The Livy Method Podcast - Your Doctor Wasn't Trained for Menopause.

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Many women leave their doctor's office after asking about menopause more confused than when they walked in. Women's health and fitness expert Amanda Thebe (author of Menapocalypse) joins Gina Livy for a conversation about what's actually happening in your body during perimenopause and menopause, and what to do about it. The truth is most doctors aren't knowledgeable about this stage of life. That's where Gina and Amanda come in. They get into the real exercise minimums (they're lower than you think), why you can't entirely blame menopause for weight gain but it's also not in your head, what HRT actually does and doesn't do, which supplements are worth it and which are a waste of money, and how to stop being misled by fear-based wellness content online.Where to Find Amanda:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda.thebeWebsite: https://amandathebe.com/Podcast: https://amandathebe.com/podcast/ Book: Menopocalypse: How I Learned to Thrive During Menopause and How You Can Too!https://amzn.to/43DvUc2This episode aligns with day 58 of our Spring 2026 weight loss program. You can find the full video hosted at: www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspring2026To learn more about The Livy Method, visit livymethod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm going to be honest with you, this podcast is unapologetically a hot mess because that is what midlife feels like sometimes. Why, though? And how do we make it better? Do we all just need facelifts and g-lp-1s? I mean, let's talk about it. No bullshit, no wellness wangery here because we're trying to make real change and change is hard. But we're in this together. Welcome to the Living Method podcast.

I'm so looking forward to this conversation today. Amanda Thib is back. She's a women's health and fitness expert. She's a menopause advocate. She's the author of the bestselling book, Menopocalypse. And we love her because she is honest and she is real. And you are so refreshing. Hello.

Hi. Hi, Gina. Thanks for having me back. I'm happy to be here myself, my turkey neck, my wrinkled lips. I'm here keeping it real. You know, I was just asking Amanda behind the scene. if she had anything coming up. And we were just talking about a menopause platform that you are starting.

I want to hear more about this because there is so much garbally goop out there when it comes to menopause and resources and information. And so can you share a little bit about what it is and why we need it? Yeah, thank you, Gina. Well, so it's sort of, don't tell anyone. The word. No, Ben. It's a platform called.

spring and it's sort of just an accumulation of all the work I've been doing for the last decade and I wanted a place where I could keep everything and Facebook is not that place for me so this is a community driven app that's actually umbrellaed by coaching so it's actually very similar to yours and it's not just information it's how to use the information right and that's usually the missing piece but the the impetus behind doing it is that women are going for their medical treatment or not, but they need stuff outside of that. And so this is an education platform. I have a resident doctor that is answering, we've got lots and lots of programs within there, lots of video and for example, how to prepare for your doctor appointment program.

It's very, very practical. And hopefully you can use that and go to the doctor and actually get care this time. We have programs in there that support nutrition, exercise. pelvic health, sexual health, you know, and then this, then we also have, like I said, the behavioral change component part of it. And then within that, a community. And so live events, it's going to be very similar to yours in that it's got like live events and experts coming on. And really it's a one-stop shop that will run alongside someone's health care journey. I don't, I was said to Gina though, I have nutrition sort of fundamentals in there and just some, you know, the basics.

I have got nutrition certifications. And so we've got all that in there, but I'm not touching fat loss. It's just because it's so, you know, you guys are all here and Gina's does this. It's a lot on its own, right? And so I can't do something half-assed. And what's the point in me doing that when other people are doing it like with their full ass, essentially? Gina's doing it with her full ass. My full ass.

And the reason why I ask is that, you know, we know that our medical doctors weren't necessarily trained in menopause. A lot of them, obviously, making an effort to get up to speed, that the care is a bit spotty. You know, I have tons of questions here from our members. And a lot of it is I went to my doctor and I asked this and then walked away a little bit more confused. We know that there's privatized healthcare out there. Not everybody can afford out of pocket and everyone deserves the best care possible. And it was that sort of, did you know, Did you recognize that gap? And is that why, like, you're passionate about this a new project? For sure. And also, I've been talking about this for a long time. And it's the same thing I'm hearing on rinse and repeat that women are going to their doctors and being either Stonewall, like the doctor doesn't know about it, so I can't talk about it. Maybe we'll refer out to one of the few clinics that have got two, three-year waiting lists now.

or they gaslight women sometimes. I think for the most parts doctors want to help you, but some of them are stuck in their own bias or old information. And because there's no specific training in medical school, there's a lot of doctors fall into that category. But that definitely is changing, and I've seen a huge shift because of the popularity of the conversation about menopause, which makes me so happy.

But women still have to really, truly advocate for themselves. And in my mind, the most successful appointments with a doctor are ones that you're going completely prepared. You talk about specifically what's not, oh, I've had a few hot flashes and maybe I felt like this. This is specific data that you take in with specific language that you understand that within your small eight-minute window, you've only got to, you've got to use that wisely. So like going prepared and actually going with information to say, well, I actually want to talk about menopauseus. These are the guidelines. And I want to specifically talk about treatment options because this is what's happening to me.

And leave there with a plan. And so working with the resident doctor on this app, who is a family doctor who works in Sarnia. So she's family doctor and sort of rural. I hope I'm not offending anyone from Sarnia. You're not Tarana. I'm a rule. I'm a rural girl. I'm a country girl.

Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of women don't have like access to even just a family doctor. And so for those of them that have the financial means, women are turning to private clinics as a way to get care. Not everyone has $3,000 to do that. And I'm a massive proponent of access to care for all. When you talk about low income, cultural differences, say immigrants, sex workers, factory workers, rural, they're young. are not getting the care you need. So this program within our platform is really structured to help get the best out of your appointment. And then what happens when the doctor says no?

So it's all of those things. What I think is really important to sort of know is that family doctors can treat menopause very easily. They treat diabetes. They treat, you know, other things. There's no reason why they can't. It's just because of the lack of training, but that's changing. So for example, in Ontario right now, there is actually.

a free tool for family physicians that's been filtered out to them all, where it actually they can look at this, learn about menopause and so hopefully more family doctors will be able to help women and they don't have to spin their wheels in a medical system that's just not helping them. Well, you, you're so ahead of this. I mean, you, you, you're ahead of me. You're ahead of this. Real Blazer, you? For real, Amanda, you know, obviously you've been, you've been in the fitness and health and wellness space and you came out with a book, Menopocalypse a few years ago. I mean, you were talking about this well before. It became this mainstream topic that it is today. How did you recognize that there was a need for that? Was this just out of your own personal

experience? Yeah. And then of course tied into your fitness. Like how did you find your space to talk about this? You and I've got the same background. And we, you know that when we, my training was in the UK, it was a little bit of a different setting because you had to go to do a university type diploma to be a personal trainer. But regardless, like, went through all of my training and human physiology, just understanding the human body. Yeah. The training wouldn't, never touched on life phases. It was always like, this is exactly what's happening to your bodies, how it responds to exercise, strength training, etc. And then through the years, I've always done like sub-specialties, like pregnancy,

and seniors, working with professional athletes and children, teenagers. There was never anything about menopause, so it wasn't even in my vision. I didn't even know it was coming in then when I was 42, doof, I got like sledge-hammered.

And still didn't know it was perimenopause. Had people had the word perimenopause 10 years ago, then spent two years in the medical system in Toronto and Canada with doctors desperately trying to help me. Gina, they saw me, they looked at me. One nurse even said, yeah, you even look terrible, but we don't know what's wrong with you. I don't wear sickness well.

And essentially, it was eventually like a gynaecologist that was like, you're in perimenopause. I think you've got depression. I'm almost certain. You've got migrains with aura, and I can help you. And so those two symptoms to me were like, that's perimenopause. They don't sound like perimenopause. What's perimenopause?

And then it sort of just sent me then down this rabbit hole going, I don't get why I never knew about this. I just don't get it. And then I was like, and if I don't get it, and I'm supposed to have a good understanding of the human body, then I'm going to put my money on many other women not knowing what this is. And so that sort of led me, it was never on my bingo card. I just felt like there was a gap in knowledge.

that we needed to fill. And many of us now are filling this, right? Which I love. Like, we're talking about it 10 years on. Perimenopause is a non-word. Menopause is a word that we're saying without like cringing inside. And so it's like we're making progress. We really are. Yeah, well, it wasn't until I, you know, women had always asked as your program work for hormones. And I'm thinking like hormones, hormones. I'm like, yeah, of course it is. You eat healthy. You know, you do the things that you need to do. It's all about need to be healthy in order to lose weight. And back in the day, I'd go back to when I was young,

and I'd be working with older women because I was working at a country club. And, you know, you had to be a little bit older to afford to go to the country club. And it was always the same. I'm eating less, exercising more. Nothing is working for me. I haven't changed anything. And I just, I keep gaining weight and gaining weight and gaining weight. And no one said the word menopause or perimenopause or was talking hormones.

Like, it just wasn't part of the conversation. Yeah. And, you know, the Manipause Foundation of Canada have some really great studies out there, like surveys of women. 54% of women still, to this day, still consider menopause to be full of shame and stigma. We come from a long history of, like, dampening down this conversation because it's like icky. It's like shameful. We're going to get old and become Crohn's. And it's almost like there's no purpose.

There previously was no positive connotation to menopause. We're definitely changing that as well. But it's just that those stigmas stick with us, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, like they probably didn't want to say the word, Gina. They were probably like, well, I could never say, I'm going through the change, which is what my mother. Yeah.

Yeah, the change. Well, even, you know, there was a time, you know, where I thought my mom was a little crazy, what was wrong with her. She was probably wondering what was wrong with her as well, right? And it wasn't until, like, we started talking. talking about this a couple years ago, she was like, I was like totally going through, I was going through menopause, right? It happens to everyone. This isn't something, I mean, some people have stronger symptoms than other, but we're all going to experience the change.

What do we refer to it as now? Is it the change, the transition? What do you? I think menopause seems to be the umbrella term for the three sort of stages. Yeah. Menopause, the time leading up to it. Menopause, the day. post menopause anything afterwards. Menopause is just the umbrella term. It's interesting though because we consider menopause to be just a small phase, but we know now, and I know your audience, know now because you talk about it,

but as soon as you're going to perimenopause in your late 30s, early 40s, you're in some type of a menopausal state until the day you die. So 81, 82 being the edge. So we can spend a potential of 30, 40 years, woo-hoo, post-manipose. And I wonder, Jena, if you've asked your mom, like, does she, like, through the other side, because I'm through the other side by eight years now. I've been in postmanipause eight years. There's a calmness that happens. The symptoms die down.

Yeah. Your body finds an equilibrium and it sort of adjusts, right? And it can be, and I want women to know it can be good at the other side, right? Yes. Well, I'm, since February. So I went almost, I went nine months without, then it came back, and then I'm on the other side. February. It's like, same thing. I used to get migraines all the time. Every day I would feel like I was going to get a migraine. And it's like, it's just like, poof. I was talking to someone, she was like,

I think 42 and talking about all the symptoms. I'm like, oh, it gets better. Just wait. Give it like eight, 10 years. It's fine. 18 years. It was actually three to five years after perimenoposite, my symptoms died down. So it's different. Again, it's all. Everyone's different. But, Like, I think it's really important to remember that perimenopause or the menopause transition, which goes into menopause a little bit, is a transition. Yeah. It's, you're moving into this new permanent state of postmenopause of which the body has the ability to thrive.

It really does. Not like you hear with the fear-based headlines in social media, because I know you and I look at them and it's like, God forbid, we get old, fat or just, just, you know, just exist after menopause, right? And so there's a new narrative of like really fighting back against that bullshit. It drives us all crazy. Well, I want to talk to you about that because social media is so great because it gives us access to people like you and who are out there and, you know, sharing great information. But like what's the, it's also there's a lot of like craziness out there. And, you know, women, we were smart, but we want to, we want to try this. We want to try that. We want to do as many

things for ourselves as we possibly can. What's your advice for someone navigating what's out there? Because there's so, I know you're always kind of raging against the machine and being an advocate for women, but how do we do that for ourselves? Because we're, how do we know what we can trust when we tell me? That's the rage against the machine. So that literally is it, isn't it? Like, yeah. Yeah, what's the, sorry, what's the advice? Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but you said rage against the machine. I love that bad. Yeah. No, that's it. You know, we're out there. we're trying to find information. We're on social media. There are great people like you who we can follow and you're giving great advice.

Like how do we know what's just horse shit and what's the good shit? And it's interesting, right? Because like somebody would say, well, why would you follow Amanda over like this other person? So what? What makes Amanda great? And it really is a very difficult conversation to have. But I would just say just always look at things through a skeptical lens. I do, but I'm really skeptical.

Like I'm like, like, I don't trust anything or anyone. But I think it's really good to have a skeptical lens and not to just take people at their absolute word and it's okay to question them. But if anybody's on social media leading with fear, for example, in menopause, your brain eats itself and the only cure is estrogen, which is a genuine one I heard, then you can unfollow that person because they're leading with fear and they're not leading with acupuncture. science that no scientist or medical professional would ever say the brain is eating itself, right? So there's a good one. Secondly, if the solution that they're offering is, first of all, they're the only person that knows this. Nobody's telling you this. The doctor's keeping you from this. I'm the only one that knows this. That's a real red flag for me. But guess what they've also got? The solution, either usually a supplement, usually like some type of

of non-evidence-based product that they're leading you to. And then it's also that they're cherry-picking data, but I think that the general public really wouldn't know that. So it's that they're looking at one study when we have an envelope of information. And if this one study suits their message, they'll use it and typically point to it and go, look, I come with receipts, this is what the study's saying.

while ignoring the rest of it. I think, though, for the general public, that's a very hard one to follow. And so I just, just going to skeptical, don't believe everything and question things. And then then it's down to you. You've got to be a critical thinker and really just decide if this is the person

that you're going to sort of like die on a hillfall because often that happens. And then remember, based the fact that your audience are in a program, that is literally telling them every day to just do the basics. Guess what works across your lifespan, the basics. Yeah. Move often.

Strength train if you can. I'd love you to. Eat well and that means mainly whole foods with a few treats in there. Limit alcohol and smoking, manage your stress, sleep well. These are like tenants of health that don't come in phases and don't come in fads. they're solid across the board, right? Yeah. Can we talk about fitness?

Because, you know, I look like, and no disrespect to someone like Dr. I don't, is Stacey Sims a doctor? No, she's not a doctor. Yes, she's a female scientist. Yeah. Yeah. So Stacey Stim, I mean, she's jacked. Most of us are never going to achieve that level of fitness.

And I think we're out there and she's this advocate and we see that. And, you know, don't eat before you work out. Make sure you eat after your workout. Like there's just a lot of, most of us are just. trying to work out. What is the bare minimum that women need to do? Like, let's be real. If you were to say, okay, no bullshit, you have to at least do what for exercise?

And it's a really good point. Like there's Stacey and other people out there. And it's confusing for women because when information about like elite athletes that they're studying is then translated to the general public that aren't at that. level. It gets, the nuance gets lost and social media is where nuance goes to die. Yes. It just, it's difficult, right? So, but we have some great information from the American American College of Sports Medicine who looked at every single piece of data, valid data that exists and now have come out with some really great information about strength training. We also have national guidelines about

strength training and cardiovascular work. So I can tell you what those are. And if you can make these your goal, you're going to be beating 85% of the population who do not meet these goals. Okay. So for strength training, two times a week is the minimum. And what that can look like is it can be spread across the week in 10 minute blocks. It doesn't need to be too solid workouts. And you need to try to reach a place of overload or fatigue when you work out. And I'll explain what that means, but what we're hearing in social media junior, and I know you hear it too, is lift heavy shit. That's what we need to do. That's not applicable to a lot of people, especially those who have never exercised before. And it's not even applicable to people who have exercised before doing

specific exercises. I challenge anyone to do a lateral fly with heavy weights. We know that the 10 pound wage, right? Yeah. So what it means, though, is if somebody's got a program and you're supposed to do 10 repetitions, you're really struggling to finish that 10, number 9 and 10. It's really hard where you're maintaining good form throughout the exercise, but you're really struggling to reach them. That means your body is close to failure, and that is the stimulus your body needs to be able

to maintain the muscle you have and potentially build muscle as well. And you can do that with lightweight, with heavy weights, with body weight, with resistance bands. You can exercise from three to four to five reps all the way to 30 reps. The new data shows that it's not the rep range and the exercise that matters. It's the consistency and the showing off. So that's something that's a really great takeaway for the general public. And I put myself in that, even though I probably exercise more than other people, like you probably are like more likely hitting the guidelines.

But for those women who aren't, what the guidelines are saying is show up, just do something. Do something. Use some pushing against the kitchen counter. Start building up and getting curious because that's the thing that's going to help your body like thrive in old age. because essentially as we're going to post-menopause, your body needs protection. Strength training is up there as one of the best things you can do to protect your body. And then when it comes to cardiovascular health, the guidelines have not changed in ages because the data supports this still.

Either 150 minutes of moderate exercise a day and moderate exercise is when you're a little bit out of breath. You know, so you're maybe power walking or you're on your bike or maybe going, maybe going up some stairs and at the top you're like, 20 minutes a day. That works out at 20 minutes a day. Okay. Alternatively, 75 minutes of vigorous exercise.

That's 10 minutes a day. So that's where you're out of breath. That's if you do hit training, maybe you're skipping or jumping and you're getting out of breath. That's 10 minutes a day. That's pretty hard for most people to get to. And so that's going to protect heart health, both cardiovascular disease. The cardiovascular exercise and strength training have whole body benefits, whole body from your brain to your heart, to your joints, to your, sit, the organ systems in your body to reducing incidences of things like cardiovascular disease, insulin resistant, diabetes, Alzheimer's, exercises, the top thing you can do.

Okay, so two times we get 30 minutes for lifting weights. So you can break that down into 10 minutes a day, 150 minutes of kind of moderate walking movement type of exercise or 75 minutes of more intense exercise. And that works out at 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes a day. Is there like, you know, I'm hearing a lot out there, like the difference between women and men.

Is there anything different women need to do in terms of how we work out compared to men? Or is exercise just exercise? Exercise is just exercise. We do respond differently. Men have a different physiology typically, but look at women athletes at the Olympics. We come in all shapes and sizes and fitness doesn't have one look. And some women may be more muscular. Some women may struggle to build muscle. But the responses in the body require the same stimuluses, which is the strength training and the cardiovascular work. How it shows up in your body might look very different between two people.

Men respond a little bit differently because they have a higher level of testosterone in their body and so they and they also have a stronger upper body typically than women. But that's not true across the board. This is just typical. There's some women that are super strong in their upper body. And so when exercise protocols are recommended, it's based across the board. Now, there are some researchers doing more work into the female physiology and how they respond to exercise,

but so far nothing really is showing up that's sort of like knocking that on its head. And so I'm here to listen and see what's happening. But we do know that when we hear people saying things like Zone 2 is useless for women, and Zone 2 is the like sort of moderate exercise, we know that that's not true. we know there are huge benefits to it.

And anyone saying you shouldn't exercise or move that doesn't make any sense to me at all, right? And I think that we are watching to see, like, if menopause has a massive impact on how we say build muscle, maintain muscle. And so far the data is clear that we don't lose muscle because of menopause. We lose muscle because of aging and being sedentary. Okay, so great. And I want to talk about supplements a second. I know someone wants to ask me,

wants me to ask you about that. But okay, so women, by the time we get to menopause, we have probably done a lot of shitty diets, you know, lost and gained and lost and gained and did that by counting calories and not necessarily being concerned about getting enough protein in, where those calories are coming from. We are not as active as we were before. And sure, estrogen can be anti-inflammatory. So let's say that. But can we blame our weight gain on? menopause. Well, so it's a really hard question to answer that because you don't want to sort of insult the fact that something like 85% of women start gaining weight in menopause, the average being between 5 and 10 pounds. I was the same. I think you mentioned the other week that you

put weight on as well. Like, it happens. And fat deposits change. Most women will start to hold weight fat, independent of weight change in their abdominal region. just because of the hormonal changes. Our appetite regulators change because of it. The knock on effect of estrogen declining impacts so many systems. It impacts our appetite regulation. So if we know that we're always hungry and never satisfied, that can show up as weight gain because we end up unconsciously eating more.

Especially when we're not sleeping. When we're not sleeping, we tend to crave more and eat more, yes. Exactly. sleep issues are some of the biggest symptoms that are reported by women. Sleep has such a cascade of effects, including stress. And when you're like, when you've got high levels of cortisol, you tend to have more cravings as well, unless you're like me and actually don't, can't eat. You know, I mean, it all interacts differently.

And so there's so many different systems get impacted by estrogen declining that, yes, if you want to say that estrogen declining because of menopause impacts those systems and the result is weight gain, then the answer is yes. But specifically, going through menopause doesn't mean you will gain weight because if that was the case, everybody would. And you can lose weight in menopause, definitely. Right. So if menopause causes weight gain as an outcome, it would mean you couldn't lose weight or build muscle or any of those things. And you can. So how you frame it and how you heard it is very important. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of questions here talking about HRT or, you know,

MRT, and those are definitely conversations you want to have with your health care provider. And then, of course, obviously that's nuance if your health care provider can't give you the information that you need. But for those who can't take HRT, there are non-hormonal options available. But would you take HRT over lifestyle changes? So menopause hormone therapy is the treatment that you would go to if you were over 45, have symptoms and are in menopause. H.R.T hormone replacement therapy is for people who go through menopause early under the age of 45, specifically those under the age of 40. And that usually is in the form of a birth control pill, which is a higher level to take you to the time of menopause. Because estrogen is protective.

and over those years, women who go through it early will need protection. So menopause hormone therapy is indicated for a number of things and weight loss is not one of them. Just putting out there, there are absolutely no studies to show MHT does any type of like cascading effect to lose weight. But what it often does for women who are struggling is it helps them feel normal again. It maybe helps appetite regulation. and it maybe helps them sleep again. It maybe helps them manage stress. And so the outcome of it might be that they can then take care of their body, look after

themselves, maybe lose weight, maybe get fixed. So again, it's like the pieces of the puzzle. Piece of the puzzle, yeah. And to answer the question, I don't care if you're on MHT or not. You need to do the lifestyle things because if you're on MHT and you're stood by the wheelie bin, smoking a cigarette and drinking a bottle of wine, you're not doing yourself any favours. Okay.

I know I'm going to ask you two more questions. I know you don't drink though. You don't really drink. You don't drink at all, do you? I sort of had to stop because of menopause, but we can talk about that. Or ask the question, yeah, yeah. One is, okay, I want to ask about supplements

and especially creatine or anything else that you actually think is beneficial. So, Drew, don't play the music yet. But I also, there's a lot of women who are dealing with, like, hip, issues, shoulder issues as a result of menopause or just what's happening with their bodies. Any suggestions for them when it comes to trying to get this exercise and movement in? Oh, and joint pain, muscle, pain, bone aching is a known symptom of menopause.

And whilst hormone therapy isn't indicated for that, it may help people. Because there's these amber light type indications, it's for hot flashes, it's for the genitals. it's for the genital urinary syndrome of menopause, anything below the belt, and for protecting bones if you're high risk. But some women find that they go on it and it does help ease the pain. And it may, it's also worth going to the doctor just to rule anything else out, that it's not something like an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis, just get yourself checked out.

Yeah. But when you're in pain, your body is in a place of inflammation. Right. And that makes sense because estrogen is anti-inflammatory. And so as it's declining and fluctuating, it can show up as pain in those places. Exercise is something I would highly recommend because what exercise does is it stresses the body acutely, so very quickly. And then your body then responds to that by being more acutely sensitive, which means that inflammation starts to decrease. So exercise actually helps the decrease of the inflammation. But if it hurts to exercise, start small, be slow, don't push yourself too hard. But move your body in a very respectful way that meets your body where it's at. Because more people statistically get injured from lying on the sofa doing nothing than from doing dead lifts.

And I mean, it's huge, there's a huge difference. Exercise prevents injury doesn't cause it. And it can help. Okay, love that. Supplements. What do we take? What do we not take? What are like, do you have any must-haves or do you have like a...

Well, I don't take anything because I'm really shit at remembering to take them. So personally don't ask me, but from what the menopause societies recommend, if you're someone at high risk of osteoporosis, calcium and vitamin D and care are recommended, you know, just for the absorption. But you can get a lot of that from your food. So I'll really focus on diet. Fish oil may be recommended. I personally don't, but if you want to take that, take it as an anti-inflammatory measure. Some people find that melatonin and magnesium are helpful to help them sleep.

But over that, CBTI, like a cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, is a proven way to help you sleep. And these other ones aren't proven. They just might be sleep aids. But also what I would say is two things. go and get your blood work done and see if you've got any actual deficiencies. So, for example, I have very low ferretin and have to take iron tablets, which I forget. And so, you know, make sure, you may actually need to take something because it's sort of missing from your body. Save your money on proprietary supplements for menopause.

And these are ones that are menopause blended supplement that have no, they have no obligation to tell you the quantity and the quantity and the quality of the ingredients in them and most of them when they've been tested of being shown to be shite. And then when it comes to supplements, which I sort of consider food supplements, which would be protein powders and maybe fiber supplements and creatine. I would just say protein powder is I don't consider that a supplement if it's something you're trying to just top up because you can't get it from food. Sometimes protein check is just a great way to get your protein in. Fiber is really easy to get from food, but if you're really struggling, you could take some better fiber. It's $5 from, you know, the supermarket or the pharmacy. I was going to say the

chemist, but nobody is so British sometimes. Go to the chemist and get your fiber. That's more fun than pharmacist. And then pre-a-tain has been shown to be helpful if you are someone who does, strength training and it can help with muscular performance. And it has been shown to do that. All of the other benefits for brain health and for menopausal women, et cetera, et cetera, the data on that is actually quite weak and we can't make any statements about that yet or if ever. So take creatine if you're somebody who really wants to improve their athletic performance. Anything for joint? Joint pain? Anything for that? And so for joint pain, you mean the creatine are just

supplements. Anything in general that's I don't know that there's like so people will tell you to take collagen but again collagen the data is sort of like mixed on that as well because when collagen is broken down into its absolute um smallest molecule you can't then say to it oh I want you to just go to that elbow because it hurts or go to that wrinkle layer like the body will do with it what it needs to do you're better off taking more protein in your diet and and outside of that I actually don't know. So maybe somebody else could help you with that. I know some people do find that

taking collagen helps them. And there's also some anti-inflammatory medication supplements that I can't remember the name of off the top of my head. But I personally don't recommend them because I don't know enough about them. Okay. Well, I mean, I have a million other questions, but I'm just going to make you come back into our next program. Well, they went 41 minutes already. It's just like crazy. Oh, my God. It goes so fast. You can follow Amanda over on Instagram at Amanda.com. That's T-H-E-B-E. You can also go to her website, amanda Thebe.com. You can also pick up a copy of her book, Menopocalypse. It's over on Amazon. We'll link it for her. You're going to come. I'm going to say please come back, but I'm going to make you come back. And please keep us updated on when your menopause platform is ready.

to go. We do a newsletter every Monday. We would love to let our members know about it. Before we go, any words of advice or wisdom you want to leave us with? Yeah, I honestly would just say you've got one of the biggest things that menopause can give you is the ability to become your own detective. So trust yourself, trust your body, and try not to get caught up in all of the menopause knows that's out there. Yes, the wellness wankery. Wellness wankery. I love it and I love you. Thanks, everyone joining us live for listening after the fact. We'll see you next time.

Thanks. Bye. Thanks, Amanda.