Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny garl.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a bonus I Choose Me. Doctor Kelly
Speaker 1: Casperson is back to share some tips. We are going
Speaker 1: to make a toolkit for your menopause moment, which is
Speaker 1: the title of her new book, and it's a must
Speaker 1: reade for anybody navigating this stage of life and reminding
Speaker 1: us that menopause doesn't have to be scary. So let's
Speaker 1: dive into the toolbox. Okay, So let's stick with the
Speaker 1: cold heart facts and not get into the opinions. Let's
Speaker 1: I sometimes do. We're just gonna sit here and we're
Speaker 1: going to deliver the actual four to one one about
Speaker 1: what is happening to our bodies and what we can
Speaker 1: do to improve them. Okay, So, Kelly, what is a
Speaker 1: difference between peri menopause and menopause? What is the difference periods?
Speaker 2: Basically, so peri menopause is your ovaries are basically going offline.
Speaker 2: It's reverse puberty menopause, meaning you now have very low hormones.
Speaker 2: You over you still make a little bit of disosterone,
Speaker 2: but your horns are so low that you no longer
Speaker 2: make a period or have fertility basically, So the midlife experts,
Speaker 2: a mid life hormone experts, actually hate the word menopause
Speaker 2: because it's this very artificial dividing line between this group
Speaker 2: of people who ken or cannot do something and this
Speaker 2: group of people who ken or cannot do something, and
Speaker 2: all of that revolves around like having your last period, right,
Speaker 2: a date on the calendar, a date on the calendar,
Speaker 2: which a third of women don't have a last period
Speaker 2: because of hysterectomy, iud's, birth control, uterimblations, all that stuff, right,
Speaker 2: So for a third of women I don't even have
Speaker 2: a date on a calendar. That's meaningful, right. So, like
Speaker 2: the true hormone experts hate the word menopause because we're like,
Speaker 2: it's just a symptom of not having hormones, which is
Speaker 2: going on in perimenopause. So that's the difference. But it's
Speaker 2: kind of this artificial, stupid, made up thing. But when
Speaker 2: they defined or they defined when they coin the menopause,
Speaker 2: it was over one hundred years ago. We couldn't measure hormones,
Speaker 2: we didn't know what ovaries did well. We could see periods,
Speaker 2: and periods stopped right in some people. So like that
Speaker 2: just kind of stuck.
Speaker 1: So the yeah, the whole meno menstruation pause.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the ceasing of natural periods.
Speaker 1: There's so much more to us. Yeah, yeah, no opinion. Sorry,
Speaker 1: Okay about doctors. You say we need a personal relationship
Speaker 1: with our doctors, which can feel really hard, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean just due to what we talked about on
Speaker 1: the podcast. Uh, the scheduling of it all, the timing
Speaker 1: of it all, because once you wait in the waiting room,
Speaker 1: then you get in that door, you can feel rushed,
Speaker 1: and then you kind of lose what you wanted to
Speaker 1: ask them about, and then you end up leaving and
Speaker 1: be like, oh man, I forgot to ask them about this,
Speaker 1: and I just didn't feel like they wanted to hear
Speaker 1: it because they had spent enough time with me. You know,
Speaker 1: all those things go through your head. Uh you said,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna quote you. If they don't listen to
Speaker 1: you or tell you to just read fewer books, get
Speaker 1: a second opinion.
Speaker 2: Yes, in America, we have the privilege of getting a
Speaker 2: second opinion. Now, it costs money and it costs time,
Speaker 2: but we have the privilege of getting because I just
Speaker 2: learned in Canada, the doctor you have is the doctor
Speaker 2: you have. And I was like, ooh, because if they
Speaker 2: don't know anything about hormones or menopause, that's a problem. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So at least in America we get to be a
Speaker 2: little more mobile and the online clinics now, so there
Speaker 2: are many online companies that only do like their job
Speaker 2: is hormones, right, So it's like that's a friendly audience already.
Speaker 2: And so it's like keep your primary care doctor for
Speaker 2: when you have pink eye and when you break your wrist,
Speaker 2: and like for all the doctor things. But maybe if
Speaker 2: you really want the hormone specialist, you're either going to
Speaker 2: seek out a hormone specialist who will spend time with you,
Speaker 2: usually outside the insurance system because insurance doesn't pay enough
Speaker 2: for you to actually spend an hour with somebody, but
Speaker 2: really like getting to know that relationship if you can
Speaker 2: afford that is very valuable, or the online clinics where
Speaker 2: it's like you're going to those people for hormones. Everybody
Speaker 2: knows why everybody's here, right, It's that kind of party.
Speaker 2: So that's also another option for people to seek out.
Speaker 2: A lot of people who live in rural America, they
Speaker 2: don't have a doctor nearby.
Speaker 1: Or their doctor is like, I'm sorry to say it
Speaker 1: eighty years old?
Speaker 2: Oh dated? Yeah, yeah, outdated. And the other like pro
Speaker 2: tip is when a doctor says I think your risk
Speaker 2: of blood clot's too high or whatever whatever they're going
Speaker 2: to say, I think you shouldn't have this because your risk.
Speaker 1: Is too high.
Speaker 2: In a nice way, say what is that risk? Because
Speaker 2: what I hear a lot of is they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: you can't have that because the risk of heart diseases
Speaker 2: is too high. It's like it actually isn't if you
Speaker 2: read the data right. So to me, I'm like, you
Speaker 2: don't have to never be confrontational or challenging, but sometimes
Speaker 2: when people say your risk is too high, it's okay
Speaker 2: to be like, what is that risk?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Where would I risk? I learned that risk? Like did
Speaker 2: you know? I actually know what that risk is. And
Speaker 2: the more I read into this like that, especially the
Speaker 2: transdermal estrogence that you're not swallowing, they don't go through
Speaker 2: your liver, they don't increase your blood clot risk, don't
Speaker 2: increase heart disease risk, they don't increase dementia. Risks like
Speaker 2: these are incredibly safe. So if doctors are saying they
Speaker 2: you can't have that because it increases your risk of X,
Speaker 2: Y and Z. If you're like, where can I read
Speaker 2: about that risk? Like where do you know that from?
Speaker 2: In again, you want to maintain the relationship. But I
Speaker 2: think a lot of women take everything as fact instead
Speaker 2: of like, maybe it's just outdated data. If they're quoting
Speaker 2: the WHI data, those are medications we don't currently use.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a tendency to listen to your
Speaker 1: doctor and do what they say. Yeah, well, yeah, totally right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's okay to question.
Speaker 2: It's okay to question.
Speaker 1: I think the key is curiosity. Yeah, get curious.
Speaker 2: Doctors are a profession who are trained to help you,
Speaker 2: just like like if I get a lawyer for something,
Speaker 2: or my accountant for something, or my mechanic for something.
Speaker 2: Is like, it's okay to ask them a question. It's
Speaker 2: not off limits. It's a professional trying to help you
Speaker 2: with the piece of your life. But it's your body
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. You should have autonomy
Speaker 2: and be able to ask a question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a stigma, I think, and a fear of
Speaker 1: ev sounding stupid or yeah, being seen as stupid or
Speaker 1: just like I don't know anything, but the fact is
Speaker 1: there are no stupid questions. Yea, and you can get
Speaker 1: really comfortable just being curious about so many things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. And I think you can open with that
Speaker 2: and be like, listen, I'm not a physician. I have
Speaker 2: done some reading. My understanding is x y z AM.
Speaker 2: I off base with that. You know, it's like learning
Speaker 2: just how to be a good communicator and non threatening
Speaker 2: way like if like what I've heard is you know,
Speaker 2: kind of keep it open. Can we learn about this together?
Speaker 2: You know, that might be a cool thing, So it
Speaker 2: can be it can be done. And if if you
Speaker 2: keep hitting a brick wall, maybe see somebody else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard a lot of stories. I've heard a
Speaker 1: lot of stories. Where can we find the information about
Speaker 1: specialized women's health doctors? Do you recommend a certain website?
Speaker 1: I don't want to affiliate you with one if you
Speaker 1: have no affiliation, but in general, for a woman that's
Speaker 1: listening in Albuquerque, New Mexico, yep, and she needs some
Speaker 1: she needs a doctor recommended. So where did you.
Speaker 2: Start one of my favorite resources because I don't I
Speaker 2: don't have my own, Like it's a beast to try
Speaker 2: to maintain one of those things, right. One of my
Speaker 2: favorite ones is the International Society for the Study of
Speaker 2: Women's Sexual Health. It's a mouthful, but it's called ishish
Speaker 2: ish wish dot org. International Society for the Study of
Speaker 2: Women's Sexual Health. Why I like that database is number one.
Speaker 2: They're very comfortable with women's sexuality. They know a lot
Speaker 2: about vaginal estrogen. They know a lot about testosterone because
Speaker 2: their biggest, you know, study is in libido, right, so
Speaker 2: those people tend to know a lot about hormones and bonus,
Speaker 2: they know a lot about sex, and so to me,
Speaker 2: I'm like, those are my favorite people. But like they're
Speaker 2: already very if you're if you're a physician or a
Speaker 2: nurse practitioner a PA who cares about sex lives, you
Speaker 2: know how important hormones are because sex is biopsychosocial and
Speaker 2: the hormones that you have affect your sex life, right,
Speaker 2: So I love that. The other option is menopause dot org,
Speaker 2: but it is I wouldn't say everybody on that database
Speaker 2: is up to dated on everything, but it's a good
Speaker 2: starting point for that. And then the online clinics, I
Speaker 2: mean there's several right now, so I'm not affiliated right
Speaker 2: primarily with any of them, but alloy ever, now interlude
Speaker 2: for vaginal estrogen, they're like vaginal estrogen only they're awesome.
Speaker 2: Get interlude maybe maybe joy ja oh I, who am
Speaker 2: I missing? Jenev. So there's a lot of online ones.
Speaker 2: Some of them take insurance, some of them do not
Speaker 2: take insurance, so you can just kind of start learning.
Speaker 2: The other thing that you know people can do is
Speaker 2: like if you've got a friend who's willing to talk
Speaker 2: about because women who are on hormones where it's dramatically
Speaker 2: changed their life, they're moving the needle for everybody. They
Speaker 2: want to talk about it. Like if you go from
Speaker 2: not sleeping to sleeping, you'd like to tell.
Speaker 1: People life change it basically exactly.
Speaker 2: Like if you weren't having orgasms and now you are,
Speaker 2: you want to talk about it because you want you want,
Speaker 2: you want to say yeah. So it's like find the
Speaker 2: friend who did it first and be like, where are
Speaker 2: you going? Who are you seeing? Blah blah.
Speaker 1: That's great advice.
Speaker 2: But I would say, because I see this a lot
Speaker 2: on the internet, it's like what's the best X, Y
Speaker 2: and Z for hormones? And it's like individual results may vary.
Speaker 2: Everybody might need a different dose and route. It is individualized, yes, right,
Speaker 2: because there's a lot of like, but Susie's on this
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah blah blah my on the best
Speaker 2: thing in BOLVD. It's like it is individualized, so you like,
Speaker 2: don't be on your friend's regimen. It might not be
Speaker 2: with right for you, but maybe go to that doctor.
Speaker 1: M hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had a friend who I someone I work with,
Speaker 1: and I saw her one day and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: what I knew, Like I could tell Wow, I just
Speaker 1: knew she wasn't getting any support. Yeah, So I asked
Speaker 1: her about it and she started crying and it deepened
Speaker 1: our relationship. I shared information with her, I gave her
Speaker 1: books to read, and I saw her recently and she
Speaker 1: looks like a completely different person.
Speaker 2: Is not a game changer. Well, I mean, thank you
Speaker 2: for doing this work because it's like even just people
Speaker 2: listening to the podcast, it's going to validate like what
Speaker 2: you're experiencing is common and you do not have to suffer.
Speaker 2: And then like you see those women and you're like
Speaker 2: I was, so I have a puppy and we went
Speaker 2: to puppy school and so I'm like, you know, the
Speaker 2: adult in the room with my puppy, and in the
Speaker 2: middle of it the teachers having this massive hot flash
Speaker 2: and like she and she says it like I wasn't
Speaker 2: just picking up on it. She's like, hold on, I'm
Speaker 2: having this massive hot flashes blah blah blah blah. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, what is my role here? Am I just
Speaker 2: the person with the puppy? Who am I? Like? Please
Speaker 2: see also my books and my podcast and my clinic.
Speaker 1: What did you end up doing? Were you just the puppy?
Speaker 2: Because I was like, I don't want to be that, like,
Speaker 2: oh hey that person, Yeah, in front of the whole class,
Speaker 2: like extra, your patches are completely safe. Family history doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Also, that's so hard though, when you know you know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. Yeah, share it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know totally, Just so I.
Speaker 1: Can imagine it be hard for you. It was hard, Okay.
Speaker 1: Can we tested to find out if we are in
Speaker 1: fact in perry or menopause? What is the test?
Speaker 2: Such a good question. That's like the internet question every
Speaker 2: single day, so there's no current blood testing, Like like
Speaker 2: the question is like can I X ray it? Can
Speaker 2: I measure it?
Speaker 1: Like? Right?
Speaker 2: We like to just know. And in perimenopause is reverse puberty.
Speaker 2: So up and down, up and down, up and down
Speaker 2: for hormones. So people will get their labs tested and
Speaker 2: they will say, you know, I'm mestrogen dominant is an example,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, no, on Tuesday in July, you had
Speaker 2: high estrogen. But it changes every day. But I think
Speaker 2: check labs. It's very validating for people, right Like if
Speaker 2: I say, if I go to the doctor and they're
Speaker 2: like no and they shut you down, it's kind of invalidating.
Speaker 2: So it's like, dude, no skin off your back, check
Speaker 2: some labs, right like whatever, let's make and by the way,
Speaker 2: when we're doing that, let's check glucose, let's check lipids.
Speaker 2: Let's use this as an opportunity to look for everything thyroid,
Speaker 2: oh my god, thyroid, vitamin D, all the things. So
Speaker 2: check labs. But ideally you're going to be with a
Speaker 2: clinician who understands that labs don't really matter because they're
Speaker 2: ever changing.
Speaker 1: Okay, so how do you hack insurance to get the
Speaker 1: hormones you need because paying out a pocket is not
Speaker 1: something any of us wanted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, very good question. So I think there's a
Speaker 2: big confusion of what's FD approved and what's bioidentical, like
Speaker 2: they're different things. Biodentical means what your body makes. We
Speaker 2: have many FD approved biodentical products because a lot of
Speaker 2: people are paying a lot of extra money for all
Speaker 2: this compounded stuff which can be good and can be effective,
Speaker 2: but tends to be less standardized and more expensive. Pellets
Speaker 2: are more expensive, right and not covered by insurance. So
Speaker 2: it's like, start with the stuff that's FD approved. Insurance
Speaker 2: should cover it. If they do, not, get loud, get loud,
Speaker 2: this is.
Speaker 1: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: Call the damn insurance companies write the letters, be like
Speaker 2: this is you need to cover this. It's insane that
Speaker 2: they wouldn't cover hormones. But again, insurance, going back to
Speaker 2: the longevity conversation, insurance doesn't really care that you're playing
Speaker 2: pickleball when you're eighty two, Like they really don't, right,
Speaker 2: They care about what's being spent right now, So they.
Speaker 1: Kind of want you to get sick. I mean again
Speaker 1: kind of a general statement.
Speaker 2: They they what they truly I think I feel safe
Speaker 2: saying this, What they truly want you to do is
Speaker 2: get on somebody else's insurance before you get sick, which
Speaker 2: by sixty five that's medicare right. But so anyways, insurance
Speaker 2: should cover FD approved things that are indicated, And that's
Speaker 2: your estrogen patch, that's your vaginal estrogen. You get generics.
Speaker 2: Generics are cheap if your insurance is still expensive. Look,
Speaker 2: there's many pharmacies now that are cash pharmacies. Sadly, we
Speaker 2: used to think that having insurance meant you got a
Speaker 2: deal on meds. Now it's usually means you're making money
Speaker 2: for your insurance company. So Mark Cuban costs plus drugs, Yes,
Speaker 2: for the Generics, what brand again? His Mark Cuban costs
Speaker 2: plus drugs cost plus? I love them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Cheapest faginal estrogen that I know about, really, Yes. The
Speaker 2: most expensive thing about vaginal estrogen is the tube that
Speaker 2: it's made. It's that it's put in for the cream.
Speaker 2: It's like if you go to the pharmacy and they
Speaker 2: say it's two hundred dollars abort mission, it's way too expensive.
Speaker 2: Get this for cheaper. So I think some people they
Speaker 2: just don't know it's available for cheaper, right, Like I
Speaker 2: went to get my vaginal estrogen, I Blue Cross, Blue Shield.
Speaker 2: I went to my pharmacy and they were like, that'll
Speaker 2: be two hundred and sixty eight dollars. And I wanted
Speaker 2: to be like, do you know who I am and
Speaker 2: how much vaginal estrogen? I like, I'm like the vaginal
Speaker 2: ESTRASTI the expert on this, and so like I pulled
Speaker 2: up my good RX. So good RX is kind of
Speaker 2: an app you can get that it will do cheaper
Speaker 2: cash prices, and I got it for eighteen dollars.
Speaker 1: What that's the craziest part to me.
Speaker 2: It's nuts.
Speaker 1: When a doctor prescribes a medication, you go and they
Speaker 1: tell you, oh, that's going to be nine hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for the new eye drops that are coming out that
Speaker 1: you need so that you don't have dry eye. Nine
Speaker 1: hundred dollars for a tiny little doll and we got
Speaker 1: it for ten dollars by hacking the system.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing, is like you have to know
Speaker 2: how to use the system, which is the definition of
Speaker 2: an unfair system, right. But I'm like, I haven't forbidden
Speaker 2: my husband went to go pick up my vaginal estrogen,
Speaker 2: he wouldn't have known how to get the eighteen dollars. Pissed, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I would and then I would have been like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, like I should have told you. So
Speaker 2: that's the thing is like there's you can usually find
Speaker 2: it cheaper somewhere else. There's an amazing online it's a
Speaker 2: it's a membership. I think it's like eighty dollars a
Speaker 2: year now, but it's HRT club. They have a lot
Speaker 2: of generics, okay, and so a lot of people are
Speaker 2: doing that, so there's ways to do it. Again, It's
Speaker 2: like ask your friend, like how much are you get
Speaker 2: in your patch for stuff like that?
Speaker 1: So yeah, definitely, there are honestly so many varying symptoms.
Speaker 1: I can't even say them all. There's too many. Like
Speaker 1: my elbow hurts, oh, must be yeah, Oh my teeth
Speaker 1: are a little sensitive today. Must like everything I've ever
Speaker 1: suffered from I'm now saying must have been my very
Speaker 1: menopause and I didn't even know. But what are the
Speaker 1: most common symptoms that women should be watching for so
Speaker 1: that we can stay proactive and know what's real and
Speaker 1: what's not when it comes to this.
Speaker 2: So again, the classic symptoms hot flashes and nights seat,
Speaker 2: it's poor sleep, but not everybody has that, right and
Speaker 2: you don't need that to get treatment, right, that's not
Speaker 2: the only thing that we're like, oh, we will only
Speaker 2: replace what your ovaries made for a hot flash. It's like,
Speaker 2: no estrogen is fd approved for the prevention of osteoporosis.
Speaker 2: People don't know that we actually have a prevention FDA
Speaker 2: approval for estrogen, which.
Speaker 1: Is and you could do osteoporosis testing.
Speaker 2: Now you can do exiscans. Yeah. Yeah, they're cheap too,
Speaker 2: like cash dexa and my town's like ninety eight dollars
Speaker 2: when you live Bellingham, Washington. But they should be cheap,
Speaker 2: like they should be less than two hundred inst cakay,
Speaker 2: especially like in LA where there's actually competition for it.
Speaker 1: And when should we get those because I just I
Speaker 1: had to record you going from my doctor. Haven't had
Speaker 1: it yet.
Speaker 2: So the guidelines in America are sixty five and less
Speaker 2: risk factors. Risk factor would be that you're taking like
Speaker 2: high dos steroids or you have a mom with osteop
Speaker 2: that'll be a risk factor. So there's multiple risk factors.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, just pay cash and it's pretty darn
Speaker 2: treat but you can get it whenever. So in my clinic,
Speaker 2: I just get everybody a baseline DEXA because I'm like,
Speaker 2: if you have osteopenia osteoporosis, we want to know about it.
Speaker 2: Why are we waiting? Yeah, Australia is age seventy just
Speaker 2: to get their DEXA and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I learned that. When I went over there. I was like,
Speaker 2: good lord, you're just like looking at it like there's
Speaker 2: no prevention there. It's too late. Your ovaries usually give
Speaker 2: you hormones until about age fifty. Right, your biggest bone loss.
Speaker 2: Let's say that rate of bone loss is in the
Speaker 2: two years leading up to your last period. Well, that's stupid,
Speaker 2: because how do you know what your last period is? Right?
Speaker 1: But it's all the more some people put it on
Speaker 1: the calendar.
Speaker 2: I do not, right, Yeah, but how do you know
Speaker 2: what's your last one? Oh? Yeah, because you don't know
Speaker 2: till a year from now.
Speaker 1: Girl, listen to me. I thought for sure I was done.
Speaker 2: That's the date.
Speaker 1: I learned it from another doctor. She said, there's one day.
Speaker 1: That's the date, and I of course didn't write it down,
Speaker 1: so I had no memory of what it was. Maybe
Speaker 1: sixteen months later, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I know, So I think you don't know. You don't
Speaker 2: know That's why the period, like the period as the
Speaker 2: definition of like that you can get treatment or not
Speaker 2: is very stupid. And I think like the modern hormone
Speaker 2: experts are like, let's stop hanging up on this period
Speaker 2: because what it does is it prevents the very symptomatic
Speaker 2: perimenopause women from getting any treatment. And I see this
Speaker 2: all the time, like, well, I can't treat you yet
Speaker 2: because you're still having periods. And I'm like, throw an
Speaker 2: iud in that woman now she doesn't have periods, can
Speaker 2: you treat her now?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Like periods are just a stupid roadblock for people. But
Speaker 2: so in perimenopause is not feeling like myself. That not
Speaker 2: feeling like myself, which we can't measure, right. It's like
Speaker 2: it's not a medical diagnosi. Yeah, it's so hard to defind,
Speaker 2: but you know it if it's you, it if it's you,
Speaker 2: and you know it if it was you, and you
Speaker 2: now you're feeling like yourself. Right. I just had a
Speaker 2: woman California f live to see me. She's spent four years,
Speaker 2: like five doctors going around being tested for like crazy
Speaker 2: autoimmune stuff, all this stuff, and she's like doing her
Speaker 2: own research, right, and she's like, I think I peri menopause, right.
Speaker 2: So she comes up to see me. She tells me
Speaker 2: your whole story, which is now like filled with medical
Speaker 2: trauma and gaslight thing. She's there with her husband, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, sounds like Perri menopause to me. And if
Speaker 2: it isn't, let's give you hormones and see it. Like
Speaker 2: the hormones won't work if it's something else, right, right,
Speaker 2: that's the magic test, right, But if the hormones work,
Speaker 2: like yes, perimenopause. So I did a follow up with her.
Speaker 2: She's sleeping, She's like happier, like her brain's back. She's like,
Speaker 2: I understand what feeling like myself feels like now because
Speaker 2: now I feel like myself, right, And this is one
Speaker 2: follow up. She's like, oh, if I want to tell
Speaker 2: you this yet, but like I actually kind of want
Speaker 2: to sign up for a half marathon. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my god. It was like four years of just
Speaker 2: like on the couch done, and now she's like one
Speaker 2: follow up. She's like, half marathon actually sounds pretty good
Speaker 2: to me right now, and I'm like, holy crap.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. I remember once I started with HRT,
Speaker 1: I felt like maybe I should run a marathon because
Speaker 1: I thought, well, I feel so great now, Like I
Speaker 1: don't know what that was, but now I feel so great.
Speaker 1: And then I quickly talked myself out of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like, it always sounds like kind of out
Speaker 2: of the birth. Sounds good when I'm warm on my couch,
Speaker 2: but I don't actually want to do that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I would say not feeling like myself sex life changing,
Speaker 2: sleep changing. Heart palpitation super.
Speaker 1: Common, which also can feel like anxiety.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it feels very awful and panicky. I think.
Speaker 2: I think I wrote about this in my book. A
Speaker 2: friend in the hospital, she was We're like in the
Speaker 2: surgeon's lounge and she's like, I don't feel safe driving
Speaker 2: my kids around because of my heart palpitations. But I
Speaker 2: went to the cardiologist. They did all the tests. Everything's fine,
Speaker 2: and it's like, everything's fine, but you're still having crazy
Speaker 2: heart palpitations that you don't feel safe driving your kids with.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, why don't you get on some hormones
Speaker 2: and see and she's like what, I'm like, yeah, just
Speaker 2: try again. If it's not hormone related, the hormones won't
Speaker 2: help them, right. It's the easy test, so she like
Speaker 2: comes back the next time and she's like, my heart
Speaker 2: palpitations are gone, and I'm like, yeah, because estrogen the heart, right,
Speaker 2: And she's like, why did nobody tell me this? And
Speaker 2: heart palpitations are one of the most common reasons that
Speaker 2: women go to the cardiologists. Right, but remember back to
Speaker 2: the nineties, the cardiologists knew hormones were good for the heart.
Speaker 2: They knew that, and it's like we've forgotten, We've forgotten,
Speaker 2: and now we have to remember everything that we knew.
Speaker 1: I talk a lot about heart health. I advocate for it.
Speaker 1: And one of the most frustrating things for me is
Speaker 1: when women are feeling like something's wrong with them, maybe
Speaker 1: they're having heart palpitations, anxiety, you know, it feels like
Speaker 1: someone's sitting on your chests a little. They go to
Speaker 1: the cardiologist. Finally, after being persuaded to go to a
Speaker 1: specialized doctor, and they are given the what do they
Speaker 1: give everybody when you oh the egg? Yep, they put
Speaker 1: a ekg on you and they see in that very
Speaker 1: small moment, then nothing's wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everything's fine.
Speaker 1: Oh look at it's all perfect. You're fine. You go home.
Speaker 1: That is for me such a miss for healthcare because
Speaker 1: you don't know what happens the many you take off
Speaker 1: those yeah, receptors whatever they're called. Totally Yeah, it just
Speaker 1: frustrates me beyond beyond.
Speaker 2: It's incredibly frustrating, incredibly frustrating. And there aren't a lot
Speaker 2: of female cardiologists right, it's hard to find. It's still
Speaker 2: very male dominated. There's still a and to me, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I get to kind of speak truth to power because
Speaker 2: I'm like, I went through the system, I'm in it.
Speaker 2: I still practice medicine and I can now but I'm
Speaker 2: old enough and I'm wise enough, and especially like again,
Speaker 2: I'm the urologist who gives the man to stop short
Speaker 2: in viagra and sees how the women are treated. So
Speaker 2: I'm over here being like there's gender bias in medicine
Speaker 2: and a lot of people know that, but a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't want to know that and they don't
Speaker 2: want to believe.
Speaker 1: Now they just look the other way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like, oh, it's not it's not that bad though,
Speaker 2: It's like, but for that woman, it is really bad
Speaker 2: because she's suffering and she's not getting help.
Speaker 1: It makes sense that that would be their im back
Speaker 1: specifically because it's a male dominated industry. Come on, ladies,
Speaker 1: it's hard, yes, but it's hard.
Speaker 2: It's actually very hard.
Speaker 1: But I know it sounds so easy. I'm just gonna go.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna go go spend that money and that
Speaker 2: time in my twenties, all of my tent and all
Speaker 2: of my twenties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay. Most important habits to start today to age well,
Speaker 1: bang bang bang sleep yep.
Speaker 2: Weightlifting huh oh. I mean I would say not just weightlifting,
Speaker 2: but like mobility, stretching, Yeah, stretching, like put your hips
Speaker 2: through the range of motion, butt your needs to like
Speaker 2: number one. I think it feels absolutely fantamic. Like a
Speaker 2: mobility class is like ah, like and I'm not even
Speaker 2: talking yoga like now, mobility is like rotating, yeah, like
Speaker 2: the hip the hip flips right, and like the hamstring stretches.
Speaker 2: It's like, well, and that's what a lot of trainers
Speaker 2: will say, is like it's not just how strong you are,
Speaker 2: but that your body can do the full range of
Speaker 2: motion and you keep the keeps moving. Yeah, oh keep
Speaker 2: that your joints keep moving. So I would say mobility
Speaker 2: is massively important. The data on protein now and like
Speaker 2: aging is like we don't we don't. We're not as
Speaker 2: efficient with protein as we were when we were younger,
Speaker 2: so we really have to prioritize it in the diet
Speaker 2: and just and I think I put this in the book,
Speaker 2: but it's like they didn't tell women to exercise any
Speaker 2: different airlift weights. They just fed one high protein and
Speaker 2: the other one was like regular, and their body composition
Speaker 2: changed just by having a protein centric food choices.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is all conversation that's just been happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's brand new stuff. It's brand new stuff. And
Speaker 2: I mean for us, like our generations, it's like, do
Speaker 2: we grow up in the nineties. I was talking to
Speaker 2: you know, I was doing a podcast yesterday and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I am I way more than I've ever weighed in
Speaker 2: my life. And it's a massive mind trip and you
Speaker 2: got to do work on it. Yeah, but I'm like,
Speaker 2: I am stronger than I've ever been and frankly, like
Speaker 2: I dig it and I know the science now, right,
Speaker 2: But it's like.
Speaker 1: Oh, we're not supposed to weigh Yeah, we did thirty
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 2: Kate Moss was our hero, right, Like the nineties did
Speaker 2: a number Oh yeah on our generation. Well, yes, very popular,
Speaker 2: very popular, and so to me, I'm like, muscle actually
Speaker 2: weighs a lot. Yes, and I'm working with a trainer
Speaker 2: now so that, like I've told her, I'm like, listen,
Speaker 2: I know a lot, but this is still messing with me,
Speaker 2: Like you tell me when I need to, you know,
Speaker 2: back off or pivot or blah blah blah. And right
Speaker 2: now she's like eat e gets strong, gets strong, gets strong,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm just going on the journey because
Speaker 2: to me, I'm like, it's it's easier to maintain and
Speaker 2: build now than twenty years from now. Right right, It's
Speaker 2: like it can be done, but keep it up. And
Speaker 2: you can keep it up. But it's like everything you
Speaker 2: do is just small things, just small things of like
Speaker 2: I spent my twenties trying to be as small as possible,
Speaker 2: and that is not serving me anymore.
Speaker 1: I had doctor Nicholas Paracon on and he said every
Speaker 1: day that you're not eating enough protein, you're aging.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, taking me your aging, I get
Speaker 1: your point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get your fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He's he's all about the protein. He oh, he drinks
Speaker 1: salmon shakes.
Speaker 2: My brother drinks raw eggs. Okay, I know, I know,
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm not there.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna drink a salmon shank.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, no, oh, but I mean debay. So I've
Speaker 2: started this year two scoops of wave protein in my
Speaker 2: in my protein shake instead of one.
Speaker 1: Oh, instead of like the direction say one scoop.
Speaker 2: One scoop, I'm like two scoops. I got fifty I
Speaker 2: got fifty grams in first meal, first meal. Yeah, it's delicious. Good.
Speaker 1: First thing in the morning, when I make a smoothie
Speaker 1: and I pour my protein drink into it, like it's
Speaker 1: got like thirty or something, thirty two grams of protein
Speaker 1: in it. And then by the time I've had like
Speaker 1: my after workout protein bar, a little thing that only
Speaker 1: has like twolves, I'm already like I'm halfway there, yeah
Speaker 1: for my day.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it makes me feel so good, like, oh, I
Speaker 1: can totally do this totally.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Like muscle is so like it helps with insolin sensitivity.
Speaker 2: It muscle helps you not fall. Muscle helps you get
Speaker 2: off the ground once you do fall. I just read
Speaker 2: something people are like, we're doing it wrong. We're telling
Speaker 2: people not to fall. We're not telling him how to
Speaker 2: get back up once they fell, so like the problem is,
Speaker 2: like you get down, you can't get back up again, right, Like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, we're not teaching people how to get up.
Speaker 1: The date she was home with my daughters and she
Speaker 1: fell in front yard. Oh god, she's fine. Sorry, uh,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't get her up. She didn't know how
Speaker 1: to get up. They sat there for an hour until
Speaker 1: I got home. Yeah, talking on the ground, she was thankfully.
Speaker 2: Mobility is because it's like, once you're down, get back up.
Speaker 2: It's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard flip your body over. Yeah, Okay, education is
Speaker 1: the answer to combating fear around most things, I agreed,
Speaker 1: But definitely when it comes to advocating for our healthcare, Yeah,
Speaker 1: where to go for the best information and education about menopause.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of misinformation out there, as we've talked about,
Speaker 1: so it's not always easy to know what is what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I mean, we have so much availability to free,
Speaker 2: easily accessible stuff now it's awesome, but with that comes
Speaker 2: a bunch of bullshit. Right, So I mean, these are
Speaker 2: the things, right, is somebody trying to sell you something
Speaker 2: that might.
Speaker 1: Be always it's always every time you need this anti
Speaker 1: aging just make.
Speaker 2: Your fashion better, like you won't go through menopause. It's like, no,
Speaker 2: it's not how science works. But so like that's number one,
Speaker 2: number two, and a lot of people who know things
Speaker 2: have great things to offer. I'm not saying it's all bad, no,
Speaker 2: but like if it's some crazy like this shoe will
Speaker 2: make you not go through menopause, that's not how science works.
Speaker 2: So like that's the first thing, is like what's their angle?
Speaker 2: But I think like the other because I think about
Speaker 2: this a lot of like I never I'm I actually
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. So I tell women
Speaker 2: I put this in my book. I don't care if
Speaker 2: you go on hormones or not. I don't care. I'm
Speaker 2: not living in your body. You get to decide what
Speaker 2: you want to do. But I care desperately that you
Speaker 2: have the information so that you can make an educated
Speaker 2: decision based upon information and not fear. And I think
Speaker 2: what I mean by that on like who to follow
Speaker 2: and who to listen into. Do these people actually prescribe hormones?
Speaker 2: Is that their job? Because those are the people that
Speaker 2: actually know new information. Yeah, they know because they know
Speaker 2: their craft. They know what women are telling them when
Speaker 2: they come back they know how to dose things, they've
Speaker 2: they've read, like that's their job, right. So it's like
Speaker 2: if you follow people and they actually see people in clinic,
Speaker 2: they're actually doing the work. Those are the people who
Speaker 2: know the most about it if you should be on
Speaker 2: hormones or not. And I'm like, everybody else is helping
Speaker 2: support us, right. Interestingly enough, like the athletic trainer community
Speaker 2: is super on board with hormones.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah.
Speaker 2: I have these women they're like, oh yeah, my twenty
Speaker 2: six year old trainer told me to go get on hormones.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what's the bro no about this? Right?
Speaker 2: And he's like they know that it helps build muscle,
Speaker 2: and they know that it's good for sleep, and like
Speaker 2: that is a cool industry that like really supports women
Speaker 2: in hormones. But it's like, for the most part, a
Speaker 2: lot of other people aren't boots on the ground. They're
Speaker 2: not doing this work. And there is a level of
Speaker 2: expertise that comes from seeing giving women hormones, going to
Speaker 2: the conferences and like being obsessed with this topic and
Speaker 2: everybody else if they're not prescribing, they don't know as much.
Speaker 2: And I think that's kind of an easy way to
Speaker 2: be like, what's this person's job, what's their motivation behind
Speaker 2: telling you the information that they're telling you? And that's
Speaker 2: kind of a good because it is the Internet's kind
Speaker 2: of a wild West, and if you're a good salesperson, right,
Speaker 2: you can be taken. But it's like what do they
Speaker 2: actually do? Did they go to medical school or nurse
Speaker 2: practitioner school? Like do they actually prescribe hormones and see
Speaker 2: patients and listen to women? Because those are the people
Speaker 2: that actually know.
Speaker 1: What do you think should my doctor be a woman?
Speaker 1: You're like I can't.
Speaker 2: Oh lord, I think any gender can doctor? Very well.
Speaker 2: Good good answer, and I actually have a podcast episode
Speaker 2: us this year is like in the summer. There's actually
Speaker 2: a lot of research that a lot of people don't
Speaker 2: want to believe, but they have enough research that they
Speaker 2: have meta analyzes, which is studies of studies. That's how
Speaker 2: much research is done on this, looking at surviving after surgery,
Speaker 2: surviving after a heart attack if your physician is female,
Speaker 2: And people don't want to know that that exists because
Speaker 2: people because there's a learning opportunity there. Right, what is
Speaker 2: it about the way women doctor that's leading to survival benefits?
Speaker 2: And people don't want to learn that. But it's like, dude,
Speaker 2: there's data on it, like crazy data because because you
Speaker 2: could say, well, maybe you just picked the right doctor
Speaker 2: or maybe you just knew she was good because you
Speaker 2: just got good. Well, when you go into the emergency department,
Speaker 2: you don't get to pick who your doctor is. So
Speaker 2: that's a pretty good study. So they actually have a
Speaker 2: study that if if a female goes to an emergency
Speaker 2: department with chest pain, heart attack and her doctor happen
Speaker 2: to be female, your chance of living is higher. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, I can't make up the data. I can
Speaker 2: just report it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, we're not giving you our opinions right now.
Speaker 2: That is the published literature, and I interviewed the and
Speaker 2: the person who's who's spearheading this research is a male urologist.
Speaker 1: Okay, first, I want to know how do people find
Speaker 1: your podcast?
Speaker 2: It's called You Were Not Broken?
Speaker 1: You You Are Not Are Not Broken with Kelly Casperson.
Speaker 1: And your book that's on shelf right now is just
Speaker 1: like Bible material that's pretty good for everybody that.
Speaker 2: Needs to read. Wait, show it the show if you.
Speaker 1: Guys want to pick up this. The Menopause moment. Can
Speaker 1: you see it?
Speaker 2: Mindset, hormones and science for optimal longevity. Love it, love.
Speaker 1: It longevity right there on the cover. Thank you, Kelly,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. You've really added a lot of
Speaker 1: tools to my toolkit. And I hope everybody listening. But
Speaker 1: if you have more questions, read the book. If you
Speaker 1: have more questions, listen to our podcast. She's here to
Speaker 1: help us. Thank you so
Speaker 2: Much, thanks for having me.