July 9, 2025 • 48 mins
Feeling exhausted, foggy-headed, and wondering where your vitality went? You're not alone, and there's a better answer than "just getting older."
Meet Dr. Prudence Hall, a pioneering gynecologist who transformed her practice when she realized traditional medicine wasn't adequately addressing women's menopausal symptoms. With over four decades of experience helping women reclaim their radiance, Dr. Hall shares her revolutionary approach to hormone health in this enlightening conversation.
Radiance—that special glow emanating from self-confidence, joy, and authentic living—isn't reserved for the young. It's your birthright at every age, especially during midlife when wisdom and experience should be enhancing your life, not diminishing it. Dr. Hall explains how proper hormone balancing addresses the root causes of common complaints like fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, and those notorious hot flashes.
You'll discover why modern women are experiencing menopause earlier than previous generations, how five different hormone systems must work in harmony for optimal health, and why conventional medicine often misses crucial opportunities for treatment. Dr. Hall demystifies bioidentical hormones, explains the essential (and overlooked) role of testosterone for women, and shares practical sleep strategies that support hormone balance.
Most importantly, you'll learn how to reframe menopause not as a crisis of decline but as a potential renaissance—a time to reconnect with your authentic self and step into a vibrant new chapter. Women who optimize their hormones don't just survive midlife; they thrive, often accomplishing extraordinary things once their energy and clarity return.
Ready to stop accepting fatigue and discomfort as "normal aging"? Download Dr. Hall's free book "Radiant Again and Forever" at drprudencehall.com and begin your journey back to vitality. Your radiance is waiting to be reclaimed.
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DR. PRUDENCE HALL
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
As we all know, life isn't always delicious, and one
of the only constants we have inlife is that things are always
changing.
Life can be a beautiful mess oftwists and turns and as we grow
through each unique season oflife, our needs change, our
goals change, our prioritieschange and our responsibilities
(00:22):
change.
And sometimes, when the reallyhard stuff shows up, as it
inevitably will, we can findourselves lost and without a
clear direction.
Sometimes that can happen whenwe've had a huge life transition
, like a divorce or a diagnosis,or we realize that our babies
are all grown up and ready to beout on their own.
And sometimes it can be asubtle or not so subtle
(00:45):
restlessness that tells us we'reready to step into a bigger,
bolder, more authentic versionof ourself.
But one thing is for sure wecan't transition into what's
next happily until we get reallyclear about what's weighing us
down, what lights us up and whatwe truly want.
When our soul whispers itstruth Happy is Not an Accident
(01:07):
is a guided journal created tobring you back home to your
truest self, to remember who youare and to give you a safe
place to explore and reflect onwhere you've been, where you
really want to go and who youwant to become now, with deep,
inspiring prompts,thought-provoking questions and
powerful exercises to help youexcavate your most authentic
(01:29):
self.
Happy Is Not An Accident willbe the daily ritual that you
look forward to as you step intothis next awesome chapter of
life.
Give yourself the gift ofself-reflection and create this
beautiful life of yours onpurpose and with intention.
Get your copy, or one forsomebody that you love at
lifeisdeliciousca forward slashhappy.
(01:52):
Hey, beautiful friend, it'sMarni, and welcome back to this
episode of Life is Delicious.
And if this is your first timehere, welcome to the Life is
Delicious family.
Today we are going to be talkingabout radiance.
Radiance is a woman's innerlight that shines outward.
It's that glow that comes fromself-confidence, joy,
(02:16):
authenticity and well-being.
It's more than just physicalbeauty.
Radiance reflects a vibrantspirit, a kind heart and a
presence that uplifts thosearound her.
It's the sparkle in your eyes,the warmth in your smile and the
energy that you bring intoevery room you go into.
And radiance has nothing to dowith age, appearance or being
(02:40):
perfect.
It's fueled by self-love,purpose and living a life in
alignment with your truth.
So today I have a special guestfor you.
Her name is Dr Prudence Hall.
She is the founder of the HallCenter, located in Santa Monica,
california.
She's been featured on theOprah Show and Dr Oz.
(03:01):
She has so much wisdom to sharewith us and I'm so grateful to
have her here.
Welcome to this.
Episode of Life is Delicious.
Do you ever feel like midlifehas you running on an endless
hamster wheel ofresponsibilities while your own
dreams just gather dust?
Is the crazy chaos of caringfor everyone else leaving you
(03:25):
exhausted and overwhelmed?
And is the hormonal hurricaneof menopause threatening to
derail your sanity?
Are you in desperate need ofsome self-care, balance and
reconnection with your truestself?
If so, then I'm so glad you'rehere.
This podcast isn't aboutsurviving midlife.
(03:45):
It's about crafting a nextchapter overflowing with purpose
, joy and deliciouspossibilities.
I'm Marni Martin, amulti-passionate entrepreneur,
daughter and a hot midlife mama,literally, and over the last
decade I've been through careerpivots, a divorce and a survived
the empty nest, only to have itfill up again.
(04:06):
I spent the next several yearstraveling miles and miles every
month to care for my elderlyparents, and my time and
attention was so torn in everydirection that I lost track of
who I was and I found myself inan endless cycle of people
pleasing, putting out fires and,frankly, running on empty.
I know how it feels to be stuckin chronic overwhelm, stress
(04:31):
and chaos, and, trust me, it'snot a pretty picture.
I decided that it was time totake my own life and health back
.
I worked hard to reclaim myhealth through radical self-care
practices, recalibrating mynervous system and setting
healthy boundaries that allowedme to start living my life on
purpose again.
I'm here to show you thatmidlife doesn't have to be a
(04:54):
crisis, but instead a beautifulinvitation to prioritize
yourself again.
If you're ready to take backyour joie de vivre, then pop in
those earbuds and let's go getit.
So Dr Prudence Hall started as atraditional gynecological
surgeon and then shetransitioned her career to focus
(05:16):
on regenerative and integrativemedicine.
She works with both men andwomen, and she saw a critical
need to address debilitatingsymptoms that a lot of her
patients were experiencing thatwas associated with aging.
So she's going to enlighten ustoday on how we can find ways to
actually bring our own radianceback.
(05:37):
She's delightful and I love howher own radiance is a testament
to what she teaches.
So welcome, dr Prudence.
I'm so grateful to have youhere, marnie.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I'm delighted to be here.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So I wanted to have you on the show because I know
you are an expert in menopauseand you have a menopause
breakthrough program and you'vealso written a book called
Radiant Again and Forever and Italk so much on my podcast about
radiance and finding themidlife space where you can
actually not just survive or getthrough or be pain free or
(06:13):
manage your hormones, but youcan actually thrive and have
vitality and just be better thanyou ever have been.
So I know that's one of yourspecialties, so maybe tell me
how you got into being in thisparticular focus point.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, I'm a gynecologist, I'm an
obstetrician and gynecologist,and when I came out of my
residency program from USCpracticing traditional
gynecology and then I realizedoh my goodness, my menopausal
patients I'm not doing well bythem.
They're crying and saying it'snot helping what I'm doing.
So that started me really on afour decade or a little bit more
(06:48):
than four decades of learningabout women in a way that I
hadn't been taught about in myresidency.
You know, really being able totalk to them and explore who
they were and what they needed.
And I found out that you knowthere's tremendous variability
in terms of how we respond tomedications or to herbs or to
life in general.
And that really spurred just acomplete interest in how can I
(07:09):
really help these women who arestruggling so much and that
Western medicine has failed.
So I just started working andlearning, and from learning
about menopause you know nothingthat I had learned in my
residency, but learning aboutall the components that create
vitality and sleep and sexualityand all of that Then I started
(07:30):
realizing how much the spiritualcomponent and the emotional
component was involved in that.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So you know, we are a package of many things we women
.
Yes, we do, and it's amazing howmany women are struggling with
finding that.
So it's such an important thing, and I'm so grateful to
practitioners like you thatactually focus in on that,
because it's really something.
Until I kind of got into doingthe podcast and delving into the
(07:56):
midlife sector, I just didn'trealize how many women were
struggling with the same thing.
What, would you say, isprobably the number one thing
that people come in to see you?
What is the thing they'restruggling with most?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, it depends a little bit on the age of the
woman, because I see everyonefrom teenagers all the way
through to 80 or 90 years old,but typically women come in and
say I'm tired, something's goingon with me.
I'm not the same person I usedto be.
It's frightening.
I don't know what's happening,I can't remember things.
I've gained 30 pounds.
I don't feel like making love.
It's really causing arelationship problem, and you
(08:30):
know.
Then there's things like hotflashes.
I just I feel like I'm sweatingall the time.
Maybe I have, you know, sometype of cancer that causes
sweating, feeling not likethemselves, less optimal, and
usually fatigue is really,really important and an
important concern of most women,absolutely, I know for me.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I struggled a lot and I'm just kind of coming out of
the hot flash phase for myself,but I've called myself a hot
midlife mama for a while,because it's kind of the literal
reality.
Well, we want hot mamas.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
We want hot mamas.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Exactly, just not always sweating to death yet for
sure.
Yeah, it's great to know.
So obviously sleep is a hugecomponent.
I know that's a big strugglefor a lot of my women friends
and obviously our hormonesreally wreak a lot of havoc with
our sleep.
So how do you go about helpingpeople to find you know their
balance?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's just a wonderful question, especially,
you know, segueing sleep intothat.
So when I look at hormones and80% of my patients are women and
about 20% are men I'm lookingat five different hormones sets,
endocrine glands.
I look at the thyroid, theovarian hormones.
I look at the adrenal stresshormones which are located right
(09:43):
on top of the kidneys, also thesunshine hormone, which is
located in the skin.
So the skin is a huge endocrinegland.
And I look at the pancreas withits insulin and long-term sugar
marker.
So I start by saying well, whereis this fatigue or lack of
vitality, or depression, anxiety, moodiness coming from?
And I look at all the differenthormones.
(10:05):
So, for example, if someone istired, that definitely happens
due to menopause, and menopauseis when we lose our ovarian
hormones.
The ovaries just stop working.
So it comes from menopause,enormous fatigue.
It comes from low adrenalhormones.
So when we're highly stressedand we stay stressed for a
certain period of time and itvaries from person to person how
(10:26):
long the stress has to lastthree primary hormones cortisol,
dhea and pregnenolone they'revery, very high and adrenaline
too, which is pretty muchinvolved in this too.
Then they just start to dropand we go into a burnout state
where the adrenal glands can'tkeep up with the amount of
stress we have, so that resultsin enormous fatigue and also
(10:48):
thyroid.
40% of thyroid disease is notdiagnosed when you just follow
the regular reference range thatlabs say.
This is the normal referencerange.
So a lot of my patients haveborderline low thyroid.
Thyroid gland is located rightin the neck.
It runs our metabolism, givesus energy and when that starts
(11:08):
to decline we feel very, verytired.
So I just analytically look ateverything, listen.
I listen to what women want.
What's the problem?
What you know?
Where might it be?
And I love it, marnie, I'venever grown tired of being kind
of a detective, a hormonedetective, and bringing back
this radiance to women whichthey deserve.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Oh, absolutely, and I love that you call it being a
hormone detective, becausethere's so many factors all that
have to work together inharmony in order for that
vibrancy and feeling good totake place right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And of course it's lifestyle.
I mean, are we not sleeping?
I mean in menopause andperimenopause.
And, by the way, perimenopause,which is, you know, five, six,
seven years before, menopause,starts in our late 30s, and
menopause nowadays is about 44to 48 years old, much younger
than it was four decades ago.
So in menopause, in the middleof the night our cortisol level
rises.
(12:04):
That's an adrenal stress, youknow, kind of a stress hormone,
and then we wake up and we'resweating, we can't go back to
sleep.
So there's stress inside thebody and there's also stressors
and things outside of the bodythat can interrupt our vitality
and our energy.
So we deal with a lot of stuff.
I mean, we're in the middle ofso many different things that
(12:24):
women are very, very concernedabout not only politics but the
health of their children.
Children are no longer ashealthy as they were years and
years and years ago and financesare hard.
So it's an inside job.
It's an outside job and it's amental job too.
How we're able to handle all ofthese multiple things coming at
us.
Yeah, and it's interesting thatquite often we're able to
handle all of these multiplethings coming at at us.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, and it's interesting that quite often
we're in probably one of thehardest times of our life when
we're in that midlife, because alot of us are in the sandwich
generation, so we're not onlytrying to care for ourself while
our body is changing and wehave all these new things
happening, but we're also tryingto take care of our either
teenage or almost grown kids oradult children, and then we have
(13:08):
aging parents to consider aswell, so that just adds on to
the pile of all the otherstressors.
So it's a lot to carry.
What do you think would be themain reason that perimenopause
is happening so much younger nowthan it used?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
to Well, that's a question that many people are
investigating, but I think ithas to do with toxicity stress.
It has to do with the birthcontrol pill.
The birth control pill wrecksour hormones.
It just plays terrible havocwith our hormones.
Some women, after they come offthe birth control pill, are not
able to reestablish healthyhormones.
Most women are after six monthsto a year to a year and a half.
(13:44):
But you know, so many youngpeople are on the birth control
pill and that in and of itselfcauses fatigue.
So toxicity stress,inflammation, high sugar for
sure we have so manycarbohydrates and sugar in our
diet.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
So with a young woman , say, just coming off of her
birth control pill and now she'strying to figure this out, what
would you advise for trying tobalance the hormones?
What would be sort of therecipe for that?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
so I like to start with a very natural approach.
So one of the the naturopathicsupplements I use is something
called pregnancy prep and ithelps to affects the pituitary
gland, to help the pituitarygland reconnect to the ovary.
So the birth control pill kindof cuts the ovary loose and
(14:30):
there's no real connectionbetween the hypothalamus, the
pituitary gland and the ovary.
So pregnancy prep reconnectsthose and helps with a series of
herbs.
Also increasing fat in our dietand that would be good fat,
because hormones come fromcholesterol, which is fat
basically.
So more olive oil and moreomega-3.
You know a thousand, twothousand milligrams of omega-3.
(14:52):
You always want to refrigerateit so it doesn't become rancid.
Getting more sleep so gettingeight hours of sleep, sometimes
eight and a half or even ninehours of sleep, and that takes
so much stress off of women.
Managing stress is important.
So if we can give a littleherbal kind of boost to the
reconnect sleep, eat more fatwe're gonna start making our
hormones much more easily.
(15:14):
To get back to a pill recovery,I call it post pill recovery
time.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Wow, I love that your approach is so holistic and not
so much drug focused, and it'sreally I guess we underestimate
how much sleep we actually need.
We do I?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
personally sleep no less than eight hours.
I generally feel much betterthan better at nine hours and if
I know I'm getting sick which Irarely do, but if I start to
feel sick, I'll go to bed for 10hours and the next day it's
gone.
So sleep builds our immunityand allows the body to detoxify.
I kind of treat it like, well,the cleaning crew is coming up,
(15:50):
it's going to detoxify the body.
But if we only get five hoursof sleep or six hours of sleep,
the cleaning crew isn't done,because during the day we're
digesting and we're I mean,we're using all these other
functions rather than detoxingour liver and our cells.
And so sleep is the time fordetox and it keeps us looking
better and feeling much morevital and avoiding chronic
(16:12):
illnesses.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I love that analogy with the cleaning crew.
That makes a lot of sense,actually, and I guess we didn't.
Really we don't think of itthat way, but that's the truth,
right?
You get your janitorial crew inthere while you're sleeping.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
You know we want to sleep, eat maybe three or four
hours before you go to sleep.
So we're digesting, digesting,you know, doing all that stuff,
and then there's not much forthe body to do except clean.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Right, and so now with, maybe, women that are in
the middle of menopause, what'sthe protocol for that?
And I know it's individual, youcan't have a blanket approach
for everyone, but what would yousay is kind of the other thing
for them to really focus on?
Is it still sleep, or are thereother factors that they have to
really pay attention?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
to.
Yeah, sleep is essential,obviously, but there are many
other factors.
So I use a lot of bioidenticalhormones and I also use herbs
and which refer people foracupuncture, which is also very
helpful.
But after I've analyzed all thehormones, I have five different
ways that I deliver.
Bioidentical estrogen andbioidentical hormones are
(17:10):
exactly the same hormones,marnie, that you and I make, and
probably all of our listenerswill have the same ones, unless
they're from another planet orsomething.
So I repeat those hormones.
Back to youthful levels.
So I don't look at thereference range, because I use
youthful reference ranges andthe reference ranges that the
lab uses.
Well, whoever walks through toget their labs drawn, that's
(17:31):
part of the reference range.
And there can be 90 year oldwomen, 80 year old women, women
on the birth control pill, whohave very, very abnormal
hormones.
So I've done this for so longand I've taken care of some very
, very healthy people thatthey're in my reference range
for health, and so then I, youknow, first of all, talk to them
.
What are your goals?
What are your symptoms?
Our goal is to get rid of allthe symptoms and also to prevent
(17:53):
future aging.
So usually I'll be replacingestrogen or rebalancing or
optimizing estrogen.
But I use creams that's one ofthe things I use Drops, tropes
that you put under your tongue,also the patch.
You know pharmaceuticalcompanies are not.
They know they know a lot interms of bioidentical hormones.
(18:13):
At this point.
I think a lot of this outragefrom women rightfully so started
when in 1940, primarin wascreated and primarin was what I
was taught to do in my residencyin 1980, in the early 90s, and
that is pregnant horses urine,primarin and it turned out to be
a fairly inflammatory hormonebecause a lot of people are
(18:36):
allergic to horses and that'snot our same hormones.
We don't have horse hormonesthat are pregnant horse hormones
.
We have people hormones and arepregnant horse hormones.
We have people hormones and notpregnant people hormones.
Yeah, that caused a lot ofinflammation and it increased
dementia, it increased heartdisease and when all of this
became known, then women becamevery upset with pharmaceutical
(18:58):
companies.
I would say you know there'sbeen a huge distrust in medicine
that's come in, especiallyafter COVID and the way that was
handled Right.
So but you know, really some ofthe most amazing inventions and
interventions in medicine hascome from the biotech
pharmaceutical companies Curesfor AIDS.
My son had a stage threemelanoma.
He's cured because of themedications that this one
(19:20):
amazing biotech you know, that'slike the high-tech company but
in the pharmaceutical industrycame up with.
So you know, they know aboutthe patches bioidentical and you
can apply it, the cream you puton your skin twice a day.
So I talk to people about theirlifestyle and which method
they'd like to use best.
I also use vaginal inserts as aestrogen and then I add
(19:42):
progesterone if needed.
Testosterone is very, veryimportant.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, we don't really talk about testosterone so much
for women.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So it's kind of there's a little bit of sadness
when I talk about testosteronebecause it was recently declined
by the FDA as a treatment forwomen.
I know I mean, marnie, you canbelieve something, but you can
also know this I 100%,absolutely know that
testosterone for women is vital.
It builds our bones and ourmuscles, it helps us become more
(20:15):
confident, it creates forwardmotion in our thinking.
So we don't oh, I don't knowwhat to do, and maybe this,
maybe that I mean directionality, which is really nice.
It runs our sex drives.
We can't have orgasms withoutit.
We feel like we're neutered andthey decline this vital,
wonderful hormone for women.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Why do you think that ?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
is Do you have it?
Yeah, abe Morgenthaler, who'sthe father of testosterone
therapy, has an incredible teamat Harvard and he went before
the FDA to say, look, we need tohave this approved for women.
I mean, the data for men isjust ironclad.
I was taught in urology in myresidence in my medical school
(20:58):
rotations that testosterone wasthe fuel that fed prostate
cancer.
And now we know that the reasonwhy older men get prostate
cancer so frequently is thatthey don't have enough
testosterone.
So that paradigm has completelychanged.
For men, if they have prostatecancer even if it's a Gleason
score 9, which is a veryaggressive cancer most
(21:19):
urologists are now saying, yes,you can go on testosterone
because it has those benefits ofactually decreasing prostate
cancer.
So that would decrease thereturn or the reoccurrence of
prostate cancer.
There's no reason that I cansee why testosterone is not
approved for women.
I cannot see a single reason.
Testosterone is extremely safe.
I monitor metabolites of allthe hormones.
(21:41):
So testosterone breaks downinto estrogen tiny little bit
and then something calleddihydrotestosterone.
So it goes like that in thebody.
The liver breaks it down andDHT, if it gets too high, can
cause a little bit of acne.
It might cause a little bit ofhair growth on the face, it
could cause hair thinning.
All you have to do, marnie, isjust follow the DHT and make
(22:03):
sure that it's not getting high,it's not becoming too high and
most of the time it's just notfor women.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Wow, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It's fascinating, you know, women have been
disenfranchised and disregarded.
I mean, when did women get theright to vote?
You know, 80 years ago.
I mean it's, this is a way.
I mean I don't.
I, as a gynecologist, I reallysupport women's dignity and
women's need to be able to knowwhen they're going to procreate.
Dignity and women's need to beable to know when they're going
(22:36):
to procreate.
So I support birth controlmethods.
I'm not fond of the pill.
You know, it's beendisappointing to see, with so
many hundreds of women whosehormones I've measured, how
radically it changes ourhormones.
But I love birth control forwomen and you know the IUD, the
Paragard especially, doesn'thurt our hormones.
So I don't know why women arebeing marginalized when we're
just, you know, we're the lightof the world.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yes, we are, we bring more babies in.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
We nurture our families, our husbands, our
communities, our, our, theuniverse, and we need energy.
Marnie, recently, because Istopped making testosterone
because it's a little bit of awitch hunt out there I stopped
making it no longer, mycompounder no longer makes it,
but I temporarily for the firsttime in 25 years, I was not on
testosterone and I started tofeel like I'm kind of tired and
(23:25):
I'll feel kind of maybe downlike never down, but I'm more
down and life is morefrightening.
I was a little bit morefrightened and and it's just
like I stopped having orgasms.
It's like what?
What is going on?
I must be going through somekind of a crisis and maybe I
(23:46):
ignored that, maybe I really wasvery traumatized by that, which
I actually wasn't but and thenit's just like holy shoot, after
me talking to women for so manyyears about testosterone here,
I'm off it for two weeks and nowthat I'm back on it, all of
that has disappeared.
So, hormones really affect ourwell-being.
Testosterone is critical.
We got to get in front of thatFDA again and let them know how
(24:09):
important it is.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, so could you explain just a little bit more
for maybe some of the listenersthat don't really know what the
term bioidentical actually isand how you go about compounding
?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
those, yes, bioidentical hormones are
exactly the same hormones thatwe make.
Mine are the same as yours,it's the same as all women.
So when those hormones aregiven back to women they have to
be molecule per moleculeexactly the same.
So that's called bioidentical.
Now the Primarin that was madein the 1940s and was very
(24:43):
popular all the way through to1985, 1990, even probably even
now it's ordered quite a bit bygynecologists.
But those are not the samehormones that our body makes.
So when you use a hormonethat's kind of like our hormones
but not really, we don't getthe same results.
So it's like, you know, if youhave a glass of milk and then
(25:04):
you add chocolate to it.
I mean, those are verydifferent things Chocolate milk,
you know, or milk.
So same thing with the body,non-bioidentical hormones.
I used Primarin for about a yearwhen I came out of residency
Maybe a little bit longer, whenpeople really said I really,
really, really want Primarin.
But now I just wouldn't evendream of ordering that because
(25:26):
we have so many better things.
And when I make it I actuallyorder it from pharmaceutical
companies.
They make it in theirpharmaceutical houses to be FDA
approved and it's absolutelypure.
I put it into an olive oil baseand then we whip it up into a
cream.
So that's called compounding it, because the estrogen really
(25:46):
needs to be put into some kindof base.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Pharmaceutical companies do make creams, so it
can be available to the body.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yes, so it can be available to the body.
Yes, so it can be available tothe body.
So I don't like the idea ofsynthetic or bioidentical,
because everything is reallysynthesized.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
What I'm curious about actually is because I have
never been on any bioidenticalhormones and I've had some
issues, for sure that over thepast, you know, I would say year
or two for sure.
But I've heard also thatthere's some side effects or
there's a lot of bad press thatkind of goes around with it.
So could you explain sort ofthe dangers of the bioidentical
(26:22):
hormone and what people shouldlook out for if they decide that
they want to go that route?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah.
So first of all I'd kind oflike to talk about the
comparison.
So I just want to say that whenestrogen is low in menopause,
up goes inflammation in the body, up goes stress, the body
becomes very stressed andsleepless and anxious, and then
up goes high blood sugar, whichcauses enormous damage in the
body, and up goes LDLcholesterol, the bad cholesterol
(26:49):
, and all the sub-particles ofthe bad cholesterol.
So when that happens, thesecause diseases, lots of diseases
heart disease, diabetes,dementia, autoimmune disease,
all kinds of cancers.
And so when we replace theestrogen, not only do the
symptoms go away, but a myriadof chronic diseases of aging
goes away.
So that's the playground inwhich we're playing Now.
(27:11):
For 30 years, almost 35 years, Iwas duking it out trying to say
, look, hormones are safe,there's no increased breast
cancer.
I mean, it prevents so manychronic diseases.
I mean I was on Oprah and allthese things, dr Phil, wonderful
, educating and educating, butit wasn't tipping.
Everybody kept on saying no, itcauses breast cancer and it's
it's not good for the body, andthere were just kind of these
(27:33):
suspicions.
I think it was a lot ofsuspicion, but no real facts,
because when you look at thefacts, they're so good for us.
They lower inflammation, theylower stress, they allow us to
sleep, they help our hair togrow and our bodies to be strong
and our bones to be strong andmuscles to be strong, as well as
preventing all the symptoms ofmenopause.
(27:53):
Menopause tipped about fiveyears ago, where people are now
saying just like withtestosterone for men, where
urologists were saying, no,danger, danger, danger, don't
use it.
Don't use it, it causesprostate cancer.
Now they aren't saying that formen.
They're saying no, it preventsprostate cancer.
But also for women, people arereally talking about this in
(28:16):
great sources.
The New York Times has beenvery important in terms of
really getting the informationout there.
So I do not think thatbioidentical hormones are in
replacing and optimizing ourhormones back to youthful levels
is dangerous.
There's no increased risk ofbreast cancer.
There is a tremendous amount ofbenefit that comes from it.
(28:36):
It would really help ifsomebody if a doctor or a nurse
or a naturopathic doctor oranyone who is a prescriber took
a really big interest in it andlearned how to do it correctly.
So in my opinion, you want touse a good source of transdermal
skin hormones.
(28:57):
You don't want to take pills,because if you take the tablets
of estrogen that can increasedeep vein thrombosis.
That's blood clots in the legsDangerous situation.
If you use cream, there's noincrease.
I just recently did a AI hugemedical search on that and they
said no, there is no increaseddeep brain thrombosis whatsoever
(29:17):
.
I also did a big perplexitythat's an AI very prone to
medical information and studieslooking to see what the newest
thing was on breast cancer noincreased risk of breast cancer.
It kind of depends on how yougive the patient progesterone
and how much you give but noincreased risk of breast cancers
.
So women tell me frequently inthe first month of taking
(29:38):
hormones that they have a poundor two more of weight.
It's usually water weightbecause our cells become
dehydrated in menopause, ourskin becomes dry and the water
that we're drinking is now beingretained in the body, which is
very important for health.
Women also tell me that.
(29:59):
Well, you know my sleep is notback to normal yet and I still
have occasional hot flashes.
Hot flashes, by the way, are oneof the easiest things to get
rid of.
I mean when I was on the Oprahshow I've been on it several
times the first time Oprah foundthe worst menopausal patient
that she could find.
And I talked to Linda.
She's still my patient.
I talked to Linda.
I said okay, linda, how muchtime do we have to fix you?
She said five days.
I said, linda, what do you meanfive days?
(30:20):
We have five days to bring youback to, back to normal.
And she said well, it's mainlythe hot flashes.
I'm soaked 24 seven.
I was calling her twice a dayto see how her hot flashes are.
We got rid of them in five days.
She went on that Oprah.
She said my hot flashes aregone.
But look, I think that I wasjust being blessed by the
(30:41):
heavens that be, becausenormally it takes quite a while
I would say six weeks, eightweeks, 12 weeks before you
really can lower theinflammation.
There's so much body pain inmenopause, everything hurts.
So the inflammation is loweredand you start sleeping more and
I have all kinds of sleepprotocols for that and it takes
time to reverse.
(31:02):
You know all the years or themonths or the weeks of time that
went by when we're going deeperand deeper into menopause.
So the best time to get yourhormones checked is to get a
baseline around age 30, 25, 30.
That would be estrogen,progesterone, testosterone,
maybe your thyroid, and thatcould be a good baseline to know
where do we need to bring yourhormones back to, and then
(31:24):
really cannot say that womencome to me bleeding Okay, so
that's something that I do hearabout.
So women, when they're onhormones, especially when they
start the first three to sixmonths, they can have a return
of their period or irregularbleeding and I would say maybe
5% of my patients report thatand basically I reassure them, I
(31:45):
make sure that we get a pelvicultrasound on them and if the
uterine lining is thick, youknow, then we do various things
to thin it out and to make surethat it's not a pre-existing
cancer that they came into theclinic with before I put them on
hormones.
But it's all benefits, justamazing benefits for the skin,
the hair, the bones, the muscles, disease prevention.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
So in that five days, what did you do for Linda to
actually cure her hot flashes?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well, it was a full court press.
Let me tell you it wasbioidentical estrogen that I
used.
Estrogens will stop hot flashesquite quickly usually not in
five days, when somebody issoaking their bed and having hot
flashes every five minutes.
But yeah, estrogen decreasesthat.
I also helped her to sleep.
I put her on a combination ofmagnesium and melatonin and GABA
(32:33):
, so the brain was 5-HTP, thebrain was much more quiet and
she was getting better sleep.
So not only did she start tofeel like she had more energy,
but the hot flashes stopped.
I was literally calling hertwice a day and helping her to
kind of let's raise the estrogenjust a little bit.
Just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's amazing, that'sfor sure Amazing.
She's a good girl, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
But listen, all hot flashes stop.
All hot flashes stop.
It's probably one of the easierthings, to you know, to get rid
of, and I would say depressionand mood swings are the second
easiest to get rid of.
I mean, we're not Prozacdeficient, we're estrogen
deficient, testosteronedeficient, thyroid deficient,
adrenal hormone deficient.
So those are pretty easy to getrid of too and to correct.
(33:17):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Thank you for the great information.
So tell me about your book thatyou wrote, Radiant Again and
Forever, and what actuallyspurred you to write that and
what's the focal point on it?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Well, I wrote this a number of years ago and my dear
friend, suzanne Summers, saidPrudence, it's time to write
your book.
And she interviewed me manytimes and I was on a number of
her shows and just love her.
I absolutely have loved Suzanneand her husband for many, many
years and it's like, oh, suzanne, I'm so busy.
(33:50):
And she said, no, you've got todo this Prudence.
I said, okay, what do yousuggest?
She said each chapter is adifferent hormone deficiency.
So you have menopause, you haveperimenopause.
And I said, okay, sohypothyroidism, low adrenals.
And I said, and I think, maybesexual, a chapter on sexual
issues and women's sexuality andhow do we bring that back and
what helps with our sexuality.
(34:10):
And then she said, yeah, yeah,that, of course, that too.
Hey, how about writing aboutbreast cancer?
And I said, okay, I'll put achapter in and one of my
patients that you know I takecare of, many patients who have
had breast cancer and so I put achapter there.
And then, at the time that Iwas writing that, and for
probably 15 years before, Ipersonally was in a really
(34:31):
expanded state, you know, goinginto all kinds of performance
enhancement, spiritual expansion, different ways of thinking
about things.
It was a true renaissance, andmenopause can be this.
It can be a real renaissance ofyour life, where you connect to
yourself and you just want tokeep on learning and growing and
(34:51):
becoming a new person.
It's like the butterfly it'snot yet.
It's not yet a butterfly, sothere's a lot of personal work
that needs to be done to becomethat beautiful creature, and so
Suzanne told me to write it andI wrote it.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Good for you.
That's amazing.
And she's written some greatbooks over the years too, so
it's nice to have somebody thatcan encourage you.
That's sort of been where youare going.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, and she wrote the forward and she gave me
ideas for a second book that Ireally wrote, but I haven't
published yet.
I have to work a little bitmore on it.
So it's free.
I didn't write a book for money.
I wrote the book to educatewomen and a lot of women see
themselves in these differentwomen that I describe in each
chapter.
So you can get that on mywebsite.
(35:35):
It's downloaded to all of mybooks.
Burned in the Palisades Fire.
I lost my house in thePalisades Fire.
You can get it for free.
Listen, it's in the cloud, thisbook, and you can just download
it to your email.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
That's amazing.
I love it.
We're going to make sure we putall those links to your website
in the show notes.
Yeah, so tell us a little bitabout your menopause
breakthrough program and whatpeople can expect if they wanted
to participate.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, it got a little bit delayed because of the fire
, but I take 20 people throughmenopause all at once.
Everybody gets their hormonestogether.
I mean, they all get theirblood drawn and their hormones
drawn and each week it's a10-week program.
Each week we address differentissues, so we go over just a
myriad of things.
Everybody knows what they needto do with their hormones and in
order for me to prescribe thehormones, they see my daughter,
(36:26):
who's a wonderful hormone expert.
Also, she's a naturopathicdoctor.
They get to see her twiceduring the program and they know
exactly what they need, becauseI've said, this is what you
need, this is what you need, andwe're all talking about
menopause and the emotions andthe.
You know how to go forward withthis.
So it's a really good supportgroup.
And then we talk about thethyroid and rebalance that.
We talk about the adrenals andhow to a whole segment on how to
(36:48):
decrease our stress, and thereare many different techniques
for decreasing stress andmeasuring stress.
So at the end everybody has ahandbook.
They know what they need to do.
My doctor sees them andprescribes those hormones that
I've already prescribed for them.
I've already recommended thatthey take.
They could also have their owndoctor if they prefer to
prescribe those hormones thatI'm discussing with them, and
(37:09):
they all have their own plan.
And then there's lifestyle,there's meditation, there's how
to get everybody, how to sleepeight hours.
It's really quite anencompassing program.
What I learned is that womenteach other women so beautifully
and we're comforting to eachother and we pull other
stragglers along with us.
Come on, are you doing it?
Are you doing it?
So it's like a sisterhood.
(37:31):
For example, when women want toget pregnant and they form a
support group and this is muchmore than a support group we
really balance everybody,optimize everybody's hormones.
But when you join a supportgroup that's run by a
professional fertility doctor,there's 40% better success in
pregnancy.
Oh, that's amazing, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
And I totally agree with you about the fact that
women and I think it'sinteresting that when you start
to take charge of your ownhealth and you start to do
things, people can see it onyour face and by the way you
show up in the world and how youshine a little bit brighter.
And when you do that foryourself, you actually encourage
other people to want to do itas well.
(38:14):
And women particularly are sogreat at encouraging each other
to want to be a better versionof themselves.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah, we comfort, we support, we encourage.
No one is left behind I mean, Ithink that's Michelle Obama's
quote, maybe but truly no oneneeds to be left in a state of
depletion, fatigue, depression,anxiety, sometimes rage and
irritability.
No woman needs to be left inthat state, because this is it's
(38:43):
just a phenomenal way ofapproaching our health, not only
through the hormones, but allthrough lifestyle and through
using herbs and supplements andinstituting our program.
We institute an exerciseprogram that's really easy and
smart and doable.
You have to just do 12 minutesfour times a day, and women lose
lots of weight during thatperiod of time too.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So as we kind of wrap up here, is there any
particular advice that you couldactually, maybe just two or
three steps that you wouldencourage women to take to move
forward if they're struggling intheir hormone journey?
What would you suggest thatthey do for a takeaway?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Well, the first thing is to be interested in yourself
and to be aware that this timeof rapid change and menopause
can be reframed into anadventure and can be reframed
from suffering and misery reallyinto a tremendous growth
possibility and in a positiveexperience.
So I want women to know thatthey can become, they can lose
(39:45):
the weight, they can becomevital and sensual and in a
beautiful woman, in the uniqueand perfect way that we are all
here.
So that's the first thing, justto be aware of that.
It's not hopeless, it's a bigopportunity.
The second thing, because wecan really change ourselves and
our professions.
Well, what women do is just,it's incredible.
They've written books, they'vestarted schools, they've climbed
(40:06):
mountains, composed, and beforemenopause they were too tired
and discouraged, they couldn'tdo anything really.
Okay, that's the first thing.
The second thing is findsomeone who's really talented
with hormones, who knows them.
Try your gynecologist and justsort of say what do you think
about the hormones?
And if they say, well, youdon't like those hormones, just
don't even go there.
(40:27):
Don't try to convince somebody,especially a doctor, because
we're very stubborn,unfortunately that hormones are
good.
But find functional medicine.
I'm also a functional medicinedoctor, marnie.
I did all of Jeff Bland's workand I just love functional
medicine.
So go to the Institute ofFunctional Medicine and you can
see who's good with hormones.
You can also go to naturopathicdoctors and some naturopathic
(40:47):
doctors are very good withhormones.
Others don't know much aboutthem.
But you can look SuzanneSommer's book.
She had so many references forgood doctors.
It's been a few years now sinceshe's written a book but she
had all her book, the Sexy Years.
I mean she really interviewedtons of people for that.
So find a good doctor and makesure that the doctor you know
encourage them.
Say, well, can we check ourthyroid?
(41:09):
I mean, if you ask the doctor,well, what hormones do you do?
Oh, we give you estrogen andprogesterone.
Good, that's a start.
Say, well, let's check the.
Let's check the thyroid thistime, the next time, let's check
the adrenals.
So you can really encourage thedoctor to um, to be more
expanded in her or his approach,because you can.
(41:29):
You can get 50 of the way therejust by giving estrogen and
progesterone.
You're going to get 100 or 99,point whatever.
Uh, with all the hormonesbalanced.
And I would recommend the bookestrogen matters.
It's by a wonderful colleagueat usc, which is where I trained
at the medical school.
Um, he retired now but it's Iwould say it's a similar book on
(41:52):
the safety of of estrogentherapy and bioidentical hormone
therapy.
You know, know, start sleeping,that would be melatonin, any
place from three milligrams to10 milligrams.
I even use 20 milligrams withsome women it would be.
Also, if that alone didn't work, you could add GABA, gaba,
amino butyric acid, g-a-b-a, andthat would be about 500
(42:13):
milligrams.
And you always start with a lowdose and then maybe go a little
higher.
You add 5-HTP,5-hydroxytryptophan, because
that breaks down into serotoninit makes you feel better and
then into melatonin.
So that I give to certainpeople to help them sleep.
I call it the sleep cocktail.
I also make a great product.
(42:33):
I haven't talked about productsyet, but my product is Sweet
Sleep and it has most of thatstuff in it.
So Sweet Sleep isover-the-counter.
But to really get you to sleepand having a sleep routine where
you get ready for sleep an hourbefore time, you start turning
the lights dimmer, you stopwatching exciting TV programs,
you maybe start reading or justcalming the body and you can get
(42:54):
ready for bed.
It's a gradual process,slipping into the sublime, into
the cradle.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Well, I certainly have to say that this has been a
really enlighteningconversation, and I for one am
going to do a little bit moreresearch myself and I'll get
myself a copy of that bookEstrogen Matters, because I
think everybody listening to theshow could learn a lot about
how they can take their ownhealth and their own menopause
(43:20):
journey into their own hands bydoing a little bit of being a
detective for themselves andthen finding the right help.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Right and radiance is so many different things that
come together to just peoplefeel it coming out of you.
Women tell me all the time oh,everybody's telling me I look
better and I'm so.
It's.
It's a.
It's not only.
It's not only how we look, it'sreally what's coming from us
and the love and compassion thatwe feel.
Once we, once we feel likeourselves again, that can yeah,
(43:47):
well, that's such an importantthing.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
It matters so much what that we can find when we
feel better, then everything inour life gets better, our work
gets better, our play getsbetter, our, our creativity is
more, all those things.
So it's yeah, it's a huge pieceand that's we talk.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
So much about it because it's fundamental to our
happiness.
That's absolutely true.
And when women are sufferinggreatly, as they do in menopause
, very frequently there's abitterness that comes across us
because we're tired and we'resleepless and we just feel so
down and we just feel like we'regoing to be that way for the
rest of our life, which actuallyis true.
If we aren't able to correctour hormones, either through
natural sources or bioidenticalhormones, which are also natural
(44:27):
, lifestyle and herbs, then wedo stay the same, because so
many women, marnie, tell me oh,I'm through menopause.
It's like you have the symptomsand the hormones absolutely
show me that you're in deepmenopause and you stay this way
actually the rest of your life,unless we can optimize and bring
your hormones back to youthfullevels.
So we don't want to spend 40years of our life in this state
(44:49):
where we get more and more tiredand sick and we don't know, and
it's really classic for womenin general to.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
You know, I think we're taught that our shoulders
need to be a bit broader andthat we have to carry a little
bit more and we need to justsuck it up sometimes, and so I
think a lot of women do that andthey're just like well, I have
shoulder pain or I have thiskind of pain, but you know, it's
fine, I can just deal with it,and I think that's such a you
know, not a good way to look atit, because it's very hard to
thrive and to be radiant whenyou're.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Even if it's dull, small amounts of pain, it takes
away from your joy Absolutely itdoes and you know pain
indicates that something's goingon in your body, that your
body's inflamed and that youknow having inflammation in your
body.
That's really 90% of cancershave as one of their core causes
inflammation.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Well, thank you again .
I've had such a joy talkingwith you and I'm going to make
sure that all of the links toreach out to your website and to
find your book online and allof your research for sure that I
think it's just amazing.
It's been such a joy to talk toyou, Marnie.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
I thank you so much for having me here.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Today, dr Prudence Hall has a very special gift for
you.
She's written a book calledRadiant Again and Forever, and
it teaches you how to overcomemenopause symptoms and restore
your radiance to reclaim thelife you love.
And in her book she offers anew way of experiencing life, a
(46:17):
transition away from pain andsuffering toward embracing
happiness, youthful vitality,confidence and natural beauty.
And each chapter of the bookhas a woman's story and you'll
be able to evaluate how yoursymptoms might be similar to
hers, and it'll allow you toliterally diagnose yourself, as
(46:38):
well as your friends, sistersand mothers, based on what you
read.
And she's got a free copy of ittoday.
And all you have to do is go todrprudencehallcom and enter
your email address and she willsend you a free PDF copy for you
to read.
What a beautiful gift.
I hope you go and get a copy ofyours.
(46:58):
Leave me a comment if you doand let me know how it enriched
your life.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
I hope it inspired you ormotivated you in some way to
keep going and to create yourvery best life.
Want to know what to do next?
Share this episode with someonethat you love who maybe just
needs a little more delicious intheir life.
Join my free Facebook communityover at Mindset Mastery for
(47:23):
Midlife Women, where like-mindedwomen come together to support
and inspire each other and wherewe get to hang out together and
I offer cool bonuses, videosand some extra content.
And lastly, don't forget tosubscribe so that when new
episodes drop, they'll be queuedup and ready for you.
In case no one has told youtoday, there's not one person on
(47:45):
this planet that is exactlylike you, and the world is a
better place because you're here.
So thank you for being here.
I'll be back next week and Ihope you'll join me right here
on Life is Delicious.
As we all know, life isn't always delicious, and one
of the only constants we have inlife is that things are always
changing.
Life can be a beautiful mess oftwists and turns and as we grow
through each unique season oflife, our needs change, our
goals change, our prioritieschange and our responsibilities
(00:22):
change.
And sometimes, when the reallyhard stuff shows up, as it
inevitably will, we can findourselves lost and without a
clear direction.
Sometimes that can happen whenwe've had a huge life transition
, like a divorce or a diagnosis,or we realize that our babies
are all grown up and ready to beout on their own.
And sometimes it can be asubtle or not so subtle
(00:45):
restlessness that tells us we'reready to step into a bigger,
bolder, more authentic versionof ourself.
But one thing is for sure wecan't transition into what's
next happily until we get reallyclear about what's weighing us
down, what lights us up and whatwe truly want.
When our soul whispers itstruth Happy is Not an Accident
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(01:29):
self.
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Give yourself the gift ofself-reflection and create this
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Get your copy, or one forsomebody that you love at
lifeisdeliciousca forward slashhappy.
(01:52):
Hey, beautiful friend, it'sMarni, and welcome back to this
episode of Life is Delicious.
And if this is your first timehere, welcome to the Life is
Delicious family.
Today we are going to be talkingabout radiance.
Radiance is a woman's innerlight that shines outward.
It's that glow that comes fromself-confidence, joy,
(02:16):
authenticity and well-being.
It's more than just physicalbeauty.
Radiance reflects a vibrantspirit, a kind heart and a
presence that uplifts thosearound her.
It's the sparkle in your eyes,the warmth in your smile and the
energy that you bring intoevery room you go into.
And radiance has nothing to dowith age, appearance or being
(02:40):
perfect.
It's fueled by self-love,purpose and living a life in
alignment with your truth.
So today I have a special guestfor you.
Her name is Dr Prudence Hall.
She is the founder of the HallCenter, located in Santa Monica,
california.
She's been featured on theOprah Show and Dr Oz.
(03:01):
She has so much wisdom to sharewith us and I'm so grateful to
have her here.
Welcome to this.
Episode of Life is Delicious.
Do you ever feel like midlifehas you running on an endless
hamster wheel ofresponsibilities while your own
dreams just gather dust?
Is the crazy chaos of caringfor everyone else leaving you
(03:25):
exhausted and overwhelmed?
And is the hormonal hurricaneof menopause threatening to
derail your sanity?
Are you in desperate need ofsome self-care, balance and
reconnection with your truestself?
If so, then I'm so glad you'rehere.
This podcast isn't aboutsurviving midlife.
(03:45):
It's about crafting a nextchapter overflowing with purpose
, joy and deliciouspossibilities.
I'm Marni Martin, amulti-passionate entrepreneur,
daughter and a hot midlife mama,literally, and over the last
decade I've been through careerpivots, a divorce and a survived
the empty nest, only to have itfill up again.
(04:06):
I spent the next several yearstraveling miles and miles every
month to care for my elderlyparents, and my time and
attention was so torn in everydirection that I lost track of
who I was and I found myself inan endless cycle of people
pleasing, putting out fires and,frankly, running on empty.
I know how it feels to be stuckin chronic overwhelm, stress
(04:31):
and chaos, and, trust me, it'snot a pretty picture.
I decided that it was time totake my own life and health back
.
I worked hard to reclaim myhealth through radical self-care
practices, recalibrating mynervous system and setting
healthy boundaries that allowedme to start living my life on
purpose again.
I'm here to show you thatmidlife doesn't have to be a
(04:54):
crisis, but instead a beautifulinvitation to prioritize
yourself again.
If you're ready to take backyour joie de vivre, then pop in
those earbuds and let's go getit.
So Dr Prudence Hall started as atraditional gynecological
surgeon and then shetransitioned her career to focus
(05:16):
on regenerative and integrativemedicine.
She works with both men andwomen, and she saw a critical
need to address debilitatingsymptoms that a lot of her
patients were experiencing thatwas associated with aging.
So she's going to enlighten ustoday on how we can find ways to
actually bring our own radianceback.
(05:37):
She's delightful and I love howher own radiance is a testament
to what she teaches.
So welcome, dr Prudence.
I'm so grateful to have youhere, marnie.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I'm delighted to be here.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So I wanted to have you on the show because I know
you are an expert in menopauseand you have a menopause
breakthrough program and you'vealso written a book called
Radiant Again and Forever and Italk so much on my podcast about
radiance and finding themidlife space where you can
actually not just survive or getthrough or be pain free or
(06:13):
manage your hormones, but youcan actually thrive and have
vitality and just be better thanyou ever have been.
So I know that's one of yourspecialties, so maybe tell me
how you got into being in thisparticular focus point.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, I'm a gynecologist, I'm an
obstetrician and gynecologist,and when I came out of my
residency program from USCpracticing traditional
gynecology and then I realizedoh my goodness, my menopausal
patients I'm not doing well bythem.
They're crying and saying it'snot helping what I'm doing.
So that started me really on afour decade or a little bit more
(06:48):
than four decades of learningabout women in a way that I
hadn't been taught about in myresidency.
You know, really being able totalk to them and explore who
they were and what they needed.
And I found out that you knowthere's tremendous variability
in terms of how we respond tomedications or to herbs or to
life in general.
And that really spurred just acomplete interest in how can I
(07:09):
really help these women who arestruggling so much and that
Western medicine has failed.
So I just started working andlearning, and from learning
about menopause you know nothingthat I had learned in my
residency, but learning aboutall the components that create
vitality and sleep and sexualityand all of that Then I started
(07:30):
realizing how much the spiritualcomponent and the emotional
component was involved in that.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So you know, we are a package of many things we women
.
Yes, we do, and it's amazing howmany women are struggling with
finding that.
So it's such an important thing, and I'm so grateful to
practitioners like you thatactually focus in on that,
because it's really something.
Until I kind of got into doingthe podcast and delving into the
(07:56):
midlife sector, I just didn'trealize how many women were
struggling with the same thing.
What, would you say, isprobably the number one thing
that people come in to see you?
What is the thing they'restruggling with most?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, it depends a little bit on the age of the
woman, because I see everyonefrom teenagers all the way
through to 80 or 90 years old,but typically women come in and
say I'm tired, something's goingon with me.
I'm not the same person I usedto be.
It's frightening.
I don't know what's happening,I can't remember things.
I've gained 30 pounds.
I don't feel like making love.
It's really causing arelationship problem, and you
(08:30):
know.
Then there's things like hotflashes.
I just I feel like I'm sweatingall the time.
Maybe I have, you know, sometype of cancer that causes
sweating, feeling not likethemselves, less optimal, and
usually fatigue is really,really important and an
important concern of most women,absolutely, I know for me.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I struggled a lot and I'm just kind of coming out of
the hot flash phase for myself,but I've called myself a hot
midlife mama for a while,because it's kind of the literal
reality.
Well, we want hot mamas.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
We want hot mamas.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Exactly, just not always sweating to death yet for
sure.
Yeah, it's great to know.
So obviously sleep is a hugecomponent.
I know that's a big strugglefor a lot of my women friends
and obviously our hormonesreally wreak a lot of havoc with
our sleep.
So how do you go about helpingpeople to find you know their
balance?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's just a wonderful question, especially,
you know, segueing sleep intothat.
So when I look at hormones and80% of my patients are women and
about 20% are men I'm lookingat five different hormones sets,
endocrine glands.
I look at the thyroid, theovarian hormones.
I look at the adrenal stresshormones which are located right
(09:43):
on top of the kidneys, also thesunshine hormone, which is
located in the skin.
So the skin is a huge endocrinegland.
And I look at the pancreas withits insulin and long-term sugar
marker.
So I start by saying well, whereis this fatigue or lack of
vitality, or depression, anxiety, moodiness coming from?
And I look at all the differenthormones.
(10:05):
So, for example, if someone istired, that definitely happens
due to menopause, and menopauseis when we lose our ovarian
hormones.
The ovaries just stop working.
So it comes from menopause,enormous fatigue.
It comes from low adrenalhormones.
So when we're highly stressedand we stay stressed for a
certain period of time and itvaries from person to person how
(10:26):
long the stress has to lastthree primary hormones cortisol,
dhea and pregnenolone they'revery, very high and adrenaline
too, which is pretty muchinvolved in this too.
Then they just start to dropand we go into a burnout state
where the adrenal glands can'tkeep up with the amount of
stress we have, so that resultsin enormous fatigue and also
(10:48):
thyroid.
40% of thyroid disease is notdiagnosed when you just follow
the regular reference range thatlabs say.
This is the normal referencerange.
So a lot of my patients haveborderline low thyroid.
Thyroid gland is located rightin the neck.
It runs our metabolism, givesus energy and when that starts
(11:08):
to decline we feel very, verytired.
So I just analytically look ateverything, listen.
I listen to what women want.
What's the problem?
What you know?
Where might it be?
And I love it, marnie, I'venever grown tired of being kind
of a detective, a hormonedetective, and bringing back
this radiance to women whichthey deserve.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Oh, absolutely, and I love that you call it being a
hormone detective, becausethere's so many factors all that
have to work together inharmony in order for that
vibrancy and feeling good totake place right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And of course it's lifestyle.
I mean, are we not sleeping?
I mean in menopause andperimenopause.
And, by the way, perimenopause,which is, you know, five, six,
seven years before, menopause,starts in our late 30s, and
menopause nowadays is about 44to 48 years old, much younger
than it was four decades ago.
So in menopause, in the middleof the night our cortisol level
rises.
(12:04):
That's an adrenal stress, youknow, kind of a stress hormone,
and then we wake up and we'resweating, we can't go back to
sleep.
So there's stress inside thebody and there's also stressors
and things outside of the bodythat can interrupt our vitality
and our energy.
So we deal with a lot of stuff.
I mean, we're in the middle ofso many different things that
(12:24):
women are very, very concernedabout not only politics but the
health of their children.
Children are no longer ashealthy as they were years and
years and years ago and financesare hard.
So it's an inside job.
It's an outside job and it's amental job too.
How we're able to handle all ofthese multiple things coming at
us.
Yeah, and it's interesting thatquite often we're able to
handle all of these multiplethings coming at at us.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, and it's interesting that quite often
we're in probably one of thehardest times of our life when
we're in that midlife, because alot of us are in the sandwich
generation, so we're not onlytrying to care for ourself while
our body is changing and wehave all these new things
happening, but we're also tryingto take care of our either
teenage or almost grown kids oradult children, and then we have
(13:08):
aging parents to consider aswell, so that just adds on to
the pile of all the otherstressors.
So it's a lot to carry.
What do you think would be themain reason that perimenopause
is happening so much younger nowthan it used?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
to Well, that's a question that many people are
investigating, but I think ithas to do with toxicity stress.
It has to do with the birthcontrol pill.
The birth control pill wrecksour hormones.
It just plays terrible havocwith our hormones.
Some women, after they come offthe birth control pill, are not
able to reestablish healthyhormones.
Most women are after six monthsto a year to a year and a half.
(13:44):
But you know, so many youngpeople are on the birth control
pill and that in and of itselfcauses fatigue.
So toxicity stress,inflammation, high sugar for
sure we have so manycarbohydrates and sugar in our
diet.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
So with a young woman , say, just coming off of her
birth control pill and now she'strying to figure this out, what
would you advise for trying tobalance the hormones?
What would be sort of therecipe for that?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
so I like to start with a very natural approach.
So one of the the naturopathicsupplements I use is something
called pregnancy prep and ithelps to affects the pituitary
gland, to help the pituitarygland reconnect to the ovary.
So the birth control pill kindof cuts the ovary loose and
(14:30):
there's no real connectionbetween the hypothalamus, the
pituitary gland and the ovary.
So pregnancy prep reconnectsthose and helps with a series of
herbs.
Also increasing fat in our dietand that would be good fat,
because hormones come fromcholesterol, which is fat
basically.
So more olive oil and moreomega-3.
You know a thousand, twothousand milligrams of omega-3.
(14:52):
You always want to refrigerateit so it doesn't become rancid.
Getting more sleep so gettingeight hours of sleep, sometimes
eight and a half or even ninehours of sleep, and that takes
so much stress off of women.
Managing stress is important.
So if we can give a littleherbal kind of boost to the
reconnect sleep, eat more fatwe're gonna start making our
hormones much more easily.
(15:14):
To get back to a pill recovery,I call it post pill recovery
time.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Wow, I love that your approach is so holistic and not
so much drug focused, and it'sreally I guess we underestimate
how much sleep we actually need.
We do I?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
personally sleep no less than eight hours.
I generally feel much betterthan better at nine hours and if
I know I'm getting sick which Irarely do, but if I start to
feel sick, I'll go to bed for 10hours and the next day it's
gone.
So sleep builds our immunityand allows the body to detoxify.
I kind of treat it like, well,the cleaning crew is coming up,
(15:50):
it's going to detoxify the body.
But if we only get five hoursof sleep or six hours of sleep,
the cleaning crew isn't done,because during the day we're
digesting and we're I mean,we're using all these other
functions rather than detoxingour liver and our cells.
And so sleep is the time fordetox and it keeps us looking
better and feeling much morevital and avoiding chronic
(16:12):
illnesses.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I love that analogy with the cleaning crew.
That makes a lot of sense,actually, and I guess we didn't.
Really we don't think of itthat way, but that's the truth,
right?
You get your janitorial crew inthere while you're sleeping.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
You know we want to sleep, eat maybe three or four
hours before you go to sleep.
So we're digesting, digesting,you know, doing all that stuff,
and then there's not much forthe body to do except clean.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Right, and so now with, maybe, women that are in
the middle of menopause, what'sthe protocol for that?
And I know it's individual, youcan't have a blanket approach
for everyone, but what would yousay is kind of the other thing
for them to really focus on?
Is it still sleep, or are thereother factors that they have to
really pay attention?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
to.
Yeah, sleep is essential,obviously, but there are many
other factors.
So I use a lot of bioidenticalhormones and I also use herbs
and which refer people foracupuncture, which is also very
helpful.
But after I've analyzed all thehormones, I have five different
ways that I deliver.
Bioidentical estrogen andbioidentical hormones are
(17:10):
exactly the same hormones,marnie, that you and I make, and
probably all of our listenerswill have the same ones, unless
they're from another planet orsomething.
So I repeat those hormones.
Back to youthful levels.
So I don't look at thereference range, because I use
youthful reference ranges andthe reference ranges that the
lab uses.
Well, whoever walks through toget their labs drawn, that's
(17:31):
part of the reference range.
And there can be 90 year oldwomen, 80 year old women, women
on the birth control pill, whohave very, very abnormal
hormones.
So I've done this for so longand I've taken care of some very
, very healthy people thatthey're in my reference range
for health, and so then I, youknow, first of all, talk to them
.
What are your goals?
What are your symptoms?
Our goal is to get rid of allthe symptoms and also to prevent
(17:53):
future aging.
So usually I'll be replacingestrogen or rebalancing or
optimizing estrogen.
But I use creams that's one ofthe things I use Drops, tropes
that you put under your tongue,also the patch.
You know pharmaceuticalcompanies are not.
They know they know a lot interms of bioidentical hormones.
(18:13):
At this point.
I think a lot of this outragefrom women rightfully so started
when in 1940, primarin wascreated and primarin was what I
was taught to do in my residencyin 1980, in the early 90s, and
that is pregnant horses urine,primarin and it turned out to be
a fairly inflammatory hormonebecause a lot of people are
(18:36):
allergic to horses and that'snot our same hormones.
We don't have horse hormonesthat are pregnant horse hormones
.
We have people hormones and arepregnant horse hormones.
We have people hormones and notpregnant people hormones.
Yeah, that caused a lot ofinflammation and it increased
dementia, it increased heartdisease and when all of this
became known, then women becamevery upset with pharmaceutical
(18:58):
companies.
I would say you know there'sbeen a huge distrust in medicine
that's come in, especiallyafter COVID and the way that was
handled Right.
So but you know, really some ofthe most amazing inventions and
interventions in medicine hascome from the biotech
pharmaceutical companies Curesfor AIDS.
My son had a stage threemelanoma.
He's cured because of themedications that this one
(19:20):
amazing biotech you know, that'slike the high-tech company but
in the pharmaceutical industrycame up with.
So you know, they know aboutthe patches bioidentical and you
can apply it, the cream you puton your skin twice a day.
So I talk to people about theirlifestyle and which method
they'd like to use best.
I also use vaginal inserts as aestrogen and then I add
(19:42):
progesterone if needed.
Testosterone is very, veryimportant.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, we don't really talk about testosterone so much
for women.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So it's kind of there's a little bit of sadness
when I talk about testosteronebecause it was recently declined
by the FDA as a treatment forwomen.
I know I mean, marnie, you canbelieve something, but you can
also know this I 100%,absolutely know that
testosterone for women is vital.
It builds our bones and ourmuscles, it helps us become more
(20:15):
confident, it creates forwardmotion in our thinking.
So we don't oh, I don't knowwhat to do, and maybe this,
maybe that I mean directionality, which is really nice.
It runs our sex drives.
We can't have orgasms withoutit.
We feel like we're neutered andthey decline this vital,
wonderful hormone for women.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Why do you think that ?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
is Do you have it?
Yeah, abe Morgenthaler, who'sthe father of testosterone
therapy, has an incredible teamat Harvard and he went before
the FDA to say, look, we need tohave this approved for women.
I mean, the data for men isjust ironclad.
I was taught in urology in myresidence in my medical school
(20:58):
rotations that testosterone wasthe fuel that fed prostate
cancer.
And now we know that the reasonwhy older men get prostate
cancer so frequently is thatthey don't have enough
testosterone.
So that paradigm has completelychanged.
For men, if they have prostatecancer even if it's a Gleason
score 9, which is a veryaggressive cancer most
(21:19):
urologists are now saying, yes,you can go on testosterone
because it has those benefits ofactually decreasing prostate
cancer.
So that would decrease thereturn or the reoccurrence of
prostate cancer.
There's no reason that I cansee why testosterone is not
approved for women.
I cannot see a single reason.
Testosterone is extremely safe.
I monitor metabolites of allthe hormones.
(21:41):
So testosterone breaks downinto estrogen tiny little bit
and then something calleddihydrotestosterone.
So it goes like that in thebody.
The liver breaks it down andDHT, if it gets too high, can
cause a little bit of acne.
It might cause a little bit ofhair growth on the face, it
could cause hair thinning.
All you have to do, marnie, isjust follow the DHT and make
(22:03):
sure that it's not getting high,it's not becoming too high and
most of the time it's just notfor women.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Wow, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It's fascinating, you know, women have been
disenfranchised and disregarded.
I mean, when did women get theright to vote?
You know, 80 years ago.
I mean it's, this is a way.
I mean I don't.
I, as a gynecologist, I reallysupport women's dignity and
women's need to be able to knowwhen they're going to procreate.
Dignity and women's need to beable to know when they're going
(22:36):
to procreate.
So I support birth controlmethods.
I'm not fond of the pill.
You know, it's beendisappointing to see, with so
many hundreds of women whosehormones I've measured, how
radically it changes ourhormones.
But I love birth control forwomen and you know the IUD, the
Paragard especially, doesn'thurt our hormones.
So I don't know why women arebeing marginalized when we're
just, you know, we're the lightof the world.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yes, we are, we bring more babies in.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
We nurture our families, our husbands, our
communities, our, our, theuniverse, and we need energy.
Marnie, recently, because Istopped making testosterone
because it's a little bit of awitch hunt out there I stopped
making it no longer, mycompounder no longer makes it,
but I temporarily for the firsttime in 25 years, I was not on
testosterone and I started tofeel like I'm kind of tired and
(23:25):
I'll feel kind of maybe downlike never down, but I'm more
down and life is morefrightening.
I was a little bit morefrightened and and it's just
like I stopped having orgasms.
It's like what?
What is going on?
I must be going through somekind of a crisis and maybe I
(23:46):
ignored that, maybe I really wasvery traumatized by that, which
I actually wasn't but and thenit's just like holy shoot, after
me talking to women for so manyyears about testosterone here,
I'm off it for two weeks and nowthat I'm back on it, all of
that has disappeared.
So, hormones really affect ourwell-being.
Testosterone is critical.
We got to get in front of thatFDA again and let them know how
(24:09):
important it is.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, so could you explain just a little bit more
for maybe some of the listenersthat don't really know what the
term bioidentical actually isand how you go about compounding
?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
those, yes, bioidentical hormones are
exactly the same hormones thatwe make.
Mine are the same as yours,it's the same as all women.
So when those hormones aregiven back to women they have to
be molecule per moleculeexactly the same.
So that's called bioidentical.
Now the Primarin that was madein the 1940s and was very
(24:43):
popular all the way through to1985, 1990, even probably even
now it's ordered quite a bit bygynecologists.
But those are not the samehormones that our body makes.
So when you use a hormonethat's kind of like our hormones
but not really, we don't getthe same results.
So it's like, you know, if youhave a glass of milk and then
(25:04):
you add chocolate to it.
I mean, those are verydifferent things Chocolate milk,
you know, or milk.
So same thing with the body,non-bioidentical hormones.
I used Primarin for about a yearwhen I came out of residency
Maybe a little bit longer, whenpeople really said I really,
really, really want Primarin.
But now I just wouldn't evendream of ordering that because
(25:26):
we have so many better things.
And when I make it I actuallyorder it from pharmaceutical
companies.
They make it in theirpharmaceutical houses to be FDA
approved and it's absolutelypure.
I put it into an olive oil baseand then we whip it up into a
cream.
So that's called compounding it, because the estrogen really
(25:46):
needs to be put into some kindof base.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Pharmaceutical companies do make creams, so it
can be available to the body.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yes, so it can be available to the body.
Yes, so it can be available tothe body.
So I don't like the idea ofsynthetic or bioidentical,
because everything is reallysynthesized.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
What I'm curious about actually is because I have
never been on any bioidenticalhormones and I've had some
issues, for sure that over thepast, you know, I would say year
or two for sure.
But I've heard also thatthere's some side effects or
there's a lot of bad press thatkind of goes around with it.
So could you explain sort ofthe dangers of the bioidentical
(26:22):
hormone and what people shouldlook out for if they decide that
they want to go that route?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah.
So first of all I'd kind oflike to talk about the
comparison.
So I just want to say that whenestrogen is low in menopause,
up goes inflammation in the body, up goes stress, the body
becomes very stressed andsleepless and anxious, and then
up goes high blood sugar, whichcauses enormous damage in the
body, and up goes LDLcholesterol, the bad cholesterol
(26:49):
, and all the sub-particles ofthe bad cholesterol.
So when that happens, thesecause diseases, lots of diseases
heart disease, diabetes,dementia, autoimmune disease,
all kinds of cancers.
And so when we replace theestrogen, not only do the
symptoms go away, but a myriadof chronic diseases of aging
goes away.
So that's the playground inwhich we're playing Now.
(27:11):
For 30 years, almost 35 years, Iwas duking it out trying to say
, look, hormones are safe,there's no increased breast
cancer.
I mean, it prevents so manychronic diseases.
I mean I was on Oprah and allthese things, dr Phil, wonderful
, educating and educating, butit wasn't tipping.
Everybody kept on saying no, itcauses breast cancer and it's
it's not good for the body, andthere were just kind of these
(27:33):
suspicions.
I think it was a lot ofsuspicion, but no real facts,
because when you look at thefacts, they're so good for us.
They lower inflammation, theylower stress, they allow us to
sleep, they help our hair togrow and our bodies to be strong
and our bones to be strong andmuscles to be strong, as well as
preventing all the symptoms ofmenopause.
(27:53):
Menopause tipped about fiveyears ago, where people are now
saying just like withtestosterone for men, where
urologists were saying, no,danger, danger, danger, don't
use it.
Don't use it, it causesprostate cancer.
Now they aren't saying that formen.
They're saying no, it preventsprostate cancer.
But also for women, people arereally talking about this in
(28:16):
great sources.
The New York Times has beenvery important in terms of
really getting the informationout there.
So I do not think thatbioidentical hormones are in
replacing and optimizing ourhormones back to youthful levels
is dangerous.
There's no increased risk ofbreast cancer.
There is a tremendous amount ofbenefit that comes from it.
(28:36):
It would really help ifsomebody if a doctor or a nurse
or a naturopathic doctor oranyone who is a prescriber took
a really big interest in it andlearned how to do it correctly.
So in my opinion, you want touse a good source of transdermal
skin hormones.
(28:57):
You don't want to take pills,because if you take the tablets
of estrogen that can increasedeep vein thrombosis.
That's blood clots in the legsDangerous situation.
If you use cream, there's noincrease.
I just recently did a AI hugemedical search on that and they
said no, there is no increaseddeep brain thrombosis whatsoever
(29:17):
.
I also did a big perplexitythat's an AI very prone to
medical information and studieslooking to see what the newest
thing was on breast cancer noincreased risk of breast cancer.
It kind of depends on how yougive the patient progesterone
and how much you give but noincreased risk of breast cancers
.
So women tell me frequently inthe first month of taking
(29:38):
hormones that they have a poundor two more of weight.
It's usually water weightbecause our cells become
dehydrated in menopause, ourskin becomes dry and the water
that we're drinking is now beingretained in the body, which is
very important for health.
Women also tell me that.
(29:59):
Well, you know my sleep is notback to normal yet and I still
have occasional hot flashes.
Hot flashes, by the way, are oneof the easiest things to get
rid of.
I mean when I was on the Oprahshow I've been on it several
times the first time Oprah foundthe worst menopausal patient
that she could find.
And I talked to Linda.
She's still my patient.
I talked to Linda.
I said okay, linda, how muchtime do we have to fix you?
She said five days.
I said, linda, what do you meanfive days?
(30:20):
We have five days to bring youback to, back to normal.
And she said well, it's mainlythe hot flashes.
I'm soaked 24 seven.
I was calling her twice a dayto see how her hot flashes are.
We got rid of them in five days.
She went on that Oprah.
She said my hot flashes aregone.
But look, I think that I wasjust being blessed by the
(30:41):
heavens that be, becausenormally it takes quite a while
I would say six weeks, eightweeks, 12 weeks before you
really can lower theinflammation.
There's so much body pain inmenopause, everything hurts.
So the inflammation is loweredand you start sleeping more and
I have all kinds of sleepprotocols for that and it takes
time to reverse.
(31:02):
You know all the years or themonths or the weeks of time that
went by when we're going deeperand deeper into menopause.
So the best time to get yourhormones checked is to get a
baseline around age 30, 25, 30.
That would be estrogen,progesterone, testosterone,
maybe your thyroid, and thatcould be a good baseline to know
where do we need to bring yourhormones back to, and then
(31:24):
really cannot say that womencome to me bleeding Okay, so
that's something that I do hearabout.
So women, when they're onhormones, especially when they
start the first three to sixmonths, they can have a return
of their period or irregularbleeding and I would say maybe
5% of my patients report thatand basically I reassure them, I
(31:45):
make sure that we get a pelvicultrasound on them and if the
uterine lining is thick, youknow, then we do various things
to thin it out and to make surethat it's not a pre-existing
cancer that they came into theclinic with before I put them on
hormones.
But it's all benefits, justamazing benefits for the skin,
the hair, the bones, the muscles, disease prevention.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
So in that five days, what did you do for Linda to
actually cure her hot flashes?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well, it was a full court press.
Let me tell you it wasbioidentical estrogen that I
used.
Estrogens will stop hot flashesquite quickly usually not in
five days, when somebody issoaking their bed and having hot
flashes every five minutes.
But yeah, estrogen decreasesthat.
I also helped her to sleep.
I put her on a combination ofmagnesium and melatonin and GABA
(32:33):
, so the brain was 5-HTP, thebrain was much more quiet and
she was getting better sleep.
So not only did she start tofeel like she had more energy,
but the hot flashes stopped.
I was literally calling hertwice a day and helping her to
kind of let's raise the estrogenjust a little bit.
Just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's amazing, that'sfor sure Amazing.
She's a good girl, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
But listen, all hot flashes stop.
All hot flashes stop.
It's probably one of the easierthings, to you know, to get rid
of, and I would say depressionand mood swings are the second
easiest to get rid of.
I mean, we're not Prozacdeficient, we're estrogen
deficient, testosteronedeficient, thyroid deficient,
adrenal hormone deficient.
So those are pretty easy to getrid of too and to correct.
(33:17):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Thank you for the great information.
So tell me about your book thatyou wrote, Radiant Again and
Forever, and what actuallyspurred you to write that and
what's the focal point on it?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Well, I wrote this a number of years ago and my dear
friend, suzanne Summers, saidPrudence, it's time to write
your book.
And she interviewed me manytimes and I was on a number of
her shows and just love her.
I absolutely have loved Suzanneand her husband for many, many
years and it's like, oh, suzanne, I'm so busy.
(33:50):
And she said, no, you've got todo this Prudence.
I said, okay, what do yousuggest?
She said each chapter is adifferent hormone deficiency.
So you have menopause, you haveperimenopause.
And I said, okay, sohypothyroidism, low adrenals.
And I said, and I think, maybesexual, a chapter on sexual
issues and women's sexuality andhow do we bring that back and
what helps with our sexuality.
(34:10):
And then she said, yeah, yeah,that, of course, that too.
Hey, how about writing aboutbreast cancer?
And I said, okay, I'll put achapter in and one of my
patients that you know I takecare of, many patients who have
had breast cancer and so I put achapter there.
And then, at the time that Iwas writing that, and for
probably 15 years before, Ipersonally was in a really
(34:31):
expanded state, you know, goinginto all kinds of performance
enhancement, spiritual expansion, different ways of thinking
about things.
It was a true renaissance, andmenopause can be this.
It can be a real renaissance ofyour life, where you connect to
yourself and you just want tokeep on learning and growing and
(34:51):
becoming a new person.
It's like the butterfly it'snot yet.
It's not yet a butterfly, sothere's a lot of personal work
that needs to be done to becomethat beautiful creature, and so
Suzanne told me to write it andI wrote it.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Good for you.
That's amazing.
And she's written some greatbooks over the years too, so
it's nice to have somebody thatcan encourage you.
That's sort of been where youare going.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, and she wrote the forward and she gave me
ideas for a second book that Ireally wrote, but I haven't
published yet.
I have to work a little bitmore on it.
So it's free.
I didn't write a book for money.
I wrote the book to educatewomen and a lot of women see
themselves in these differentwomen that I describe in each
chapter.
So you can get that on mywebsite.
(35:35):
It's downloaded to all of mybooks.
Burned in the Palisades Fire.
I lost my house in thePalisades Fire.
You can get it for free.
Listen, it's in the cloud, thisbook, and you can just download
it to your email.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
That's amazing.
I love it.
We're going to make sure we putall those links to your website
in the show notes.
Yeah, so tell us a little bitabout your menopause
breakthrough program and whatpeople can expect if they wanted
to participate.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, it got a little bit delayed because of the fire
, but I take 20 people throughmenopause all at once.
Everybody gets their hormonestogether.
I mean, they all get theirblood drawn and their hormones
drawn and each week it's a10-week program.
Each week we address differentissues, so we go over just a
myriad of things.
Everybody knows what they needto do with their hormones and in
order for me to prescribe thehormones, they see my daughter,
(36:26):
who's a wonderful hormone expert.
Also, she's a naturopathicdoctor.
They get to see her twiceduring the program and they know
exactly what they need, becauseI've said, this is what you
need, this is what you need, andwe're all talking about
menopause and the emotions andthe.
You know how to go forward withthis.
So it's a really good supportgroup.
And then we talk about thethyroid and rebalance that.
We talk about the adrenals andhow to a whole segment on how to
(36:48):
decrease our stress, and thereare many different techniques
for decreasing stress andmeasuring stress.
So at the end everybody has ahandbook.
They know what they need to do.
My doctor sees them andprescribes those hormones that
I've already prescribed for them.
I've already recommended thatthey take.
They could also have their owndoctor if they prefer to
prescribe those hormones thatI'm discussing with them, and
(37:09):
they all have their own plan.
And then there's lifestyle,there's meditation, there's how
to get everybody, how to sleepeight hours.
It's really quite anencompassing program.
What I learned is that womenteach other women so beautifully
and we're comforting to eachother and we pull other
stragglers along with us.
Come on, are you doing it?
Are you doing it?
So it's like a sisterhood.
(37:31):
For example, when women want toget pregnant and they form a
support group and this is muchmore than a support group we
really balance everybody,optimize everybody's hormones.
But when you join a supportgroup that's run by a
professional fertility doctor,there's 40% better success in
pregnancy.
Oh, that's amazing, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
And I totally agree with you about the fact that
women and I think it'sinteresting that when you start
to take charge of your ownhealth and you start to do
things, people can see it onyour face and by the way you
show up in the world and how youshine a little bit brighter.
And when you do that foryourself, you actually encourage
other people to want to do itas well.
(38:14):
And women particularly are sogreat at encouraging each other
to want to be a better versionof themselves.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah, we comfort, we support, we encourage.
No one is left behind I mean, Ithink that's Michelle Obama's
quote, maybe but truly no oneneeds to be left in a state of
depletion, fatigue, depression,anxiety, sometimes rage and
irritability.
No woman needs to be left inthat state, because this is it's
(38:43):
just a phenomenal way ofapproaching our health, not only
through the hormones, but allthrough lifestyle and through
using herbs and supplements andinstituting our program.
We institute an exerciseprogram that's really easy and
smart and doable.
You have to just do 12 minutesfour times a day, and women lose
lots of weight during thatperiod of time too.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So as we kind of wrap up here, is there any
particular advice that you couldactually, maybe just two or
three steps that you wouldencourage women to take to move
forward if they're struggling intheir hormone journey?
What would you suggest thatthey do for a takeaway?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Well, the first thing is to be interested in yourself
and to be aware that this timeof rapid change and menopause
can be reframed into anadventure and can be reframed
from suffering and misery reallyinto a tremendous growth
possibility and in a positiveexperience.
So I want women to know thatthey can become, they can lose
(39:45):
the weight, they can becomevital and sensual and in a
beautiful woman, in the uniqueand perfect way that we are all
here.
So that's the first thing, justto be aware of that.
It's not hopeless, it's a bigopportunity.
The second thing, because wecan really change ourselves and
our professions.
Well, what women do is just,it's incredible.
They've written books, they'vestarted schools, they've climbed
(40:06):
mountains, composed, and beforemenopause they were too tired
and discouraged, they couldn'tdo anything really.
Okay, that's the first thing.
The second thing is findsomeone who's really talented
with hormones, who knows them.
Try your gynecologist and justsort of say what do you think
about the hormones?
And if they say, well, youdon't like those hormones, just
don't even go there.
(40:27):
Don't try to convince somebody,especially a doctor, because
we're very stubborn,unfortunately that hormones are
good.
But find functional medicine.
I'm also a functional medicinedoctor, marnie.
I did all of Jeff Bland's workand I just love functional
medicine.
So go to the Institute ofFunctional Medicine and you can
see who's good with hormones.
You can also go to naturopathicdoctors and some naturopathic
(40:47):
doctors are very good withhormones.
Others don't know much aboutthem.
But you can look SuzanneSommer's book.
She had so many references forgood doctors.
It's been a few years now sinceshe's written a book but she
had all her book, the Sexy Years.
I mean she really interviewedtons of people for that.
So find a good doctor and makesure that the doctor you know
encourage them.
Say, well, can we check ourthyroid?
(41:09):
I mean, if you ask the doctor,well, what hormones do you do?
Oh, we give you estrogen andprogesterone.
Good, that's a start.
Say, well, let's check the.
Let's check the thyroid thistime, the next time, let's check
the adrenals.
So you can really encourage thedoctor to um, to be more
expanded in her or his approach,because you can.
(41:29):
You can get 50 of the way therejust by giving estrogen and
progesterone.
You're going to get 100 or 99,point whatever.
Uh, with all the hormonesbalanced.
And I would recommend the bookestrogen matters.
It's by a wonderful colleagueat usc, which is where I trained
at the medical school.
Um, he retired now but it's Iwould say it's a similar book on
(41:52):
the safety of of estrogentherapy and bioidentical hormone
therapy.
You know, know, start sleeping,that would be melatonin, any
place from three milligrams to10 milligrams.
I even use 20 milligrams withsome women it would be.
Also, if that alone didn't work, you could add GABA, gaba,
amino butyric acid, g-a-b-a, andthat would be about 500
(42:13):
milligrams.
And you always start with a lowdose and then maybe go a little
higher.
You add 5-HTP,5-hydroxytryptophan, because
that breaks down into serotoninit makes you feel better and
then into melatonin.
So that I give to certainpeople to help them sleep.
I call it the sleep cocktail.
I also make a great product.
(42:33):
I haven't talked about productsyet, but my product is Sweet
Sleep and it has most of thatstuff in it.
So Sweet Sleep isover-the-counter.
But to really get you to sleepand having a sleep routine where
you get ready for sleep an hourbefore time, you start turning
the lights dimmer, you stopwatching exciting TV programs,
you maybe start reading or justcalming the body and you can get
(42:54):
ready for bed.
It's a gradual process,slipping into the sublime, into
the cradle.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Well, I certainly have to say that this has been a
really enlighteningconversation, and I for one am
going to do a little bit moreresearch myself and I'll get
myself a copy of that bookEstrogen Matters, because I
think everybody listening to theshow could learn a lot about
how they can take their ownhealth and their own menopause
(43:20):
journey into their own hands bydoing a little bit of being a
detective for themselves andthen finding the right help.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Right and radiance is so many different things that
come together to just peoplefeel it coming out of you.
Women tell me all the time oh,everybody's telling me I look
better and I'm so.
It's.
It's a.
It's not only.
It's not only how we look, it'sreally what's coming from us
and the love and compassion thatwe feel.
Once we, once we feel likeourselves again, that can yeah,
(43:47):
well, that's such an importantthing.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
It matters so much what that we can find when we
feel better, then everything inour life gets better, our work
gets better, our play getsbetter, our, our creativity is
more, all those things.
So it's yeah, it's a huge pieceand that's we talk.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
So much about it because it's fundamental to our
happiness.
That's absolutely true.
And when women are sufferinggreatly, as they do in menopause
, very frequently there's abitterness that comes across us
because we're tired and we'resleepless and we just feel so
down and we just feel like we'regoing to be that way for the
rest of our life, which actuallyis true.
If we aren't able to correctour hormones, either through
natural sources or bioidenticalhormones, which are also natural
(44:27):
, lifestyle and herbs, then wedo stay the same, because so
many women, marnie, tell me oh,I'm through menopause.
It's like you have the symptomsand the hormones absolutely
show me that you're in deepmenopause and you stay this way
actually the rest of your life,unless we can optimize and bring
your hormones back to youthfullevels.
So we don't want to spend 40years of our life in this state
(44:49):
where we get more and more tiredand sick and we don't know, and
it's really classic for womenin general to.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
You know, I think we're taught that our shoulders
need to be a bit broader andthat we have to carry a little
bit more and we need to justsuck it up sometimes, and so I
think a lot of women do that andthey're just like well, I have
shoulder pain or I have thiskind of pain, but you know, it's
fine, I can just deal with it,and I think that's such a you
know, not a good way to look atit, because it's very hard to
thrive and to be radiant whenyou're.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Even if it's dull, small amounts of pain, it takes
away from your joy Absolutely itdoes and you know pain
indicates that something's goingon in your body, that your
body's inflamed and that youknow having inflammation in your
body.
That's really 90% of cancershave as one of their core causes
inflammation.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Well, thank you again .
I've had such a joy talkingwith you and I'm going to make
sure that all of the links toreach out to your website and to
find your book online and allof your research for sure that I
think it's just amazing.
It's been such a joy to talk toyou, Marnie.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
I thank you so much for having me here.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Today, dr Prudence Hall has a very special gift for
you.
She's written a book calledRadiant Again and Forever, and
it teaches you how to overcomemenopause symptoms and restore
your radiance to reclaim thelife you love.
And in her book she offers anew way of experiencing life, a
(46:17):
transition away from pain andsuffering toward embracing
happiness, youthful vitality,confidence and natural beauty.
And each chapter of the bookhas a woman's story and you'll
be able to evaluate how yoursymptoms might be similar to
hers, and it'll allow you toliterally diagnose yourself, as
(46:38):
well as your friends, sistersand mothers, based on what you
read.
And she's got a free copy of ittoday.
And all you have to do is go todrprudencehallcom and enter
your email address and she willsend you a free PDF copy for you
to read.
What a beautiful gift.
I hope you go and get a copy ofyours.
(46:58):
Leave me a comment if you doand let me know how it enriched
your life.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
I hope it inspired you ormotivated you in some way to
keep going and to create yourvery best life.
Want to know what to do next?
Share this episode with someonethat you love who maybe just
needs a little more delicious intheir life.
Join my free Facebook communityover at Mindset Mastery for
(47:23):
Midlife Women, where like-mindedwomen come together to support
and inspire each other and wherewe get to hang out together and
I offer cool bonuses, videosand some extra content.
And lastly, don't forget tosubscribe so that when new
episodes drop, they'll be queuedup and ready for you.
In case no one has told youtoday, there's not one person on
(47:45):
this planet that is exactlylike you, and the world is a
better place because you're here.
So thank you for being here.
I'll be back next week and Ihope you'll join me right here
on Life is Delicious.
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