Welcome to the libido lounge, where we focus on all things love, lust, and libido. We believe that fabulous sex is important to health as exercise and good food. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the lounge. I'm your libido expert, Doctor. Diane Mueller. And today I have such a pleasure. I have such a treat for you guys. This is the girlfriend doctor, Doctor. Anna Quebeca, and I'm very excited about this conversation. Anna and I, Doctor.
Anna and I spent some time on New Year's Eve together, just chatting away about fun stuff as far as what we do in the field for supporting women. We're gonna talk today about some that we haven't actually talked a lot about on this show. We've been dancing around it so far talking about all these other root causes of low libido.
And now we're getting into the juicy topic of the essential thing that we have to have in order to have a healthy libido, which is hormones, healthy hormone level, healthy hormone balance. So welcome to the libido lounge, doctor Anna. It's so good to have you. Oh my gosh. It's wonderful to be here with you. Thanks for having me, Diane. It's such a such a pleasure. So let's go into just hormones in general since we haven't talked a lot about this.
When we're talking about hormones, what hormones are we talking about? And can you just kinda walk us through, just set the foundation of today's episode around what hormones are we talking about and what do they impact? Right? I think so many people think about hormones and they think about their menstrual cycle or they think about menopause, but there's obviously so many things that we know beyond that. So will you just kinda set the stage for us in in that regard? Oh, yeah.
I I like to think of hormones as, like, you know, I mean, there's hundreds and hundreds of hormones within our body that we've identified to date. Right?
And within that, like, if you think of the hormonal you know, all the different hormones that our body has, our reproductive hormones, which change with our cycle and change with our lifetime and how those are changing, We know that, like, in the early perimenopause, mid thirties to and, you know, on, our progesterone level starts to decline pretty sharply. And then with that, estrogen also levels also decline and fluctuate, just amazing fluctuations of estrogen. It's crazy.
It is a crazy hormone. And, and and those are two key of our reproductive hormones as well as DHEA, which for both men and women, DHEA affects your libido very, very much. And it is, and it starts to decline in our mid to late twenties. So we start to see this drift off of DHEA, which is a precursor, which makes further downline testosterone and estrogen. And testosterone is another hormone significantly we think of with the libido, and that gradually declines as we age.
Significantly so, again, the same time period, 35 to 55, but more so, you know, just gradually from there on out. So by the time we're in our sixties, we have 65 to 75 less testosterone than we did in our twenties. Yeah. Thank you for that. And, and I also think it'd be helpful for people to understand too, around all of these different hormones. It's like, okay, we have these changes with cycles, that sort of thing. So we're expecting these changes to happen as we age.
But one of the things that I think we forget about oftentimes is the impact on these hormones around brain and cognition. And, you know, sometimes we talk about, like, pregnancy brain or menopause brain. You know, we have these terms we throw throw around, but that brain impact too, I think, is one of the biggest things that that we see as far as the functionality of of life. So how do these hormones actually make a difference beyond, say, our normal cycles?
Yeah. So that's a big thing, this whole, you know, hormones in the mind and the brain. And I I trained at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia as a gynecologist and obstetrician. I had studied the hormonal pathways. I knew the rate limiting steps and the the enzymes that were involved. Right? But when it comes down to it, we really don't understand how that's affecting the rest of our physiology.
We know, as women, like, if we're having PMS symptoms, it doesn't just come with, like, you know, maybe a more, heavier, crampier cycle. It comes with, weight gain. It comes with mood swings, irritability, brain fog sometimes. And that is that's a those are significant neurologic issues.
And as we age perimenopause and and menopause and beyond into our second spring, we have, a significant shift in our brain's ability to use glucose for fuel because as estrogen and progesterone decline, our brain's ability to use glucose for fuel and make it also declines as well as other muscles within our body. It is you know, glucose is a key factor.
And what's happening here, because of that dependency on our hormones, on estrogen and we know and and probably progesterone, we see the irritability, the brain fog, the mood swings, the memory loss, the insomnia. And, like, those aren't GYN symptoms. So our hormones go behind beyond, you know, gynecology or or males males health and male sexual health.
And so during this time, well, you know, what I discovered as my own personal, you know, menopausal journey is not once but twice, now finally in my second spring of my life at 58 this year. So excited about that. And what I what we what I've seen, what I've witnessed is that when we switch, when we shift from using glucose as a primary fuel source to using ketones and bumping into ketosis in a regular basis, then what we see is that brain fog lifts. The memory is sharper.
Your ambition, motivation, willpower is all stronger. Your moods elevate, and those others endocrinological. So those are neurologic symptoms. The other endocrinologic symptoms that, you know, shift, like the, hot flashes, for instance, and the weight gain without doing anything different, those all resolve too. So that is that's a huge part of this hormonal shift. And how it affects our our libido is that, you know, it's it's affecting our reproductive organs.
It's reflecting reflecting our vaginal health. And that's a really big thing. It also affects our emotional health. So getting a control and the good news is, after all that, like grim, grim news, y'all, that the good news is that, you know, you know, we can do something about it no matter what you're dealing with. There's not I tell you, there's not one patient, thank God, to date that I haven't been able to help in some way or another. So this I mean, it's really empowering to know then.
I want people to feel empowered with this information. Yeah. I think it is empowering, especially when you, you know, talk about the changes in hormones in the thirties. Right? And so many times, we are not thinking about that in the thirties. Like, we wait until we start to experience the hot flashes or the weight gain to all of a sudden, you know, say, like, something's wrong, which, of course, is still fixable. And there's things we can do, and we can support and help and all of that.
But it's so empowering to think about, well, we can actually start looking at this in in the thirties. So as far as sexual health, hormone health, healthy libido, all these topics is the thirties where you would say from a preventive standpoint, is that when you recommend for most women, they really start to check-in on their hormones, get lab tests done, make sure that things are kind of in working order?
Yeah. I think it's a good idea to look at your hormones during that time and see what is you know, what's your natural balance? How is your estrogen detoxification pathways? That's the one that really seems to be most associated with getting us into trouble. But beyond our hormones too, looking at our full thyroid panel, looking for thyroid antibodies, checking vitamin d, which is more of a hormone than a vitamin.
And because that's necessary at every one of our hormone receptors to function properly, it helps us tweak. But I say it's never too early. It's never too late. Yeah. Yeah. I love that so much. It's, it's so like you said, it's so empowering. There's things we can do at any age. And I wanna talk a little bit more about DHEA, and I wanna talk a little bit about safety and those sorts of things. And your Jova product that I have here that I have to tell you a secret.
I have so I have all my travel bags. I have so many different travel bags for the different types of trips I go on because I'm always traveling. And there are certain things that, like, are literally in every single travel bag, so I never am without them. And Jova is one of those things for me because I have seen so many, like, amazing results. Like, I feel like I'm 44 this year. And so I'm kind of in the middle of kind of the, you know, the the stages of all of this.
And it's been the most supportive thing for, I feel like, vaginal health. I, like, experienced vaginal pain that it helped me with. I was experiencing numbness. It helped with that. My libido was really strong. I feel like it's I was even starting some of the vaginal dryness stuff, and this has helped with that. So it's been just like so broad and and wide as far as what I've seen with it. And I know people get scared sometimes about using some of these hormones.
And so from a fear factor, as well as like an application, like, you know, I use this as I know it's intended on my vulva and I know that also scares some women. So can you talk a little bit more about like the supportive nature of DHEA, what it does as well as alleviate some of the fears around use of this? Yes. Definitely. And also, like, Joel, I always say clitoris to anus, the most important real estate of our body, keep that healthy. We forget, you know, the clitoris will shrink as we aid.
The tissue around the urethra, so will thin out, and so we have more leaking issues, more urinary tract infections issues. We can reverse that. And then around the anus, anal fissures, you know, tenderness and pain and discomfort, and that's a really nice erogenous zone. So, like, you think about these things and you wanna keep it as healthy as possible.
And as a as a physician in practice, I was using I started really working into compounding hormones and, sexual health in 1999 with a patient that came in. She was 63. She'd had been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ and, of the breast of the left breast. And she was, you know, five foot ten, a hundred and fifty pounds, and just this silver haired, incredibly intelligent, woman who came to me and said, doctor Anna, my vagina is so dry it hurts to have sex. I have no sex drive.
I'm a woman of the sixties. I love my husband, and I'd rather die than live this way. Help me. And I was like, okay. She goes by Emory, you know, physicians won't give me estrogen. They say it's contraindicated. And so I said, well, let's look at the research. At the time, we knew that vaginal estrogen is is safe. And and then especially in her case and with her lifestyle and, you know, help you know, really at paying attention to healthy lifestyle.
And so the other piece was DHEA and testosterone. Very safe. Can even be beneficial. And so we can't hold that back. So I started working with compounding my local compoundant pharmacy, and I created a combination of creams, many for many different reasons over over the years. And, when I retired my practice in 2015, I'm back in practice, but when I retired, burnout, let's say, from my practice, my patients were like, doctor Anna, no one will give us your creams, lotions, and potions.
And, you know, really missing it. Peep many physicians just aren't trained. This is back in, you know, '2 or, you know, mid to, you know, 02/13 to '15. And so physicians aren't trained in customizing, creating a recipe for their patients now. Yeah. I love recipes. I've written three books, lots of recipes. My family of of gourmands and chefs and bakers. And so I'm like, okay. I'm gonna come up with the perfect concoction that you don't need a prescription for.
And so DHEA, because it's over the counter in The U. S. And it has such an extensive safety profile, it's been studied for over now, you know, extensive research over, again, over decades, but definitely over the last fifteen years in vaginal health in McGill University in Canada. And DHEA use in breast cancer patients vaginally and for you know, that's like our highest risk when it comes to hormonal cancers as well as endometrial cancer.
And so showed benefit showed benefit and no increased risk of, breast cancer. In fact, increased, quality of life and in and decreased mortality, less likelihood to die from breast cancer. So for me, it was like, there it's a no brainer for me.
But I knew from being in the cosmetic industries too, as as time has, you know, ventured with me as a chemist to working with natural skin care products and the importance of that, especially through my own journey of infertility at 39, diagnosed with early menopause. I mean, just to hell and back. And I had to find things that were natural, clean, and enabled my body to function healthier on its own as much as possible.
So I got into, you know, really understanding the ingredients in skincare plus with working with my compounders. And I added in plant stem cells from the alpine rose to my product, JoVA, that I created to be, you know, without a prescription that any woman can get in her own advocacy for her, pelvic floor health. And over again, over the years and more and more research shows DHEA to support our immune system. So we give it in our long haul COVID patients. We, you know, we'll optimize your DHEA.
And because of the stress and the, toxins that we've been, exposed to, it really has affected our glandular natural hormonal secretion. So I always wanna support the glands. And I do that nutritionally and with some herbs. And then also, you know, adding back topically natural ingredients that are safe, not just for you, but if you have a male partner, safe for them. Estrogen, not so good for your male partner. And so, and that's something people really don't talk about.
Yeah. It's thank you so much, and thank you for bringing up the, you know, the research on cancer and some of those things. I think more and more we're finding people are more educated on some of that that, poorly published research as far as those statistics. But it's just great to continue to remind people around safety profiles and that sort of thing. And I love knowing clitoris to anus. I'm gonna completely change how I use this product. So that's really helpful.
I'm also I also think it'd be worth talking about because I know more and more people that are seeking out holistic, functional, alternative types of doctors and clinicians are measuring their DHEA and reference ranges for this are so bad. So people will sometimes come in like women will sometimes come in with like a 65 DHEAS, DHA sulfate and tell me like, oh yeah, DHEA is fine.
So I know we both probably are very similar in, you know, I'm feeling like, Hey, we, we really want to bolster this up. So where do you recommend if people are getting lab testing? Like, how do they determine what is actually a good DHEA number? Yeah. And it depends on how the lab's tested. So sometimes people mistakenly draw a DHEA blood test. And DHEA sulfate, as you mentioned, that's the test we wanna look at in the blood. And we want that number for women to be over a 50 to 300.
But a 50 like, that's optimal for me, around a 50. It's hard, especially postmenopausally, to get up that high. But, again, we wanna empower our body to do that on its own. And that's really where we wanna be, at least over a hundred. But so many people, like you said, I see them in the teens, the, you know, thirties, forties. And they're just like, boy, you know, that is a good place to start with a patient.
And, in the saliva, if you're not on any, you know, steroids and, you know, salivary testing is tricky, but you can look at your DHEA and cortisol pattern throughout the day as well as with urine. Urinary, you're looking at DHEA metabolites, and you're looking at your cortisol pattern. You should be looking at your cortisol pattern throughout the day. So those are, you know, that's those are important ways to test and look for optimal levels there.
And you kind of want to look at the mid range, but not on blood work. When we look at blood work, and I know you go over this, Diane, but we are comparing the normal American population. So I encourage you to sit outside Walmart for, you know, an hour and just track the number of healthy people you see that you wanna be like.
Like, how they're radiant, they're smiling, they're, you know, in in they're fit and healthy looking at a happy, healthy weight, and, you know, and that's that's your that's your normal comparisons. Yeah. And so yeah. Yeah. I like I like I like Walmart, by the way. No. I like that image. It's a good it's very easy to, I think, put oneself in that, you know, that ability to say, like, oh, this is what we're comparing ourselves to. Like, this is what we're saying, like, healthy is.
Like, we really have so much to do as far as, I think, raising the standard of, like, what is actually you know, I I like to differentiate between what is common and what is normal and healthy. And just because it's common does not actually mean it's like a normal, healthy, you know, lab value.
Right. So I wanna talk in our last few minutes together about something we have talked about a lot on this show, but I think it's important in context to tie this whole hormone picture together, which is oxytocin. So our love hormone, our cuddle hormone, our touch hormone, our orgasm hormone, where does oxytocin fit in as far as hormone balance into this whole picture? Yeah. Oxytocin is the most powerful hormone of our body. It is in my hormonal hierarchy. It is the head honcho. Right.
It is the crowning hormone. And be, be, you know, under that is cortisol, insulin and adrenaline. And then further, you have all our reproductive hormones. So oxytocin is really powerful. It's also, not well known, but it this fact is that it's the most alkalinizing hormone to our body too. Oxytocin's been associated with, you know, happy, healthy marriages, happy, healthy, long quality of life.
The characteristics of creating oxytocin are common in the blue zones, the areas of the world that have the largest number of, people over a hundred. And also, it supports our immune system. And what people don't realize that as progesterone and estrogen decrease, that affects our production of melatonin, which also produces oxytocin. So if you're having sleep disruption, you're likely not making enough oxytocin. You may feel more disconnected, more alone, less social interactions.
And, and it's powerful to be able to create habits and do things that increase oxytocin. And having sex, intimacy, enjoying your partner, positive touch, and especially orgasm and climax, they increase your oxytocin tremendously. Yeah. Thank you. It's one of my favorite things to talk about, you know, because I feel like we have this amazing chemical in our body that really, like you said, is the master thing we get to modulate. We get to actually impact so many areas of our lives.
So this amazing chemical, like, regulator that so often it's like, it's so easy to be like, I'm too busy for pleasure. I'm too busy for touch. I'm too busy for sex. And so I think it's just an important thing to come back to of like, this is like the hormone that is capable of doing so much to bring us back into balance and joy and relationship and connection, all these amazing things.
So I wanna make sure we talk about summer of love and you guys that we're gonna have links to as far as how to get doctor Anna's Jola in our show notes here. So that'll be for you. Also wanna make sure that everybody knows that we'll have links on how to get a hold of you and work with you in our show notes. But what else do you wanna leave us with? And I know we want I wanted to mention the summer of love as well.
Yes. Yes. Definitely. And, I wanna mention too, like, one of the reasons that couples, you know, disconnect or there's a loss of desire, loss of connection is because of vaginal is because of vaginal dryness issues. The discomfort with sex, pain with sex, and, you know, improving the health of the vagina. It goes beyond sex. Right? Decreasing urinary tract infections, incontinence, keeping a healthy pelvic floor is critically important till we age. And so I've I really wanna emphasize that.
Sometimes we don't even know why we became roommates, but if you're not if it's not pleasurable, you're not gonna wanna do it. And so and it's so important because there is a way that we get a huge burst of the, you know, age defying oxytocin. So I wanna mention that. And, and I you know, especially as a gynecologist. And regarding Joppa, we are offering you your your audience, Diane, the free link to the free trial of Joppa. So it's a seven night trial, but you're gonna want the full tube.
And our summer of love sale is our biggest sale of the year for Joppa. So, encourage you to definitely take advantage of it, and let me know any questions you have. I have the most amazing customer service team. We're here to help. Thank you so much, and I hope everybody will take advantage of that and become a total Jova fan in the way I am, you know, fan girl of putting it in every every piece of luggage I have. Don't wanna leave home without it.
So thank you so much for being here with us today, and I really appreciate you and your time and your wisdom and and offering this, these gifts to our community. Oh my gosh. I love it. Thanks for having me. All right, everybody. Well, this is a wrap. You've been with us for another episode on The Lounge. Doctor. Diane signing off here, always reminding you to stay classy, stay sexy, and always be a little badass y. We'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to the libido lounge.
Please don't keep me a secret. Please share this with your friends. You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, as well as how to work with me at mylibido.com.