How old were you when you started perimedophorse.
To be honest, I'm not one hundred percent sure. I guess I was probably I want to say fifty, but it just seems too late. But I it was about then that I started getting really sporadic periods.
So what were like, you're.
Getting sporadic periods until then.
So you're in your day to day life, do you notice.
The symptoms that something in your body's changing or like, what did you think was happening?
What did you feel?
Well, that was the first sign of it was that was my periods were late, and they were then they weren't. Then they were you know, early, Then they were heavy, then they were they were actually never light, they were very heavy because I've always had light periods.
But that always your periods always.
Been really light and pretty regular. Yeah, so yeah, it was although they were suddenly really heavy, so I thought, oh, this is probably the start of it. But to be honest with you, that really wasn't happening. And when I look back, low was about fifty, So I'm a late bluemer.
Do you think maybe that has anything to do with your gulf and strengthen your regular hormones?
And things like that.
I think it could have that part of that. There's certainly absolute research to say that women who are moderate to high activities will have potentially have lesser symptoms, and women who are lower activities potentially will have more higher symptoms.
Will you getting anything else.
At that point?
No?
At that point, no. But then I started getting really hot in bed and I was like, oh my god, I couldn't regulate my temperature. And then I was awake a lot at night because of that. Then I was just awake a lot at night because of no other reason other than just waking up and couldn't get back
to sleep. And I just really didn't think about menopause that much because it just wasn't really top of mind, honestly, which I find und astounding, Like I don't know why I didn't collate all of that and go, oh, oh, this is clearly I'm in menopause.
Do you think it's cause you feel young still?
Like, not that you're not young, but do you think because I wake up every day I'm maybe thirties, I still feel twenty. Do you think it's because you feel like, sure, you're not at that point.
Oh, there might have been a bit of that, you know. Certainly, when the periods were going all over the place, I thought, oh, this could be the start of the perimenopause. But then I kind of just let it go. But then I was thinking, oh, I'm not sleeping well. I had a lot going on in my private life, so I thought maybe that's part of it. Stress, just a bit of stress,
and just wasn't feeling great within myself. I noticed that i'd i'd had a wait, a change in my weight and a change in my weight distribution.
In terms of you put weight on or you'll lose weight.
I'd put it on and you no reason like feel like you're anymore or no.
But maybe I was, you know, like I look back on it all now, and you know, there definitely was a bit of a lifestyle change. Wasn't training as much as I usually would because I wasn't sleeping well, and I just didn't feel like I was a bit flat. Yeah, And so I went to my doctor about it instead of said, oh, you know, not feeling myself, I'm not feeling motivated, which is really unlike me.
Did you feel like feels like when you say flat, did you feel like it was like a bit of depression. Yeah, you were worried that you might have depression.
Yeah, I did. Never thought I was depressed, but I didn't feel my normal self. Yeah, and I just couldn't quite figure out why, other than the fact that I had stuff going on personally that was challenging. So I spoke to her about that. We did all I want to do a full test of all my bloods hormones, and what came back from that was that I suddenly had had had high cholesterol, which was like what you've never had, never, but my good cholesterol was superior, like
superiodically high. It was crazy. She said, what why would that be? And I said, well, I can only put it down. Do I eat a lot of amigasrees and lots of sardines and macrawlin like on the on the rig three or four times a week. So she's she wasn't too concerned about my cholesterol. She said, look, because your good cholesterol is so high, I'm not worried about that. I said, okay, But she said, another strange thing that's
come back is that your vitamin D deficient. And that's probably just because of where we live in the Southern Highlands. You're not getting outside as much. So just try to get out in the sun. And I was like, that's bizarre. Okay, so I started taking a supplement for that. Done really odd.
Yeah, but then thought, okay, maybe that's why I have no energy.
Maybe I'm just efficient.
And then so she prescribed me a new depressants.
Wow.
So she didn't even click that it could be perimenopause either.
We didn't discuss it.
Straight to antidepressants, which.
I didn't date, you didn't take I didn't want to.
Interesting that that is the go to and concerning that, that's the go.
To now that I've done all my research, that's a relatively common thing to happen women of your age. Yeah, things, you know, she's emotional, so does very common.
Is so depression is a normal part of perimenopause and menopause.
It can be yeah, because we've got estrogen receptors in our brain, so it can change your mood and change your you know, levels of anxiety. But it's just interesting that you kind of get put into the bucket of middle aged woman depression, highly emotional. Yeah, And like I said, it's a common thing to occur and just never the discussion around. Let's talk about menopause or let's talk about perimenopause.
And I just think that there's a lot of well, I think that there's a lot of mis information out there about it, not a lot of discussion about it. And I think when there was the big blow up of hormone replacement therapy or menopause replacement therapy in two thousand and two two thousand and four, that it has potential to cause breast cancer, everyone just put the brakes on and just said, we're not using it fair enough.
So have you been managed have you managed to manage your symptoms without antidepressants and medication or have your symptoms changed at all?
Or are they the same?
So I decided I didn't want to do the antidepressants. I was like, no, I'm not, I don't want to. It just didn't feel right, didn't sit well with me because I'm not I didn't think I was depressed, but I knew that I was flat.
Yeah, but there's also a difference between flat and depression, like a down day or down time, you know.
Like a lull.
So I just have I guess I got to a place where I was living at the time where I decided I want to move back to Sydney, and I knew that was the best thing for me to sort of pull me out of what I felt was a bit of a funk. I just couldn't get into my groove where I was. Came back to Sydney and I thought, right, I'm going to get on top of all of this, And menopause was kicking around in the back of my mind,
around potentially doing a program for it. But I wanted to get on top of what was going on for me, so I went to a doctor here in Sydney. Over there in Sydney and I discussed it all again. So we went through the whole process again and again the same things came up about the higher cholesterol and the
vitamin D deficiency. And then when I started doing research for the menopause method, what came out of the States, what information I was getting from America was that this was a common trait amongst menopause or women, that they were vitamin D deficient, not not like mildly borderline, but deficient and their cholesterol had like shot up for no reason,
like no changes to their to their diet. So it was becoming very clear that this is a correlation direct correlation to perimenopause, and I was like, okay, this is all starting to fall into place. Now.
Also better to I imagine, it's better to actually just have an answer so you can deal with it rather than what's going on.
Well, that's why it's so important to get with a specialist, a GP but who specializes in menopause, so that you know they've got the information that they consider go yes, well this this directly ticks that box, and directly ticks that box. It's very different for every woman, Like every woman's going to have a different symptom and a different severity of that symptom.
And how long were you've been in periman pause for.
So in like I said, I think it came. It kicked in maybe around forty nine to fifty. And then the general rule of thumb is that once you have no longer had a period for twelve months, then you have moved or transitioned from perimenopause into menopause. So I had my last period Easter last year and then figured coming into this fig coming into here, I was like, oh, oh, I'm there. And then literally within three days of being
in camp, I got a period. So you got two weeks shy of a year which I never had.
No period for eleven months, came to the eleven and a half months came so two weeks shy officially menopause, and came yes, which is just.
The one day I didn't even think that was viron man.
I wonder if it's a new stress on your body that you didn't even know.
I can't wait to talk to my specialist about it because I know that, Oh, I don't know what she's going to say. She might go, oh, yeah, but I have a feeling she's going to go wow.
And a bunch of I've always wondered if this was real or not. I've always wondered, you know, when women are like, oh, we're in sync, Like if your sister's getting a period, you get you.
All your friends. I've always thought that that was like a myth.
But no, it's not like three women. Yeah, there was three ladies in you that had their period and then suddenly I got my I don't know whether that's part of it. I'm dead interested to find out. That's fascinating, because I did find that really interesting.
Yeah.
But yeah, So what happens during perimenopause is that your estrogen, your progesterone basically start to fall off a cliff and these are all the things that keep your you in rhythm. There you kind.
Of blueprint, and so you have to replace those if.
If you want to go down that option, to explore that, whether that's an option for you, you can. And so that's what I explored with mine specialist, and we went through all my history, my family history, and I took the option to have an estrogen patch and a progesterone tablet at night because I don't. I'll be straight with you, Britt, I don't. I never really have bad symptoms, like not
like some ladies get. And I think due to the research that I've done that's possibly now in my mind, due to the fact that I have had a lot of activity in my life for all my life, yeah, your whole life. So that sort of stood me in goodstead.
And then what do you notice once you started using the patch and taking the tablet that you're symptoms subsided?
Yes, but it's taken probably three months of being on it regularly now, which is unreal. It's a lot. But as I was talking to you about estrogen receptors, they're in every part of your body, every organ of your body, from skin to intestines to brain, like everywhere, which is why I was keen if I could to take the estrogen and progesterone, because I thought, if I can, and I've got no potential history of issues, why wouldn't I,
You know, why wouldn't I? But I think, and I think, we're going back to all of the different organs in your body that have estrogen receptors. That's why we get so many crazy, whacked out symptoms from all the usual culprits of hot flushes and night sweats and sleep disturbances
and weight distribution around your midline. They're the ones you hear about a lot, but they're the ones that you don't know about even are the ones such as high cholesterol if you haven't had it tested, which can get dangerous. Even having more weight around your middle can get dangerous for vital organs around your vital organs. And then bone density is one that's a mad one. Yeah, like osteoporosis or even it's like really opens you up to potential
injuries in your future, which can be life threatening. Note not just stopping you from having independence. They can actually be life threatening.
Yeah, and every single woman is going to go through it, which is crazy.
Yeah, it's not really spoken about that much. Do you feel like I'm.
Still spoken about because of shame taboo?
Yes, That's what I wanted to ask you about about the feeling of shame, because I think many women and women I've spoken to in the past have felt almost embarrassed, yes, that they're at that stage of life, because that stage of life is associated with a new chapter, and a new chapter is associated with getting older and that your prime is over.
Did you feel any of that.
I mean, we know that that's not true, but so many women, once they start having children and getting older, they feel like no one sees them anymore.
It's like they feel invisible. Did you feel like that, because that's such.
A horrible thing for women to feel, and I understand why people feel it every year you get older, even I feel in my mid thirties, you know, which is crazy, but I think.
That's a societal pressure it is.
Did you feel like there was any shame attached to or did you feel a bit like wow, I mean my next chapter.
I just kind of thought, well, this is that crossroads and I'm so freaking not on my watch gon to be feeling like I've just been shelved. Yeah, like I've got way too much to offer. Well yeah, yeah, I mean I've got I've got so much. I've learned so much to be able to pass on.
And were still fitter than everyone in here.
You are, what's the alternative? Like you're dead?
Yeah? Can you understand why people feel bad?
One hundred? And I work with a lot of women, a lot of women in this age category who do feel that way, And what happens is, I guess it's just a human nature trait is there's a tendency to wave the white flag and go all this is just where it's at life. And I want to buck that system. I want to take menopause and reframe the way we think about it, because I think it's been given.
A bad rat it has one hundred and I think even are scared of it.
Scared of it physic yeah like, And I'm not taking it away from ladies symptoms. I know that they can be really severe, but I think everything gets nailed on it. And I say that because I've now worked with women in this category and gone through in a holistic way that they've gone to their GP. They've gone and had those conversations, They've looked at their options around whether they want to go down the hormone replacement therapy or not.
I've then holistically looked at other things like their lifestyle and their lifestyle choices that they're currently making, and whether or not they've kind of let their guidelines and parameters just slip a little bit on how they take care of themselves, which is easy to do when you've got kids, older children, older parents, work.
The husband that.
Then looked at their nutrition, then looked at their exercise, what they're doing, what they're not doing, or how can we change it a real holistic way, and they're sleep, how they handle their hot flushes if that's what they're having, just how they're managing the whole the scope. And I've had incredible results firsthand. I've seen it. I've witnessed it. I've witnessed it with myself, but I've witnessed it in
my colleagues. One of my ladies that's been working for me within twelve WBT for over ten years, we did it with her boom great results. I've now seen it on the program, so I think it's great for ladies to see that there's still so much potential.
And there's also something that none of us, literally none of us can avoid it, like we are every woman.
If you are lucky enough to make it to that.
S if you're lucky enough, if you are lucky enough.
To get there, it's a right, it's a privilege.
It's a privilege.
And I think you're a prime example of a trying to take the shame away from it because you're talking about it so openly, which is amazing.
And b it doesn't have to slow you down. Look at you find fit in the jungle. Yeah, like fitter than anyone else in here.
So it's I just wanted to like change the lens on this time in your life. Yeah, and take it. Let's just look at it differently from just a minute, think, okay, what about if we put it presented it like, this is a crossroads that you're at. This is really a great opportunity for you and most women at this age. I mean I'm a little bit different because I've got a younger son. I started a bit late, but most ladies have their kids pretty much grown up sixteen and above.
Well, how have you found that that's a that's another thing. You've got an eight year old, do it change. It's the way you're able to be there for him when you started feeling those symptoms in terms of, you know, because you're a single mother as well.
Yeah, that was definitely in the back of my mind, is that I've got this young son who I want to be there for in a vibrant, energetic way. So that certainly was a incentive for me to sort of get on top of it and understand exactly what's going on. But just with regards to to you know, ladies in this crossroads or at this crossroads, they've got an opportunity to kind of like do a full CEO of their life. Many women are, because of menopause, are being taken out
of the taking themselves out of the workforce. Many women because of this are taking themselves out of education. We're losing these incredibly talented skill women because of this. And it doesn't necessarily have to be that way, you know, getting down to being the CEO of your own life. What's going on. No one's going to do it for you. You're going to be the one that has to do it for yourself. But again, going back to that holistic approach.
This is it's an opportunity. Yeah, it's an opportunity.
And I mean even just the conversation we have the other day where you were saying, you know, you feel ready to maybe go back in the dating world and get back into that world.
It is.
Yeah.
But that's a prime example of not changing anything, or you're not letting it change anything. You're not letting it slow you down, You're not letting it What.
This thing is like when you get to this age too, there's a few Like one of the things is you just don't give a shit as much like you. And I've heard women in interviews when I was in my thirties, I was your age. I'd hear women my age being interviewed and they would say stuff like they just really don't care what other people think. I mean, obviously they care, but they don't care about what others think. And I would listen to that and go.
Really, oh, yeah, so wonderful when actually true.
I'm telling you. The other thing is you've got so much more wisdom. You've been around the block, you've had your heart broken a hundred times, You've you've learned the l many many, many lessons you've you've got maybe you've got some regrets, maybe you've got some things that you'd
like to change. Like you you've lived alive. So with all of that in your back pocket, how cool would it be to be a woman with that much maturity and still have your as best health as you possibly can and some of your best years still and some of your best years to come. Yeah, that's why I find it really freaking exciting, Like it's sort of moving
out of ego. M those all those chapters where ego is a big driver in your twenties and thirties and maybe even a little in your forties when you're the hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, which is what we do. But into this next kind of chapter of it's more about internal. It's less about external and ego, but more about who you are as a person and how you can grow. Yeah, I find it very exciting.
Europe to Yeah, I think a lot of women will take a lot from seeing you in here and talking about it so openly, because people really aren't.
So hats off to you. Thanks, yeah, thanks for sharing.
That's but I had had a chance to talk to my thirty something year old self, I would say keep up your weight training, yeah, because that will future proof you keep your muscle and strengthen your bones. Yeah, that's like if the foundation.
Yeah, man, I've been trying to convince my mum to do weight training for so like she's in menopause, but she's.
Like this cute little stick figure.
She's always been so small, but she's never had to work for it.
She's never done weights.
And I'm like, she's its sixty four, and I'm like, you really need to start. It's not too She's like, that's too late, Like it's not pick up some hand weights.
And even those those physiques that have always remained slender, doesn't doesn't osteoporosis and arthritis and and all the things that could be can be life threatening. Like, oh, there's some mad stats about ladies who have an osteoporetic hip fracture if unoperated on. Oh there's a percentage that will die in the first year.
Yeah, right, it's wild, isn't it.
Old.
No, there's no such thing.
So yeah, keeping up my weights, I would definitely say, like, train not to be skinny, trained to be strong. Yea minimalize your processed foods, take them down as much as you can.
Do you only eat organic?
No, because it's expensive.
It's hard, it's too expensive, and.
Sometimes it's not convenient, like I'm in the supermarket and there is no more organic chicken, or the organic chicken is ridiculously expensive or whatever. Yeah, so I don't only eat organic, but I do my best. Do you eat as little process, minimal process? So I barely would. I can't remember. I haven't driven through a drive through in I've never driven through a drive through.
Really you walk through, get those steps up.
I remember when I was a kid being in the backseat. Yeah, but yeah, you won't. I sort of stay away from all of that.
And so do you have to start again now because you've got your period on twelve on the twelfth month, you have to start again another month?
Like, are you expecting to get it again next month?
I have no clue what to expect. I'm in uncharted territory here.
Yeah, that'd be horrible.
But this thing also too, with very menopause, and like, you don't you don't off the hook when you get to menopause. You'll still you still will have.
I think from what I've heard the symptoms get worse.
They can do yeah or not. If you are attacking this in a holistic mannering wave the white flag.
Yeah, don't give on.
No, you can actually definitely support those symptoms, alleviate many of those symptoms if you are prepared to kind of take a good holistic approach and be the CEO of your own life. It's worth it. And like, I know many women who are perimenopause or menopausal who would bite the head off a chicken if they thought it would help.
Do you know what I mean?
So any woman that's sort of books approaching, like if whatever, most women will do it.
Yeah, yeah, like what we're doing here, would do anything for some.
Food exactly exactly.
I would almost buy the head off a chicken.
It's true, me too, Thanks lady, Thank you. Don't stop your weight training, keep eat your protein.
Eat protein. Don't be scared to try some treatments.
Don't go straight to go find yourself a good GP that specializes in menopause, and not all of them do. Austulasian Menopause Society websites and you can find a register of gps who specialize in them. The number one number one.
Okay, I'm afraid of it. It's not.
And we've been trained by our four sisters to be four mothers, to be scared and it's terrible and it's a jails and life's over, it's over, and it's bullshit.
Yeah, it's so young.
I actually had a friend that went through menopause in their late twenties.
Very early.
Jesus, that's very Yeah, that it can happen. It can also happen due to illness such as cancer.
Yeah, yeah, so that's rare, but it can happen.
So your age bracket for menopauses forty five to fifty five, and perimenopause can happen from seven between seven to ten years prior to that age, so from thirty five from potentially potentially could be beginning.
Which is scary when.
You're in a position where you haven't had kids yet and you think you could be going into perimenopause.
That's a scary thought. Man, women deal with so much.
Yeah, we do, but it's knowledge is power. Stick in your head in the sand is not going to help.
Also, why I throw so many eggs and embryos for thatopause.
I have those.
You're on the fore foot, I am for sure, no guarantee, not a guarantee, but it's like, at least education's power.
You're not going to let yourself get to that place and go, oh what now.
I just never wanted the choice taken away from me, from our bodies, from our biological clocks, because we don't have control over it. So, and that's what I say to people when they say, oh, should I freeze my eggs or should I do embryos? I say, look, it's so important. You know, it's not a guarantee. Eggs and embryos don't equate to life births. They can and they can help you, but it's not a guarantee. But I would rather have the option than have no option.
I use that same statement. I love that you said that. Use that same statement with health. Do it while you've got the choice, before the choice is removed from you and you have no choice. Yeah, like you're now a type two diapetic, or you're now going to be on high cholesterol tablets. Like, make the choice before it gets removed from you. Yeah, so you've still got freedom of choice.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a scary thought.
But like you said before, no one's going to do it for you.
No, you've got to go and do it. I've actually encouraged so many.
Friends in there in you know, all in their thirties, to go and freeze their eggs. And it's funny because a lot of them say, I don't, I don't. I say, just go and get your blood tests and check.
Your egg county, just to start.
And I can't believe how many of their responses were it's easier not to know.
I don't want to. I'm not ready to face it.
And I'm like, that is the silliest answer you can say, because whether you're ready or not, it's coming.
Yeah, so.
You want to wait another year until you're ready to face it might be too late. Yeah, it's hard and it's confronting and it's expensive, but yeah, we don't have a choice as women.
Why not? Meanwhile, men firing off that spot like seventies.
This is interesting. I can imagine if you said to a fella, because this is basically what happens with menopause. You know, once you hit that, your your overreason no longer rolling out that hormonal genetic blueprint. If we said to the fella's, look, you know, by that the age of fifty one, fifty two, your testicles will pretty much shrivel up and stop functioning, and you know you're not going to feel like sex and like one, and you'll
probably have lots of erectile dysfunction issues. But look, don't worry. This is just a time of life ten years. Maybe go through it gracefully. Just move through it with grace.
Don't complain, just get it done. Yeah. Oh my god, could you imagine that all.
Of the funding for all of our submarines would be suddenly sunk into.
Yeah, no more, no more costs for the political policies, whatever. Everything's money going to testical research, from cancer research to testical research.
That's exactly what it would be.
Just moved through that time of life with grace and humility.
Yeah. And it's funny because I was about shut the hell up.
I was even talking to Steven and I just the conversation was so fascinating. But the conversation for me was so different because I'm like, oh, yes, I'm thirty five, thirty No, at thirty three, I was like, at thirty three, I was freezing my eggs because my fertility is so low and I'm on the end of it.
Meanwhile, He's sixty and he's like, oh, I'm thinking of having a baby with my own sperm.
And I'm like, man, I'm like, we're so because.
He can exactly and I was like, just it's so unfair.
But we can't do anything about it.
No, there's absolutely nothing. Yeah, we can do about it, but we can change our views as a society, and
that is only going to happen through conversation. That's only going to happen through things that surround us, like things that we can never stop, like marketing, and you know, like now we're seeing ladies with gray hair and looking beautiful or in full blown marketing campaigns, which just sort of opening the board, opening it a lot to you know, if we're still a part of society and we've got a lot to offer.
Well, I think the other thing is that you don't really think about. But it's not just important to be having these conversations. So other women hear it, but it's so men hear it as well. Oh, because then men can have a better understanding of what you're actually going through.
Because then they can help support you.
If they don't know, they never have any idea what's going on in our bodies and the effect ladies.
If ladies have as minimal information about perimenopause and menopause as they do, what do you think men know? And yet for a large majority, they're in a relationship with a woman who's going to go through it at some point.
And how many times do you think a man has said, stop overreacting, stop being so emotional, stop you're being crazy.
So was there, Yeah, said a black mama. So when we did the menopause method, and I've got all these specialists in and interviewed them, like, I learned so much it was mind blowing. But I could see those videos being watched by my ladies, but also then pulling their significant partner in and saying, sit down and watch this with me, just so that you can appreciate what's happening.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Even it's the same thing just with periods.
With like even I did three hormone treatments for my IVF stuff alone, and then I did one with Ben. Ben was there, and even the difference from him actually seeing what I was going through and seeing being present for the hormonal changes made such a difference because previously he wasn't there, so over the phone I'd be talking about it or complaining.
Or whatever if you didn't get it.
But then once I explained it to him and he was injecting, I mean he's physically seeing it.
He was so good because he was like, Wow, I.
Can't believe what you have to go through for us or for you know that choice isn't even yours.
Yeah, so education is.
Yeah, it's so paramount. So yeah, I'm not. I'm very loud and proud about it because there's just so many, so many ladies that are in it. Oh, I wish I had the stats on me, but there's like we're in if you went global, it's like in the billions.
Of course people watching right now.
So many women will be in it right now, especially because it goes for so many years.
Yeah, good on you, mischi be. Yeah, it's authentic. When I put program together, I thought, well, at least ourt's real. It's happening to me, so I might as well get it out there.
And who better to talk about it than someone is actually.
It's actually going through it.
Yeah,