Realfoodology - 19: What Your Doctor Didn’t Tell You About the Pill, Cramps & Hormones with Dr. Lara Briden

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

I speak with Dr. Lara Briden, Naturopathic Doctor and Biologist who has spent the last 20 years working with women and helping them balance their hormones. Twenty years with patients taught her that diet and lifestyle work incredibly well for many period problems. We talk about birth control, what Doctors don’t tell you about the pill, why cramps may be common but they’re not normal, why women aren’t just destined to suffer and what to do about period pain, how to balance your hormones and so much more! Show Note/Links: https://www.instagram.com/larabriden/ https://www.larabriden.com/ https://www.larabriden.com/period-repair-manual/ The Period Repair Manual https://amzn.to/3cF55e3 https://foodperiod.com/blogs/period-matters/cramps-dysmenorrhea https://www.larabriden.com/when-period-pain-is-not-normal/ https://www.larabriden.com/what-dairy-does-to-periods/ https://www.larabriden.com/pros-cons-copper-iud-natural-health-perspective/ Taking Charge of Your Fertility https://amzn.to/3pDLA9r The Lady Comp https://amzn.to/3aswvRB Daysy https://amzn.to/36AnK6W Natural Cycles https://amzn.to/39FocCX

On today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. You know, my favorite social media hashtag, you've probably seen me use it, is right to ovulate. Yeah, women have the right to ovulate, the right to cycle. I want to add in one more thing before we get to the episode. If you're listening and you're on the pill, please just know that the things that we talk about in this episode are not meant to shame anyone. I do not want anyone leaving this episode thinking that, um, we are trying to shame women out of getting off the pill because ultimately at the end of the day, it's your body. And I truly believe in your body, your choice. I am just here to arm you with all of the

information. I know personally as a woman who was put on birth control when I was younger and I was not explained all of the health risks and it was not explained to me what was actually going on in my body when I was taking the birth control. I was really upset when I finally found that out. So that is my only prerogative with this episode is that I just want to arm you with the facts so you have all the information and you can make a decision that works best for you. And if you decide that the birth control pill is what works best for you, I fully, fully support you. I just want you to know that. I just want you to be armed with all

the facts. Hi guys. Welcome back to another episode of the real foodology podcast i'm your host courtney swan today's episode is all about women's health periods hormones what a normal cycle looks like how to advocate for yourself with your doctor it's a really interesting episode and i interview naturopathic doctor laura Bryden. She's absolutely amazing. She specifically works with women and hormones. And this has been her specialty for the last 20 plus years. And she goes into that. She has an amazing book called The Period Repair Manual,

which is kind of what put her on the map for me years ago. I actually found her when I was looking for some insight into natural relief from period cramps. And I will never forget, I came across a blog post that she had written that said, cramps are common, but they're actually not normal. And we go into this. So I'm going to let her explain all of that and what that means. But basically, if you're experiencing any sort of PMS, period pain, et cetera, it's actually not normal. As women, we're taught to think that we're just destined to suffer throughout our lives and especially throughout our menstrual cycle.

And this actually isn't true. So this is actually a sign that something is going on in the body that's a little bit imbalanced. Now, look, I don't want to scare anyone. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's some huge problem or a crazy health scare. It could be just something of, you know, super simple as changing, just tweaking around the diet a little bit. And we talk about this too.

It's incredibly interesting. Something I do want to say before we get into the episode is we do name a couple of disorders that we're seeing more and more common in women, which would be PCOS and endometriosis, and we barely touch on them. So I'm hoping to have another episode and maybe with Laura all about this specifically, because I want to go deep into the details, but I feel like I just need to say this. This is not meant to shame anyone. We're not making any sort of assumptions about what's going on in your body. Really, as with all of these episodes and my entire life's work is that I just want to empower people to get all the information because

I've found, especially with women's health is that we're not always given all of the info. We're not given all the answers and it's becoming more and more common, but I just, ultimately, I just want to empower you to check in with your body and look for the signs and empower you with information so that you can go to your doctor and you know what questions to ask. Because at the end of the day, you truly are the only one that's going to be able to advocate for yourself. You know, you can go out and get advice from doctors.

And of course, they're going to know the treatments and what to do. But you're the only one that can speak up and really advocate for what's actually going on in your body. And that's also to be said, something that we talk about a few times and we're not at all, like, I just want to say I'm not crapping on Western modern medicine. This goes without being said, but we obviously, of course, need doctors. So that is not at all what I'm saying. But I think sometimes we forget that doctors are also human too. Sometimes they make mistakes. Sometimes they don't have all the information, especially, again, when it comes to women's health.

Traditionally trained allopathic doctors are taught more about how to treat symptoms in the way that, let's say, for example, someone comes in with a hormonal imbalance, the majority of them just know to prescribe the birth control pill. And what we're realizing with women's health is that it goes so far above and beyond this. And again, we're going to get into this in the episode, but they mean well is all I'm trying to say. So I am not shitting on doctors. They mean, well, we are all just humans trying to do our best and navigate with the information that we have. And so that's why it's really good for you also to be armed with the information so that then you can advocate for yourself and you can just ask questions, you know, and maybe there's

specific labs that you can ask about. And again, Laura goes into this. She talks about different things that you can ask your doctor. And she also has an amazing book that I mentioned earlier, the period repair manual that I would highly recommend getting because it really is just a great resource for all things women's health. And with that, let's get to the episode. Did you know that most cookware and appliances are made with forever chemicals? Yes, that means your nonstick pans, your air fryers, your waffle makers, your blender could possibly have PFAS. And yes, even our beloved crockpots and pressure cookers. I have actually been talking about this for so long. Back in 2006, my mom came to my dorm room and made me get rid of all my nonstick pans because she was

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Hi, Laura. Thank you so much for coming on today. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited about this episode. So before we start diving into everything, why don't you tell the listeners who you are, what you do, and what your background is? For sure. So I'm a naturopathic doctor. I have been one since 25 years, which is a crazy long time.

So I started doing this kind of work back in the day when, you know, probiotics were a weird idea. And, you know, I've seen a lot of things come and go over the decades, actually. So I trained in Canada as a naturopathic doctor. Before that, I was an evolutionary biologist. So I've got sort of a science angle on the whole thing. For the last 20 years I've lived down under. So for Sydney, you know, I currently live in Christchurch, New Zealand. I have consulting rooms here where I help, I treat women with period and hormone problems. I do a bit of presenting around the world or back in the day when the world allowed that sort of thing. And actually I came to LA to do some women's health presentations, and you came along to one of them.

So yeah, it's quite fun that we've met face to face. I know. It's so cool. Yeah, I had actually found your work. Let's see. God, probably maybe like eight years ago, because you were talking about what really drew me in is I will never forget you had done this post that said cramps are actually not normal. We normalize them and we say that they're normal because the average woman gets them, but they're actually not a normal part of the cycle. And I want to go into that, but that's how I first found your work. And I was so intrigued. I was like, wait, what? I'd never heard anything like that before. And then as I started diving more into your work, I realized that there's so much about women's health hormones or cycle that we're not taught traditionally growing up in school, you know? And so as I started diving into all this, I was honestly,

I was upset. Um, and then obviously intrigued because it was my body. And I was like, why are we not taught these things? Like as women, we should know the very basics of how our period works, our hormones and the role they play in our health, et cetera. And then of course you came out with your book, The Period Repair Manual, which I literally am sitting here with you right now. I love it. It's been such an amazing resource. So well, let's go into it first. So what are the hormones role in the body for women and with the cycle and all that? I want to start with the fact that ovarian hormones, estrogen and progesterone are important for general health, not just for making a baby. As you know, this is one of my key messages because one of the things that's happened

in women's health, you're right. There's so many ways that women's health has been, I don't know, like dumbed down or really misrepresented. And we kind of treat periods and even hormones themselves as sort of a liability or something that makes us different from men. Yeah, weird. And as you would have heard me talk about in LA, I flipped the script on that and I maintain actually, I think for lots of reasons, female physiology is the basic, the standard version of human physiology. We're the standard model. Men are, they're an add-on, they're different than normal. They're like the add-on package you order later.

Exactly. It's like when you buy a good car get the eggs you know the something like the wooden the wooden detail or something like that so the heated seats yeah exactly so and it's true because actually as um in utero as fetuses we're all female until six weeks and then the male factor kicks in so they're definitely an add-on so interesting basic human physiology is female that means estrogen and progesterone are part of our basic human physiology and we need them for many things, not just for making a baby, just as men need testosterone for many things, not just for making a baby. It's important for the brain. Both estrogen and progesterone are very important for the brain health, for metabolism, for immune function. We're hearing a lot about female hormones and immune function actually with COVID this year, because we know that estrogen gives women a little bit of,

actually more than a little bit, quite an edge in terms of fighting that virus and in terms of fighting most infections actually. Yeah. Ooh, we should go into that. Yeah. It has like a protective property to it, right? Yeah. For sure. That's really interesting. So that's my lens through which I see female physiology and the menstrual cycle.

And then of course we have to say right at the beginning that part of the paradigm shift that has to happen is this idea that hormonal birth control or contraceptive drugs, I know I refuse to use the word hormone to describe those drugs, this idea, this narrative that those drugs are as good as our own hormones, when in fact they're not, because they're not estradiol and progesterone they're different molecules they have different effects in the body and particularly in the brain which is why for example women on hormonal birth control have altered brain structure compared to women who cycle so for me you know pieces of evidence like that are just like you know wow there's something big going on here yes well i was going to say you know what pieces of evidence like that are just like, you know, wow, there's something big going on here.

Yes. Well, I was going to say, you know, what makes me so upset about that too is that most women go on birth control when they're like 14, 15. And they're usually thrown on birth control not for the use that it was originally made for, which is to, you know, keep away unwanted pregnancy. Women are being put on it to, quote unquote, balance their unwanted pregnancy, women are being put on it to quote unquote, balance their hormones to help with acne, whatever it is. It's everything else, but that, well, I shouldn't say everything, but, but oftentimes they're put on it first to, to remedy other issues. And what I hate about this so much is that I see so many women now my age in their thirties going, Oh my God, I have been on birth control since I was 15 and no one

ever told me all the side effects and no one ever explained to me that it's shutting off my own hormones and replacing them with synthetic ones. And then all of a sudden they've been on birth control for 15 years, suppressing their own hormones. That makes me very upset. I know. And I, you know, in the health implications of that long-term is really scary. It is. So it's been so done so casually, right? Like, and we think it's been around forever, but it's really only been for about two or three generations.

And back, you know, 50, 60 years ago when the pill was invented, it was not meant to be given to 12-year-olds. Like that was not on the radar of what was going to happen with those drugs. And it just kind of morphed into this thing where, yeah, it's given out very casually. And I think a big part of it is this, what you said, it's given to so-called regulate the cycle, which it cannot do. Because just for various, the logic is very simple, right? Because of the main event of the menstrual cycle is ovulation and contraceptive drugs shut down ovulation. So the drug withdrawal bleed that happens on the pill means nothing in terms of

women's actual hormonal state. And, yet, I think the language around that, that it regulates periods, that they're hormones, the way we use the wrong words for it, and that has created this narrative that, like I said at the beginning, that this is good enough for women. And in fact, it's not. And in fact, giving, shutting down ovarian function of young girls. And I'd go so far as to say, I mean, it's not an exaggeration to say that hormonal birth control induces chemical menopause. It's a temporary menopause. I mean, it's like castration in a way. It is. I mean, it is. I mean, those words are not, they're appropriate. Yeah. Yeah. It just feels like, like heavy to say that. Um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's really upsetting. And also I do want to note this because, um, I think I have a very controversial opinion and this might upset

some people, but it's truly how I feel. Um, I feel like we're, we have this narrative that birth control really empowers women. Like, yeah, now women can go in the workforce and they can, um, you know, or like wait to have kids till they're later. And I totally like, I see that. And to an extent I'm like, okay, that's amazing. It does help women, um, to have babies later and now they can control when they have babies. But to me, I don't see it as empowering at all because we don't tell women how to naturally regulate their, their cycle, um, how to do natural forms of birth control. Instead, we're just suppressing their own cycle. We're not telling them anything what's actually going on in their body. We're not telling them the true side effects of what's happening with the birth control. And if anything, I think the most empowering thing we can do is to teach women

how to do this naturally, teach them really to understand their cycle. Like there's things that I never knew. Um, I read this other book and it was telling me, which I mean, I didn't even learn this until I was like in my thirties that you can track your discharge and that's how you know when you're ovulating, um, you know, and it'll tell you what part of your cycle that you're in. But I spent most of my life menstruating being like, ew, what is this happening to my body? And this is so gross and I'm so dirty. Whereas if someone had empowered me to be like, this is an amazing part of your body and this is exactly what it's supposed to do. But I thought something was wrong with me. I was like, oh my God, do I have

something gross happening down there? But it's just a part of the natural cycle. This is really exciting. Organifi now has kid stuff. They just released two kid products. One is called Easy Greens and it's a refreshing green apple juice where kids will never know that it's packed with veggies. And the other one is called Protect. It's a delicious wild berry punch like the Kool-Aid that we used to have as a kid, but without any sugar. This is really exciting. And if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Organifi and most specifically because every single product that they make is glyphosate residue free. So you know that you're going to be able to give these powders to your kids and know that they will be able to consume them safely without any glyphosate in it. So let's break down each one. The Easy Greens is a

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money-back guarantee. If you want to resist aging at the cellular level, try Qualia Synalytic, go to neurohacker.com slash real foodology for up to a hundred dollars off and make sure to use code real foodology at checkout for an additional 15% off. That's neurohacker N E U R O H A C K E R.com slash real foodology for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks to neurohacker for sponsoring today's normal. It looks like, just for the listeners, if they are wondering, it looks like raw egg white. It's from estrogen. It's very important in ovulation. And also just on responding to what you're saying, the information that as women, we're fertile only six days per cycle, really only one day per cycle, but you have to add five to

account to allow for sperm. It's really the sperm can live that long. Men are fertile every day and women are only, you know, fertile part of the cycle. So logically it should have been men all along taking something to impede fertility. And just to respond to, to what you're saying about empowering women, partly, but part of what's happened, which is the other, I guess, from a political side of things, because we've had these drugs to shut down ovulation and they really haven't really changed. I mean, they have different methods of delivery, but they really haven't changed since the 1950s. Because we've had those, we've missed out on innovation that should have invented better methods of avoiding pregnancy. I think I say to my book, or I've certainly said it

many times, it's 2021. Surely we can come up with methods of avoiding pregnancy that don't involve shutting down the entire hormonal system of women. To be honest, it's a little bit of gas lighting. I see because it's like, Oh, you don't need to know anything about your cycle. We're just going to like throw you this pill. And then we're going to tell you like this empowers you. Yeah. It's like, no, of course it's opened opportunities for women in order to, you know, abstain from getting pregnant, but like, let's find another way that actually empowers women. Like let's teach women actually what is going on in their body, you know? And I also want to say this too, because now there's this whole narrative. Everyone's like, yeah, let's put the men on the hormones. And I'm like,

okay. Yeah. I hate that too. I look, I am totally down for like having women, having men play more of a role in this. Like I feel like that is important, but I don't think that now that we know the side effects on our health, suppressing our hormones, let's not now go do it to men. Let's find something that's actually healthy for everyone involved. You know, we don't want to now just like throw men on a track for 30 years to put their health at risk. Oh, I agree. It should be possible to avoid pregnancy without shutting down hormones. And just to use men as an example, there was a bit of research that came out last year.

It hasn't certainly hasn't turned into a drug that's come to market, but it was basically the strategy would be to, to merely to impair sperm motility. So not to shut down testicular function, not to shut down hormones, but just a little tweak. It's like, you can still make sperm, you can still ejaculate all the normal things, but you know, your sperm is just not going to work for as long as you're taking this medication. Like something like that seems so much more targeted at what we're trying to do than these old school drugs. Yeah. Or what about that gel? I heard there's a gel that they can inject. Yeah. So it's called vasogel. So that's, that has come to market

in some parts of the world. Well, sorry, it's one of the brands that has been clinically trialed is called vasogel in the States. And that's just a, it's like a reversible vasectomy. So it's done in the doctor's rooms, a little injection. It's not, you know, not a complicated procedure. And then, yeah, it allows, um, semen and normal ejaculation, but no sperm makes it into the ejaculate. So that's, again, it's another fairly targeted. Yeah, exactly. But see, and, uh, this is where the feminist in me comes out a little bit. I'm like, so in all these years, since the birth control pill came out in like the 50s, we haven't made any sort of advance in doing this. And I feel like if it was like a quote unquote men's problem, it is a man's problem, but they just don't want to admit it.

If it was like truly something that was their quote unquote problem, then this would have been fixed years ago. I agree. So, well, can we talk about that a little bit then? So for people that are listening, so the options that we do have now, um, let's say someone listening wants to get off their birth control. What are some of the other options out there besides, I mean, obviously there's condoms, um, which is a great option. Yeah. I'll preface it with, I'll preface it with, we need, we need even more options. I mean, certainly I think that happens, but in terms of what exists currently, um, there's

fertility awareness methods, which you were referring to it. That's about tracking your cycle. And I will say that's about tracking it properly. Like not just looking on your ovulation app. It's like, Oh, my, my ovulation window is approximately here. And outside of that, I'm fine. Like, no, like you would need to learn how to do it, which there's different resources. There are a few, a couple of, which we could probably mention by brand name as a couple of algorithms, computer algorithms that do that for you. They base it on temperature. So that's Daisy is one, which I, there's also lady comp. That's a good one too. Actually, I have a story about a girlfriend. So one of my girlfriends, um, used this method to abstain from getting pregnant and then used it to get pregnant with her two kids. So she's married

and for years, her and her husband wanted to wait and she didn't want to do hormonal birth control. So, um, she read a book, hold on, what is it called? Taking charge of your fertility. Yeah. I was just scanning my bookshelf. I was like, I always forget. Yep. So she read taking charge of your fertility. And I will add that in the show notes if anyone wants to order it. Um, and read all about how to track it. Um, when she was ovulating, she would look at her discharge every month and determine whether, you know, what part of her cycle she was in. And then every single morning she did her temperature with this thing called the lady comp. And for those of you listening that don't know what this is and what

we just mentioned, there's Daisy, there's lady comp, there's also natural cycles, which is an app that, um, coordinates with your, with the thermometer. And every morning she would do her temperature and then it would tell her like, OK, you're in the green, like you're good to have sex and you're fine, or you're in the red, like danger zone, use condoms or, you know, or just abstain altogether. And she didn't get pregnant for like five years. And then she also used that method to get pregnant because she was like, OK, I'm ovulating now. This is the perfect time. And I use her as an example all the time, but I will

say this. It's a lot of work. You have to be willing to like really put in the work to do it, or I shouldn't say a lot, but you have to, it's, you know, well, it's something like Daisy for just a circle back. Like, I mean, so yes, if you do it, if you do it manually, you have to really understand what's going on. You have to, the work is learning it. Really the work is learning it, but, and then, and then it's only, you know, 10 seconds to measure your temperature in the morning and just glance at like, you know, feel with your fingers, your cervical fluid, um, and know how to read that with something like Daisy is it's really not that much work. Um, it's you let the device, the computer algorithm do the calculations for you.

Yeah, no, that's true. I shouldn't say it's a lot of work, but it's, it's more let the device the computer algorithm do the calculations for you yeah no that's true i shouldn't say it's a lot of work but it's it's more work than just you know taking a pill every day you have to be like on top of it yeah um yeah okay so there's that so there's fertility awareness method uh fertility awareness based methods of which there are several we've referred to some of them it's different ways you can do that and it works if it's done properly it works it's different than the calendar method, which is just, you know, guesstimating things. You don't want to be guesstimating when you're dealing with this. Because ovulation does move around a little bit. That's the whole idea. You can't assume it's going to happen on day 14, especially if you have a longer cycle.

It's going to be later. It does vary. Yeah. There's also ovulation strips that you can pee on, and it will tell you if you're ovulating or not. But you can't use ovulation strips, um, that you can pee on and it will tell you if you're ovulating or not. You can't use those to avoid pregnancy. Oh, you can't. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Okay. Honestly, by the time you see, by the time you see the double line that you're ovulating and if it's too late, like if you had sex in the previous five days, there's going to be sperm around too. So can't use that unfortunately you can use that when

you're trying for pregnancy yes got it okay so because this is window the pre-ovulation window is the the window of falling pregnant becoming pregnant okay all right so just running down the list is fertility awareness methods there's condoms which you mentioned which i will i just need to speak to a little bit because my young, especially my Gen Z patients, I mean, maybe it probably varies by generation. A lot of my young patients seem to think that condoms don't work. And I don't know where that messaging has come from. Cause I, well, I mean, yeah, I'm Gen X. So I use that.

That's what we use. That's what I use. You know, teenager, that's what we use, but I don't know. I think maybe it's different in the States, but certainly in Australia, there's been this messaging, oh, that's not enough. You know, you need the pill as well. And I would say you don't need the pill as well. Condoms work. You do have to make sure they fit and that it's a good quality condom.

It hasn't been sitting in the sun for like six months or somebody's glove compartment. Like it's, you know, it has to be a good quality one and one that fits properly. So it's not going to slip or break. And then I do like to say for condoms or really any of the, you know, barrier methods, if there's a mishap and if you're really like, which is not likely, but if the condom broke and it was a fertile time and you're really in trouble, there is the morning after pills. So I support that. I think women should have access to that from the pharmacist. It's time dependent, obviously. It's basically just a big dose of the contraceptive drug that's in the pill. So in my thinking,

you know, rather than taking that same drug daily, you could maybe take it never, or maybe need to access that like once every two years, if you have to kind of thing. That's yeah. Yes. And I want to note this because I was horrified when I found this out. I have some girlfriends that when they were younger, they didn't realize they were just basically using plan B like as birth control all the time, which really makes me nervous. I feel the same way. I'm like, hell yeah, I'm so glad we have plan B, but like, let's use it as it's intended for like a mishap, an emergency, like, you know. Well, and also using it regularly, you're being exposed to those contraceptive drugs. I mean, you might as well be on the

pill at that point. Like if you're taking it, like if you're taking it monthly, it's a big candy. Like you don't want to do that. That's, that's not solving anything. So, no. Right. So, okay. So there's condoms then, um, there's, well, I'll just mention it in passing this withdrawal, which is obviously a tale of oldest time. It's it's popular though so it's worth mentioning i mean it's it's oh yeah if it's done properly just very quickly for your listeners i'm sure you guys i'm sure they know this but the trick is do not have sex twice in a row without him peeing and washing his penis and because there can be there in the pre-cum there's almost no sperm but in the if it's going to be a second encounter that's when you can really run into problems so there's okay so just shower and

then you're good well you have to shower and pee and shower and then it's probably okay um so there's that then um iuds which is a whole episode on its own honestly but we'll just i'll go through them super quickly because i want to make sure we have time to talk about other things. But the copper IUD does not affect ovulation, does not impair ovulation, does not contain any contraceptive drugs. It can make periods heavier. It can make periods painful. It does seem to affect mood in some women, which I actually think is to do with this um the way it might affect the vagus nerve and the cervix but it's interesting it's this it affects the vaginal microbiome it's you know it's in some ways i'm i have a blog post called the pros and cons of the

copper iud i still at the end of the day i think it's better than the pill potentially yeah but it's barbaric let's face it like it's kind of crazy putting i mean not crazy it's it. But it's barbaric. Let's face it. Like it's kind of crazy putting, I mean, not crazy. It's a, it's a method that people use. And I think it's, if it's your only, if it's the best method, you know, for you, then I think do it. It's probably still better than the pill, but it is what it is. Can I, I want to say something because, um, I actually did the copper IUD and I got it taken out maybe four or five months in because my symptoms were crazy. Mine were a little bit, I don't even want to say they're abnormal because they happen to a lot of women, but mine were a little more crazy than most. And my CRP levels, like inflammatory markers were so through the roof that my doctor was like, like we couldn't even link it to the IUD at first. Like she was concerned. I had some really crazy health thing going on because my inflammatory levels were so high. And I read this later,

which I wish that I had known this before I put the IUD in. So copper, if you, so basically the copper IUD can raise copper levels in your body. And normally you can take zinc to balance that out because zinc and copper work together. Um, and I, I mean, I was like taking so much zinc, so it didn't help for me. And it, it raised the copper so much in my body that was raising estrogen levels in my body. And I started getting insanely depressed. Um, I was like so starving all the time. I, I literally couldn't even like function. I was so hungry. And I, I don't, I've had all these really crazy symptoms and, um, for months had no idea that it was even linked to the IUD. And then when we started doing

lab work, she was like, wow, your copper's really high. Let's do zinc. And then I kept taking more zinc and that wasn't leveling it out. And then it turns out my estrogen was through the roof. And then sure enough, I took the IUD out and I went back in maybe a month and a half later and my CRP went back normal. My copper went back down normal, my estrogen, everything leveled out. So, um, it's something to keep in mind. It's, I think it definitely works for some women, but not all. Yeah, I hear you. No, definitely. They're women who've had negative experiences. Some women have an easier time with it, but yes. But then I have a girlfriend who's had it in for five years and she's obsessed. She loves it. Yeah. I have some naturopathic colleagues that that's their method of choice again, because it's kind of the lesser evil, I guess, from a perspective,

at least with the copper you do, you can cycle, but I hear you, you know, if you're, and this is part of the gaslighting that's happened to women, right? Like is, is being told, like, if you had been told, oh no, there's no, it's all in your head. Like, it's not bad. See, that's happened with all the methods, right? It's like, oh no, the pill is not causing depression. It's like 20 years later. Oh, the pill causes depression. You know, the research shows it. And like, oh, the copper IUD, oh, how could that be affecting, you know, your mood? You're just imagining things, but it can, it can, like, oh, the copper IUD, oh, how could that be affecting, you know, your mood? You're just imagining things. But it can, like clearly it can.

Like you can't have that many women having the experience and then just tell them they're all imagining it. Like it's clearly. It's clearly affecting it. Yeah. So yes. Okay. So there's the pros and cons of the copper IUD. Then there's the hormonal IUD, which I do put in a different category from the pill, mainly because it doesn't always suppress ovulation, although it is the contraceptive drug levonorgestrel, which is the same as Plan B.

It's the same drug, right, in a lot of these pills and implants and IUD. So that drug in particular can have side effects. Obviously, it's quite testosterone-like, so it can cause skin breakouts, hair loss, potentially mood. But the advantage of the hormonal IUD, for anyone listening, if they have adenomyosis or severe endometriosis or severe heavy bleeding or something like that, I think there's a place for it because it certainly can lighten flow. And so it's worth mentioning.

I have a, I also have a blog post called the pros and cons of the hormonal AD. And then where are we now? We're getting to the end of the available methods of avoiding pregnancy. I mean, there's also the, a couple of types of diaphragm. There's a cervical cap, which is a barrier method for women. You could put some links in the show notes if people are interested. They're not super effective in terms of, I mean, their efficacy is lower than say condoms. There's a new method, which I've forgotten the name of. A few people have asked me about it.

It's come to market in the States, which is kind of interesting. It's a gel. It's like a, it's like a spermicidal, but it's non-toxic. It's not like the old school spermicides, which are just horrible. And as a comment, do not, any of your listeners do not use condoms with spermicide or have put spermicide anywhere near your parts because it, the spermicide causes bladder infections and it's not nice. But this is, um, we'll put it in the show notes. I haven't had any experience with it with my patients because we can't get it down here. From what I understand, it's quite expensive, but it's like you insert the gel vaginally before sex and it, it basically, um, what's the word? It mobilizes

sperm. Like it's, it's a pH thing. I think it just, the sperm cannot survive in the presence of it or cannot get through. Maybe not. I don't know if it kills them, but like they can't do what they need to do. So that's come to market, which is kind of interesting. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Well, hopefully we'll start getting more methods soon because even more, right. Yeah. Right. I know it's just crazy. Okay. So we went over all birth control. Let's talk about the cycle. So like we mentioned earlier, um, and again, like I was so shocked when I read this, cramps aren't actually normal. It's a sign of something else going on in the body. Can we talk about that a little bit? Yeah. Period pain is common, but not normal.

And one of the things to say about period pain at the outset at the outset is that there, as I've described, there's two kinds of period pain, really. There's like, you know, period pain, normal sort of period pain, which is linked to something called prostaglandins, which almost always sorts itself out with some of the treatments I'm going to say in a few minutes. Then there's like serious period pain, like, you know, that is linked to endometriosis or adenomyosis or maybe fibroids or something else. Like that's called secondary period pain. If the pain is at the level that, you know, it doesn't respond to Advil, it doesn't, you can't go to work, like you're curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor, you know, crying or vomiting, sometimes going to the hospital with it. Like that is not, okay, that's never normal. Like that's debilitating. So I would

say no period pain is normal, although mild or period pain is quite common, but debilitating pain like that is never, never, never, never normal. And so that's the whole, that's all the activism around endometriosis and trying to bring to awareness this inflammatory disease called endometriosis, which affects one in 10 women. It goes undiagnosed for years. Often it runs in families. So you'd have like girls being told, oh, that's just how it is. Like that's how your auntie was. That's how your mother was. This is how we have periods in our family. And of course that, yeah. It turns out not normal no so that's again endometriosis might be a topic for another day but um yeah just acknowledging i'm just saying to your listeners who have endo or have pain you know we

see you we hear you we know that yeah that that can happen so please read my i would say read my book and period per manual that chapter on endo and seek help. Um, but circling back to normal period pain, it should, this is very cocky of me to say this, but it should pretty much disappear with some basic treatments, which I might just provide. Yeah. Let's talk about that. Yeah. So basically, I mean, it's going to vary somewhat individual to individual, of course, but basically, um, trying a dairy free diet can make a big difference. And is that because just naturally, even if you get organic and they don't have growth hormones, is that just because naturally occurring hormones are in dairy from the cow?

It's not, I don't think it's a hormonal thing. I think it's the protein casein is quite, it causes a histamine reaction and is just seems to cause period pain. And a lot, not everyone, obviously some women don't get period pain at all. So, and some women are fine with dairy, but often I think I have in a few of my places, like blog posts, I've written something like when I stopped having dairy, well now like 30 years ago, I stopped having period pain. Basically it turned it off. And I think, you know, that's the experience with some of my patients.

Like for some people, it's that some women, it's that easy. Um, then on top of that, I would say the next thing to think about is zinc, the supplement zinc, which there has undergone a clinical trial for period, teenage period pain dysmenorrhea. And they found, I love that study because they gave zinc and they decided, they concluded that it quote works as well as the pill for, you know, switching off period pain, but it, then they, what they said in the paper, but it's cheaper than the pill. I'm like, okay, well, it's cheaper. Yes. And also it doesn't create chemical menopause. So that's, there's that as well. Like it kind of works with you.

So the zinc, there's, you know, again, beyond that, just be an assortment of just being healthy generally, right? Like not having a lot of junk food, you know, having enough magnesium coming in either as a supplement or with green leafy vegetables, because as you know, in period repair manual, I talk about the period as the monthly report card. So when you're healthy, when you're well nourished, when you're not eating inflammatory foods, the period should just arrive pretty much symptom free, like just, you know, come no real PMS, no real pain, just a normal, healthy event. And my experience over 30 years with patients is that is possible for most women. Like it's the exception being, I guess, if there is endometriosis or something a bit more

serious, then it's going to require a bit more work than just a zinc tablet. You know, that's, I would never say that's going to work for everyone, but I, my, my bar, I put the bar quite high in terms of expectation of what to expect from a period. It should be symptom free. Well, I mean, I feel like women listening to this are going to hate me, but I didn't have cramps. I started my period when I was 14 and I didn't have, um, I didn't experience what cramps were until maybe I was 20. And when I finally got cramps like once a year, the first time ever, I was like, what the fuck is happening in my body right now? Like, I didn't know they were cramps because I I've never really experienced period pain or PMS and all that. Um, and it's interesting what you just said about dairy, because I only recently in the last maybe two months have, have been getting a lot of cramps lately and it's not normal for me. And I started kind of eating more dairy lately.

And I'm like, huh, I'm connecting all the dots right now, but this is why it's so important to pay attention to these cues in our body, because then we can adjust our diets accordingly, um, to help with our cycle, you know, and there's so many things. And actually this is something I wanted to go. So this is the perfect thing to go into, um, is like different symptoms that happen that show up that may not even, people may not even be linking to their hormones. Um, for example, like this one's more common and I think people mostly know this now, but like acne, hair loss, digestive health. So if you're having some sort of digestive stuff going on, it could be something to do with

your hormones. And these, I don't know, I was actually going to ask you like yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis. Is that linked to hormones or can it be? Definitely the vaginal microbiome. We'll just talk about that. The vaginal microbiome is fascinating, actually. I mean, it's a very important part of our body. I mean, everyone would know the gut microbiome as a thing, right? Like the collection of bacteria in the gut. The vagina has one as well. That's actually, I find it so interesting. This is the scientist in me. Like the gut microbiome is healthiest when it's super diverse in terms of the number of species. The vaginal microbiome is healthiest

when it's just a couple of species. It's very specific. It's a few strains of lactobacillus, and that's what that makes for a healthy vagina. And that actually keeps it quite acidic, which is normal. Then the cervical fluid, which we talked about later, comes in and makes it more alkaline, right? To allow sperm to get through. So there's a whole, there's a, yeah, there's a very interesting ecosystem going on in the vagina. It's affected by hormones, yes.

And generally the vaginal microbiome loves estrogen, like just loves it, like just eats it up. It's actually because estrogen makes the the walls of the vagina make when they're exposed to estrogen they make a lot of glycogen which is the food for the right bacteria so there's this estrogen's really healthy for the vagina obviously um so how hormones can affect things is well first of all hormonal birth control can cause alterations to the vaginal microbiome and particularly the hormonal IUD actually can cause problems. The copper IUD can cause what's called BV or bacterial vaginosis.

I'm not exactly sure of the mechanisms, several mechanisms for that. So vaginosis is just, well, both yeast infections or vaginosis is just an imbalance in that microbiome. And there's different factors that can feed into that, but yes, hormones. And certainly some women would notice even just with their menstrual cycle, like premenstrually, they might get a shift of, you know, flare up of yeast infections or something like that. Usually the solution is to, well, treat the vaginal microbiome take um vaginal probiotics which are some strains to take them orally or vaginally which help and at the same time yes um help to optimize your hormonal situation but here's the thing about women's hormones which should be obvious but i just feel

like i have to say it yeah it's normal for estrogen and progesterone to swing way up and down. Like they do. That's the normal state. They're in flux. So we don't want to – like it would be an illusion to think we can have sort of a steady state of hormones. We're going to have the ups and downs of those hormones and feeling good even as they're swinging, which that particularly affects mood actually, because depending on the state of your brain health and how much inflammation is in your

system, for example, you can get quite a strong reaction to the ups and downs of both estrogen and progesterone. So whereas the medical approach has been, so the paradigm for the medical approach is, okay, we've got these symptoms associated with the ups and downs of estrogen and progesterone. Let's use drugs to shut off those hormones and stop the fluctuation. Rather than my perspective would be the fluctuation is normal. Let's optimize everything else in the body so that it can adapt to those ups and downs because that's what it normally is built to do. I mean, that's cycling is normal for women. We're meant to ride that wave. Yes. It's natural. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Well, and then when you do little things like clean

up your diet, certain lifestyle changes, um, that promote a healthier balance, then you're going to be able to ride that wave easier. Yeah. One of the things just as a concrete example, cause this might sound a little bit, if people are listening, they're like, okay, well, what does that mean? Exactly. Like here's a concrete example, histamine reactions in the body. So for some women in particular, if they're kind of prone to histamine or mast cell or kind of allergic type responses, estrogen can really flare that up. So often there is my strategy with patients and what I've written about a few times is to try to, if you're getting like a histamine or almost like an allergic reaction to your own hormones going up and down, the strategy is actually to stabilize your immune system and try to reduce histamine by things like avoiding cow's dairy.

I think that's probably where the cow's dairy and period pain thing comes in. You know, looking at probiotics or other ways to stabilize the immune system. That's really interesting. Also, people listening, you can look up a low histamine diet because there's some foods and drinks and stuff that naturally contain higher levels of histamines. And if you're really sensitive, you may want to go on a low histamine diet for a bit to kind of control that and bring it down. Absolutely. And one of the biggest histamine foods are all the fermented foods. I mean, I like fermented foods too. Yeah, like kombucha. Yeah, kombucha and sauerkraut and stuff. I like those. I don't personally have a histamine foods are all the fermented foods. I mean, I like, yeah, kombucha and sauerkraut and stuff. Like I like those. I don't personally have a histamine response, but the like, yeah,

so that can be too much for some people that can be quite stimulating, quite, um, create sort of an irritability and breast pain and congestion and, um, hives and things like that. Headaches. These are all histamine reactions. That's interesting. You know, I wanted to touch on something too, um, that again, I was really shocked when I finally learned this. Um, so you talked about the vaginal microbiome and all I can think about when you say that is, I remember like when I was younger, there were, I don't know if they still do this, but there were all these ads for like, what is it called? Like summer's Eve, all these like douching, like washes and stuff to like, right. And I think about that now. And it makes me like crazy because I'm like, no,

you don't want to mess. You don't want to mess with that microbiome down there. You don't want to kill the good or the bad bacteria because it all lives in a little ecosystem. You do not want to disturb your good bacteria. No, no. And again, it goes back to that narrative that like women's bodies are gross and we need to clean and deodorize. And I just hate that narrative so much. It's just so damaging. It's good for you to mention that. Yeah, douching is very-

No bueno. Don't do it. Do not do that. No, your vagina has a plan. And again, if you have issues like if you do have we mentioned bv or bacterial vaginosis it's yeah it's definitely that needs treatment that would be excessive kind of watery discharge kind of smelly discharge obviously see your doctor make sure it's not like an std but like if your diagnosis is bv then look at the probiotics look

at um maintaining a good level of you know to make sure you have enough estrogen and yeah, this, this is definitely natural treatments for that for disturbances. Yeah. Well, so sorry for everyone listening. This is TMI, but I went through a phase in college when I was, when I had chronic yeast infections and what finally got rid of them was taking a probiotic. Yeah. So, and I've been taking it for, I don't even know, 15 years now.

I take, um, a women's probiotic that's directly targeted to vaginal health. Yeah. So, and I've been taking it for, I don't even know, 15 years now. I take, um, a women's probiotic that's directly targeted to vaginal health. Yeah. And it's those few probiotics that you mentioned earlier that, that are the ones that the, um, vagina microbiome really loves. For sure. So that's a really good thing to look into. Um, so this is going a little bit in another direction, but I want for everyone listening to empower themselves and kind of to know what to ask their doctor and to look for. Um, I talk about this a lot on like my Instagram and my blog, um, hormone levels. So like we were saying earlier, there's a lot of different symptoms that can show up that can kind of show imbalances in hormones and, you know, maybe it's period pain or they're getting acne around their chin or hair loss,

what would be the first kind of steps to start trying to figure that out? Like going to their doctor, maybe questions they ask for lab work, they ask for trying to like find balancing hormones. For sure. I'll talk you through it. Yeah. So it's, I, okay. Just as a, to preface it, I don't start with testing estrogen and progesterone. That's actually not really where I go. So my clinical approach is, it's troubleshooting. Like there's so many ways hormones can go wrong, basically. So you're trying to rule out some of the big ones. So first question in the flow chart is, are you ovulating or not? Because if you're not ovulating, then that's the next question in the flow chart is why are you not ovulating? You can track

ovulation by temperature, you know, the first question is, are you ovulating? Are you ovulating? Anyone who interacts with me on Instagram, some of my followers even chime in, they're like, she's going to ask you, are you ovulating? Like that's the first, that's the first step, they all know. So first question. Okay. So then let's say you're not ovulating, for example. The doctor has to, there's some blood tests to rule out why. So you have to look at, okay, things that are seemingly not that directly related to female hormones, but can affect ovulation. So is there a thyroid disease? Because that can really affect periods. Is there a gluten sensitivity or celiaciac because that can majorly affect periods is there high prolactin these are things the doctor is going to rule out and then on the

like in the territory of not ovulating and having jawline acne or facial hair are there high androgens high male hormones so that would be testing testosterone and something called shbg that's pcos i'm just just sharing with you actually but by the by i've just released i'm lead author on a peer-reviewed paper about pcos so i'll put that's amazing i know i'll put that in the show notes so i actually i feel like my understanding of pcos has even compared to like a year ago is greatly increased so yeah so pcos is a whole it's a it's a syndrome of high male hormones and generally not ovulating. It's definitely a thing.

And we should talk just a little bit about that if we can. For sure, I will. What I want to say at this point is that be careful because very often, unfortunately, women who have lost their period to under eating are mistakenly told they have PCOS based on an ultrasound finding of polycystic ovaries. When it comes to PCOS, the ultrasound finding of polycystic ovaries means nothing. Like you could have the hormonal condition PCOS and have normal looking ovaries. Conversely, you could have polycystic ovaries and not have PCOS. So I'm really, that's one of my key messages is to really try to clarify that. And we will talk about PCOS.

I'll just kind of go through the blood testing. You know, then the other thing, a test I commonly do, just mention it, is a day, on day two or three of the cycle, if there's a cycle, if there's no cycle at all, then you do it random day. I test the hormones FSH and LH, which are pituitary hormones, which tell me a lot. Well, first it tells you whether it's early menopause, which is unlikely, but you know, that's can happen. Then the level of LH, and I have, I've written about this. I have blog posts about this. The level of LH or luteinizing hormone can tell me whether it's more in the kind of PCOS territory or more under eating, which is very common. Undereating causes a very low level of LH, which is pretty distinctive. Yeah. So that gives you sort of an idea of tests that I might do and, oh, sorry, I also test for insulin resistance. So, yeah. And that one goes hand in hand with PCOS. It does. So

having prediabetes or insulin resistance does very bad things to female hormones. And the problem isn't the female hormones themselves. The problem is that ovulation, the functioning of the ovaries is impaired by insulin resistance. So in that case, obviously the treatment in that situation is to reverse insulin resistance. So yeah. So usually when the insulin resistance is, when the blood sugar is leveled out again and normalized, do we usually see a reduction of symptoms in PCOS? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So, and I don't measure it. So just to say for your listeners, like glucose, measuring blood glucose or blood sugar is not enough to diagnose insulin resistance. I test insulin, the hormone insulin, and either fasting, which is not quite as accurate or as a dynamic panel, like a glucose,

what's called a glucose tolerance test, but where they're also measuring insulin, not just glucose. So then you actually get a measure of the hormone and insulin resistance is chronically elevated insulin. It affects so many things in the body, but definitely affects periods. And then, yeah, the strategy is to reverse that with a combination of diet. And also I'm going to mention, I have to mention inositol. I always feel like I'm doing an infomercial for that supplement, but it really is seriously like very beneficial for PCOS. It's inexpensive. It's infomercial coming out.

Like it's inexpensive. It's like safe to take even when you're trying for pregnancy. Have you, do you know about it or? I've actually never heard of this, but we'll add it in the show notes too because that's really interesting. Inositol is one of the few, it is the only supplement that made it into the 2018 international PCOS guidelines. So they talk about the usual like metformin, the pill, which I don't think should be there. I don't think the pill is a good treatment for PCOS.

I think it's only ruining the hormones more. Yeah, exactly. No, it's true. It's like you're trying to treat – like it just doesn't make any sense. Like you're trying to treat a condition of ovulatory dysfunction with a drug that shuts down ovulation and causes insulin resistance. It's insane. I know. It makes no sense. But inositol made it into those guidelines, which is really good progress potentially. Cool. Yeah.

And is it widely available? Like you can find it in the u.s and oh yeah it's cheap it's yeah and any brand is fine really it's it works it's a intracellular amplifier of the insulin signal basically it works yeah and you can sort of look at even even though i've kind of read it multiple times even the actual like low down cellular mechanism is a little bit complicated but yeah it's basically inside the cells it turns turns up the volume of insulin. So that's, that's good. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's great. Cause it pulls it out of the blood. Yeah. To wrap things up, I wanted just to provide people, um, just tips and tricks, kind of general maintenance for a healthier period, healthier hormone balance. Um, can we go over a couple of those you know like food diet stuff

like that yep and i just have to say again and this is one of my key messages is figure out if you're ovulating or not like i know it's very repetitive but until you kind of until you know that you don't know what you're dealing with and then because it's from there that you don't know what you're dealing with. And then, because it's from there that you can then decide what is the thing that you have to do to improve, to get from where you are to the symptom-free period that I say is possible. So it, yeah. And how does one do that? They go to their doctor and they get a test? The doctor may not, the doctor may not be able to, I mean, not to. Well, it's hard with allopathic medicine. I, you know, I actually want to add this in here because I think this is a really important component. I talk about this a lot. I really recommend people finding integrative or functional medical doctors because they have all of the, the, they have all the traditional medical training, but then on top of that, they're trained to zoom out and look at the whole picture of everything that's going on. Um, and they're going to look

at your symptoms. They're not going to, their first method of treatment is not to just throw a pill at you. They try to treat the symptoms, get to the root cause of it. And they practice more preventative health. Whereas allopathic medicine standard, you know, it's, Oh, you have these symptoms. Okay. We're going to put you on birth control and look, I'm not trying to crap on allopathic doctors. We need them for a reason, but they just kind of miss some of this stuff. Yeah. I guess what I'd say is it depends on whether you can access that or not. Like not everyone can access integrative. That's a great point in terms of cost. You're right. So let me add a caveat then. Um, as long as your doctor is willing to listen to you and work with you, then I think

that's good because I have a lot of people write me and say, Oh my, you know, I went in and asked for this hormonal test, or I went in and said, I'm having X, Y, and Z. And they basically just told me, Oh, you're fine. You don't need that and sent them home. Whereas if you have a doctor that actually listens to you and works with you, because at the end of the day, you're the expert of your own body. They may be the expert of the human body, but you're the only one that lives in your body. And you're the only one that can truly convey what you're feeling, what's actually going on. And so you want someone to meet you in the middle and actually listen to you and work with you. And towards that end in both my books, I have a new book to come in called hormone repair manual, which is for the women 35 plus, but in both books, I have fairly large

sections about how to speak to your doctor, how to speak with your doctor. So there's targeted questions so that you know what you're asking for rather than just this nebulous something's not right like so specifically like ask the doctor am i ovulating which is actually the doctor unfortunately this is where we kind of started the doctor may not actually be very good at figuring that out unfortunately the average doctor but yes you know if i'm not ovulating why not have you tested me have you screened me for celiac? Have you tested my thyroid? Is this PCOS? You know, like some very specific questions to try to understand where things are at.

In terms of if you're ovulating, that is something you can do at home. I mean, you can definitely ask your doctor as well. But the simplest way to know for certain if you're having ovulatory cycles or not is to track temperatures, which you talked about before. You don't have to go all the way and use fertility awareness method to avoid pregnancy. I mean, you could do that, but you could just check in. I mean, just with a thermometer you get from any pharmacist for like $10, you know, you could sort of, the morning temperatures, you can figure out if you're ovulating or not. And just be, and also keep in mind, just because there's a cycle maybe where you didn't ovulate, it doesn't mean you can't ovulate or you aren't ovulating in other cycles. So it's not rocket science. And unfortunately, well, just circling back to the doctors, like I have a blog post called The Right Way to Test Progesterone.

The test for, to confirm ovulation is a test for progesterone. But it has to be done to be accurate. It has to be done about a week before the period actually comes, not on day 21, because if you're going to have a 38-day cycle, by day 21, you have no progesterone. That's normal, right? So you have to kind of think that through and logically know that you only make progesterone for a couple of weeks at the most, kind of 10 to 14 days after ovulation and try to pick that up. But back to your question of, you know, wrapping it up, how to have healthy periods, be healthy enough to ovulate, whether that means in two opposite cases, whether that means reversing insulin resistance or eating way, way more

because you've lost your ovulation due to under eating. Right. I say that again, because this is, you can, so you can see why it's such a problem when women who have lost their period to under eating are mistakenly told they have PCOS and then read that this treatment for that is to go low carb and they're already under eating and then they go keto, like they will never, never, never, never get their period. And I've had, I, the reason I keep mentioning it, I've had multiple patients in that situation where they are literally going like 180 degrees in the wrong direction, trying to get their period back. So this is why, so for some women who have insulin resistance and full-blown PCOS, yeah, they need to cut sugar. That's how that's going to help them get their

period back. For some women who have hypothalamic amenorrhea or under eating, they need to eat as much carb as they can fit really into their bodies to try to get their period, not just carb, but everything to try to get the period back. And then, you know, for women with period pain, they need to try those simple things, the dairy-free, the zinc, some basic things. And then if that, what I say in my writing is if that doesn't work and you're in debilitating pain, you go to the section in my book where how to speak to your doctor and you say to your doctor, could this be endometriosis? Could I please have a referral to a gynecologist who understands endometriosis? And yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you pointed out to the, um,

sometimes I forget to mention this, but it's, I like to provide people with affordable options, you know, like budget friendly, because we want, we want this to be accessible to everyone, you know, like this should be just a basic human right to be able to, you know, live, live a healthy life and have a healthy cycle. And my books are very much, um, democratic, like for the people, like if, you know, for everyone, if you can afford an integrated GP, integrated Dr. Great or an naturopathic Dr. Great. But even if you can't, yeah, this should still be within your reach and you should be able to, with the right script, the right talking points, you should be able to work with your normal doctor to get some of these

answers. And sometimes even, I didn't put this in the books, but like, I would even say the doctor's offering you the pill and you can even just say, okay, right. Okay. Good. I understand, you know, accept the piece of paper with the pill prescriptions. Like, okay, I get that. That's, you know, what you want me to do, but also just, you know, out of information, like, is this, what is the reason that I'm not ovulating? Like, I just, I also just want to understand what is the reason? Is it hyperlectin? Is it thyroid? And you can still, even if you're sort of, the doctor's going to want to give you the pill, unfortunately, that's the paradigm we're locked in, but that might, that could change. And that's

changing. I have to share with you down here, well, down under, I mean, maybe it's probably changing everywhere, but I have some colleagues down here I've gotten to know quite well, gynecologists who've read my book, who are like, you know, trying to take a different approach, trying to help support women to have ovulatory cycles and not just routinely shut it down with hormonal birth control. You know, my favorite, um, social media hashtag you've probably seen me use it is right to ovulate. Yeah. Women have the right to ovulate the right to cycle. That's so amazing. And also I just want to say this too, for, um, anyone listening, this whole conversation is not at all meant to like, I mean, I kind of said this already, but we're not like crapping on, you know, standard allopathic doctors, because my stance is that, like you said, a lot of these doctors are now reading your book. They don't, they don't know either, you know, and it's not their fault because they went through the standard medical system and they weren't really being taught this

either. They're, they're very sold on the pill. That's their background. Like that's their, the narrative they exist within and depending on where they're very sold on the pill. That's their background. Like that's their, the narrative they exist within and depending on where they're at. They're really in it. And one of the, one of my colleagues down here, um, should maybe have her on your podcast. Her name is Peter Wright. She's really, really interesting. She's a gynecologist. She, um, yeah, she, she part in part reading my book, you know, I think some things she just, it led her to really start to question the pill and it wasn't easy. Like she had to sort of go through it, kind of go through, and then she's now in this position, you know, you can confirm with her, but like, yeah, like shutting down women's hormones is not a good thing. You know, women

need their own hormones and she's, you know, working within her system to try to kind of get that message out. And I could just, when I heard her talk about it and how in, you know, working within her system to try to kind of get that message out. And I could just, when I heard her talk about it and how in, you know, how kind of that, how, how big a paradigm shift that was for her to come out from thinking, oh, it's fine to just use this pill all the time and just routinely shut down hormones to actually out from under that thinking, oh, wow, we need to do things differently. That was a big, big deal for her. That's really amazing. And, and, you know, and she didn't know any better because she just was, she was treating patients based on the information that she got in med school. And, and, you know, and that's the thing is like our,

our doctors really care. I just think a lot of them aren't aware of this. They want to, yeah, they want to help. Of course they definitely want to help. Exactly. So that's also why too, if you're listening to go through that section in your book and start asking those questions to advocate, because then it also may help your doctor to be like, oh, wait, yeah, I should be doing this with all my patients. I should be asking them, you know, these questions. I love these kinds of conversations because that's just really, I just want to empower people. I want to empower them with the information, the questions to ask their doctor, the cheap things they can do at home, the little tweaks they can do. Because, you know, sometimes it really is just a matter of changing up your diet a little bit, reducing processed foods and

sugar, getting better sleep at night, getting outside and moving your body. And most of these are pretty much free. And the expectation that they shouldn't have to suffer period symptoms. I mean, that's a paradigm shift in itself. It's just the expectation. And if you keep, and if, if the things you tried aren't working, then keep searching because it's, it's not your fate as a woman to suffer. That's partly, you know, this thing that we live under. That is just not the case. And, you know, one of my favorite reviews that I got on Amazon for my book, and there's so many just funny, like good ones, but one of them was a few years ago now, but she was like, Oh my God, I had no idea that what I eat affects my period. It's like,

of course it does. That's the number one thing. Yeah. And then actually, and I want to note one more thing. I mean, this is a whole new podcast, so we're not going to dive into it, but I just want to mention other things that can also affect your hormones are the cleaning products that you use, the stuff that you're spraying in your house, perfumes in your lotion, scented stuff, you know, your body wash, this and that. And I have another podcast that dives into that fully, but that can also mess with your hormones. So there's a lot of different things going on that we need to be aware of. There are, but also just to say, and that doesn't mean it's complicated because yes, there are lots of angles into it, but potentially at least I can speak from the majority of my patients, it's not complicated. Like, you know, let's say 50%

of them get benefits just from no dairy and zinc, like something very simple like that, right? Like it doesn't have to be, because I feel like sometimes women can think, oh my goodness, it's just all too much. Like I can't, you know, change everything about my life. You don't have to. It can be very targeted, very simple. And also then once you're feeling a bit better, you can also then also, you know, take care of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yes. We have to make it manageable. Yeah. Yes. I love that so much. Well, we went over everything that I wanted to ask you. Is there anything else that you wanted to put in there? My final words often, and I want to use it again is trust your body. It's kind of what I just said, but it's really not as, the female body is not as mysterious

or complicated as it's been made out to be. Like it is, it wants to be healthy. It wants to have healthy periods. It will do that. That's my overwhelming experience with thousands of women in all sorts of different situations. There's a way forward for sure. I love that so much. So for everyone listening, where can they find you? I'm easy to find. So I'm, my blog is larabryden.com. All of my social media, I'm mainly on Instagram and Twitter, Facebook at Lara Bryden and my two books. So my first book is Period Repair Manual for women of any age. My new book is hormone repair manual for women. I'd say 35 plus it says 40 plus on the cover, but yeah, 35, 40 around that age and above. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. This was amazing. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thank you.

This is a resonant media production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Chris McCone. The song is by Georgie. As always, please don't forget to rate and review the podcast. It really helps me in this show a lot. See you next week. Thank you.