You Are Not Crazy, Your Hormones Are Shifting

You can be 35, doing everything you’ve always done, and still feel like your body has turned into a stranger overnight. Sleep gets weird, anxiety shows up out of nowhere, your cycle turns unpredictable, and the scale shifts even when your habits haven’t. Then you do the “responsible” thing, see your doctor, run labs and get told everything looks normal. I want to say this clearly: normal labs don’t always mean nothing is wrong.

We dig into what perimenopause actually is and why it’s so often missed. Menopause is one day, but perimenopause can last years and it can start in your mid-30s. We talk through what’s happening as progesterone declines first, estrogen becomes erratic, testosterone drops quietly in the background, and cortisol often rises to compensate. That changing hormone landscape can ripple into mood, sleep, body composition, energy, and even how you tolerate alcohol or recover from workouts.

We also get practical about what helps. I walk you through the symptom clusters I see most, why a single blood test can be a snapshot that misses the plot, and what a better workup can include beyond the usual panels. Then we lay out a step-by-step approach: solid foundations like protein at breakfast, strength training, blood sugar stability, sleep hygiene, stress and nervous system support, plus targeted nutrients and organ support when needed. And yes, we talk about bioidentical hormone therapy as a real option when it’s indicated and individualized.

If you’ve been told you’re too young or it’s “just stress,” this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with one woman who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find honest information about perimenopause and hormone health.

Thanks for tuning in. If this episode hit home, share it with a friend who needs to hear it.

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Ready to take the next step in your health? Book a free 15-minute consult: https://calendly.com/admin-unshakeablewellness/15min

Follow along on my socials:
Instagram: @jordan.trappp.nmd
TikTok @jordantrapp.nmd

Transcript

When Your Body Feels Different

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're in your mid-30s to early 40s, and something has changed. You're not sleeping the way you used to. Your mood is not your mood anymore. Your cycles are erratic. Your body shape is changing. Even though you're doing everything that you used to do, you are anxious in ways you never have been before. And overall, you just feel like a stranger in your own skin. You go to your doctor, you say something is off, they run labs, they come back and say everything is normal, and they send you on your way, maybe with an SSRI, maybe they tell you it's stress, just a part of aging. Maybe they say you're too young for perimenopause. You're only 35. I need you to hear me out. You are not crazy. Your labs are not telling the whole story, and perimenopause starts a heck of a lot earlier than you and I have been led to believe. This is unshakable and unfiltered. Welcome back. I am Dr. Jordan Trapp. I am a naturopath out of Scottsdale, Arizona. I focus on all things of female health and hormones, nervous system regulation, longevity, you name it, I do it. This is episode three of our launch series, and this is the one I have been most excited to record. I apologize for the delay in getting this out. If you follow me on socials, you know I have been on a three-week-long adventure across Europe. It was absolutely amazing. I did try to get this out before I left, but it just was not possible. As I was saying, welcome back to episode three of our launch series. This one is all about perimenopause, and I am so excited for it. Why? Because this is one of the things I see most often in my practice, and it is the thing that I see most often missed, dismissed, or medicated without anyone actually looking at what is happening or knowing what's going on. There is a huge educational gap, not only for patients, but providers as well. So I am trying to bridge that gap as much as I can. Today we are going to talk about what perimenopause actually is, when it starts, why your labs look normal when you feel terrible, and the plethora of signs I see most often, and most importantly, what you can actually do about it.

What Perimenopause Really Means

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Here we go. First things first, definitions, because there is a lot of confusion. Perimenopause is the transition period before menopause. Menopause itself is technically one single day, the day that you have gone 12 full months without a menstrual cycle. Everything before that, sometimes for up to 15 years, is perimenopause. Yes, I said 15 years. That is one of the things people do not know. Perimenopause can start as early as your mid-30s. The average age of menopause is 51. So if you are 35 and you are having symptoms, you're not too young. You could be right on time. What is happening during perimenopause? Our ovaries are essentially starting to wind down production of your sex hormones. This is not a smooth transition, it doesn't happen overnight, and your hormones are going to start to drop at different times. Progesterone is the first hormone that starts to drop down. Often in your mid to late 30s, like I said, estrogen will start to become erratic. It spikes high and then crashes low, which is why your symptoms seem so unpredictable. Testosterone is going to quietly decline in the background, and then cortisol, your stress hormone, often rises to try to compensate for all of the changes in your hormonal landscape. So we're not dealing with just one hormonal change. You are dealing with a whole system that is recalibrating, and that recalibration can take

Why Normal Labs Miss The Problem

SPEAKER_00 3:41

years. Why your labs look normal? This is the part that drives patients most crazy. You go into your doctor, you feel like something's wrong, they run labs, and then everything comes back within that normal reference range. You are told you are fine and then sent out the door. Here is why that happens. A couple different reasons, actually. Number one, conventional reference ranges are huge. They are very, very wide. And they are based on an average across a very big population, including a lot of people who are not thriving and actually sick. So you can be in range and still be significantly below what we as functional providers would consider optimal. Number two, perimenopause is defined itself by fluctuations in your hormones, not by absolute numbers. If I check your estrogen on a Tuesday and it's high, by Friday it could have crashed. And if I check it again the next week, it could be somewhere in between. A single snapshot blood test is not going to catch that. It's honestly like taking one photo of a movie and trying to understand the entire plot. Third, most conventional panels do not look at the right markers. Typically, I see an FSH and maybe an estradiol on panels that have been run by another provider. They are rarely checking progesterone, and if they are checking it, they aren't doing it properly timed. Rarely I see a DHEA or a free testosterone, and I would say the amount of times I've been able to get a cortisol run from a conventional provider is quite low. The other piece is if everything comes back in that normal range, they're not venturing further to figure out why you feel icky. This is why I say you are more than your labs. When we see a patient with clear perimenopause symptoms, even though their labs look normal, I'm not gonna dismiss her. I'm gonna run better testing, I'm gonna look at her full symptom picture, and almost always we're gonna find what's going on and get her feeling better.

The Symptom Clusters To Watch

SPEAKER_00 5:39

The signs. Time to run through some of the signs I see in my patients in perimenopause. Not all of them apply to every patient, and not every patient needs to have all of these to be considered in perimenopause. Usually we are going to see them in clusters. Category number one, let's talk about the menstrual cycle. We see general cycle changes. It could be shorter cycles, longer cycles, heavier bleeding, lighter bleeding, spotting in between your periods, cycles that just in general become unpredictable. This is often one of the first signs and is very frequently brushed off as stress. Category number two, sleep. Waking up at two or three in the morning and not being able to fall back to sleep. Night sweats, lighter, less restorative sleep. If you are tracking on an aura ring, you will see that. Feeling wired at bedtime when you used to be able to fall asleep easily. Category three, mood and brain anxiety that is either new onset or significantly worse than it used to. I call progesterone our Bob Marley hormone. It binds to our GABA receptors, which are our calming receptors. They help to keep women calm, keep us sleeping, keep our mood in order. So we can see a lot of low mood, rage, rage that actually surprises you. I can't tell you how many females have walked through my door and been like, I am so angry, I don't recognize myself. And they start to beat themselves up because they're snapping at their kids, their husbands, their families, uh, brain fog, issues finding your words, feeling less sharp than you used to. Category four, body composition. And this is one of the big things that drives patients in for me. Weight gain, particularly around that pesky midsection without any change in how you are eating or moving, losing muscle even when you're working out, and just generally feeling a little bit softer and puffier. Category five, energy and recovery. Afternoon energy crashes. Now, if you have this, it does not mean you are in perimenopause. There are a lot of reasons why we could be tired. Um, needing more sleep and still feeling tired, taking longer to recover from workouts, feeling hungover, even when you haven't had a drink. And then we have the less talked about signs: joint pain and stiffness, dry skin, hair changes, low libido, vaginal dryness, changes in how you tolerate alcohol is a huge one. New onset of food sensitivities, histamine issues, migraines, especially around your period. I have a patient who I am thinking about right now, poor girl, was having the worst migraines before we put her on HRT. Heart palpitations, wringing of the ears, itching of the ears, frozen shoulder, which was a new one that I actually learned on TikTok. But frozen shoulder has a very strong link to estrogen decline. If you're sitting there nodding along to three, five, seven, ten of these, you are not alone and you are not imagining it. This is real, this is perimenopause, and fortunately for us, it is fixable.

Testing Lifestyle Support And HRT Options

SPEAKER_00 8:46

So, how are we gonna fix this? I'm gonna give you the categories I work through with my patients. Number one, proper testing. We're gonna run a full workup that doesn't just mean your sex hormones. The thyroid, iron panel, fasting insulin, a CMP, functional testing if it's needed, so we can see how you're metabolizing your hormones. Sometimes a GI map because your gut health is gonna directly affect your estrogen clearance, and we can't treat what we haven't measured. Number two, the foundations. Before I talk about your hormones, before I give you hormones, we're gonna talk about the foundations of your health, your protein intake, especially at breakfast. I want at least 30 grams of protein to start the day. A strength training, not just cardio. Women in perimenopause need to be lifting. Blood sugar stability, sleep hygiene, stress management, and nervous system. These things are not optional and they are not extra. They are the basis of your protocol. Number three, targeted support. Based on what we see on your testing, we will add in what you need. That might be adrenal support for your HPA axis, thyroid optimization, liver and gut support to help clear your hormones properly. Sometimes specific nutrients like your magnesiums, your B vitamins, your omegas. Number four, hormone replacement when it is indicated. I am a very big advocate of not putting people on hormones until they absolutely need it. But this is where we have had a huge pendulum swing in medicine. Thank goodness. For decades, women were denied hormone support because of flawed research. Now we know that for many women, bioidentical hormone therapy is one of the most powerful tools that we have. Progesterone for sleep, anxiety, and cycle regulation, estrogen for hot flashes, vaginal changes, bone health, cognitive protection, heart health, testosterone for libido, muscle, and energy. It's not right for everyone and it does need to be individualized, but it should be on the table as a real option. Number five, ongoing adjustments. This is a piece that a lot of people forget. Perimenopause is a moving target. So is menopause. What works for you this year may not work next year. This is not a one-and-done protocol. It's a relationship with your body over time, it's a relationship with your provider over time. That is why I work with my patients on an ongoing basis, not a single visit.

Reframing The Transition And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 11:19

I want to end with this. If you are in the season and you feel like you are losing yourself, I need you to know something. You are not. You're becoming something new. This transition, as hard as it is, is a shedding. It is a reorganization, an invitation to stop performing wellness the way you were taught, and actually get honest about what your body needs right now. You do not have to white knuckle through this, you do not have to suffer through it, you do not have to accept that this is just what 40 looks like. It does not have to look like this. What you need is someone who takes you seriously, who runs the right tests, who listens to your story, who's gonna treat you like a whole person and not just a collection of symptoms, and who has tools beyond an SSRI and a shrug. If that is what you are looking for, I offer a free 15-minute consult. The link is in the show notes. We will talk about what you're experiencing, what you've already tried, and what might actually help. No pressure from me, just a conversation about you. Thank you for being here for this series of three episodes on the topics that matter most: your gut health, your digestive system, and hormones. If any of this has resonated, will you do me a favor and please share this with one woman who needs to hear it? That is how we start to change this conversation. I am so glad you are here, and I cannot wait to see where this podcast goes. I will see you guys in the next one. Have a great rest of the week.