Realfoodology - The Dirty Side of Hormonal Birth Control with Nicole Jardim

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

125: **REALFOODOLOGY PODCAST IS NOW ON YOUTUBE!** Nicole is a Certified Women’s Health Coach, writer, speaker, mentor, and the creator of Fix Your Period, a series of programs that empower women and menstruators to reclaim their hormonal health using a method that combines evidence-based information with simplicity and sass. Nicole is also the host of The Period Party, a top-rated podcast on iTunes. She is the author of the book Fix Your Period: 6 Weeks to Banish Bloating, Conquer Cramps, Manage Moodiness, and Ignite Lasting Hormone Balance. We talk about the not so great side effects of the pill and what women can do in order to rebalance their cycles and get to root causes. Topics Covered: Common conditions and side effects of birth control  Gut issues and birth control  What is PMS First steps to take to get off the pill Importance of tracking your cycle  How to find the right doctor  The science behind birth control  IUDs Estrogen and progesterone  Bleeding disorders  Depression and birth control Endometriosis  Stressors  Dietary choices and tips  Importance of balancing your blood sugar  Check Out Nicole: Instagram Podcast Online Sponsored By: Cured Nutrition www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% off Higher Dose higherdose.com use code REALFOODOLOGY FOR 15% OFF SITEWIDE Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off My Immunity Supplement by 2x4 Order Now Check Out Courtney: **REALFOODOLOGY PODCAST IS NOW ON YOUTUBE!** Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. So much of what you do in your life has an influence on how something manifests or develops. And so I think taking back that power and knowing that you have a lot more control than you ever thought. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan. I am so happy that you're here. This week's episode is a topic that I have gone over a couple times now on the podcast, but I like to revisit it because different people give different perspectives. And I also think that it's a really, really important topic of conversation for women's health right now. So I interview Nicole Jardim. You guys probably know her. Hopefully you know her from her

Instagram, Nicole M. Jardim. She's a certified women's health coach, writer, speaker, mentor, and the creator of Fix Your Period, which is a series of programs that empower women and menstruators to reclaim their hormonal health using a method that combines evidence-based information with simplicity and sass. She also wrote a book called fixture period, and she has a really great presence on Instagram, which is how I initially found her a couple of years ago. She has a wealth of knowledge all about women's health and menstruation, ovulation, hormones, et cetera. So if you're not following her, please stop what you're doing and follow her immediately. She has really helped me a lot. And even though we focus mostly today on the pill and root cause and things that you can do to get to the bottom of the

root cause, there's a lot that she covers on her Instagram and in her book and in her program. So definitely check it out if you're a woman and you have a cycle and you have questions about hormones and hormonal imbalance and all of that, she's a really great source of information. So yeah, in this episode, we dive into her story and what happened to her in her teen years in regards to being on the pill and her cycle. We talk a lot about the side effects of the pill, what are common causes for heavy bleeding, especially heavy bleeding in teen years, what you can do about endometriosis, how sex hormones impact our insulin and glucose levels.

We talk about dietary intervention for hormonal imbalance, things to eat. We cover a lot of it. So I don't really want to do any more of this intro. I just want to get straight into the episode because it's a really great episode. I enjoyed this a lot and I hope that you guys get a lot out of it. As always, I would love if you could take a moment just to rate and review the podcast. I cannot stress how much it means to have your support and really how much it helps the show. And it takes about a minute to leave a rating and review. So if you're loving the podcast, please take a moment to do that. Also, if there's an episode that you really love that resonated with you, if you want to share it on Instagram and tag me at Real Foodology, that would be amazing. And it

would really, really help the show a lot. And I just want to say thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate your support. And I'm so glad that you guys are here. Let's get to the episode. Well, with the holidays around the corner, it means that we are also in cold and flu season. I don't know how it got here so fast, but here we are. In these colder months, I really like to focus on immune support. And one of the things that I like to take is Critical Immune from Organifi. You guys know I love Organifi. I've been working with them and using their products for years now. And one of the things that I really love about them, outside of them being organic, but all of their products are glyphosate residue free. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know the importance of that. Glyphosate

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slash realfoodology and you are going to get 20% off. Well, friends, the holidays are officially upon us. I cannot believe that I'm even recording this ad right now because it feels like they are coming very quickly. So I wanted to share a couple gift ideas that I think would be awesome for anyone in your life that's either struggling with some sort of health issue or if they are on a path to get healthier. So I'm a huge fan of the Higher Dose Infrared Sauna Blanket. I've had one for, man, it's been like four years now. And what it is, is it's essentially like a sauna blanket that you can lay on anywhere in your house, on your bed, just as long as your bed does not have

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If you would like to try any of these products from Higher Dose, just go to higherdose.com. That's H-I-G-H-E-R-D-O-S-E.com and use code realfoodology and you are going to save 15%. Thank you so much for coming on today, Nicole. I'm very excited to talk about all this. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited as well. I've been looking forward to this. So for our listeners that are unaware of your work, can you tell everyone a little bit about your story and how did you get into the world of health and specifically women's menstrual health?

Yeah. So I was a teenager with the worst period problems. That's basically how it started. I'm pretty straightforward. I remember going to sleepovers and my friend's moms would put towels down on the bed for me when I had my period. And it was the most mortifying thing ever. And I actually, that age. Oh yeah. Cause you know, like between the ages of 10 and 18, everything is just so traumatizing, right? It's like everything is just terrible. And so I remember that. And I remember things like being terrified of leaking through my school uniform at school and, you know, all of these issues and the pain that I would have, you know, would keep me at home from school like once

a month, you know, pretty much every month. And so all of these things just sort of seemed normal because I remember my mom saying to me that she had it exponentially worse. And so I thought, okay, well, I guess this is just how things are. And, you know, I remember getting my period and it was all normal and everything. And then it just sort of progressively got worse. And it wasn't until I was in my late teens that I finally went and saw my mom's gynecologist. And she immediately put me on the pill after I told her about all the problems I was dealing with. And for everyone who's listening, it was the heavy periods, like I said, the period pain, you know, the kind that makes you see stars. And, you know, they were regular cycles as well. So every three months, I was getting a period and I had these crazy mood swings, which, you know,

teenagers, but still, it didn't feel normal. And so when I got on the pill, I was like, yes, this is my solution. I finally found something that actually works. And, you know, from within a month, obviously we'll talk about how the pill works, but within a month I had no period pain. My period was regular. I had no heavy bleeding anymore. Everything had stabilized. And I just, I felt completely renewed. And I was like, I'm going to be on this thing forever. Cause if it's this good right off the bat, great. But then of course, as, as is the case with everything on within about a year or so, I started to notice symptoms, but I didn't know what they were. And I just thought, okay, well, maybe this is just part of what it is to be, I don't know, on the pill. I wasn't entirely sure.

And I remember going and seeing a gynecologist and she was like, oh yeah, this is totally normal with what you're experiencing being on the pill. And for years, I started to develop more and more problems. Like I had chronic UTIs, yeast infections. I just remember having horrible gut health issues. My immune system just seemed like it tanked. I just couldn't, I couldn't not get sick. I was always sick and all kinds of other issues like dry skin, hair, everything. And so I finally went and saw an acupuncturist who a friend was referring me to because I had an allergic reaction to a UTI medication that landed me in the ER. So I go and see this acupuncturist after, you know, many years of my

friend saying, like, just go see this guy. And he was the only person in my whole life who had told me that the pill could be causing the problem. Like this could be the reason why I was having all these issues. And I had seen like 15 doctors by this point. So it's like my early twenties now. And I'm finally like, okay, I'm going to come off of this pill. And, and with his help, I really did. And it really changed everything. And so fast forward many years, lots of research, lots of everything. And, you know, and I wanted to learn how to, you know, how to help other people because I thought, well, if I can do this, others can too. And so that's what led me down this path. And, you know, here we are, like nearly 20 years later. Wow. Yeah, it's been quite a journey.

And I've now helped lots of people, not just one person. I was just happy to help one person at the time. Wow. I mean, that's a story. And I find a lot of people that get in the health space, we end up here because we have a health issue that we really struggle with. And then once we get to the other side, we really want to help other people see the light. And I think what you're doing is really important because like you said earlier, a lot of women don't even understand

that the symptoms that they're experiencing have any sort of connection to the pill. Because we were told from a very young age, I mean, I remember when I was like, how old was I? Maybe 14. All of my girlfriends started getting put on birth control. And at the time I was one of the very few that wasn't experiencing any like heavy

bleeding and cramps or anything like that. I had a pretty normal period. So I didn't have any need to go on the pill. But I remember at the time it was like cool and like trendy because everyone was getting on it all of a sudden. And I wasn't even having sex then. I was just like, man, I want to be on it. All my friends are, you know? And it wasn't communicated to all of our friends at 14 that they were going to have all these issues or look out for these symptoms. In fact, I even remember when I did go to my gynecologist later, a couple of years later, when I was having a bit of like a hormonal issue, asking things like, well, is this going to cause me to gain weight? And I remember they would always kind of dance around this. Like there were like questions about symptoms where you would say,

well, I'm really concerned about this, you know, causing like gaining weight, or I'm concerned about X, Y, and Z. And they'd be like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. Like, you don't have to worry about that. Like they basically sold it as like a fix all pill with no symptoms. Totally. Like a period panacea. I know. It's so true, right? I know.

And don't you just laugh thinking about the fact that that was your biggest concern, weight gain, when you think about the myriad symptoms associated with it. Oh, I know. It's laughable. It is, right? I laugh all the time when I think back to that, because that was my big question with it. Oh, I know. It's laughable. It is, right? I know. I laugh all the time when I think back to that, because that was my big question, too. I was so worried. And I had no idea about, you know, the basic depletion of your sex hormones that basically caused this cascade of problems for me, much less, you know, all the other things.

It's crazy. Well, let's go into that. So what are some of the common conditions or like side effects that you hear from women? Or also, what did you experience in regards to being on the hormonal birth control pill? Yeah, you know, I would say that one of the biggest things I see or have seen over the years is a loss of sex drive. And while I didn't necessarily experience that so much, I did start to have this vaginal dryness and then sex started to really hurt. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm in my early twenties in college. If this is what it's going to be like, this is not fun. And so that's what I see a lot of. And, you know, oftentimes it really just depends right on the person's

genetics. It depends on so much their biology, what's going on with their bodies about, you know, what will happen because some women take the pill for years and without any real side effects, or at least without anything noticeable, whereas others notice it within a month, right? They'll start to say that their mood has completely tanked or women will say that they've felt suicidal. They, you know. There are lots of major mood-related problems that show up. So those are the ones I see. It's those physical vaginal dryness, UTIs, yeast infections, and then the mood component. That's what I typically see the most. I don't want to make light of this, but I do think it's kind of funny and ironic,

the loss of sex drive. Like, is that kind of how, like, I know this is not the case. I'm just making a joke out of it, but is that part of the reason why the pill works? Because you go on it and then you don't want to have sex anymore. And isn't the whole point is that you can go on and have as much sex as you want, but then most women have little to no sex drive when they're on it. And I'm just like, it's just very ironic. Isn't it though? I know. I mean, there's so many ironies with the pill. It's ridiculous. So I agree completely. I used to think the same thing. Like, okay, I don't want to do this anymore. So

what's the point of even being on it? Women have asked me that many times over the years. Should I just come off this thing? Because I don't even want to do this anymore. I don't even want to have sex anyways. So what is even the point of being on this? Yeah, it's crazy. Well, and then you add on, you had mentioned earlier the gut issue, which is a huge concern. It causes a lot of issues and gut distress in women. I don't know if you've seen, there's this trend on TikTok right now where they say hot girls have IBS or hot girls have stomach problems. And I think it's multifaceted. There's a lot of reasons

why women are dealing with bloating and stomach issues and IBS and all this. But I think a large part of it is that a lot of women are on birth control and they have no idea that birth control is completely messing with their guts. Yes. I mean, I completely agree with that. So many of us are on it and that absolutely, it's a big part of it. First of all, that I did not know that was a trend right now. I can't believe that. I stay away from TikTok generally. It's a little overwhelming for me. But yeah, it's so unfortunate because it's this perpetual normalization of pretty serious health-related problems that I don't really understand. It makes me think about things like period pain and irregular cycles as just being completely

normal. I mean, I would say that those are two of the biggest things that women go to their doctors for and then get prescribed the pill, irregular cycles so that the pill can, quote unquote, regulate that cycle and period pain, which will basically diminish in many cases or disappear completely when you're put on the pill. And so we have so normalized these two conditions. When I think about period pain, particularly, it's only normal when we're talking about uterine pain, like why is pain normalized? I don't get it. It's so strange because when we're talking about other body parts, it's not normal at all. And usually there's some investigation into what's going on, but with period pain, nope, that's nothing to see here. It's totally normal. And the same with irregular ovulation or irregular

cycles. Again, like that, you know, there's actual research that says that's the first sign of like a full body endocrine disorder. Like there's something going on with those body systems. And that irregular ovulation is a sign that your body doesn't feel safe, doesn't feel secure enough to ovulate on a consistent basis. So what's it missing? So we've, like I said, we've made these things into common, normal experiences for women. And then of course they get into their thirties, twenties, thirties, forties, thinking that this is okay. And all of these problems have been brewing below the surface for decades. Well, and the problem is, so I see this a lot online in general, there's this trend of trying to normalize these symptoms that are not normal just because they're common. And a lot of people are dealing with them right now. And just because it's like a trend that

we're seeing does not mean it's normal. Like there's also, I mentioned the IBS thing. There's also this normalization of bloating. And look, I'm not saying that like you don't bloat occasionally, you have a big meal or whatever, but I'm saying like women are saying it's totally okay. I bloat to look like I'm six months pregnant after every meal. And I'm like, that is not normal. And now this is not to shame someone that's going through that, but like, I want to say, Hey, that's not normal. Let's get to the bottom of this. Like, let's get to the root of what's happening here. And the same thing happens with PMS, which is something I really want you to speak to with cramps and mood swings and swollen, tender breasts and all these things that we have just told women like, oh, that's just, you know,

it's just a part of your cycle. It's just a part of your suffering in life. No, this is when our bodies are suffering and showing us these signs and symptoms, it's our body going, hello, hi, like something's going on here. Please address this. I could not agree with you more. I've always said, you know, it might be normal in society, but it's not biologically normal. And I think that that's something that really holds true for pretty much everything that we're seeing all these trends across the board now. And, you know, when it comes to PMS, I think

that it's so paradoxical because first of all, women are like, wait, this is an actual thing and it can be taken seriously. And at the same time, there's also so many things that can be done to address it and it doesn't really need to be such a thing and you know so i feel like first of all like you said right so it's first of all has been normalized right that all of these symptoms that we're experiencing are just part and parcel of being someone who menstruates and it sucks and you kind of just are told to deal with it so premenstrual syndrome or pms it's also known as pmt or premenstrual syndrome or PMS, it's also known as PMT or premenstrual tension. So that's basically a collection of physical and psychological symptoms, and they show up in a cyclical pattern and they coincide with the second half of the menstrual

cycle. So that's that luteal phase. And these symptoms, they show up somewhere between like two and seven days before your period begins generally and then they'll resolve when menstruation starts and the reason I say all of that is because some women experience depressive symptoms or psychological symptoms throughout their cycle and that's something that's completely different and I feel like sometimes we have to differentiate between the two and so when you're experiencing these symptoms usually it's like a range right of the physical and emotional symptoms and it includes things like the bloating, like you mentioned, fluid retention, the cramping, lower back pain, acne. Your appetite might change. Your sleep might change.

You might have stomach upset, things like that, breast tenderness, all of this stuff. And what I think is so important to remember is that your hormones are fluctuating, right? We are cyclical beings. And so, of course, things are going to change. But it's really important to remember that they change, but they shouldn't disrupt your life. And I feel like we've just been conditioned to think that these disruptive symptoms are just a part of the experience of being a woman, being someone who has a period.

And I feel like that is inherently wrong. But anyway, that's a whole other sort of like patriarchal misogynistic conversation to have. But, you know, I feel like I'm of two minds on this. And the reason I say that is because the symptoms we experience are indeed legitimate. There's no doubt, right? The hormones are changing, but I prefer to think of them as a message from your body that something is awry or has gone awry. You're not just randomly sort of descending into premenstrual hell every single cycle for no reason, right? It's like your body didn't just decide to do this. what were the precipitating events that caused this to start and then potentially get worse? Because there usually is a series of events that happen. And oftentimes what I hear from women too is that they were fine in their 20s and then all of a sudden they hit their early 30s and things started to get progressively worse. And so obviously these symptoms are highly influenced

and very much dependent on a number of different factors, nutrient deficiencies, psychological stress, especially in excess, certain gut health related issues, blood sugar abnormalities, all of this, right? All of this influences ovulation and hormone regulation. And so ultimately what this means to me is that these symptoms range in severity depending on what's happening in our lives. And as such, we actually have a lot more control over how our luteal phase unfolds than we've been led to believe. So that's my thought on it. I think one to point out that you said that I think is really important for women to hear, because I think a lot of women are suffering from this, is the blood sugar dysregulation. So PCOS and insulin resistance are very heavily related. And if that is not communicated to a woman who has PCOS and then she's just going about her day,

not at all taking care of her blood sugar levels and recognizing that maybe she needs to be more mindful about carbohydrate and sugar intake, then she's going to continue to suffer from PCOS. And that's just one example. So let's say women are listening and they're suffering in varying degrees and, you know, everyone is bio-individual. So I really want to stress this for everyone listening that we're not going to be able to give you any definitive

solutions here, but for people that are looking for answers for suffering, what would be some kind of steps? Like maybe what doctor do they look for? Maybe there's some diet changes they can make. Yeah. I mean, there's, you know, I want to say that blood sugar is so interesting, like blood sugar and insulin in general, because it influences our sex hormones and then our sex hormones influence insulin. So I feel like that's a really important first step for everyone. Track your cycle, understand where you are in your cycle, start paying attention to the symptoms that show up and track them in an app. Because in that first half of your cycle, so that's the follicular phase, that estrogen is building and building and it'll crescendo at ovulation time. But that higher estrogen in the follicular phase actually correlates with

increased insulin sensitivity. So what this means is your insulin works better and we need less of it to control blood sugar in that first half of our cycle. So, you know, if there was a time you were going to eat the cookie, eat it in the first half of your cycle before ovulation. And what's really interesting is around ovulation, insulin sensitivity starts to decrease. And that's likely due to the fact that that peak of estrogen, when it gets too high, it can actually decrease insulin sensitivity. So it's kind of complicated and annoying because, you know, it would be nice if it was just the same throughout the month, but we're not built that way ladies. So, but you know, the estrogen also, it can modulate the insulin release from the pancreas. So there's a lot going on there with estrogen. And what's really interesting is that once estrogen drops post ovulation, progesterone starts to rise in

its place and insulin is, you know, higher in the luteal phase in general and higher progesterone seems to affect that insulin sensitivity in a negative way. Not that it's bad. It's just that if we tend to eat more of the sugar and the carbs and things like that in the second half of our cycle, we are more prone to having those blood sugar swings. And we're more sensitive to those blood sugar swings and the drops in the second half of the cycle. So this might explain why we're just ambushed by these cravings in that second half. So I want everyone to just start paying attention to that. You know, when I say track your cycle, I mean, get an app and, you know, and start like paying attention to how long your period is, how many days you're bleeding, how much you're bleeding,

and then like looking for signs of ovulation. So that could be a slight cramp down where your ovaries are. It could be a little bit of bloating. You'll notice big changes in your cervical fluid that changes quite significantly. It goes from a sticky sort of dry feeling to a very wet, stretchy egg white like cervical fluid pattern. So those are all signs that ovulation is on its way or about to happen. And so you can now start to think about how you're eating as it relates to your hormone fluctuations. And I feel like that that alone is such a huge change that you can see so many positive effects from. as well as my Instagram. Outside of talk therapy and really addressing the root cause of my anxieties and getting to the root of my traumas, one of the things that has really helped me the most with my anxiety is taking CBD consistently. I am obsessed with this brand Cured Nutrition. Everything is organic. They use really high quality ingredients. And I know the founder

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So if you guys are interested in checking it out, go to 2x4.com, that's 2x4.com and search for Real Defense. I hope you guys love it. I'm curious to hear you talk a little bit about how, so we were told that the pill regulates our hormones. And what really shocked me when I found this out years ago is that it actually completely shuts down our ovulation and then replaces it with other synthetic hormones. So what's happening with ovulation and that whole process? And can we even really be in tune with our bodies when we're on the pill? Yeah, I know. It's really tough

because I agree. When I found that out too, my head exploded. I couldn't quite believe it because of course, for all those years I was on it, I was told completely opposite. And that's still the message. We'll see if it starts to change because I feel like there's enough of us talking about this now. I mean, when you think about the pill, so I'll take the combined oral contraceptive. So that's basically ethanol estradiol, which is the estrogen replacement and a progestin, which is the progesterone replacement. And so you're taking the estrogen or the synthetic estrogen in the first half, and then you switch to progesterone for the second half of your cycle. And so like you said, right, it's basically shutting everything down and it's replacing your hormones with those synthetic hormones. And so that ethanol estradiol, by the

way, is very potent, more so than your own estrogen so it's sending a signal to your hypothalamus which is in your brain that then tells your pituitary that there's enough estrogen in the body so there's no need to make lh and fsh and these are the two signal hormones that tell your ovaries to start getting an egg ready or a follicle ready to release an egg for ovulation so when your brain gets that message that there's enough estrogen in the body, that it doesn't need to make those hormones that then would actually make more estrogen, then it's like, okay, that's cool. Sounds good. And then none of this happens, right? So ovulation literally just doesn't happen anymore. And that's the mechanism of action of the pill. The problem is, is that that ethanol estradiol and that progestin are not really like your actual estrogen and

progesterone. And so they come with a whole host of side effects. So not only are we shutting down ovulation, which by the way, I mean, is responsible for making adequate amounts of estrogen and progesterone and these estrogens and the progesterone are responsible for amazing things in our body. I mean, I could go on and on. Like our brain function and our cognitive function, they're both really important for executive function, mood issues, all those kinds of things. Our sleep, when you think about in the second half of your cycle, you struggle with sleep, it's because your estrogen is dipping typically.

So again, we really need that. And perimenopausal and menopausal women say they sleep badly it's likely their hormones um bone density heart health breast and uterine health i mean i could go on and on our vaginal health that's why i had all those problems while i was on the pill and the other thing is too estrogen supports vaginal microbiome diversity. So again, the yeast infections, it makes a lot of sense. Vaginal tissue lubrication, as well as skin and hair. Estrogen is crucial to skin thickness, elasticity, hydration, hair follicle health, melanin production. In fact, progesterone and estrogen balance out the melanin production so if we have too little of one or too much of the other we could end up with melasma all over our face or

on different parts of our body or other pigmentation related disorders so i feel like all of these all of these wonderful benefits come from the act of ovulation and the production of these sex hormones and so without them we lose all of that. And then on top of that, we have the side effects that are associated with the synthetic, you know, estrogen progesterone. And so one of the ones I think about actually, it's something you'd mentioned or you'd asked about prior to us recording was the effect of the pill on blood sugar. And, you know, and it really does actually change the insulin response in the body and insulin sensitivity and that's because i mentioned earlier like your

estrogen when it gets too high it changes your insulin sensitivity so if you so that ethanol estradiol definitely does that um in the higher doses of the. And then the progestin is so fascinating too, because it actually decreases insulin sensitivity. And it can also have an androgenic effect. So there's certain progestins that have an androgenic effect and higher androgens typically can cause insulin problems in the female body. So there's like, there's a lot that goes into this. What is the issue for people listening to have too high androgens in our body? So there's multiple things. So androgens are made in the theca cells of the ovary. And they're male sex hormones, right?

Right. Yeah. And we have a little bit, but we shouldn't have high amounts. We shouldn't have high amounts. Yes, exactly. Although we have quite a bit. We have more than the estrogen that we have, more testosterone than the estrogen that we have. But that's really because the testosterone is converted into estrogen through aromatization. And so what is, I think, really interesting about this is that when we have two high androgens it basically causes ovulation disruption so we have the testosterone converted to estrogen in the ovaries and then that estrogen tells your brain right like you've you've got enough so now we can switch off fsh

and then LH can come into play and it'll spike and we'll have ovulation happen but what happens typically is that with these higher androgens, that estrogen signal just doesn't happen. So oftentimes, especially women with PCOS, like you were talking about earlier, or women with insulin resistance, that can happen to them too. You have a situation where your androgens are too high, your brain doesn't get the signal and you don't ovulate for like three months or six months or at all. And so this is why it's so problematic. And then, of course, it's all the other symptoms like the hair growth on your face or other body parts or the hair loss on your head or the greasy skin and the acne.

I mean, you know, it's it's it's like a very unfair world, basically, when you have to deal with all of that stuff. Well, and you think about too, there was a study done that women on the pill, more often than not, end up getting put on antidepressants not too far after because there's a lot of mood disorders linked with this as well. Women deal with a lot of depression and anxiety being on the pill because of that whole cascade of hormones that you were literally

just talking about. And it's so, this is what makes me really angry about this is that again, I said this earlier, but it's like, this all just happens. And if we're not being told the complete truth about this, if there's not informed consent, then we're just kind of along this ride in life where we're like, oh, I mean, I guess now like I'm depressed and this is just part of my journey of life. When I can't tell you how many times I've had friends tell me this, I've also read this online, I've heard it on podcasts that when women come off the pill, they feel this like dark cloud lift. And it was never communicated to them that they could even have any sort of mood disorder or have any sort of depression while on the pill.

And I think this is a really important part of this conversation because a lot of women could be suffering from depression that they think is just like, well, I guess this is just my life. And they have no idea that it's this pill that they're taking. I cannot agree with you more. It really gets riles me up, too. I have to tell you. And I think about this often because so here's a really interesting story. And this was what I think really highlighted it for me. So a friend of mine who's also in women's health, her daughter recently went to college and she decided to put her on the pill. She was going to college and she was trying to figure out

like the best option for her and so she's never had you know she's never been on pill before really doesn't take any medications of any kind and generally is really healthy and whatnot and so within the first month um she started getting UTIs and then got a yeast infection and then she got um I think maybe mono or something like that and it sounded very much like my story actually in college. Yeah. Because it was just this cascade of things you could see so clearly because we know now what was going on, but how I was treated was just, you know, constant revolving door gynecologists in and out for medications for the UTIs and for the yeast infections. And then I didn't even know I had mono actually,

I just felt so sick and my immune system was jacked. And so I just thought maybe I had like this three week flu. I was like in my twenties, who knows anything at that age. But yeah, so I remember distinctly having all these things happen. And she's describing this whole, like I said, cascade of events that was happening to her daughter. And finally she came home and she she was like, you're done with the pill. And we're going to get clean up your gut and do all of these things. But how many girls are like you said, being put on the pill, or you know, even something else like the IUD, which is also not benign. And they're, you know, they're starting to have these what feel like seemingly unrelated symptoms. And then and they're starting to have these what feel like seemingly unrelated symptoms and then and they're going and being treated by different doctors in different fields because i went to the gut doctor

and i went to the skin doctor for because i had melasma all over my face and i you know i went to the gynecologist and you know i did all kinds of stuff and and nobody was communicating with each other so of course this is all separate siloed off. And then like you said, 10 years go by and this just is the norm for your life, right? You're just kind of depressed or you just have chronic UTIs or chronic yeast infections or chronic whatever joint pain. And yeah, it really sucks. Yeah, it really sucks. And all these symptoms that we're talking about are, I don't want to invalidate them, but they are more like inconveniences than anything else. Well, besides the depression, I mean, that lowers your quality of life. But my point in all this is saying that all of these side effects aside, a lot of people don't know this, but the birth control

pill is actually classified as a class one carcinogen. So that's a whole other thing is I'm like, okay, we're just talking about like UTIs and stomach issues and bloating, which again, I don't want to invalidate those are huge issues. But then on top of that, you also add onto the fact that it could also cause cancer in your body. And we've been told every time I share this on my Instagram, I get all these messages from people saying, no, no, no, it actually like lowers your chance for cancer. And I'm like, why are they saying that? I know it's, I, it's really, I feel like there's just, there's so much misinformation. And I think it's such a challenge because when you think of the history of the birth control pill you think about the fact that first of all it's been around since you know the early 60s and it's so popular still because of

the fact that you know this is our society right the cultural narrative is that convenience is everything and popping a little pill every morning is a pretty easy way to prevent pregnancy, right? And so when you think about it that way, you could see how it's, you know, very similar to the cholesterol drugs or the blood pressure drugs, right? It takes a significant amount of work to figure out the underlying cause. And often the treatment requires substantial long-term changes in diet and lifestyle. And as you and I both know, right, that's hard for a lot of people. And it's also unattainable for a lot of people too, because I was just having this conversation with another friend in women's health yesterday and she was talking about hormone replacement therapy and some challenges she's

experiencing it with it in perimenopause and I was like wow you know it's so challenging for us to kind of figure out what's going on with us and we we're in this field, we're in this work. So what are regular women doing? I know how hard it is. And then of course, the system is not exactly set up for you to find the solution. It's just, you know, you're kind of slapped with a pill and that shuts your body right up. And then, you know, you're sent on your way. And when you think about the fact that the pharmaceutical industry in the 1980s, there was a whole shift in the U.S. from using birth control pills solely for contraception to offering them as solutions for so-called lifestyle conditions. And so it's the same things you were talking about, right? Like the period pain and the acne and their regular cycles.

These are all, like I said, lifestyle problems, not so much, you know, all the, like the big thing of contraception. And the reason they moved away from that was because it was a lot cheaper to do that. So they just rebranded a lot of their pills as things for PMS and PMDD, painful periods, heavy periods, irregular cycles, and acne. And then of course, menstrual suppression completely. It's like, you remember those ads for Seasoniqueique you know the one that yeah allowed you to get it three times a year all right i always thought those were so weird but anyways and so this is really reflected right in the modern day use of hormonal birth control because when you look at the numbers um you know it's something like i think 42 percent of people use the pill exclusively for, hold on, no, it's 58%, sorry. 58% of people use the pill exclusively for non-contraceptive purposes. So that's all the pill users.

Yes. So it's well over 50%. Yes, exactly. Because you think about, like, it's not even being, it's not even mostly being used to abstain from pregnancy. It's being used to mask symptoms that we need to be getting to the root cause of. Why are our doctors not saying, huh, maybe we should look into the reason why you're having really heavy periods. Or maybe we should look into why you have this acne that's unrelenting or why you have these really heavy cramps or whatever it is. That's what we really need to be focusing on. And that was actually going to be my next question. So what is a common cause for heavy bleeding in a girl, especially in teenagers or I guess really at any age?

At any age, yeah. With teenagers, it's a little bit different. And so I'll talk about that because I don't ever really talk about it unless, you know, I'm focusing on the teens. But what's interesting is that, you know, the first five to seven years after a girl gets her first period, her reproductive system is obviously adjusting to this new role of doing this egg thing every month. And so what she'll typically experience is occasional and ovulatory cycles. She'll get these slower follicle development. So meaning that she might have longer cycles and a smaller dominant follicle, right? So smaller than what adult women would have. And so what this means is that they might have these skipped periods. They might have irregular cycles. They might have more frequent or heavier bleeding.

And that's just because of the lack of progesterone. So that progesterone really does sort of like, I feel like it just meets estrogen where it's at and it sort of controls the growth of the lining because estrogen is a stimulating hormone. So it's gonna grow the lining, whereas progesterone will slow it down. And so when we don't have enough progesterone, estrogen just doesn't keeps doing its thing. And so that's why we tend to see that a lot in younger girls and teenagers,

just because things are still trying to work themselves out. So that's what I see. But then, of course, there's other reasons for heavy bleeding too. Oftentimes, you know, and this is usually accompanied by pain, but endometriosis is a big one for all of us. But it seems to just be overlooked in teenagers. And there's this weird myth that you're too young to have endo at that age. It seems to be a thing that I've heard a lot, which is a huge problem because it's actually the number one cause of period pain in teenagers. So we should really be looking at that. And then other things as well are adenomyosis. That's typically found in adults, not so much in teenagers. But adenomyosis is kind of like endometriosis, but it's essentially where the lining grows into the muscular wall of the uterus.

And so it sort of like thickens it and makes it like a sponge. And so we end up with extremely heavy bleeding, thyroid disease, low thyroid function, which as you know, is epidemic. That's a big one for heavy bleeding as well as bleeding disorders. So it's another thing. So many people have bleeding disorders, but we aren't even really testing for those. So that I feel like these are the things that we should be looking at. Like you said, talking about the root cause, how we can be just putting everybody on the pill as if like that is the solution is so upsetting to me when something like endometriosis, for instance, can be left for decades to grow and grow and

literally deform the insides of somebody. Not only their uterus and their ovaries and the fallopian tubes, but also your bowels as well. It can really cause so, so many problems. And it's just, yeah, it's criminal to me. It really is. It is criminal because like you said, women can go on for 10 plus years without having this diagnosis. And then they get to a point where they're in so much pain and then you have to have really extreme interventions. I mean, I had a girlfriend who was suffering

from such extreme endometriosis and she finally got surgery and her doctor afterwards was like, you had so much that I'm shocked that you were able to have bowel movements. And this had been going on for so long. And it was, you know, doctors were just throwing her on the pill and just kind of like skirting around it, just putting a pill over to mask the symptom basically is the best way to put it. And we're doing a disservice to women by just throwing them this, what we're calling a quick

fix instead of actually diagnosing and being like, okay, this is the issue at hand. Now, what do we do to address it? Another question I have for you. So whenever I share, I talk pretty often, I'm pretty open about birth control and all of this that we're talking about on my Instagram. And the most questions that I'll get from women are, okay, but what do I do? I have endometriosis. Like I have to take it. I'm dependent on taking the pill. Yeah. And I, listen, I feel like, you know, I come from a country where there are no doctors who are going to help you if you have endometriosis. And I know many, many women are in the same situation throughout this country and many others all over the world. And this, I think, is a big, it really is sort of like a bigger part of the issue of like women not being taken seriously in medicine generally and not studied enough.

And there's definitely not enough money that's put towards these kinds of conditions and researching them and finding treatments for them. And I would just say that, you know, I understand that sometimes the pill is the only option in some cases. In fact, probably in many cases. And at the same time, you know, we've I think we've been taken out of the equation of our healing. Right. From from this conventional medical standpoint. And I think that that really is what fundamentally needs to change. And we also have to decide that we have more control over this situation than we've been led to believe. Because I remember feeling completely out of control of my situation. And I remember bouncing from doctor to doctor, kind of like how I take my car to the mechanic, hoping that they're going to fix this thing because I don't want to deal with this.

And this is not my forte, but your body is your forte and you really need to get to know it and figure out why it's doing what it's doing. And again, endo, adenomyosis, thyroid disease, bleeding disorders, these are all pretty serious conditions, right? But a lot of us don't have those. A lot of us are just not ovulating consistently because we are living in an environment that is completely incongruent with our biology. And when we start to, you know, to start to pay attention to that and start to think about, okay, well, maybe this extreme amount of stress is causing me to not

ovulate consistently. And when you understand your biology and how our bodies actually work and the fact that if we are chronically stressed and an insane amount of stress, and sometimes it doesn't even need to be that much, our body is not going to think it's safe to ovulate. And there are actual mechanisms in place to stop ovulation. And I could talk about that too. You know, it goes all the way from your brain, all the way down to your ovaries. There are multiple steps that your body will take if it senses danger. Our biology has not changed in, you know, hundreds though it might just be the stress from work or the stress from your relationship or whatever. So I think that that's like one of the things that we really have to come back to is like

control what you can control. And that I think will change so much. And that, you know, that really does include, as you talk about so much, what you're eating, what's on your plate, like what, you know, what you're exposing yourself to, who is in your life that is stressing you out or what's in your life that's stressing you out, your gut health, as well as your, you know, your liver detoxification function. And we could go on, right? Like it's, there's so many different things. And I think that we have to decide that, first of all, we have control over the situation or we have some control and secondly what are we going to do about it because i this

modern world that we live in is definitely not in it's i think it's so detrimental to our hormonal health and we have to i i think it's up to us to say okay like enough is enough and make changes for our own well-being a lot of people are not going to want to hear this, but there is a certain level of responsibility that we have to take ourselves. Like you said, I mean, no one's coming to save us. No doctor in the world is going to be able to help us if we are not actively participating in this as well. We have a lot of agency. And this is something, you know, this is another trend that I've been seeing online is that people kind of just throw their hands up in the air. Not everyone, but I see this a lot. Like people just kind of throw their hands up in the air and they're like, well, I have no control over it for whatever reason. It's like,

we've gotten this notion now that we have no control over our health and our bodies. And that couldn't be further from the truth. We actually have a lot of control, you know, not saying that we have all of it because there's other factors at play here, but we do have a lot of agency and it does require a certain amount of, okay, I got to figure this out and like starting to take control of that. I think another thing that you talk a little bit about is trauma, and how does that affect our hormone health? I know I have a really good friend, Christian Gonzalez,

or a lot of people know him as Dr. G on Instagram, and he's been really diving into emotional health recently and releasing our emotions and naming our traumas and being aware of that and naming our traumas, and being aware of that, and really taking agency over, okay, we may have gone through something really traumatic and something that really affected us, and we have no control over that, but we do have control over what we're going to do about it and how we move forward. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I think I speak about it from my own perspective. When I was 11, my dad died in a plane accident. And it was obviously extremely traumatic for all of us. My mom's dad had actually died very suddenly two months prior to that. So she sort of was just plunged into the depths of,

you know, you can only imagine despair. And for us, you know, it's crazy when I think back, because it's so different now, no one ever asked us how we were doing my sister and I, it was, you know, about my mom's loss. And we were just young and resilient kind of thing. But nobody really thought back then about how children were affected by this. And, and now, of course, we have so much more awareness of adverse childhood events. And, you know, and you can even do a test online to see what your adverse childhood events have, you know, how they'veresolved trauma from my dad dying like that um and you know sort of losing all sense of stability and safety in my life at that age it's like that the crucial puberty time too so there was just a lot going on um i could see how

as all of that continued to build up that all of my period related problems just got progressively worse uh as i you know i got into my teenage years and, and then like into my twenties as well. I mean, because it took a long time to start to recover after coming off of the pill and, you know, and I did, I had to do a lot of mental and emotional work. And I'm just thinking actually about what you were saying about how much control we have. and I recognize that life can feel really out of control for so many of us but at the same time I really believe in bridging ourselves from one place to the next because you know for me I remember you know I was in my 20s I'd finished college I was studying film production that was my big dream back then

and I was working in TV and film throughout that decade. And I was married as well, got married really young. It wasn't working out. And I was like, okay, how am I going to get out of here? How am I moving to New York City, which is where I really wanted to live? I lived in Florida at the time. And how am I getting out of this relationship? You know, there were so many big, what felt like insurmountable issues in my life. And I did not have the capacity to deal with them. And so it was like one little thing at a time. And eventually, you know, we did move.

And then eventually the relationship, you know, came to an end and I figured it out from there. But it was a very concerted effort on my part to make small shifts to get to the bigger things. And so I feel like we do have some semblance of control over the, you know, the day-to-day things that are happening in our lives. And so sometimes those big things aren't going to happen right away. And yes, they're going to continue to impact your health and your wellbeing, but ultimately you will get to the point if you are making sort of like consistent change in your life. And so that was it for me. And that was my experience. So I just want anyone who's listening, if they think that,

you know, life is just feels like it's just too much and there's no way that they can take control of their situation. Like, trust me, I was able to do it with very little resources. I mean, in college, I remember that same acupuncturist was $60 a week and I did not have that. So I was like, okay, I guess I'm not going to get a haircut and I'm not going to do this. And somehow you prioritize what becomes most important to you and getting my health back was for me. So yeah. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. I too had a very traumatic loss at a young age. I was eight. My little sister tragically died in a car. She was hit by a car on her bike. So I just want to say I'm so sorry. And I can relate to your story in the sense that it's

the same for me. It was all about, I was so concerned about my parents and their grieving and their loss that it was kind of a very similar story. So anyways, I just wanted to say that I can relate to you in that way. And I'm sorry that you had that experience as well. Oh, same to you. Oh my gosh. I mean, it is like, it's hard to even when you think about that experience as a child, because you don't even have really the emotional capacity to understand what's even happening to you. Right. And then it isn't until decades later that you're suddenly plunged into the depths of despair and you really, you have to literally dig yourself out of it. So I'm so sorry that you went through that too. It must've been absolutely horrendous.

Thank you. Yeah. I mean, it was horrible. And, and like you just said, it was, it was a wild experience for me to, um in my 30s and realize, oh my God, that actually happened to me, which sounds so crazy to say. But like you said, when I was so young, obviously it impacted me, changed my life and it was absolutely devastating. But simultaneously, I didn't even really understand what was going on. I didn't even really understand what had happened. It was such a blow that I was like, oh, you know,

like I don't even know what's happening right now. And it wasn't until my 30s that I was like, wow, okay, that really happened. And I should probably address this. And I share this with people to say that, you know, and you don't even have to go through something as traumatic as that. Like everyone's is subjective, and everyone's worst day is their worst day. So it's not to compare. But I share this because we're often so focused on our diets and drinking clean water and all the things that go on our body, and all those are very, very highly important, and I want to go into that next.

But I think often we forget that trauma and our emotions, these all have a real impact on our health as well. And they can have an impact on our hormones and obviously our mental health. And these are really important components that are not being talked about enough. I think it's starting to be talked about, but it's important that, yeah, that we talk about this and encourage people to start looking inward and doing whatever you can to heal those parts of you. I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. I mean, it's critical, I think. And we're finally at that point in our society where we're really acknowledging that, which is amazing. I saw some friends recently who I hadn't seen in a long time. And one of them was telling me about the emotional development in her seven-year-old's class that he is learning and experiencing. And I was just like, oh my God, if we could have had that as kids. And he brings home this little sheet of paper and it says, I feel this when you do this because this. And I was like, wait, I need to use that in my relationship. I mean, it's so amazing. And so

the teacher sends a note with him, with all the kids to say, parents, this is your homework. And I just, I couldn't even believe this. She won teacher of the year in their district, of course. Yeah, there's a reason for that. Do you suffer from IBS or other digestive issues? Are you looking for a new podcast to listen to? From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes the all-new health and nutrition podcast, Digest This, hosted by Bethany Ugarte. You may know Bethany as the face of the popular Instagram page, Lil Sipper, or you may have even read her book.

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Check out Digest This on your favorite podcast app. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. Produced by Drake Peterson and Resonant Media. Well, I want to be mindful of your time before we go. I really do want to talk about this for a second just because, you know, this is real foodology and love to talk about diet and dietary choices. So when it comes to food and diet, how do our dietary choices impact our cycle? And do you have any sort of tips around that for anyone that's struggling? Yeah, you know, yes, from the person who struggled with all the things. Yes, I first of all, I want to say, like I said before, that your, your hormone fluctuations

definitely influence how your blood sugar is going to be it influences they influence all of that. So keeping that in mind, I think, you know, really getting honest with yourself, like what do you intuitively know that your body needs or wants? And I think that we can all tune in and kind of figure out generally like what the biggest need is, but ultimately your body wants to feel safe and secure so that ovulation can occur on a regular basis. And not just on a regular basis, but also ovulation that's healthy, too, because that will produce the right amount of those sex hormones that we were talking about. And so ultimately, my focus has always been on blood sugar balancing meals

and keeping that as stable as possible because across the board, I've seen that work the most miracles that if you are able to keep your blood sugar relatively stable, then your moods stabilize, your energy is better, you can sleep better. I'm sure everyone who's listening has had some point where they drank too much one night or they ate too much sugar and then they couldn't sleep properly that night. And if you haven't, welcome to your forties, it's coming. Get ready, girl. Fun times. Buckle up. Right? Oh my gosh, I know. And so that is it for me ultimately. And it kind of looks a little different for different people, but I have you know making sure that you start your breakfast and even if you start the day with breakfast that has 25 to 30 grams of protein in it um that's like two eggs and maybe like two sausages and a little bit of fruit and some vegetables you know like sauteed broccoli or something like that that alone can i mean set your whole day up so that and like

also getting sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning, something I've been doing for years and I highly recommend it in the winter time. I'm a big fan of using one of the little light boxes because I live in Connecticut and it's pretty dark outside right now. It sucks. And it's two o'clock in the afternoon. So yeah. So these, these basic things, honestly, I'm not a big fan of overcomplicating things. I found over the years that there's a tendency for us to make all of these or include all of these very fancy foods and all of that. And I'm pretty boring. And so, yeah, you're not going to get anything fancy from me. But I feel like it's already complicated, right? Isn't it? I know. I

feel like it's already so complicated. And, you know, I found that a lot of women are drawn to eating with your cycle. So changing up your food with your cycle. And for me personally, I feel like you can be a little lax with the blood sugar stability in that first half of your cycle, like I was talking about. But then in the second half, you really want to be more buckled up. But generally, I don't really subscribe to the whole idea that you need to make drastic changes for each phase of your cycle, whether it's when you're menstruating or the follicular phase or ovulation or the luteal phase. I think generally, you can keep it pretty similar and that should keep things steady. Again, like I said, it's a little boring, but it really works. No, but I mean, that's great. And I think those are really good tips. I think it's really, really important to drive in the importance of having a lot of protein and a good amount of high quality fat because those two, the protein and the fat are really

going to help balance your blood sugar and keep you from having those blood sugar dips and the swings and all of that. And especially if you're really trying to regulate your hormones, that is incredibly important. And good quality, you know, grass fed organic animal products. If you can afford the organic and grass fed, go for it. But if you can't, I mean, just in general, like really having animal protein, I think helps a lot. It does. I've seen it so many times. And that's been the thing over the years is that so many women coming to me who are vegan or plant-based and their blood sugar is all over the place and they have nutrient deficiencies and they're really struggling. I mean, our ovaries need zinc. They need zinc for follicle health. They need magnesium.

They need vitamin E and vitamin C. I mean, vitamin C actually helps your follicle produce more progesterone. So those nutrients in particular are so crucial. I'm a big fan of whole food vitamin C supplementation. Vitamin E supplementation is amazing too. It's so interesting. I've been using those two recently. And just in my charts with my temperature is seeing higher progesterone or higher temperatures, which usually indicates higher progesterone. And I'm 43. I really am a big believer.

Oh, you look amazing. Oh, thanks. Yeah. I would not have guessed that you were in your 40s. When you dropped that earlier, I was like, what? Really? Oh my gosh. Thank you. Oh my gosh. You make my day, girl. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. You know, just trying over here with all the good food. But yeah, so I, you know, I'm a really big believer of, of having those bioavailable nutrients as well. And as you said, right, animal protein is kind of one of those, one of those foods that it's going to give you that. Plus, you know, high quality supplementation or the highest that you can afford because I think that will help tremendously too, because I understand that sometimes life is crazy and you need to support yourself a little bit more. And so I think that's

where supplements come in and can be so helpful. Yeah, I totally agree. Well, before we go, is there anything else that we haven't covered about hormonal health that you think is really important for people to know? You know, I just think ultimately that for us, we have been, as I said earlier, sort of taken out of the equation of our healing for so long. And we have sort of been led to believe that our bodies are just what we've got. This is our lot in life and you're just meant to have this X condition, you know? and, and I just, I just don't believe that. And I, I, I believe, yes, of course, like there are genetic predispositions, but so much of what you do in your life has an influence on how something manifests or develops.

And so I think taking back that power and knowing that you have a lot more control than you ever thought over how your body acts and how it functions is, you know, it's so incredibly empowering for anyone who is listening and just trusting that there are solutions. There are ways to address the problems that you're dealing with. And you're not just stuck with this. This is not just your lot in life. Yeah. Thank you for saying that.

I think that will resonate with a lot of people. So I have a personal question for you before we go. I ask all my guests this. What are your health non-negotiables? So no matter how crazy your day is or your week is, these are things that you prioritize for your health. Yes. Okay.

So it's funny because this has definitely changed over the years. I laugh about this a lot. Sleep is my thing because I never even cared about sleep before. I mean, I wrote a book. If you write a book, you never care about sleep. So it's crazy. It's ridiculous. Oh, no, because I'm going to write a book. Oh, girl, get ready. We'll talk. We'll talk. I think you're way more prepared than I was. But yes, I found, especially as you get into your early 40s, it is shocking, everyone. It is shocking how much your sleep can deteriorate without doing much, by the way. I remember people

used to say to me that in your 40s, you could just eat one cookie for dessert or whatever, and you wouldn't sleep for the whole night. And I was like, that's ridiculous. Are you kidding me? One alcoholic beverage. Yep. That'll do it. It's crazy. So that has been my big thing. I got myself an Oura ring and I track my sleep religiously. I know, right? Hi. And I really feel that it is so, so important for us.

And when I think about the incredible benefits of it, obviously, from the hormonal perspective, and again, your body needs to feel safe. It needs to feel rested. It needs to feel rested. It needs to feel well-fed in order to ovulate consistently, and that should be your goal. So the sleep is a non-negotiable. And I have a red light therapy device too, which I really, really love as well. So I would say those two for now, but there's probably like 50 more. Yeah, those are great. Well, Nicole, thank you so much. I just want to say that I'm so grateful for your voice in this field. It's really, really important and you're helping and impacting a lot of women's lives.

So thank you. Thanks, Courtney. I really appreciate it. I would say likewise, you are too. And I'm so grateful for your work as well. I love everything that you share. Thank you so much. So for everyone listening, where can they find you?

Yeah, so everyone can find me at NicoleJardim.com. That's my main website. You can find my book and places to buy it on FixYourPeriod.com. I'm also on Instagram. I spend most of my time on social media there. So that's at NicoleMJardim. And you can also find me on my podcast. It's The Period Party. So that's generally fine with me. I love that name. The period party. It's so good. I think it's really obnoxious, but well, you know, it's fine. We make fun of periods and we try to have a good time with it because, you know, serious stuff. Yeah. Yeah. We got to make light of things, you know, it's how we get through life, you know, not take everything so seriously. So I love that. Okay. Well, I will make sure to link everyone and yeah,

thank you so much for coming on today. I really enjoyed this. Thank you. Me too. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. If you liked the episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resonant media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team, go to resonantmediagroup.com. I love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for

individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first.