December 16, 2024 • 15 mins
Menopause, a topic we’d once avoid—at best—is now is a central part of conversations, thanks to a few outspoken public figures, and increasing recognition and interest in women's health. Our guest is Dr. Jessica Shepherd – menopause expert and board-certified OB/GYN – who you may have already seen on The Today Show, CNN, and elsewhere, with her new book GENERATION M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. Dr. Shepherd offers a guide to change the conversation around menopause, and tailored to provide modern women with the tools they need to thrive. For more, visit jessicashepherdmd.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to get connected Where it seems right now, the
conversation is everywhere. Menopause, a topic we would once avoid
at best, now a central part of conversations thanks to
a few outspoken public figures and increasing recognition and interest
in women's health. Our guest is doctor Jessica Shepherd, menopause
expert and board certified OBGYN who you may have seen
(00:33):
on The Today Show, CNN and elsewhere talking about her
new book. Very pleased to have her here Generation M
Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. Doctor Jessica Shepherd, thank
you for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm going to get right to it. More than a
million women enter menopause each year. This is a conversation
that most people kind of turn their noses at for
a long time, not just women, but also and women
are doctors. But to you write in the book that
throughout medical school you spent eight hours on the entire subject.
Talk about that. Let's start there. No one had been
(01:09):
paying attention.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
No one was paying attention. I think that there are
multiple theories behind this. I think when we think of
women's health in general, it's not something that is at
the forefront. And then also when you think of what
we place emphasis on women, you know, society, just who
we are as a population in a community, is that
we love to talk about the reproductive years of a woman, right,
(01:32):
and so we placed so much emphasis on that that
when women in menopause obviously you know you're out of
your reproductive phase, is that we don't place emphasis on it.
And so it's kind of like we kind of cast
women to the side. We don't want to talk them
to talk about some of the issues that go on
in menopause because of the symptoms, and so then it
becomes shameful, and so it created this kind of toxic
(01:54):
wheelhouse of we don't talk about it, we're not going
to bring it up. You know, doctors really didn't have
a lot to do to really give towards it because
there's not a lot of research, and so it really
created this cycle for women where they just didn't want
to talk about it. And what we do now see
is the reason why it's so important to talk about
it is one one hundred percent of women will go
(02:16):
through menopause, so we can't change that. And when they
do go through menopause and have this significant decline and
estrogen and testosterone, what happens with that is that that
actually impacts health later on in life. And so if
we really want women to thrive as they age, then
we need to address what happened in that midlife phase
during perimenopause and menopause.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
There are so many light bulbs that went off for
me in this book. I'm smack in the middle of
these years. I'm going to talk about one very simple
thing that I did not know before reading this book.
Those symptoms of perimenopause and postmenopause can last for years.
Menopause the main event is one day.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, it's this main day. It's such a clinical term
when you think about it, and that's why I like
to really get it that juxtaposition of it's really just
one day that's leading into that last quarter of your life.
But menopause clinically, all it really means is when woman
has gone twelve months without a cycle, that day that
she has kind of reached that twelve months is when
(03:15):
we can say you're now in menopause, but at that point,
any time after that is postmenopausal in the sense of
you've reached that phase and now it's post stage. But
you know when I have a lot of people who
ask me, well, when will menopause end? And I say, well,
once you've entered it, it's not going anywhere. So it
really is this kind of stage of life that I
(03:36):
like to allow women to truly understand what is happening,
so that they two can then understand it and really
kind of take it and embrace it, because it doesn't
need to be a stage of shame or fear or embarrassment.
It really needs to be this heralding of this new
chapter that we really should have agency over.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I want to stick with leading up to menopause for
a moment, so timing is different for everyone. I have
a conversation coming up on the show with a gynecologic oncologist.
We talked about endometrial cancer, and she said that any
bleeding after menopause is abnormal, but is there a typical
pattern of events leading up to it? Could you go
four to five months without a cycle and then it
(04:16):
starts again, and how long might that last.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, and I'm so glad you asked what menopause was
first as far as the clinical term and then asking
this question because that's exactly what happens. And that's why
we use that twelve month timeframe without bleeding to really
hallmark your now in menopause, because in the perimenopausal phase,
as I say, in generation M is that pre event
is that you really start to have these fluxes. Just
(04:39):
like you explained, You'll go four months and have a cycle,
then go four months without, then you have a cycle
for one month and then three without. And that's really
what's happening with the body as it biologically is decreasing
that release of estrogen. Is that your body is trying
to respond to the amount of estrogen that's released and saying, okay,
we're going to ovulate and then have a cycle what
(05:00):
your body's defaulting to do every month, and so when
it doesn't get that signal that's strong enough from estrogen,
it can't do that work, and so then you'll have
a few months without and then you'll have this kind
of blocks of estrogen enough to elicit a cycle. And
so that's what's happening as it's starting to decline. It's
kind of like this rollercoaster road or track that you're
(05:20):
going through for maybe three years, maybe seven years, and
that perimenopausal phase until you get until it's suddenly not
enough estrogen for twelve months continuously to give you that cycle.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Our guest is doctor Jessica Shepherd. She's been the recipient
of numerous awards as a physician and leader in women's health.
Featured in Forbes, ad Week, Vogue, Self and Women's Health,
featured on The Today Show, MSNBC, CNN, elsewhere. She also
lectures on fibroids, myo myectomies, and women's health issues. Her
website is Jessica Shepherd md dot com and the book
(05:54):
is Generation M Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. You're
listening to get connected on one six point seven light FM.
I'm na del rio. So. The average age of perimenopause
about forty seven. There are twenty symptoms, which is something
that most people aren't aware of. We're going to talk
about some of those. Are there some that are more
(06:15):
specific to perimenopause than postmenopause?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I think that when we think of perimenopause, the
ones that I think that kind of shout out is
changes in mood, a little bit of hot flashes night sweats,
but mostly changes in mood, sleep disturbances, start to decrease
in libido. I think what really makes the hallmark kind
of list of menopause is hot flashes night sweats. That
(06:41):
seems to be the most common and intense symptom that
you have, and I think the intensity increases more than
you'll see in the perimenopausal phase because now that estrogen
is completely gone, and the hot flashes of night sweats
are very quality of life factors. They're very noticeable in
the sense that, yeah, we might have decrease in lebido
not notice it all the time, but hot flashes night sweats,
(07:03):
it's either waking you up from sleep, or you're in
the middle of the day or talking to someone in
a meeting, out with your friends, and all of a sudden,
there's a downpour of sweat. So those can be really intense,
especially in the menopausal phase. But I definitely see more
mood changes in the perimenopausal phase.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Here's one that was a light bulb for me. Because
estrogen regulates so many things. Women who may have never
had issues with being pre diabetic or diabetic may suddenly
have issues with blood sugar during menopause.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, this is something that I find very fascinating in
the sense of how our body starts. Our body is
all connected, and the systems all connect, and when you
start to see some of these changes when we think
we just talked about mood disorders, depression and anxiety, but
also the pre diabetic phase and how our body starts
to store glucose and that insulin glucose relationship, and that
(07:54):
has again a lot to do with estrogen. So estrogen
receptors are all over our body, and when you start
to see a decline in estrogen, that's when the insulin
and glucose can't work in sync as much. You start
to see a decrease in muscle mass, and so that's
why the glucose isn't absorbed, but also our brain. We
start to see changes in our brain and our heart
and our muscle mass and our bone density, and that
(08:16):
again is this kind of hallmark to estrogen receptors. So
I think a lot of times we type cast estrogen
to just the pelvis and the ovaries. But when you
start to understand, as you see throughout the book that
we have estrogen receptors all over our body. So if
we have a decrease in estrogen, those target organs are
also going to be decreased in their functionality through menopause.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So hormone replacement therapy this is what we talk about
to alleviate these symptoms. What is it designed to do?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, the overall idea of it really is what we
do with hormone replacement therapy is not to target Oh
you know, I don't have as much executive functioning and
I have brain fogs, so I'm going to target the
estrogen there. It really is a system type of revival,
I guess you could say, and that we're giving the
body back the estrogen so that it can function kind
(09:08):
of like I said, you know, this is like a
car assembly line, and when some of the parts of
the car assembly are not functioning as effectively or efficiently,
then the outcome is impacted. And so when you start
to have these changes, then the brain may not function
as well, or you know, cloudy memory or thought, or
maybe your heart muscle doesn't want to do exactly what
(09:31):
it did before and contract as strongly as it did before.
And so the goal really is to give your body
back that ability to utilize the estrogen how it uses
it most efficiently. Because everyone is different, right, Everyone has
different symptoms and intensities, And that really is the beauty
of hormone replacement therapy is that your body knows best
how to utilize that fuel source or those hormones in
(09:52):
order to shuttle it to where it needs to get.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The conversation about hormone replacement therapy is also changed from
giving it later to giving the option earlier.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, this is probably one of the hallmarks that I've
seen in my career as in OBGYN, because even I remember,
not my training, we would never really consider hormone replacement
therapy until someone has proven menopausal. But what we just
you know, shared earlier in this in this segment is
that perimenopause is just also having a decline and estrogen
(10:25):
it's just fluctuating. So the goal really is how do
I get women at their best in this fluctuation rather
than waiting for the complete decline. It's kind of like
your car. Would you drive your car when it's you know,
has the yellow light that you need fuel or do
you want to fill it then? Or do you want
to fill it when it's completely empty and now you're
(10:46):
not going anywhere. And so we've changed the cadence of
how we approach, discuss, and also manage women who are
going through the perimenopausal phase who are having symptoms to
allow them to have that ability to take hormone replacement,
which I think is game changer and will change women's lives.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I have had that conversation with two doctors and they
both are where you are with this. I wonder about
other people's physicians, given that the conversation is not kind
of full throated, what kind of conversation should you have
with your doctor?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah? I think for anyone who's listening and someone who
you know may have or is deciding to go to
their doctor, whether it's an OBGYN or a PCP of
primary care, is that hearing information like this is really
how we change the conversation. And if you find that
you're having a conversation on you know, I think I'm
having symptoms of perimenopause and I would like to discuss
(11:38):
hormone or placement therapy. If the other side of the
conversation is not attuning to that or not giving recommendations
that would lend to that then that's okay. And that's
when you can take your agency and say, I need
to find someone who's going to be my best advocate
because I feel that this is something that I would
be best served by and would be an amazing feature
(12:00):
in my life. And take the time to find that
person who's going to give you those options. Because what
I say is you're the CEO of your health. This
is training for a marathon, and if you want that
best outcome, then sometimes you have to go find it.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And just briefly before we move on, when you're talking
about hormone replacement therapy, Once we start it, are we
on it forever? Everybody's a little different, But how long
does the average person take it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
You know, I look at hormone replacement therapy in two
different aspects, and I think of symptoms, symptom relief, and
when women have symptoms that can be alleviated by hormone
replacement therapy. But one area that I really thrive on,
and you'll see throughout the book, is longevity. How do
we want to show up in our seventies, eighties, and nineties.
We're living longer, but I want women to live longer.
But thriving as well. And one of the ways that
(12:46):
I believe that can be done is to stay on
hormone replacement therapy. I think that's a very personal choice.
I think it requires careful conversation because there may be
a time when you're in your sixties that if I
took you off hormone replacement therapy, not have symptoms, but
you may not feel as great, or you may feel
that your body functions better when you're on hormone replacement therapy.
(13:06):
And that's where I kind of will say I'm controversial
in the sense that I'm fine with women and the
understanding and careful guidance that they can stay on hormone
replacement therapy for a longer.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Time, whether you decide to use HRT or not. There
is strong research you talk about in the book about
other practices that alleviate symptoms. Let's talk specifically about sleep loss.
Perhaps many women have some degree of insomnia during or
after menopause. What do you recommend as far as other practices.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I really believe that a holistic approach to anything really
should be taken, because it's never just one thing that's
going to fix everything right. And so when I think
about holistic practices. I think of mindfulness as a very
key feature. Our mind really can be the crux of
what makes or breaks us. How do we move forward,
how do we move through chaos, how do we move
(13:59):
through difficult moments, has a lot to do with how
we train our brain to do that. And I think
that the more that we're able to train our brain
and neuroplasticity and teach it new pathways is important through mindfulness,
meditation practices such as yoga, but also what can actually
decrease some of the symptoms are things such as acupuncture
when you're doing holistic practices and supplements. You know, not
(14:22):
everyone is an advocate for supplements, but I do have
a lot of patients that want to take them, and
I say, you know, I encourage you to find out
what works best for you, and that may be some
of the ways that they do that. So I think
that it needs to be a very two way conversation
and also encompassing so many different ways to alleviate these
symptoms that's going to work best for each individual.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
There is so much more in the book We have
to Stop, but you can find out much more in
Generation M Living Well in perimenopause and Menopause by doctor
Jessica Shepherd. Her website is Jessica Shepherd MD dot com.
Thank you for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to get connected Where it seems right now, the
conversation is everywhere. Menopause, a topic we would once avoid
at best, now a central part of conversations thanks to
a few outspoken public figures and increasing recognition and interest
in women's health. Our guest is doctor Jessica Shepherd, menopause
expert and board certified OBGYN who you may have seen
(00:33):
on The Today Show, CNN and elsewhere talking about her
new book. Very pleased to have her here Generation M
Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. Doctor Jessica Shepherd, thank
you for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm going to get right to it. More than a
million women enter menopause each year. This is a conversation
that most people kind of turn their noses at for
a long time, not just women, but also and women
are doctors. But to you write in the book that
throughout medical school you spent eight hours on the entire subject.
Talk about that. Let's start there. No one had been
(01:09):
paying attention.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
No one was paying attention. I think that there are
multiple theories behind this. I think when we think of
women's health in general, it's not something that is at
the forefront. And then also when you think of what
we place emphasis on women, you know, society, just who
we are as a population in a community, is that
we love to talk about the reproductive years of a woman, right,
(01:32):
and so we placed so much emphasis on that that
when women in menopause obviously you know you're out of
your reproductive phase, is that we don't place emphasis on it.
And so it's kind of like we kind of cast
women to the side. We don't want to talk them
to talk about some of the issues that go on
in menopause because of the symptoms, and so then it
becomes shameful, and so it created this kind of toxic
(01:54):
wheelhouse of we don't talk about it, we're not going
to bring it up. You know, doctors really didn't have
a lot to do to really give towards it because
there's not a lot of research, and so it really
created this cycle for women where they just didn't want
to talk about it. And what we do now see
is the reason why it's so important to talk about
it is one one hundred percent of women will go
(02:16):
through menopause, so we can't change that. And when they
do go through menopause and have this significant decline and
estrogen and testosterone, what happens with that is that that
actually impacts health later on in life. And so if
we really want women to thrive as they age, then
we need to address what happened in that midlife phase
during perimenopause and menopause.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
There are so many light bulbs that went off for
me in this book. I'm smack in the middle of
these years. I'm going to talk about one very simple
thing that I did not know before reading this book.
Those symptoms of perimenopause and postmenopause can last for years.
Menopause the main event is one day.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, it's this main day. It's such a clinical term
when you think about it, and that's why I like
to really get it that juxtaposition of it's really just
one day that's leading into that last quarter of your life.
But menopause clinically, all it really means is when woman
has gone twelve months without a cycle, that day that
she has kind of reached that twelve months is when
(03:15):
we can say you're now in menopause, but at that point,
any time after that is postmenopausal in the sense of
you've reached that phase and now it's post stage. But
you know when I have a lot of people who
ask me, well, when will menopause end? And I say, well,
once you've entered it, it's not going anywhere. So it
really is this kind of stage of life that I
(03:36):
like to allow women to truly understand what is happening,
so that they two can then understand it and really
kind of take it and embrace it, because it doesn't
need to be a stage of shame or fear or embarrassment.
It really needs to be this heralding of this new
chapter that we really should have agency over.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I want to stick with leading up to menopause for
a moment, so timing is different for everyone. I have
a conversation coming up on the show with a gynecologic oncologist.
We talked about endometrial cancer, and she said that any
bleeding after menopause is abnormal, but is there a typical
pattern of events leading up to it? Could you go
four to five months without a cycle and then it
(04:16):
starts again, and how long might that last.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, and I'm so glad you asked what menopause was
first as far as the clinical term and then asking
this question because that's exactly what happens. And that's why
we use that twelve month timeframe without bleeding to really
hallmark your now in menopause, because in the perimenopausal phase,
as I say, in generation M is that pre event
is that you really start to have these fluxes. Just
(04:39):
like you explained, You'll go four months and have a cycle,
then go four months without, then you have a cycle
for one month and then three without. And that's really
what's happening with the body as it biologically is decreasing
that release of estrogen. Is that your body is trying
to respond to the amount of estrogen that's released and saying, okay,
we're going to ovulate and then have a cycle what
(05:00):
your body's defaulting to do every month, and so when
it doesn't get that signal that's strong enough from estrogen,
it can't do that work, and so then you'll have
a few months without and then you'll have this kind
of blocks of estrogen enough to elicit a cycle. And
so that's what's happening as it's starting to decline. It's
kind of like this rollercoaster road or track that you're
(05:20):
going through for maybe three years, maybe seven years, and
that perimenopausal phase until you get until it's suddenly not
enough estrogen for twelve months continuously to give you that cycle.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Our guest is doctor Jessica Shepherd. She's been the recipient
of numerous awards as a physician and leader in women's health.
Featured in Forbes, ad Week, Vogue, Self and Women's Health,
featured on The Today Show, MSNBC, CNN, elsewhere. She also
lectures on fibroids, myo myectomies, and women's health issues. Her
website is Jessica Shepherd md dot com and the book
(05:54):
is Generation M Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. You're
listening to get connected on one six point seven light FM.
I'm na del rio. So. The average age of perimenopause
about forty seven. There are twenty symptoms, which is something
that most people aren't aware of. We're going to talk
about some of those. Are there some that are more
(06:15):
specific to perimenopause than postmenopause?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I think that when we think of perimenopause, the
ones that I think that kind of shout out is
changes in mood, a little bit of hot flashes night sweats,
but mostly changes in mood, sleep disturbances, start to decrease
in libido. I think what really makes the hallmark kind
of list of menopause is hot flashes night sweats. That
(06:41):
seems to be the most common and intense symptom that
you have, and I think the intensity increases more than
you'll see in the perimenopausal phase because now that estrogen
is completely gone, and the hot flashes of night sweats
are very quality of life factors. They're very noticeable in
the sense that, yeah, we might have decrease in lebido
not notice it all the time, but hot flashes night sweats,
(07:03):
it's either waking you up from sleep, or you're in
the middle of the day or talking to someone in
a meeting, out with your friends, and all of a sudden,
there's a downpour of sweat. So those can be really intense,
especially in the menopausal phase. But I definitely see more
mood changes in the perimenopausal phase.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Here's one that was a light bulb for me. Because
estrogen regulates so many things. Women who may have never
had issues with being pre diabetic or diabetic may suddenly
have issues with blood sugar during menopause.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, this is something that I find very fascinating in
the sense of how our body starts. Our body is
all connected, and the systems all connect, and when you
start to see some of these changes when we think
we just talked about mood disorders, depression and anxiety, but
also the pre diabetic phase and how our body starts
to store glucose and that insulin glucose relationship, and that
(07:54):
has again a lot to do with estrogen. So estrogen
receptors are all over our body, and when you start
to see a decline in estrogen, that's when the insulin
and glucose can't work in sync as much. You start
to see a decrease in muscle mass, and so that's
why the glucose isn't absorbed, but also our brain. We
start to see changes in our brain and our heart
and our muscle mass and our bone density, and that
(08:16):
again is this kind of hallmark to estrogen receptors. So
I think a lot of times we type cast estrogen
to just the pelvis and the ovaries. But when you
start to understand, as you see throughout the book that
we have estrogen receptors all over our body. So if
we have a decrease in estrogen, those target organs are
also going to be decreased in their functionality through menopause.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So hormone replacement therapy this is what we talk about
to alleviate these symptoms. What is it designed to do?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, the overall idea of it really is what we
do with hormone replacement therapy is not to target Oh
you know, I don't have as much executive functioning and
I have brain fogs, so I'm going to target the
estrogen there. It really is a system type of revival,
I guess you could say, and that we're giving the
body back the estrogen so that it can function kind
(09:08):
of like I said, you know, this is like a
car assembly line, and when some of the parts of
the car assembly are not functioning as effectively or efficiently,
then the outcome is impacted. And so when you start
to have these changes, then the brain may not function
as well, or you know, cloudy memory or thought, or
maybe your heart muscle doesn't want to do exactly what
(09:31):
it did before and contract as strongly as it did before.
And so the goal really is to give your body
back that ability to utilize the estrogen how it uses
it most efficiently. Because everyone is different, right, Everyone has
different symptoms and intensities, And that really is the beauty
of hormone replacement therapy is that your body knows best
how to utilize that fuel source or those hormones in
(09:52):
order to shuttle it to where it needs to get.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The conversation about hormone replacement therapy is also changed from
giving it later to giving the option earlier.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, this is probably one of the hallmarks that I've
seen in my career as in OBGYN, because even I remember,
not my training, we would never really consider hormone replacement
therapy until someone has proven menopausal. But what we just
you know, shared earlier in this in this segment is
that perimenopause is just also having a decline and estrogen
(10:25):
it's just fluctuating. So the goal really is how do
I get women at their best in this fluctuation rather
than waiting for the complete decline. It's kind of like
your car. Would you drive your car when it's you know,
has the yellow light that you need fuel or do
you want to fill it then? Or do you want
to fill it when it's completely empty and now you're
(10:46):
not going anywhere. And so we've changed the cadence of
how we approach, discuss, and also manage women who are
going through the perimenopausal phase who are having symptoms to
allow them to have that ability to take hormone replacement,
which I think is game changer and will change women's lives.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I have had that conversation with two doctors and they
both are where you are with this. I wonder about
other people's physicians, given that the conversation is not kind
of full throated, what kind of conversation should you have
with your doctor?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah? I think for anyone who's listening and someone who
you know may have or is deciding to go to
their doctor, whether it's an OBGYN or a PCP of
primary care, is that hearing information like this is really
how we change the conversation. And if you find that
you're having a conversation on you know, I think I'm
having symptoms of perimenopause and I would like to discuss
(11:38):
hormone or placement therapy. If the other side of the
conversation is not attuning to that or not giving recommendations
that would lend to that then that's okay. And that's
when you can take your agency and say, I need
to find someone who's going to be my best advocate
because I feel that this is something that I would
be best served by and would be an amazing feature
(12:00):
in my life. And take the time to find that
person who's going to give you those options. Because what
I say is you're the CEO of your health. This
is training for a marathon, and if you want that
best outcome, then sometimes you have to go find it.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And just briefly before we move on, when you're talking
about hormone replacement therapy, Once we start it, are we
on it forever? Everybody's a little different, But how long
does the average person take it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
You know, I look at hormone replacement therapy in two
different aspects, and I think of symptoms, symptom relief, and
when women have symptoms that can be alleviated by hormone
replacement therapy. But one area that I really thrive on,
and you'll see throughout the book, is longevity. How do
we want to show up in our seventies, eighties, and nineties.
We're living longer, but I want women to live longer.
But thriving as well. And one of the ways that
(12:46):
I believe that can be done is to stay on
hormone replacement therapy. I think that's a very personal choice.
I think it requires careful conversation because there may be
a time when you're in your sixties that if I
took you off hormone replacement therapy, not have symptoms, but
you may not feel as great, or you may feel
that your body functions better when you're on hormone replacement therapy.
(13:06):
And that's where I kind of will say I'm controversial
in the sense that I'm fine with women and the
understanding and careful guidance that they can stay on hormone
replacement therapy for a longer.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Time, whether you decide to use HRT or not. There
is strong research you talk about in the book about
other practices that alleviate symptoms. Let's talk specifically about sleep loss.
Perhaps many women have some degree of insomnia during or
after menopause. What do you recommend as far as other practices.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I really believe that a holistic approach to anything really
should be taken, because it's never just one thing that's
going to fix everything right. And so when I think
about holistic practices. I think of mindfulness as a very
key feature. Our mind really can be the crux of
what makes or breaks us. How do we move forward,
how do we move through chaos, how do we move
(13:59):
through difficult moments, has a lot to do with how
we train our brain to do that. And I think
that the more that we're able to train our brain
and neuroplasticity and teach it new pathways is important through mindfulness,
meditation practices such as yoga, but also what can actually
decrease some of the symptoms are things such as acupuncture
when you're doing holistic practices and supplements. You know, not
(14:22):
everyone is an advocate for supplements, but I do have
a lot of patients that want to take them, and
I say, you know, I encourage you to find out
what works best for you, and that may be some
of the ways that they do that. So I think
that it needs to be a very two way conversation
and also encompassing so many different ways to alleviate these
symptoms that's going to work best for each individual.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
There is so much more in the book We have
to Stop, but you can find out much more in
Generation M Living Well in perimenopause and Menopause by doctor
Jessica Shepherd. Her website is Jessica Shepherd MD dot com.
Thank you for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
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