Her Discussions by Dr Faye - We've Been Lied To About Women's Health & Their Hormones | Mini Episode

Starting point is 00:00:00 First, we've got a section called Buy or Bye Bye. Basically, I'm going to ask you some questions. I'm going to show you some products and you're going to tell me whether you would buy these products or say goodbye to them based on your understanding of female brain. First up, we have hormone balancing teas. Right. Okay. Well, it depends on what it is. So just to give an example, there's some, like, decent evidence that there's some types of, like, teas. So if you have something like chasteberry tea, for example, like that's one there's a really good clinical evidence that shows that it actually can help to promote a successful luteal phase for example. And it's also, there's some good evidence showing that it can help minimize some of the symptoms of paramedopause. But I would just like look and see what is in your hormone balancing tea.

Starting point is 00:00:46 And then anybody can go, you know, sometimes people don't know that they can do this. You can pull up, if you go on your computer or on your phone, you can like look at PubMed. And it's a free database of things that are published in the medical. world and look and see about the ingredients. And just like, so if it's like a hormone balancing tea and it includes, let's say, and I'm just throwing this ingredient out there, dandelion extract. And you're like dandelion extract, does that actually do something for hormones? Pull up pub med and do a search for dandelion extract and then whatever your hormonal issue is and see what's been published on it and see whether or not there's some reputable evidence that suggests that it's good or not. I've started

Starting point is 00:01:24 taking Chase Berry for my like PMS slash PMDD. Yeah. Do you like it? I found it revolutionary. It's really revolutionary and good evidence as well. Yeah, really good evidence. It's so amazing, right, that there are these herbs, because I think that sometimes herbs get this, like, you know, this reputation of being woo-woo and that it's not really going to work. And, like, there's really good clinical evidence.

Starting point is 00:01:46 And so many women like you have had this experience. I did. I have had a really positive experience with it also with, I started getting, when I was like 43, I was like getting hot flags. with coffee. Like if I drink a cup of coffee in the morning, if I drank it inside, I would just like get a hot flash from drinking a hot drink in the morning. And then I started taking, I'm like, oh, this is the beginning of the end. And so I started taking Chaseberry and gone. Yeah. Amazing. Worth saying with with PubMed, you know, not all studies are created equal.

Starting point is 00:02:19 However, some of the ingredients that you see in some of these hormone balancing teas, you will search those ingredients and they will not have any articles on PubMed. No, exactly. And I think that That's a red flag, you know? People don't realize that they have a lot, they have a lot more access to information at their fingertips than they know. And going on to PubMed, and if you do see, if you go on PubMed and the thing that you're doing and it's saying that it's doing something health-wise for your body,

Starting point is 00:02:44 and you go on there and there's no articles that have been published on it, it's probably not a good ingredient. I would just say, no, thank you. Yeah, herbal things and medical things. So imagine driving is like a medication, but herb is like walking. So if you travel somewhere by driving, you will get there quicker, but you may have more of a risk of having an accident. If you travel by walking, it will take you a longer time, but it's likely a little bit safer, but you may not.

Starting point is 00:03:10 I like to use that analogy with herbal stuff. Like sometimes it won't be as effective as taking a medication. Some people who maybe have more severe symptoms will require medications, you know. Right, yes. But if you are someone who has more moderate, mild symptoms, maybe you've got more time on your hands. You can walk to your destination and it can be safer. That's how I, because sometimes, yeah, you're right, herbs get herbal remedies get such a bad reputation. Yes, it's all just being woo-woo and garbage.

Starting point is 00:03:35 And it's like, no, there's actually some really good ones. Yeah. Formulated for women supplements. I mean, I do think that there are some of these that can be good, just in that they tend to address some of the nutritional deficiencies that women tend to have specifically. Because we menstruate and because we create an endometrium in this endometrial lining every month, our body does use different, you know, it depletes certain nutrients at a greater rate than male bodies do. And so I do think that some of these can be good. Some of them, you know, they'll just like make a pink box and then charge you more for it.

Starting point is 00:04:12 And so just I would like try to get a little bit more information about what actually is in your formulated for women supplement. But I do think that, you know, there are some things that are sort of female specific. And so, yeah, so the right one, yes. Female-specific supplements you have in your stack? No, so I don't take a female-specific supplement. I actually add additional things in with, so I just take a regular supplement, and then I add additional magnesium, because that's something that women need. I do additional iron because of menstrual bleeding and my ferretin levels get low,

Starting point is 00:04:46 and that's like your iron stores. Those will get low after I've had a couple of heavy periods, and so I'll take an iron supplement. that I sort of cycle in and out of. And then I take an additional B vitamin that I take in addition to that. And so I add, you know, some additional things in there just based on my own things that I've had issues with, with nutritional deficiencies. But otherwise, no.

Starting point is 00:05:15 Not the pink box. I don't take the pink box. Yeah. A lot of times that's what they do. They'll just like make a pink box and then make it more expensive, you know? And it's like, it's so silly. Morning after pills. Yeah, I mean, I think that if you have unprotected sex and there's a possibility of pregnancy,

Starting point is 00:05:31 so like if you know that you're not in the ludial phase, yeah, I would totally take a morning after pill if I thought that there was a chance that I was going to be pregnant and I didn't want to be pregnant. I don't have any issue with those. Alcohol. Like, so this is one of those things where I can answer it as a scientist and I can answer it as a human being. So as a scientist, yes, yes. Like when you look at alcohol, it doesn't have any positive health effects on the body. It can have positive social effects on people. And I think that sometimes there's a tendency within the area, especially of like medical science,

Starting point is 00:06:08 for people to focus only on the physical condition of the body, but then never think about mental health and the different things that helped us support that. And we really saw this with the COVID lockdown. You know, with the COVID lockdown, it was just. just like about trying to prevent spreading of an illness. And nobody took into account the fact that sequestering people in their homes is going to be really bad for mental health. And I felt like there wasn't a balanced enough approach taken there because people were just making these decisions about the physical health of the body without considering

Starting point is 00:06:40 the psychological health of the brain and the mind and of people. And so alcohol, like, do I think that the health benefits, of no alcohol at all outweigh the psychological and like sort of relational benefits that you can get from, you know, one night going out for dinner and splitting a bottle of wine with your partner or like meeting up with friends and having a drink with them, you know, and doing that occasionally. No, I think that I think that you can have a balanced approach to alcohol and have it end up creating a setup for a better life while also supporting your health. Do I think that alcohol is necessary to have a good life? No. I think that people can do no alcohol and do it really well. But for people who want to, you know, occasionally have a drink with a friend or, you know, with their partner when they're out for a good dinner, then, yeah. So like for me, I do drink alcohol. I don't drink a lot of alcohol, but I do drink alcohol. And I do it knowing what the risks are and then weighing that with the benefits that I get from, um,

Starting point is 00:07:52 having, you know, opportunities to connect with friends and connect with my partner. I'm the same. We had an incredible episode with a sober woman. A lot of the things she was saying are, you know, completely true. I am someone who still drinks, but I definitely have a more balanced approach, especially over the last few years, I think the conversation around alcohol who's really gotten bigger. But I read some really interesting research about drinking, the differences in drinking in your Lucille phase that actually, and I get really bad PMS, that actually did make me rethink and like what you were saying having that information and making an educated decision maybe if i'm meeting up with friends in my lucile phase i'm probably thinking to myself

Starting point is 00:08:30 do you know what maybe it's better to stay on the lucky saints like the alcohol freebies tonight based on my cycle yeah what what do you think about that no i i definitely like women tend to um do worse with alcohol in the second half of the menstrual cycle um and i think that you get worse hangovers, and especially during this time when progesterone is falling, so that's that last week of your cycle before you bleed, your progesterone levels are falling, so you already have GABA receptors in your brain, which are the receptors that pick up calming neurotransmission. Those are already feeling depleted because your progesterone levels are falling, and when progesterone is metabolized, it releases a neurosteroide called allopregnanolone that stimulates

Starting point is 00:09:15 these receptors. And so these receptors are getting less stimulation because progesterone is falling. And then when you add alcohol, which also stimulates these same receptors, and then when you get the withdrawal of alcohol, after the alcohol wears off, you have these GABA receptors that are naked, right? They're not getting stimulated by allopregnantalone. They're no longer being stimulated by alcohol, and it makes you feel terrible. And so women oftentimes do get a worse alcohol experience in the second half of the cycle than they do in the first. Alcohol tends to cause more euphoria in the first half of the cycle because estrogen actually primes the area of the brain that produces the experience of reward.

Starting point is 00:09:58 And so you get more rewardingness of alcohol in the first half of the cycle compared to the second half of the cycle. But it also tends to be more if you're somebody who's prone to binge drinking, you're going to be more in trouble with that in the first half of the cycle than the second half of the cycle. And so it also, you know, it really depends on who you are and what your experiences are. So people who are having difficulty with alcohol and can't control themselves around alcohol, I would say do not be drinking in the first half of the menstrual cycle when estrogen is high. And especially, you know, when estrogen is rising and peaking near ovulation, that's going to be a time when your brain finds alcohol consumption incredibly rewarding.

Starting point is 00:10:37 And if you're somebody who's likely to then start, you know, after you have one drink, like have another drink and then another drink and then another drink, you're going to be much more prone to that in the first half than the second half. But then on the second half, you're more likely to get a hangover. So it's really all about understanding the way that your own body responds to alcohol. For many women, it does shift across the cycle. Women also get worse, you know, being able to metabolize alcohol and manage it well during paramedopause and the menopausal transition. And so, you know, it's like with anything with women, I always advise people to track your

Starting point is 00:11:10 cycle and track all you're responding to things over the cycle. And that'll help you better understand like your sleep needs and your nutritional needs and your alcohol needs. Because, you know, as we talked about, you know, the average is one thing, right? But then it's like how you respond to something can be totally different. And so just understanding your own body's personal relationship with alcohol and how your body is handling it, I think can also lead to a better sort of managing of your relationship with alcohol if you drink alcohol at all. That's really interesting. you said about the differences in the follicular phase and that I'll be interested to talk to you a little bit more about it later on about how in social media there seems to be this dichotomy

Starting point is 00:11:52 arising of like the lucial phase is bad the follicular phase is good yeah and yet which is so so so interesting and that nuance just like a really good example of actually you know if you're drinking in your follicular phase that could lead to more binge drinking you know those nuance points I think we're really missing in social media so we'll definitely have to come on to that a little bit later on. Yeah. Yeah. No. In fact, you know, the whole reason I wrote the period brain was because everybody like falls all over themselves to talk about how amazing the follicular phase is and how great estrogen is. And and the luteal face doesn't need to feel terrible. And progesterone is actually a really beautiful hormone that does these amazing things to our brain and to the rest of our

Starting point is 00:12:31 body. And and so I thought it was time that it got called out, you know, for all of its positive effects. Nice. Okay. Next one, magnesium. I love magnesium. I love it. I could sing songs about it. I could write a play about magnesium. No, I love magnesium. I think it's wonderful. It's wonderful for women. It's wonderful for men. There's lots of different types of magnesium. And so what I would say is if you're supplementing with magnesium, try to find a broad spectrum magnesium. Because there's something like nine or 11 different types of magnesium that are out there. Our body uses all of them. And so to try to find a broad spectrum magnesium supplement. We have

Starting point is 00:13:09 creatine. I love creatine. I take it. There's really good evidence that it's helpful for muscle retention and keeping and building muscle strength, but also good research showing that it can have improvements in preventing cognitive decline, and so

Starting point is 00:13:26 yes to creatine. We spoke about this a little bit earlier at IUD. All right, so here's what I, here's my hot take on the IUD. Okay, so first of all, it depends, right? So there's two different types of IUD, there's a hormone IUD, and there's a non-hormone copper IUD. Non-hormone copper IUD, if you're somebody who doesn't mind it, I think it's great because

Starting point is 00:13:48 you still ovulate. You get all of your full spectrum of sex hormones that are being produced. You feel like yourself. And if you can get past the greater menstrual heaviness and cramping that women, a lot of women experience with it, I say yes, I think it's great. hormonal iud is a little bit tricky um so where do i even start with this um so the way that uh most birth control pills work is you know you take this daily um progestin and it stimulates progesterone receptors in your brain and that prevents ovulation and then you don't get pregnant the hormonal

Starting point is 00:14:26 iud um is tricky because when some women go on it they never ovulate and then when other women are they continue to ovulate. And their experiences that they have when they're on the IUD is very much dependent on whether or not they ovulate or not. So for women who are not ovulating when they're on the hormonal IUD, it feels pretty bad. And the reason is that here you have this thing that's releasing these low levels of hormone and they're suppressing the HPGX.

Starting point is 00:14:57 So they're telling your brain is telling your ovaries not to ovulate. So you're not producing any sex hormones of your own, I mean really low. levels of sex hormones of your own. And you're also not getting any hormones from the IUD, like you're getting really low levels of them. And so this creates this like sort of hormonal no man's land for women because women's bodies are used to being hormonal. I mean, we're hormonal. And so that's not a bad word. Yeah, it's not a bad word. It's a great word. And so to not be ovulating and then not having any like exogenous sex hormones that you're taking to replace that, it makes women feel pretty bad. Like a lot of them don't feel great.

Starting point is 00:15:34 If you put it in and you continue to ovulate, like, I think it's great. It's just one of those things where you have to know. And what research finds, if you look at women who are using the hormonal IUD for the first year, about 80% don't ovulate and only 20% do. After they've been on it for five years, about 80% are ovulating and about 20% or not. And so it's one of these things where the hormones in the hormonal IUD are low enough where some women will continue to ovulate, but some women don't. And so how it affects you is really going to depend on what, on sort of how you respond to it. And so it's a really, it's a really tricky one. And it's one that, you know, women have this wide range of experiences on. Like some women love them,

Starting point is 00:16:20 some women hate them. And a lot of it has to do with whether or not they're ovulating. One last thing I'll say about this. And I know I'm talking about this probably too long. But with the hormonal, with the hormonal IUD, research findings, research findings. that the rate of experiencing depression after having it put in is really high for teenagers. And so what I would say is that for the hormonal IUD, this is one where I'd say not for teens. Because the rate of the increased risk of developing depression after getting a hormonal IUD is like 300% higher for a teenager. In adults, it's much lower.

Starting point is 00:16:58 And I think that it's because with a teenager, you know, they're going through puberty. they're releasing all of these sex hormones that are helping to guide the pubertal transition. And so for somebody who's a teenager, being in a state of low hormones is even more unnatural than what it is for an adult woman. And I think that that creates a lot of chaos in the system. And I think that that's why you see teenagers having this really heightened risk of experiencing depression in response to in response IUD. So like, you know, early on in our conversation, we talked about like,

Starting point is 00:17:31 what would you say to your teenager if they're sexually active? If I was putting my teenager on hormonal birth control, I would put them on a combination hormonal birth control pill. Those are the ones that have the lowest risk, especially mental health-related side effects in teenagers. Thank you for listening. If you would like to hear the full episode with even more jam-packed knowledge, then just click the link in the description.

Her Discussions by Dr Faye - We've Been Lied To About Women's Health & Their Hormones | Mini Episode

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