Speaker 1: Welcome to Go Ask Ali, a production of Shonda Land
Speaker 1: Audio and partnership with I Heart Radio. I'm a sniper.
Speaker 1: I'm admitting it totally. Yeah. Yeah. The fact that you
Speaker 1: don't keep your mouth shut is what's so great about you. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you truly and well it's all that's my husband.
Speaker 1: If you can shine as you're going to death, you
Speaker 1: can shine as you going from middle Lange, right, Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: why not start now? I'm going to enjoy my life.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, I'm just a little
Speaker 1: particle on an asteroid flying through space, so exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just aspect or aspects. Welcome to go Ask Allie. I'm
Speaker 1: Ellie Wentworth and this season I'm just digging into everything,
Speaker 1: everything I can get my hands on. I'm peeling back
Speaker 1: the layers and getting dirty. Speaking of getting dirty, you know,
Speaker 1: in my mom's day, the word menopause, like masturbation, was
Speaker 1: a dark and dirty word. And now I think we're
Speaker 1: starting to become a lot more evolved and women are
Speaker 1: talking more about menopause and women's reproductive health. And we'll
Speaker 1: be talking about menopause, perimenopause, vaginas, dry vaginas, all kinds
Speaker 1: of vaginas you know. I had my ovaries taken out
Speaker 1: a few years ago because I had this enormous cyst
Speaker 1: the size of a small pink grapefruit, and I was
Speaker 1: a little nervous about it, as anyone would be, and
Speaker 1: the surgery went fine, but afterwards I was thrown into menopause.
Speaker 1: I don't think women are ever really educated about what
Speaker 1: happens to them, because I came out of my surgery
Speaker 1: fog only to be incredibly weepy, cloudy headed. I was
Speaker 1: a bitch. And it turns out I was in full
Speaker 1: blown menopause and just didn't know it, and so I
Speaker 1: had to do a real deep dive to understand just
Speaker 1: what was happening to me. And I think that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of confusion about and a pause, which is
Speaker 1: why we should be talking about it a lot more,
Speaker 1: starting right now with my two amazing guests. Sally Mueller.
Speaker 1: She's a founder and CEO of woman Nous. After working
Speaker 1: over two decades in retail marketing and brand innovation, she
Speaker 1: transferred her expertise to create woman Nous in order to
Speaker 1: change the conversation around menopause through innovative products. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you a quick spoiler alert, there's a vibrator the
Speaker 1: size of a lipstick. Continue. Womanness also provides much needed
Speaker 1: advice and support from an inspired community of women who
Speaker 1: exude meno positivity. I love that word, a dynamic, joyful
Speaker 1: outlook that embraces women throughout their lives. Also joining me
Speaker 1: is Dr Ekta Kapoor. She is a Board certified endochronologist,
Speaker 1: a menopause specialist, and is the associate director of Mayo
Speaker 1: Clinic Center to Women's Health in Minnesota. She has a
Speaker 1: strong research focus in menopause and hormone therapy and is
Speaker 1: recognized as an institutional and national expert and leader in menopause.
Speaker 1: Dr Kapor speaks at national meetings and has published extensively
Speaker 1: in the field. She also serves on the editorial board
Speaker 1: of the journal Menopause from the North American Menopause Society.
Speaker 1: I mean, we should have a drinking game. Every time
Speaker 1: I say menopause, you have to take a drink. And
Speaker 1: I want to thank my gust for being here, especially
Speaker 1: Dr Kapoor, who joined us even in the midst of
Speaker 1: a COVID contamination. And she's talking to us through two masks,
Speaker 1: Welcome ECTA and Sally, I'm I'm actually very excited about
Speaker 1: having this conversation with you for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1: One is I don't think we as women talk about
Speaker 1: it enough. And certainly I was speaking earlier about how
Speaker 1: when I was younger with my mother, I don't think
Speaker 1: my mother ever talked about it, certainly not with her friends.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, right now that's all I talk
Speaker 1: about with my friends. It used to be when when
Speaker 1: we were younger, it was we talked about sex. Now
Speaker 1: we're talking about menopause. We're constantly checking in with each other, Harry,
Speaker 1: feeling what your symptoms, you know it's and a lot
Speaker 1: of it is us just not knowing where we should know.
Speaker 1: We should know everything about it, and I shouldn't be
Speaker 1: calling my friends and saying, is this happening? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's sort of like COVID, It's like, are these the
Speaker 1: right symptoms? So first actor, explain to us the perimenopause face,
Speaker 1: going into the menopause face, and what's happening to our bodies. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for that great question. Ali. I want to
Speaker 1: start off by congratulating you that you are having these
Speaker 1: conversations with your friends, So kudos, Thank you, I am
Speaker 1: glad you ladies are talking amongst yourselves, because this is
Speaker 1: a recurring theme. I heard it from my patients every
Speaker 1: time we do some sort of a research study where
Speaker 1: we survey participants asking what they know about menopause. This
Speaker 1: is sort of a universal response that I get that
Speaker 1: women don't know enough about it and no one talks
Speaker 1: about it period. Even in twenty two, that remains an issue.
Speaker 1: So I am glad you are speaking to your friends
Speaker 1: and learning that way. Granted it is less than ideal,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a start time because my friends are
Speaker 1: not very educated on it, so they probably aren't the
Speaker 1: people I should be talking to. Yes, I agree with that. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a great first step though, because you know, again,
Speaker 1: research has shown us that people who are investigating about things,
Speaker 1: people who are talking about things are more likely to
Speaker 1: do something about changing it or fixing it. If you
Speaker 1: don't discuss it, it doesn't exist, right, and nothing is
Speaker 1: ever going to change. That's exactly right. So having that
Speaker 1: conversation very important. So now to answer your question, Perry,
Speaker 1: you know, as the name suggests, Perry means around, So Perry,
Speaker 1: menopause is that period around menopause? So the years leading
Speaker 1: in to menopause and then one year after menopause. Usually
Speaker 1: a woman is sort of having those irregular periods leading
Speaker 1: up to menopause for three to four years, but it
Speaker 1: can be longer than that. So then the obvious question
Speaker 1: is what is menopause? So menopause is that permanent cessation,
Speaker 1: stopping of ovarian function. So two things come with it, right,
Speaker 1: they're kind of obvious. One is loss of fertility. When
Speaker 1: we are in menopause, can't have babies anymore, but we
Speaker 1: can during perimenopause, right, absolutely can't. That's again a myth
Speaker 1: that you know, the fertility is absent in that period,
Speaker 1: but you can. And the second, which actually for a
Speaker 1: woman's health is more important, is loss of those ovarian hormones,
Speaker 1: most importantly estrogen, which has long term consequences, and that's
Speaker 1: why our health changes significantly after menopause. But then the
Speaker 1: question is why make a big deal about perimenopause, Why
Speaker 1: does it even matter? Well, it matters for several reasons.
Speaker 1: Number one, a lot of women will experience very prominent
Speaker 1: symptoms of menopause during this phase, so the notorious hot fascist,
Speaker 1: night sweats, sleeping problems, mood problems, memory problems, which you
Speaker 1: know commonly women referred to as the brain fog state.
Speaker 1: Those are oftentimes most prominent during perimenopause, and for a
Speaker 1: lot of patients, for a lot of women, they get
Speaker 1: better with passing time. The second thing, Ali, is that
Speaker 1: this is a time when a woman's health is changing
Speaker 1: in very very significant ways. Her heart health, her weight
Speaker 1: is changing, where she carries her body fat is changing.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the times I hear my patients
Speaker 1: telling me that the fact is shifting to the belly area,
Speaker 1: and no one likes that. Right, it's not just a
Speaker 1: cosmetic concern. Not only do we not like it, we
Speaker 1: can't get rid of it. Why can't we get rid
Speaker 1: of it? Why? Actor? I had answers for you. It's
Speaker 1: purely an effect of lack of estrogen. And you know
Speaker 1: it's not just the cosmetic piece, Ali, it's the long
Speaker 1: term consequences of having that belly fat. It increases your
Speaker 1: riscon diabetes, I've got pressure, heart disease, et cetera. So
Speaker 1: Perryman of pauses that critical window, if you will, where
Speaker 1: women really need to be educated about these changes and
Speaker 1: these steps they should be taking for preventing and fixing
Speaker 1: so attention to lifestyle matters more than ever. Maintaining that
Speaker 1: normal weight and really really striving for it matters more
Speaker 1: than ever. That's why as physicians we look at it
Speaker 1: as a critical window of opportunity for counseling patients and
Speaker 1: telling them what lies ahead of them and what they
Speaker 1: can do to prevent those things from happening. Now, how
Speaker 1: does estrogen affect our body? Because a lot of times
Speaker 1: when we go to our doctors, you know, our doctors
Speaker 1: just say like, oh, you'r estrogen as well, let me
Speaker 1: let me give you the But I don't even know
Speaker 1: why I'm taking it. I don't know what it's doing.
Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit about that. Except for
Speaker 1: the fact that somebody once said it will make your
Speaker 1: hair shiny again, you know. Yeah, of course that matters
Speaker 1: to us, that it makes our skin better, it makes
Speaker 1: our hair better. But there are so many other bigger
Speaker 1: things that estudent does for us. Let me start off
Speaker 1: by giving you the example of the woman who goes
Speaker 1: through early menopause premature menopause. So you know, premature menopause
Speaker 1: ALI is when a woman goes through menopause prior to
Speaker 1: the age of forty years and that could be for
Speaker 1: any reason. She may have had chemotherapy that knocked out
Speaker 1: her ovaries, she may have had radiation which damaged the ovaries,
Speaker 1: or somebody took both her ovaries out. But anyhow, for
Speaker 1: one reason that the other, she loses her estudent prematurely
Speaker 1: prior to the age of forty. Now, very well conducted
Speaker 1: research has shown us that that such women are at
Speaker 1: a higher risk for a host of medical conditions. It's
Speaker 1: a very long list. Alley har disease, diabetes, dementia, osteoporosis,
Speaker 1: high blood pressure, high cholesterol. So that just tells you
Speaker 1: what a wonderful hormone estrogen is. A lot of bad
Speaker 1: things happen when a woman loses her estudent prematurely before
Speaker 1: she's supposed to naturally at menopause at about the age
Speaker 1: of fifty or fifty one. Now the question arises, Okay,
Speaker 1: what about the woman who goes through natural menopause, so
Speaker 1: you know her ovarach stop functioning at the age of
Speaker 1: fifty or fifty one, how does the lack of estrogen
Speaker 1: affect her? Well, there too, we see a lot of
Speaker 1: important health changes. To give you one example, heart disease,
Speaker 1: the risk of heart disease in a woman prior to
Speaker 1: menopause is very low, much lower than that of a man.
Speaker 1: After menopause, that risk goes up so significantly that we
Speaker 1: even leave men behind. The risk for heart disease goes
Speaker 1: up substantially, to the point that heart disease is the
Speaker 1: number one killer for women in this country. Similarly, again, diabetes,
Speaker 1: high blood pressure, dementia, osteoporosis. So a lot of important
Speaker 1: health changes happen, some of which are preventable, some not
Speaker 1: so preventable. But then again, you know, it's good to
Speaker 1: know what lies ahead of you, what the road will
Speaker 1: bring to you, so you can take your best steps
Speaker 1: to prevent things from happening. My problem is that women
Speaker 1: just enter menopause not knowing what it will bring, leave
Speaker 1: alone how to take care of those issues. I mean,
Speaker 1: they don't even know. I have had physicians sitting in
Speaker 1: my office then they come in as patients. They're having
Speaker 1: very blatant symptoms of menopause, and they're wondering why this
Speaker 1: is happening. Can you imagine. It's interesting because when you're
Speaker 1: a teenage girl and you have cramps or you're crying,
Speaker 1: or you you know, scream at your mom. We all
Speaker 1: know what's happening. It's like, oh, we just menstruated. I
Speaker 1: know what this is. But you get into the menopause
Speaker 1: phase and suddenly it's it's no one knows what's going on.
Speaker 1: It's a whole unchartered terran But sally something that I
Speaker 1: hear all the time from my women friends, Women that
Speaker 1: had really healthy sex lives are suddenly saying, it's really
Speaker 1: painful to have sex. My vagina is dry. So talk
Speaker 1: to me a little about that, because that seems to
Speaker 1: be one of the glaring issues because when you're significant
Speaker 1: other and you are fooling around, it's it's painful. And
Speaker 1: that scares women more than any statistics I know. And
Speaker 1: it's it just happens. It seems like it happens overnight.
Speaker 1: You know from my own personal experience, it really does
Speaker 1: happen quickly. And again, the drop of estrogen, I mean,
Speaker 1: your skin changes all over your body, not just your
Speaker 1: facial skin, every ounce of skin on your body, even
Speaker 1: your vaginal skin. And a lot of women don't understand
Speaker 1: that vaginal dryness that sets in is related to menopause.
Speaker 1: They just think maybe they're getting older, they're they're just
Speaker 1: not capable anymore of having sex. And um, that was
Speaker 1: my actually, my own personal experience around vaginal dryness was
Speaker 1: the impetus behind starting woman As because I had that symptom.
Speaker 1: And I actually met with one of Dr Kapoor's colleagues
Speaker 1: at the Mayo Clinic. She was very helpful and making
Speaker 1: me not feel like I was doing something wrong or
Speaker 1: I was alone, and she recommended some products, but many
Speaker 1: products that were sounding like they were created by men,
Speaker 1: or they weren't modern and their approach and probably not
Speaker 1: holistic or you know, safe exactly, not made with clean
Speaker 1: formulations for the most part. And that was a big
Speaker 1: aha moment for me, if why isn't someone tackling this space?
Speaker 1: And then once I started really digging into it, I realized,
Speaker 1: my my, gosh, there's fifty million women going through to
Speaker 1: pause in the US alone, and these are women like
Speaker 1: all of us, that are living much longer. And it's
Speaker 1: it's funny because I was doing a little bit of
Speaker 1: research before and you know, back in the day when
Speaker 1: you reached menopause, it was like, oh, well, now there's
Speaker 1: complete atrophy sexually, like it's over. In fact, the word
Speaker 1: spinster used to be used not only for an unmarried woman,
Speaker 1: but a spinster was also a slang word for somebody
Speaker 1: who was no longer able to reproduce. So you know,
Speaker 1: that's I think a huge narrative that needs to be
Speaker 1: broken to that at a certain age, when you hit menopause,
Speaker 1: then you're kind of irrelevance sexually. Yeah, and it's even
Speaker 1: so much more than the sex piece of it, right,
Speaker 1: I think there's been so much stigma around menopause, and
Speaker 1: once you hit menopause, you're not giving society anything because
Speaker 1: you can't reproduce anymore. It's the sexual piece, it's the
Speaker 1: productivity piece. Women are an invisible They are at this
Speaker 1: stage the most productive. We are the most creative, We
Speaker 1: are the most wise. We have so much to get back,
Speaker 1: and I really think it's a revolution that's starting and
Speaker 1: it's it's incredible. I mean, I think there's just so
Speaker 1: much conversation right now about this woman and how much
Speaker 1: she is valuable to society. You know, may I just
Speaker 1: minipuate what you just said, Sally, because I think that's
Speaker 1: a very powerful statement and we cannot really overstate that
Speaker 1: because to your point, also, Ali that with the increase
Speaker 1: in life expectancy. Women are spending one third of their
Speaker 1: lives in menopause. Can you imagine that's that's a huge
Speaker 1: chunk of their lives. And exactly as Sally said, this
Speaker 1: is the time when they are the wisest, they are
Speaker 1: financially in a stable situation life wise, many of us
Speaker 1: are in a more stable situation most productive. So gone
Speaker 1: are the times when we should be going menopause as
Speaker 1: that phase in a woman's life when we can consider
Speaker 1: her gone, maybe we can consider her insignificance. I think
Speaker 1: it is the phase when a woman can be very
Speaker 1: productive as long as her health issues and symptoms that
Speaker 1: are in her way are taken care of. Again, to
Speaker 1: Sally's point about vaginal dryness, women do not often put
Speaker 1: two and two together that this is because of menopause.
Speaker 1: And they come to our clinics feeling guilty, that is
Speaker 1: the word. They come and feeling guilty that they are
Speaker 1: doing something wrong and this is just in their heads,
Speaker 1: if you will so again, that's why there is so
Speaker 1: much power in educating women, because when they leave our offices,
Speaker 1: they'll leave empowered that Okay, this is not in my
Speaker 1: head and not making this up. And they've been told
Speaker 1: so many times to their faces by their provider's friends,
Speaker 1: family members. How these symptoms can be ignored such a
Speaker 1: wrong messaging out there. Yeah, I mean I would say
Speaker 1: certainly the exterior stuff, you know, makes women feel Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm old, I'm aging, I'm again irrelevant. But the sexual
Speaker 1: aspect I find fascinating because I've had friends say to me, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just not into him anymore. You know,
Speaker 1: my vagina is so dry, or in my case, I've
Speaker 1: been married for twenty years, still very very hot for
Speaker 1: my husband, and I started to feel like, well, wait
Speaker 1: a second, how did I end up? Why am I
Speaker 1: not as vibrant as he is, you know, sexually when
Speaker 1: we've always been incredibly compatible and I still, you know,
Speaker 1: my heart still skips a beat when he comes in
Speaker 1: the room. You know, why is this happening? And so
Speaker 1: I feel like women with no education about it assume
Speaker 1: they're not into them. They've shut down. And I've known
Speaker 1: marriages that have kind of fallen apart because they really
Speaker 1: hadn't focused on this piece of it. And it's time
Speaker 1: for a short break and we're back, okay, So let's
Speaker 1: go through the things that will help all of us women.
Speaker 1: First of all, what can I do to prepare for it?
Speaker 1: Are there certain things I can do to make that
Speaker 1: sort of path into menopause a little bit easier for myself? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I think, you know, it's really becoming educated
Speaker 1: about the symptoms and not every woman has the same
Speaker 1: menopause experience, right, And I think it's making sure you
Speaker 1: have a doctor lined up that is actually going to
Speaker 1: listen to you and give you good advice and information.
Speaker 1: You know, so many women say they don't even know
Speaker 1: where to go. They don't have like their O, B,
Speaker 1: G U, I N that delivered their child is not
Speaker 1: the doctor that's going to help them in menopause. So
Speaker 1: it's super important to find that doctor support because you're
Speaker 1: ultimately going to need the right medical advice as well,
Speaker 1: even if you don't have severe symptoms. I still think
Speaker 1: having a doctor through this journey is super important. So Alie,
Speaker 1: you made a very nice statement when you said that,
Speaker 1: you know, when adolescents are having issues at home, we
Speaker 1: know that they are having hormonal changes because of their cycle.
Speaker 1: How come we don't have something similar for menopausal I
Speaker 1: exactly feel that way. So I have been a big
Speaker 1: proponent of this concept that you know how in middle
Speaker 1: school and late elementary school girls get education about how
Speaker 1: their bodies are about to change, and that's part of
Speaker 1: their curriculum at school. I am an advocate and a
Speaker 1: proponent for menopause education. And we don't wait till a
Speaker 1: woman hits menopolis post menopozzle. We do it early on.
Speaker 1: And the forum could be anything that these could be
Speaker 1: news letters, these could be companies like woman is who
Speaker 1: are holding parties for these younger women, or what have
Speaker 1: you podcasts, but the idea being that we can atch
Speaker 1: women at a younger age. And I was at one
Speaker 1: such party, you know that was hosted by Sally's company,
Speaker 1: and it was encouraging to see how many young women
Speaker 1: were there and they were willing to learn about menopause.
Speaker 1: I mean not putting it off like, well, this is
Speaker 1: something for the future. I'm not going to be listening
Speaker 1: to this stuff. But they were very engaged. So I
Speaker 1: think women do want to learn about their health and
Speaker 1: what they can do. You know, we otherwise behave as
Speaker 1: such powerful individuals, We're making decisions for the family, and
Speaker 1: when it comes this time, things almost change and women
Speaker 1: start behaving a little helpless, and again that stems from
Speaker 1: lack of knowledge and the ambivalence about menopause. Okay, I
Speaker 1: have symptoms, these could be due to menopause, but I
Speaker 1: wonder if we can even do anything about it. Why
Speaker 1: can't we teach that in middle school as well? If
Speaker 1: we're talking about full cycles of what happens with our
Speaker 1: human bodies, they should actually do the fal spectrum. Then absolutely,
Speaker 1: I would very much love that. That's my point that
Speaker 1: you know, when you're talking about this, it's time for
Speaker 1: the meno talk. We've got to give that talk early on.
Speaker 1: Also need to know what the road ahead looks like.
Speaker 1: You know, every time we see a research study or
Speaker 1: we see a statistic that women are not being adequately
Speaker 1: treated for menopause symptoms, and that, by the way, is
Speaker 1: a theme where men are really really undertreated for their
Speaker 1: menopause symptoms. So, you know, I get asked this question
Speaker 1: a lot. Whom should we be educating? Should we be
Speaker 1: educating the providers that this is how they need to
Speaker 1: be managing menopause symptoms? To that, my response always is
Speaker 1: that it will be much of an uphill task to
Speaker 1: educate providers. You know, a young woman is having both
Speaker 1: her ovaries taken out, she should be getting extensive counseling
Speaker 1: about what the landscape is going to be like, you know,
Speaker 1: let alone, I mean talking to her about management. But
Speaker 1: at least she deserves to know as to how her
Speaker 1: life is about to change. So we we owe to
Speaker 1: our patients and we're not doing a good enough job
Speaker 1: of that and will sincerely hope for that to change
Speaker 1: in the coming years. So, you know, I think we
Speaker 1: will get better bang for the buck if we educate
Speaker 1: our women. If we educate our patients and empower them,
Speaker 1: just the way Sally said, so they can be going
Speaker 1: to their providers and saying, hey, I think I'm in
Speaker 1: perry menopause, our our and post menopausal. These are my symptoms.
Speaker 1: This is how I think I want to treat them.
Speaker 1: How can you help me, rather than going to their
Speaker 1: providers with their ambivalence. We did a recent survey here
Speaker 1: at the clinic where they were all afraid of using
Speaker 1: hormone therapy and they did not know about other beneficial
Speaker 1: effects of hormone therapy. Most of them had the perception
Speaker 1: that menopause symptoms were something they were just supposed to
Speaker 1: live with. So that's the message we want to bring
Speaker 1: so education, knowing your options and going to your provider
Speaker 1: ready to discuss what is it that you want, rather
Speaker 1: than rely on them to tell you what you should
Speaker 1: be doing. I have to say I talking to my girlfriends.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what we've all done. We've gone to our
Speaker 1: provider and gone, I don't know what do I do?
Speaker 1: And you know, one friend is put on some hormone
Speaker 1: thing where every few hours he does these drops, and
Speaker 1: then another one is getting a shot, and you know, somebody,
Speaker 1: everybody has been given these different things. But we don't
Speaker 1: walk into the office with the education and the power,
Speaker 1: you know, we do it with everything else. We say
Speaker 1: I'd like a C section, I'd like a vaginal birth.
Speaker 1: We don't walk in and talk about menopause like it's
Speaker 1: our right exactly. And that's because of the cultural messaging
Speaker 1: that we have got right, the mixed messaging. This is
Speaker 1: something that is to be kept under the wraps. This
Speaker 1: is something that no one can do anything about. These
Speaker 1: are insignificant symptoms. Let's talk about real medical issues. So
Speaker 1: these are the messages that patients have heard over and
Speaker 1: over again, so they're almost embarrassed to bring them up.
Speaker 1: Leave alone discussions about sexual function, which you know are
Speaker 1: taboo for most patients, even in this day and age.
Speaker 1: So I think that has to be the universal messaging
Speaker 1: to patients. And Sally and her team are doing a
Speaker 1: great job, and many others are, you know, reaching out
Speaker 1: to the masses and telling them that it's time to
Speaker 1: talk about it, just the way you are alive with
Speaker 1: your friends. So Sally, tell me, how are you messaging
Speaker 1: the idea of all of us talking and educating ourselves
Speaker 1: about menopause. I mean, just the way we're modernizing menopause.
Speaker 1: You know the language we use. We don't believe in
Speaker 1: the pause. So we really at woman asked. I mean,
Speaker 1: we really want to encourage and step up women and
Speaker 1: give them the support. And a lot of it is
Speaker 1: back to the education providing the information. We're really trying
Speaker 1: to hit the topics that we think women are most
Speaker 1: needed to be informed about premature menopause. HR Team manop
Speaker 1: Pause one on one. So we have a blog on
Speaker 1: our site where we're housing all that information. We're also
Speaker 1: tapping in experts like Dr Kapoor and several others, whether
Speaker 1: it's around sleep or sexual wellness, different areas of menopause.
Speaker 1: That our top of mind for women um in community.
Speaker 1: We have a private Facebook group that we started called
Speaker 1: the after Party because the after party is more fun
Speaker 1: than the actual party, and that's a safe place where
Speaker 1: women can interact with each other, ask questions. You know,
Speaker 1: our experts will answer questions as well. So we're just
Speaker 1: trying to create a platform for women to connect with
Speaker 1: other women because, as you said at the beginning, Alley,
Speaker 1: you know, my mom never went through menopause, wink wink.
Speaker 1: You know, we can't go to our moms and ask
Speaker 1: for advice, so we have to really leverage our friend
Speaker 1: group and you know other women. Yeah, I was going
Speaker 1: to say for my mother it was grin and Barrett,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like, don't talk about don't
Speaker 1: do anything about it exactly. And I have two teenage daughters,
Speaker 1: and before I went through menopause, I made jokes about it,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd say like, you know, well your menopausele mom.
Speaker 1: And now I'm like, oh, I have to I need
Speaker 1: to change how I message it too, because I have
Speaker 1: you know, these young girls at some point we'll go
Speaker 1: through it. And also I also was it was very
Speaker 1: important to me that they see me going to doctors
Speaker 1: and taking control of it. So um, and so do
Speaker 1: you think the messaging is first sort of changing how
Speaker 1: we look at menopause? Absolutely? So much of it is
Speaker 1: even the imagery the women that we show in our
Speaker 1: in our advertising, I mean, that need to be reinvented.
Speaker 1: So we've really showed like women in their forties and
Speaker 1: fifties and sixties that look awesome and sexy and vibrant
Speaker 1: from all walks of life. And um, the voice of
Speaker 1: of our brand is really cool and modern. This woman
Speaker 1: is cool, she's you know, women going through menopause. Now,
Speaker 1: we're like the first generation that was on the Internet
Speaker 1: and on social media, on Facebook. So we are pioneers.
Speaker 1: We're pioneering this. We're the generation that's really going to
Speaker 1: change the conversation. And I have so many younger employees
Speaker 1: on my team that are so excited about what we're doing.
Speaker 1: They want to look forward to aging. They want to
Speaker 1: know they can go through menopause smoothly. The younger generation
Speaker 1: wants to look up to all of us to set
Speaker 1: an example because they wanted to change too. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back, great, let's get back to it. So, Sally,
Speaker 1: how do you feel about hormone therapy for women are
Speaker 1: the different estrogen and even disasterone therapies that are available. Now,
Speaker 1: do you support it? Um? Both Dr Kapor and I
Speaker 1: support it, and woman As believes that HRT can be
Speaker 1: a very good option. Our products are estrogen free and
Speaker 1: that's because we wanted to be safe for all women,
Speaker 1: because if a woman has gone through breast cancer, she
Speaker 1: can't probably be taking estrogen, and so our products are
Speaker 1: all very very clean formulations. But we are proponents of
Speaker 1: HRT because it can be such a healthy alternative. And
Speaker 1: I'll let Dr Kapora talk a little bit more about HRT.
Speaker 1: So hormone therapy, now, I am a believable in estrogen.
Speaker 1: It is the best thing for the right patient. So
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is, and this is sort
Speaker 1: of my consistent messaging to patients. My default mode is
Speaker 1: to use hormone therapy for patients who are having symptoms
Speaker 1: for menopause. I'm looking for reasons to put women on
Speaker 1: hormone therapy. It is the most effective treatment for menopause
Speaker 1: symptoms meaning hot flashes, night sweats, sleeping problems. Sleep is
Speaker 1: a big topic with my friends and what happens is
Speaker 1: you get into this bad cycle of insomnia where there's
Speaker 1: not anything particularly stressful, like the normal sort of COVID
Speaker 1: life stuff, and you know, the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: your doctor is giving us an X because you can't sleep,
Speaker 1: and then you're addicted tosign. I mean like you can
Speaker 1: really go down a bunch of dark roads if you're
Speaker 1: not handling this in the right way. Sleep is very
Speaker 1: interesting because it can be impacted after menopause via multiple mechanisms.
Speaker 1: So it could be because a woman is having night sweats.
Speaker 1: Loops are from sleeping. Women often have mood problems around
Speaker 1: peri menopause that could be impacting their sleep. And independent
Speaker 1: of these, lack of estrogent directly impact sleep. So can
Speaker 1: you imagine there are so many hits on sleep you
Speaker 1: to menopause, and this is all the very common complaints.
Speaker 1: So hormone therapy helps that hormone therapy helps move also cognition,
Speaker 1: all of these. So a woman who comes to my
Speaker 1: office is having very bothersome menopause symptoms and there is
Speaker 1: no reason why I couldn't use estrod and I can
Speaker 1: speak that here in a minute. Then estrogen is might
Speaker 1: go to the reason why I particularly like to treat patients,
Speaker 1: even those who are having mild to moderate symptoms, are
Speaker 1: because of the long term benefits of hormone therapy for
Speaker 1: that young post menopausal woman, meaning a woman who is
Speaker 1: within ten years of natural menopause, younger than the age
Speaker 1: of sixty. I think the data are very convincing that
Speaker 1: hormone therapy reduces the risk of heart disease, and even
Speaker 1: if it doesn't reduce, it does not increase it. For sure,
Speaker 1: it definitely reduces the risk of diabetes is substantially. It
Speaker 1: reduces the risk of high cholesterol, and again very very
Speaker 1: convincing data is Holy your breath, hormone therapy in that
Speaker 1: young patient reduces the risk of dying from all causes
Speaker 1: put together, all close mortality. No other intervention known to
Speaker 1: man does that for a woman that reducing her risk
Speaker 1: of dying from any cause. Hormone therapy for that young
Speaker 1: patient prior to the age of sixty years has all
Speaker 1: these beneficial effects. So even if she's having some mild
Speaker 1: to moderate symptoms, my default is to try hormones for
Speaker 1: these very benefits. I'm a believer. But then the question arises,
Speaker 1: who is the patient who cannot be a hormone therapy,
Speaker 1: as Sally alluded to, breast cancer survivors more often than
Speaker 1: not can't use it for them. Other estrogen sensitive cancers,
Speaker 1: undiagnosed vaginal bleeding, pre your stroke, previous heart attack, those
Speaker 1: would be conditioned. But as you can imagine, these patients
Speaker 1: in the community are a minority majority of them would
Speaker 1: qualify for hormone therapy, and therapy should absolutely be discussed.
Speaker 1: If someone's mom had breast cancer at seventy, that is
Speaker 1: not a reason why I would avoid hormone therapy for
Speaker 1: a patient. But if she tells me two of her
Speaker 1: sisters have had breast cancer in their thirties or early forties,
Speaker 1: then I might stop and think. But then you know,
Speaker 1: even then it's not a hard stop. But a patient
Speaker 1: who's personally had breast cancer, then I will use non
Speaker 1: hormonal prescription options if the symptoms are severe, and those
Speaker 1: usually belong to the category of antidepressants. So antidepressants used
Speaker 1: for hot flashes and knights that these are medications belonging
Speaker 1: to that class, but they are not for treating depression
Speaker 1: as such. So you know, this was like serendipitous discovery
Speaker 1: if you will, that women in the community who are
Speaker 1: using antidepressants, let's say for treatment of depression and anxiety.
Speaker 1: They were reporting improvement in their hot flashes and night sweats,
Speaker 1: and then they did clinical trials and proved it that, yes,
Speaker 1: these medications are efficacious. So if we use medications in
Speaker 1: the class of anti depressants, it's not to treat depression,
Speaker 1: it is still to treat hot flashes and night sweats,
Speaker 1: for which these medications work. Because you know, the circuits
Speaker 1: in our brain are very complicated. The circuits with sort
Speaker 1: of the neurotransmitters control mood. Some of those are shared
Speaker 1: ones with the ones that cause hot flashes, so it
Speaker 1: is a dual action if you will not targeting mood
Speaker 1: per se. So my messaging to patients is that they
Speaker 1: go to their provider empowered with this information, and then
Speaker 1: they say, I think I want to be your hormones.
Speaker 1: What do you think about something like that? You know,
Speaker 1: that's how the discussion should go, rather than I don't
Speaker 1: know what I should do about my symptoms. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, and and sally with your after parties and such.
Speaker 1: You've sort of created products to help women going through
Speaker 1: this particular time, but you've created a lot of different
Speaker 1: things and tell me why you created them, and and
Speaker 1: is this because the need from women was so loud
Speaker 1: in your ears? Absolutely, and the product that was out
Speaker 1: there was really relegated to the dusty bottom shelf at retailers, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it was with not necessarily clean formulations. So
Speaker 1: the whole category needed to be modernized and created. That'd
Speaker 1: be we've really created a whole new category called menopausal Solutions.
Speaker 1: It's it's a combination of supplements. It's skincare because obviously
Speaker 1: your skin changes all over your body, and sexual wellness products.
Speaker 1: So those are really the three categories that we've addressed.
Speaker 1: But all the products are built around the symptoms that
Speaker 1: you go through. Like one of our supplements is called
Speaker 1: metal Pause. It's all about night sweats and hot flashes.
Speaker 1: It's a really effective, clinically proven set of ingredients. It's funny,
Speaker 1: I you know, I wouldn't think to go to a
Speaker 1: store or go on the internet and buy products to
Speaker 1: deal with menopause. That's just my lack of education. Where
Speaker 1: we like to say kind of like the first line
Speaker 1: of defense, where the first brand that you can go
Speaker 1: to when you're thinking that you might be in peri menopause.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because we see about of our customers
Speaker 1: on our site are in their thirties and early forties.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. So that just shows you that there is
Speaker 1: a lot of interests, there's a need out there, and
Speaker 1: it spans many decades. It's young and it goes all
Speaker 1: the way post sixty into the seventies. So I can
Speaker 1: I can give them to my daughters, my sisters and
Speaker 1: my mom. It's great, absolutely, absolutely multigenerational well, which menopause
Speaker 1: education should be. So there, So there you go. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I've asked you so many questions, and I'm so glad
Speaker 1: to have this conversation with you guys, and I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that you're out in the world messaging about it.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that my daughters are growing up in
Speaker 1: a culture where we are having these conversations. UM. So
Speaker 1: in my podcast, um, I basically squeeze the sponge of
Speaker 1: my guests. But you can now ask me a question
Speaker 1: about anything you want. So, Sally, do you want to start? Oh,
Speaker 1: because I love to cook. I was just gonna ask
Speaker 1: Ali what your latest recipe is or what's your latest
Speaker 1: dish that you've been cooking. I love that. So this
Speaker 1: is the latest recipe that I'm sort of obsessed with.
Speaker 1: And a friend of mine, Jessica Seinfeld, has a cookbook
Speaker 1: called Um Food Swings and it's tacos. But the tacos
Speaker 1: are made with sweet potato, califlower, and jalapeno. That sounds good.
Speaker 1: You rose those together and then you have the pickled
Speaker 1: onions and the guacamole with it. But it's so good
Speaker 1: and you don't miss the meat or the chicken. And
Speaker 1: my kids love it. They're really amazing. Sounds great. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, Yes, Dr Kapor. Do you have a question
Speaker 1: for me? So all, you're such an accomplished woman, having
Speaker 1: done so many great things in life. Uh, do you
Speaker 1: have any regrets? Anything you feel like you would have
Speaker 1: done differently? Oh? My gosh, do I have any regrets?
Speaker 1: I I don't have. I don't like to regret because
Speaker 1: I feel like I am where I am, which is
Speaker 1: a great place, and a husband I love, and children
Speaker 1: I love, and you know, I don't want for anything.
Speaker 1: I'm not sick. But I have two regrets. I think
Speaker 1: one is these are silly, but I wished I didn't
Speaker 1: go to acting school after college. I should have just
Speaker 1: gone right into the business because I've started to realize
Speaker 1: more and more that in the world, the art is
Speaker 1: in the doing. So I learned so much more when
Speaker 1: I actually worked as an actor than when I was
Speaker 1: in expensive acting classes with people telling me how to
Speaker 1: do it. I think it's instinctual. Um. The other regret
Speaker 1: is I was asked to be part of Saturday Night
Speaker 1: Live and I said no. And I said no because
Speaker 1: I had been on another sketch comedy show for a
Speaker 1: few years and I just thought, like, enough sketch comedy.
Speaker 1: And you know, I always wonder what would have happened if,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe would have gone on and done all
Speaker 1: these big comedic films. And my husband always says, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we probably wouldn't be married. So you know, that
Speaker 1: kind of stops the regret right there. Um, you can
Speaker 1: still go on the show. I can. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'll have to see if Lord Michael's if the offer
Speaker 1: still stands twenty five years later. But it's hard to regret,
Speaker 1: you know, because life is such a crazy, bizarre, closing
Speaker 1: doors kind of thing that you know, he's probably right,
Speaker 1: And I always say to him, you're probably right. I'd
Speaker 1: probably be married to Brad Pitt and that would suck,
Speaker 1: so yes it would. But that's an excellent question. I'm
Speaker 1: got me thinking about this question for a few hours now.
Speaker 1: Thank you both so much for doing this, and thank
Speaker 1: you and I think I think woman, this should be
Speaker 1: a sweatshirt we all wear all the time. So all
Speaker 1: things well, we have some great It's funny. I remember
Speaker 1: the story as we were talking. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: my agent called me and said, would I be interested
Speaker 1: in hosting a panel to talk about post menopausal dr
Speaker 1: vagina cream um? And I hung up and I called
Speaker 1: my agent back and I said, why would I want
Speaker 1: to do that? Anyway? Of course, they paid me money,
Speaker 1: so I did it. And I was sitting with a
Speaker 1: bunch of well known guy to college just in New
Speaker 1: York City, and they started talking about menopause. And my
Speaker 1: big lesson was, you know, putting my ego aside or
Speaker 1: my age is um that there was so much more
Speaker 1: information to be mined in this area. And and I
Speaker 1: ended up writing down a bunch of notes for myself
Speaker 1: that day, and I was really really glad I did it.
Speaker 1: So check out Sally's amazing company womanness dot com and
Speaker 1: take a look at our show notes for many more
Speaker 1: sources and links to great stuff like Sally's afterparty group
Speaker 1: on Facebook and let's all go out there and spread
Speaker 1: meno positivity. Thank you for listening to Go Ask Alli.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast, and
Speaker 1: follow me on social media on Twitter at Ali Wentworth
Speaker 1: and on Instagram at the Real Ali Wentworth. Now. If
Speaker 1: you want to ask me a question or suggested guests
Speaker 1: or a topic to dig into, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you, and there's a bunch of ways to do it.
Speaker 1: You can call me or text me at three to
Speaker 1: three three six or six three five six, or you
Speaker 1: can email a voice memo right from your phone to
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Speaker 1: leave a question, you might hear it and go ask Alli.
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