Navigating Perimenopause: Real Talk on Hormones, Heart Health, and Resilience for Women in Midlife

And I think that there's so much to cover in this conversation, but let's kind of take it back and start with the basics.

So when people tell women that their body changes in their 40s and their 50s, what is actually happening internally that's making these changes happen?

So I think let's start with, it's very important to understand that a woman's body is always changing.

The changes happens in your prepubescent age, when you attain puberty.

Then you have your menstrual phase.

Then you have your pregnancy.

Then you have your postpartum, you know.

And like that, 40s and 50s is another important phase in a woman's life.

It's not one single thing which happens.

It's actually a cascade of things, okay? So around your early 40s to mid 40s, the ovary starts producing less estrogen and progesterone.

And it's not one day, right? It's just kind of very slowly over time, the production decreases.

This period of transition is actually called perimenopause.

The thing is, perimenopause, again, is not one day or one week.

It can last anywhere from four to 10 years.

Most people don't realize that perimenopause is the transition and menopause is actually the one day, which is one year after your last And menopause is just one day, the day you have gone 12 consecutive months without a period.

So while perimenopause can just go on for years, menopause is truly defined as 12 months since your last menstrual period.

So that's the difference.

So during perimenopause, your hormone levels are fluctuating wildly.

When I say wildly, I mean your estrogen levels are high this week and it's crashing the next week.

Whereas your progesterone levels are declining much more steadily.

When all of this is happening, your follicle-stimulating hormone or your FSH, it starts spiking.

But it's a biofeedback mechanism.

When your estrogen levels are high, FSH will be low.

When estrogen is low, FSH is high.

And, you know, it's just going haywire.