Ep 50 Jodie Williams Empowers Women Through Their Menopause Journey

Meegan Care: Episode 50, the one where I speak with Jodie Williams. And she helps us answer the questions around what on earth do we do when we notice the symptoms of peri menopause and menopause. Are here they are in our life, but we have no idea what to do about them. Jodie provides a really balanced view on the different avenues that we can take as women. In this time of life. Jodie Williams helps women understand what is contributing to their mental, emotional, and physical symptoms of perimenopause and menopause.

She provides coaching tools and resources to manage these symptoms and helps women to get themselves back. She does this with a unique approach based on her career as a registered nurse. Naturopath hypnotherapist and her training in Hakomi psychotherapy. Enjoy this episode.

I really loved speaking with Jodie on all of the stuff that arises for us during perimenopause and menopause and what we can do about it so that we can resource ourselves.

And come out the other side, knowing ourselves better, having our resilience, topped up, take a listen.

so welcome to the podcast, Jodie Williams. So grateful that you’re here. Tell us about you and how you help people.

[00:01:18] Jodie: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I’m a perimenopause health coach. And what that means is that I support women to Understand what perimenopause is, what contributes to their signs and symptoms, be that physical, mental, or emotional. And then I support those women to have a plan in place and implement the plan.

And so it’s quite a close and supportive process that we go through and nothing is left off the table. Everything is welcome. And so I find that women come to me with many different signs and symptoms and we take them all. And I create an approach that helps to help them to manage and understand what’s going on and reduce those

[00:01:59] Meegan Care: signs and symptoms.

Yeah. Beautiful. How did you come to do this

[00:02:03] Jodie: work? Yeah, well, I’ve got a, an interesting background of health. So I’ve been interested in the intersection of wellbeing and mental wellness for as long as I can remember. And I had my own big difficulties with depression and anxiety from quite an early age.

And so I trained as a nurse out of school. And it was during that time that I first started experiencing some depressive episodes. And then I also had experiences that made me realize that health was not just physical. And I wanted to find ways in which I could manage my own depression because medication just didn’t really touch the sides for me.

And then that led me down the path of training to be a naturopath. Because I understood that there was more to it than just my physical health of medication, that was going to get me back on track. And then from there, after I studied naturopathy, I got more of an understanding about the different things that contributed to mental wellness.

And then, I had some further episodes of depression. And so I tried other methods such as hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, which I found really helpful. So then I decided to study those modalities as well. And I came to this point where I realized that when I was having depressive episodes, I could take one piece, like I could focus on something more physical.

Like diet or exercise, and that would help lift me out of my depression. Or sometimes I could do things like mindfulness or meditation, and that would help lift me up. And I discovered that there was so many different elements that were contributing to my mental wellness that I really needed to focus on all of those.

And so through all of that, I had created my own clinic as a naturopath. And I started focusing specifically on supporting people to manage anxiety and depression and other mental health. Difficulties. And then I went into perimenopause and

yeah, it

was like that. It was such a massive experience for me and I realized that there was a real gap in Information and knowledge sharing and education and a massive gap for women to know the options and what they could do.

And I also did find, unfortunately, there’s a little bit of judgment sometimes for women when they choose different modes to manage and approach their perimenopause. And I wanted to create a place where women could come and there wasn’t any of those judgments. We just had really good, open, honest conversation where I could information share.

And so that women could be, feel comfortable to make their own decisions about what they wanted to do to manage their signs and symptoms. And that’s where I am now. So I, I work solely with perimenopausal women in that space.

[00:04:48] Meegan Care: Wow. So helpful. You know, I’m like putting myself back because I went through perimenopause quite early, and I’ve been in menopause for a few years, but putting myself back into that time where I sort of figured out with the help of my doctor that I was in perimenopause and had no idea what was going on, what were my choices, what was available to me, what could I expect, how the hell could I manage all of these symptoms that were going on.

So I think that, you know, having someone like you available. To support us when we’re going through that is, is so huge.

[00:05:27] Jodie: Yeah, it’s a real missing piece. And in fact, I did a whole bunch of research interviews earlier this year with women that knew they were perimenopausal and and had either menopause hormone therapy or decided not to go down that route.

And we’re trying other options, but I did the interviews just to really get a lot of information about the main struggles or where the where the gaps were. And. I would say 90 percent of the woman that I interviewed all said that they, first of all, they had no idea what pure menopause was or why or the signs and symptoms they, they kind of ended up in this place where they were having a really difficult time, sometimes with either difficult or debilitating signs and symptoms, and they had no idea.

And then to follow on from that, they might go and see the GP or talk to other people about it. And no one really knew all the different options. They might get given one set of options, but not the alternatives. And so there was a, there’s a real missing, missing piece or really get within that.

[00:06:25] Meegan Care: Yeah, there sure is.

So wonderful that you’re, you’re able to support women, you know, on their journey with perimenopause. So, what’s been your, what’s been sort of your experience and journey within that perimenopause stage? Yeah, so

[00:06:43] Jodie: I started noticing, so I’m 43 now and I started noticing in my late thirties that I was having a real issue with word recall.

And it’s actually one of the main signs that I still have to manage quite a bit. And I was actually, I think I was misdiagnosed as having post concussion syndrome because I did have quite a bad concussion a few years before that. So yeah, word recall was something that I noticed and it was, it was quite difficult.

Because I, I, at one stage, I really valued myself as a good talker. So it really messed with my confidence actually. So that was the first thing. And then I had a series of very stressful events maybe about two years ago and everything kind of compounded. And I got to this place where. It would take me about an hour and a half to drag myself out of bed in the morning.

Like I’d have to set the alarm for an hour and a half before the time that I needed to get out of bed to prepare myself. Sometimes I’d be in tears. I was just so exhausted. I just didn’t want to get out of bed. I was had a lot of body pain, a lot of aches. I had a headache that was, I had for about three months.

it Would get worse before my period. But it was always kind of there, just a whole bunch of these things. And I knew I wasn’t depressed because I had episodes of depression. I knew what depression felt like for me. So I had people saying, oh, you must be depressed, but I knew it wasn’t that.

And I’m really pleased that I trusted myself on that. Actually. Yeah. Like I knew I wasn’t depressed. I was having a different sort of experience. And so what I did is I actually treated myself like I would if I was a client. So I did all the testing that I do with clients for hormone testing. I went to the doctor, I got a whole bunch of blood tests done and I sat down and I answered my own questionnaires and did all the things that I would usually do with a client.

And the information that I all got back was a, I was had really low cortisol. So I had a fatigue picture going on and I also had low progesterone and fluctuating estrogen. So I actually had two pictures happening there. I had a fatigue picture going on and I had a perimenopausal picture there as well.

It’s

[00:09:00] Meegan Care: super interesting, isn’t it? So you kind of had, like you said, you had two pitches going on, you had two things running side by side, which I imagine, yeah, would have made things quite difficult.

[00:09:12] Jodie: Yeah, it really did. It is very common. I see this a lot. I see those things happening side by side quite a bit.

[00:09:19] Meegan Care: Yeah, so I wonder about that, right? Because there’s like when we’re maybe in our 30s, sometimes we might experience burnout. But I think in perimenopause, I went through a wasn’t so subtle in my experience, but a phase of this kind of burnout pattern. And I think that, you know, you’ve spoken about that before.

Tell me a little bit more about that and how that can show up.

[00:09:43] Jodie: Yeah, well, there’s quite a big crossover between the different experiences that a person can have with both perimenopause and burnout. So they have quite a few of the same signs and symptoms. One of the things I do notice is that women are more likely to be diagnosed with what I call fatiguing syndromes.

So that’s fibromyalgia chronic fatigue. Some people would call it adrenal fatigue or HPA axis dysfunction. So you are more likely to be diagnosed with those in your, in your thirties or early forties. Yeah, so there’s a lot of crossover, and it can be difficult to know what is driving what, but one of the things we do know is that in that first stage of pirimenopause, when your progesterone is dropping, you’re more likely to have the brain fog and maybe the premenstrual headaches the cognitive symptoms happen and you might get a bit more body pain as well.

But that’s also the same signs and symptoms that you would get if you have maybe a fibromyalgia picture or a burnout or a fatigue picture. So it can be really difficult to know what is what. But one thing I do know is that if you have an underlying condition, say a fatigue sort of picture and you’ve got a change in your hormones, your hormones are going to exacerbate that underlying picture that you’ve already got.

It’s the same as if a woman comes in to see me and she has like gut issues and she has perimenopause, what often happens is the gut issues may have just been kind of simmering away, but off balance. But then as soon as the hormonal changes happen, Then the gut issue starts to be exacerbated and become much more of a problem so that those changes and the hormones really do exacerbate the pictures of the health that may have been out of balance before.

Does that make sense?

[00:11:30] Meegan Care: Yeah, yeah, it does. Why is it important to know what’s what? Is that because of how you would support and treat it?

[00:11:41] Jodie: Absolutely. So I’m a real believer if we know what’s going on and why it’s happening, then we can choose the right path. For for managing that and it also means that a woman knows what’s happening and she has the full picture.

She can make an informed decision about what she wants to do, what sort of treatments she wants. So I do think it’s really important to get all of that information. So we know what’s happening so we can manage that. It’s a little bit like if we don’t have that information, that’s one of the reasons I like to do testing and blood testing and get a really good client history because otherwise we’re kind of crystal ball gazing.

Yeah. Whereas I really think it’s important that we know what we’re working on so that we can get some really good results. That’s just, that’s how I work.

[00:12:28] Meegan Care: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. And so what, in your experience of working with women through that, you know, the perimenopausal stage, what’s going on for us?

Like emotionally, mentally, psychologically, because it’s a very, I think it can be a really confusing time, even if we do know that it is. You know, perimenopause. It’s still like, what the hell? These responses that we’ve never had before, that we’re suddenly, we’re irritated by the way a partner holds the remote control, or eats their dinner, or whatever the hell it is.

[00:13:07] Jodie: 100%. I was just about to say, chewing too loud. Like, I hear this a lot. But, you know, I think there’s a couple of things that happen, and one of the ways I describe it to women, It’s a bit like the veil thins out, or the veil starts to lift. So all the strategies that someone may have had to manage The stuff in the past, maybe the, the, the relationship or other people’s behavior or or things that may have annoyed them.

What tends to happen, I think, with, with women is they create these strategies to manage that stuff. And then what starts to happen is the strategies don’t work so well anymore. It’s like there’s something within us that wants to be known about what is okay, what is not okay, what is acceptable for us.

How do we really feel about that thing? In Harkomi psychotherapy, we call them character strategies. And so it’s like the character strategies aren’t working anymore and they’re actually detrimental and they’re making life more difficult. So I think it really is a time when we need to sort of ask those deeper questions.

How am I organizing myself in relation to these other elements in life? How am I organizing myself in relationships? How am I organizing myself within the work that I do? How am I organizing myself in what’s acceptable to me to accept with regards to other people’s behavior, for example. And it’s a time when.

That veil of pushing down how we really feel about something thins out and we have to start to face how we really do feel and think about things. Yeah. Do you notice that with your work as

[00:14:42] Meegan Care: well? Yeah, completely, completely. And as you’re talking, I love the way you, you talk about it as the veil kind of things, because it does, because we’re, we’re so.

Conditioned, well, I was so conditioned to be the good girl, to be nice, to make everything okay, and then there was this rebellious part of me as well, but in any case, going through perimenopause, that no longer worked. Yep. You know, it was like… To try and do that was physically impossible and so then we get the irritable and the bitchy and the Whatever else she’s not tolerating things like she used to kind of woman shows up I think there’s a massive opportunity there for us as women in our own journey and I do see a lot of women going through that but at the beginning of that opportunity, it’s very difficult because how we’ve coped with things is now no longer working.

So there’s all this disruption, not only within ourselves, but within our relationships. Yeah,

[00:15:49] Jodie: absolutely. I love that word disruption that you use because it really is like that. You know, I was just working with a woman just earlier on today and she said it’s almost like a battle between these different parts.

One part wants to rest. And the other part wants to please. So pleasing looks like not reducing her work hours and showing up in her job in a particular way. So it’s, so we spend a lot of some, with some people, we spend a lot of time looking at that. What does that person really need as opposed to what do they think they should be doing?

And, and how do we look after both of those, those parts, both of those things.

[00:16:29] Meegan Care: Yeah, yeah, yeah, what do I really need, as opposed to what do I think I should be doing, and is there well, I don’t know, what do you think about this? Is there a middle ground? Can we support both of those aspects of it

[00:16:45] Jodie: ourselves?

I think we can, I think if we use that example, I was just giving there’s like there is a need to have some space and some downtime. And also there is another part that really wants to achieve and do well and do a good job. But what tends to happen is that part starts taking over and running the show at the detriment of the part that needs to have a bit of a break and have a bit more space.

So I say to people, we don’t want that part to completely go away. The part that wants to do a good job and do things really well, because it’s really helpful because it helps you do your work or do a good job. But we need that to just come down a little bit and see it a little bit, a little bit so that there’s space for this other part, the part that needs to rest or needs to a bit more time so that that part can come up and can they find a way together of going, going forward together so that both the parts can, can have this side and have a bit of time.

[00:17:42] Meegan Care: Yeah, really nice. I like the way you put that. Yeah, because this is a time, I think for me in perimenopause, I had to learn how to really nourish myself and to take the rest that I needed. And, you know, talking to my partner who’s male or to people that haven’t gone through it, there’s sometimes a mentality of, well, you just need to be fitter and push through or do more or whatever, whatever the belief is.

But they’re, they’re. And it’s totality doesn’t work for us in period menopause. It makes us more exhausted and more tired. Yeah.

[00:18:20] Jodie: A hundred percent. And the same thing happens with the fatigue as well, because if you’ve ever really experienced fatigue, that deep fatigue, you don’t really get it and it can be difficult for people to understand.

I just get more sleep. It’s like, no, that doesn’t cut it. It’s not quite. Yeah. Yeah. I sleep 12 hours a night and I’m, I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. So yeah, and it can be lonely. And I think that’s another thing about that perimenopausal place. For some women, it can be, they can feel very lonely.

Like no one really gets it or no one understands, which is why we all need to talk about it a whole lot more.

[00:18:55] Meegan Care: Absolutely. Which is why we’re having these conversations. Yeah. Cause I mean, I don’t know about you, but my, my, when my mother went through it, it was never, ever, she just didn’t talk about it. I had no idea until I was, you know, a grown adult woman that I, you know, that time when she was really irritable, spent all that time in her bedroom and wanted to divorce my stepfather was probably menopause, perimenopause for her, you know, just wasn’t talked about.

So yeah, it’s so important to have these conversations.

[00:19:25] Jodie: What a difficult time that would have been to see your mum in that sort of place and not know why. That must have been really hard. It was

[00:19:33] Meegan Care: really hard and to not have the communication skills. I think, you know, I think we can be in these difficult places in all relationships in life, but if we can talk about it Mm-Hmm.

It, it clears the air, it supports that connecting, staying connected. Yeah. Absolutely.

So

what do you think for a woman that’s sort of recognizing herself. And what we are saying, what you are talking about, the sort of picture you’re presenting, where can she begin? What does she need to do?

Where can she turn? I think that that’s a big piece for women. They’re like, well, yes, I feel like shit, and I’ve got brain fog and I’m exhausted, but I don’t really know what to do about it.

[00:20:16] Jodie: Yeah, yeah, it’s a great question. I think one of the first things we need to do is resource ourselves with, with information and, and talking to other people as well.

So getting information that is easily understandable and. Is created at a level which that person can understand and can implement in their day to day life. So getting information is really important and getting support is another really important piece. This is sometimes though where the difficulty can come in a little bit, because everyone has a little bit of a different idea about What’s going on?

Not what’s going on, but maybe what’s important. So I do suggest that people go to the GP first of all, and get a whole bunch of blood tests done, blood work and talk to the GP and start having a conversation that, Hey, I think this is starting to happen. Can we, can we sit and talk about it? And if possible, make a double appointment, like a longer appointment so that you’ve got time and space to have that discussion.

If you feel that your GP is coming to the party and is able to discuss those things with you, then that’s great. If you feel like you’re not getting what you need or your GP isn’t kind of coming to the party with that discussion, then It would be time to find someone that might specialize and actually woman’s health. And there are lots of GPs out there that now do online consults that specialize in that area.

I also want to add a side piece around blood testing and testing for hormones. So because perimenopause is a process, a gradual transition, there’s not really one test or sign that is enough to determine if you’ve entered perimenopause. So when I talk about blood tests, I’m talking about General blood test to get or to have an idea about where some of your levels are sitting at for things like iron and thyroid, for example.

So if I was going to my GP and I was suspecting that I was entering perimenopause, there is a couple of tests that I would be requesting or asking for just to get a general health snapshot. And they would be full iron studies. Full thyroid panel be looking at fasting insulin and that gives us information around insulin resistance lipid profile.

And I’d also be testing for B12 and vitamin D. And then your GP may choose to add some other tests in there, depending on your signs and symptoms as well. And I would be having those same tests. Done every 12 months just as an ongoing assessment. And then when it comes to checking for hormone levels, I sometimes do that with my clients to help us get some understanding around what might be driving some of the signs and symptoms, the problematic ones.

And I will use Dutch testing, which is urine sampling. And that gives us information about reproductive hormones and also cortisol levels as well. Sometimes a woman might choose to do a cycle mapping and that is taking a sample every few days to give us a really good indication of what those hormones are doing during one whole cycle.

And that can be some really valuable information to get as well. So, so asking questions and getting support, I think is one of the first places to go. Having conversations with friends, even if it might feel a bit tricky. If you’ve got women that are in your age group, then actually just.

Talking and having discussions about what your experiences are. Even if it is a bit tricky, it might open, it might open the possibility for someone else to start talking about their experience as well. So can we be brave and actually sort of start talking about what’s actually going on for us? I think that’s another really important piece as well.

But yeah, getting, getting information, good quality information is really important and getting support. So I do think that. There are some things that we go through during perimenopause that I say one should not go through by oneself. And I think that if you are starting to have some, some difficulty, so I, I call in perimenopause, I say there’s the three Ds with symptoms.

Don’t really notice much. Things are becoming difficult. Well, things are becoming debilitating. If you’re in those last two days, difficult or debilitating, especially emotionally or mentally, then it’s really important that you do reach out for some support. And that can look different for different people.

That might be a trusted friend or confidant, or it might actually be some professional support as well.

[00:24:53] Meegan Care: Yeah, great, great place to start. And I guess that’s where someone like you comes in, right? Yeah,

[00:25:00] Jodie: absolutely. And I think So, I mean, I, I sort of share information in lots of different ways. I’ve just created some more online platforms that I’m starting to use more.

And one of the things I like to do is write resources to be able to share resources and information with women. So, yeah, I mean, people can contact me to work one on one or just to be put in connection with some of the resources that I have or some of the social platforms

[00:25:26] Meegan Care: that I use too. Oh, beautiful.

And we’re going to put some links to resources in the show notes, right?

[00:25:32] Jodie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There’s one thing in particular, it’s a small ebook that I wrote, which is the A to Z of perimenopausal symptoms. So it’s really great for women who might have what these constellation of symptoms that might not seem related.

You can go through this. Book and have a look. I don’t have all the symptoms in there. I have, I think about 30. And so you can go through and you can see the symptoms and what contributes to them. And in there, there’s some really good practical advice about things that you can do whether that be lifestyle or seeking support or changes and your food intake, for example.

So that’s in the A to Z book. And there’s also another resource which comes with that, which is a perimenopause symptom tracker. And that is really helpful. It’s, it’s it’s a tracker that you can go through and each day you can mark the different signs and symptoms that you’ve experienced. So if you go to your GP or another health professional, you can take it with you and it gives a really good clear picture of what’s going on.

And we, it can help you to see if those symptoms are related to changes of hormones during your cycle as

[00:26:36] Meegan Care: well. Oh, fantastic. That sounds really helpful. Nice.

[00:26:40] Jodie: Yeah, it’s a great, great resource.

[00:26:43] Meegan Care: Awesome. Hey we’re, so you, initially trained as a nurse and it worked in that field. You are a naturopath, as well as doing training in HAKOMI psychotherapy.

What’s your approach to HRT

or now I think it’s called MHT? Yeah, not versus, but, but often they’re placed in different ballparks or fields as the, the MHT HRT route versus sort of complementary therapies pathway. What’s your take on that? Yeah,

[00:27:17] Jodie: such a great question. Thank you so much for asking that. So a couple of words come to mind one is practical, um, being open conversational and educational.

I suppose that’s, that’s the approach because there is space for all of those, all of those pieces. Maybe I could give a couple of examples of how those things might work together. That might be, yeah, a good way. This is to understand. So I might have a client that comes in with a range of signs and symptoms.

Now, one of the things we talked about earlier is that the changes in hormones can exacerbate health conditions and, and also drives the signs and symptoms that we experienced. So I might have someone that comes in and has these signs and symptoms. And they’re not quite sure what they want to do about it.

They’re not that sure about menopause hormone therapy, but they don’t really know what else to do. And their symptoms are in that maybe debilitating kind of place. So we would have a discussion and we would talk about the merits and the positive. Speaks of menopause hormone therapy, or maybe some of the things that might be difficult about it.

And then we would also look at more of the the natural inverted commas approaches that might be able to be had. And then we look at the practicalities of things. So sometimes it might be really helpful for a woman to take menopause hormone therapy. To give her what I call space around her signs and symptoms.

If she has the space around her signs and symptoms, so she’s sleeping better, or her anxiety is reduced, or she’s got reduced levels of physical discomfort, it means that there’s more space to focus on the lifestyle changes that are going to really help reduce those symptoms even more. So someone might choose to be on menopause hormone therapy for say, Six months.

And that gives us time to go in and really look at some of the lifestyle factors and maybe start introducing something like a really good quality magnesium, some mindfulness, you know, all the nice things that are going to help. And then after six months, once she’s had those like lifestyle elements in place, she might want to taper off the menopause hormone therapy and move into more of a.

Again, inverted commas, natural approach so that, you know, you can have both things going on at the same time. There might be someone who, for medical reasons, can’t take menopause hormone therapy. And so for that, then we’ve kind of got no other real choice set to go towards that more natural naturopathic approach.

Or sometimes I’ll have someone come in and be like, I don’t care. I just want the symptoms to go away and I don’t want to have to do much about it. And I go, okay, well, that’s fine. If that’s what you want to do, that’s what you want to do. We’re all open here. And if that’s the approach that you want, then.

I might write a letter to, for her to take to her GP saying, these are the signs and symptoms. These are the things that are going on. And this person would like to discuss menopause hormone therapy with you. I think the most important thing is that we get really practical in our approach to this because life is busy and full and you know, in an ideal world, we’d be taking heaps of time off and doing all the great things in lifestyle to be able to reduce the signs and symptoms.

But sometimes that’s just not practical for women.

[00:30:31] Meegan Care: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Just as you were talking, I was thinking about when I had I was sick with Crohn’s disease in my twenties and that whole time was spent healing Crohn’s Crohn’s disease, right? And then I come into my forties and I’m in perimenopause and, and not the same symptoms.

And interestingly, I didn’t have gut stuff. In the same way I rise, which is really fascinating, but the fatigue was there and migraines and all the rest of it. But you know, I’ve got teenage and adult children, business, all the rest of it. I couldn’t take a couple of years out. in the way I did when I was in my 20s.

And so, you know, and that’s the case for many women at that stage of our life. It’s very busy. So I love the way you talk about it is, well, what, what can create space for us? So that then we can look after ourselves. Cause I think for some women, the symptoms are so debilitating that it’s like, I’ve just got to get a handle on this before I can think about learning mindfulness or taking more rest or even bringing more vegetables into my diet or something really simple like that, because they don’t even have the energy to cook dinner on a regular basis.

[00:31:49] Jodie: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you’re being on the money there. And so, and then it starts a cycle of guilt. I should be, I should be able to do that. If the person’s not already feeling guilty, that, you know, having a difficult time. So we really want to, we want to get rid of, we want to manage some of the guilt.

We want to be like, you know what, let’s just see if we can, can we make this as easy as possible for you during quite a difficult time? And I think the other really important thing is. Menopause hormone therapy works really well for some women, but, and for some women, it reduces their signs and symptoms, but it’s not this panacea going to manage all the things all the time.

And I think sometimes it can be disappointing for women who hear these great stories about menopause hormone therapy. And it is a really great thing. And they get a lot of disappointment when their signs and symptoms aren’t reduced. When that happens, there’s some underlying life. Lifestyle, general health stuff that needs to be addressed.

And that’s, again, a really good time to bring in more naturopathic and natural approaches. Because if the menopause hormone therapy isn’t helping reduce those signs and symptoms, then there’s another driver that we need to start looking at and addressing. There’s nothing wrong with you as a person.

But there’s something that’s going on that needs to be addressed. So for my, with my experience, I started on Butregestine, so progesterone only. And that helped me really reduce my headaches. It helped me get it, my sleep was better. I found there was a reduction in some of my anxiety and some of my heart palpitations.

And it did create some space so that I could keep doing all the naturopathic things that I was doing. And now I don’t take the progesterone anymore. Because I’ve been able to manage my signs and symptoms and they’ve really settled when I get my signs and symptoms back. It’s a barometer. It’s telling me, Hey, something’s out of whack here.

You’re, you’re working too much or you’re doing too much or you’re not eating well, you know? And it’s the same with a lot of my clients too. They end up. Almost being thankful for some of their signs and symptoms when they do pop up because it’s a sign to them. Oh, I’ve got to rein something in here, or maybe I’ve gone back to that people pleasing tendency again.

[00:34:10] Meegan Care: Yeah. Yeah. So good. And then, and then I think that’s so helpful. And initially we’ve just got to get that shit storm under control and then we have that, you know, neutrality and then it’s like, Oh, this pops up. Oh, okay. So what is actually going on here? What do I need to look at? So, so I love that. I think, you know, having you as a, Neutral person that can really look at, well, there’s this piece, there’s the MHT or the HRT and then there’s maybe the more natural things and you can look at both or either or, you know, what’s going to work for you at different stages is just so, so helpful.

What do you think is So I went through, like I said, menopause early, so I’ve been out the other side for a number of years according to my blood tests. What do you think is the opportunity for us as women? Because I actually see a lot of women saying, I just feel like the good part of my life is…

And, and that’s, that’s hard to say and to hear and to even say I, yeah, anyway, what do you think is, is there an opportunity in this for us?

[00:35:22] Jodie: Massive opportunities and, and for growth on so many levels. So there’s an opportunity to really learn about your physical body and what it needs and what best you can do to look after it going forward.

Perimenopause is a what’s the word I’m looking for? It’s a recalibration. So it’s a recalibration of the body and the brain actually in the emotions. So it’s actually a chance for you to be able to set yourself up going forward. But it needs to be done in a bit, in quite a conscious way, I think so choosing instead of being sort of carried along by the perimenopause signs and symptoms and carried along by the, the life that you think you have to do.

It’s actually a chance to stop and actually take stock of all the things and make some decisions about what you want things to look like going forward, especially with that. That’s really the veal or veil, rather you, you. There’s a chance there to really get to know yourself and what is going to be best for you so that you can start to make choices or different choices about what you want to do going forward.

I really do believe when we understand and know what’s going on and why we do the things we do, then we can choose to do them differently if we wish. And so it’s that point in time when we can have a lot of understanding or self discovery. About the way that we’re doing things and decide, do I want to keep doing it that way and getting that same outcome, or do I want to do things a little bit differently?

And that’s for our physical and mental and emotional health. Yeah,

[00:36:53] Meegan Care: exactly. On all levels. And I think even on the subtle level, I noticed for myself I I haven’t talked to many women about this, but, but I wonder anecdotally, like my sort of my gut instinct, my intuition for things is so much more refined since going through menopause.

I guess. Yeah. I, anyway, I’m not sure of the reasons for that, but it’s super interesting.

[00:37:17] Jodie: Absolutely. And it’s, it’s something I’ve actually just I’ve actually just started reading a book by Christine Northrup and she talks about this and I can’t wait to really like get into that book. Cause it’s one of the areas that I , would like to know more about.

I think it’s very, very important, but. It, it’s like your shit filter, , , you know, it becomes a bit stronger or there’s something in us that knows that that is not okay for us. And, um, but yeah, that, that know, that inner knowing that starts to, to come up and, and the more we listen to it as you’ll be well aware, the more we listen to it, the stronger it

[00:37:55] Meegan Care: gets.

Yeah, exactly. So it is a it’s a very empowering experience to have arise inside of me anyway, at this stage of life, and, and I think, I think, you know, if I was talking to someone who was going through the earlier stages of perimenopause, I sometimes will talk about, hey, it’s actually really good, like, once we’ve gone through it, you, there is a, You know, that, that thing where people say, oh, you know, a post menopausal woman kind of gives no fucks.

Well, because like our hormonal profile has shifted. So who we are and how we show up is, is very different. And we’re able to have an, a sense of agency that is different at this, at this stage in age. Which I just love, love, love. Hey, is there Is there anything else you want to share that you think is important that maybe we haven’t touched on that you want to share with people?

[00:38:55] Jodie: I think that the most important thing for us to remember is that perimenopause is a natural transition and 99 percent of women are going to have that transition in some form. And just to remember, there’s nothing wrong with you. Like, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with you if you have signs or symptoms or you’re having difficulties.

And I can’t stress that enough. You’re having an experience. You’re having some signs and symptoms. The signs and symptoms can usually be reduced, managed, or mitigated. And that there’s nothing wrong with you. I think that’s probably the biggest message that I would like

[00:39:35] Meegan Care: women to know. I think that’s a really powerful thing to finish with, Jodie.

How can people get in touch with you if they want to contact you? Yeah,

[00:39:44] Jodie: so they can go to my website, which is managemyperimenopause. com. They can also find me on social media channels, which is Facebook and Instagram at manage my perimenopause. I love it when people message me and if they’ve got any questions that gives me a really good way of providing content for those pages.

So I answer questions and post those videos. So that’s great. Thank you. And the resources that we mentioned, so the A Z of perimenopausal symptoms and the

Perimenopause Tracker, they can be found at myperimenopausetracker. com, but I think you’re going to put that in the show notes. So, if you’ve got brain fog, don’t worry about it.

[00:40:24] Meegan Care: We got you. Yeah, yeah, we got you. So good. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Jodie. It’s been yeah, really… Insightful for me.

I really love your approach to supporting women in perimenopause.

[00:40:40] Jodie: Oh, thanks for having me. I love the conversation. So good.