Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1203 ｜ The Secret to Fixing Your Period ｜ Guest： Dr. Lara Briden

00:00:00.660 Dr. Laura Bryden is a naturopathic doctor with a focus on women's health. 0.69

00:00:06.560 She has written several books, including the Period Repair Manual, the Hormone Repair Manual.

00:00:13.300 She is here today to talk about why ovulation in our cycle matters for women, not just to

00:00:20.540 make babies, but also for our brain health, for our metabolic health, and how this relates

00:00:26.800 to perimenopause and menopause. I learned so much from Dr. Bryden today, and you will

00:00:32.500 too. If you're like a women's cycle nerd like I am, I want to know as much as possible.

00:00:38.620 This episode is for you. Get out your notes app, get out a pen and paper, take notes so

00:00:44.020 you understand everything that she's saying. It is so enlightening. This episode is brought

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00:01:11.840 Dr. Bryden, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. If you could just tell everyone

00:01:25.780 who may not know who you are and what you do.

00:01:29.020 Hi, Ali. Yeah, thanks for having me. My name is Laura Bryden. I'm a naturopathic doctor. I'm Canadian

00:01:34.760 originally. That's the accent, but I live in New Zealand currently. And a naturopathic doctor means

00:01:41.360 that I treat people with diet changes, nutritional supplements, herbal medicines. Through my 30 years

00:01:48.560 of practice, I've also used what are called body identical hormones or bioidentical hormones to

00:01:54.480 treat women's health problems. I've had a very strong women's health focus in my almost 30 years

00:01:59.520 of practice. So I treat women with PCOS, endometriosis, perimenopause. And out of all of

00:02:05.940 that work have come so far, three books on women's health that have, I'm very grateful,

00:02:11.140 have seemed to have reached people in all parts of the world. So that's been a great opportunity.

00:02:16.000 Yes, they have. Okay. Can you define for us what is a naturopath doctor?

00:02:21.520 Yeah, fair enough. Good question. So a naturopathic doctor is a doctor who uses natural medicine

00:02:29.220 in North America, where I trained. So it's a registered, accredited profession. There are,

00:02:37.660 I think it's about, I think at the moment, like four colleges, naturopathic medicine colleges in the

00:02:41.680 US and two in Canada. And we go through a very, it's a parallel training. It's similar to medical

00:02:49.340 doctors, but it's, you know, done separately. So we learn, you know, physiology, anatomy, pathology,

00:02:54.320 we do a, you know, an internship and, but rather than prescribing only medicines, we also learn to

00:03:01.680 treat the whole person. And yeah, so it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's a, it's a great profession to be

00:03:07.300 part of. And yeah, as I said, it's given me an opportunity to do things very differently in some,

00:03:13.060 for some conditions. Yes, I can imagine. You said that you've been practicing for over 30 years and

00:03:17.960 what interested you specifically in women's health? Why did you go into that specialty?

00:03:21.900 Yeah. Not quite 30 years, but I think I'm about 28 years practice. So it all started just on the

00:03:28.980 ground. When I first started practicing in Canada, I was in rural, I was actually just south of Calgary.

00:03:34.480 So I was in a small town in rural Canada. Many of my patients were just ranchers and teachers and just

00:03:43.660 really ordinary people, which is great to get a chance to work with them. And obviously when I first

00:03:50.320 started practicing, a lot of my patients were women. And I think I did treat some men back then

00:03:54.480 too, but I think part of it was just back in the nineties, there were women just didn't have a lot 0.99

00:04:00.880 of other options. So I was seeing women who were facing surgeries, who were on high dose hormonal birth

00:04:06.300 control, who were really struggling with those approaches and wanted something different. And I was,

00:04:12.800 as you do, and you learn on the ground, you know, stakes are high. I was just very grateful

00:04:16.620 to discover early on that some of the tools I'd been given for nutrition, diet, herbal medicines

00:04:23.560 actually worked quite well for women's health conditions. And so I was excited by that. So then

00:04:28.880 when I moved down, I first moved to Sydney, Australia for quite a number of years, I opened up a much

00:04:35.100 busier clinic there, an urban clinic where I was pretty much only focused on women's hormones. I had 0.92

00:04:41.040 other doctors working, naturopaths working under me. And so I got an opportunity, again, to learn on

00:04:47.080 the ground, to just see, you know, thousands of patients and learn what works for them.

00:04:53.540 So you wrote this book, Period Repair Manual. And for a lot of people, that title alone may be

00:05:00.780 confusing. What is there to repair about a period? What does it mean to repair your period? How can you

00:05:09.340 have a manual that gives you a guide on how to repair your period? Because for so long,

00:05:15.400 we've just, you know, we've been told that you take hormonal birth control that will regulate your

00:05:20.560 hormones, that'll regulate your period, it'll stop your cramps, it'll heal your endometriosis.

00:05:26.300 And then as soon as you want to have a baby one day, you get off your birth control, no big deal,

00:05:31.820 life goes on. But it doesn't seem like that is your approach or your thought process about women's

00:05:38.700 menstrual cycles. Yeah, well, let's start with that. You take the pill to regulate your period.

00:05:45.340 I'm just going to start with that, because it's such a weird idea. It's one of these kind of strange

00:05:52.620 narratives that got locked in about it feels like forever, but it's really only about 60 years since

00:05:57.200 we've had the pill. And to be clear, most, almost all methods of hormonal birth control

00:06:04.000 shut down the menstrual cycle. Like they switch off ovarian, temporarily switch off ovarian 0.80

00:06:11.500 function, and they therefore flatten ovarian female hormones. And for example, if you were to measure 0.86

00:06:20.220 female hormones while on the pill or other, most other methods of hormonal birth control, you would 0.99

00:06:25.380 find in a young woman, you would find close to menopausal levels. So ovaries are switched off. 1.00

00:06:31.680 And then as some of your viewers probably know on the pill, the kind of the drug induced bleed or the

00:06:39.020 withdrawal bleed that women get, it's time to be monthly, but it's only mimicking a menstrual cycle. 1.00

00:06:45.200 It's not a menstrual cycle. There's no medical reason to bleed monthly on the pill. So in that sense,

00:06:50.960 obviously, yeah, a good place to start, the pill cannot regulate the menstrual cycle. That's been a,

00:06:56.500 that's very clear in my book. And I will, I have found that actually that in my communication with

00:07:01.960 women all over the world and on social media, and when I do presentations, when that finally,

00:07:09.060 sort of when the penny drops on that for women, they, a lot of them do feel a sense of,

00:07:14.020 you know, sort of confusion and betrayal, especially if that's what they were,

00:07:17.140 the pill was prescribed for. So, yeah, I just want to make sure that people understand what

00:07:21.500 you're saying is that when you are on hormonal birth control, for the most part, you are not

00:07:26.840 having a period. You said there's no medical reason to bleed while you're on the birth control pill.

00:07:33.600 So why do hormonal birth control pills have that week, maybe it's white pills or whatever,

00:07:39.220 where you are going through that withdrawal bleed? What's actually going on?

00:07:45.420 Yeah, this is a very good question. So, well, first of all, I mean, it usually is necessary to

00:07:52.540 bleed sometimes while you're on the pill, just so you don't get, you know, the uterine lining is

00:07:56.180 going to let go at some point and sort of, so sometimes, I mean, yeah, the induced bleed,

00:08:02.440 it's a withdrawal bleed. So the white pills, as you say, are the sugar pills, they're the non,

00:08:06.320 they don't contain the contraceptive medication. So they do, they will, whenever they're timed,

00:08:12.360 they will allow a bleed to happen. But there's no medical reason for it to be monthly. The whole

00:08:19.640 monthly thing, it sounds weird to think about, you know, 60, 70 years on, but it was really just

00:08:26.640 kind of a cover story for, so, I mean, there's, there's always history. I'm a bit of a history

00:08:32.340 buff. So it's always interesting to think about, you know, medical history and how things came about.

00:08:36.840 But back in the 50s and 60s, when they were, you know, bringing the pill to market, there,

00:08:43.540 you know, there were, the pill, taking a medication to avoid pregnancy was not legal. So they had to

00:08:50.420 kind of, like, you know, wink, wink, it was really just to, it's not to avoid pregnancy, it's like to,

00:08:55.980 you know, air quotes, air quotes, regulate the cycle. But at the time, the doctors back then,

00:09:01.920 and the scientists back then knew that wasn't really what it was for. But then weirdly,

00:09:07.240 we've had this, as I said, this sort of strange narrative that's taken hold. And, and now it's

00:09:15.720 prescribed for that. And to be clear, I mean, the pill can hormonal birth control can relieve

00:09:20.200 period symptoms. So I'm definitely not saying that it has, you know, no place medically,

00:09:26.580 it's someone, it can, you know, relieve symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome, that's a condition of high

00:09:31.280 testosterone in women, it can relieve pain. But it can't regulate, it can't fix the menstrual cycle, 0.96

00:09:38.920 it really relieves symptoms by shutting down the natural menstrual cycle. And a big part of my work

00:09:44.840 is that I, well, believe, you know, based on several lines of evidence that a natural menstrual

00:09:53.720 cycle is beneficial for women, because it's how we make hormones. So men are, I always phrase it this

00:09:59.380 way, men are kind of quirky, they make their hormone, testosterone every day, whereas women, 0.99

00:10:05.140 we make it on a monthly pattern. But that doesn't mean those hormones are not important. They're

00:10:10.480 actually our own estrogen and progesterone are important for healthy bones, for example, for

00:10:17.060 healthy brain for metabolism, metabolic health, for heart health. And we need those hormones over all 0.82

00:10:24.040 of, you know, the decades of our menstruating years, just like men need testosterone. And so the very,

00:10:29.400 I would say somewhat reckless approach that we've had for the last three or three or four generations

00:10:37.120 of just shutting it all down, and replacing women's own hormones with contraceptive medication has has, 0.98

00:10:46.200 it's, it's been quite a startling thing to happen. Yeah. And another thing to just point out,

00:10:51.880 yeah, is that the medications in the pill are not natural hormones, they do not have the same

00:10:56.740 effects on our brain or bones, for example. Quick pause before we get into the rest of that

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00:12:29.680 Let's go through the cycle. And you shouldn't, you shouldn't fear it like sounding too scientific.

00:12:40.640 I mean, not everyone, myself included, will understand everything. But a lot of my audience

00:12:47.300 has been kind of paying attention to this subject and they would love to hear it broken down from a

00:12:51.860 scientific expert doctor perspective. So in order for us to understand why the cycle is important,

00:12:58.060 I think we need to understand what is actually happening in the cycle. So can we go through,

00:13:02.900 starting on day one, what is day one of the menstrual cycle?

00:13:08.220 Yeah, I love talking about this. I'm a cheerleader for menstrual cycles and hormones. So it gives me a

00:13:14.160 great opportunity. And it's not that complicated. So people don't need to worry. It's not that

00:13:18.900 sciencey. So on day one of the, when you're counting your cycle, and I'll just say if people are using a

00:13:25.340 period app or charting their cycle, day one of the cycle is the first day of the proper flow,

00:13:32.860 if there's a bit of spotting pre menstrual spotting, a light flow before the flow actually

00:13:38.000 starts, that's actually part of the previous cycle. So it's, it's quite important to get the

00:13:42.240 day right. So day one would be the day of the first day of proper flow. Hormones are very low at

00:13:47.760 that point. That's like a reset for the whole cycle. If you were to, again, if you were to measure,

00:13:52.100 do a blood test for estrogen, our main estrogen, estradiol on that day, they would be menopausal 0.90

00:13:58.240 levels, even in a young woman, that's normal. That's actually, that's just something I like

00:14:02.120 to communicate. So people, because sometimes people have a blood test at that time, and then

00:14:05.400 they feel a little frightened that they see such low levels of hormones. So that's normal.

00:14:09.920 So both hormones, sorry, is progesterone low too? Or are we just talking about estrogen?

00:14:15.460 Both hormones are baseline, very low at that time. That's, it's kind of dang. So we get this

00:14:21.180 sort of just, our hormones, I mean, our hormone cycle, like we're not like men, we don't make our

00:14:25.760 hormones every day. We make them on this monthly pattern, if everything is going well. And so yeah,

00:14:33.180 hormone, both estrogen and progesterone are flatlined. That's kind of our baseline. And then

00:14:38.460 as we move through the first phase of our cycle, which is called the follicular phase, for anybody who

00:14:43.460 is already knows about this, I guarantee some of your listeners or viewers are chart cycles,

00:14:49.080 or do something called fertility awareness method, which is, it's like, I love it. Like, you know,

00:14:55.040 and when you meet women who do it, or have been doing it for years, they're also, they share my

00:14:59.600 enthusiasm for the menstrual cycle usually. So that first, yeah, pre ovulation phase is when the ovaries 0.99

00:15:06.460 start making estrogen, quite a lot of estrogen by just before ovulation, that'll be peak estrogen,

00:15:14.200 and it increases by about four times, you know, baseline. And that estrogen is highly beneficial

00:15:21.020 for, for example, bones is the most well known that we really need that estrogen to build, you

00:15:27.320 know, to have strong bones, especially as a young woman. And then, you know, it's good for brain and

00:15:34.340 metabolism and all sorts of other things. We're usually great for mood, although some women do get 1.00

00:15:38.940 some negative mood effects from that high estrogen, but most of us feel great with it. I say us, I mean,

00:15:44.820 I'm now menopausal. So this is all behind me. But I, I kind of miss it. I do. I do miss that pre

00:15:50.420 ovulation. Almost sort of not I won't say euphoria, but a lot of women get like really get quite an

00:15:57.740 outgoing high confidence. Yeah, I was about to say confidence for sure. I think that there's a lot of

00:16:02.960 confidence. And you just kind of think you're like, why am I in such a good mood? Why do I feel like I

00:16:07.560 just kind of want to go out and see people and talk to people? And then a lot of people who don't

00:16:12.220 know their cycles, they might not connect it to that. They might just think, oh, I'm just in a

00:16:17.240 good mood. But a lot of times it's connected to that, like pre ovulation phase. It is and people

00:16:24.000 who women who chart their cycles kind of harness that they'll be like, oh, I've got this public 1.00

00:16:28.060 speaking thing coming up and I'll be pre ovulatory. That's going to be great. We also get a little 0.70

00:16:32.440 bump up in a tiny increase in testosterone at that time as well. It's not very much at all,

00:16:38.180 like a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what men have, but it's still enough for women to feel 0.87

00:16:43.760 it feels quite good. And to be clear, ovulation, you know, the mean or the average is that it happens

00:16:52.100 on day 14. But I just really want to be very clear. It doesn't have to happen on day 14. There's

00:16:58.100 a range of normal for the menstrual cycle, the duration, the length of it, and counting from

00:17:06.060 day one to day one of the next cycle that can in an adult woman that can range from anywhere from 21 0.91

00:17:11.480 days to 35 days, that's considered normal. Teenagers will be longer because younger women 1.00

00:17:17.260 have longer cycles, so up to 45 days in total for that cycle. So and it's the follicular phase,

00:17:23.240 it's the first part of the phase, the first part of the cycle that varies in duration. So if someone,

00:17:31.220 for example, has a 35 day cycle, that's their natural cycle, then they're actually not going

00:17:36.440 to ovulate until around day 21, rather than this classic day 14. So because it's that, again,

00:17:43.420 it's that first phase that kind of moves around quite a bit. So then you get to ovulation, which is

00:17:49.140 obviously the release of an egg, which is important if you're trying to make a baby. But it's not only

00:17:54.500 for that, it's also the main hormonal event of the menstrual cycle, I call it the engine of the

00:17:59.940 menstrual cycle. That's how everything works, that determines the timing of the menstrual cycle. 0.96

00:18:05.900 So it takes, depending on the woman, it'll take, you know, two to three weeks, or one to three weeks

00:18:10.200 to kind of get to ovulation. And then ovulation is a brief event. And then a temporary gland after

00:18:19.840 ovulation, the, the, the sack that released the egg reef, you know, reconfigures, it's quite an

00:18:27.040 amazing thing. It goes from just being quite tiny to almost it can be up to four centimeters. I don't

00:18:31.900 know what that is in inches, like, it's like half an inch or something structure. And it, it, it, it

00:18:39.020 just forms over a few days. And it forms this temporary gland, hormonal gland that releases

00:18:45.020 progesterone. And it releases, if all is going well, it releases a huge amount of progesterone,

00:18:50.500 like enormous amount compared to estrogen. Actually, progesterone goes up it from its baseline,

00:18:56.740 it goes up about 14 times, not, not three or four times like estrogen. So we're actually at peak

00:19:01.740 progesterone will be a hundred times higher than peak estrogen. We always see them as if you see

00:19:07.080 the hormones depicted on a menstrual cycle, they always look like they're about the same,

00:19:10.740 but equal, but we make way more progesterone than estrogen. And we only make it for two weeks

00:19:15.800 because mainly because that little gland in the ovary has a, in my book, I call it the lifespan of

00:19:20.460 a butterfly. It's, it doesn't stick around unless conception happens with pregnancy, then that little

00:19:27.700 gland will be rescued and it will, you know, keep, it'll stay there. It'll be responsible for making

00:19:33.340 progesterone for the first three months of pregnancy until the placenta starts, takes over that job.

00:19:38.080 But for a menstrual, if there's no pregnancy, then the end of the menstrual cycle will be when that

00:19:43.820 little temporary gland reaches its end and progesterone drops and estrogen drops. That's all

00:19:50.680 happening at the end of the menstrual cycle. And then a bleed is induced. Now I will just say,

00:19:57.280 that's the common story. And most people know that story. It isn't really important to know

00:20:03.520 the fact about the body or what's called body literacy, that it is also possible to get a bleed

00:20:10.780 without having ovulated. So that's not to get too technical. That's called an an ovulatory cycle.

00:20:16.460 People don't have to remember that. It just means there's a cycle where there was no ovulation.

00:20:19.760 And that's not uncommon. That would, there's various situations when that would happen.

00:20:25.540 And just to, you know, a classic sign of a cycle where ovulation didn't happen is that the bleed

00:20:31.980 could be a little funny, like the bleed could be longer or kind of stop and start bleeding rather

00:20:36.940 than just the proper, you know, three to five day flow that you'll get with proper menstrual cycle

00:20:43.940 where there was progesterone and yeah, the two weeks of progesterone.

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00:21:57.820 Okay. So that follicular stage, can you tell us what does that word mean? It's referring to

00:22:08.340 the follicle, right? Where the egg is. And that's why it's called the follicular stage because the

00:22:14.040 egg is maturing within the follicle. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Exactly right. Yeah. So it's the

00:22:20.120 follicular phase because that's the egg is maturing in the ovaries. While it's maturing,

00:22:24.020 its little sac or follicle is releasing estrogen. So that's the follicular phase. And then I didn't

00:22:29.900 say the name of this. The second phase is called the luteal phase. Yeah. The word luteal is making

00:22:35.440 it into sort of a common conversation a bit more, which is fun for me. It's named after the corpus

00:22:43.340 luteum, which is the temporary gland that forms. So if people see the luteal phase, that just means

00:22:49.380 that's it's the progesterone phase. And I'll just give a little plug for progesterone as well. It

00:22:55.220 has a kind of a bad reputation. Definitely medicine is very scornful of progesterone. They see it as

00:23:00.380 like collect generally, obviously doctors, subdoctors recognize that it has good sides. But

00:23:06.400 I think part of the, I would call the, you know, the paradigm or the era of contraceptive

00:23:14.800 medication that we've had for the last 60, 70 years, part of that came from this idea that,

00:23:19.800 well, we don't really need our own hormones. You know, they don't, these medications in hormonal

00:23:24.000 birth control will be good enough. And part of that would be this idea that the progestins,

00:23:29.040 which are in hormonal birth control are somehow good enough for health, but progestins are not

00:23:34.980 progesterone. They're very, actually very different from progesterone in some ways opposite.

00:23:39.320 And so one of the big costs for women of, you know, potentially decades on hormonal birth control

00:23:46.220 is not having an opportunity to make any of their own progesterone. And one of the things that

00:23:50.740 progesterone does, it has, it has many benefits, has some downsides too, but many benefits. It's one

00:23:55.200 of its main benefits is it, it's really good for the brain. It makes this, it metabolizes to,

00:24:00.500 well, they call it a neurosteroid. It's kind of like a neurotransmitter. It's like that it's,

00:24:05.420 but it's a hormone. So it interacts with, not to get too technical, but it's calm. It's generally

00:24:10.460 calming for the brain. It interacts with GABA receptors in the brain. It's very nourishing

00:24:14.640 for the brain. And yeah, so that's, that's part of my love of hormones is progesterone is,

00:24:20.960 I call it the Cinderella hormone. It's been misunderstood. It's been kind of just

00:24:24.340 pushed aside and it actually has many benefits.

00:24:28.560 Many benefits, especially if you get pregnant, right? That's what, okay. So after, 0.99

00:24:33.420 if conception happens and on that day of ovulation and ovulation is only one day, right? And that's

00:24:38.900 kind of the star of the cycle. Yes. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Ovulation is the star,

00:24:44.760 is the engine of the cycle, but the event itself, the release of the egg is quite, yeah, the ovary

00:24:51.700 gets its final kind of stimulation and then it just really all takes place over about 24 hours. And

00:24:56.240 then the, there's, there's been some video footage circulating of actually the egg coming out,

00:25:01.340 which is astounding. They managed to capture that somehow on a video and it's, yeah, it's quite a

00:25:07.360 beautiful event. It ruptures out the side. It sounds a little violent actually. Like it does,

00:25:12.400 it does kind of rupture tissue, push out the side, but, and then if, if, if people are interested,

00:25:19.040 just one little thing about ovulation, because the human body is so amazing and beautiful. It's just,

00:25:24.680 the egg is just put out into the, the pelvis basically. It's just put out into space really.

00:25:29.880 And then the tubes, the fallopian tubes gather it up. They kind of sweep around looking for it.

00:25:36.380 They just, these like these tendrils and then they obviously the, hopefully they find it and

00:25:40.600 then they, you know, bring it into the tube and that's, but the ovaries and the uterus are not 0.97

00:25:44.460 actually connect. Well, they're connected in other places by connective tissue, but like the,

00:25:49.220 between the ovary and the place where the, you know, the, the opening where the egg then goes in

00:25:54.320 to reach the uterus is there's a gap there and it's, it's just quite an amazing, that's a bit

00:25:59.800 of a segue, but I mean, just a little, like sort of, that is amazing. That's yeah, it is amazing.

00:26:05.220 Yeah. And so it's really beautiful. It is so beautiful. And if conception happens,

00:26:09.720 which that whole process is fascinating and beautiful too, just the whole thing that the

00:26:14.440 body does to try to like select the right sperm and all of that. Um, it's so interesting, but

00:26:22.000 progesterone increases every day, right? After conception, is that true that progesterone is

00:26:29.160 really important for keeping that pregnancy alive? Yeah, well, that's where it got its name pro

00:26:34.800 gestation. So yes, it really does promote a healthy pregnancy. You can't have, you cannot have a 0.95

00:26:40.160 pregnancy without progesterone. Well, without, you can't really have a pregnancy without any of the

00:26:43.860 parts that we've just been describing. Um, but yeah, it's, so it, um, progesterone starts as soon

00:26:50.720 as the corporate, that little temporary gland forms. So it'll actually start progesterone starts

00:26:55.580 before conception. Well, conception is going to happen in the fallopian tubes. So conception will,

00:27:00.180 you know, be pretty quick actually. So it's kind of all happening at the same time. And then the

00:27:03.540 fertilized egg kind of continues down the journey. And by the time it reaches the uterine lining,

00:27:08.460 progesterone will have worked some of its magic on the uterine lining, make it as receptive as

00:27:14.100 possible. I mean, one of the things that progesterone is doing all sorts of things,

00:27:17.940 it is affecting the woman's nervous system kind of one of the reasons, just as your listeners might

00:27:23.900 find this interesting, but one of the reasons progesterone has a bad reputation, it is, um,

00:27:29.420 somewhat tranquilizing. So it does, it is calming the nervous system. And that's to do with that

00:27:37.340 neurosteroid that I talked about earlier. It's, and some women, depending on the woman, 1.00

00:27:41.480 they can experience that in different ways. It can sometimes feel not great. It's very different

00:27:44.460 from that euphoria that you get. Estrogen is very stimulating. And as you say, it makes you very

00:27:48.820 outgoing and want to get out and explore the world. Um, progesterone makes you want to just kind of stay

00:27:55.040 home sometimes. And, but that's, that makes sense, right? There's like the wisdom of the body,

00:27:59.720 like the, it's because if you, you might be pregnant, so you probably just need to like eat, 0.74

00:28:03.760 well, you eat more progesterone stimulates appetites. You need to eat more, rest more,

00:28:07.620 and that's kicking in every menstrual cycle. The body's in the early phases of preparing

00:28:13.540 for pregnancy. Um, so, and also, it also slightly suppresses immune function, which is,

00:28:20.500 it has to, because the immune system has to, women's immune system is so fascinating. It's quite

00:28:25.780 different from men's. Our women's immune system has to do some, quite a miraculous thing to allow 1.00

00:28:30.880 another human being to like take up, to live in the body. It's actually quite a difficult thing for

00:28:38.820 the immune system to, um, defend again against everything else, but be able to accommodate

00:28:43.640 what is essentially foreign tissue to start growing. So the immune system, that's one of

00:28:48.540 the reasons progesterone will slightly modulate or suppress immune function, but that can be good

00:28:52.440 actually, because that can help to prevent autoimmune conditions, for example.

00:28:56.540 It also makes sense why you're so, I'm just thinking back, like you're so tired at the

00:29:00.980 beginning of pregnancy. I remember all my pregnancies, that was the first indicator, like

00:29:06.040 I am so tired. And then you get the positive pregnancy test and you're like, oh, I have another

00:29:11.700 human being that is like taking on energy from my immune system. But I didn't know, I didn't think

00:29:17.080 about that. It also could be the increased progesterone that is kind of tranquilizing you and

00:29:21.760 almost telling your body, hey, you've got this new fragile life inside you. Maybe you should stay

00:29:26.920 inside and take a seat. Exactly. And well, part of it is, um, the mismatch between women and society, 1.00

00:29:34.280 right? So society, I, I mean, it, it, well, for different reasons, I mean, it's kind of built for

00:29:39.920 men, but I mean, um, that's changing, but like there is this, it's sort of, it's not, society is

00:29:45.300 not cyclical or is it's not. So there's always this, like you're on, on, on, like you have to kind of

00:29:49.520 be the same every day. And, um, women are going to have times when they're, you know, our energy 1.00

00:29:56.360 goes down. And I, I think, so again, just referring to, I'm sure there are people in your audience who

00:30:02.400 are charting or kind of know about this. This will be something women can embrace. It doesn't mean

00:30:08.340 that during your luteal phase or, or when progesterone is high or during the early phases

00:30:13.760 of progesterone, it doesn't mean you can't do your work. I mean, if it's that, if it's that severe,

00:30:17.680 then that's a, you know, a symptom that can be helped by natural treatments or different ways.

00:30:22.960 But I mean, that subtle kind of downshifting in energy and feeling a little more introverted,

00:30:29.760 I think it can be worked with and kind of harnessed if, if with a little bit more self-forgiveness

00:30:34.360 and just be like self-understanding. It's like, I'm not broken. There's nothing wrong with the

00:30:39.040 female body. It's, this is just a natural part of it. You know, I'm in my luteal phase now, so I'm

00:30:44.200 a little bit more introverted and hungrier. You just embrace it.

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00:32:15.800 A little bit more about progesterone just to make sure that I'm understanding because I've kind of

00:32:21.320 gone through, I mean, as I've had like my three pregnancies over the past few years, but also just

00:32:26.300 over the past year, like really trying to understand the cycle for almost the first time in my life,

00:32:32.460 like independent of tracking a pregnancy, just really trying to understand it. And so with

00:32:38.340 progesterone, if so, is it also rising before you ovulate? Like what is progesterone at its peak

00:32:47.540 if there's no pregnancy? Yeah. Okay. Great question. Um, it's at its peak about five to

00:32:55.860 seven days after ovulation. Okay. So again, it depends on the length of the cycle. So with a

00:33:00.700 classic 28 day cycle, it's at its peak on day 21, which is why doctors roll off and order a day 21

00:33:06.920 progesterone. Um, but just to go back, circle back to what I was saying before cycles come in

00:33:13.140 different lengths. So with a healthy ovulatory as an ovulation is occurring, you know, 35 day cycle,

00:33:20.360 which is normal peak progesterone will be on day 28. And I do mention that I talk about this in my

00:33:26.440 book and I have a, I have a article about this on my, um, website on my site called the right way to

00:33:32.040 test progesterone. People can, it's free access. People can just Google that. Um, because it can be,

00:33:37.420 again, it can be quite frightening if the doctor orders a day 21 progesterone and it comes back

00:33:41.400 super low. That's because that just, that just means that could just mean, well, it could mean

00:33:47.820 you're not ovulating. So that could mean that. Cause like I said, that can happen, but there are

00:33:51.620 different reasons why women don't ovulate, but still have periods, but it could also mean it was 0.99

00:33:57.280 just tested at the wrong time. Like namely if it was tested, if someone went on to have a 35 day cycle

00:34:02.240 and they had a 21 day, 21 progesterone test, it's going to be low. That's normal for them. So yeah,

00:34:08.520 it, it peaks about five to seven days after progesterone. It peaks during the high temperature

00:34:13.240 phase. So again, anyone who's charting their cycle, um, the luteal phase, the progesterone phase,

00:34:18.720 it correlates with body temperature going up by about half a degree Fahrenheit and it's measurable.

00:34:25.320 You just, it's an under the tongue temperature first thing in the morning before you get out of bed.

00:34:29.860 It, there's also different wearables that you can, that can track your temperature for you. And it's

00:34:34.960 not rocket science. Like it's, it's a noticeable shift. So temperature will go up and stay up for

00:34:40.320 the 12 to 14, 12 to 14 days of the luteal phase. And then when your temperature drops,

00:34:45.100 it's quite a handy thing. Cause if you know, when you ovulated and then you see your temperature

00:34:48.800 going down, you know, to put menstrual supplies into your bag because your period is coming

00:34:53.180 that day or the next day. Like it, it, it takes a lot of the mystery out of it. Like the female body 0.97

00:34:58.540 is not that complicated, you know? Um, and this is where body literacy or cycle charting can be

00:35:04.480 quite empowering to sort of know exactly what's happening.

00:35:08.680 So that's your basal body temperature, right? That people are taking. And so that's just the

00:35:13.720 temperature that you can take first thing in the morning. And when it goes up, that indicates the

00:35:18.960 ovulation has already happened. Correct?

00:35:22.820 Correct. Exactly. Yeah. If it, and if you're, if you're using it for trying for pregnancy and some of your,

00:35:28.540 viewers might've done this. Yeah. Temperature can not, by the time, by the time temperature goes up,

00:35:35.520 it's too late to conceive. Like ovulation's already happened. And as soon as progesterone kicks in,

00:35:42.260 um, conception is no longer possible. Like, sorry, I mean, sorry, I don't mean to say that.

00:35:47.680 Progesterone, I mean, if, if conception has happened and progesterone is kicking in, that's good. That means,

00:35:52.820 you know, the pregnancy is going to proceed, but the, the fertile window, the open window,

00:35:57.840 when sperm can get into the fallopian tubes and when, you know, they need to be there just before the egg

00:36:04.240 is released. Basically, they need to be there just before ovulation. That's the, that's how the system

00:36:08.660 works. So, um, they, they sperm, if sperm had to swim all the way from the cervix, like up into the fallopian

00:36:16.960 tubes, it would take them days, but they actually, some of your viewers may know this, this, we make

00:36:22.240 something called cervical fluid or fertile mucus. It's like a little sperm escalator. It brings the 0.99

00:36:27.760 sperm straight up to where they're supposed to be like in just minutes. Right. So, um, that needs to 0.99

00:36:33.040 be, that's, and that type of mucus or fertile fluid, cervical fluid is made, um, under the influence of 0.93

00:36:39.540 estrogen. So as, and progesterone dries that up. So as soon as progesterone's on the scene,

00:36:44.740 there's no more fertile mucus and the door is closed for, um, sperm. So yeah. So, um, this is

00:36:51.860 conversely, so if you're trying for pregnancy, you want to have sex before your temperatures go up. Um,

00:36:57.540 if you're, if you're using fertility awareness method to avoid pregnancy, which a lot of people do,

00:37:04.000 which it's a great method because it's natural. It doesn't suppress ovulation. It doesn't harm the body

00:37:08.940 in any way. It's just tracking what your body's doing. Then, um, after temperatures go up and

00:37:15.020 you're confident they've gone up. So most methods would say they need to be up for a few days just

00:37:18.680 so you really know that's what's happening and not just like a little, you know, quirky high

00:37:23.160 temperature day. Um, once temperatures go, go up, there's literally no chance of, um, conception

00:37:29.920 again, that cycle for that cycle. Because pregnancy conception is, yeah, it totally makes sense to me.

00:37:36.900 Pregnancy is possible on the ovulation day, but also if you have sex the few days before your actual 0.81

00:37:44.780 ovulation conception is also possible because of that cervical fluid, which keeps the sperm alive

00:37:52.540 long enough for the star of the show to show up, which is that released egg. It's not that you're

00:37:57.880 ovulating all of those days. It's just that the cervical fluid is making it possible for that sperm to

00:38:03.180 stay alive. After that, you said the progesterone shows up that, you know, shuts off the cervical

00:38:08.340 fluid. The egg is already gone. If you have sex after that, there's just no way that you'll get

00:38:13.540 pregnant. Exactly. Yeah. No, you've just, you've summed it up, um, beautifully. Yeah. And one thing,

00:38:20.400 just one thing, again, was sort of men are quirky in that they're fertile every day, whereas women are 0.99

00:38:26.380 only fertile. It works out to about five or six days of fertility. Um, it's really, it's technically

00:38:33.180 only one day, but, um, but it's five or six because as exactly, as you said, the cervical fluid keeps

00:38:39.260 sperm alive. Sperm sits kind of, it's a good thing. It's quite hardy. It, you know, sits there for a

00:38:43.340 little while, um, waiting. So that effectively makes it five or six, five or six days of fertility

00:38:49.560 every cycle, which when you think about it historically, if you just really think, I mean,

00:38:54.320 through my lens, I'm like, you know, the medications, the concept of medications,

00:38:59.240 you know, why target women? We're not even fertile every day. I feel like from the beginning,

00:39:03.200 they should have been kind of aimed at men who are fertile every day, but, um, you know, that's a

00:39:08.600 different point. Yeah. All right, y'all, we've got new merch coming your way really soon. And

00:39:18.460 the way we bring you new merch is through Shopify. They make e-commerce so easy. Like I'm okay with

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00:40:47.220 alley. Okay. Tell me a little bit more about the difference between progestins and progesterone.

00:40:57.920 I think I've seen you say that progesterones actually help lower your risk of things like

00:41:03.520 breast cancer, whereas progestins could raise the risk of breast cancer. Is that right?

00:41:07.700 Yeah. So that's, yeah, very good questions. Yeah. And it's, it's a delight talking to you. This is,

00:41:14.560 you know, so much about this already, but it's, um, you're teaching me a lot, so I appreciate it.

00:41:20.900 Um, yeah. So as I said earlier, the medications in hormone, in hormonal birth control are not

00:41:27.020 our own hormones. They're not what's called body identical. They're not like they have different

00:41:32.980 molecular structures and they're quite obviously different. And as the body was, we've said the

00:41:37.020 body is smart. The body can tell the difference. It's expecting a hormone of a particular configuration. 0.90

00:41:43.040 And when it gets a molecule, that's a little bit the same, but actually quite different.

00:41:47.940 Logically, that's going to have different effects in the body. And we know that now it was,

00:41:53.320 I think it was wishful thinking 70, 60, 50, 60 years ago when they thought, oh, this will be,

00:41:59.020 it was kind of like this wishful thinking, oh, this will be good enough for women. I mean, 0.99

00:42:02.520 they knew they were shutting off women's own hormones. It's like, we're just going to give 0.99

00:42:05.180 them back these molecules and we're just going to hope for the best basically. And that is turning

00:42:11.000 out to have not been a good idea. So the synthetic estrogen is also, is also different from our own

00:42:17.780 estrogen, but less, less so. So the synthetic estrogen in hormonal birth control is a little

00:42:24.540 more similar to our own estrogen. So we get some of the same, but some of the same benefits, but not

00:42:29.300 all. For estrogen, a really classic example is our own estrogen is so powerful for building bones

00:42:36.520 and synthetic estrogen just doesn't do the job. And this is why we have studies now showing that

00:42:41.360 if girls are putting on hormonal birth control young, whichever a lot are now, 0.99

00:42:48.020 they do not reach what's called peak bone density. So they don't, we're supposed to have

00:42:52.440 the healthy, the strongest bones we're ever going to have by about age 25. And hormonal birth control

00:42:57.680 stops that from happening, which is concerning because that's going to then play out, you know,

00:43:01.720 in another 30 years when they go through menopause and they're going to potentially be at higher risk

00:43:05.420 of osteoporosis. But in answer to your question, the progestins in hormonal birth control, of which

00:43:11.760 there are like a dozen, at least different types, they are, they're all different from each other.

00:43:19.180 And they're all very different from progesterone. Like they don't share, the only similarity they

00:43:25.020 share is that they thin the uterine lining. Like they, they kind of act on the uterine lining to

00:43:30.160 prevent its thickening, but that's about it. That's where the difference stops. And yeah, that can have a

00:43:37.420 big difference in the brain because none of the progestins convert to that kind of calming

00:43:43.020 neurosteroid that I mentioned before. None of them do that. So none of them, this is why we see women 1.00

00:43:48.380 on the, on hormonal birth control have altered brain structures compared to women who have natural 0.89

00:43:53.180 menstrual cycles. But in answer to your question about breast cancer, yeah, it's obviously the science

00:43:58.080 is still working it out. So I'll, what I'll say is what I can confidently say is what the evidence

00:44:05.000 currently shows is that all progestins slightly increase the risk of breast cancer, not dramatically.

00:44:13.840 Like, so most women who take progestins will not get breast cancer, which is good,

00:44:17.020 but they slightly increase the base, the risk from baseline. Whereas progesterone, as far as we know,

00:44:23.820 does, well, it makes sense, right? Our body's own hormone does not increase the risk of, progesterone

00:44:28.600 does not increase the risk of breast cancer, as far as we can tell. And take, also you get,

00:44:32.480 it is possible to take progesterone as natural progesterone or body identical progesterone.

00:44:37.000 And as far as we know, that does not also not increase the risk of breast cancer. And that's,

00:44:41.260 that's really good. That's why natural progesterone is now used as part of

00:44:44.800 menopausal hormone therapy, because it's safer for the breasts than progestins. 0.96

00:44:50.620 Right. That makes sense. Okay, gosh, there's so many things that I want to ask you just in like the

00:44:55.100 little time that we have left. So in your book about repairing your period, a lot of women, 1.00

00:45:01.360 they're either coming off the birth control and their birth control pill, and they're trying to

00:45:06.020 figure out what their natural cycle even looks like. Or maybe some women have endometriosis, 1.00

00:45:11.760 some women have PCOS, or some women, they don't know what they have. But I definitely have friends 0.99

00:45:15.680 who say, I just have horrible periods. They're really heavy. I have horrible debilitating cramps.

00:45:21.060 And, you know, as we said in the beginning, a lot of doctors will say the only remedy is birth

00:45:25.040 control, but you have a natural approach to that. So where should women start if they're in any of those 1.00

00:45:30.840 boats? Yeah. And it's really good to finish the interview on this, this point, because obviously,

00:45:37.960 right from the beginning, when I wrote my first book, Period of Paramanuel, I,

00:45:43.360 and it grew out of my work with, with women. So I mean, you can't really, I can't, you know,

00:45:49.400 criticize hormonal birth control without being able to offer some kind of alternative. Because as I said,

00:45:53.920 at the beginning, yeah, it is true that hormonal birth control can relieve period symptoms. It doesn't

00:45:59.000 always work, to be fair, it's not like it fixes everything, but it can relieve pain. And certainly

00:46:04.060 it can relieve heavy bleeding. But there are other ways to do that. And the actual approach,

00:46:11.480 I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear, you know, there's not one size fits all recipe for a perfect

00:46:17.500 period. It really is, it involves troubleshooting as to what the problem is, whether it's irregular

00:46:24.140 periods that could be caused by different mechanisms, you sort of have to consider what's

00:46:29.720 going on with that woman, what the explanation is, you know, pain and heavy bleeding, depending on what 0.98

00:46:36.060 it is, you sort of, it's not complicated. I mean, my book, as you, my book is a manual, it's like a

00:46:40.440 troubleshooting manual to figure what is your, you know, what is your symptom? What did the doctor

00:46:44.240 say? What is the likely cause? Then this is, you know, what you would take, but I'll give you an

00:46:48.480 example, which is not a one size fits all, but it's just kind of, I'll give you two examples,

00:46:53.900 which are kind of my favorite ones, because they can really move the needle on symptoms, especially

00:46:58.300 I'll add for teenagers, young women's bodies just respond, well, young people's in general, 0.99

00:47:04.860 bodies respond quite quickly, which is just because they're young, I think. So, you know, the super, 0.68

00:47:11.020 you know, if young women or teenagers are having very heavy periods, painful periods, one of the

00:47:17.360 things I learned early on, and then I've just seen in practice again and again, is that it can improve

00:47:23.800 by switching the kind of dairy, cow's dairy they're eating. So normal, anyway, without getting too deep

00:47:32.860 into it, but like this, there's something called A1 casein, it's a particular dairy protein that seems

00:47:38.000 to be quite inflammatory for some people, not everyone. And part of that inflammation can manifest as

00:47:43.880 heavier flow or more painful flow or premenstrual mood symptoms. So just switching to it's really

00:47:49.840 about switching to Jersey cow, or I don't know if you have it in the States, but like we call it A2

00:47:54.900 milk here. So they're cows that don't have the A1 casein. So it's, it's becoming more and more

00:48:00.140 accessible. Also goat and cheap dairy do not have that inflammatory casein protein. So that that's,

00:48:07.040 that's just a quite of a simple change. A lot of my patients are well able to do that. And it's still,

00:48:13.160 you know, nutritious, it's still nutritious dairy. It's just not the inflammatory kind. So that that

00:48:19.340 can make, that can really make a big difference. And the great thing about it is it can, it can

00:48:22.420 happen quite quickly. So usually within two or three cycles, a woman can see if that's going to make a 1.00

00:48:26.680 difference or not. And then another just really simple one, a lot, as you know, from my book,

00:48:32.660 a lot of the treatments are, I try to keep them simple and easy to access and inexpensive because I

00:48:38.420 didn't want this to become, it shouldn't have to be a complicated thing to treat periods. So another

00:48:42.540 example is the nutrient zinc, a zinc supplement can relieve period pain. And to the point that

00:48:50.720 there, and there's a citation in the book, they, there's been at least one clinical trial where

00:48:56.360 they tested zinc in direct comparison to the pill for period pain. And they found that zinc worked as

00:49:03.880 well. And as the pill and I was, and then they make this funny comment in this, in the study,

00:49:09.060 I just never forget when I read this where they're like, but the advantage of zinc is it less, you

00:49:14.400 know, it's, it's cheaper than the pill. And then, but in my brain, I'm like, Oh, and the other

00:49:18.300 advantage is it doesn't shut down the menstrual cycle. Like it lets women, you know, it doesn't 1.00

00:49:22.820 shut down hormones to relieve period pain. If people are going to try zinc though, I always have to make

00:49:28.840 sure I say this. Don't let a girl don't take it or don't let your daughter take it on an empty 1.00

00:49:33.400 stomach because zinc on an empty stomach can make you feel sick, like nausea. But if you take it with

00:49:38.620 food and around the 30 milligram dose, it's quite safe. So obviously I wouldn't want to recommend

00:49:44.340 things today that are not safe to try, but it's, it's one of those sort of safer, highly effective

00:49:49.580 ones, inexpensive. So it sounds like there are a lot of potential natural remedies for the menstrual

00:49:57.080 issues that people have that aren't suppressing someone's very necessary ovulatory cycle.

00:50:05.360 Because like you said, all of the different hormones and how they're produced and when they're

00:50:10.200 produced, how much is produced during the cycle, it's not just affecting ovulation. It's affecting

00:50:15.100 our brain. It's defect. It's affecting our moods. It's affecting our decision-making so many different

00:50:20.820 things that we're completely shutting down when we just have these artificial hormones that we're

00:50:25.580 pumping in our bodies. I know. So well put. An analogy I sometimes give, it's one of these

00:50:32.120 things, again, from a historical perspective, it's kind of a head scratching, like what were,

00:50:36.860 what just happened here over the last, you know, 60 to 70 years? You know, what's happened to young,

00:50:42.060 to women would be like saying to men, you know, we're going to give you this medication that switches 0.97

00:50:47.260 off your testicular function and it's going to switch off your own testosterone. And instead of 0.90

00:50:52.280 testosterone, you're going to have this other molecule that's kind of like testosterone,

00:50:55.320 but not really. And it's going to affect your brain and it's, you know, going to affect your

00:50:59.100 metabolism. But don't worry because that's what we do. You know, that's what all the other men are

00:51:03.280 doing. Like it just, if you see it through that lens, it's, it's actually crazy. I mean, I, so I,

00:51:10.140 obviously I feel I'm quite passionate about it. I mean, I think I'm confident there are going to be

00:51:14.260 better options coming for, we haven't even really talked about that, but there's other options coming

00:51:18.920 for avoiding pregnancy. Like it's 2025. We don't have to shut down women's entire hormonal systems 1.00

00:51:26.240 just to avoid pregnancy. Like there's other ways.

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00:52:53.700 I know that we have to close out soon, but just a couple other quick things I wanted to ask you

00:52:58.380 about that I have written down. Another possible side effect of these hormonal contraceptives is a

00:53:05.480 possible increase in visceral fat and a reduction of insulin sensitivity. So it sounds like it could

00:53:13.180 actually affect our metabolism. When I've heard in the past, people say, no, birth control can just

00:53:18.260 kind of like, I don't know, make you more tired and so you don't want to work out. But it sounds like

00:53:22.560 it does actually affect our metabolism. Is that right?

00:53:25.480 Absolutely. Depending on the type, that will very much depend on which progestin. So this is where

00:53:34.660 we have to get into the kind of, which we won't today, but like, you know, get into the details of

00:53:38.040 like nutting out like which progestin, because some progestins probably are fine. Some promote

00:53:44.760 metabolic dysfunction, as you've said, visceral fat, insulin resistance. And, you know, the, and my third

00:53:50.500 book is actually all around metabolic health and insulin resistance. So I have a whole chapter called

00:53:54.560 the female hormone side of things and looking, looking at all the different effects of our own

00:53:59.880 hormones versus hormonal birth control and metabolism. But one thing I just want to sort of end by saying

00:54:04.200 is almost from the beginning of hormonal birth control, women were saying, oh, it's affecting my 0.92

00:54:12.400 mood. It's, I gained weight, you know, it's affected my sex drive. Like, you know, these observations

00:54:19.460 were coming and even, even more serious ones, like there was, you know, the blood clots that were

00:54:23.840 the fatal blood clots that can happen on hormonal birth control. Those were at first dismissed. It's

00:54:28.320 like, oh, that's not a thing. You know, that's not a thing where you're imagining that, that link.

00:54:32.280 And then, but over the, you know, decades now we are getting, yeah, there's, as you say,

00:54:39.500 there's been this old narrative. Oh no, it's just that you're, you just need to, you know, eat less.

00:54:42.920 And it's, you're imagining this effect, metabolic effect, but it's now, yeah, the research is sort

00:54:49.760 of proving that that, that is there. And it's, it's changed a lot because, so I've been, as I've

00:54:55.540 been practicing a long time, I've been trying to talk about this for literally decades, even 10 years

00:55:00.420 ago, especially around mood, especially around the possibility of negative mood effects from hormonal

00:55:07.040 birth control. Even 10 years ago, it was not really possible in social media. I was on Twitter at that

00:55:12.700 time. Like I would occasionally say, you know, I think the pill, well, any clinician would tell

00:55:17.880 you that the pill or hormonal birth control can, can not in everyone, but can cause anxiety and

00:55:23.600 depression. And there was this immediate like slap down. It's like, no, you know, that's not been

00:55:28.000 proven or it's been proven that that's not true. It's like, but then in 2016 was a watershed moment.

00:55:34.260 Actually, there was a huge Danish study in 2016 that pretty much definitively proved that there is a

00:55:41.620 link with negative mood side effects. And from that point on the conversation has changed. And now

00:55:47.520 even on social media, certainly speaking with other doctors, more mainstream doctors, it's like, yeah,

00:55:52.520 you know, I have heard about that. They're, they're now like after decades of saying to women, 0.74

00:55:57.260 you're imagining it, they're not like, yeah, that's, that's the thing. It could affect your mood. So,

00:56:01.220 you know, potentially consider that.

00:56:02.680 Hmm. Yes. Okay. Can I ask you one last question? Because there are women out there who are going 1.00

00:56:07.840 through perimenopause and menopause who feel very alone, who feel like no one understands their

00:56:13.840 symptoms and there's no help for their symptoms. You mentioned at the beginning bioidentical hormone

00:56:18.460 therapy, and I've heard women talk about that when it, in relation to perimenopause and menopause, 0.68

00:56:24.500 and I don't know very much about it, but what would you tell the woman who is about to go through or is

00:56:29.540 going through some of these menopausal symptoms? How can they seek helpful natural relief?

00:56:34.460 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great question. So my second book, Hormone or Perimenopause is all about

00:56:41.820 perimenopause. I didn't put the title perimenopause. I didn't put the word perimenopause in the title

00:56:47.300 because even just three or four years ago when that, when I wrote that book, it, perimenopause

00:56:52.100 wasn't in the common, this conversation, but now, I mean, a lot of women have heard that word and know 1.00

00:56:58.580 that it's the years leading up to menopause. So perimenopause happens while you're still having

00:57:02.420 regular periods, potentially. If a woman's in her forties, she almost by definition is 0.92

00:57:08.600 in perimenopause. It's not a bad thing. It's not a medical condition. It's, I call it second puberty.

00:57:14.300 It's the transition. So we have the transition into our ovarian hormones, and then we have the

00:57:19.720 transition out of them, and it's a natural life event. One thing I just want to say at the outset is 1.00

00:57:25.960 menopause or the cessation of the stopping of periods is not an accident of living too long.

00:57:32.020 Our body, I'm very confident in this, like we are adapted. We are meant to live two or three decades

00:57:38.940 past the end of periods. So our body knows how to do that. So it's not a, it's not a, you know,

00:57:44.820 medical condition that needs treating. That said, women, a lot of women can experience symptoms and

00:57:49.180 some women can get benefit from hormone therapy. There's, and I'm not against hormone therapy at

00:57:55.700 all. But there are, not everyone needs it, to be fair. Like, so my second book has all the different

00:58:00.800 natural strategies that can improve night sweats and hot flashes and mood, you know, sleep, actually

00:58:07.140 the number one complaint is usually sleep disturbance. So there's lots of strategies for that. And then

00:58:12.380 just briefly on the bio-identical thing. So as I mentioned, at the moment in 2025, thank goodness,

00:58:20.520 we are finally at the point where body identical or hormones, hormone therapy that is exactly identical

00:58:28.280 to human hormones is pretty much the standard. It's not, you have to still read the label and see what

00:58:34.060 your doctor gave you. But unlike hormonal birth control, which is not body identical at all, which is

00:58:38.740 totally different thing. Most hormone menopausal hormone therapy is natural. These days it is

00:58:46.060 natural estrogen and progesterone, which is great in the U S natural progesterone is called one of the

00:58:51.680 main brands is Prometrium. So that might've been prescribed to some of your listeners. So just think,

00:58:58.080 I mean, I have, I've written about this in my book and on my again, on my site, they can, people can find

00:59:03.200 like a list of, they actually list the medications and whether they're the hormonal therapy type,

00:59:08.740 brands and whether they're body identical or not. So it's great. But like the history of it is over

00:59:15.260 the last few decades, like when I started my career in the nineties, my, with my women in

00:59:20.620 perimenopause or menopause who were coming to me, one of the main things I was doing at that time was

00:59:24.920 taking them off the old school type of HRT and switching them to the natural, like body identical

00:59:30.880 type, because mainly because of what we said right at the outset, that natural or body identical was

00:59:39.360 just means identical to the body. Progesterone does not increase the risk of breast cancer the

00:59:43.200 way progesterones do. So that was, the writing was on the wall for that decades ago. So that's why

00:59:48.700 naturopathic doctors were a lot of our job at that time was switching people to a better type of hormone

00:59:54.260 therapy, which has now finally become mainstream, which is great. Yes. Well, thank you so much for

01:00:00.800 that information. That was super helpful in clarifying and we'll have to have you back. I

01:00:05.200 know it's, you know, difficult, the time differences between New Zealand and here, but I appreciate you

01:00:10.480 making the time and we'll make it work hopefully to do a part two, because there's so much that we

01:00:15.340 didn't get to cover. Dr. Laura Bryden, where can people find you if they want to find your stuff

01:00:20.600 and learn more from you? Yeah, great. And thanks again so much for having me, Ali. It was really

01:00:25.340 great talking with you. I'm easy to find. So everything is at larabryden.com. From there,

01:00:30.920 all my social media is at larabryden. I have a newsletter as well, where I just share, you know,

01:00:35.520 tidbits of research on women's periods. And I'm a writer. So actually, my newsletter is kind of one of

01:00:41.360 my favorite offerings to the world. But yeah, so everything is there. And my books, of course,

01:00:49.640 period of prayer manual, hormone or prayer manual. And my latest book is Metabolism Repair for Women, 0.62

01:00:56.000 which is all about, it's kind of about weight loss, but it's more broadly, like deeper,

01:01:00.200 it's about metabolic health and insulin resistance and quite an important topic.

01:01:05.640 Yes, very much so. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Bryden. I really appreciate it.

01:01:19.640 Thank you, Dr. Bryden. I really appreciate it.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 11, 2025

Ep 1203 ｜ The Secret to Fixing Your Period ｜ Guest： Dr. Lara Briden

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