← The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
641. The Hidden Dangers of Suppressing Your Cycle: What Every Woman Should Know About Birth Control, PCOS, and Hormone Health
00:51:08
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- [00:01]
A
Once you start cycle syncing, once you start just owning. Oh yeah, in this phase of the cycle, I do feel that way. And nobody, no narrative, no cultural thing is going to gaslight me out of owning and acknowledging that I feel more interested in socializing in this phase of the cycle, or I am hungrier in this phase of the cycle.
- [00:23]
B
Welcome to the Thyroid and Hormone Fixer podcast. If you've been told everything is fine, but you're gaining weight despite doing all the right things, or struggling with brain fog, mood swings, low libido, or feeling like a stranger in your own body, you're in the right place. I'm Dr. Amy, the thyroid Fixer, and I want you to know right now, I see you, I believe you, and you don't have to figure this out alone anymore. We're going to do this together. But I'm also not here to play nice with bad medicine or empty promises. This show is meant to disrupt the entire health space. We're going to challenge the status quo, connect all the dots other providers miss, and give you real practical science back. Tools you can use.
- [01:06]
A
Today.
- [01:07]
B
You're not going to get any more recycled biohacking advice, just truth, strategy and hope. Let's get you back to feeling like the badass human you're meant to be. So if you've been listening to me for a while, or hey, even if you're new, you will soon learn that I am just brutally honest and very, very straightforward. So here goes. Are you ready for this? If you are struggling with your doctor, if you can't get your doctor to order the labs, much less even listen to you, about the fact that you now know that your thyroid needs T3, you now know that you have to look at the master gland because the thyroid literally determines what whether or not you're going to lose weight or lose your hair or gain weight or have energy or even be able to use your brain on a day to day basis, that's the thyroid. It's not your gut, it's not your adrenals. You don't need another detox. You need to fix the master gland. And oh, by the way, those beautiful hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. Yeah, they play in the same sandbox as the thyroid. So. So if you ignore those and you say, well, I'm just going to age gracefully, then you're just going to get disease sooner. When your thyroid is low and your hormones are low, the bottom line is not only are you more set up for weight gain, constipation, fatigue, hair loss, Brain fog. But you're also set up for a greater risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's cancer and heart disease. You can prevent all that and live an amazing life at the same time. So what are you exactly waiting for? I'm just curious. Are you waiting for next year to feel better maybe two years from now? Why don't you just do something about it right now? We prescribe to all 50 states. We do it the right way. We are specialists, true, honest to God, functional medicine, specialists in thyroid and hormones. Just go to functional medicine practitioner who's a jack of all trades and masters of none and is going to sprinkle adrenal fairy dust on you. You're going to be highly disappointed and you're going to be out of money. Go to Dr. Amy.com. click the big button at the top that says become a patient and just book a free call to find out what you can actually do to get better. We can do it for you. We do it every single day. We have helped tens of thousands, thousands of people live their best life ever. And, oh yeah, that's right, prevent diseases that will kill them. Don't wait another day. We don't know how long we have on this planet. We better take life by the reins and live it and live it to its fullest. And we can't do that when we're sick. So it is your choice. Continue being sick and be set up for disease or make a call to literally change your life. Now stop waiting. Do you want to burn fat while just sitting around? Do you have extra weight to lose? Do you want less inflammation? Do you want to reduce your oxidative stress? Do you want to improve your lipid panel, maybe become more insulin sensitive and once again burn fat while you're sitting there at rest at your desk or on your couch watching Netflix? Well, now you can, with the power of T2 that is in Thyroid Fixer. Now, Thyroid Fixer is not just for those with a thyroid problem. It's for anyone looking to lose body fat to improve their metabolism to have better energy. Thyroid Fixer actually works at your mitochondrial level, so it is stimulating your metabolism. It's also activating ATP, which gives you more energy, nice and steady through the day. Here's the other really cool thing that Thyroid Fixer does. It turns on a gene that prevents fat from accumulating all over your body. So that means, yeah, if you slip up and you have the Oreo cookie or the sweet potato fries, which are my two favorite, they're my downfalls, that is not going to put extra fat on your butt, your hips, your thighs, and your abs. Oh, and your arms. You don't want those jiggly arms. So why don't you just improve your fat burning potential and actually turn on a gene that prevents fat from accumulating on your body with the power of thyroid fixer. So, as a listener of the Thyroid Fixer podcast, your first time purchase, you can use the code listen 20L I s t n 2 0. We'll put that down in the show notes. And if you've already purchased it, but you just want to save a little something, something extra, then use the code listen 10L I s t e n 10 and grab some thyroid fixers. Stock up today because it will help you burn extra body fat. And who doesn't want that? What if everything that you were told about your hormones and your cycle and even that little pill you've been taking since you were a teenager, I. E. The birth control pill, was completely wrong? So my guest today was diagnosed with pcos. Back then, it was called that. Now it's called something different. While she was a student at Johns Hopkins, and her doctor handed her a grim prognosis and a prescription for birth control and called it a day. But she said no. She went on to spend the next two decades rewriting the playbook on women's hormonal health. She's the founder of Flow Living, the bestselling author of Woman Code and In the Flow, and the woman who coined the term you've probably seen all over social media cycle syncing. She's been featured on Dr. Oz, TedX, and just about every major platform that talks about women's health.
- [07:11]
A
And today she's here with us.
- [07:15]
B
So, Alyssa, welcome to the show.
- [07:18]
A
I am so happy to be here, Amy, and just thrilled to be talking about periods with you talking about period.
- [07:26]
B
So, first of all, was that intro correct?
- [07:29]
A
That was. The only thing you got wrong is pronouncing my name, which is fine. It's Elisa.
- [07:35]
B
Elisa. Why? I've been calling you Alyssa the whole time. Okay, well, Alisa, beautiful. That's even more pretty.
- [07:42]
A
I love that.
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B
All right, girl. So tell me about your pico story, which is now termed PMOs. So we just had this recent name change in the last, like, month or so.
- [07:53]
A
Yeah.
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B
So tell me your story. And then kind of can you break down for the listener, what exactly is pcos? Pmos. Because the diagnostic criteria has changed throughout the years.
- [08:05]
A
I find the new name change so validating because, you know, it used to be called polycystic ovarian syndrome. And that was the rename from the original name, which was Stein Leventhal disease, named after the two guys who sort of uncovered this pattern in women. And the challenge with PCOS is that it really was hyper focused on just sort of the ovarian part of the dysfunction around this disorder. But in my lived experience with my own journey, so, you know, I've talked about this everywhere just because it really changed the trajectory of my career and my life. But I didn't menstruate from the age of 12 to 22. I got my first bleed, which, I mean it was brown. It was not a real period. I was three months shy of my 16th birthday and I was, had been asking, you know, all of my pediatrician, like, what? Something's wrong, you know, I'm not getting my period. Like, no, no, it's normal to be irregular. Then when I finally could go to the gynecologist at 16, I was like, something is definitely wrong. And she's like, no, it's normal, you know, maybe you could be on the pill. And I said, I don't even have my period. And then I was at Hopkins and you know, the symptoms just got way worse. It went from not menstruating to obesity. You know, I'm 5 foot 6, I was 210 pounds. I remember the first time I told you that your jaw hit the floor because you know, we've lifted together and
- [09:26]
B
so can't picture it, can't picture it,
- [09:28]
A
but it was there. And in fact I have a picture on my website under my story. If you go to Elisaviti.com, you'll see the height of my weight at that time. And I was also covered, face, chest and back in cystic acne. It was, you know, those are the physical symptoms. But there were also mental health issues as well that were part of this total systemic dysregulation. So I was totally insomniacal, really struggled to fall asleep at night, then had a hard time waking up in the morning, was anxious, was depressed. It was really hard to function on a day to day basis and just get to classes and just socialize and do things. And so it was miserable, totally miserable. And I was determined to figure out what was wrong with me. Luckily, again, this was before the interwebs. I had access to the library at Hopkins. And so I was researching in obstetrics journals, gynecological, anything I could just try to figure out what was wrong. And I found this article about Stein Leventhal disease. I just read the classic presentation of symptoms, and I thought, that's me. This is the thing that I have. And I took it to my provider at the time, and I said, here are the tests that I think that we need to do. She humored me and did them and then called me back when the results were ready. And she said, you're right. You have this disorder. And I said, great. I was so. I mean, I was, like, elated. I was like, finally, after, you know, almost a decade of getting no answers, to have a diagnosis. It's a starting point at least. And I said, great, what do we do now? And that's when she kind of gave me the prognosis of, you know, your obesity is going to be a persistent problem, which will lead to things like diabetes and heart disease and increased risk for cancer and dementia. And, oh, by the way, you'll probably never be able to have kids naturally. And. And I said, okay, and what is your proposed plan of action? And she said, well, we don't know what causes this. We don't understand what is going on, but we do have some medications that could maybe help address some of the symptoms potentially, like, I'll put you on birth control. Then as things progress, there's medications for insulin and other things. And I said, you know, the whole. Anyway, as the story is well known in. In from Woman Code, I literally just in the moment of blinking as I'm taking all this information in, you know, whether it was divine intervention or just my body speaking to me, it was the crystal clear phrasing, that's not your future. And I repeated that to her, and she said, what are you talking about? Do you want me to write this prescription? I said, no, first of all, let's not go. I didn't even bother explaining the fact that it was illogical for me to accept a medication that would shut off ovulation when I was already not ovulating. But I just said, I'm going to go figure this out. And also in that moment, Amy, I recognize that conventional gynecology did not really fully have an understanding of, let's say, things that are, you know, sort of these outlier cases, whether it's fibroids or ovarian cysts or PMOs or idiopathic infertility. They don't have the tools and the treatment or the training to deal with those things. And I recognized also that I was one of millions of women who were likely suffering from a whole variety of these types of gynecological menstrual disorders. And I said to myself, if I can figure this out for myself, then I'm going to build something to help other women. Because I could not believe that. I, you know, was raised in Massachusetts, so I had access to the best physician care one could arguably have. Then I was down at Hopkins, which is equally phenomenal, and nobody knew what was going on, and then nobody knew what to do. So I felt really motivated to figure it out. And I have certainly done that. And what I like about the name change is that it really validates, you know, the protocol that I put together in my clinical practice. You know, before I started flu living, I saw patients one on one in Manhattan. And what I figured out in terms of resolving my PMOs was not taking an ovulation approach per se. But the name change, poly endocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, is so much closer to the truth of what's needed in terms of recovering from a disorder like this, because you have to approach the master regulating hormones of the endocrine system, right? The first step in the flow protocol that I used on myself and in all of my patients that I wrote about in Woman Code is stabilizing blood sugar levels. If you don't get that right, your endocrine system's primary job, as you know, is to safeguard the transport of glucose to the brain, the heart, and the muscle tissue that is your survival baseline. And if you dysregulate that day after day, right, over glucose dosing, right. Too many carbs in a meal, it's really hard for the. For the endocrine system to do what it wants to do to balance your sex hormones, which are way down the line from the, let's say, order of operations. And then we start addressing the adrenal glands, right? Because now the next master regulating hormone, after insulin, is cortisol. Right? We have to address that. So approaching the endocrine system, appreciating and respecting its function and sequencing. And that is how, you know, I was able to bring myself back into balance. And so many women, whether they have PMOs or not, turns out any. Any menstrual disorder has to kind of follow these same rules, which is why the first book, Woman Code, was so beloved by so many women, because it gave them a path of diet and lifestyle intervention that allowed them to interact with their hormones, with their endocrine system in a way that got results. So for me, my journey of Recovery looked like £60 just came off my body without doing anything special. My skin cleared up. I mean, that's A big one, because the amount of time it used to take to just cover it up to get out of the house. And you know when you have cystic acne. Yes. It maybe it isn't red because you put makeup on it, but it's lumpy and it's. It's uncomfortable. Yeah. And then, of course, just getting my mood back and my joy and my energy and all of that. And then, of course, my cycle, having an ovulatory cycle and a menstrual cycle every month, just such a glorious thing. I don't take it for granted at all. Any. Anybody who wants me to complain about my period is going to be waiting forever. Because I'm like, every time it comes, I throw a little mini party. I put on a dress. I have my special teacup. I'm not even joking. My girls know what day my period starts. They're like, oh, Mom's in her period dress. Like, got it. You know, they think that's normal, right? Because it's something for me to celebrate. I got my cycle back at 22, and I've had it ever since. And I. I know it'll come to an end at some point in the next five years as I'm 40, just turned 49. And, you know, it's a gift. Every ovulation, every menstruation, it's a gift because of all the health benefits that it confers. Right. We can talk about what ovulation does for you, but also just the fact that you are producing all those beautiful cyclical hormonal pulses throughout the month, throughout the day. Life giving, life giving. And for those of you who've either had PMOs or who are in the throes of very symptomatic perimenopause, you profoundly, viscerally know what it feels like to be deprived of those hormones of estrogen, progesterone, and FSH levels being not correct.
- [17:04]
B
Right.
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A
You feel that in every aspect of your health, your mood, your life. So, yeah, when I say your period's a gift, it sounds fun and cute, but it's really the truth.
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B
Oh, it is, though. It is. And I love that you're dressing up in a dress because you're actually teaching your daughters that it's okay to have a cycle. I think so many women today, and I do want to circle back to the insulin resistance component because that's huge, with 93% of all Americans having some form of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. But let's stay on the cycle talk right now, because so many women Hate their cycle. And we were talking even before we jumped on about how women will literally take birth control to stop their cycle. I mean, I just had a conversation with a 39 year old woman last week who was scheduled for. Now, I think she canceled it after our conversation. Scheduled for a hysterectomy because of heavy bleeding. That is just inconvenient for her. And I said, so you're going to go into menopause at the age of 39 because a little bit of bleeding is a little inconvenient for you?
- [18:11]
A
I mean, I have so many things to say. First of all, hysterectomy is still the most commonly performed surgical procedure worldwide to fix hormone problems. And that is like the equivalent of having a lobotomy to fix a headache. Yeah, right. So let's just, let's just parallel path that. Okay. Yeah, we can do so much better. You know, in terms of treatment. Heavy bleeding, flooding when you can't leave the house. It is, it is maddening. It does rob women of a quality of life.
- [18:44]
B
Sure.
- [18:44]
A
It can go way be. I mean, and I'm talking about the kind of heavy bleeding where you're bleeding through a super tampon every hour. That is more than an inconvenience. That is something is wrong and your body is overproducing the lining of the endometrium and you're shedding more than you should. And that could be a progesterone insufficiency, that could be an estrogen dominance issue. There's many reasons why that could be the case. That could be an estrogen metabolism issue, a gut issue. So we can kind of go into why those things could happen. But yeah, hysterectomy for that or being on birth control, that doesn't fix what's wrong. That hysterectomy obviously removes the uterus altogether, so that's that. But birth control simply puts you in sort of like a pseudo menopausal state where you're not ovulating, you have very low levels of estradiol and progesterone that you're being supplied with through the medication. Not enough to create a lining so that you eventually really stop menstruating. Right. Anybody who's on the pill thinks, no, but I still get my period. No, you don't still get a period when you're on the pill. You get a few breakthrough bleeds in the beginning until your body adjusts to these very low levels of hormones and you're not creating enough of a uterine lining to, to really shed Anything every month. So that is what your doctor will explain to you, like, oh, don't be surprised if you stop bleeding altogether because once you shut off ovulation, then you don't bleed. And so is birth control really the thing that we should be looking at for addressing all of these challenges, these menstrual challenges? I would say, you know, birth control is great if you want to prevent pregnancy. I think it's overkill because you know, you're only fertile for that like 48 hour window when you're ovulating and sperm can only live in the body for five days. So you've got about a week where you have to have some sort of coverage. Why suppress your entire endogenous hormone production every single day of the month for years when we're talking about a, you know, a five to seven day period of the month where you could be exposed to a potential pregnancy? Especially now in the age of femtech. You know, I started one of the United States first femtech companies back in 2012. That's Flow Living that you mentioned earlier. And just seeing what has taken place even in the past three years with Femtech, it is so exciting, gives me so much hope for the future of women's health and healthcare. But now with just basic tracking devices that are pretty trendy, from rings to watches to, I mean, they make earrings that do this. I mean, you can know where you are in your cycle. And if you're ovulating based on BB basal body temperature tracking or HRV correlation levels, I mean, it is very easy to know. And so then you can, instead of taking a medication, you could be using other barrier methods at that time to prevent pregnancy. So that's that.
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B
Right?
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A
But if you're going to Try to address PMOs or heavy bleeding or fibroids or endometriosis or idiopathic infertility or your perimenopause symptoms, taking this medication is not getting at any of the root causes at all. And I think that's just an honest conversation that we need to be having. Not to mention, you were recently on my podcast the Ovary Club, and you shared a statistic that had my jaw hitting the table. And it was that, you know, being on birth control, synthetic birth control can really increase your risk of developing hypothyroidism by almost 300%. Nobody knows that when they sign up to take that medication. In addition, it also affects your ovarian mitochondria, right, which are the powerhouses of. They're the rate limiting step in how your ovaries actually end up producing estrogen and progesterone. Right? So now those are suboptimal optimal, which means what are the long term implications of that? No one has studied that. And then on the macro level, it's dysregulating your gut microbiome, it's depleting you of the micronutrients that your endocrine system needs to function properly. There are a lot of opportunity costs. And then finally, I think the worst thing about it is that it suppresses ovulation. I mentioned earlier that it's a gift every month to have that. Why every ovulation you have during your reproductive years is like money in your health bank account for your post menopausal years. Because every ovulation is cardio, neuro and osteoprotective, meaning it's really protecting your brain, your heart and your bones today. And when you are postmenopausal, no longer able to ovulate, you want to bank every single ovulation. You don't want to miss a 1 unless you're, you know, pregnant, and that's a whole different thing. But you really want to get your period, you really want to ovulate.
- [23:45]
B
And women are not told this, they are not told that they want to ovulate. Okay, so let's unpack that a little bit further as to the why, what are all of the health benefits? I mean, you just mentioned bone, brain, breast, all of that. But, but why is that? Give me the science.
- [24:03]
A
So I mean, it goes down to, you know, that beautiful balance of FSH and LH and estrogen and progesterone and all of those hormones working in an anti inflammatory way, a protective way in all of these different systems of your body. What I think we don't appreciate is that the ovary impacts 10 major systems of our body, right? It affects our musculoskeletal system, it affects our nervous system, it affects our immune system system, it affects our reproductive system, our metabolic system, our integumentary system, which is our skin, hair and nails. I mean, there is our cardiovascular system. So the fact that we call them sex hormones is a little bit of a misnomer. They're really more like life hormones. You know, your ovaries are producing these hormones that you need to function in every system of the body. And interestingly enough, the ovaries also have receptor sites on the tissue itself for every hormone that your body makes. There's insulin receptor sites on the ovary, there's leptin Receptor sites on the ovary. There's cortisol receptor sites on the ovary, there's melatonin receptor sites on the ovary. They are really sensitive and listening to all of the dietary and lifestyle inputs that we have. And so when I say that you want to be ovulating and menstruating, it's because you really want to have access to, to those optimal, healthy, reproductive, age appropriate levels of those hormones. Remembering that birth control is not reproductive levels of hormones. They are sub reproductive so that they can prevent pregnancy. So you want to have all that beautiful estrogen at the right levels in your 20s. You don't want to have estrogen levels of somebody who's postmenopausal in your 20s.
- [25:58]
B
Right.
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A
How is that going to protect your bone density? It's not. It's not protecting bone density for women post menopausal either. So it really comes down to that interplay between ovarian health affecting all of these body systems, the fact that the ovaries make all of these important hormones that touch absolutely every aspect of our health, and letting that process take place in an uninterrupted fashion so that we can benefit from it.
- [26:23]
B
And so how do we get this message out? I mean, besides our podcast, obviously. Because I think this is, this is vital.
- [26:29]
A
This is key.
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B
Women need to know this because they've been taught their entire life to literally vilify their cycle.
- [26:36]
A
This is, I mean, and this is the thing that's frustrating. It's, it's not that the period is a problem. It's the narrative around it is not based in any actual science. You know, which is why. Yeah. And it's sort of why I ended up writing the second book. So my journey was, okay, I got my cycle back and I worked with my endocrine system and in the right order of operations, to recalibrate its functioning and restore my cycle. But now how am I going to protect my cycle? How do I live in a way that is going to keep my cycle healthy? And then I was digging and digging. What are we not looking at? And that's when I stumbled upon the infradian rhythm. And when I first came across that, I checked in with so many of my colleagues and they're like, I've never heard of that before. Isn't that shocking? Because we've all heard about the circadian rhythm, but we have another rhythm that governs our female cycle. Just like how the circadian rhythm goes beyond just governing your sleep, wake cycle. You know, it's really the Conductor to the orchestral timing of every function of the body. The circadian rhythm, the infraredian rhythm is, keeps this longer than a day cycle clock taking place. We experience it in ovulation and menstruation, but that affects all of these other body systems, right, as we just talked about. So I thought, well, how am I going to protect my cycle? Because not only is there this narrative problem, right, but just our lifestyle is so disruptive to this infradian rhythm. And that's when I decided, well, if we have a routine that supports our circadian clock, like waking up and going to sleep at the same time every day is one of those basic things that we all understand to support that biological rhythm. I said, we need something, a routine that is going to protect this biological clock as well. And that's how I ended up creating the cycle syncing method which has, as you know, gone viral since the book came out in the flow. But the idea there is we need to synchronize our self care to our cycle.
- [28:38]
B
If you've ever walked out of a doctor's office being told your labs are normal, but you're exhausted, gaining weight, foggy, frustrated, then this is for you. Being told you're normal doesn't mean you're optimal and it definitely doesn't explain why you still feel like something is wrong and feel like garbage. That's exactly why we created the Fixer Lab Test plus consultation. It's affordable, often less than ordering labs on your own from places like LabCorp or Ulta. And it includes comprehensive thyroid and hormone testing plus a full hour long consultation with one of my highly trained team members. We walk you through your results line by line and explain exactly what they mean for you so you can finally understand what's going on in your body and what your next step should be. So if you're done being told that you're fine and you're ready for rehab real answers, then go to fixerpowerlab.com that's F I X E R P O-W E R L-A-B.com and get some help that you need.
- [29:42]
A
And the reason why I'm bringing this up, as in answer to your question about how do we solve this narrative problem is, you know, sure, we can have the conversation about why it's scientifically ridiculous to have any problem with menstruation because it's a beautiful thing. It's a hugely remarkable thing that takes place in the body, both physiologically and just practically. Like, you know, no big deal. Your body 3D prints an entire organelle every month called the endometrium, which is this highly sensitive tissue that's full of stem cells and immune cells. And it's like this, such a cool thing, you know? And it's not just trash when it comes out of your body. There are men now who are setting up companies who are harvesting menstrual bloods and stem cells and using them for regenerative longevity purposes. I mean, this is gold. You know, your menstruation is powerful, so I can regale you of why you should think of it differently. But the better way that I have found, besides, you know, me, just sort of like fire hosing all of the wonderful thing. I mean, nobody loves your period more than me. And I'm happy to tell all those stories. I am the reigning period queen, as we all know. But the truth of it is, the better way to go about shifting this narrative is for each woman to build a relationship with her cycle herself. Because once you start cycle syncing, once you start just owning, oh, yeah, in this phase of the cycle, I do feel that way. And nobody, no narrative, no cultural thing is going to gaslight me out of owning and acknowledging that I feel more interested in socializing in this phase of the cycle, or I am hungrier in this phase of the cycle. Those things are true and real and need correct support. And you should not be taking care of yourself the same way day in and day out. If you have a cycle, once you start living in alignment with your cycle phases, that whole narrative crumbles like a dry sandcastle on the beach, just falls apart. It cannot hold itself together because once you experience it yourself, it's like you can't unsee what you're now seeing. You're like, oh, I am a total powerhouse, and my cycle is so awesome, and I love it. And it's not a big deal to take care of it. And when I have symptoms that I no longer joke about, I don't ignore them. I don't go along with the cultural joking narrative of like, oh, I'm just a, you know, a pain in the butt this time of the month, or I'm just moody because it's my PMS phase, you know. Now you take your PMS seriously, like the fifth vital sign that it has been decreed, right? 2016, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists decreed that your cycle should now be a fifth vital sign along the other four they take in the emergency room that are really important. Turns out there's a fifth one that's still. That is not yet still mainstream knowledge. So if you have a symptom, which is why I think tracking your daily cycle symptoms is such an important biohacking flex for women, you take it seriously. You don't wait until there's a crisis. You say, oh, this month I'm having more symptom burden around my pms. I'm having more types of symptoms and they're more intense. And then if you're using the app that I built, the my flow app, then you'll say, oh, something's up. You'll get a cycle health score. Right. Because what's the point of tracking your symptoms, Amy, if it's not. Not tied to your health and helping you improve your cycle health month over month? I mean, it's just silly. So you're going to understand what could be causing your cycle symptoms to be getting worse, and then it's going to give you an action plan of how to start improving that.
- [33:24]
B
Right.
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A
If you have cramps, turns out just changing some of the fats in your diet can get rid of cramps in 30 days. If you're having acne during ovulation, that's different than what's causing acne in the luteal phase leading up to your period. There's different approaches that you want to take from a supplement and diet perspective to support clear skin throughout the cycle. So it becomes a fun game, really, of using your cycle as a biohacking tool every single day of the month and really helps you stay healthier as a woman. You know, you joked when we were talking earlier because you thought I didn't know what. What was the book? The choose your adventure kind of book. Yeah. Yeah. Because you thought I wasn't. That I was too young. I'm 25 and I'm 49 and I'm still getting my cycle. And I would say that the. The reason why I think I'm aging as well as I am has to do with the fact that I was forced to start taking care of my hormones at a young age. Right. So I made all of these big moves younger in terms of keeping my blood sugar stable, dropping alcohol from my life, because that's just a glucose bomb and a, you know, you know, an infla major to the nth degree, you know, and just all the choices that I have to make as a woman who's actively keeping her PMOs in remission, the dividends are really interesting when you care for your cycle health. And I've been cycle syncing the longest of anybody on the planet.
- [34:48]
B
I invented the method, so I've been
- [34:50]
A
using it the longest. But I mean, the benefits of engaging in cycle health management, personally, you know, they pay huge dividends in the perimenopause transition. Right. I see women in my practice who are 42, 44 hormones have basically flatlined. Right. It doesn't have to be that way. Just like we have this negative narrative about menstruation, we have it about pregnancy, we have it about birth, we have it about postpartum, we have it about perimenopause, we have it about our sex drives, we have it about aging as a woman, and we have it about post menopause. It's a really oppressive narrative. The whole storyline that we have been fed as women about our bodies and our health around our hormones is that they are working against you. And it is total nonsense, unscientifically based malarkey. Like, I don't know, it's. And it's maddening because once you understand how they work and you start taking care of them, then you get to feel like you're supposed to, which is fantastic.
- [35:50]
B
It's fantastic. It's optimization lands what I always talk about. Exactly.
- [35:54]
A
No.
- [35:54]
B
Hormones give us life. And whether you have to take them exogenously or whether you are working on producing your own and allowing them to do what they're supposed to do in your body, just like you just talked about, they're key to longevity and quality of life. Now I want to circle back to that insulin resistant part because that really is a thread that we can pull through everything through bad PMS, to the weight gain, to the miss cycles, to the PCOS or PMOs.
- [36:22]
A
I mean, per menopause, hot flashes, night
- [36:24]
B
sweats, yes, bad, bad perimenopause, bad transitions into perimenopause and menopause. Thyroid conditions, elevated reverse T3 like we talked about on your podcast, driven by high insulin. So let's come back to that insulin resistant component because I think, and I want to get your take on it, but we now have a stat. 93% of all Americans have some form of insulin resistance or metabolic dysfunction, and yet we have these GLPs on the market that's supposed to solve all of this. So I feel like we have come out of the conversation of eating well, controlling your. Your sugar, controlling your carbohydrates, maybe taking some things to help naturally control your blood sugar. And now everyone's like, I'm just gonna take a GLP and eat some pizza and just call it a day, because I'll still be £10 later next week.
- [37:13]
A
Yeah, I mean, listen, and I get it as somebody who has struggled with weight and I've been 210 pounds three times. The first time was with my PCOS, like the full blown experience of that. And then the other two times were with my. Both of my pregnancies I'm very sensitive to estrogen. And both of those pregnancies, even though I was eating like a champion, like a health, healthy person, I was not. I mean, at no point was I like opening up a box of pizza in my pregnancies. You know, I was eating broccoli and yogurt and steak and, you know, I was doing it. Right. But my body, with that level of estrogen in the system, just started creating a lot of fat cells. And so it's just my, my thing. Yep. But in all of those cases, the weight loss was not a big deal. And it really comes down to really understanding how to manage your insulin levels, how to manage your blood sugar levels, levels. And I think that again, I have a lot more patience for this because I was forced to do this at a young age. But where I see the most frustration for women is this perimenopausal moment where they start to not be able to eat the way that they used to and maintain the weight that they felt was effortless to maintain. Because when you're hormonally healthy, maintaining your weight is pretty effortless. Right. You're thyroid's working, your insulin's working, your cortisol's where it should be. You're making the right levels of estrogen, progesterone. Your body is going to look fantastic. Right. You're going to have that flat stomach, you're not going to be bloated, you're not going to look inflamed, you're not going to be just gaining weight when you look at a French fry like, you know. But I lived the opposite of that when I was younger. And so I had to become much more disciplined now. So I'm used to it now. Here I am at perimenopause and I would say maybe two years ago, I said, well, it's time to even get a little more serious about my blood sugar management because obviously my body is aging, I am going through perimenopause, I'm in the later stages of it, even though I'm asymptomatic. So I know that as estrogen declines, insulin resistance increases. Right. And so I have to be even more sensitive about and intentional about how much glucose I get exposed to when I eat a meal. So I started doing things like tracking macros and occasionally using a CGM just to see how my body responds. And I think that there's a beauty in learning how your body responds to these different macronutrients. Right? Because then it isn't so much where you are put in a position where you feel like, I don't understand, I'm gaining weight, I have to go on a GLP1. I mean, certainly you might need to do that. Maybe it's part of your journey, maybe you're microdosing along with your hrt. You know, there's some interesting studies around that. But if you simply have like, you know, you just all of a sudden put on the perimenopause 10 or 15 pounds, that's easily addressed with looking at your levels of hormones, looking at your thyroid, getting honest about your stress and your sleep, your micronutrient depletion, and looking at slapping on a CGM and just seeing can you tolerate a bowl of oatmeal first thing in the morning? That may have been true at 25, but at 45 that may no longer be the case. And if you have PMOs at any age, just because somebody is on Instagram making a smoothie that looks semi pornographic, that is made with healthy ingredients, but is like oozing dates and sunbutter and God knows what else, that might just be too much sugar for you. And instead of it being an opinion or a dogmatic discussion about, well, I think it is healthy because it's made with dates. Just put the CGM on for two weeks and eat what you think is healthy for you and just track your response because then you'll get an actual set of data that you can work with that gives you guidelines to keep your blood sugar in the pocket that you need it to be in, which prevents all of this insulin resistance from being worse, which is so critical to ovarian health and hormone production. And why, as I mentioned earlier, the ovary has those insulin receptor sites on it. And if you are overexposed to carbohydrates and you are developing a degree of insulin resistance and the ovary is picking that up now, that's going to start negatively impacting mitochondrial function in the ovary. Those are the rate limiting steps for hormone production. So you could actually start making less progesterone, which is that anti inflammatory hormone, and that's when we start to see more PMS symptoms start. So I don't care if you're in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s. If you think you don't have to think about this until perimenopause, no PMS is a warning sign. That's like having a low grade fever. You should not tolerate PMS month over month because in your 20s it might be funny to joke about in your 30s it's going to prevent you from maintaining a pregnancy in the first trimester, that low progesterone, that luteal phase insufficiency, and in perimenopause it might kick you into earlier stage advanced perimenopause sooner and you're going to have more symptoms, right? And all of that gets tied back to how well you're managing some of these inputs to the ovaries. One of them being insulin via your diet. And no medication, I'm sorry to say, is a magic bullet for that, right? Even if you're on the GLP1s, you still have to be very intentional about what you eat, even more so because your appetite is so reduced, your gut motility is decreased, you have to be very good about protein so you don't waste muscle and you have to be good about fiber so that you can still move your bowels and. And it becomes even trickier. A lot of women certainly that I speak to are like happy that that may exist, but they don't want to go on that medication. They want the natural approaches, they want to do what they can. And that's really what I focus on is like how do we naturally support our hormone production because it's like cooking. You know, I'm Italian and I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I also like to eat. If I'm going to eat healthy, let's make it taste good. And like cooking, you can always add more salt to the pot, but once you put it in, it's harder to take it out. So that's really also true of medications, right? Especially the synthetic ones. It becomes harder to remove them from your ecosystem if you are jumping those things, jumping to those things too soon. And so if you only are Talking about a 10 pound weight issue versus someone like myself, right, who arguably could have been a candidate for a GLP1 had they been available back in the day, I still wouldn't have used it because it's really about getting to those root causes first and approaching your diet, your lifestyle, really taking responsibility and owning how your body operates, right? You got to do it at some point. And so unfortunately, usually we are all happy to wait until there's a crisis that motivates us enough, enough to take action. I wish that wasn't the case, but that is sort of human nature. Like, until the symptoms are bad enough, we're kind of happy to keep eating the junk food. But at some point, one of these hormonal inflection points is going to get you right. You're either going to feel terrible during your reproductive years because you've got endometriosis or PMOs, you're going to have a postpartum crash because you've, you know, dysregulated your, your whole hormonal ecosystem thoroughly leading up to that pregnancy, or you're going to hit perimenopause hard and fast and be miserable. And at those inflection points, that's the opportunity to give yourself the gift of really learning how to do cycle care properly. Cycle syncing is a really great part of that. I mean, and we did a clinical study on this and we published those results. And cycle syncing, we had women going through this for three months. By the end of the third month, 92% of the participants reported an 86% reduction in symptom burden and severity across the luteal phase. Meaning it's the cycle syncing is the closest thing we have to a natural cure for PMS. And it worked within three months. And people only had to be 72% compliant with the method. So you can just kind of half do it and still get rid of your pms, because we're really going in at the dietary input level to, to really support ovarian health. And that is the critical thing.
- [45:41]
B
Now, what about women who are in that perimenopausal state and their cycles are all over the place, they might skip a month and then have one and then it might be 35 days. Will the flow app help them? Will cycle sinking and practicing that help them to re regulate their cycles even when, if perimenopause has started?
- [46:02]
A
So that's a great question. The my flow app definitely is a place to start understanding where, how far down the rabbit hole you are. You know, perimenopause has several stages. The earlier stages, I have worked with many women who can kind of claw back their regularity and protect that into their 40s, right. If you've let things go too far and now we're talking about FSH levels are high and you're not ovulating and you know, you're, you're really in that second stage, then no, cycle syncing is not going to help you restore your cycle. What do you do then is you start to move from the infraredian lifestyle, which cycle syncing supports, back to a more circadian only lifestyle, which is what happens postmenopausally. We just revert back to what we were prepubescently, which was circadian dominant. So that means you focus on those circadian master regulating hormones. So you get that cgm, you dial in your macros, you take that seriously, right? Right. You eat at regular intervals. Your hormones like a routine. People do not skip meals, do not think you're a champion because you went seven hours between breakfast and lunch. I mean it's. Your hormones don't like that, the thyroid doesn't like it, the adrenals don't like it, the ovaries don't like that. And by the way, even if you're on bhrt, this is even more important. If you want to be a good responder to those replacement hormones, you've got to take care of your master regulating hormones. Right. You can't have your insulin and your cortisol and your thyroid levels all over the place. You've got to make sure that those are protected. Diet and lifestyle changes are the biggest levers we have to improve our health. Both, both on a, let's say, endocrine level, on an epigenetic level, on a biological aging level, it's the biggest lever. You can't out supplement or out medicate not taking care of that lever. You just can't.
- [48:04]
B
We were talking about that on your show too and it's like I, I came up with the, the answer of sleep and I'm like, doesn't everybody know this? But you're right, they don't. We need to repeat it over and over and over again because I think people are starting to get into that mindset of a magic bullet and they're, we're forgetting about the foundational diet and lifestyle component.
- [48:23]
A
You know, I actually, I've worked with so many Women over the 25 years that I've been helping women. And it's the funniest thing, you know, it's almost like you go up until you're a young adult where your parents, your mom is telling you what to do, what to eat, when to eat, when to go to sleep, when to wake up. And then like as part of our individuation process, we want to not be told what to do and we want to just not keep that routine. Right. You know, your mother, I mean, I have an 11 year old and an almost 5 year old and I regulate their rhythm Their routine, what they're eating, when they're eating it, when they're going to bed, when they're waking up. Because I want to protect their health. I'm trying to reverse engineer the complete opposite pubescent experience from the one that I had. Right, right. So far so good. And I tell them to prevent this problem from happening, I, I teach them why we're doing the things we're doing. Like my oldest one has homework on the computer, unfortunately through her school. And I say, okay, great, you have until 7 o' clock to use that laptop. After 7 o', clock, you cannot be exposed to blue light. Why Mom? Because it will prevent you from producing the melatonin that you're going to need to sleep. Sleep and to protect your pubescent journey. I don't want you getting your period too early, I don't want you getting it too late. I want that melatonin that your ovary is really sensitive to, to be working the way that it should so you can't do it. So she knows if she doesn't get her homework done on the computer by 7pm she has to do it over breakfast, which is perfectly fine. And so she's learning as she goes. That way we don't get to a place where we are, you know, young adult women, adult women. And we're still rebelling against mom. Because I really think the psychological root cause of why we all struggle to take care of ourselves and do these basic things like have a sleep wake routine that is consistent or eat meals at consistent times during the day is I think it's still like we haven't made peace, we're still mad at mom for making us do those things or something, or we're still rebelling against her. I mean, I'm not a psychologist, but this is, it's, I think we, we have to heal this. And really instead of externalizing that need, we need to start being our own maternal self loving energy. Right. Like cycle syncing is a, a very self nurturing practice. Taking care of your hormones in perimenopause. It's very self loving thing to do. You can call it putting on your oxygen mask, whatever, but you know, if you're counting macros, if you're meal prepping on the weekends, you, you're not angry doing that. You're like, that's like a, that's a loving act that you're giving to yourself. And I think, you know, we can biohack and be scientific all we want, but caring for your body, nurturing that that boosts oxytocin. That. And we haven't even spoken about oxytocin and its incredible role in women's hormones. But it is such an important thing to stimulate oxytocin response by being in a caretaking mode with your body. And I could go on and on, but I think we gotta stop thinking that it's fun to stay up late and fun to drink a bottle of wine and cool to skip meals when we know that the science says otherwise. And we gotta practice a different form. And I think it's happening. Younger women are like going to alcohol free bars and they're going to retreats where they're doing yoga. And it's, you know, the younger generations are understanding that there are consequences to these bad habits. But if you're in perimenopause now and you're still struggling with your weekly wine hangover and you're wondering why, and you're eating dinner at 8 o' clock at night and you're wondering why you're having hot flashes and night sweats, it goes back to your glucose problem and your insulin resistance. And so you got to have your habits. Protect your hormonal piece with your habits.
- [52:20]
B
Elisa, this has been so amazing and I feel like we need a part two because we need to go down that rabbit hole of oxytocin too, because that's a whole, that's a podcast in and of itself.
- [52:28]
A
Oh, yes, we got to talk about sex and health for women for sure.
- [52:32]
B
That's, that's a, that's a full podcast. So I'm just gonna have you back on, but we have to leave the listeners with something I want you to tell them where they can find you. But first question before you go there. If you could get every woman to understand just what one thing about her hormones, her cycle, her health, what would it be?
- [52:49]
A
One thing that, that any symptom you're having is a serious red flag that you want to start taking immediate action around. Don't wait, don't joke about it. Y. Think of, think of it like you're having a fever. Get serious about it. Yeah, for sure.
- [53:03]
B
And they can connect with you and actually work with you. So you have that amazing femtech. So yes, absolutely. Look, look her up and, and get on that. But they can work with you as well. So can you give more information where people can find you and work one on one with you?
- [53:17]
A
Sure. So you can go to flowliving.com where you can get access to the My Flow app and all the supplements that I formulate for these specific conditions and get that information there. You can also find me on my personal website, which is Elisaviti.com you can listen to me on my podcast, which is called called the Ovary Club of course. And and you can find me on social media, on Instagram and everywhere, which is either Flow Living or Elisa Edi
- [53:47]
B
and we will put all of that in the show notes. You guys don't have to remember it, you can just click down below. But this has been so phenomenal. So I'm going to ask all the ladies out there, which is probably going to be about 99.9% of them. If you have had cycle issues, PMS, PMDD, you're in perimenopause, you're in menopause, you have a daughter, you have a friend that is going through cycle issues. You know, don't ignore it. Let's do something about it. Let's get you back to that healthy flow state which is going to, you know, no pun intended. It's going to let your life flow better. And when you're in flow, when you're in sync, your whole life just expands and flows with you instead of against you. So share this episode with the woman that you love because this could literally help save her horrendous perimenopause. It could help her get pregnant. It could help her just enjoy life better. So thank you Elisa so much for coming on and doing everything that you do. And thank you all for listening as well. Make sure you share this the information shared on the Thyroid Fixer Podcast is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, treatment or before making changes to your healthc care regimen, including medications, supplements or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient or client provider relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcast have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Some episodes of the Thyroid Fixer Podcast may include sponsorships or affiliate links. The host may receive compensation for discussion, discussing, or promoting certain products or services. Any such sponsorships or affiliations will be clearly disclosed during the episode. All opinions expressed are those of the hosts or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsors. The inclusion of a product or service does not imply endorsement by any healthcare professional featured on this podcast.