October 1, 2024 • 40 mins
Michelle Bridges is a fitness icon, TV personality, and bestselling author of 17 books! Recently, she developed a new program specifically for women navigating menopause, combining her personal experience with her expertise in fitness to help women stay strong and healthy during this life stage.
We previously released an episode on perimenopause and menopause with Dr Louise Newson that you can listen to here
Dr Newson gives us a really important medical insight into the changes that can happen during this time, and we wanted to extend this conversation and speak with Michelle about her lived experience and some of the lifestyle factors that can impact this time of women’s lives.
In this episode we speak about:
-
The lesser known symptoms that Michelle experienced during perimenopause
-
The steps Michelle took to work out what was going on in her body
-
The importance of finding a GP who specialises in women’s health
-
Being offered antidepressants when Michelle didn’t identify with being depressed
-
Feeling really empowered during this stage of life
-
How exercise, nutrition and supplementation can impact menopause
You can find more from Michelle’s Menopause Method
You can follow Michelle on Instagram
You can watch us on Youtube
Find us on Instagram
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lifeln Cut acknowledges the traditional custodians of country whose lands
were never seated. We pay our respects to their elders
past and present.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land. This episode was
recorded on Cameragle Land. Hi guys, and welcome back to
another episode of Life on Cut.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm Laura, I'm Brittany, and today we have a very
exciting episode.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You probably all have heard of.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Michelle Bridges or seen her in some capacity. She is
a TV queen, a fitness icon, a best selling author
of seventeen books.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Now I don't even inteen. Who has the time?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Oh, I don't know who has the time. But she's
the creator of the twelve week body Transformation. She's helped
literally thousands of women regain their health, confidence and fitness.
But you might have seen her recently on a TV
show with me. I'm a celebrity, Get me out of here.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
This is where it was really hard. I had like
a highlight peak at that point where bread. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
But yeah, recently Michelle and I got dumped together and
we I say, we got stuck together. There were two
bunk beds. You know, I'm a celebrity. To get me
out of here that were literally off to the side,
away from everyone. Anybody wanted nobody wanted them in the bush,
and that's where Michelle and I were, and I think
that's where we bonded so much because no one else
talked to us.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
So Michelle, welcome, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
It's a real pleasure to be here and to you know,
I see you again and to meet you for the
first time.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Michelle.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's this is such an interesting one because there's so
much about your career, your history within media in general
that I want to talk to you about. But that's
not the purpose of why we have you here. We're
doing a two part This is if you guys missed
the first part. We interviewed an expert around metopause and
we also wanted to interview someone who is living it
and has personal experienced. Has you know, skin in the game,
(01:52):
one might say, And you've spoken a little bit yourself
around your experience reaching that point in your life as
a woman, and also how hugely under researched it feels,
not just for yourself but the medical professionals that you've
experienced feeling as though they don't know enough about something
that every single woman is going to go through at
some point in time. Now, before we get into your
(02:14):
experiences around this, I would love to know what is
your accidentally unfiltered story, your most embarrassing story, the thing
that keeps you up at night on those dark groom days.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, you're like, throw you in.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
How long did you show stacks? I could just keep
them coming. But one that happened recently. I was at
a launch for a product with Sonya Krueger and a
couple of other lovely ladies in media, and I left
and went back to walked across the road to my
car with my little goodie bag, got in my car
and drove down the street and I thought.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Why is there so much noise? In the car?
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Was so loud, And I realized that the boot of
my four wheel drive was open.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
And I'm driving down.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
The street right I'm like, ah, so I pulled into
a side street and there's traffic and I'm like, oh
my god, and I've just had to pull off onto
the side of the road and get out of the
car and there's people waiting behind me, and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Sorry, sorry, just closing my pood just closed, you know.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Get back in the car and off I drive. Now
it was pretty embarrassing. But then as I was driving away,
I realized the whole thing was being filmed by paparazzi
for Daily Mail, and it ended up on their Daily Mail,
and I.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Thought, you.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
It was very funny.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It had Michelle walking out, has it walking out looking
like fierce and hot, and then it just has to
the car.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
The booty is open.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It just has to get into the car, fierce and hot,
closing intoor, fierce and hot, it driving down the road.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
And seriously, when I saw it on Daily Mail, I
was like, ah, and I thought, you know what, lean
into this. So I grabbed the footage and put it
on my Instagram and I even put some background like
stupid music and put it and just leaned right into it.
And the women loved it. They were like, yo, how
many times has this happened?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It's kind of the only way that you can win
though circumstances. Though that's the problem now, like every time
that's not accumuliating that happens and it's on Daily Mail,
or I've seen like a hideous headline about myself. The
only thing that makes me feel like I've regained a
little bit of power in that situation is to like
repost the awful heabline that's being written and be like,
oh yeah, I can.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I can make a joke too. I find it funny
because dying and die.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
If you bully yourself first, no one else can bully
you as brutally. Well, Michelle, you did create your own
program recently surrounding menopause and perimenopause, so you can help
so many women because you are going through it. Can
talk to us a little bit about where you're at
now in your life because I know you have an
interesting story that actually surrounds I'm a celebrity and menopause.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Yes, I do have a story about that. I thought
that I was about to be menopausal. For your listeners
that may or may not know, menopause is classified as
being between forty five and fifty five. Perimenopause can start
anywhere between seven to ten years prior to that age category,
so it's not unheard of for a woman thirty five.
If you do the math, could start feeling something's not
(05:06):
right here. There's some symptoms.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Having perimenopausal, Yeah, symptoms, Yeah, it can happen.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
That's also really scary because thirty five is this is
coming from someone me that's thirty seven, but thirty five
is so young. And now as women are pushing back
their child bearing years for their careers, there are plenty
of women that are still in their mid to late
thirties that haven't had children yet that might start perimenopause.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, that's scary.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Yeah, it's definitely possible, and it certainly has happened, and
I've met many women who it has happened with. You
could have menopause brought on early at a young age
too if there's cancer. So it's a very big group
of demographic when you look at it. If we're talking
late thirties, early forties and we're talking late fifties, it's
(05:48):
a pretty big chunk of your.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Lifetime twenty five thirty ye yeah, absolutely, So what are
some of the symptoms when you say in terms of perimenopause, Like,
what does that look like for most people?
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Everyone always thinks jumped straight to hot flashes, and it's like, eugh,
that's so cliche, and it can be not denying anyone
that has them because apparently I haven't had them before.
That's not one of my symptoms, but they can really
throw you off kilter. And you can be in board meeting,
or you can be teaching children, or you can be
you know, doing something being.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
On TV and have one.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
You've got estrogen receptors throughout your entire body, like they're everywhere,
So when you get a loss of estrogen, your symptoms
can be wide and varied. And in fact, one of
the number one symptoms that I'm reading is not the
hot flashes. It's about five on the list. It's more
sleep deprivation or sleep changes. That was me waking up
(06:41):
in the middle of the night because I I don't
think I was having hot flashes, but I was sweating
nights weeat comfortable, and then that has a knock on
effect to the rest of your day because then you
just feel like yuck for the rest of the day.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
And so that was definitely one of my symptoms.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
So there can be symptoms of brain fog, which sits
right up there as well, and people start.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Thinking, am I having early dementia or what's going on?
You know, what's wrong with me?
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Because they have been not given any kind of information
around what menopausal symptoms can be. I wake up in
the middle of the night too. You remember the old
internet dial up sound dude here, I wake up to that.
That's my tenaitis it's.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So bad, and it is.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
An artists is a symptom as well. Burning mouth is
a symptom. Skin crawling is a symptom. Anxiety sits upright
at the top as well. And I definitely felt that.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Which is probably why it's so hard for people to diagnose,
because the symptoms are so broad that it could be
so many things. And I feel like the number one
thing is like stress and depression. When you go to
a doctor, someone's like, oh, you depressed her some anti
anxiety or antidepressants.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It's so interesting that you just mentioned burning mouth syndrome.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't think anyone would know what that is unless
they have experienced it or they know someone who experiences it.
My sister has burning mouth syndrome and it's so debilitating.
It's like a chronic pain disorder where you feel as
though your mouth is constantly on fire or burning, or
you know that sensation that you have when you drink
a cup of tea and it's too hot and the
all your taste butter is highly activated because they're burnt.
(08:08):
It is that sensation twenty four hours a day. So
does she have that all the time constantly when her
anxiety is really bad and her stress is really bad,
it's twice as bad. Or if she has any sort
of spicy food or anything that might aggravate it, it
is worse. But it's a hormonal condition that's far more
prevalent in women than what it is in men. But
I didn't realize it was also a symptom that can
be of menopause.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Yeah, musculus gletal issues. One of the big ones is
frozen shoulder, and that's really debilitating and can take up
woods of a year to sort of get that sorted
through physiotherapy and so on.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So with your own experiences, so when you started to
have this, like sleep disturbances and changes, were you conscious that, okay,
this might be a symptom of did you think that
maybe your body was at that stage or were you
kind of just like and how did you tell me?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
In the fitness and health industry, you would think I
would know this stuff. I now realize how clueless on
this topic, really important topic because for such a big
chunk of women that I was, and Unfortunately our medical society.
Now there's lots of research coming in, but there's many
very busy doctors that have got so much going on
(09:15):
that haven't maybe potentially got the time to start delving
into all of this new modern medicine research that's coming out,
you know. And I've spoken to several doctors that said
that their clinical studies, you know, spent no time on
it or very minimal time on it, which I think
it's going to probably take about a generation before we
start sort of seeing menopause and perimenopause being more prevalent
(09:38):
in our medical society, if you like.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I mean, it's not something that comes as a surprise.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We've highly spoken about in depth how misogynistic the healthcare
system is, and it does seem like something that comes
up in conversation, this idea of like as we get older,
as women, often women feel more invisible.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
But that also is within the medical world.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It also is like having visibility around the conditions and
the symptoms because a lot of things has just passed
off with like, oh, that's just being a woman, deal
with it. But then it's the lack of understanding around
why or where those symptoms come from.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
But So when you went to the doctor, Michelle, when
you were like, Okay, something's not right, but no idea,
what yeah, what was the experience?
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Like, Look, I had had some disturbances in my menstrual cycle.
Like I, I've always been a light flow. Suddenly I
was really heavy, and I sort of thought, Okay, this
could be the start of something, and then I just
brushed it aside. So for the sleep disturbances and ringing
in my ear and my hip, and I put it
(10:40):
down to all the training that I've done over the years.
My hip would ache and keep me awake at night
as well, which is a muscular skeletal issue that happened
for me. A little bit of arthritis in there. And look,
I'm not going to deny we are all aging, but
we age slowly. It's not like sudden drop off the cliff.
When these symptoms kick in, it's a drop off the cliff.
So it's not just yes, I'm getting older. There's something
(11:03):
else going on. But for me, I felt flat and
I felt I had a level of anxiety that I'd
never experienced before, which.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Was really unusual for me.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
So I went to the doctor and I spoke about that,
and we did some blood tests, and as I was
saying earlier before this interview, even if you get your
hormones tested, it's not going to give you a pinpointed
answer because when you're in perimenopausal there's a chaos of
hormonal changes that's going on in your body. So I
could get my hormones tested in the morning and they
(11:34):
could look completely different that afternoon. Unless you're sort of
about the doctors every single day getting your hormones tested
and you can do like a full diagnosis, you can't
even potentially pick it up in hormone treatment. And you know, again,
there's just so much new information that's coming out that
whether or not my GP was across all of that.
But I basically was told, why don't you try any depressants?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And I was like, look, I am flat. You know,
I'm a bit off.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
I suppose maybe even a bit low, but geez, am
I depressed. It seems like drastic, yeah, And it was
a lot for me to take that on because I felt,
chit is that really where I'm this, And to be
fair in my perimenopausal obviously stages, I went and did
(12:24):
something that my GP now said, geez, I would never.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Have thought that would be a good idea what you did.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
And that was I went to the country, lived on
a property, isolated myself from a lot of you know,
family and friends, because it was what I wanted to
do at the time. But she said, as a perimenopausal
woman going off and living on a farm in an
isolated country town, that would probably be the last thing
I would suggest.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
It's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
What made you want to go and do that?
Speaker 5 (12:52):
It was time for me to reassess my life. COVID
came and I just thought, you know what, I just
want to get away. And I had a down south
and I just said, right, we're going.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
It's interesting this concept and conversation around anxiety. One of
my really good friends, she's been through perimenopause, and I
think now she's going through menopause, but she was talking
about how she had been taken off medication that she'd
been using for it, and her anxiety was back and
through the roof, and it was very much interrelated to
the menopause, and she said that it got to a
point where she's like, this is.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
A medical emergency.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
The anxiety that I feel is so unreasonable, and I
know that it is related to my hormones. But try
telling your brain that this is not your brain, that
it's your hormones.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So when you decided that you didn't want to take.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
The antidepressants, I didn't and you did discover that maybe
this was interrelated to menopause.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
What was the next steps and how did you process? Okay?
Speaker 5 (13:44):
It took me a while to kind of put it
all together. And strangely enough, I'd had so many of
my clients through twelve WBT who've kind of grown up
with me. You know, they came to me when they
were in their thirties and they're now with me in
their forties and fifties. They'd all been asking me to
do a program on me, and I was like, I really, yeah,
I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I know.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
It's funny because I was of the similar mind that
I think society is still in and we're changing it,
but it's still there, very much there that I don't
know if I want to put my hand up and
be that menopause girl, because that's admitting that I'm not
at aging.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, and I'm a scary thing for society now because
we are ageists. We put all this pressure on people,
especially women, to maintain their youth. And if you, you know,
if you can't stop the aging process, at least look
like you're stopping it, go and get talking, you know,
like that's what that's what we're told that when you're
an aging woman, you're not valuable anymore.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I think that.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We're the least version of that that we've ever been, though.
I think we are fighting full forced against it, and
that didn't exist twenty years ago. But now I think
that there is, like there is a ferocious community of
women who are forging into their forties, their fifties and
beyond who are like, absolutely not, I will not subscribe
to this idea that my expiration date has passed.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
I gave myself a good uppercut and said to myself,
hang on a minute. You've built your career or on
empowering women, and you're buying into society in the way
that we think about women's and women's aging.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Michelle, what the hell? And I thought, well, it's authentic,
it's real.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Lean into it, bloody, get out there and start talking
about it, and yes, you'll do that freaking menopause program.
So I just dived into research and what I found
was like, oh my God, when I got my blood
test with the doctor, Yes, my good cholesterol was really high,
which was great, but my bad cholesterol was high. And
I hadn't changed anything in my diet, and oh my god,
(15:39):
I am vitamin D deficient, not low, not really low
freaking deficient. And they're two harmkers that I've now learned
that are part of perimenopause. So I was like, okay, okay,
things started falling into place for me, and so as
I kept researching and kept researching for the program, then
(16:01):
got my specialists in for the program, and the GP
doctor Kelly tiegor I said can.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
You be my GP?
Speaker 5 (16:08):
After I'd spoken with her and she helped me kind
of figure it out and get through and look, I'm
not through it. I'm still, you know, moving along. I
feel very blessed that I think I haven't really had
massive symptoms, thankfully. I think some of that is due
to my lifestyle has supported that quite successfully.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
And that's research, that's not opinion.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
We know for a fact that women who exercise between
moderate to high exercise and do it consistently potentially can
have lower symptoms than those that might do no or
minimal exercise. That again, that's not an opinion, that's a fact.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
What were some of the differences and the changes that
you noticed in your relationships before you realize what it
was and you just were like, Okay, I'm flat, I'm
depressed and whatever. Because I know you have a son, Axel,
who you know, he's quite young, he's still at school.
Did you find that that relationship at home changed in
terms of your level of patience?
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Oh? Yeah, I mean it's hard to determine because having children,
I think even when you're an absolute maximum one hundred
best of health, they still get they can stay you that. Certainly,
I found myself probably pulling away from people, and I
think being in the country helped. But I found that
(17:28):
I wasn't as social as I used to be, and
that was certainly amplifying my feeling flat. But I just
couldn't kind of get my head around it. And hence
that's why I moved back. Moved back to Sydney nearly
two years ago, and it was the best move I
could have made because it's brought me back into society
(17:49):
again and into my friends.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
We recently did an interview with a woman named Eleanor Mills,
and we touched on menopause in that conversation, and it's
interesting how on what it's like this fine dance that
as women we need to do leaning into like the
authentically the things that are happening to us, but also
then being like typecast, like Okay, now you're in menopause,
and that's the label that you need to carry around
(18:13):
and you should talk about it. She was sort of
saying that she felt as though being someone who is
in she herself was in menopause, and she was like,
I don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
And it's for the reason that I don't want.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
People to label me as though I have to speak
about it, as though that's the only thing that now
I have to offer. She's like, it becomes such an
identifying identity for women. Do you feel that it has
been of value to you to lean into it or
do you feel as though that there is this kind
of like fine dance between becoming labeled to someone who
is Okay, well you are menopausal.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Do you know what I mean by that?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Like, yeah, it's like, oh, one hand, it's doing God's work,
but on the other hand, you then have to carry
that label.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Look, I think it is what it is. You know, like,
I hate that saying, but I just said it because
that's where I'm at, you know, and I'm happy. There'd
be a lot of women that don't want to talk
about it, and I get that, and there'll also be
women that might feel if I talk about it at work,
am I going to be you know that she's you know, yeah,
(19:13):
my hormoan or.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
And then just hard to work with, hard to deal with.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Invalidates.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, you get that label every time something goes wrong
or if you want to make a complaint about something
or everything's like oh she's yeah anapaus or like they
just put groups you into something that maybe you shouldn't
normally fall into.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yeah, so I can see that. I can see that,
But I still wholeheartedly believe that the more we get
this information and knowledge and education out to as many
people as we possibly can, including men, because they're living
many of them are living with a woman that's in
these stages of life. And if we don't know much
(19:50):
about it, guess what, they know nothing? Because I think
for future generations, you know, I just feel like, let's
just shake it out of the tree, get it on
the table, have medical SoC aiety looking after us, empowered
with all the new modern medicine knowledge that that's out
there and it's still to come, so that we can
just like support ourselves and support the women in this
(20:10):
time of life.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How has it changed your sense of self when you
were able to identify what it was and what it
was that you're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
How did it change or impact the way that you
viewed yourself?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Well, I think the biggest thing for many menopause or
women on perimenopause, of women is validation.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I'm not going cross.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
I don't, I don't dementia Like it's validation. It gives
you almost a massive, overwhelming sense of relief. I knew
that there was something not right here, and now when
you can put your finger on it and then figure
out what you can do to support, and there is
so much you can do to support, then it gives
(20:51):
you a real sense of empowerment. Like I always say,
you've got to become the CEO of your own life.
No one's going to do it for you. But you
know what, we're at an age group now that we
don't give shit what people think about us. We're tough,
we're strong, we're resilient, and we've got a future ahead
of us. We're important to our family, We are in
a place in our lives. For some women, they're kicking
(21:13):
goals in their career, like this is a really important
time of their life where we're losing women from the workforce,
We're losing women from education because of this, and that's
costing our country. It's in a holistic approach, so it's
not just one thing or two things, or even three things.
It's probably going to be maybe five or six things
that you're going to have to work out being the
(21:36):
CEO that's going to support you. So there's going to
be lifestyle changers. There's going to have to be a
moment where you find a GP that is specializing in
perimenopause and menopause and they are out there. It might
be that you've got to figure out your sleep health
and how to clean that up. It might be having
really heartfelt sincere conversation with your partner because you know
(22:00):
there's a lot going on sexually or not sorry, there's
not anything going on sexually. You know there's multiple things.
Holistic approach. That's what kept coming out when I spoke
to all of my specialists. It's a holistic approach. It's
a holistic approach. It was always the words they were using,
and that what I have found personally is absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So hormone replacement therapy or HRT is one of the
first things that doctors will say, let's do that, like
after they've said go on your antidepressants, and then they
figured out that's not what it is. It's HRT.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Did you go down that route?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, I have.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
And I went and spoke with my doctor, Kelly Teagle,
who is one of the specialists on the ment pause method.
I did a zoom conference with her because she's based
in Canberra, and we went through my history, We went
through my blood work, we went through lots of questionnaires
around my mental health, around all sorts of stuff. It
was really quite good and then I made the decision that, yeah,
(22:55):
I'm going to do it. So I take I have
an estrogen patch that I put on my butt.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Which is what I saw you putting on in the jungle.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know this. It sounds like
like a little nicorette patch.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That's pretty clear patch. It's about the size of a stamp.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, And I take a progesterone tablet every night and
so I've been doing that now. I started taking them
just before the jungle, So what's that five months? Six
months and I have I have definitely noticed a difference. Again,
I'm not going to say, oh, my symptoms was you know,
thank God, because I know ladies that get hit pretty hard. Fortunately,
(23:31):
my symptoms have been mild. The sleep thing was killing me.
The earringing thing was a bit of a pain in
the ass. I've definitely noticed a difference. And I've also
noticed a difference in my attitude too.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
With my disposition, we only hear negatives though.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I mean, I think when I in terms of metopause,
I don't think anyone talks about it in a favorable way.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
That's the narrative I want to change. Yeah, that's a big,
big thing for me because no one was talking about
it in the past, but if they did, it was, oh,
it's a jail sentence wave the white flag, your life
is over. It's bad, it's terrible, it's the worst thing
that's ever going to happen to you. And so any
narrative around it was just so so negative. And I
(24:12):
absolutely want to change that narrative because I have found
positives and the women that I have worked with since March.
We launched the Menopause Method in March, so we've had
quite a long time now. We've had many women go
through the whole three months worth of work and come
back for more and they've found the positive. This is
a really powerful time in your life because you know
(24:35):
who you are, you've earned your stripes, you know what
you want, you know what you don't want. Maybe your
children have grown up, possibly even left home, and you
don't want to be kicking goals at this time. And
guess what you can? You absolutely can. They're just it's
going to take. It's going to be a little bit
of work. That's okay because most women with these symptoms
are ready to do whatever it takes. And that's another
(24:57):
reason why I think we've had so much success, because
they're not like, oh, you know, maybe i'll do the program.
Maybe other they're like, give it to me, I want it.
I'm going to I'm going to get this sorted out.
And I'm not saying I've got the solution, but we've
certainly made some incredible differences to women and given them education.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Something that's been so severely lacking.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
How does exercise impact or help people who are in
this stage of life.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Well, it helps people in any stage of life. I'll
just say that straight off the bat, I definitely feel
that in perimenopause and menopause, exercise is a game changer,
an absolute game changer. It can help with the muscular
and skeletal issues that we spoke about. It can help
with your anxiety, it can help with your sleep disturbances.
It can help with building muscles so insulin resistance. Because
(25:48):
one of the big things again is weight gain. It's
more of a weight distribution. The changes, so you change
from a little bit of a pair shape to a
little bit more of an apple, so you're getting it
around your midline. This is a dangerous visceral fat to
have because this can then start to tap into cholesterol,
blood pressure.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But even like and I know this is surface level,
but even esthetically it also leans into why women get
so down as well, because their body is changing out
of their control to something that they might not have
ever experienced before. And anything that is out of your
control obviously doesn't help. If you have layers of anxiety,
but all of a sudden, your hormones are changing, your
body's changing, you don't know what it is, you can't
(26:29):
stop it, so it's like a snowball effect.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
It can be.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
But against exercise, nutrition, getting a good gp, working out,
you sleep, all of that sort of stuff can absolutely help.
I promise you, I absolutely promise you it can. And
the types of exercise when we talk about insulin resistance
is you know, strength training because you want to get
that muscle on your body and lift your weights, push
(26:54):
and pull heavy things. Because what that will do is
it will build your muscle. You can build muscle in
older life. I've seen it. It's scientifically a fact you
can build muscle in your older life. And also by
doing that, you're strengthening your bones. Now, this is really
important stuff because when you start to strengthen your bones,
and you can strengthen them even if you have osteoarthritis
(27:17):
osteopenia which is the onset of osteo issues, you can
still strengthen. You can still make them stronger and actually
support your bones so so much. Now I'm going to
give you a couple of little stats. See, fifty percent
of females in this transition will have an osteoporatic bone fracture.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Fifty percent.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
That's huge.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Those stats just blew my head off, and many of
them can be avoided because if you're looking after yourself,
your balance, your coordination through forms of exercise and training,
keeping your core strong so that you've got good balance,
doing exercises that recruit your aware self awareness so on.
(27:57):
You know, it's balancing on one leg and you know
lifting a weight up overhead, you're having to really keep
yourself stable. Those things potentially could stop you from taking
a full Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, what about nutrition, you said, that's another thing that's
so important in the stage of life. What changes should
people take in terms of their nutrition?
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, okay, so it can assist. Again, it's not the
only thing. It's a holistic approach.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
As we know.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
The research now is saying it's a Mediterranean low carbohydrate diet.
So that's what the menopause method nutrition plan is. Because
you wanted to hang onto your muscle, you want to
get protein. You want to be making sure that you're
getting good amounts of protein into your diet, calcium rich
foods for your bones, Amiga threes and looking Also, there's
a lot of research coming out about gut health. I
(28:44):
mean that's been around for a while, but now there's
a link of perimenopause and menopause to gut health as well.
Because I was vitamin D deficient. I take a vitamin
D supplement, and I make sure that when I train.
Sometimes I train outdoors, I'll put my sunscreen on my face.
I'll make sure that i'm out there for ten to
fifteen minutes, and then I'll apply my sunscreen because I
know that's important. I don't want the sunscreen people coming
(29:06):
after me. But we do need to get a vitamin
D as well.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Can you replenish if you know, can you replenish vitamin
D enough with vitamins? Is it the equivalent of actually
getting it from the source.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Now that's this whole supplementation question because I think I'm
taking all of my supplements and are they working. But
I guess again, it's just a you know, you're trying
to approach it from all angles. So I take a
gut health supplement, I take a women's health supplement. I
take my vitamin D in a spray, I take magnesium.
I take creatine because there's some really good research on creatine.
(29:40):
It's not just the bodybuilders. You know, it can supplement
you maintaining good muscle health.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
So talk to us a little bit about the differentiation
between perimenopause and menopause, because I know it's a blurry
line with where you draw the line to say, Okay,
you're out of perimenopause now and you're into menopause.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah, because I didn't know about it. I didn't even know.
This is how.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Unnoledgeable I was about this topic. I didn't know about perimenopause.
And I think there's a lot of people that's a
big topic of discussion now, but there'll still be people
out there that don't. So perimenopause can start, you know,
let's say seven to ten years before the ages of
forty five to fifty five, and that is when you will,
(30:21):
in some cases get even more severe symptoms than when
you're menopausal. But it's classified you are in menopause when
you had no longer had a period for a full
twelve months. So they could come and go, they could stop,
they could start, you're still perimenopausal, go full twelve months. Okay,
now you're classified as being menopausal. And I have a
(30:42):
story which I shared with you in the jungle, which
I didn't even think was possible. I did this interview
before I got in the jungle about menopause and they
I was saying, you know, so in your full twelve
months your menopausal and that. One of the interviewers said,
oh yeah, but what if you get you get to
eleven months and you get your period.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
And I said, I don't think that could happen. I
guess what happened.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Whilst you're in the jungle, like anyone got a tampa.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
I was in the jungle for three days. I was
eleven months and two weeks wow, So I was two
weeks off twelve months and it was Sky. I was
sitting with Sky down in the jungle and we were
sitting on the floor cross legged, and she looked across
at me.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
She said, you get your period?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
What?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Like I haven't had it in a year?
Speaker 4 (31:27):
And I said, oh.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I looked down. There was just a very slight mark
on my shore. It's so embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
And I was like, no, let's just do it. Can't
be I'll go up to the toilet. Yep.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
And I was like, I'm sitting in the jungle toilet
going also in.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
A place twelve months nearly twelve months when you don't
think you have to think about it anymore because you're like,
obviously I'm in menopause. Now, you don't bring a tampon
into the jungle. Don't bring anything, and it's like the
worst place.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
I had to come up to the girls and I said,
where do we get that hampons? And it's just like
I can't even believe once said that.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Well, then what happens now?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Does that mean that it resets for another twelve months
or does it mean that it's kind of well.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
I've had a period ever since. Wow, I know.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Do you think that was the stress, like the hormonal
change in the jungle, because we know what stress can
do on your body, But like it seems strange to
have gone twelve months. Then you get thrown into that environment,
then it's back regular now, Like that's wild to me.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
I don't know. I honestly do not know.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
And then because you girls were all talking about, oh,
we've all got our periods at the same.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Time, and I'm cute, maybe I've got wrapped into that.
Maybe that's how that happened.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Maybe I sucked you in because I have fault.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Me for yourself not going into.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Medical Is that I mean, like I wonder about that
because it's One of the things that people always say
is like the positive, well, at least you never have
to deal with the period again, Like, is that how
you felt about it?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Will be like cool, well I'm done with that part
of my life.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
That was Obviously it had a purpose, but for a
lot of it, it was a fucking annoying Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
I mean, I've had all sorts of theories said to me.
People said, oh, well, you know, it must mean that
you're still you're healthy, or this or that, and I
don't buy into any of it other than the human
body is an incredible thing. Menopause and perimenopause is different
for every single person. It's very individual. No two symptoms,
you know, are the same, particularly what you get, what
(33:18):
symptoms you might have will be completely different to the ones.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
That I have.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
And you know, it's just it's just a very interesting
and yet wonderful time.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Well, I guess it's the same as women that have
their period. Like, no, two periods are the same. Some
people get alive, that's right, symptoms. Some are gushing the
red river and they're in constant pain and they get
the hormonal headache.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Some people are in I have never had really much
period pain. At all.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Actually, in perimenopause, I started getting more pain. That was
interesting because I was always light, light flow, no pain.
But then there'll be girls. I remember girls that couldn't
even come to school. You know, it's so varied. They
couldn't have a school, they owned so much pain and
they were so heavy.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Which I also find so interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I honestly think from like a medical perspective, because often
research and information and people specialize in areas where they
can see it being a lucrative industry for themselves, you know,
where more money can be made. Like this is a
thing that is going to happen to every single woman
who every single woman who has a period is going
to experience menopause at some point. So it's like it
(34:18):
makes sense doctors, if you're out there, this is a
great area of speciality interest to get into. Women need it,
you know what I mean. It's something that we're all
going to require.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
But I want to say that one third of the
world's population is either perry menopausal, menopausal or postmenopausal. Yeah,
one third of the female world population.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
And it's so fascinating that up until I think in
the last of five or six years, it hasn't even
been a conversation that's been had, and now there is
more information. But for someone who works in healthcare, like
you work in the fitness industry, you work within talking
about bodies, talking about nutrition, talking about how bodies work,
and even yourself was like, I had no information on this.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
I mean, there's so much incredible information coming from all
around the world.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I was only just listening to it in the car
on the way here.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Interesting research coming out of the UK around perimenopausal and
menopausal women and how they process nutrition slightly differently, because
they'll have women going to the GPS that work in
these specialist areas and they'll say, oh, your cholesterol's high.
This is different and they're like, but I haven't even
changed the way I eat.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Tabolizing and processing the food and things like that.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
I haven't changed the war. I haven't changed a war exercise,
but I'm putting on weight. What's going on?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
What's your advice for a woman right now that is
entering she thinks she's entering perimenopause or she's entering menopause,
she's struggling to prioritize her health and make the changes, Like,
what do you say that starts in Brittany.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
First of all, i'd be start doing some research for yourself,
start educating yourself. There's some incredible specialists. One that I
follow out of the States. Her name's doctor Mary Claire.
She's incredible. She's just written a new book called The
New Menopause, and it's a heavy read.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
It's pretty it's.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
A heavy flow.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, it's a heavy flow.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
See what we do that, But it's incredibly empowering when
you can arm yourself with education. The absolute number one
thing you've just got to do is find yourself a
GP that specializes in this area.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
And you can find them.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
They're out there and you can do like like what
I did, a tele conference, so they don't even have
to be, you know, in your neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Because chances are they're not in your neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I mean, we're lucky where we live, but so many
people live in regional that's right areas, and it's harder
to come by people who specialize in this.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Yeah, and you can go onto the Australasian Menopause Society
website and you can find the playlist of doctors that
do specialize in this.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
It's so nice to talk to someone that's literally going
through it, Like it's easy for us to go and
speak to a specialist, but we aren't going through it.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
You know.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I'm still experience, No, my periods still regular.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
But it's the thing is for you, Britt and for
both of you, is the knowledge is power. So most women,
well I think probably of my generation definitely before we're
just blindsided.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
But it's also different now what's going on.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Because if I knew this when my mom was going
through menopause, I would have been different. I wouldn't have
been such a brat. I would really band But do
you know what I mean? Like, once we're armed with
the knowledge that we understand why someone's going through something
and it's out of their control, Like I used to
think when my mom went through it, and she went
through it for quite a long time, like it really
sat with her for a long time, and her hot
(37:29):
flushes were next level and it would.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Really throw her.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Fatigue was chronic, and I'd be like, I give her
a hard time, like while you're always sleeping and she's like,
I physically can't keep my eyes open. And I don't
think she knew she was in perimenopause at the time.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Yes, that's another big symptom. Always tired.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Always.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
It's so I think I said this to Callum on
the show, Like if we said to the men of Australia,
this is what's gonna happen. See your testicles down there,
they keep your hormones level and so on. So when
you get about, oh, let's say fifty two to fifty three,
maybe fifty four, they're going to shribble up and go
and look, you might have some erect ol dysfunction problems,
(38:09):
you might put on a bit of weight, you might
not feel good about yourself, but you know what, you know,
stick with it. You'll get through it and you'll get
up on the other side and you'll be fine. So
you know, chin up, carry on. Like they'd be taking
all the funding for those submarines and they'd be pumping
it into you know, men's testicle research.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
You know, this is one of the things Ellen or
Mills spoke about when we interviewed her, and it was
so interesting. She was like, no one would ever expect
a man to get up and have to talk about that.
They would like fix it, but they would be researched.
We'd get them a pill we'd fix it for them,
whereas like women are expected to speak about the things
that they're experiencing in order to get the research, in
order to get exposure, because we have to advocate for
(38:48):
ourselves in a way that men don't have to do.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Well do Yeah, I love that word.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
You have to advocate for yourself and when you go
to your GP, you have to advocate for yourself. You
have to ask the questions, have to arm yourself with
knowledge so that you can ask the questions that you
need to to delve into it. And that again is
why it's really important to go to a doctor that
actually specializes in it, because they'll have that information already.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
And it's the same thing we say about any ailment
or illness or change in your body is that you
know your body better than the stranger of a doctor
who sure they've studied for five years, but they don't
know what your normal is because everybody's normal is slightly different.
So if you know something is not wrong in your body,
go on five for that exactly that go to one doctor.
If they don't agree with you, or they don't suggest
(39:33):
maybe or listen to you, go to someone else. Like
you can go to more than one person.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
Yeah, it's becoming the CEO of your own life. You
can do it, and I'm one hundred percent guaranteeing you
can definitely support yourself in this time of life. But
it's going to take just a little bit of work
just to figure it out, and again, a holistic approach.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Michelle, thank you so much for coming and being a
part of the podcast. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
For anybody who wants to listen to part one of
this episode, we will think it all in the show
notes as well.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Thank you so much for having me in to talk
about this really important topic.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Thank you, it was a pleasure.
Lifeln Cut acknowledges the traditional custodians of country whose lands
were never seated. We pay our respects to their elders
past and present.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land. This episode was
recorded on Cameragle Land. Hi guys, and welcome back to
another episode of Life on Cut.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm Laura, I'm Brittany, and today we have a very
exciting episode.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You probably all have heard of.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Michelle Bridges or seen her in some capacity. She is
a TV queen, a fitness icon, a best selling author
of seventeen books.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Now I don't even inteen. Who has the time?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Oh, I don't know who has the time. But she's
the creator of the twelve week body Transformation. She's helped
literally thousands of women regain their health, confidence and fitness.
But you might have seen her recently on a TV
show with me. I'm a celebrity, Get me out of here.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
This is where it was really hard. I had like
a highlight peak at that point where bread. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
But yeah, recently Michelle and I got dumped together and
we I say, we got stuck together. There were two
bunk beds. You know, I'm a celebrity. To get me
out of here that were literally off to the side,
away from everyone. Anybody wanted nobody wanted them in the bush,
and that's where Michelle and I were, and I think
that's where we bonded so much because no one else
talked to us.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
So Michelle, welcome, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
It's a real pleasure to be here and to you know,
I see you again and to meet you for the
first time.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Michelle.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's this is such an interesting one because there's so
much about your career, your history within media in general
that I want to talk to you about. But that's
not the purpose of why we have you here. We're
doing a two part This is if you guys missed
the first part. We interviewed an expert around metopause and
we also wanted to interview someone who is living it
and has personal experienced. Has you know, skin in the game,
(01:52):
one might say, And you've spoken a little bit yourself
around your experience reaching that point in your life as
a woman, and also how hugely under researched it feels,
not just for yourself but the medical professionals that you've
experienced feeling as though they don't know enough about something
that every single woman is going to go through at
some point in time. Now, before we get into your
(02:14):
experiences around this, I would love to know what is
your accidentally unfiltered story, your most embarrassing story, the thing
that keeps you up at night on those dark groom days.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, you're like, throw you in.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
How long did you show stacks? I could just keep
them coming. But one that happened recently. I was at
a launch for a product with Sonya Krueger and a
couple of other lovely ladies in media, and I left
and went back to walked across the road to my
car with my little goodie bag, got in my car
and drove down the street and I thought.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Why is there so much noise? In the car?
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Was so loud, And I realized that the boot of
my four wheel drive was open.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
And I'm driving down.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
The street right I'm like, ah, so I pulled into
a side street and there's traffic and I'm like, oh
my god, and I've just had to pull off onto
the side of the road and get out of the
car and there's people waiting behind me, and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Sorry, sorry, just closing my pood just closed, you know.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Get back in the car and off I drive. Now
it was pretty embarrassing. But then as I was driving away,
I realized the whole thing was being filmed by paparazzi
for Daily Mail, and it ended up on their Daily Mail,
and I.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Thought, you.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
It was very funny.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It had Michelle walking out, has it walking out looking
like fierce and hot, and then it just has to
the car.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
The booty is open.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It just has to get into the car, fierce and hot,
closing intoor, fierce and hot, it driving down the road.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
And seriously, when I saw it on Daily Mail, I
was like, ah, and I thought, you know what, lean
into this. So I grabbed the footage and put it
on my Instagram and I even put some background like
stupid music and put it and just leaned right into it.
And the women loved it. They were like, yo, how
many times has this happened?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It's kind of the only way that you can win
though circumstances. Though that's the problem now, like every time
that's not accumuliating that happens and it's on Daily Mail,
or I've seen like a hideous headline about myself. The
only thing that makes me feel like I've regained a
little bit of power in that situation is to like
repost the awful heabline that's being written and be like,
oh yeah, I can.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I can make a joke too. I find it funny
because dying and die.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
If you bully yourself first, no one else can bully
you as brutally. Well, Michelle, you did create your own
program recently surrounding menopause and perimenopause, so you can help
so many women because you are going through it. Can
talk to us a little bit about where you're at
now in your life because I know you have an
interesting story that actually surrounds I'm a celebrity and menopause.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Yes, I do have a story about that. I thought
that I was about to be menopausal. For your listeners
that may or may not know, menopause is classified as
being between forty five and fifty five. Perimenopause can start
anywhere between seven to ten years prior to that age category,
so it's not unheard of for a woman thirty five.
If you do the math, could start feeling something's not
(05:06):
right here. There's some symptoms.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Having perimenopausal, Yeah, symptoms, Yeah, it can happen.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
That's also really scary because thirty five is this is
coming from someone me that's thirty seven, but thirty five
is so young. And now as women are pushing back
their child bearing years for their careers, there are plenty
of women that are still in their mid to late
thirties that haven't had children yet that might start perimenopause.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, that's scary.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Yeah, it's definitely possible, and it certainly has happened, and
I've met many women who it has happened with. You
could have menopause brought on early at a young age
too if there's cancer. So it's a very big group
of demographic when you look at it. If we're talking
late thirties, early forties and we're talking late fifties, it's
(05:48):
a pretty big chunk of your.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Lifetime twenty five thirty ye yeah, absolutely, So what are
some of the symptoms when you say in terms of perimenopause, Like,
what does that look like for most people?
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Everyone always thinks jumped straight to hot flashes, and it's like, eugh,
that's so cliche, and it can be not denying anyone
that has them because apparently I haven't had them before.
That's not one of my symptoms, but they can really
throw you off kilter. And you can be in board meeting,
or you can be teaching children, or you can be
you know, doing something being.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
On TV and have one.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
You've got estrogen receptors throughout your entire body, like they're everywhere,
So when you get a loss of estrogen, your symptoms
can be wide and varied. And in fact, one of
the number one symptoms that I'm reading is not the
hot flashes. It's about five on the list. It's more
sleep deprivation or sleep changes. That was me waking up
(06:41):
in the middle of the night because I I don't
think I was having hot flashes, but I was sweating
nights weeat comfortable, and then that has a knock on
effect to the rest of your day because then you
just feel like yuck for the rest of the day.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
And so that was definitely one of my symptoms.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
So there can be symptoms of brain fog, which sits
right up there as well, and people start.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Thinking, am I having early dementia or what's going on?
You know, what's wrong with me?
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Because they have been not given any kind of information
around what menopausal symptoms can be. I wake up in
the middle of the night too. You remember the old
internet dial up sound dude here, I wake up to that.
That's my tenaitis it's.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So bad, and it is.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
An artists is a symptom as well. Burning mouth is
a symptom. Skin crawling is a symptom. Anxiety sits upright
at the top as well. And I definitely felt that.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Which is probably why it's so hard for people to diagnose,
because the symptoms are so broad that it could be
so many things. And I feel like the number one
thing is like stress and depression. When you go to
a doctor, someone's like, oh, you depressed her some anti
anxiety or antidepressants.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It's so interesting that you just mentioned burning mouth syndrome.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't think anyone would know what that is unless
they have experienced it or they know someone who experiences it.
My sister has burning mouth syndrome and it's so debilitating.
It's like a chronic pain disorder where you feel as
though your mouth is constantly on fire or burning, or
you know that sensation that you have when you drink
a cup of tea and it's too hot and the
all your taste butter is highly activated because they're burnt.
(08:08):
It is that sensation twenty four hours a day. So
does she have that all the time constantly when her
anxiety is really bad and her stress is really bad,
it's twice as bad. Or if she has any sort
of spicy food or anything that might aggravate it, it
is worse. But it's a hormonal condition that's far more
prevalent in women than what it is in men. But
I didn't realize it was also a symptom that can
be of menopause.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Yeah, musculus gletal issues. One of the big ones is
frozen shoulder, and that's really debilitating and can take up
woods of a year to sort of get that sorted
through physiotherapy and so on.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So with your own experiences, so when you started to
have this, like sleep disturbances and changes, were you conscious that, okay,
this might be a symptom of did you think that
maybe your body was at that stage or were you
kind of just like and how did you tell me?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
In the fitness and health industry, you would think I
would know this stuff. I now realize how clueless on
this topic, really important topic because for such a big
chunk of women that I was, and Unfortunately our medical society.
Now there's lots of research coming in, but there's many
very busy doctors that have got so much going on
(09:15):
that haven't maybe potentially got the time to start delving
into all of this new modern medicine research that's coming out,
you know. And I've spoken to several doctors that said
that their clinical studies, you know, spent no time on
it or very minimal time on it, which I think
it's going to probably take about a generation before we
start sort of seeing menopause and perimenopause being more prevalent
(09:38):
in our medical society, if you like.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I mean, it's not something that comes as a surprise.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We've highly spoken about in depth how misogynistic the healthcare
system is, and it does seem like something that comes
up in conversation, this idea of like as we get older,
as women, often women feel more invisible.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
But that also is within the medical world.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It also is like having visibility around the conditions and
the symptoms because a lot of things has just passed
off with like, oh, that's just being a woman, deal
with it. But then it's the lack of understanding around
why or where those symptoms come from.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
But So when you went to the doctor, Michelle, when
you were like, Okay, something's not right, but no idea,
what yeah, what was the experience?
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Like, Look, I had had some disturbances in my menstrual cycle.
Like I, I've always been a light flow. Suddenly I
was really heavy, and I sort of thought, Okay, this
could be the start of something, and then I just
brushed it aside. So for the sleep disturbances and ringing
in my ear and my hip, and I put it
(10:40):
down to all the training that I've done over the years.
My hip would ache and keep me awake at night
as well, which is a muscular skeletal issue that happened
for me. A little bit of arthritis in there. And look,
I'm not going to deny we are all aging, but
we age slowly. It's not like sudden drop off the cliff.
When these symptoms kick in, it's a drop off the cliff.
So it's not just yes, I'm getting older. There's something
(11:03):
else going on. But for me, I felt flat and
I felt I had a level of anxiety that I'd
never experienced before, which.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Was really unusual for me.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
So I went to the doctor and I spoke about that,
and we did some blood tests, and as I was
saying earlier before this interview, even if you get your
hormones tested, it's not going to give you a pinpointed
answer because when you're in perimenopausal there's a chaos of
hormonal changes that's going on in your body. So I
could get my hormones tested in the morning and they
(11:34):
could look completely different that afternoon. Unless you're sort of
about the doctors every single day getting your hormones tested
and you can do like a full diagnosis, you can't
even potentially pick it up in hormone treatment. And you know, again,
there's just so much new information that's coming out that
whether or not my GP was across all of that.
But I basically was told, why don't you try any depressants?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And I was like, look, I am flat. You know,
I'm a bit off.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
I suppose maybe even a bit low, but geez, am
I depressed. It seems like drastic, yeah, And it was
a lot for me to take that on because I felt,
chit is that really where I'm this, And to be
fair in my perimenopausal obviously stages, I went and did
(12:24):
something that my GP now said, geez, I would never.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Have thought that would be a good idea what you did.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
And that was I went to the country, lived on
a property, isolated myself from a lot of you know,
family and friends, because it was what I wanted to
do at the time. But she said, as a perimenopausal
woman going off and living on a farm in an
isolated country town, that would probably be the last thing
I would suggest.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
It's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
What made you want to go and do that?
Speaker 5 (12:52):
It was time for me to reassess my life. COVID
came and I just thought, you know what, I just
want to get away. And I had a down south
and I just said, right, we're going.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
It's interesting this concept and conversation around anxiety. One of
my really good friends, she's been through perimenopause, and I
think now she's going through menopause, but she was talking
about how she had been taken off medication that she'd
been using for it, and her anxiety was back and
through the roof, and it was very much interrelated to
the menopause, and she said that it got to a
point where she's like, this is.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
A medical emergency.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
The anxiety that I feel is so unreasonable, and I
know that it is related to my hormones. But try
telling your brain that this is not your brain, that
it's your hormones.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So when you decided that you didn't want to take.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
The antidepressants, I didn't and you did discover that maybe
this was interrelated to menopause.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
What was the next steps and how did you process? Okay?
Speaker 5 (13:44):
It took me a while to kind of put it
all together. And strangely enough, I'd had so many of
my clients through twelve WBT who've kind of grown up
with me. You know, they came to me when they
were in their thirties and they're now with me in
their forties and fifties. They'd all been asking me to
do a program on me, and I was like, I really, yeah,
I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I know.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
It's funny because I was of the similar mind that
I think society is still in and we're changing it,
but it's still there, very much there that I don't
know if I want to put my hand up and
be that menopause girl, because that's admitting that I'm not
at aging.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, and I'm a scary thing for society now because
we are ageists. We put all this pressure on people,
especially women, to maintain their youth. And if you, you know,
if you can't stop the aging process, at least look
like you're stopping it, go and get talking, you know,
like that's what that's what we're told that when you're
an aging woman, you're not valuable anymore.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I think that.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We're the least version of that that we've ever been, though.
I think we are fighting full forced against it, and
that didn't exist twenty years ago. But now I think
that there is, like there is a ferocious community of
women who are forging into their forties, their fifties and
beyond who are like, absolutely not, I will not subscribe
to this idea that my expiration date has passed.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
I gave myself a good uppercut and said to myself,
hang on a minute. You've built your career or on
empowering women, and you're buying into society in the way
that we think about women's and women's aging.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Michelle, what the hell? And I thought, well, it's authentic,
it's real.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Lean into it, bloody, get out there and start talking
about it, and yes, you'll do that freaking menopause program.
So I just dived into research and what I found
was like, oh my God, when I got my blood
test with the doctor, Yes, my good cholesterol was really high,
which was great, but my bad cholesterol was high. And
I hadn't changed anything in my diet, and oh my god,
(15:39):
I am vitamin D deficient, not low, not really low
freaking deficient. And they're two harmkers that I've now learned
that are part of perimenopause. So I was like, okay, okay,
things started falling into place for me, and so as
I kept researching and kept researching for the program, then
(16:01):
got my specialists in for the program, and the GP
doctor Kelly tiegor I said can.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
You be my GP?
Speaker 5 (16:08):
After I'd spoken with her and she helped me kind
of figure it out and get through and look, I'm
not through it. I'm still, you know, moving along. I
feel very blessed that I think I haven't really had
massive symptoms, thankfully. I think some of that is due
to my lifestyle has supported that quite successfully.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
And that's research, that's not opinion.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
We know for a fact that women who exercise between
moderate to high exercise and do it consistently potentially can
have lower symptoms than those that might do no or
minimal exercise. That again, that's not an opinion, that's a fact.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
What were some of the differences and the changes that
you noticed in your relationships before you realize what it
was and you just were like, Okay, I'm flat, I'm
depressed and whatever. Because I know you have a son, Axel,
who you know, he's quite young, he's still at school.
Did you find that that relationship at home changed in
terms of your level of patience?
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Oh? Yeah, I mean it's hard to determine because having children,
I think even when you're an absolute maximum one hundred
best of health, they still get they can stay you that. Certainly,
I found myself probably pulling away from people, and I
think being in the country helped. But I found that
(17:28):
I wasn't as social as I used to be, and
that was certainly amplifying my feeling flat. But I just
couldn't kind of get my head around it. And hence
that's why I moved back. Moved back to Sydney nearly
two years ago, and it was the best move I
could have made because it's brought me back into society
(17:49):
again and into my friends.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
We recently did an interview with a woman named Eleanor Mills,
and we touched on menopause in that conversation, and it's
interesting how on what it's like this fine dance that
as women we need to do leaning into like the
authentically the things that are happening to us, but also
then being like typecast, like Okay, now you're in menopause,
and that's the label that you need to carry around
(18:13):
and you should talk about it. She was sort of
saying that she felt as though being someone who is
in she herself was in menopause, and she was like,
I don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
And it's for the reason that I don't want.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
People to label me as though I have to speak
about it, as though that's the only thing that now
I have to offer. She's like, it becomes such an
identifying identity for women. Do you feel that it has
been of value to you to lean into it or
do you feel as though that there is this kind
of like fine dance between becoming labeled to someone who
is Okay, well you are menopausal.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Do you know what I mean by that?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Like, yeah, it's like, oh, one hand, it's doing God's work,
but on the other hand, you then have to carry
that label.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Look, I think it is what it is. You know, like,
I hate that saying, but I just said it because
that's where I'm at, you know, and I'm happy. There'd
be a lot of women that don't want to talk
about it, and I get that, and there'll also be
women that might feel if I talk about it at work,
am I going to be you know that she's you know, yeah,
(19:13):
my hormoan or.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
And then just hard to work with, hard to deal with.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Invalidates.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, you get that label every time something goes wrong
or if you want to make a complaint about something
or everything's like oh she's yeah anapaus or like they
just put groups you into something that maybe you shouldn't
normally fall into.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yeah, so I can see that. I can see that,
But I still wholeheartedly believe that the more we get
this information and knowledge and education out to as many
people as we possibly can, including men, because they're living
many of them are living with a woman that's in
these stages of life. And if we don't know much
(19:50):
about it, guess what, they know nothing? Because I think
for future generations, you know, I just feel like, let's
just shake it out of the tree, get it on
the table, have medical SoC aiety looking after us, empowered
with all the new modern medicine knowledge that that's out
there and it's still to come, so that we can
just like support ourselves and support the women in this
(20:10):
time of life.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How has it changed your sense of self when you
were able to identify what it was and what it
was that you're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
How did it change or impact the way that you
viewed yourself?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Well, I think the biggest thing for many menopause or
women on perimenopause, of women is validation.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I'm not going cross.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
I don't, I don't dementia Like it's validation. It gives
you almost a massive, overwhelming sense of relief. I knew
that there was something not right here, and now when
you can put your finger on it and then figure
out what you can do to support, and there is
so much you can do to support, then it gives
(20:51):
you a real sense of empowerment. Like I always say,
you've got to become the CEO of your own life.
No one's going to do it for you. But you
know what, we're at an age group now that we
don't give shit what people think about us. We're tough,
we're strong, we're resilient, and we've got a future ahead
of us. We're important to our family, We are in
a place in our lives. For some women, they're kicking
(21:13):
goals in their career, like this is a really important
time of their life where we're losing women from the workforce,
We're losing women from education because of this, and that's
costing our country. It's in a holistic approach, so it's
not just one thing or two things, or even three things.
It's probably going to be maybe five or six things
that you're going to have to work out being the
(21:36):
CEO that's going to support you. So there's going to
be lifestyle changers. There's going to have to be a
moment where you find a GP that is specializing in
perimenopause and menopause and they are out there. It might
be that you've got to figure out your sleep health
and how to clean that up. It might be having
really heartfelt sincere conversation with your partner because you know
(22:00):
there's a lot going on sexually or not sorry, there's
not anything going on sexually. You know there's multiple things.
Holistic approach. That's what kept coming out when I spoke
to all of my specialists. It's a holistic approach. It's
a holistic approach. It was always the words they were using,
and that what I have found personally is absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So hormone replacement therapy or HRT is one of the
first things that doctors will say, let's do that, like
after they've said go on your antidepressants, and then they
figured out that's not what it is. It's HRT.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Did you go down that route?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, I have.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
And I went and spoke with my doctor, Kelly Teagle,
who is one of the specialists on the ment pause method.
I did a zoom conference with her because she's based
in Canberra, and we went through my history, We went
through my blood work, we went through lots of questionnaires
around my mental health, around all sorts of stuff. It
was really quite good and then I made the decision that, yeah,
(22:55):
I'm going to do it. So I take I have
an estrogen patch that I put on my butt.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Which is what I saw you putting on in the jungle.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know this. It sounds like
like a little nicorette patch.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That's pretty clear patch. It's about the size of a stamp.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, And I take a progesterone tablet every night and
so I've been doing that now. I started taking them
just before the jungle, So what's that five months? Six
months and I have I have definitely noticed a difference. Again,
I'm not going to say, oh, my symptoms was you know,
thank God, because I know ladies that get hit pretty hard. Fortunately,
(23:31):
my symptoms have been mild. The sleep thing was killing me.
The earringing thing was a bit of a pain in
the ass. I've definitely noticed a difference. And I've also
noticed a difference in my attitude too.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
With my disposition, we only hear negatives though.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I mean, I think when I in terms of metopause,
I don't think anyone talks about it in a favorable way.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
That's the narrative I want to change. Yeah, that's a big,
big thing for me because no one was talking about
it in the past, but if they did, it was, oh,
it's a jail sentence wave the white flag, your life
is over. It's bad, it's terrible, it's the worst thing
that's ever going to happen to you. And so any
narrative around it was just so so negative. And I
(24:12):
absolutely want to change that narrative because I have found
positives and the women that I have worked with since March.
We launched the Menopause Method in March, so we've had
quite a long time now. We've had many women go
through the whole three months worth of work and come
back for more and they've found the positive. This is
a really powerful time in your life because you know
(24:35):
who you are, you've earned your stripes, you know what
you want, you know what you don't want. Maybe your
children have grown up, possibly even left home, and you
don't want to be kicking goals at this time. And
guess what you can? You absolutely can. They're just it's
going to take. It's going to be a little bit
of work. That's okay because most women with these symptoms
are ready to do whatever it takes. And that's another
(24:57):
reason why I think we've had so much success, because
they're not like, oh, you know, maybe i'll do the program.
Maybe other they're like, give it to me, I want it.
I'm going to I'm going to get this sorted out.
And I'm not saying I've got the solution, but we've
certainly made some incredible differences to women and given them education.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Something that's been so severely lacking.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
How does exercise impact or help people who are in
this stage of life.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Well, it helps people in any stage of life. I'll
just say that straight off the bat, I definitely feel
that in perimenopause and menopause, exercise is a game changer,
an absolute game changer. It can help with the muscular
and skeletal issues that we spoke about. It can help
with your anxiety, it can help with your sleep disturbances.
It can help with building muscles so insulin resistance. Because
(25:48):
one of the big things again is weight gain. It's
more of a weight distribution. The changes, so you change
from a little bit of a pair shape to a
little bit more of an apple, so you're getting it
around your midline. This is a dangerous visceral fat to
have because this can then start to tap into cholesterol,
blood pressure.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But even like and I know this is surface level,
but even esthetically it also leans into why women get
so down as well, because their body is changing out
of their control to something that they might not have
ever experienced before. And anything that is out of your
control obviously doesn't help. If you have layers of anxiety,
but all of a sudden, your hormones are changing, your
body's changing, you don't know what it is, you can't
(26:29):
stop it, so it's like a snowball effect.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
It can be.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
But against exercise, nutrition, getting a good gp, working out,
you sleep, all of that sort of stuff can absolutely help.
I promise you, I absolutely promise you it can. And
the types of exercise when we talk about insulin resistance
is you know, strength training because you want to get
that muscle on your body and lift your weights, push
(26:54):
and pull heavy things. Because what that will do is
it will build your muscle. You can build muscle in
older life. I've seen it. It's scientifically a fact you
can build muscle in your older life. And also by
doing that, you're strengthening your bones. Now, this is really
important stuff because when you start to strengthen your bones,
and you can strengthen them even if you have osteoarthritis
(27:17):
osteopenia which is the onset of osteo issues, you can
still strengthen. You can still make them stronger and actually
support your bones so so much. Now I'm going to
give you a couple of little stats. See, fifty percent
of females in this transition will have an osteoporatic bone fracture.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Fifty percent.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
That's huge.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Those stats just blew my head off, and many of
them can be avoided because if you're looking after yourself,
your balance, your coordination through forms of exercise and training,
keeping your core strong so that you've got good balance,
doing exercises that recruit your aware self awareness so on.
(27:57):
You know, it's balancing on one leg and you know
lifting a weight up overhead, you're having to really keep
yourself stable. Those things potentially could stop you from taking
a full Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, what about nutrition, you said, that's another thing that's
so important in the stage of life. What changes should
people take in terms of their nutrition?
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, okay, so it can assist. Again, it's not the
only thing. It's a holistic approach.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
As we know.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
The research now is saying it's a Mediterranean low carbohydrate diet.
So that's what the menopause method nutrition plan is. Because
you wanted to hang onto your muscle, you want to
get protein. You want to be making sure that you're
getting good amounts of protein into your diet, calcium rich
foods for your bones, Amiga threes and looking Also, there's
a lot of research coming out about gut health. I
(28:44):
mean that's been around for a while, but now there's
a link of perimenopause and menopause to gut health as well.
Because I was vitamin D deficient. I take a vitamin
D supplement, and I make sure that when I train.
Sometimes I train outdoors, I'll put my sunscreen on my face.
I'll make sure that i'm out there for ten to
fifteen minutes, and then I'll apply my sunscreen because I
know that's important. I don't want the sunscreen people coming
(29:06):
after me. But we do need to get a vitamin
D as well.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Can you replenish if you know, can you replenish vitamin
D enough with vitamins? Is it the equivalent of actually
getting it from the source.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Now that's this whole supplementation question because I think I'm
taking all of my supplements and are they working. But
I guess again, it's just a you know, you're trying
to approach it from all angles. So I take a
gut health supplement, I take a women's health supplement. I
take my vitamin D in a spray, I take magnesium.
I take creatine because there's some really good research on creatine.
(29:40):
It's not just the bodybuilders. You know, it can supplement
you maintaining good muscle health.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
So talk to us a little bit about the differentiation
between perimenopause and menopause, because I know it's a blurry
line with where you draw the line to say, Okay,
you're out of perimenopause now and you're into menopause.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah, because I didn't know about it. I didn't even know.
This is how.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Unnoledgeable I was about this topic. I didn't know about perimenopause.
And I think there's a lot of people that's a
big topic of discussion now, but there'll still be people
out there that don't. So perimenopause can start, you know,
let's say seven to ten years before the ages of
forty five to fifty five, and that is when you will,
(30:21):
in some cases get even more severe symptoms than when
you're menopausal. But it's classified you are in menopause when
you had no longer had a period for a full
twelve months. So they could come and go, they could stop,
they could start, you're still perimenopausal, go full twelve months. Okay,
now you're classified as being menopausal. And I have a
(30:42):
story which I shared with you in the jungle, which
I didn't even think was possible. I did this interview
before I got in the jungle about menopause and they
I was saying, you know, so in your full twelve
months your menopausal and that. One of the interviewers said,
oh yeah, but what if you get you get to
eleven months and you get your period.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
And I said, I don't think that could happen. I
guess what happened.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Whilst you're in the jungle, like anyone got a tampa.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
I was in the jungle for three days. I was
eleven months and two weeks wow, So I was two
weeks off twelve months and it was Sky. I was
sitting with Sky down in the jungle and we were
sitting on the floor cross legged, and she looked across
at me.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
She said, you get your period?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
What?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Like I haven't had it in a year?
Speaker 4 (31:27):
And I said, oh.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I looked down. There was just a very slight mark
on my shore. It's so embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
And I was like, no, let's just do it. Can't
be I'll go up to the toilet. Yep.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
And I was like, I'm sitting in the jungle toilet
going also in.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
A place twelve months nearly twelve months when you don't
think you have to think about it anymore because you're like,
obviously I'm in menopause. Now, you don't bring a tampon
into the jungle. Don't bring anything, and it's like the
worst place.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
I had to come up to the girls and I said,
where do we get that hampons? And it's just like
I can't even believe once said that.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Well, then what happens now?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Does that mean that it resets for another twelve months
or does it mean that it's kind of well.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
I've had a period ever since. Wow, I know.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Do you think that was the stress, like the hormonal
change in the jungle, because we know what stress can
do on your body, But like it seems strange to
have gone twelve months. Then you get thrown into that environment,
then it's back regular now, Like that's wild to me.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
I don't know. I honestly do not know.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
And then because you girls were all talking about, oh,
we've all got our periods at the same.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Time, and I'm cute, maybe I've got wrapped into that.
Maybe that's how that happened.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Maybe I sucked you in because I have fault.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Me for yourself not going into.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Medical Is that I mean, like I wonder about that
because it's One of the things that people always say
is like the positive, well, at least you never have
to deal with the period again, Like, is that how
you felt about it?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Will be like cool, well I'm done with that part
of my life.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
That was Obviously it had a purpose, but for a
lot of it, it was a fucking annoying Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
I mean, I've had all sorts of theories said to me.
People said, oh, well, you know, it must mean that
you're still you're healthy, or this or that, and I
don't buy into any of it other than the human
body is an incredible thing. Menopause and perimenopause is different
for every single person. It's very individual. No two symptoms,
you know, are the same, particularly what you get, what
(33:18):
symptoms you might have will be completely different to the ones.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
That I have.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
And you know, it's just it's just a very interesting
and yet wonderful time.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Well, I guess it's the same as women that have
their period. Like, no, two periods are the same. Some
people get alive, that's right, symptoms. Some are gushing the
red river and they're in constant pain and they get
the hormonal headache.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Some people are in I have never had really much
period pain. At all.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Actually, in perimenopause, I started getting more pain. That was
interesting because I was always light, light flow, no pain.
But then there'll be girls. I remember girls that couldn't
even come to school. You know, it's so varied. They
couldn't have a school, they owned so much pain and
they were so heavy.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Which I also find so interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I honestly think from like a medical perspective, because often
research and information and people specialize in areas where they
can see it being a lucrative industry for themselves, you know,
where more money can be made. Like this is a
thing that is going to happen to every single woman
who every single woman who has a period is going
to experience menopause at some point. So it's like it
(34:18):
makes sense doctors, if you're out there, this is a
great area of speciality interest to get into. Women need it,
you know what I mean. It's something that we're all
going to require.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
But I want to say that one third of the
world's population is either perry menopausal, menopausal or postmenopausal. Yeah,
one third of the female world population.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
And it's so fascinating that up until I think in
the last of five or six years, it hasn't even
been a conversation that's been had, and now there is
more information. But for someone who works in healthcare, like
you work in the fitness industry, you work within talking
about bodies, talking about nutrition, talking about how bodies work,
and even yourself was like, I had no information on this.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
I mean, there's so much incredible information coming from all
around the world.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I was only just listening to it in the car
on the way here.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Interesting research coming out of the UK around perimenopausal and
menopausal women and how they process nutrition slightly differently, because
they'll have women going to the GPS that work in
these specialist areas and they'll say, oh, your cholesterol's high.
This is different and they're like, but I haven't even
changed the way I eat.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Tabolizing and processing the food and things like that.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
I haven't changed the war. I haven't changed a war exercise,
but I'm putting on weight. What's going on?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
What's your advice for a woman right now that is
entering she thinks she's entering perimenopause or she's entering menopause,
she's struggling to prioritize her health and make the changes, Like,
what do you say that starts in Brittany.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
First of all, i'd be start doing some research for yourself,
start educating yourself. There's some incredible specialists. One that I
follow out of the States. Her name's doctor Mary Claire.
She's incredible. She's just written a new book called The
New Menopause, and it's a heavy read.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
It's pretty it's.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
A heavy flow.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, it's a heavy flow.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
See what we do that, But it's incredibly empowering when
you can arm yourself with education. The absolute number one
thing you've just got to do is find yourself a
GP that specializes in this area.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
And you can find them.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
They're out there and you can do like like what
I did, a tele conference, so they don't even have
to be, you know, in your neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Because chances are they're not in your neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I mean, we're lucky where we live, but so many
people live in regional that's right areas, and it's harder
to come by people who specialize in this.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Yeah, and you can go onto the Australasian Menopause Society
website and you can find the playlist of doctors that
do specialize in this.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
It's so nice to talk to someone that's literally going
through it, Like it's easy for us to go and
speak to a specialist, but we aren't going through it.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
You know.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I'm still experience, No, my periods still regular.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
But it's the thing is for you, Britt and for
both of you, is the knowledge is power. So most women,
well I think probably of my generation definitely before we're
just blindsided.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
But it's also different now what's going on.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Because if I knew this when my mom was going
through menopause, I would have been different. I wouldn't have
been such a brat. I would really band But do
you know what I mean? Like, once we're armed with
the knowledge that we understand why someone's going through something
and it's out of their control, Like I used to
think when my mom went through it, and she went
through it for quite a long time, like it really
sat with her for a long time, and her hot
(37:29):
flushes were next level and it would.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Really throw her.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Fatigue was chronic, and I'd be like, I give her
a hard time, like while you're always sleeping and she's like,
I physically can't keep my eyes open. And I don't
think she knew she was in perimenopause at the time.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Yes, that's another big symptom. Always tired.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Always.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
It's so I think I said this to Callum on
the show, Like if we said to the men of Australia,
this is what's gonna happen. See your testicles down there,
they keep your hormones level and so on. So when
you get about, oh, let's say fifty two to fifty three,
maybe fifty four, they're going to shribble up and go
and look, you might have some erect ol dysfunction problems,
(38:09):
you might put on a bit of weight, you might
not feel good about yourself, but you know what, you know,
stick with it. You'll get through it and you'll get
up on the other side and you'll be fine. So
you know, chin up, carry on. Like they'd be taking
all the funding for those submarines and they'd be pumping
it into you know, men's testicle research.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
You know, this is one of the things Ellen or
Mills spoke about when we interviewed her, and it was
so interesting. She was like, no one would ever expect
a man to get up and have to talk about that.
They would like fix it, but they would be researched.
We'd get them a pill we'd fix it for them,
whereas like women are expected to speak about the things
that they're experiencing in order to get the research, in
order to get exposure, because we have to advocate for
(38:48):
ourselves in a way that men don't have to do.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Well do Yeah, I love that word.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
You have to advocate for yourself and when you go
to your GP, you have to advocate for yourself. You
have to ask the questions, have to arm yourself with
knowledge so that you can ask the questions that you
need to to delve into it. And that again is
why it's really important to go to a doctor that
actually specializes in it, because they'll have that information already.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
And it's the same thing we say about any ailment
or illness or change in your body is that you
know your body better than the stranger of a doctor
who sure they've studied for five years, but they don't
know what your normal is because everybody's normal is slightly different.
So if you know something is not wrong in your body,
go on five for that exactly that go to one doctor.
If they don't agree with you, or they don't suggest
(39:33):
maybe or listen to you, go to someone else. Like
you can go to more than one person.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
Yeah, it's becoming the CEO of your own life. You
can do it, and I'm one hundred percent guaranteeing you
can definitely support yourself in this time of life. But
it's going to take just a little bit of work
just to figure it out, and again, a holistic approach.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Michelle, thank you so much for coming and being a
part of the podcast. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
For anybody who wants to listen to part one of
this episode, we will think it all in the show
notes as well.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Thank you so much for having me in to talk
about this really important topic.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Thank you, it was a pleasure.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com