But this is a huge issue that we have to deal with because if we don't have clinicians who know how to do this kind of care, it leaves those without options.

Yeah.

Anybody want to chime in? Yeah.

I was that person.

Like I 10, more than 12 years ago, went through the Canadian medical system for two years, spinning my wheels, trying to get answers and literally couldn't get any.

I think the doctor said to me, yeah, you look terrible, but we don't know why.

Yeah.

Is it the best medication in our toolkit? It's one of the options that we have available to support our patients through this mid-lifetime.

Wasn't for you.

Yeah.

So I mean, it's interesting because when I went to that gynecologist 12 years ago, he was really informed, and he said to me, "I can help you.

Here are your choices.

I can start you on hormone therapy.

I think that's a good fit for you." Even though my symptoms weren't sort of typical, it was then impacting my sleep and stuff, and he was like, "I think we should give it a go.

Otherwise, an antidepressant." And I turned around and said, "Uh-uh.

I'm not pushing myself," instead of being like, "Well, this is where I'm at today, and that's okay." How do we get people to accept that, that idea of acceptance and not giving up? I don't know.

Sure.

But it's just good to know the real terminology.

Over the age of 45, and when you go through natural menopause, and if you want treatment options and you want hormones, it's called menopause hormone therapy.

You don't have to put the menopause bit in front.

It could just be hormone therapy.

But MHT is what you would get, and it's a lot lower levels.

It's about a 10th of the dose of a birth control pill.

Mm.

I'm gonna put a pin in that so we can talk a bit about that.

Talk about that, too, yeah.

It's a really great question, and it's not an easy answer, I don't think, because the...

I call it wellness wankery.

I don't know if there's a, like, a level about foul language on here, but it's, that's the, the word I always use because it just, it's like the snake oil sa- salesman of times gone by, that there's always somebody with the answer, right? And it's the, there's a few red flags that we can talk about, but it's a complicated answer because it's a sophisticated sometimes industry in that what a predator will do is they'll see a woman's pain point.

It might be an individual- ... symptom, or it might be weight gain.

Typically, that's a good one for, to go for midlife women.

[laughs]

So kind of what did, what did that look like? I know that you mentioned something about a boxing class.

Yeah, I'll preface this by saying my story is like a million other women's.

Like, mine is just one example of it.

But I know when I tell my story, women go, that's me.

And I've always been an athlete, Andrew.

just always being fit and healthy and i was at this boxing class and i was working out particularly hard i was really enjoying myself and then i went home and didn't feel great but you know what that feels like sometimes you work a little bit too hard and you're like oh i overdid it a little bit And I just thought that's all it was.

But then two or three days into that, I was like, I don't feel good at all.

What are some of the symptoms that somebody might be experiencing?

Can you give a little snippet, a little highlight, a little bit more than what I just did? Like, why do people wanna listen to this podcast? What will they get out of it?

Yeah.

Well, h- here's the thing.

I've been in sort of the health and wellness space for most of my adult life, like 35 years coming up, and, um, as a woman who, you know, my specialty was in human physiology, nutrition, and I felt like I had a really good handle on, you know, what would happen to the human body in different circumstances.

You know, I have sub specialty training in things like, um, athletics, uh, sports performance.

So I've worked with some, you know, um, athletic teams, like in the NBA.

I've worked with, um, post-rehabilitation.

That is interesting, right?

Mm-hmm

... throughout the exercise, but you're really struggling to reach them.

That means your body's close to failure, and that is the stimulus your body needs to, uh, be able to maintain the muscle you have and potentially build muscle as well.

And you can do that with light weights, with heavy weights, with body weight, with resistance bands.

You can exercise from three to four to five reps all the way to 30 reps.

The new, the new data shows that that, the, it's not the rep range and the exercise that matters, it's the consistency and the showing up.

So that's something that's a really great takeaway for the general public, and I put myself in that.

But, um, for those who can't take HRT, there are non-hormonal options available, but would you take HRT over, um, lifestyle changes? Like-

Mm.

There's a high percentage of women will put 5 to 10 pounds on in menopause, but the menopause itself doesn't cause weight gain, but the compounding factors of menopause do.

Weight loss is definitely doable in menopause.

It's really fucking hard.

Your hormones are meant to decline.

You're eventually gonna stop having your period, and then things do stabilize.

And I would start looking at these 50, 60, 70-year-old women that are really killing it out there, that are really showing you you can get strong, you can lose weight if you want to.

Mm-hmm.