Recently, I interviewed Dr. Jen Pfleghaar and she shares insights from her new faith-based book The Perimenopause Reset. We talk about hormonal shifts, environmental toxins, gut health, and stress and how nutrition, and simple lifestyle changes can restore balance. She also explains the correct fasting method according to your menstrual cycle, and how certain peptides may help in easing discomfort and supporting sexual health. If you would prefer to listen to the interview you can access it by Clicking Here [1].
Dr. Eric Osansky:
I am super excited to chat with the return guest, Dr. Jen Pfleghaar. Dr. Jen, welcome back to the Saving My Thyroid podcast.
Dr. Jen Pfleghaar:
Thank you! Thanks again for having me back.
Dr. Eric:
Let me quickly go through your impressive bio. Dr. Jen Pfleghaar is a double board certified physician in emergency and integrative medicine. She went to medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her training at St. Vincent’s Mercy Hospital, and she did her fellowship at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.
Dr. Jen brings more than just expertise to the table; she co-authored Eat, Sleep, Move, Breathe: A Guide to Living a Healthier Life and serves on the board of Invisible Disabilities Association. She is part of the American Osteopathic Association’s Bureau of Osteopathic Research and Public Health.
Her passion for healing isn’t just professional; it’s personal. After being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, Dr. Jen dove deep into the world of autoimmune conditions, hormone imbalances, and thyroid health. Now, she is on a mission to guide others toward better health.
Of course, her new book, The Perimenopause Reset: 28 Days to Energize Your Body, Shed Weight, and Find Peace with God is a faith-based guide that helps women restore their health, renew their energy, and reconnect with god during menopause.
When she is not sharing insights on Instagram or YouTube or running her health hub at HealthyByDrJen.com, you will find her cheering on her four children, spending time on her mini farm in Tennessee, lifting weights, or soaking up wisdom form her favorite book, The Bible.
Dr. Jen:
Thank you for that, Dr. Eric.
Dr. Eric:
We have to let people know about your background. Very impressive. Very excited to talk about your book.
The first question is: What inspired you to write your new book? Also, how does it differ from other books out there on perimenopause? I know one way is you mentioned it’s a faith-based guide.
Dr. Jen:
Actually, to be honest, I was praying last year/two years ago. I always thought I would write a book on thyroid because of my Hashimoto’s and reversing it. “Lord, I have just been doing what I thought you wanted me to do. I never asked.” I heard while I was silent in prayer, a book on perimenopause. I walked out that obedience.
It was crazy. The last decade, practicing integrative medicine at a brick and mortar in northwest Ohio, the majority of my patients were perimenopausal women. Not only their body feels like it’s being attacked, but they are gaslit when they go to their conventional doctors or even their OB/GYN. They are spiritually attacked.
We know the enemy waits until we are alone. The sheep that wanders off from the flock, they are alone, so they are the ones the wolves are going to go after. In perimenopause, we feel isolated and alone. We don’t always want to talk to our friends or husbands about how our body is changing and how we just feel crazy at the end of our cycle when we never have before. There are all these big changes that are happening.
I feel like the faith-based part of it is so important because it’s mind, body, and soul/spirit. We need to address all three. I have patients who are on the perfect supplements and hormones, and they still don’t find that peace. That’s what we’re all looking for: peace and purpose. This book ties in that part.
A teenager could read this and pick up some wisdom from it. Post-menopausal women could read it. It gets you to know your hormones. As you know, “physician” in Latin means “to teach.” That’s what it’s all about. It’s about teaching patients to know more about their bodies, so they can be part of the solution, not just someone to write a scrip pad to or tell what to do. They should be part of the team in their healthcare.
Dr. Eric:
I’m glad you mentioned that. Obviously, it’s targeted for women in perimenopause. One day, they could benefit from it. You talk a good amount about the impact of environmental toxins on the hormones. It’s getting worse and worse. I wasn’t going to start out with that, but why not. Let’s talk a little bit about the impact of xenoestrogens and all these other chemicals, how they wreak havoc on our hormones.
Dr. Jen:
Thyroid included.
Dr. Eric:
Exactly.
Dr. Jen:
It’s really hard. I will say the book, too. Men should read it also or at least skim through it. If you look at divorce rates, a lot of them are when a woman is between 30-50. They are going through that perimenopause change. Men learning this can be really helpful, too.
It’s kind of scary. This isn’t to invoke any fear, just facts here. We need faith over fear here. Our environment is really toxic. What filters a lot of those toxins are our liver. Women’s livers are so important for detoxifying estrogen and getting it through there the right way. A lot of these environmental toxins can clog up the liver, and our estrogen is not being broken down and removed correctly.
A good example is mold. I talk a lot about that in the book because mold is a really sneaky environmental toxin. 50% of homes can have mold in them. Recognizing how that can wreak havoc on hormones is important.
We also have environmental toxins like xenoestrogens, as you mentioned, that actually go in there and can bind to the estrogen receptor and activate it, or inhibit estrogen from binding there. We have all sorts of problems in the environment.
A lot of this is plastic or BPA. I struggle with this because I like a good Poppi or Olipop in the afternoon. The can is lined with BPA. It’s everywhere.
Did you see that study, how the glass top on the bottles had more BPA than can linings? What can we drink? So frustrating. It can be really difficult. I go through all of those things.
Just being aware of it, so you can make small changes. No one will be perfect. What are you storing your leftovers in? Is it in food-grade silicone or glass? Is it in plastic or Tupperware? This can leach into your food. Simple things. Even heavy metals. Aluminum baking pans. You should be putting down parchment paper or cooking in glass. These really easy swaps can help.
I talk about in the book a story for myself about how I had this non-stick wok that was so nice for frying. I made chicken nuggets that were gluten-free for my kids. I wouldn’t throw this non-stick wok away. It was the only non-stick pan we had in our kitchen. I had to throw it away. Even though it worked so well, it’s hard to let go of some of these things that are leaching into our body and causing problems with our hormones.
I share a lot of the stories because even though I had everything non-toxic in my kitchen, it was hard to let go of that thing. I get it. You want your eggs to slide across the pan. It’s not worth having forever chemicals inside of you that are interacting with your thyroid, your hormones, causing inflammation in your body.
It’s tough. Our environment is toxic. You have to do what you can in your home to make it as non-toxic as possible.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. Like you said, no one is going to be perfect. There is a lot that we can do. Many people, including myself, years ago, also had non-stick pans, things like the George Foreman Grill with the Teflon and stuff like that.
Dr. Jen:
Slides right off. It’s toxins. It’s hard. Listeners, don’t get overwhelmed. There are things that are just toxic. I wear contact lenses. Yes, there is some forever chemicals in them. I have tried the ones that are clean, and they don’t work. I can’t function. You have to pick your battles. I know people who travel with their own pans when they go to an Airbnb. It depends on how intense you want to get.
Is this really causing so much stress for you that then is hurting your adrenals, thyroid, hormones, and blood sugar? It’s definitely balance when we look at some of these environmental toxins.
Dr. Eric:
Exactly. Just try your best. You won’t be perfect. Just one of those things where you not only need to minimize your exposure, but also do things to increase the elimination of these toxins.
You mentioned the metabolism of estrogen and having a healthy gut. Microbiome is important for optimal health and detoxifying. Do you do functional medicine testing to look at the metabolism of hormones and the gut microbiome?
Dr. Jen:
I use stool testing to see if you need more support with how you remove estrogen. Beta glucuronidase, if that’s really high, it’s an enzyme that will be recycling estrogen. If people have dysbiosis or an unhealthy gut, they can recycle toxins and estrogens. If you’re not eliminating properly, it will be hanging out there.
One way to look at how estrogen is broken down in the liver is to do an estrogen metabolite urine testing. That’s really helpful to see how you break it down. Me versus my mom versus my friend, we are all going to break down estrogen a little differently. It’s nice to see where it’s not moving. It’s like a conveyor belt that gets stuck somewhere because something is not working, or someone is not taking the part off right.
If you go to a Jeep factory and watch how everything moves perfectly, if one person is not doing their job, it will all affect the whole manufacturing system. This is like our hormones. If phase 2 is not working properly, that will back up, and we will have toxic intermediates. That’s important also. You can get that test, or you can support the pathways.
Dr. Eric:
If you do the test and see an elevation of those toxic metabolites, like a 4 hydroxy for example, what approach do you take? Do you have the person take DIM or sulforaphane? Or do you have them eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables? A combination?
Dr. Jen:
A combination. I have DIM. Sometimes, I have them take that two weeks out of the month. A few studies show that if you take it continuously, it can affect testosterone. I take it every once in a while.
I try to do a lot of broccoli sprouts. Make my handmade burger patty with an egg on top and bacon. My favorite meal. I will put broccoli sprouts on there. You can get that from food. Broccoli sprouts are really high in sulforaphane.
Supplements can be helpful. One supplement is called Liver Aid. It has a bunch of herbs that support liver detoxification. Often, our liver is just not functioning as well because of the environmental toxins or alcohol. That’s important.
Also, NAC or glutathione is very important for phase 2 metabolism. Sometimes, that is where women get stuck a lot. They’re not going down the good pathways.
It’s very important when we look at the urine metabolites that you look at where you’re stuck and why. Like I said before, mold can clog and stress the liver. Alcohol stops estrogen from being metabolized in the liver because alcohol is a toxin. Your body has to get rid of it, so you don’t die. You will do the estrogen later.
That’s why it’s very interesting if you follow the allowed alcohol allowance before it affects your health. For women, it used to be 1-2 glasses a day, and you won’t go over that. Then it was one glass a day, and you’re fine. Now it’s zero. If women have any alcohol, we now know that increases your risk for hormone-driven cancers like breast cancer. Men can have one drink, and it won’t affect anything.
It’s very interesting because especially during the pandemic, all of these people- We were in Ohio, and our governor is DeWine. People would make it a thing. He’d come on every night at 3 or 4 to give an update on the situation, and everyone was like “Wine down with DeWine.” That is the worst thing you want to do for your health: drinking copious amounts of wine.
We have to be careful as women. I know women are targeted for advertising for alcohol or making it cool. It’s not. Really watch your alcohol intakes, especially heading into perimenopause.
Dr. Eric:
Do you think it’s okay to have an occasional glass of wine? Once a week, let’s say?
Dr. Jen:
Alcohol is a poison, right? I am not into the fad of everyone drinking THC because you shouldn’t be driving or operating vehicles with that. There are more natural things like L-theanine or DHHB or peptides or oxytocin that can regulate us. Vagal nerve stimulation, right?
Tonight, I am going out to dinner with my husband. I will have a smoked old fashioned, right? I am not drinking to escape. I am not drinking to cope. I know it’s a bad decision for my health. Same decision if I would have woken up today and not have lifted weights. It’s all risk and benefits.
If you have true informed consent of what it’s doing to your body, and you will trade off on that. I don’t like to be legalistic about religion or health. We can’t be so legalistic about it. We need to have informed consent.
The study is really for women, no. None of it. Wine, yes, there is resveratrol and some positives, but there are sulfites in a lot of them. It’s a balance.
I’ve had patients come to me who have seen other providers, and they were on really stringent elimination diets. It was stressing them out. They got worse. We need to have a balance.
Do I feel better when I don’t drink alcohol? Yeah, that’s why I usually don’t drink a lot. But I like my smoked old fashioneds. Now that we moved to Tennessee, I fit in.
Dr. Eric:
There you go. I’m not a wine drinker, but I have a lot of patients ask if it is okay to have a glass of wine once a week. I’m with you. The less you can drink wine, the better. If that’s the worst thing someone is doing, is having a glass of organic wine once a week, and everything else is pretty good, it’s probably okay.
Dr. Jen:
Yeah, it’s the why behind it, too. Why are you doing it? Is it to escape? Is it to feel buzzed? You have to be careful. It’s a slippery slope. If someone is going to have one or two drinks once or twice a week, let’s see what else is going on with their body. It probably will be okay, but they still have to know what it’s doing to their body.
Dr. Eric:
It also depends on where they are. If someone is starting with me, the first few months, I will encourage them to take a break from wine completely. Not only is it a toxin, but it can affect gut permeability. I want to do everything we can to optimize healing. It does depend on the person.
Dr. Jen:
Personalized medicine.
Dr. Eric:
Exactly. Let’s take a step back and talk about the basics. How estrogen and progesterone are affected during perimenopause. Also, if someone is doing a blood test, since you have those fluctuations of hormones, how do you test? What day of the cycle do you test?
Dr. Jen:
Perimenopause is defined as before menopause. Menopause is a year without a menstrual cycle. Perimenopause can be five years or 10 years. It’s pre-heating an oven. If you preheat your oven versus your neighbor’s or a friend’s, they will all preheat at different times. We can’t just say it’s a hard and fast rule for everyone.
I will have some women in their mid-30s have perimenopausal symptoms. This isn’t an overnight, bam, here we are. It’s gradual. Your body is aging. Your progesterone is gradually going down. Your estradiol is going down. Then we have these fun surges in estradiol, and it can be up and down. Some cycles, you have extra estrogen because of how FSH is looking at the follicles that aren’t as robust as when you were younger. We are having this fluctuation of estradiol.
My mentor, Dr. Pam Smith, she is very conservative—so am I because of her and what I’ve seen with giving hormones and how you do it. Because that estradiol is up and down, we usually don’t replace estradiol during menopause, just progesterone.
Progesterone, we know it’s declining. Progesterone is what is really shining during that luteal phase of your cycle, that second half. You have bleeding, then the follicular phase up until ovulation, then ovulation, then until the next cycle, the luteal phase.
The luteal phase is what starts to go wacky for women during perimenopause. They are more irritable. They might have anxiety. They have weight gain. They have heavier cycles, cramps. Some of them have never had these symptoms, and they are changing. What is going on? That is because progesterone is declining, and estradiol is still there. We are just getting a big gap in between them. They are having more estrogen dominant cycles.
When we give a little progesterone or use herbs like chaste tree berry to smooth that up, that can really help.
When I check hormones on women, I check them on day 19-21 of their cycle. I am most interested in where their progesterone is at its peak, which would be day 19-21.
You can do serum testing to start with. Sometimes, they want to use their insurance, or we are checking other labs, so we grab a baseline there. If they are going to be on hormones, especially topical hormones, we need to move to saliva testing. Some people are also using blood spot, but I like saliva better. It’s telling you what is actually active in the tissue as opposed to serum testing, where these hormones could be bound. They are not as accurate, especially when you are doing topical, which is going right to tissue replacement. We won’t see that in bloodwork.
I have had many case studies, where patients have come to me on estradiol. Some on oral estradiol, which is terrifying. They were post-menopausal, and they just kept getting increased and increased dosing because their OB-GYN and practitioner said their serum testing shows it’s still low. It’s not the right way to test.
Then I get their saliva testing, and they are massively overdosed on estradiol. Then their progesterone is where it should be; it’s fine. That’s a big gap. When we don’t have progesterone to protect our breast tissue, our endometrial tissue, that is a recipe for disaster, for cancer, for DNA damage, and bad things to happen.
In the hormone world, there is a lot of concern with a lot of things. It’s the wild west out there. It’s terrifying. You have to go to someone. Did they take a weekend course? Did they take a real course? Pam Smith has a personalized medicine course, which is great. Did they do an integrative medicine fellowship? Are they able to prescribe hormones, or are they telling you to order it from their website and rub it all over your body? I had that happen to a patient. It’s scary.
We want to start low and test, not guess. For perimenopause, progesterone is what we’re doing during the luteal phase. Then we adjust that as they get closer to menopause.
If you are having saggy skin because you’re getting closer to menopause, and your estrogen really is lower, or your vaginal health is not good, we can do some topical estriol to support that while we transition to menopause.
Yes, it’s still personalized. There are case areas that we are going to be more sophisticated and might use a little bit of estradiol, if you are getting your period only every nine months. That happens to patients. I’m at nine months, and they get a little cycle. We want first to do no harm.
With hormones, especially post-Women’s Health Initiative, when they scared women from using hormones because they were studying conjugated equine, synthetic estrogen, and progestin, synthetic progesterone, women are scared of it. Doctors don’t know how to use hormones. This is where I feel like women are just really not taken care of during this time. That goes back to how they feel alone, gaslit. They are just not doing okay.
Anyway. I’m really passionate about this. I know that women can feel good all the time. They can feel better than they did in their 20s in their 40s.
Dr. Eric:
Great to hear. I can definitely tell how passionate you are about this.
Just to confirm, when someone is in perimenopause, and no estrogen, just progesterone, and they would only take progesterone in the second half of the cycle/the luteal phase. Same thing, if you were to give chaste tree berry?
Dr. Jen:
For the most part, progesterone during the luteal phase. Oral extended-release dosing is really helpful because it helps with sleep. A small percentage of women don’t tolerate that, so we go to topical.
This would be the same recipe for someone in their 20s who is having very irregular periods. They are very estrogen dominant. We put them on a luteal phase progesterone topical if they are younger usually. We work on their estrogen detox. Then they are fine without nasty birth control.
I say “nasty birth control” because it’s awful. We all know that now. I don’t even know how they can still prescribe it honestly.
The chaste tree berry. If someone is in their 20s or early 30s, that’s great. That works centrally in the brain to support your body making more progesterone. We will give that for at least three months, and then you can recheck labs. That’s given every day. It’s an herb, and it’s working differently. You let your body’s natural secretion take over. That can work really well.
Some women are really responsive to it that they don’t want to do progesterone. If women are in their late 40s and are just showing perimenopause symptoms that are bothering them, and we test, let’s just go to progesterone. Your body is not going to be really awakened to make a bunch more. It depends on where they’re at. I also try to work with my patients on how their convictions are and how they feel, if they want to wait and try a supplement.
Dr. Eric:
Makes sense. Let’s talk about stress. How can chronic stress impact the hormones? Not just emotional stressors but physical stressors, overtraining.
Dr. Jen:
We know chronic stress can affect cortisol and the adrenal glands, but it can also affect your thyroid. You can gain weight. It really hurts progesterone. When we look at the hormone cascade, we have progesterone, and progesterone turns into cortisol. I like to say to protect the progesterone, and let’s keep your stress and stressors down. Really keep that progesterone. We see chronic stress can really affect menstrual cycles. Usually, it’s that luteal phase defect of progesterone.
Think about people doing chronic training or cross-country or marathon runners. What happens to them? They skip their periods. They lose their cycles. They become anovulatory. Their body doesn’t feel safe to be able to reproduce. Fertility is a vital sign, and our cycle is a vital sign of our health. Chronic stress and cortisol can affect in perimenopause your cycle and your symptoms.
This could be for a lot of different reasons. We can have stress, like environmental toxins or EBV/mono, stress on our bodies from an illness. We can be chronically fasting in the wrong part of our cycle, and that can cause stress.
Cycle syncing. I have a whole chapter dedicated to that. It really is important for women to know their cycle and know when they should be fasting. Seeing patients, I’ve noticed that if they do chronic intermittent fasting throughout their whole cycle and just push that more and more, they actually gain weight, and their hormones suffer. It puts stress on their body.
For fasting, or maybe doing carnivore or lower carb, I recommend that during the first half of the cycle. You’re more insulin-sensitive because estrogen is high. You will succeed, and you won’t stress your body out. If I do a longer fast or recommend patients, because I do recommend that they do a 24-hour or 36-hour fast during that follicular phase.
The luteal phase is when you will just have more calories. Your body will crave more calories. You’re more metabolically unfit. That is when you can lean into some more complex carbs. Make sure you’re not fasting. Eat breakfast. That will take the stress off your body.
Remember, some stress is good. It’s hormeses. A little bit of stress makes us stronger. Same with lifting weight. You break down your muscle to build stronger muscle. Women are special. We have this great rhythm where our hormones are different each day. We should not be pushing ourselves during that luteal phase. We will just exacerbate the problem we are trying to fix, which for a lot of women is weight loss.
Think about Orange Theory. It’s all about splat points, being competitive, and pushing yourself. Every day, you’re at the gym. No! You’re different during different parts of your cycle. I’ve had patients gain weight doing those HIIT routines chronically. They’re stressing their body out. If you’re stressed, your blood sugar will be affected. Cortisol will be up. You will gain weight where you don’t want it, which is around your belly.
Dr. Eric:
Intermittent fasting. First half of your cycle, not second half. You mentioned you will have them do 24-hour or 36-hour fasts. Will you also have them do a regular daily 16-8 fast during their follicular phase?
Dr. Jen:
Oh yeah, they definitely can. This is not a hard and fast rule. Today, I’m luteal phase, and I just had a lot of fat in my coffee in the morning. That is sustaining me through. I’m in ketosis, but I’m not technically fasting. There are mornings where I just need to eat. You need to be intuitive and listen to your body and not push through.
I will say I’ve had patients who have done intermittent fasting every day, and they didn’t feel bad doing it. Then we put a continuous glucose monitor on them, and they were spiking when they weren’t eating. We moved her to three balanced meals a day with a lot of protein and fat for breakfast. Then she dropped two pants sizes. She was post-menopausal, but it was very interesting to see that sometimes, we really need that data. We can fool ourselves into thinking what we’re doing is helping. Some people gain weight when they train for marathons, when they do restrictive diets and intermittent fasting.
For women who are frustrated with weight gain or what they’re doing, if you do those 24-hour fasts, great for rebooting gut health. If you were being seen for Hashimoto’s, it’s great to throw one of those in every once in a while to get that gut rested and healing.
If you can push it to a 36-hour fast, that is really good for fat burning. If I have patients struggling with some weight stuff, do a 36-hour fast once a month. Pick it during your follicular phase. Then it takes the guilt off when you know you are going to do more keto, more fat-burning in your follicular phase, and in your luteal phase, you can eat carbs.
I was telling my daughter because our cycles are synced together because we live in the same house. I am eating so many carbs; this was yesterday. It’s always the same part of our cycle. It’s just fun. You’re not restricting. You won’t stress out your body. Then I know my weight will stay balanced because during my follicular phase, I am working with my cycles and my hormones. I can do a 24-hour fast. I can eat lower carb. Wow, I don’t need to be so stressed out all the time about what I’m fueling my body with because I am working with that rhythm.
Dr. Eric:
So many women continuously fast throughout their cycles. They are not taking that break during that second half.
Dr. Jen:
It’s just so funny. Men, 24 hours, they’re the same. They get the same hormone stuff. For you guys, it’s so different. You’re not emotional about it. You’re just like, okay, it’s food. It’s fun to see the differences. This is why this is helpful for men to know this. Let’s plan stuff around this. You can support your wife to get healthy.
Dr. Eric:
Before we wrap up, I want to talk a little bit about peptides. We’ve had you on the podcast in the past talk about peptides. Are there peptides that can specifically benefit those who are in perimenopause?
Dr. Jen:
Oh yes. So many peptides always. Depends on what you’re looking for. I know weight is a big one. We know GLP-1s are always on everyone’s mind. I do like these.
I have non-negotiables with patients with this. As we age and are going through perimenopause and even menopause, you are losing muscle. Every year, you’re losing muscle. It’s harder to keep that muscle. If we are doing one of the GLP1s and we are not eating protein, lifting weights, if we are on too high a dose where we can’t even eat, that is bad news.
You’re losing muscle. It will be hard to get back, and you might not get it back. You will just be a bunch of flabby skin. We don’t want that. We want strong muscle for longevity and blood glucose control. Building muscle is actually an amazing way to fight insulin resistance and lose weight. If you are getting less insulin resistance, you will lose weight.
I do like GLP-1s because I will have women who are doing everything, and they are stuck in a circle of high insulin. Berberine won’t touch this. Metformin might, but let’s do a lower dose of a GLP-1 because they are already doing all the things, and that will help support them. Like I said, you have to have the right tools.
I will also put them on a peptide called PeptiStrong. That will help maintain that muscle, too, while they are going through GLP-1s.
Another one that I love is PT141. I pair a little oxytocin with that. I love it as a nasal spray. You can get that as a prescription from a compounding pharmacy from a doctor.
PT141 helps with sexual arousal. Sometimes, when we are going through perimenopause, we do have more stress. We have kids who are bigger with bigger problems. You are helping them go to college. You have parents who are aging. Plus you have a spouse. Plus you might have a career. There are a lot of things juggling. Everyone thinks it’s low testosterone that is ruining your sex drive. Let’s put you through pellets and damage your heart. That’s another topic, Eric.
Let’s be honest. Most lack of sex drive is from high cortisol. I like PT141. You shoot it up both nostrils half an hour before you want to be intimate with your spouse. PT141 helps with that arousal, and the oxytocin is our love hormone and bonding. It gives it a nice extra special flare. Men and women can use it. That’s a really nice peptide for perimenopause.
Of course, I love gut health peptides. If you are stressed in perimenopause and with the changing hormones, your gut can really suffer. I love Larazotide, KPV, and BPC157. The good news is those can all be oral preparations. You can just take them orally as a pill.
Those can really help support gut health and inflammation if you’re going through an acute, stressful event, or you are working on something. Dr. Eric probably works with a lot of patients with dysbiosis of the gut due to mold or candida or H-pylori. If you don’t have good gut health, that is going to have this downstream effect of your hormones, thyroid, all the things.
Those are probably some of my top peptides for perimenopausal women.
Dr. Eric:
I need to ask you quickly. I don’t have prescribing rights, but you mentioned you’re not a big fan of testosterone replacement.
Dr. Jen:
No, I am. This is what happens to perimenopausal women. These med spas prey on them. They don’t know how to dose hormones correctly. I wouldn’t get your hormones from a med spa unless they were trained appropriately.
Really only a handful of people should be using pellets. They don’t absorb well, or they won’t rub the cream on themselves for five minutes because they’re too busy. I don’t think that’s an excuse.
What happens is these pellets, they dose women really high on testosterone. Testosterone is a controlled substance. They are overdosed for months. Then they crash. For women, if you overdose testosterone and have low estradiol, that can contribute to hardening of your arteries. We know estradiol is protective. In women, we are not supposed to be on high doses of testosterone. We are supposed to be on just right. I am a big “just right” person, low and slow. We don’t need to overdose anything.
I argue that that is not functional and integrative medicine. If you are overdosing on supplements, hormones, anything. More is not better.
What I do for perimenopause with women is I have true informed consent with them. I tell them to use supplements to support testosterone because maybe it’s going to DHT or estradiol or estrone. If it’s continuously low, and also building muscle, which can help increase testosterone, we look at DHEA. I have an informed consent discussion with them. I say we can do a topical testosterone, low and slow. We will recheck saliva hormone levels and make sure where we’re at. Like I said, there is no magic pill. A lot of problems are stress and diet.
I love testosterone. About 20-30% of women need testosterone post or peri. Some women keep making it. Their adrenals. It depends on the patient. I don’t want to say that I have many women on testosterone.
Dr. Eric:
Thanks for clarifying. You don’t want to have someone take too much testosterone, which makes perfect sense.
Dr. Jen:
But they do it out there. It’s crazy. It’s like a ripple effect. You will feel amazing. If I give someone a shot of testosterone or a pellet, that’s why it’s a controlled drug, you will feel good. Then your body crashes.
I am sure you get a lot of patients who are overdosed on a lot of things. We have to back up there. Like thyroid medicine? That’s another example. T3. It has consequences. If your T3 is really high, palpitations, increased risk of congestive heart failure. We have to get back to balance and homeostasis.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. I see the opposite, too. Those with Graves’/hyperthyroidism who are on too much antithyroid medication. That makes them hypo.
Dr. Jen:
The methimazole.
Dr. Eric:
Exactly.
Dr. Jen:
That’s one of the hard things. That’s why we’re patient advocates. We’re there for you. It’s personalized. Everyone is different.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. This was an amazing conversation. Check out Dr. Jen’s book. Let’s tell everybody where they can find out more about you, where they can get your book.
Dr. Jen:
I’ll keep it really easy: DrJenBook.com. If you go there, you will find out more about the book, the freebies given with the book, and all the fun stuff.
I have a website, HealthyByDrJen.com. I have a bunch of free information and protocols and blogs on there.
I hang out more on Instagram, @IntegrativeDrMom. YouTube also. I have videos on there, like our mini farm, lots of education. You can take control of your own health.
Dr. Eric:
Awesome. Thanks again for hopping on the podcast, chatting about your book. I know there is a lot more great information in the book. I’m sure listeners are excited to get a copy of that. Again, thank you for joining us.
Dr. Jen:
Thank you so much.