely high estrogen levels. Wow. So, um, because you know, goodness me, progesterone couldn't be prescribed on its own, which is also super safe, body identical progesterone. So I think being mindful because just because they have a doctor before you know before their name, and I'm not going to speak ill about anyone, just being mindful where that advice comes from because um it's it's very nuanced. Make sure you've got the data to support it, you've got the evidence, and you trust that person because, like an existing client was just taking, um, was told to take estrogen, she's had extremely high estrogen levels. When she started it, her symptoms ramped up and she has stopped it straight away. And that was from her gynecologist. So, you know, that's a really challenging one to you know to kind of push back against, but just being mindful of where your starting point is. Like if your foundations, your blood sugar regulation, your nutrition, your exercise, your nutrients, and everything is in place, your nervous system, there are no blanket answers. You know, there are it's a multifaceted approach, and the more that we're on top of that, the the better the outcome will be for every person. Thank you for listening to part one of my conversation with Rachel Jobling. Join us in part two as we continue this insightful discussion on women's health, hormones, and navigating life with greater understanding and support. Thank you for being here with me today. If this conversation resonated with you, share it with a woman in your life who might need to hear it too. And if you'd like to continue walking alongside us in these conversations, you can follow and subscribe. This is the Sear Movement Women in All Seasons.