Speaker 1: This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Chris Harrison here coming to you from the home office
Speaker 1: in Austin, Texas. I am unbelievably excited about the show today,
Speaker 1: And when I tell you what the subject matter is
Speaker 1: going to be, You're maybe going to be scratching your head.
Speaker 1: But the entire show today is dedicated to menopause, something
Speaker 1: that every woman who walks this earth is going to
Speaker 1: go through. But it's something that as I have kind
Speaker 1: of dove into this, have realized that a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know a lot about it. They don't know
Speaker 1: what to look for when it's coming, what it means, why,
Speaker 1: And it is kind of astounding to me and shocking
Speaker 1: and terrible that we all don't know more men and women.
Speaker 1: But I know you might be thinking, Chris, you're a
Speaker 1: middle aged man, you're going to be talking about menopause. Yes,
Speaker 1: I am, because I know my audience and I know
Speaker 1: this is an important topic. And there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that go on social media and they talk
Speaker 1: like they're nutrition experts, they talk as if they know
Speaker 1: and these people kind of get passed off as experts. Well,
Speaker 1: I made sure that we had the foremost expert. This
Speaker 1: woman is active on social media, but she is BORED
Speaker 1: certified obgyn has practiced for many years. She is also
Speaker 1: a mom, also a wife. She is a published author.
Speaker 1: She has an incredible book called The Galveston Diet. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about doctor Mary Claire Haver, and she was nice
Speaker 1: enough to join us so we could dive in and
Speaker 1: allow me to ask everything about menopause, joining me now
Speaker 1: from her home in South Texas, just down the road
Speaker 1: from where I am here in Austin. Doctor Mary Claire
Speaker 1: have thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me now.
Speaker 1: I know you do a lot of this now between
Speaker 1: social media, TV, you name it. You probably don't sit
Speaker 1: down with a lot of middle aged men to discuss menopause.
Speaker 2: Not very often occasionally, but it's one of the most
Speaker 2: enlightening conversations for me because I really get to see
Speaker 2: it from your perspective and it really helps me guide
Speaker 2: you know, fifty percent of the population, because you are
Speaker 2: affected just as much as we are. Because everything's changing
Speaker 2: in our bodies, in our minds and how we're you know,
Speaker 2: interacting with the world through this menopause process, and that's
Speaker 2: affecting your relationships as well.
Speaker 1: And while I know just enough to be dangerous, I
Speaker 1: will admit that I have cheated because I am engaged
Speaker 1: to a beautiful woman, Lauren Zema, I am raising a
Speaker 1: beautiful woman, Taylor, my daughter. They gave me some very
Speaker 1: important questions that they wanted to ask. And my team
Speaker 1: here at iHeart on the most dramatic podcast ever, is
Speaker 1: probably ninety five percent women, so they had questions. It
Speaker 1: was amazing when we started talking about menopause doctor, how
Speaker 1: many women were lining up that had questions. And it's
Speaker 1: something they're all going to go through. It's something you
Speaker 1: think that we would all, but especially women, would be
Speaker 1: so knowledgeable about, and we're not. Why is that?
Speaker 2: You know, there's several reasons, everything from society, to medical
Speaker 2: education and training to you know, asism, and so if
Speaker 2: you look at in medicine, which is you know what
Speaker 2: I'm an expert in, I can tell you from my
Speaker 2: own obgi N residency training, which was amazing, I've learned
Speaker 2: so many important things. But there was a just a
Speaker 2: sliver of time spent on menopause and I thought nothing
Speaker 2: of it at the time, to be honest, And there's
Speaker 2: also that little bit well a lot of of it's
Speaker 2: kind of in her head. You know, like when a
Speaker 2: woman and a man with the exact same symptoms walk
Speaker 2: into the er, say with chest pain, shortens of breath,
Speaker 2: some classic symptoms of a heart attack, she's much more
Speaker 2: likely to have a delayed diagnosis and to be thought,
Speaker 2: you know, have a mental health diagnosis rather than a
Speaker 2: heart attack. And that is just kind of how we're trained,
Speaker 2: and so that that's a problem. Number Two. We have
Speaker 2: the kind of classically medically recognized symptoms of menopause, hoplaches
Speaker 2: and night sweats, you know, changes in the female anatomy,
Speaker 2: et cetera. But what we're learning now is that there
Speaker 2: are probably forty plus symptoms that can raise their head
Speaker 2: in menopause and they're not recognized as being classically menopausal
Speaker 2: from a society standpoint. You know, look at the Golden Girls.
Speaker 2: They are my age, you know, I love that show.
Speaker 2: They were amaze. I mean, Blanche was still teaching right,
Speaker 2: and it's like they were old ladies in my head,
Speaker 2: you know, the haircut, the outfits and the way they
Speaker 2: approached life and health. I mean, they were wonderful. But
Speaker 2: just this kind of dismissal of this is the end
Speaker 2: of your life when we're going to spend a third
Speaker 2: of our lives a third, we're going to live thirty
Speaker 2: to forty years in this menopausal state, and there's so
Speaker 2: much we can do to improve our lifespan and our
Speaker 2: health span throughout it.
Speaker 1: Well, what I found interesting is you mentioned going through
Speaker 1: med school, and you are a board certified obgyn. You
Speaker 1: have practiced for many many years, worked with women, delivered babies,
Speaker 1: you name it. But from what I understand of your story,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until you went through menopause that you realize
Speaker 1: that the advice that you had been giving all those
Speaker 1: many years probably not the best. Is that fair?
Speaker 2: That is very fair. If someone came in with severe
Speaker 2: hot flashes, I knew what to do, okay, format, therapy, conversation,
Speaker 2: et cetera. But most of the patients, the number one
Speaker 2: complaint that they had in my office, and when I
Speaker 2: talked to other menopause specialists and looked at, you know,
Speaker 2: thousands of years of patient data, the number one complaint
Speaker 2: really is weight gain and body composition changes like new
Speaker 2: weight gain in places you never had it before, and
Speaker 2: you really haven't changed your diet and exercise. So the
Speaker 2: advice that I'd been taught to give, that I gave
Speaker 2: for years was work out more weight less. We slowed
Speaker 2: down a little as we get older. I mean I
Speaker 2: cringe when I think of the things that came out
Speaker 2: of my mouth, and then it happened to me so embarrassingly. Yes,
Speaker 2: my entry into this menopause world, into doing more research
Speaker 2: and trying to understand what's going on and why do
Speaker 2: I have such a gap in my education was around
Speaker 2: pretty cosmetic reasons of just some unwanted weight gain that
Speaker 2: was making me unhappy. But what I didn't realize, I
Speaker 2: mean it was just the tip of the iceberg. And
Speaker 2: when I when I you know, cracked over in the
Speaker 2: top and started, you know, ice diving, I was like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, there's so many things here, cardiovascular disease risk,
Speaker 2: you know, neurodegenerator these like Alzheimer's and dementia, and hip pain,
Speaker 2: bone pain, joint pain, every organ system and our bodies
Speaker 2: affected by this.
Speaker 1: I mean, it makes sense. It makes sense that we are,
Speaker 1: you know, one kind of living organism and everything is
Speaker 1: tied together in our bodies. Of course it's going to
Speaker 1: all be affected. I mean, it would be crazy not
Speaker 1: to and it's going to affect people in different ways.
Speaker 1: And so I'm right. I'm glad that not only you
Speaker 1: had this awakening, but now that there is And don't
Speaker 1: get me started on social media. There's plenty of bad
Speaker 1: things out there, but people like yourself that are knowledgeable,
Speaker 1: that can now speak out and just normalize this conversation
Speaker 1: that we're having.
Speaker 2: I feel like the biggest contribution I've made to this
Speaker 2: menopause conversation is trying to normalize it and just validating people.
Speaker 2: My DMS just blow up with and I can't give
Speaker 2: personal medical advice, you know, it's against the law. I
Speaker 2: mean to practice medicine in another state, and so but
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to calm people down, like, yes, this
Speaker 2: absolutely could be could be related to your menopause. Here's
Speaker 2: the questions you can ask your health care, here's the
Speaker 2: you know, medications you might want to think about. Here's
Speaker 2: some supplements that might help, you know. Just trying to
Speaker 2: get everybody on an equal playing field so that they
Speaker 2: can make an informed choice.
Speaker 1: I was looking at I was trying to find because
Speaker 1: I wrote it down, I can't remember where it was.
Speaker 1: The quote you just posted on your social media about
Speaker 1: the validation of what you're going through, if you're going
Speaker 1: through menopause, having those symptoms validated, And I love the
Speaker 1: quote that you put up.
Speaker 2: Like every woman deserves to have validation of what she's
Speaker 2: going through is real. And then in a decision whether
Speaker 2: she chooses or not to pursue certain pharmaceutical options, that's
Speaker 2: that's up to her. But you know, so much of
Speaker 2: that's being taken off the table for so many women
Speaker 2: for at least the last twenty years.
Speaker 1: So what I'm going to do today is think of
Speaker 1: me as the arbitrary voice for all the amazing women
Speaker 1: in my life. And so they lined up, I mean,
Speaker 1: pages of questions. So I'm going to jump in with
Speaker 1: the most important women in my life, vers all my
Speaker 1: beautiful fiance Lauren Zema. She asked, what is para menopause?
Speaker 2: That's a wonderful question. So most, you know, most people
Speaker 2: women men will understand that menopause represents kind of the
Speaker 2: end of your fertility. You're not gonna have periods anymore,
Speaker 2: and you're something about hormones might stop functioning like they
Speaker 2: used to. So when in actuality what happens. There are
Speaker 2: three kind of phases of this menopause journey. We have perimenopause,
Speaker 2: we have menopause, and then we have post menopause, and
Speaker 2: I'll well, let me define those for your followers. So
Speaker 2: menopause is really just one day in your life. It's
Speaker 2: kind of that you go up and then you go down.
Speaker 2: And so menopause represents the last day that your ovaries
Speaker 2: will ever function. There's no more estrogen to be produced.
Speaker 2: There you've run through all of the eggs that you
Speaker 2: were born with and there's you know, nothing. Everything after
Speaker 2: that point is postmenopause, got it. Menopause represents a seven
Speaker 2: to ten year time period when that function doesn't just
Speaker 2: shut down overnight. It is kind of a degradation. So
Speaker 2: we're born with all of our eggs, right you guys,
Speaker 2: aren't you know? If you're born with the opposite gonads,
Speaker 2: you make your stuff fresh every day. Good for you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, ask Robert de Niro, who's still making babies at
Speaker 1: a one hundred and four.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And we are born with all of our our
Speaker 2: gonads are set. We're done, locked and loaded, ready to go,
Speaker 2: and we start losing eggs at about five months in utero,
Speaker 2: so we start, you know, So we're born with a
Speaker 2: certain amount. By the time we're thirty, we're down to
Speaker 2: about ten percent of what we were born with, and
Speaker 2: then when we're forty, we're down to about three percent.
Speaker 2: And those germ cells represent the ovarian production of estrogen, progesterone,
Speaker 2: and some testosterone as well. And so perimenopause is when
Speaker 2: you become symptomatic from this choo choo train that's getting
Speaker 2: harder and harder to chug to get those last few
Speaker 2: eggs you know, on market, so to speak. And the
Speaker 2: quality of those eggs is decreasing as well, which is
Speaker 2: why we see more down syndrome and other chromosome latinormalities
Speaker 2: as a one gets older and has children. So perimenopause,
Speaker 2: you know, if the average age of menopause in the
Speaker 2: US is somewhere around fifty one, okay, but it's still
Speaker 2: very normal between forty five to fifty five fifty six
Speaker 2: two for that to be normal, And then you do
Speaker 2: the math backing that seven to ten years back. So
Speaker 2: somewhere between thirty five and forty five, a woman will
Speaker 2: probably start noticing. She may not put her finger on
Speaker 2: it or recognize it as perrymenopause, but something is changing
Speaker 2: in her body without any rule, increase in stress, no nutrition, diet,
Speaker 2: you know, like everything's going, She's living her best life.
Speaker 2: And then you know, outside of just aging, which does
Speaker 2: its own magic to us, you know.
Speaker 1: That it does. So this Laura and I very much
Speaker 1: believe in kind of preventive medicine. Have taken care of yourself,
Speaker 1: your diet, gut health, et cetera. And I had this
Speaker 1: question a couple of times from not only Lauren, but
Speaker 1: my young producer Kendall, who's on the line with us
Speaker 1: right now, and they both kind of ask the same
Speaker 1: question of what do I need to be doing for
Speaker 1: my hormones while I am in my mid twenties, while
Speaker 1: I am in my young thirties. Are there things I
Speaker 1: can do that will help alleviate or just help me
Speaker 1: get through menopause later?
Speaker 2: Sure, so, how you show up in perimenopause, your baseline
Speaker 2: health status, those habits that you are locking in the place,
Speaker 2: is going to determine for most women, how much, how
Speaker 2: many symptoms you have, how serious your menopause is, how
Speaker 2: life disruptive it is, as well as attenuate some of
Speaker 2: those cardiovascular risks that seem to accelerate and neurodegenitive risks
Speaker 2: as we get older. So for my children, you know,
Speaker 2: my girls are nineteen and twenty two. They live and
Speaker 2: breed this stuff unfortunately because they're you know, my kids,
Speaker 2: but they understand that they need to lock these health
Speaker 2: habits and now so that it's much easier, they'll have
Speaker 2: an easier menopause. We can't. We haven't figured out yet
Speaker 2: how to prolong the shelf life of the ovaries, like
Speaker 2: if when that happens, and there's some research being done
Speaker 2: for that to delay menopause.
Speaker 1: Interesting, that's probably.
Speaker 2: The thing that will improve quality of life, lifespan and
Speaker 2: health span and a female more than anything else, is
Speaker 2: if we can delay menopause.
Speaker 1: You're already outlasting us anyway. How much longer do you
Speaker 1: want to be exactly?
Speaker 2: You know for evolutionists or life maybe this happened so
Speaker 2: that we didn't outlive men for so long. You know,
Speaker 2: we already outlived five to seven years, but take away menopause,
Speaker 2: we'll live forever.
Speaker 1: But I don't doubt that. Okay, So the last question
Speaker 1: from l Z and again remember where this is coming from.
Speaker 1: I'm going to read it in her voice. Doctor, I'm
Speaker 1: afraid is my vagina going to dry up? Will I
Speaker 1: be vadryina?
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: That is a medical term that LZ invented by vagarina.
Speaker 2: More than likely, yes, so, but it's absolutely preventative. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's preventable, preventable. So we we have our vagina, our vulva,
Speaker 2: our all of our you know, bladder, all that tissue
Speaker 2: you know, basically from the pubic bone to the to
Speaker 2: the spinal cord is all super estrogenized. And when our
Speaker 2: estrogen levels began declining in perimenopause, some more than others,
Speaker 2: we will see a decrease in the amount of mucus
Speaker 2: we produce, the amount of mucus we produce with relations,
Speaker 2: as well as loss of elasticity. The tissue gets really
Speaker 2: thin and really irritated, and for a lot of women,
Speaker 2: probably forty to fifty percent, you will have severe atrophy
Speaker 2: with you know, dramatic pain and being uncomfortable with relations
Speaker 2: to the point where libido goes out the window because
Speaker 2: it hurts and you don't want to do it. Fortunately,
Speaker 2: there are safe, efficacious, and reasonably priced medication that can
Speaker 2: absolutely prevent that, and that is vaginal estrogen. And so
Speaker 2: we just put we'll give you back the water you
Speaker 2: were drinking, and we put it in the vagina where
Speaker 2: you need it. And there's no that's the one. There's
Speaker 2: no increased versus of blood clots breast cancer at People
Speaker 2: with a blood clot with breast cancer can absolutely safely
Speaker 2: use this formulation of estrogen to keep that area healthy.
Speaker 2: It's the number one most effective treatment for recurrent bladder
Speaker 2: infections in menopause, not antibiotics, vaginal estrogen.
Speaker 1: Probably because of Hollywood and you know, just the old
Speaker 1: you know scene we've seen, whether it was Golden Girls
Speaker 1: or every movie with middle aged women. You think hot
Speaker 1: flashes and menopause. So I want to dive into this
Speaker 1: a little bit because my daughter, actually Taylor, who's nineteen,
Speaker 1: had a very interesting question. She's heard about hot flashes,
Speaker 1: but how much does your body temperature actually rise?
Speaker 2: Oh that's such a good question, Thank you, Taylor. Okay,
Speaker 2: so it's about one to three degrees okay, like fever.
Speaker 2: So you know, think about it. We're ninety eight point
Speaker 2: six is the average, you know, tent right, and then
Speaker 2: if we get up to one hundred, one hundred, one
Speaker 2: hundred and one, one hundred point six is a fever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a solid fever. If you're at one hundred
Speaker 1: hundred one, basically have.
Speaker 2: A short term fever, and then your body, in an
Speaker 2: effort to cool itself, will dilate all the blood vessels
Speaker 2: of the skin, usually in a hot flash scent, typically
Speaker 2: the central area, so the head, the next, shoulders, chest, back, groin,
Speaker 2: and dilate those blood vessels, which just drives the heat
Speaker 2: out and you just sweat like crazy, and then you're
Speaker 2: freezing because you're so wet. You know, your temperature goes
Speaker 2: back to normal, but you're soaking wet. So yeah, it's
Speaker 2: about one to three degrees.
Speaker 1: Danielle an amazing woman who works with me. Why does
Speaker 1: your body go through this? Why are you having hot
Speaker 1: flashes with menopause? What's actually happening?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's a thermoregulatory center in our brain that
Speaker 2: controls our body temperature, and that's the mechanism by which
Speaker 2: we have a fever, which is a physiologic response to
Speaker 2: an infection or medication, you know, adverse reaction whatever. We
Speaker 2: don't know exactly how it happens, but there's something to
Speaker 2: do with declining estrogen levels. Estrogen kind of stabilizes that
Speaker 2: temperature center, and when you take that estrogen away that
Speaker 2: it just becomes erratic and starts going off on its
Speaker 2: own without the usual chemical signal.
Speaker 1: I saw in your social media. Sorry to be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, peeping on you, but you were talking about
Speaker 1: this nightgown that you created because your hot flashes have stopped.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm still hot.
Speaker 1: Your body's still hot. So is that something you have
Speaker 1: to worry about? Once the hot flashes stop, your your
Speaker 1: body temperatures is still like cooked.
Speaker 2: So you're inspiring me for my next TikTok, Like, here
Speaker 2: are the things that hormone therapy did not help me with? Okay,
Speaker 2: And definitely my hot flashes, the ones that woke me
Speaker 2: up at night, that pulled me out of a meeting
Speaker 2: that you know, embarrassed me in public, are gone. But
Speaker 2: I'm just in general hotter all the time, And so
Speaker 2: I was always freezing, freezing, bundled up under the covers,
Speaker 2: going to bed with sweatpants. My husband's very excited. I'm
Speaker 2: not wearing a sweatpants to bed anymore. And that I
Speaker 2: like have this great nightgown I've worn for years, and
Speaker 2: I just cut the arms out of it, like wear
Speaker 2: it like a trucker because I was so hot at night. Still, so,
Speaker 2: hormon replacement therapy can do so many wonderful things for
Speaker 2: our bodies, but it's not I can't give you back
Speaker 2: your twenty five year old ovaries, right, you know that,
Speaker 2: And that's okay. I think most women are fine with that.
Speaker 2: They're not expecting that, but they just want to be
Speaker 2: able to sleep and get on with their lives.
Speaker 1: Hannah asked, how do you know when you are actually
Speaker 1: in menopause?
Speaker 2: That's a really good question. So if you were a normal,
Speaker 2: regularly menstruating person, Okay, yeah, period every month and suddenly
Speaker 2: that stops. If you're over the age of forty five
Speaker 2: and you have not had a cycle when it was
Speaker 2: regular before for a year, that is the definition of menopause.
Speaker 2: As far as using clinical symptoms to make the diagnosis, now,
Speaker 2: say you've had a hysterectomy or an ablation or some
Speaker 2: procedure or surgery where you don't have periods anymore. Well,
Speaker 2: sometimes just on the symptoms we can make the diagnosis
Speaker 2: and your age. You know, clinically, there is a blood
Speaker 2: test that we can use to diagnose complete menopause, that
Speaker 2: postmenopausal state but because hormones fluctuate so wildly in pery menopause,
Speaker 2: we don't really have good blood you'urine saliva tests to
Speaker 2: diagnose that. It's a clinical diagnosis. So you need a
Speaker 2: menopause friendly provider who knows what they're doing, who's willing
Speaker 2: to talk to you, help untangle some of the other
Speaker 2: diseases that kind of look like perimenopause, like hypodiroidism or
Speaker 2: an autoimmune disease. You know, when I'm doing blood work,
Speaker 2: hormones is not the first thing I check in a
Speaker 2: perimenopausal woman. It's thyroid, it's nutritional deficiencies. It's a blood
Speaker 2: count to look for a name, you know, based on.
Speaker 1: Her symptoms, you're speaking of a normal period. Blair asked
Speaker 1: a very interesting question. Does the age you get your
Speaker 1: period effect when you start menopause? For example, if you
Speaker 1: started your period very late in life, does that mean
Speaker 1: menopause will come later.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's not a huge contributor, but we do see
Speaker 2: that women who go through and I think it's before
Speaker 2: the age of eleven, tend to have earlier menopause than
Speaker 2: women who don't, and then therefore going through later. Because
Speaker 2: again we're born with the finite amount of eggs, and
Speaker 2: so if you kind of let them sleep for longer,
Speaker 2: you'll have more that'll last you in your mix. Sure
Speaker 2: it's not huge. There's a lot of environmental things that
Speaker 2: go into what you know, genetics, exposure to certain chemicals,
Speaker 2: you know, different things that affect when we go through menopause.
Speaker 1: Well, you talk about that exposure to chemicals and just
Speaker 1: different foods and how our foods have changed. And again
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in diet and gut health and
Speaker 1: all that young. Can you start menopause and have you
Speaker 1: seen that number change over the years, like, for example,
Speaker 1: I went through this with my daughter. Is like, girls
Speaker 1: are hitting puberty quicker. You know, whether it's the milk,
Speaker 1: whether or whatever you want to say, it is things
Speaker 1: have changed and they're happening faster.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. So we definitely know that women
Speaker 2: girls are going through menarchy or puberty earlier than they
Speaker 2: did one hundred years ago. Isn't that is a fact.
Speaker 2: We think it's improved nutrition actually, so like one hundred
Speaker 2: years ago, you know, the famine and all those things,
Speaker 2: and then they're also have more body fat now and
Speaker 2: that is leading to higher estrogen levels, which is contributing
Speaker 2: to this earlier puberty. So we think on the back end,
Speaker 2: we haven't seen that age of menopause change quite yet.
Speaker 2: They're kind of driven by two different things. So we
Speaker 2: know that smokers go through menopause early. So that's a
Speaker 2: definite something that we know is not good for us
Speaker 2: and attacks our.
Speaker 1: Body reason six thousand, seven ninety two not to smoke, definitely.
Speaker 2: You know, surgery is a risk factor, radiation, chemotherapy, those
Speaker 2: are all risk factors for earlier menopause. I've seen menopause
Speaker 2: in their twenties and it's rare, but you have certain
Speaker 2: autoimmune conditions that will attack the o reason destroy them
Speaker 2: before their time. So premature menopause is before the age
Speaker 2: of forty, and that's about two percent of the population.
Speaker 1: And is that a reason for concern? Is it? Obviously
Speaker 1: you would get it checked out.
Speaker 2: So you know, estrogen is a protective hormone in so
Speaker 2: many organ systems in our bodies. Definitely in our brains
Speaker 2: and our hearts and the blood vessels of the heart
Speaker 2: and our bones, and you know our female organs. When
Speaker 2: you go through menopause earlier and you are not replaced
Speaker 2: with hormone replacement therapy. You have a much higher risk
Speaker 2: of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, inflammatory conditions, osteoporosis than a
Speaker 2: woman who went through five ten years later. So those
Speaker 2: it's really serious. If any of your listeners have gone
Speaker 2: through premature menopause, they have got to see a physician
Speaker 2: who knows what they're doing and get on hormone replacement therapy.
Speaker 2: You know, there's definitely there's risks of being on any
Speaker 2: medication correct and we've all known about the breast cancer
Speaker 2: risk and that's been walked back. It's a very small
Speaker 2: risk and it's really up to the patient and her
Speaker 2: family history, et cetera. But they're a risk of not
Speaker 2: being on hormone replacement therapy, which is the conversation I'm
Speaker 2: trying to bring to the table interesting.
Speaker 1: Everyone to know does menopause because you hear a lot
Speaker 1: about this. It's right up there with I would say,
Speaker 1: just if hot flashes are one, sex drive would be two.
Speaker 1: That everybody talks about. It's the old cliche, does menopause
Speaker 1: affect your sex drive?
Speaker 2: Yes, we definitely see one of the cardinal symptoms of menopause,
Speaker 2: and it's not for everyone, but it is much more common,
Speaker 2: is less sexual feelings is the way that we kind
Speaker 2: of describe it. So this is probably a topic that
Speaker 2: most of your followers will be interested in. So when
Speaker 2: we talk about sexual function in a woman, there's usually
Speaker 2: five buckets of areas that she is going to have issues,
Speaker 2: and they can overlap. So the first is a relationship issue.
Speaker 2: So if you're not happy, you don't feel supported, you
Speaker 2: feel like whatever, you know, you're not happy with the partner.
Speaker 2: That's normal that you're not going to want to have sex. Okay.
Speaker 2: Then there is pain, if it hurts, we got to
Speaker 2: fix that, you know before we address So then there
Speaker 2: leaves desire, arousal, and orgasm. So desires what happens in
Speaker 2: the brain. Arousal is the physiologic response to a stimulus,
Speaker 2: so all the things that happen in the pelvis to
Speaker 2: get you ready, the things elongate, blood gets engorged, just
Speaker 2: like in a man. And then there is orgasm. So
Speaker 2: so we kind of address each of those. They have
Speaker 2: different treatment options. Most women who are in a nice relationship,
Speaker 2: they love their partner, they want this, you know, they
Speaker 2: miss it. They want to go back to the level
Speaker 2: that they were. They're just feeling really sad about it.
Speaker 2: That's a pure desire issue. And so there's a couple
Speaker 2: of medications that can be helpful. Again, it's a complicated pathway.
Speaker 2: There's some great books out there and great podcasts on
Speaker 2: this whole subject. But Addie and va Lasi. Again I'm
Speaker 2: not paid by these people, but are two medications at
Speaker 2: increase dopamine in the brain. They are FT approved and
Speaker 2: but they are pretty expensive and not covered by insurance.
Speaker 2: But some patients go that route. And then testosterone can
Speaker 2: actually be helpful, especially in postmentopause, for a woman, to
Speaker 2: help her be more reactive to the stimulus that she
Speaker 2: wants and get that part of her life back.
Speaker 1: Because I guess so another one of my I won't
Speaker 1: I won't name her because I don't know if she
Speaker 1: wants her name on this one, but she said, you know,
Speaker 1: it feels like I can't orgasm as easily anymore. And
Speaker 1: obviously this is if you're if you're to that point
Speaker 1: and you're and you know you're just not orgasm and
Speaker 1: clearly you are wanting this, you're stimulated, and you're just
Speaker 1: reaching that right.
Speaker 2: And so that's a whole different class and different medications.
Speaker 2: What happens is a lot of people are like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, give me to saucer and I just need
Speaker 2: that to fix me, and that's not going to help
Speaker 2: in certain conditions. So I always have that conversation with
Speaker 2: my patients. And there's a wonderful book called Come as
Speaker 2: You Are by doctor Emily Nagowski, who really does a
Speaker 2: deep dive on this subject. So any person who's struggling
Speaker 2: with this and wants that back in their life and
Speaker 2: is feeling kind of broken, then that's a wonderful book
Speaker 2: to read because it really helps lay out what your
Speaker 2: treatment options are and really makes you feel.
Speaker 1: Like you're not alone. Whatever publicist came up with the
Speaker 1: title of that book's yeah, well done. Come as you Are.
Speaker 1: Diet is so important. So I just went to this
Speaker 1: medical conference. Again I'm a bit of a nerd, and
Speaker 1: I was listening to these doctors who are kind of
Speaker 1: rearranging the way they're thinking about medicine instead of you know,
Speaker 1: you get sick, you do this, you get cancer, you
Speaker 1: do this, trying to look ahead of all this and
Speaker 1: obviously gut health and diet is a huge part of it.
Speaker 1: What I found interesting is what you said about menopause
Speaker 1: and doctors and students only getting about an hour's worth
Speaker 1: of knowledge. They said the same thing about diet.
Speaker 2: Nutrition. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nutrition shocked me and stunned me that they just back
Speaker 1: in the day and even now maybe are still just
Speaker 1: not spending much time on nutrition and how huge that is.
Speaker 1: And so my question is are there things that women
Speaker 1: could be eating, drinking? What can they be doing that
Speaker 1: will help the inflammatory issues?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? And I wrote a whole book about it.
Speaker 1: It's called The Galveston Diet. Everybody, Just so you know.
Speaker 2: I went back to school. I was so frustrated with
Speaker 2: my lack of knowledge and so hungry from no pun
Speaker 2: intended for more information and wanted to better myself. You know,
Speaker 2: I just felt pulled and drawn to do like on
Speaker 2: my own dime. I found this culinary medicine program at
Speaker 2: Tulane and you know, enrolled and it took about eighteen
Speaker 2: months and I had to like fly around to go
Speaker 2: do different labs and different coursework, and it just was
Speaker 2: the best thing ever. And I was like, gosh, we
Speaker 2: should have taught this at medical school. You know, this
Speaker 2: would really really help, and so much of it is
Speaker 2: preventative and really putting a framework around nutrition. We might
Speaker 2: get an hour of nutrition you know, lectures in our
Speaker 2: medical school and residency training. My daughter started med school
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago and her undergrad degree is
Speaker 2: in nutrition science. So like, honey, you're doing it right, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I mean, especially what we know now, I mean,
Speaker 1: I get it. You know. Ten twenty years ago, we
Speaker 1: all thought it was about medicine and pharma and all that.
Speaker 1: But now right now we know it is so linked
Speaker 1: to our nutrition in our gut health.
Speaker 2: Right. So like top tips for someone in perimenopause and
Speaker 2: menopause are look at how much fiber you're getting in
Speaker 2: your diet, you know. And one way to do that,
Speaker 2: and it's pretty effective is download a free nutrition tracker.
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to you know, stress anyone out or
Speaker 2: give them, you know, neurosis about it if this is
Speaker 2: going to trigger something and you don't do it. But
Speaker 2: so many of us it's like using cash instead of
Speaker 2: a credit card. You don't really know what you're eating.
Speaker 2: You think you're eating healthy, and I thought I was
Speaker 2: eating healthy for a long time. It said healthy on
Speaker 2: the bag. So okay, So track your fiber intake, how
Speaker 2: much you really getting through your food. And we should
Speaker 2: be getting at least twenty five grams of fiber in
Speaker 2: our diet per day, and a mix of soluble and
Speaker 2: insoluble fiber. You know, insoluble fiber is what bulks up
Speaker 2: our stool and makes it kind of run through quicker.
Speaker 2: But the soluble fiber is dissolvable, and that's what feeds
Speaker 2: our gout microbiome and keeps it healthy. And so, and
Speaker 2: when you're eating food sources, you know, from various foods,
Speaker 2: then you're getting so many other vitamins, minerals and nutrients
Speaker 2: you know that are part of that fiber package. So
Speaker 2: make sure you're getting twenty five grams of five in
Speaker 2: your diet per day. Number two, watch the added sugars
Speaker 2: and food. So, I know, the whole keto movement kind
Speaker 2: of threw all sugars. All sugars are bad. What fruits
Speaker 2: and vegetables were you know, that's probably, you know, not
Speaker 2: the healthiest way you better option. Sure it's a way
Speaker 2: to lose weight, but at what cost. And so when
Speaker 2: you lose fruits and vegetables, you were losing a tremendous
Speaker 2: amount of nutrients. And so my nutrition professor is like, well,
Speaker 2: Mary Claire, nobody got fat eat and blueberries, you know exactly.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a cowboy. But you know that on
Speaker 2: with me, like why are we demonizing fruits and vegetables
Speaker 2: when we there's so many things in our diets that
Speaker 2: we're eating routinely that could probably be you know, done
Speaker 2: in very much moderation and replacing that with fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 2: So added sugars are the sugars added in cooking and
Speaker 2: processing and alcohol, and so limiting those to twenty five
Speaker 2: grams per day or less. So that's not saying never
Speaker 2: you can't have a cookie or no celebrate birthday or
Speaker 2: however you want to do that. But women who consistently
Speaker 2: less than twenty five grams of out of sugars per
Speaker 2: day have less visceral fat, better menopause symptoms. You know,
Speaker 2: everything is better in there.
Speaker 1: Right two, diabetes, you name it, all of it. This
Speaker 1: next question is kind of specific to their diet. Amy,
Speaker 1: who I do know very well, dear friend of mine.
Speaker 1: She's forty nine, breaking into that fifty club. Clearly going
Speaker 1: through metopause. Eating etamammy salmon and having sex has helped
Speaker 1: my Hot flashes is this normal.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So the sex is optional and love it, do
Speaker 2: it for sure. It's a great way to stress relief.
Speaker 2: But atamammy is rich in phytoestrogens. And so we've looked
Speaker 2: at women throughout the world and hot flushes specifically, and
Speaker 2: women in Asia have less hot flashes than women who
Speaker 2: are Eurocentric. Interesting, and we think it's because their diets
Speaker 2: are so rich in phytoestrogens. So phyto estrogen is an
Speaker 2: estrogen like compound found in foods, and so the soy
Speaker 2: kind of got a bad rap because of, you know,
Speaker 2: possible links to breast cancer that has never played out. Actually,
Speaker 2: women who have diets rich in natural soy who eat
Speaker 2: out of mammy or soybeans on occasion have lower risk
Speaker 2: of breast.
Speaker 1: Cancer and probably fatty fish with good oils and etcetera, exactly.
Speaker 2: The omega threes. Definitely, the fatty fish with the good
Speaker 2: oils is going to decrease your risk of hot flashes.
Speaker 1: So a couple more symptom questions. Sadie brought this up
Speaker 1: apparently a Beverly Hills housewife fan. She said, Erica Jane,
Speaker 1: a Beverly Hills housewife, claims she lost weight thinks to menopause.
Speaker 1: Is this the truth? And can menopause just as easily
Speaker 1: make you lose weight as gain weight.
Speaker 2: So here's what we know. Women tend to gain weight
Speaker 2: as we age. It's more to do with getting older
Speaker 2: and loss of muscle mass and replacement of that muscle
Speaker 2: mass with fat. And so I don't talk about what
Speaker 2: I try not to talk about weight in terms of
Speaker 2: the scale. I talk about muscle mass and fat mass
Speaker 2: and visceral fat to be specific. So subcutaneous fat is
Speaker 2: the fat we've known our whole lives. It's under our skin.
Speaker 2: It gives us curve cell you like. We don't like it.
Speaker 2: It's cosmetically distressing, but it's really unless it's a lot,
Speaker 2: it's not that dangerous. Visceral fat starts really expanding in menopause.
Speaker 2: That is the fat inside of our abdomen, our momentum
Speaker 2: rocks around our internal organs, and that fat is pro
Speaker 2: inflammatory and linked to hypertengen, diabetes, stroke and all the
Speaker 2: chronic diseases. It makes you feel terrible and look kind
Speaker 2: of pregnant. And so so many women are seeing an
Speaker 2: increase in their abdominal circumference where they never had it before.
Speaker 2: You know, and that is causing in resistance, increasing inflammation levels.
Speaker 2: And so some of those nutritional things I talked about,
Speaker 2: the added sugars, the fiber, actually, probiotics and tumoric have
Speaker 2: been shown to help bring that visceral fat level down
Speaker 2: and decrease inflammation markers.
Speaker 1: You mentioned something, you just said it right there, and
Speaker 1: you also said this on social media. I found it
Speaker 1: very interesting, again, just kind of being in this world
Speaker 1: and loving this science behind it, especially with women, the
Speaker 1: percentage of muscle you lose as you age, and correct
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, But what you were saying is,
Speaker 1: don't just worry about the scale, don't worry about how
Speaker 1: much you weigh, don't just worry about jumping on a treadmill.
Speaker 1: Think about gaining some muscle and keeping that sustaining that
Speaker 1: muscle as you get older. And that is huge for
Speaker 1: a woman.
Speaker 2: That is one of the biggest lessons I've learned through
Speaker 2: this whole journey that I've been on, you know, learning
Speaker 2: nutrition classes, look at talking to other experts, you know,
Speaker 2: figuring out what Peter A. T Is trying to say,
Speaker 2: you know, and applying that to us as females. When
Speaker 2: you add in the endocrine aging through menopause, and what
Speaker 2: we see in menopause is acceleration of the muscle mass loss,
Speaker 2: which is immediately replaced. You know, the scale may be
Speaker 2: you know, whoever the housewife is. She may be like,
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, I'm doing great. But if she's replacing,
Speaker 2: you know, losing muscle mass and replacing it with fat,
Speaker 2: she's not healthier. She won't live as long.
Speaker 1: Because muscle weighs more than fat.
Speaker 2: And so my own workouts have changed. For twenty five years,
Speaker 2: thirty years, I worked out to be thin. That was
Speaker 2: my goal. I wanted to look a certain way. I
Speaker 2: wanted to fit in certain clothes. I had skinny privilege.
Speaker 2: And now if I could do anything like your twenty
Speaker 2: five year olds, your staffers, my kids are much better
Speaker 2: about this than I was at that age. They are
Speaker 2: not so focused on being thin. They know they need
Speaker 2: to be strong. When they work out, they lift weights.
Speaker 2: You know, they're not just running or doing aerobics or
Speaker 2: doing something cardio. They know that that's part of it.
Speaker 2: But they recognize the importance of muscle training and keeping
Speaker 2: it up.
Speaker 1: And ladies don't worry. Everyone says, oh, I don't want
Speaker 1: to bulk up you're not gonna bulk not Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: Well, bulk up. No, it's important.
Speaker 1: Alexandra has a very interesting issue. She says, my hair
Speaker 1: is thinning, but I'm also growing a beard. What's up
Speaker 1: with that?
Speaker 2: That is just one of the most common things that
Speaker 2: I hear in menopause is you're losing hair from places
Speaker 2: you want it, but it's popping up in new places
Speaker 2: where you never had it.
Speaker 1: I will say, this is where men and women are equal.
Speaker 1: We typically I know I have a good head of
Speaker 1: hair thanks to my mom, but typically we lose our
Speaker 1: hair up top pretty early and then it just starts
Speaker 1: going elsewhere back, so we'll talk about.
Speaker 2: The chin hair and the hair the new hair that
Speaker 2: we don't want. That's usually hormonal, and so as our
Speaker 2: estrogen levels decline, our liver stops making something called steroid
Speaker 2: hormone binding globulin. It's basically a protein carries our sex
Speaker 2: hormones around, and when they're bound to the protein, they're
Speaker 2: not active. And so even though your levels might be
Speaker 2: the same, if you don't have as much as that protein,
Speaker 2: the activity of some of those hormones is going to
Speaker 2: be higher, and so we see in this transition, the
Speaker 2: activity of our androgens gets higher, even though are levels
Speaker 2: or maybe lower or the same, and that's leading to
Speaker 2: new fun I have one right here that I always
Speaker 2: do surveillance for on my chin, and so so there. Fortunately,
Speaker 2: we have lots of cosmetic ways to rid ourselves with
Speaker 2: those peskiers and or just pluck them and get on
Speaker 2: with your day. But hair loss on your head is
Speaker 2: a little more complicated because there's multiple things that can
Speaker 2: cause that. We have genetic issues, nutritional issues, of course,
Speaker 2: hormone issues. I have a YouTube video if anyone cares,
Speaker 2: where I talk about all the ways women can lose
Speaker 2: hair and all the different treatment options. Sometimes it takes
Speaker 2: a visit to a dermatologist to figure out what's really
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: Another symptom that is often not talked about. But she asked,
Speaker 1: I sometimes leak urine or can't make it to the
Speaker 1: back through me in time. Is this something I just
Speaker 1: have to live with?
Speaker 2: Absolutely not, no. So Urinarian continence can be one of
Speaker 2: the most devastating hallmarks of menopause because it's so life
Speaker 2: disruptive and it's frankly embarrassing, and so there is basically
Speaker 2: three buckets of incontinents. Again, one is stress in continence,
Speaker 2: which is you cough, you laugh, you sneeze, you put
Speaker 2: pressure on the bladder and it leaks where it used
Speaker 2: to not. You used to be able to go out
Speaker 2: with your girlfriends, laugh, tell a story and you wouldn't leak.
Speaker 2: And that is an anatomic issue. You have overridden the
Speaker 2: pressure valve that held the urethra up, and having babies, smoking,
Speaker 2: being overweight, that's all contributing factors. And loss of hormones
Speaker 2: from menopause. So for some patients, just getting them on
Speaker 2: hormone therapy or putting estrogen back will help strengthen that
Speaker 2: tissue back up where you can hold that valve back.
Speaker 2: Then there's urging continents, which is an autonomic spasm of
Speaker 2: the bladder. You're not telling your brain to do anything,
Speaker 2: it just kind of sometimes it's a key in the
Speaker 2: lock or there's some kind of a trigger, but you
Speaker 2: feel like you have to go and you run to
Speaker 2: the bathroom immediately and it's just running down your leg.
Speaker 2: And so that is treated with medication to relax the
Speaker 2: walls of the bladder. And then there's a neurogenic bladder.
Speaker 2: Pretty rare, usually in diabetics or spinal cord injuries where
Speaker 2: you lose the ability your brain cannot get the signal
Speaker 2: that the bladder's full and you need to be And
Speaker 2: so most women have stress or urge, your combination of
Speaker 2: the two. And there's fortunately EU rogoncologists who can help you.
Speaker 2: They're a specialist and what I did and they did
Speaker 2: more training to help you kind of figure out what's
Speaker 2: going on and get you the right treatment.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if this came with the hot flash issue,
Speaker 1: but Lisa asked, what can I do if I have
Speaker 1: trouble sleeping, which is something else that probably comes with
Speaker 1: the hot flashes and everything.
Speaker 2: Yes, sleep disruption is one of the top complaints more
Speaker 2: than hot flashes and so, and it's complicated definitely. If
Speaker 2: your hot flashes are waking you up, then sleep then
Speaker 2: you know, hormone replacement therapy really really helpful for you.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of you know, environment things that you
Speaker 2: can do, like cooling the room and things that I
Speaker 2: kind of took for Randa before that. I absolutely have
Speaker 2: to have the right pillow, the right blanket, the right
Speaker 2: night down, the right you know. I also my alcohol
Speaker 2: tolerance in menopause has gone away, and one glass of
Speaker 2: wine and I will not sleep. And that is a choice.
Speaker 2: If I choose to drink, I'm choosing to not sleep.
Speaker 1: And you know what's coming.
Speaker 2: I know what's coming. And so you have to prioritize
Speaker 2: your sleep and menopause. Like you have to prioritize your muscle.
Speaker 2: You have to prioritize your sleep or it's going to
Speaker 2: go away. And so hormon therapy can go a long way.
Speaker 2: I sleep beautifully now as long as I don't drink.
Speaker 2: But again, sleep's more complicated. There's you know, you have
Speaker 2: to make sure you have all the sleep hygiene things
Speaker 2: done same bedtime. You know. I did a podcast with
Speaker 2: a sleep specialist and.
Speaker 1: Especially treatise like we are children when you have kids, right,
Speaker 1: you swear by that schedule, do not get off the
Speaker 1: scale schule.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I swear by the schedule lab at.
Speaker 1: The same time.
Speaker 2: Baby. I mean that's us.
Speaker 1: Now it all comes full circle, doesn't it. Okay? Can
Speaker 1: I be a guy for two seconds?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: Do men go through a similar yeah, menopause.
Speaker 2: So I've looked at this data and the main way
Speaker 2: that we make to sascer one, both men and women
Speaker 2: about fifty percent and a woman is from the adrenal
Speaker 2: glands for androgens, and then we make out some in
Speaker 2: about half or in the ovaries, and so men it's
Speaker 2: mostly from the testicles and then some from precursors from
Speaker 2: the adrenal glands as well. We see your peak for
Speaker 2: men at about nineteen and then it kind of gently
Speaker 2: drifts down to about forty, and for the vast majority
Speaker 2: of men from forty till death it remains about the same.
Speaker 2: What happens is is a very large intervariability of taesoscer
Speaker 2: levels between men. Where normal is two hundred and I
Speaker 2: think fifty six to about one thousand. Okay, most men
Speaker 2: don't feel okay till they're about four hundred, so that's
Speaker 2: still a pretty wide window for sure variability. And so
Speaker 2: aging does a lot to us. And so you're kind of,
Speaker 2: you know, living your best life going about and then
Speaker 2: the aging factors kicked in. You know, you're getting older,
Speaker 2: things are slowing down. Sometimes a little extra testosterone can
Speaker 2: help you improve performance, feel better, you know, muscle, performance, brain,
Speaker 2: all the things.
Speaker 1: Like estag everything.
Speaker 2: There are testosterone receptors throughout our body. And so this
Speaker 2: is not my area of expertise, So there's not a manopause. No,
Speaker 2: we do see a gentle decline and then a kind
Speaker 2: of a stabilization about age forty. But for some men,
Speaker 2: testosterone supplementation in physiologic ranges can be really helpful to
Speaker 2: help them feel better and perform and function better.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say he deserves a book, but
Speaker 1: if you could go back and write your husband a
Speaker 1: pamphlet how to guide to help you and be there
Speaker 1: for you as you're going through menopause, are there some
Speaker 1: things that you would tell other men that, gosh, are
Speaker 1: going to be going through this with their significant other.
Speaker 2: That's such a good question. I went through So I
Speaker 2: was on birth control pills for most of my perimenopause,
Speaker 2: so mine was kind of mass okay, and then I
Speaker 2: came off. And then if you read my book, one
Speaker 2: of my brothers passed away, and so I was going
Speaker 2: through this like horrific life event and perimenopausal. I was
Speaker 2: gaslighting myself. He didn't know what the hell to do
Speaker 2: with me. I mean I was not sleeping, sweating, flashing,
Speaker 2: crying dramatic. I mean everything. My brother died in and
Speaker 2: I was like crying all the way home. From work,
Speaker 2: I go to clinic and patch myself together and take
Speaker 2: care of patients and go be the you know, then
Speaker 2: come home and move the whole way home. And I
Speaker 2: didn't even recognize my own perim. I thought I was
Speaker 2: a dang. I just thought I was crazy and grieving.
Speaker 2: And then one day, like the grief got better and
Speaker 2: I was like, you know, I realized I wasn't a
Speaker 2: sad whatever, but I was still miserable. I felt horrible.
Speaker 2: That joint pain for me was like, Okay, I'm dying,
Speaker 2: something is wrong, and he's just tiptoeing around, scheduling a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, trips out of town.
Speaker 1: You know, just like just scared to death. He's scared
Speaker 1: to death.
Speaker 2: So I think, I think the more we talk and
Speaker 2: the more we educate, and the more women get on
Speaker 2: board with being able to recognize their own symptoms and
Speaker 2: empower and educate themselves, and then their partners getting on board,
Speaker 2: I think it's going to make I really hope it's
Speaker 2: going to decrease the divorce rate at this age, you know,
Speaker 2: and so so much of divorces lack of communication and
Speaker 2: not understanding where the other person's coming from. And so
Speaker 2: I mean, there was also a really rough time in
Speaker 2: our marriage as well. I'm sure we just weren't communicate.
Speaker 1: It's like a stranger moves in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so he didn't know what to do. He's
Speaker 2: just living his life. You know. Everything's fine.
Speaker 1: So and some of this stuff can be embarrassing. So
Speaker 1: maybe the takeaway is for both sides communicate, communicate, try.
Speaker 2: But I think if you were to touch me on
Speaker 2: the shoulder and said, could you be menopausal? I would
Speaker 2: have killed him, you know, because of this negative stereotype
Speaker 2: of menopause at the time.
Speaker 1: I dare you, so, I guess your advice would be
Speaker 1: keep your head down and playing a bunch of golf yourself.
Speaker 2: You know, there's there's great books out there, you know.
Speaker 2: Open the conversation. I think though, the conversation needs to
Speaker 2: start with her and her saying something in my body
Speaker 2: is changing. You know. I can't tell you. I have
Speaker 2: a menopause clinic.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: That's all I do. I don't do babies or surgery.
Speaker 2: I just take care of menopause patients and probably fifteen
Speaker 2: to twenty percent of them will bring in a loved one,
Speaker 2: usually their partner, who just want to hear it. Who
Speaker 2: just want to be part of this solution, who want
Speaker 2: to be helpful, and it's really just touches me so
Speaker 2: much to see that.
Speaker 1: You mean, it's not like it, but I guess it's
Speaker 1: somewhat like going through childbirth, where when you go through
Speaker 1: it all together and you hear it all and you're
Speaker 1: educated at the same time, it makes sense. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it probably allows the communication to flow a little bit better. Doctor.
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough. I have absolutely loved this,
Speaker 1: believe it or not. I don't know if that's weird
Speaker 1: or not, but I've really enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. I love talking about this. It's my passion.
Speaker 1: You are phenomenal at it the way you articulate it
Speaker 1: and put it in these bite sized pieces. And by
Speaker 1: the way, just if you don't want to just listen
Speaker 1: to me, talk to the doctor. Find her on Instagram
Speaker 1: because you put up so much good stuff. I know
Speaker 1: you're on TikTok as well. I'm not, but find you
Speaker 1: on TikTok. Clearly you have YouTube videos at doctor Mary
Speaker 1: Clare on Instagram. You also have the book The Galveston Diet.
Speaker 2: And our website is undiet dot com.
Speaker 1: Okay, Galvestondiet dot com and are you working on another book?
Speaker 2: I am. So it's called The New Menopause, and take
Speaker 2: everything I just said in the last hour and expand
Speaker 2: it times one hundred and I really want it to
Speaker 2: be a critical resource guide for patients and partners and
Speaker 2: loved ones to understand what's out there, what's available, what
Speaker 2: the symptoms might be. It's something you would hand a
Speaker 2: twenty thirty year old so she's ready, you know. Remember
Speaker 2: that it's like what to expect when you're never going
Speaker 2: to expect again. Right.
Speaker 1: Uh. And by the way, what a great thing, because
Speaker 1: it is as we started this whole conversation, it is
Speaker 1: astounding to me that we don't do more to educate
Speaker 1: women for something that you are all going to go
Speaker 1: through and we just kind of blindly and hopefully maybe
Speaker 1: your mom's mentioned something, and that's how you that's how
Speaker 1: you get educated. So hopefully you are kind of breaking
Speaker 1: down that barrier and knocking down that wall so at
Speaker 1: least at the very least you can see what's coming
Speaker 1: and underst stand it when it hits. That's it, doctor,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you so much for the time, for
Speaker 1: the knowledge, and we need to do this again, I'd
Speaker 1: love to. We will continue this conversation because it is
Speaker 1: incredibly important. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Okay, take care, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at the most Dramatic pod ever,
Speaker 1: and make sure to write us a review and leave
Speaker 1: us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.