And, and then, you know, maybe Google says, Hey, look, you know, you might be going through perimenopause or whatever, depending who knows, who knows if Google is equipped to give us the correct answers, but walk us through, you know, like what happens when a woman first finds you? Like, is there like a, tons of questions phase like like like how does it go

um well I'm very excited um about this time we're currently in where this conversation is being had openly and more and more folks like yourself um uh are talking about this women are starting to talk to their girlfriends and their families you know the family members we're as, um, I, at least in my experience and what I hear from my patients is that's just not the way it was.

Um, they're, you know, they're, it's very hush hush.

Um, and they're almost, um, almost like a little bit shameful to, to how dare us get older.

Uh, you know, um, yeah, it's, yeah, it's like a, this shameful thing that we dared to, uh, Continue aging.

So the fact that women are talking about it is so exciting to me and sharing their own experiences and helping, you know, helping their sisters.

So I love that.

Like, what are these things? I don't know, things that they say, or maybe things that they do, like,

Like what, like what would somebody expect?

Okay, so what does it look like? What does the care look like? So very, very individualized, so I need to say that piece first.

What we start with is we start with a very comprehensive intake form.

That is health history.

There's a lot of reproductive history.

You know, we all, history.

It's very, very comprehensive.

Can you talk about what, what that was and what it means and what the difference is?

So if someone is really feeling that way, like something is not right, whether they have the night sweats or the brain fog or they've got weight gain, especially in their belly, whatever symptom they have, where should they start? What should we do? How do we even think about this?

That is such a good question, and I think that we all have heard of hot flashes and maybe even weight gain.

I think there's a handful of symptoms that there might be a one-to-one connection with, "Oh, I think this might be something with hormones." But there is a whole constellation of symptoms that the overwhelmed woman blames herself for.

If I just tried harder, what's wrong with me? Why can't I do this? I used to be able to do this.

What's going on? And not making that connection that it's not about willpower or something wrong with you, but there is something underlying that's tying one of your arms behind your back.

The biggest saying that I hear is, "I don't feel like myself anymore." And that can come out in how we handle, say, work.

Can't keep some details together anymore, or manage complex projects or even simple projects.

So once we have that information and we kinda understand what could be going on with our body, and maybe we've taken that perimenopause quiz, can we become our normal selves again? Is there hope that we will one day feel better and feel back to our normal selves, or a different version of ourself? What can we hope for?