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A solo episode where I talk about my mom.

She died right after she turned 53. 

I am about to turn 53. 

This has been a thing. 

This is a thing for people. 

Also: the gifts my mom gave me by dying young, the message I want to give you about living courageously, with fear, honoring the ones we love that we lose, energy, breaking generational barriers and some funny stories, possibly involving cakes intentionally made to resemble poop.  

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Morgan Adams is a holistic sleep coach, with two advanced certifications in sleep science coaching. She works withwomen who struggle to get a good night's sleep consistently. 

And that is something she knows all about, because she spent almost a decade using prescription sleeping medication, even though she knew that her overall sleep quality suffered. 

We talk all about her journey to better sleep, her decision to help other people get there too, and how a good night’s sleep actually starts first thing in the morning.

Highlights:

• The scourge of sleep medication 
• Why you want to get outside first thing
• Yes those sunglasses are cute, but…
• Tips to make your phone less attractive 
• The real problem with social media at night
• The role of hormone therapy for sleep in perimenopause 
• Is biohacking your sleep necessary?

And much more…

Where to find Morgan: 

Web: Morganadamswellness.com

IG: @morganadams.wellness

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Dr Quentin Oury is a leading British GP at a busy NHS service with 16,000 patients. He is focused on men’s health, including the areas of erectile dysfunction and low testosterone. He joins me to talk about a topic that doesn't get much air time, but we are slowly starting to hear more about: andropause.

Many people don’t even know what the word means, but as Dr Oury explains, it’s a little known fact that men can suffer symptoms very similar to that of peri/menopause as their hormones decline with age. 

And when you listen to him describe “manopause” as he sees it in his office, and all the challenges that stand in the way of men recognizing that this is a condition that there is a lot of help available for, the parallels to what women have been going through are uncanny. 

Highlights: 

• How andropause presents – and why it’s confused for other things
• Why his typical patient is often healthy 
• The typical symptoms – including how it impacts mental health
• What’s going on, physiologically
• The testosterone Rx
• How this area is dramatically understudied – even less than menopause
• The link to diabetes – and to medical problems later on
• Why erectile dysfunction and low libido can be a bigger  health issue
• The difference in supplementing testosterone for andropause and the dangerous practice of “juicing” for muscle growth
• Why women are usually the ones who get men to the doctor
• Where to get more information

Where to find Dr Oury (and more info):

Web: H3health.co.uk

Instagram: @dr_q_o

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Dr Mary Claire Haver is a Texas-based board-certified ob-gyn and Certified Culinary Medicine specialist. She’s also TikTok’s top menopause doc with two million followers, published The Galveston Diet in January and is working on another book, this one specifically about menopause. 

I spoke to Dr Haver in early April and we talked about everything from hard times to why she believes every woman should take hormone therapy to reduce their risk of disease. 

Remember to listen to the disclaimer at the end and remember, this is not medical advice. (For counterpoints on hormone therapy for cardiovascular disease prevention, check out episode 66. For counterpoints on compounded hormones, check out episode 45. For counterpoints on the evolutionary theory of menopause, check out episode 2.)

Highlights: 

• How she hit the ground running from her very first Tiktok
• Finding out about the gaps in her own education
• Why menopause gets shoved into a little corner
• How the US healthcare system is preventing better menopause care 
• Why she chose to open a private clinic (and why she knows its elitist)
• What board-certified means (and why it’s better - even if it still doesn’t have much to do with menopause)
• How far behind menopause research has been and continues to be
• Her take on how to find good experts to follow – and how to get better care at the doctor’s office
• Her dream for research
• How she prescribes HRT 
• Her take on the progesterone-progestin question (and why she doesn’t like the “demonization” of synthetic hormones)
• Remembering we are all bio-diverse (and will react to HRT in our own way and need lots of options)
• How and why she pivoted to a more pro-hormone therapy message
• Why she says hormone therapy prescribing does not require expensive hormone testing – at any stage 
• Her answer to the question: Should women go on hormone therapy for prevention, not symptom treatment
• Why she thinks our generation is having a harder time in this – and how our mothers are guiding our health choices 
• How trauma is impacting our time in menopause 
• Her advice for you if you’re struggling (and some US telehealth recommendations)

Where to find Dr Haver:

Web: Galvestondiet.com
TikTok - @drmaryclaire

Instagram - drmaryclaire; the.galveston.diet
Facebook - The Galveston Diet Mary Claire Haver,

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Instagram: @hotflashinc
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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Day raver, cold swimmer, rabble-rouser, educator, author, podcaster, academic and publisher of scientific papers: Joyce Harper is a professor of reproductive science at the Institute for Women's Health, University College London. 

She’s also author of the 2021 book Your Fertile Years and hosts the podcast Why didn’t anyone tell me this?

Harper is uncompromised and unflappable. She is all about the evidence. She’s not opposed to HRT but isn’t a breathless enthusiast either. It has to be about the evidence, she argues, otherwise it’s just stories and anecdotes that don’t add up to anything. 

NB: We are both members of a balanced-approach group called MenoClarity, and we recorded this podcast before Joyce was quoted in a controversial Daily Mail article alleging excessive and unsafe HRT prescribing practices at a chain of private clinics in the UK. 

When I followed up with her about it, she said: "We need to give women accurate information about the menopause and treatments. In the UK we've created huge negativity – some suggesting menopause is a disorder. It's not fair to women and I really worry for the next generations who are now nearing menopause. Menopause can be difficult for some. But for most it's a transition and life post menopause can be the most exciting and liberating stage of our lives."

(As always, I’m not a medical professional and this podcast is not medical advice.  Expert opinion varies widely. Please listen to the disclaimer at the end podcast as well.) 

Highlights: 

• Almost 30 years after she completed her PhD, women still don’t understand their bodies
• Why we need to teach people what’s “normal” so they know when to seek help
• How she approaches research – and how we need to as well 
• Her top myths in women’s health and menopause
• When you should go on HRT and why dosing matters 
• How overall health sets you up for perimenopause
• Issues with the push for testosterone
• Why anecdotes are not research 
• Her research-based conclusions the claims that can prevent dementia 
• Why being post-menopause is so great 
• Her homework assignment for every perimenopausal woman

Where to find Joyce:

Web: Joyceharper.com; Globalwomenconnected.com
Twitter: @profjoyceharper
Instagram @profjoyceharper

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

Web: hotflashinc.com
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X: @hotflashinc

Episode website: Hotflashinc

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A special episode in which I talk all about being beset with a variety of health problems that could spell trouble, and how that made me feel, and what I was finally able to do about it. 

This is a podcast for anyone who is trying to get help but is tired, sick and down, or for someone who wants to avoid feeling that way. 

It's about getting help, making it through, and finally deciding that enough is enough, and you are going to truly do what you have to so you can heal and move forward. 

Also, my perennial search for a doctor who will help me find some damn HRT continues. 

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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I'm a journalist critical thinking my way through my own perimenopause.

In searching for good information, balance and context for myself, the Substack I publish on the subject, various social media accounts, and the interviews and solo episodes I do on this podcast, sometimes I just get floored at the things I see and hear on social media and in traditional media about menopause.

The reality is, I interview doctors all the time and they are knowledgeable and doing good work and passionate and all over the world, and they are also all over the place  on the basics, and have loads of blind spots.

But you wouldn't know that to look at social media.

The research is scant, considering half of women go through peri/menopause, and I just don't think as a journalist and a researcher there is room for this much certainty.

Hence, this episode.

As always: listen to the disclaimer at the end: this is not health advice.

Among the things I talk about here:

• the promise of HRT for prevention of dementia and cardiovascular disease vs the literature

• doctors menopause gurus on social media

• what 'medical gaslighting' actually is vs what people on social media are saying it is

• the missing conversation about autoimmune disorders vis-a-vis peri/menopause

• my own ongoing issues accessing hormone therapy from doctors in the Middle East

• the importance of going beyond menopause as an explanation for why more women experience dementia (and a host of other issues) than men

• asking why people get bejiggity about progesterone

• scary, uninformed yet appealing-to-the-masses influencers

• going from raising awareness about perimenopause to terrifying women – and is that better?

• an argument for the low and slow approach

• questioning the narrative that this isn't supposed to be happening

Studies referenced:

Global consensus testosterone position statement
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
HRT for symptoms or prevention of dementia and cardiovascular disease
Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society 2022
Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association 2023
Alzheimers.org.UK
Progestogens + breast cancer risk
Plos Journal 2023
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 2008

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Kate Deering is a San Diego-based personal trainer, holistic nutritionist and author of the ground-breaking book How to Heal Your Metabolism. 

Kate has some no-nonsense guidance for healing broken metabolisms and how to make the transition through menopause as easy as possible by drawing on the pro-metabolic approach to nutrition. 

That involves learning to understand your body and giving it the fuel it needs to function properly. She explains why menopause symptoms, and slow metabolism, can both come as a result of over-exercising, eating too little and putting yourself under too much stress in earlier life, and dispels popular myths such as the idea that eating carbs will make you put on weight. I watched a friend of mine transform in her 40s by doing this, and I’ve done it myself and felt the difference. Her take is that throwing hormones and supplements at the symptoms of menopause was never going to be an effective solution. Instead, her take is that we need to learn to look at healing any underlying issues, and and nurture and heal our body so that it can go through the process feeling healthy and strong.

Kate and I spoke last year as part of the first Menopause Shift Summit and I found her way of approaching this so helpful I wanted you to hear it. 

Highlights: 

• Why she doesn’t blame slowing metabolism on age
• What’s going on when perimenopause catches up with you
• What the bio-energetic, pro-metabolic way of eating looks like
• Pro-metabolic eating, organ meats and shellfish
• Gut and digestive issues and peri/menopause
• Why orange juice and dairy aren’t on this particular sh*t list 
• “Anti-metabolic” foods, however, are
• The issue with supplements
• How to square intermittent fasting with pro-metabolic eating (hint: you don’t)

Where you can find Kate: 

Web: KateDeering.com

IG: @katedeeringfitness

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Today I unleash an update on my own epic perimenopause experience, which began sometime in my early 40s, wreaked all sorts of havoc, and continues to this day – aged 52, looking ahead to turning 53.

I cover a lot here, so buckle up!

• A little about my early years and what led to Hotflash inc
• A taster of some of the symptoms I've dealt with
• What's going on with me now, physically and emotionally
• What my new gynecologist has to say about all of it
• A focus on my forgetfullness
• The crying, with a guest appearance by my American friend Lizzie Bermudez
• Why my perimenopause is like a video game, and where I feel I'm at in the levels
• How I'm turning into a recluse, but I know it's temporary
• My lengthy recounting of a night in Paris where I got mugged by a gang of teenagers and dealt with a hideously drunk Englishman – all in one night
• A list of things I've been crying about
• What's going on with my vagina
• The sensory stuff
• My love for Wise Power and authors Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, founders of Red School, which is a book I opened at just the right time 
• How I'm resting, puttering and snudging 

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Lynette Sheppard is such an important voice in the menopause space because she has such depth of experience and context for this conversation. The former nurse/manager, artist, speaker, advocate and more has, for 17 years now, been the author of The Menopause Goddess Blog. She started it, and gathered a group of 15 women around her, when "the change" started and  "really whooped her upside the head".

Lynette beautifully straddles the space between allopathic and naturopathic worlds, and so she's right there in the moderate middle and has some really great insight about how to pull from both of them in these overloaded, binary times we live in.  She's also on the other side of this transition and has some really key words for those of us wondering if we will ever make it and if we do, whether it will be better than this.

Highlights:

• Why you should feel good about taking HRT
• The difference in approaches between allopathic and naturopathic medicine
• Why the medical establishment is so stubborn
• Why perimenopause is no time to make any sudden moves
• What happens when you get past the horror of the symptoms
• Why you need your own a group of goddessess
• How men seem to change as they get older (menopause)
• Why she thinks lifestyle changes might matter most
• Some really useful relationship and sex life advice
• Why you need to be kinder and gentler to yourself, now more than ever
• Why you need your own Menopause Goddess circle

Where you can find Lynette:

Web: Menopause Goddess Blog 

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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