(0:40) Welcome
Hey listeners - welcome back to The Paleo View!
Stacy and Sarah geeked out over the math specialties of this episode number 369
Sarah wished Stacy a Happy Birthday!
Stacy talked about what happens when you get older and what she is noticing
Today on the show, inspired by Stacy's own aging journey, the hosts are going to talk about aging as a woman
Specifically perimenopause and menopause
As we get older what happens from a physical perspective
What can we do about it from a lifestyle perspective



Stacy wants to remind people before they dive into this topic that the great think about heading into perimenopause and aging is that you are still alive
Stacy feels like this is lost on a lot of people
Feeling gratitude to be alive and to focus on finding your best health

Sarah gave a shoutout to this week's episode sponsor, EverlyWell
Stacy and Sarah love this at-home lab testing company that offers a variety of tests, ranging from Food Sensitivity to Metabolism, to a Thyroid Test, Vitamin D to a comprehensive Women’s Health Panel
The Paleo View listeners can use the link below to get 15% off their order with code ‘ThePaleoView’
https://everlywell.com/thepaleoview




(5:42) The Science
Often the term menopause is used as this catchall
It actually means the end of the change of life
The time in a woman's life when she can no longer reproduce
It is marked by at least a year without a period


Perimenopause refers to that period of time that is the transition between pre-menopausal (reproductive years) and menopause (no longer reproducing)
For most women, the transition will start sometime in their 40's, usually late 40's
Some will start to notice some changes in their mid 30's
It can be almost instant to more than a decade in time
Between 4 to 10 years is average

What is happening during this period of time is that estrogen levels are starting to drop
As estrogen drops, it can drop rapidly, and that hormone shift can cause a lot of the symptoms
Throughout perimenopause, estrogen can cycle in a weird way
It stops being the regular cycle that we have during our menstruation cycles
It starts being more unpredictable
This is what drives all the symptoms


Symptoms:
Hot flashes
Sleep problems
Vaginal dryness
Irregular periods
Worse PMS
Breast tenderness
Weight gain that isn't linked to diet and lifestyle
Changes to your hair
More rapid heartbeat
Cardiovascular disease risk factors will often increase

Headaches
Loss of libido
Cognitive challenges
Challenges conceiving
Muscle aches
Urinary tract infections
Night sweats
Fatigue
Dry skin
Overactive bladder or urinary incontinence
Hyperthyroidism
Chronic disease risk implications


Stacy is feeling a bit of anxiety over all of the symptoms Sarah mentioned
Stacy's mom hasn't gone through perimenopause yet and it is interesting to Stacy how much variability there is in one person's experience to the next and the role that genetics play

Sarah and Stacy discussed if/how pregnancies impact one's menopause timeline
When looking at this list of symptoms, Sarah wants to emphasize that some of these can be driven by stress levels and/or early perimenopause
If you have a hormonal imbalance this is a good situation to work with a functional or integrative medicine specialist and do some hormone balancing
These symptoms can be alleviated by balancing hormones
Hormone balancing protocols are typically very personalized and involve tweaking hormonal doses to get them into the normal range

The way to test is to look at the female hormones specifically
EverlyWelldoes offer a very comprehensive Women's Health panel
Sarah's non-medical recommendation would be to combine this with a cholesterol and lipids test
Also measuring Vitamin D levels would be helpful to measure at this point

Stacy recommends going back and listening to the Functional M.D. podcast episodeif you are wanting to figure out how to find someone who can help you with some of these things
Taking these tests yourself and l