Well with Arielle Lorre - 408: Hormones Decoded: Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone & Beyond with Dr. Erika Schwartz

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Dr. Erika Schwartz is a pioneer in the use of bio-identical hormones for preventing illness and their direct link to overall wellness, as well as their interconnection with diet, sleep, and stress management. She joins the show to discuss the world of hormones: what’s lifestyle-driven, what’s hormone-based, and how to know the difference. She breaks down the powerful role of estrogen (including topical use) to the balancing effects of progesterone, the impact of testosterone, thyroid, and adrenal health, in addition to each of these players' effects on energy, mood, metabolism, and longevity. We also cover PCOS, when it may be time to start HRT, and the best timing for blood work to get accurate results. Whether you’re curious about optimizing hormones for the first time or deep in research, this conversation brings clarity to a confusing space—merging science with real-life application.This episode is brought to you by YNAB, Ned, Puori, Just Thrive, LMNT, Hungry Root, and Fatty 15:YNAB: Listeners of Well can claim an exclusive three-month free trial with no credit card required at www.YNAB.com/wellNed: Get 20% off your first order by visiting www.foriawellness.com/BLONDE or use code BLONDE at checkoutPuori: Get 20% off when you visit by exclusive URL www.puori.com/BLONDE and use my promo code BLONDE at checkoutJust Thrive: Visit www.justthrivehealth.com/discount/well and save 20% on your first 90 day bottle of Just Thrive probiotic with promo code WELLLMNT: Right now LMNT is offering a free sample pack with any purchase. This deal is only available by visiting my link www.drinklmnt.com/WELLHungry Root: Visit www.hungryroot.com/blonde and use code blonde for 40% off your first box PLUS a free item in every box for life. Fatty 15: You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to www.fatty15.com/WELL and using code WELL at checkout.Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Auto-hue with Sunny Cars feels as if the children Not me's Beasel stramble Sandvorda Actisvercare Virdvind Vacantcy can chaotic

But who'sorgalos An Auto-Hurts Says No No Stress No eigener Noxed Novert to cost Always Follettive

So footh U Sonderger Sonders Go to your Reisadvisor Orsonicars. The following podcast is a dear media production

I have to say that this year I really got a hold on my finances and changed the way that I look at money and saving and spending. And it's all thanks to YNAB. YNAB is a life-changing app that helps you do what you want with the money that you have. And it's so easy. You basically create a flexible plan for your money through the simple practice of giving every dollar a job, keeping you focused on the life that you want.

So it's not a traditional budgeting app where you are looking at how much you can save. you're really looking at how you can allocate your money and make sure that you have enough money to cover all of your expenses, including the things that you want to do. So you cover your rent and build an emergency fund without sacrificing dinners with friends or that long-awaited vacation. And you really stop wondering where your money goes and you start deciding where it will take you. I highly recommend going back and listening to my episode with Jesse, the founder of Wynab, because he gets into their approach and why it's different, and it really is life-changing. 92% of users report feeling less money stress since using Wynab.

And the average Wynab user saves nearly $600 in their first month and $6,000 in their first year. So listeners of Well can claim an exclusive three-month free trial with no credit card required at www.y.w.com slash well. This is Well, a podcast about wellness in all its forms. I'm Ariel Laurie, and each week, I'm sharing unfiltered conversations with people shaping how we feel, live, and look. Come for the substance, stay for the honesty, and leave with the tools to be well, inside and out. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I have a really valuable and important podcast episode today.

I think all women should listen to this, and I think everybody will get so much out of it because we are talking hormones. There is so much confusion around hormones, what they all do, when and if to start hormone replacement therapy, hormonal conditions like PCOS. So we are getting into all of those today. I am talking to Dr. Erica Schwartz. She is one of the best people, in my opinion, to talk to about all of this because she is a pioneer in the use of bioidentical hormones for preventing illness and their direct link to overall wellness, their interest. their interconnection with diet, sleep, stress management for more than 30 years, she has been advocating for bioidentical hormone replacement as the safest, most effective path to increased health span and highest quality of life. And this is what she focuses on in her practice. She's really passionate about longevity medicine and achieving optimal health and well-being for her patients.

Dr. Erica has authored eight best-selling books. She has had multiple articles and publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, Vogue, Town and Country, The New York Post. She appears frequently on TV shows. She is a faculty member of A4M, the world's preeminent longevity and functional medicine organization. She hosts the popular redefining medicine podcast, and I just loved talking to her. She is so passionate about helping women feel better and helping women age better. And I know you guys are going to love this episode. So please enjoy Dr. Erica Schwartz. Welcome. Thank you. It's such a pleasure and in person and to be here. Yeah. How cool is that?

Yeah. Amazing. I'm really excited to talk to you. I told you before we started recording that I've been listening to some of your other interviews. And I just think that you're incredible. So to start, why don't we give the audience some context? You can tell them a little bit about what you do. But also I think how you got into this work is really. interesting and it really informs why you practice the way that you do now. That's a long question. Yeah, lots of parts. A lot of questions. Well, the boring part is I'm a doctor, like a conventionally trained doctor. And I started by running a trauma center, and then I went into private practice because I wanted to have contact and connection with patients because I made the mistake of thinking that going

to medical school was going to give me the opportunity to be a healer. How ridiculous. Well, then I realized it didn't. And then I took a turn. And when I took the turn, it was really early 90s. Like, I don't know you were born yet. But 85. Okay. Close enough. Close enough. You look gorgeous. Thank you. But anyway. There was no help. There was nobody there. and I thought life is a continuum of health with small interruptions when you're sick. So why are we doing it the other way around? It made no sense to me. Now it makes sense to everybody.

So first I got into hormones because I had patients who were taking hormones and were doing okay, but you know, this is before hormones became like bad things. So they were taking them but they weren't doing so good. great, and then one patient came, and she asked me to write a prescription for something I had never understood, I had never even heard of, which was what we call now bioidentical hormones, as in what our body makes. And I wrote the prescription, and it went to California someplace, to L.A., and she loved it. And then a few years later, I went into menopause at 46, and I was taking the same hormones I was giving everybody and I started feeling horrible. I was bleeding. I was, it was like stupid. So you mean

synthetic hormones, right? You know what? Everything's synthetic because it's made in a lab. So it's pharma. But they have to look molecularly like what your body makes. So I called this guy in California, who was a compounding pharmacy. I called them, I asked them to send me whatever I had sent to that patient. He sent to me within two weeks. I felt like myself again. But I was a I needed to literally a PhD in biochemistry to be able to do what he said, which was some stuff was creams and some were tablets and some were powders and some you had to refrigerate. It was ridiculous, really. But I did it because when you're desperate, as you know, you do a lot of stuff.

So I did it and I felt fine. So he did me the biggest favor because what he did is he opened the door from me to figure out how to do it. So I found a compounding pharmacy locally where I am in New York, and I worked with the compounding pharmacy for three years, and with my patients as very willing to work with me. And we came up with what became the hormone solution, which was the first book on it, that turned out to be number two on Amazon, because it was at the right time and the right place, because the women's health initiative that studied the destroyed hormones really for no reason. I'll explain that to you if you asked me.

Yeah, I wanted to get into the correlation that they made to cancer. Is that what you're referring to? Yeah. The whole study was just like ridiculous, but I'll tell you about it. Anyway, so all of a sudden, I was the expert. And then the rest is history. But what happened was that the women's health initiative looked at, like you said, the wrong hormones. They never looked at bioidentical hormones, which are called natural hormones, because they look like what our body makes. The study was fully paid for by pharma.

Now, nobody knows that because it was a government study. And Merck and Wyeth and, you know, all the pharma paid for the hormones that were distributed to the women that were tested. and the academic institutions received them. The government took the money, the academic institutions took the money. The women were post-menopause more than 10 years. They had pre-existing conditions. There were smokers. They had all kinds of other problems that now you wouldn't study.

Those women is your example of who you want to give hormones to. But anyway, when the study went askew, which was like five years in, what happened was that they got scared that the truth would come out and it still hasn't come out really but they were scared that it would come out so what they did they said all hormones are bad for you get rid of them seven million women were taken off hormones that's a lot of women and you know what the north american menopause society the american college of obstetrics and gynecology who are the OBJANs who, you know, were supposedly the experts, who know nothing about hormones, really,

because they don't get taught anything about hormones, turn around and said, no more hormones, and what's the option? What's the alternative? The alternative was you dress in layers. So if you get hot, you can take the layer off. And if you get really hot, you can drink some water or whatever, which I thought was beyond offensive.

And that was before. the youths of the world came to save me, literally, because it was like screaming in the dark. And now, this is the funny thing. In 2011, I went to a conference in Italy, because it was in Italy, really, to tell you the truth. I would do the same thing, by the way. It was beautiful. It was really beautiful. But it was the International Menopause Society. So they were talking about hormones. And there's such a thing that's very confusing, but I'll make it very simple as far as I can explain it because it needs to be explained. There is no such thing as class effect, meaning all estrogens don't behave the same, all progesterones don't behave the same,

all progestions, whatever, they don't behave the same. If they don't look the same molecularly, they don't behave the same. So at that conference in 2011, there were researchers who said that there was no class effect. However, the information never crossed the Atlantic. I came back, I told everybody, well, we're right, we did it right, it's right, makes sense. Their doctors said, no, they cause cancer. Excuse me, there's no data. In 2013, the principal investigators of the Women's Health Initiative came out and said that there is nothing to worry about because when They compared the women in the study with women who were in placebo who didn't get the drugs, there was no change in what they call all-cause mortality.

So women, nothing happened. So this was a really horrible thing. But guess what? The media did not cover that study, that report from the principal investigators. It was like just didn't exist. So it left a lot of women wondering, it's just yet or not. the way women get screwed. Yeah. As you're speaking, I'm just thinking in my head, women suffer so much and we suffer so

much unnecessarily, whether it's because we're left out of medical research and we're left to our own devices or because we don't get the right care and the right guidance or things are like super normalized. I'm just thinking back, this is kind of a random example, but something that I know a lot of people have been through. I got an IUD many years ago. I had it for about seven days because I had insane pain. My irritability, anxiety, everything was off the charts. And my doctor's solution at that time was to go on an opioid. And I'm sober.

Of course. And even if I wasn't sober, I wouldn't want to do that. But it was the most painful traumatic thing. Culposcopies. I mean, all these procedures that are horrible. Just take it out. And it's so minimized. and I know so many women have been like kind of traumatized by this.

Really traumatized. So, you know, just so many things. But I guess I want to start. How do we unwind what is a hormone issue and what is a lifestyle issue? Because I feel like they're so intertwined, especially now because hormones are so trendy to talk about and there are so many hormone experts. And it's hard to even know. Like where do I even start? Is it the lifestyle habit?

Is it the hormone? What's at the root of it? Good question. they're long and they're good and now you're testing my memory right so this is the thing first of all let me address the last thing okay the reason i came out and i'm doing what i'm doing now is because there are too many self-appointed experts and hormones they don't know anything about it they have no experience i've been doing it for 30 plus years i pretty much started this and it's just for me because I love women, obviously. I've proven it. It seems horrible that you're also capitalizing on our

fear and our lack of information sharing. So that's why I came out, because I think it's time to tell the truth. And that's why I came to you. That's why I'm going to go to anybody who will listen to share the information because we need to change. This has to change. Health care is a disaster, especially for women. So that's one thing. We'll address the rest of them. When you're talking about hormones, right? If your hormones are imbalanced, like we mentioned before, right, you feel great.

However, if your lifestyle is not exactly imbalance, you stay up all night, you party a lot, you don't exercise, you eat junk, you drink, alcohol, you know, eventually your hormones, are not going to be in balance. So if your hormones are out of balance, you're not going to be okay. And when you look at lifestyle, and this is how I learned about it because I started with hormones, then I realized that thyroid and adrenal, which are hormones too, were part of it. And in order to get things better, I needed to fix that. But once I realized that, and I do it kind of in a layered fashion, I realized that I had to know what my patient did, who my patient was. I had to know everything because the closer you and I are, the more likely I am to figure out who's doing what

to whom. So lifestyle is crucial, but you figure that out already. I think a lot of people are figuring that out. But my hormones are still a mass. Well, happy. I'll take care of that. That's easy, actually, because your lifestyle is great, because you realize the connection. it's easy. What becomes important is the right hormones because, as I said, there are people with 10 million followers who have no idea what they're talking about, and then they show up in my office saying, and I'm not feeling better, and it breaks my heart. You know, I was listening to you, I was watching you, and I was so impressed with what you've done because you have done exactly what I'm teaching 45-year-olds, 55-year-olds to do. Because the moment they own it, the moment they say,

this is my life. I'm going to listen to what you say, but you, the doctor, don't live in my body. So if it makes sense, it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, maybe I won't. And that's my goal. Doctor does not know best. You know best. And I'm going to tell you a story that's going to make your head like spin. because I'm still spinning about it. A few weeks ago, and this is like really recent, I had this woman come in, a new patient, and she had been diagnosed provisionally from California, she came, to have some kind of very low-grade possible,

not even probable, possible thyroid cancer on a biopsy. So let's pause here, because we will react to that immediately and say, get it out. Because that's all we think about, because that's how we've been trained. So I look at the, so she said, I need you, Erica, to, Dr. Erica, to help me figure out my hormones because afterwards my thyroid's going to be a mess. They want to take my whole thyroid out. So I go through the report with my physician associate who's been with me for six years,

and the two of us really research everything. So we make sure we take seriously every patient we see. and I say to her, well, this is a provisional report. You know, provisional is not a permanent. It's not a final. It's just provisional. So I'd like a final report. The woman's scared, and she's a very successful businesswoman, right?

So she's like, I'm so scared. I'm like, you know, like petrified about this whole thing. So I'm like, you know, let me give you some thyroid medication to make your thyroid the rest because I see and the studies supported that, you know, thyroid cancer sometimes come from the thyroid's overstimulated. So relax it. Let it relax. And let's see what happens. And let's try to get the final report. We never get the final report. The poor woman is so stressed. And I say to her, listen, I will stand by you regardless. I have no ego in here. All I care about is you being well. So whatever you want to do, I'm going to support it and I'll be there for you.

She decides to have the thyridectomy because we were all brainwashed that if you have anything that smells or sounds or might be cancer, immediately get rid of it. Well, maybe not. So guess what? She has the thyridectomy and the report comes back and there's no cancer. Oh, God. But this is not alone. She's not alone. She's a majority because when we're talking about conventional medicine and I'm a conventional doctor and I've been saying forever I'm a conventional doctor because I feel that what I do is what medicine needs to become. Because if medicine becomes the kind of medicine I practice, we'll all be okay. We'll enjoy our lives. Like you said, we'll be well. And that's the goal. Well. Anyway, it happens all the time.

So she writes to me this email that actually made me cry. She doesn't know it. It made me cry because I thought, she said, oh, Dr. Erica, you were so right. I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you, but I was so stressed and you basically said to me, whatever works for you. And I thought, you know what, it breaks my heart that we're still victims, that we still don't have the strength to say.

This doesn't make sense to me. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to wait because we get so scared and so intimidated. And we get intimidated by the way they throw surgeons, doctors and conventional medicine, throw numbers at us. And they'll say, you have a risk of 3%. First of all, it's a relative risk because you don't know what the absolute risk of you or me would be because you don't know me. So that's one thing.

The second thing is a risk of 3%, let's say, or 10%, means you don't have a risk of 90 or 97%. Why aren't they saying it that way? Why are they saying it in a way to scare us, to paralyze us, to stop us dead in our tracks from living our lives? Why? We need to change that. Yeah. When it comes to being optimally hydrated, there is so much more to it than, just drinking water. In fact, drinking too much water can actually lead to a depletion of things

like minerals and electrolytes. So you really need to be supplementing that difference, especially if you are working out, if you're eating a low sodium diet, if you have that glass of wine at night, you really need to make sure that you are getting those electrolytes because they do so much more than just help to hydrate you. They really help to balance your nervous system, help to balance the fluid ratios in your bodies. Electrolate deficiency or imbalance can cause headaches, cramps, fatigue, brain fog, and weakness. So the way that I have always supplemented my electrolytes is with element. It's a zero sugar, electrolyte drink mix, and sparkling electrolyte water. Born from the growing body of research, revealing that optimal health outcomes actually occur at sodium levels two to three

times government recommendations. Each stick pack delivers a meaningful dose of electrolytes free of sugar, artificial colors and other dodgy ingredients. And they have the best flavors in the game, in my opinion. I love the grapefruit. I love the citrus. I love the orange. But all of them are so good. And right now, you can get a free sample pack with any purchase when you use my URL. So that's eight single serving packets free with any element order. It's a great way to try all eight flavors. So you can get yours at drink element.com slash well. It's only available through my link. Again, it's D-R-I-N-K-L-M-N-T-com slash well. I cannot believe that it's September and with fall upon us. It is back to school, back to work, back to the day-to-day grind of life. And let's be honest, planning meals can just make everything way more stressful, but it can

be simple and stress-free. So imagine having your week of meals already decided for you with personalized options that fit your lifestyle. This is what makes hungry roots such a game changer. So they really take the stress out of meal time by planning a full week of meals tailored to your tastes and the hungry root algorithm essentially gets smarter with every order. So there's over 15,000 recipes to choose from each week. Many are ready in just 15 minutes or less. And they have so many options, whether you're gluten-free, dairy-free, high-protein, focused on gut health or just about anything else. Hungry Root really helps to keep you on track.

All you do is take a quiz. And then their smart cart technology builds a weekly menu that fits your need. So it's basically like having a personal meal planner who just gets it. I love their gluten-free sweet potato and black bean tacos. I have been craving them. And when I get back from traveling, it's probably going to be one of the first things that I order. But everything is so good. All of their ingredients are held to.

high standards. They avoid over 200 additives and artificial flavors. Everything is just really quality. And right now I have an exclusive offer. So for a limited time, you can get 40% off your first box, plus get a free item in every box for life. Just go to hungry root.com slash blonde and use the code blonde. That's hungry root.com slash blonde. Code blonde for 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. Everybody wants to know what to do, to support their aging, but a lot of people don't know that through studies, there was the first new nutritional deficiency discovered in 75 years called cellular fragility syndrome. So obviously nobody wants cellular fragility syndrome. Health and longevity start at the cellular level. And this syndrome

is caused by lack of the essential fatty acid C-15, as many as one in three people worldwide may have low C-15 levels and cellular fragility syndrome. So to fix this, we need to supplement with C-15, which is what Fadi-15 contains. It contains pure C-15, and it helps to repair age-related damage to cells, protect them from future breakdown, and activates pathways in the body that help regulate things like sleep, mood, and our natural repair mechanisms that support our overall health. So Faddy 15 is a science-backed award-winning vegan patented 100. 100% pure C-15 supplement. It's vegan-friendly, free of flavors, fillers, allergens, and preservatives. It has three times more cellular benefits than omega-3 or fish oil. And a lot of people don't know

that fish oil often goes bad in the bottle before you even take it, so it isn't even helping. So by replenishing our cells with the essential C-15 nutrient, fatty 15 effectively repair cells and restores our long-term health. It's clinically proven to raise C-15 levels resulting in lower cholesterol, healthier liver function, improved gut health, and improved red blood cell health within three weeks. So fatty 15 is on a mission to optimize your C15 levels to help you live healthier longer. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription starter kit by going to fatty15.com slash well and using the code well at checkout. So I know that my audience really loves the science and I would love to, if we can, just kind of break

down the major hormones and maybe the signs that they might be off because I'm sure a lot of people listening are like, okay, at what point do I need to go in and get, I don't know, a hormone panel, when do I need to test things? When do I need to consider going on some kind of hormone replacement therapy? So what are like the major, we can talk estrogen, progesterone, just really quickly. Adrenal, thyroid, whatever you think. And kind of like what they do and what happens when they get a little bit off? So, first of all, they all work together. So when we tried to separate their effects,

we're doing ourselves a little disservice. When you're on birth control pills, let me go back to your IUD story, they put in an IUD with hormones in it, and it's not biodentical hormones, but by the synthetic hormones, they put us in menopause. They basically shut down the pituitary,

which is the master organ that says make hormones, don't make hormones. And it tells the pituitary to tell the end organ, the ovaries or adrenal, to not make hormones because you're menopausal. Sorry to interrupt, but is that the same with hormonal birth control? Yeah, totally. I went on that when I was 14 because I had one pimple, you know, and I was on until my early 20s, and I'm sure everybody listening had a similar experience. Of course.

I think that I probably am the only person who has. two daughters in high school, not on birth control pills. And they would come home and say, everybody's on birth control pills. And I'd be like, if you're going to have sex, condoms, because birth control pills won't protect you from sexually transmitted diseases, and they will also screw up your hormones. So they eventually gave up and listened to me, and they did fine. They survived. Anyway, so when you're talking about hormones, you have to realize that we're exposed to hormones all the time. Never mind that it's in your diet, not in your diet, not in my diet, hopefully, but they're in our diet. The microplastics affect our hormones.

Everything we breathe affects our hormones. So our hormones are doing a juggling act at all time. Now, let's talk about the hormones. So when we're talking about female hormones, we're talking about estrogen, which is three estrogens, basically, that we know of. There may be more, but only three have been studied. One is estriol, the estrogen of pregnancy, so that we're full of when we're pregnant. We use it when we're not pregnant sometimes to moisturize our vagina, but the truth is, we don't eat it. Estradial, which is the estrogen of youth, which is what you are full of.

Oh, God. Which is what I take supplementally for 40 years, literally. And then there is estrone, which is the estrogen of menopause, which we make. So we continue making estrogen. And that estrogen was considered reactive, that it caused cancer and things like that. Nobody knows what it really does. That's the truth. And that's scientifically the truth.

So what does estrogen do? Estrogen makes things grow. Not as in cancer. don't think cancer immediately. Think about the lining of the uterus when you get pregnant or before your period, or just your breasts makes things grow. The next hormone is progesterone. Wait, can I rewind and ask one kind of aside?

Topical estrogen cream for your face, yes or no? You know what? The answer to that depends on how it's made. And you know that. If it is made in a vehicle, right, like they have the liposomal, you're the expert and all of these things. If it gets absorbed, it'll make your skin stronger. And when you said that my skin looks good, it's probably because I've been taking estrogen for 30 plus years. Okay, got it.

So that's why. Thank you. Okay. But I'm taking it not on my skin. Got it. It's a, you know, the facial kind of thing. Anyway. So that's estrogen, right?

Yep. Progesterone. Progestone is the balancer of estrogen, right? Progestone is actually a hormone that's only made the second half of the cycle after you ovulate, if you ovulate, it stays there forever if you get pregnant. That's it. We don't know much about it. We know that the synthetic, non-human identical, I shouldn't say synthetic,

but non-human identical progesterone that is progestin and was that provera was the trouble in that study because that caused blood clots and cancers and things like that. But nobody talked about that because they're still pushing it when they want you to have a period when your period is late. They'll give you a few, you know, five days of provera, which is kind of, you know, what, maybe you should take this thing off the market. Maybe. Anyway, so that's progesterone.

Now, progesterone works great to balance the growing effect of estrogen, right? It helps shrink the lining of your uterus. Maybe if you have a period, you don't really need it because it'll slough off on its own. Sometimes it causes breast tenderness. Other times, estrogen causes breast tenderness. It depends on the woman. We're all unique. So the data on it is very strong to protect from endometrial cancer, which is one of the rarest diseases that anyone has.

So we're talking about making the lining of the uterus thicker and then you immediately get a biopsy which you don't need. But if you took progesterone, it would shrink it and you'd be fine. And I'll get to PCOS to remind me. Anyway. And then testosterone. Now, testosterone is an amazing hormone. Women make more testosterone than men. How about that one?

Only they don't make the same amount. So for our sizes, we make more testosterone than men make, which should give us some pause when we start talking to some guy who's trying to tell us that they're smarter or less of something. So we make testosterone. Now, testosterone's a great hormone. It protects us from Alzheimer's. It protects us from our bones falling apart.

It improves our libido, as we know, and it helps us build a muscle. Just a few. But remember what I said. All hormones work. They do everything. It's not like one thing only. But that's what testosterone is known for. We work with testosterone.

there is no FDA-approved testosterone formulation for women. OBGYNs will tell women to take a male dose in a small amount, which I find, how scientific does that sound to you? Are you out of your minds? I mean, it's pretty on theme for this whole conversation. Exactly. From what we're learning. Right?

Yeah. But then on the other side of the mouth comes out compounding pharmacies that make compounded hormones make them unreliable because we don't know exactly how much there is. Well, tell me how much there is in the testosterone that you're taking from your boyfriend a little bit. How crazy is that conversation, really? Let's move on from testosterone. So I'll tell you about ways in which to take them.

Testosterone is the next one. The next one is thyroid. Thyroid is a really important hormone. When we do our bloods, we test for low thyroid, which is the thyroid stimulating hormone from the pituitary TSAH. That number will never tell us if our thyroid's too high. So when you give someone thyroid and that number looks zero, it disappears, everybody gets nervous and says, oh my God, you're hyperthyroid. You're not hyperthyroid unless you're sweating, losing weight, not sleeping a night, being high. That's hyperthyroid. So it's a subjective, you know, clinical thing. It's not a blood test. So that's an important thing to know.

Yeah, I've never heard that. Now you do. So thyroid actually helps a lot. The thing is that we only give endocrinologists conventionally trained and conventionally thinking. will give you only T4, which is the big thyroid hormone that needs to be broken down into T3 and T7 in your blood, but it doesn't. So unless you add T3, you can take T4 or a cynthroid or, you know, lavoxyl or vivo thyroxin, whatever you want to call it, for the rest of your life and you'll never feel great. The moment you add the T3, which is the active thyroid hormone, which is most likely to help when you're young or old, and in the middle you can kind of take the T3, T4, things change. I wrote a few articles in one of the conventional medical literature, PubMed research.

I love PubMed. Well, go to Google Scholar. Oh, really? Better. You get more information there. Oh, okay, great. So, yeah, but pub meds okay. They have the same ones, pretty much.

I don't know what I'm telling you Google. Anyway, but I wrote an article about sick-you thyroid, which is you're sick, but your numbers look good. So your doctor will say what to you? Come back on six months, let's test it. But you're not feeling well. Is the doctor noticing you? Are they listening to you?

you because maybe a little T3 might help. So that's the thyroid. And then there's the adrenal. So as you know, the adrenals are those glands we have on top of our kidneys, which are really important. They make the fight or flight thing. They make the cortisol. They make the adrenaline.

They do a lot of really good stuff for us. But they also get burnt out by our lifestyles, by not sleeping, by being stressed. by watching too many blue screens, by doing everything else. So a little bit of adrenal support will go a long way. Now, adrenal support, the good news is you don't have to take steroids. You don't have to take cortisol. You don't have to take prednisone. You don't have to take hydrochortisone.

You can take ashriganda, which is an herb, or you can take bovine, you know, powdered adrenal support. and it works beautifully. And I never give someone thyroid without adrenal support because they work together. What does the thyroid do? You know what the thyroid does. It pretty much is the master metabolic regulator. It may make you feel hot.

It may make you feel cold. But the point is, because it's the temperature regulator, but it's actually the master, it tells you how many kilo-calories you need a day, to burn fat, to not burn fat, to grow muscle, to not grow muscle. It tells you so much more. It's such an important organ. Don't forget about that. I can keep on going, but you're going to get bored.

Well, no. Oh, my gosh. I'm actually thinking I wish we had another, like, hour because there are so many kind of topics that we can dive into here, even just for each hormone. Sure. But I think that, you know, we primarily... Do you have PCO? Do you have PCOS?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's go back to that. But I was going to say, I think primarily we think about estrogen and progesterone and sometimes testosterone. And then we think of the other things like adrenal, thyroid, everything is kind of siloed off. Exactly. Whereas, you know, what you're saying is that they all work in concert together. Exactly. So let's just circle back on PCOS.

And then I'll ask you my next question. All right. PCOS. So PCOS is pretty much the diagnosis du jour. Right? It's kind of a throwaway diagnosis because you have nothing else you can say. You know, historically, it was a phenotype, right? So it was like you grew a beard, you're overweight, your periods were irregular, all these things.

And then it turns out that in the studies, it turns out that it was like mother nature's way of protecting our fertility. because you would get fertile later on in life. Interesting. It's just a factoid. Nothing more. The problem with PCOS is that nobody really cared about us enough to study us to figure out what would help. Well, I can tell you birth control pills won't help.

And you know that now, because it's not like you want to obliterate the testosterone by giving them synthetic, non-human identical estrogen. and progesterone, right? You want to actually help women balance themselves, right? So progesterone may be a good help. But your diet is going to be an even better help. Your exercise would be an even better help. Your sleep will be an even better help. And then the supplements you're going to be taking, which is your thyroid and your adrenal and everything else you're doing as you're putting the picture together. So PCOS, I would like to see less of it.

I would like to hear of it, less of it. Mothers bring me their 16-year-old daughters, and it takes us very little to fix it. You know, the GLP-1s come in very handy. I've been working with peptides, and I teach peptides. So peptides are great things. They're like little proteins, as you know, and they work hand-in-hand with the hormones.

And if you do it right and you do it careingly, the outcome is beautiful. I have been using and raving about Ned's mellow magnesium for years. It is one of my non-negotiables, especially when I'm traveling, which I am right now, because it really just helps to keep me on schedule as far as my sleep goes. It helps to reduce jet lag and any kind of stress on my body and anxiety that I experience. And I know that so many of you now use it and love it as well. and Ned is very excited to announce that they are now part of the Foria family. So since they've joined forces with Foria, there are even more ways to achieve your happiest, healthiest lifestyle.

Foria makes life-changing all-natural organic formulas for your most intimate needs. They have a serious cult following with hundreds of thousands of people who have had their sex life transformed through their products. So what this means for you is the same high-quality Ned formulas you know and love, perhaps with an improvement or two. based on Fourier's 12 years of experience in plant-based wellness, and it's a chance to easily explore Fourier's award-winning formulas with special offers on both brands. So you can purchase Mello onphoriaweilness.com, plus if you would like to try Foria's pleasure and intimacy formulas, they're offering a special deal for my listeners. You can get 20% off your first order by visitingphoriaweilness.com slash blonde, or use the code

blonde at checkout. That's F-O-R-I-A Wellness.com slash blonde. For 20% off your first order, I recommend the Awaken or their pleasure set, which includes all of their best sellers. One of the most common questions that I get asked seriously is about my protein powder. I'm always posting my morning oat or yogurt bowls. And I get it. There are so many to choose from. And when you are choosing something that you are going to be consuming daily, you want to make sure that you're getting the best, which is why I love Puri's PW1 Way Protein. So it's the only protein brand in the U.S. that has the Clean Label Project Transparency Certification.

This is achieved because they make all their third-party test results available via a QR code on the label. And they test against 200 plus contaminants. No product is ever sold unless it passes these tests. And this is important because Clean Label Project recently tested 160 top-selling protein powders in the U.S. and found that nearly half exceeded the proposition 65 safety thresholds for lead. That is definitely not something that you want from products that are supposed to support your help. So I love the PW1. It gives you 21 grams of minimally processed clean, high quality

weight protein powder. And it has no GMOs, no hormones, no pesticides. And the flavor is amazing. So I love the bourbon vanilla. It has no artificial ingredients and no overly sweet aftertaste like some other protein powders that I have tried. And we have worked an amazing deal for you. So you can get 20% off or if you choose the already discounted subscription, you get almost a third off the price. Only when you visit my exclusive URL, puri.com slash blonde, and use my promo code blonde. So go now to get this amazing discount. It's p-u-o-r-i.com slash blonde. Again, promo code blonde at purey.com slash blonde. There has never been a better time to take control of your health. And I think most would agree that a lot of it starts in your gut. Unfortunately, processed foods, pesticides

in your food, antibiotics, stress at work, and even toxins in the air you breathe can overwhelm your digestive system so that miserable post-meal bloat, indigestion, and more are all signs that your gut needs some help. So to fight back, luckily we have Just Thrive Probiotic. It's the only clinically proven probiotic and antioxidant comprised of science-backed strains to keep the gut healthy and balanced. Most probiotics on the market die in your stomach acid while just thrive survives 100%. So it's a probiotic that actually it works. And I know a lot of people are dealing with histamine related issues, histamine intolerance. This is actually a safe probiotic to use for histamine intolerance, whereas others really exacerbate the issue and it can actually help so much. So if you're

ready to transform your health in 2025, take the 90 day challenge, see how much better you feel in those 90 days or you will get a full product refund. No questions asked. They also have amazing other products. I've been taking their digestive bitters before all of my meals here on Martha's Vineyard where I'm eating anything and everything under the sun and my digestion has been on point. So visit just thrivehealth.com and save 20% on your first 90 day bottle of Just Thrive Probiotic with the promo code well. Again, that's justthrivehealth.com promo code well. Does incorporating bioidentical hormones too early, does it like, I don't know if this is a word, de-incentivize your body to make them or is it just added?

And how do we determine what is the best point to start? Is it when we go into menopause? Is it perimenopause? Is it just whenever we're feeling like we're having these symptoms and we have to test? Like what is the ideal time to start incorporating? I hope everybody listens to this answer. I'm praying. because I've been doing it for so long, and it's so important.

Before the new experts on perimenopause, pre-menopause, menopause, and post-menopause came into existence, which on one hand is great because it talks about it, right? On the other hand, I used to tell patients, please don't label yourself. Labels are the worst things we can have. You're Ariel, I'm Erica. That's it. That's as far as it goes. Every one of the people who's listening to you is an individual. So it doesn't matter when or what. But you want to know that instead of going to 50 subspecialists, and that's where the disaster started about 50 years ago, even before my time, right, that it started

by like what you said, siloing everybody in little silos. And if you fit in there, or if you don't fit in there, it doesn't matter. Your age fits in there, your gender fits in there, something fits in there, and then we'll just automatically have a protocol for it. It's not okay. I would love to know what our hormones are when we're feeling the best, wouldn't you? Then you know what your ideal is. And then when we start feeling like, all of a sudden, when you start having hot flashes, night sweats, it's insomnia, you're too late. My patients don't go through that. They don't go through it because they get it earlier.

Because by the time the 35, 40, they got it. They know what they're supposed to do. They know how they're going to be doing it. And when I come in, they'll say, you know, tell me to stop drinking. And I'll say, I will never tell you to do anything except for listen to your body. And then all of a sudden they'll be like, you know, I stop drinking and I feel so much better. Like, okay, doesn't mean you'll never drink again. You'll never have a glass of champagne or whatever.

It just means that you made the connection between what you did and how you felt. And that's all you need, because once you make those connections, you'll know when it's time. And the other thing is, we're not trying to replace the hormones. We're trying to supplement them. We're trying to rebalance them. HRT was the Premier and Provera story, which they were doing before the Women's Health Initiative. What we're doing now is we're trying to find balance as early as possible, as often as possible, and then once we balance it, we stay there.

Then we do the bloods, of course, so we know what ideal is when you feel great. I mean, I have to tell you, and I'm not bragging, it's more like the amount of time I hear the word magic, It makes me so happy because you know what, within two to three weeks, it's magic. You feel like yourself. And then if you feel like yourself, you can be a contributor forever. You don't have to be discarded. You can be part of it. And I think that that becomes really important.

So you don't have to wait to go through perimenopause. I have everybody in my office, 35-year-olds. Everybody's like, yes, I think I'm having a hot flash. You possibly are. you know, there are a lot of things that happen, but you have to put it into context and you have to learn yourself. And then you have to look and say, when was the last time I worked out? Hmm. When was the last time I ate something that wasn't drunk? That kind of stuff. And as you put the pieces together, things look a lot better. I have another question regarding testing. So if

somebody is not quite at that point where they're approaching menopause, or like desperately in need, but they notice that they're not feeling well throughout the month. When is the best time to look at hormones to get that snapshot of what's really going on? Because I know for myself, like, I know when I'm going to feel terrible. And it's like every week I have a different version of myself. And then I go and I get things tested. And it's like all normal and everything looks good. So is there a time that really shows what's going on or do we have to go in at different times throughout the month to get that

picture. Another great question. So it depends what you're looking for, right? If you're looking to see where you are as far as hormonal balance, you'll go the second half of the cycle and you go towards the end of it. So if you have a 28-day cycle, you go day cycle, you go day 17 or so. Because that will tell me if you ovulated, it'll tell me what happens to your estrogen and progesterone, testosterone, it'll tell me a lot. If you're looking to get pregnant, which is what every OBGYN is looking, you'll do it on day two and it'll tell you where you are. But I don't care about that. I care about you. You know, I'm much more interested in how you feel. So it would be the second half of the cycle. And that would tell me more. Okay, got it. Yeah, I heard you say on another interview that

something along the lines of like hormones open the door to feel. better and then you help your patients kind of walk through and figure out what else they can do. Oh, thank you. Yeah, right? The hormones will open the door a jar. That's what I say, right? But then it's up to you to feel confident, to feel good about yourself and say, it's now mine. It's my body. I can now do whatever I wasn't doing to make it better. And then you can. There's no question about it. There's no question. It doesn't matter. There's no such thing as age, you know, chronologic age. It's all physiologic. It's about, you've said it, lifespan. It's about you feeling good. And you're going to feel great if you're happy about yourself. And if you feel confident that you own it, that it's yours, that nobody else can take it away from you anymore. Yeah. I love that. Well, I could keep going for another. hour, but we're out of time. So tell everybody where they can find you, where they can buy your

books. You mentioned that your re-release is coming out probably around July. You can find me at Instagram, Facebook, Dr. Erica Schwartz, with a K, all in one, D-R-E-R-I-K-Schwartz. And the books are all on Amazon. And our practice is called Evolve Science. And it's got the handles ES Health. and that's on Instagram too. And you have a podcast too. I have a podcast, which is for A4M, which is the American Academy of Anti-Aaging Medicine,

which actually trains the providers that should actually become those who help us stay well. Got it. Amazing. Well, it was such an honor to have you. Thank you so much. It's my honor. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode.

If you liked the episode, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.pod. You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Lurie. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes, and we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening.

Hi, y'all. I'm Kinsey, and I'm the host of Housecast Podcast. I am a Gen Z, wannabe Martha Stewart, meets Dolly Parton, trying to live in a Nancy Myers movie. We talk all about life relationships and navigating your 20s. I'd like to say I'm multifaceted. I'm either waking up at 4 a.m. in the sauna tending to my garden or closing out the bars until 2 a.m. You just never know what you're going to get. It's either me at home and my house in Texas that I spend way too much time in or in the studio

with some pretty cool guest. You can follow us at The Housekispod and listen or watch all new episodes every Thursday, wherever you get your podcast or on YouTube. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.