Hi there! It’s me, Ann Marie! I’m launching monthly Office Hours for paid subscribers of this newsletter TODAY (SATURDAY) and I’d love to have you join. I’ve got this special offer: All you have to do is subscribe, then you can access the link in the post I sent out YESTERDAY (FRIDAY).
I’ll send a link to the recording of our talk out who subscribes by the end of the weekend ICYMI. Enjoy the roundup!
HRT is such an individual choice and consideration, and there is so much hype around it now that it’s almost impossible to know what to think or do. To cut through that, I’m always so curious to hear real stories from women about their experiences. So here is the first, shared with permission, albeit anonymously.
“Never been on the pill, vegetarian and healthy lifestyle majority of my adult life so was determined to ‘do menopause’ naturally. Found a lot of relief from maca, Korean ginseng, ashwagandha, complete lifestyle, vitamin and work schedule changes but ultimately had 2 dreadful years (18 months pre and 6 months post menopause).
Couldn’t work, felt like a zombie, zero joy in my life that I caved and went to see a private HRT specialist. (I’m in the UK). Cried for an hour then started low dose estradot 25 patch, progesterone capsule and vaginal estrogen 6 weeks ago and I feel like I’m finally living my life in colour again after 2 years of being a greyed our version of myself. If I’d known I could feel this much better I wouldn’t have struggled through 2 years of such utter despair and desperation. I know every case is different but for me this has been life changing, certainly relationship saving and potentially even life saving.”
If you have a story you’d like to contribute here, hit reply and let me know!
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Science stuff
• “We do not fully understand yet why this combination works but it seems that these three elements are key – avoiding animal products, reducing fat, and adding a serving of soybeans.” Dr Neal Barnard speaks to the Independent about the second part of his clinical trial on vegan diets and reduction of hot flashes in menopausal women, which was published in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. You can also check out my podcast with him back in 2021, when the first part of him was released: Dr Neal Barnard is a soy man
• If you are considering HRT, here is a very comprehensive, unbiased overview of the evidence and were you fit into it: Management of perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms British Medical Journal
• Infertility is linked to worsened menopause symptoms including depression, insomnia and irritability, according to a study published in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.
• Anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) is a member of the growth factor family and a marker of ovarian reserve; it also declines over time. This study conducted in Southern Indian women and published in Cureus is looking at using it to determine the age of menopause.
• Data from The Longitudinal Aging Study in India looking at 31,435 women 45 and above found associations between smoking and premature menopause, depression and insomnia, according to a study published in BMC Psychology.
• So this is why most ob/gyns don’t know anything about peri/menopause: in a recent survey, only 31.3 percent of residency program directors reported having any menopause curriculum.
3 things I’m up to:
Newsletter I’m reading: Amanda Goetz’s Life’s a Game. It’s new, it’s just basically the most helpful thing I receive all week, and she’s helping me re-organize what I do here so I can be more helpful too. For hurried women everywhere: her burnout issue was essential. Here’s a part about the impact of misalignment, which aspect few people talk about: “You push yourself to meet external expectations without pausing to consider your own needs and desires. When the activities you dedicate your time to don’t match your values anymore. I treated life like a check-the-box activity...lived exactly how everyone wanted me to live and it didn't end well.”
Work I’m doing: Recently I attended a truly transformational online TRE & Breath session. The TRE – Trauma & Tension Release Exercises – was led by Bryan Raymond, a transformational coach and master facilitator at Training Camp for the Soul (a beautiful movement if there ever was one), while the transformational family advisor was conducted by Tara Krieger. The combination of “tremoring”, aka mimicking the kind of shaking our body does after it goes through a trauma, with breath work sparked a big cry, some major realizations, and a profound and lasting shift.
Podcast I’m listening to: I really did not intend to listen to all two-plus hours of this episode of The Peter Attia Drive podcast, but sexual medicine specialist Dr Sharon Parish, a professor of medicine in Clinical Medicine and Clinical Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College just keeps dropping fascinating information and now I’m at the no-turning-back phase. This is just a masterclass on our sexuality, I’m super grateful to Peter Attia for his interest in the subject and elevating it, and blown away by how reductive and poorly reflective of our varied truths coverage in mainstream media and on social media is.
And… a book I’m pre-ordering
Dr Jen Gunter is writing a new book called Blood, billed as a “practical, inclusive guide to menstruation”, due out January 23, 2024. If you want a preview, you can read her take on the new spiral tampon approved by the FDA.
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