WEBVTT
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Let's talk about perimenopause. I know what you
00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:04.700
may be thinking on the surface, this seems like
00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:07.219
a strange topic for Women in Leadership podcast.
00:00:07.660 --> 00:00:10.179
But after my conversation with Dr. Case Troutman,
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:13.199
I actually think the connection is pretty obvious.
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If you're over 40, you probably cannot go very
00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.600
long without hearing someone talk about it. It
00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:20.780
comes up with friends, it shows up in your social
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media feed. And eventually you start hearing
00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:25.440
enough of the symptoms that you think, okay,
00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.760
wait a second, this sounds very familiar. That
00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:31.219
was definitely my experience. For a long time,
00:00:31.339 --> 00:00:33.420
I thought I was just stressed. And to be fair,
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I had plenty of reason to be. Work had been intense.
00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.679
Life had been insane. There was a lot going on.
00:00:39.979 --> 00:00:42.579
So when I started waking up at 3 AM and couldn't
00:00:42.579 --> 00:00:45.539
go back to sleep consistently, I just blamed
00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:49.079
stress. When I felt like I was constantly carrying
00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:53.200
this high anxiety, like my body was always slightly
00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:56.679
on edge, I blamed that on stress too. And because
00:00:56.679 --> 00:00:58.939
I wasn't having hot flashes, perimenopause was
00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:01.280
really not even on my radar. That was basically
00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:03.240
my understanding of menopause for most of my
00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:05.620
life. Hot flashes, moodiness, eventually your
00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:08.040
period stops. That's pretty much the curriculum
00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:10.900
that I knew. What Dr. Troutman helped explain
00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:12.840
is that for a lot of women, it does not look
00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:16.099
like that at all. It can look like fatigue, anxiety,
00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:18.900
disrupted sleep, difficulty concentrating, brain
00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:22.040
fog, feeling overwhelmed, or just that vague
00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.659
feeling of not quite feeling like yourself. And
00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:27.659
that matters because none of those things stay
00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:30.400
neatly contained in your personal life. If you're
00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:32.939
not sleeping, that follows you to work. If you
00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:35.480
can't focus the way you normally do, that follows
00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:38.620
you into a meeting. If your anxiety is suddenly
00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.519
much higher than usual, that can absolutely affect
00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.620
how you communicate, make decisions, or show
00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:47.719
up in a high -stakes situation. So one of the
00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.239
biggest takeaways for me was to stop assuming
00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:53.200
everything is just stress. That does not mean
00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:55.560
your stress is not real. Most women in this stage
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of life have plenty of it. You may be leading
00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.239
a team, raising kids, helping aging parents,
00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:03.659
managing a household, running a business, and
00:02:03.659 --> 00:02:05.719
doing some combination yes of all that. You're
00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.280
under a lot of pressure. But what Dr. Chapman
00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:10.960
kept coming back to was the idea of asking, what
00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:14.840
if it's not just stress? That's such a simple
00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.379
question because I think it's also so important.
00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:20.680
It gives you another explanation besides, am
00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:23.000
I just not handling things as well as I used
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.979
to? And that is where women can get really hard
00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:28.520
on themselves. We start thinking maybe we need
00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:31.759
a better routine to get more organized. Maybe
00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:34.900
we need to exercise more and sleep better, manage
00:02:34.900 --> 00:02:37.400
our time better, or somehow become more disciplined
00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.770
than we already are. Meanwhile, there may be
00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:44.169
a biological reason why everything feels harder.
00:02:44.669 --> 00:02:46.650
Dr. Trotman called this the silent tax, and I
00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:48.349
thought that was such a good way to describe
00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:50.830
it. We keep compensating for what is happening
00:02:50.830 --> 00:02:54.009
without really understanding it. We make more
00:02:54.009 --> 00:02:56.610
list. We over -prepare. We put reminders everywhere.
00:02:56.650 --> 00:02:59.110
We work longer because it takes more effort to
00:02:59.110 --> 00:03:02.590
focus. And then when something slips, we take
00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:05.750
it personally. This is where it becomes a career
00:03:05.750 --> 00:03:08.400
issue. Brain fog is one thing when you're standing
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.479
in your kitchen trying to remember why you walked
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into the room. It feels very different when you're
00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:15.740
presenting to a client, leading a meeting, or
00:03:15.740 --> 00:03:18.000
sitting in a room where your credibility matters.
00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:20.599
You know the information, you've said the word
00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:22.979
a hundred times, and then suddenly it's just
00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:26.639
gone. The problem is that in that moment you
00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:28.900
were not only trying to remember the word, you're
00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:30.919
also thinking about what everyone else in the
00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:34.189
room now thinks about you. Do they think I'm
00:03:34.189 --> 00:03:36.830
unprepared, that I can't handle this? Do they
00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:39.729
think I'm losing my edge? And then, because we're
00:03:39.729 --> 00:03:42.710
human, we start asking ourselves the same questions.
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That's the part I really want women to hear.
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Struggling with sleep, anxiety, focus, or brain
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fog does not automatically mean your capability
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has changed. And the timing of all this is especially
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frustrating because perimenopause often shows
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up during some of our biggest career years. We
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have finally built the experience, the confidence,
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the credibility. We're leading bigger teams,
00:04:06.539 --> 00:04:09.419
taking on bigger roles, running companies. And
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at the exact same time, our bodies may be making
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some of those things feel much harder than they
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used to. This does not mean we're past our peak.
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It means we may need to understand what is actually
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happening before we start making big assumptions
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about ourselves. The other big takeaway from
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Dr. Troutman was that normal does not mean you
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have to suffer. She said there is no metal for
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suffering and that line stuck with me because
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women are very good at powering through and calling
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it strength. We take care of everybody else first.
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We handle the appointments, the schedules, the
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work, the family stuff, all of it. And meanwhile,
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we may not have been sleeping for six months
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and thinking, I'll deal with it eventually. I
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did that too. I also brought up some of these
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symptoms with another doctor before I met Dr.
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Troutman and basically got, yeah, that's normal
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for your age. And I walked away thinking, OK,
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so I guess that means I just deal with it. But
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normal and untreatable are not the same thing.
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That's an important distinction. Dr. Troutman
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was also very clear that every symptom is not
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automatically perimenopause. A good provider
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should look at the full picture and rule out
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other things that can cause fatigue, anxiety,
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brain fog, or sleep issues. But if you're in
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this stage of life and something feels noticeably
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different, it's worth having a conversation with
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someone who actually understands menopause care
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and gives a shit. There are options. For some
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women, hormone therapy can be incredibly helpful.
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For others, it may not be appropriate or may
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not be what they want. Dr. Troutman talks about
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looking at the full picture through meals, movement,
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mind, and meds, which can include things like
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nutrition, exercise, strength training, sleep,
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support, stress management, therapy, coaching,
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hormone therapy, and other medications just depending
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on the person. And I think one of the most useful
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things that she said was that sometimes telling
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an exhausted woman to just eat better and exercise
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more is not especially helpful. It's not bad
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advice, of course. It's just hard to execute
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when you are completely depleted. Sometimes you
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need help feeling better before you can consistently
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do all those other things to help support your
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health. So if you're listening to this and thinking,
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okay, this sounds very familiar. Here's where
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I would start. Pay attention to what's changed,
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not just hot flashes. Look at your sleep, anxiety,
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your energy, your concentration, patience, and
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even whether you just feel like yourself. You
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don't need to track every emotion and turn this
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into a giant project, but it's worth noticing
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patterns because those patterns help you have
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a much better conversation with the provider.
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And then find someone who knows what they're
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talking about. Ask whether they regularly work
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with women in perimenopause. Ask how they evaluate
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symptoms. Ask what treatment options they discuss
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and what else they want to rule out. If you feel
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dismissed, keep going. You are not being dramatic
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because you want to sleep through the night.
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And remember basic nouns. I mean, these are very
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reasonable goals. And finally, be careful about
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turning any of this into a statement about your
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competence. If you're struggling with focus or
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sleep or anxiety, get curious before you get
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critical. Do not immediately decide that you
00:07:23.089 --> 00:07:25.910
are not as sharp anymore or maybe that you can't
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handle the role or maybe you should go after
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a less opportunity. There may be something biological
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happening that deserves attention before you
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make it mean something bigger about who you are.
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And if you need some support at work, you get
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to decide what that looks like. You do not need
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to announce your medical history in a conference
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room. You may simply need to talk about the impact,
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whether that's sleep disruption, a health issue,
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or needing a little more structure around something
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just for a period of time. Every workplace is
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different and disclosure is personal, but quietly
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struggling is not your only option. So if there's
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one thing I want you to take away from this is
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that. Perimenopause is normal. It's common. Yes,
00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:07.459
it's going to happen. And it can absolutely affect
00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:09.579
how you show up in your career. But that does
00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:11.839
not mean that you're declining. It does not mean
00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.980
that you are suddenly less capable. And it definitely
00:08:13.980 --> 00:08:16.180
does not mean that you need to spend the next
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several, and I mean several years, white -knuckling
00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:22.500
your way through it. Pay attention to what's
00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:25.019
changed. Ask questions. Find someone who listens
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and explore the options that make sense for you.
00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:30.839
Because taking care of yourself is not separate.
00:08:30.990 --> 00:08:33.289
from being a strong leader. It's part of how
00:08:33.289 --> 00:08:36.129
you stay one. And there's absolutely no metal
00:08:36.129 --> 00:08:38.570
for suffering through this alone. If you have
00:08:38.570 --> 00:08:40.529
not listened to my full conversation with Dr.
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Case Troutman, go back and listen. There's so
00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:45.570
much information about what perimenopause actually
00:08:45.570 --> 00:08:48.429
is, treatment options, and why this matters so
00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:52.529
much for women at work. Until next time, stay
00:08:52.529 --> 00:08:54.929
loud, stay lifted, and know that you are not
00:08:54.929 --> 00:08:55.889
in this alone.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940
Let's talk about perimenopause. I know what you
00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:04.700
may be thinking on the surface, this seems like
00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:07.219
a strange topic for Women in Leadership podcast.
00:00:07.660 --> 00:00:10.179
But after my conversation with Dr. Case Troutman,
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:13.199
I actually think the connection is pretty obvious.
00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:16.199
If you're over 40, you probably cannot go very
00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.600
long without hearing someone talk about it. It
00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:20.780
comes up with friends, it shows up in your social
00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:23.339
media feed. And eventually you start hearing
00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:25.440
enough of the symptoms that you think, okay,
00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.760
wait a second, this sounds very familiar. That
00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:31.219
was definitely my experience. For a long time,
00:00:31.339 --> 00:00:33.420
I thought I was just stressed. And to be fair,
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.939
I had plenty of reason to be. Work had been intense.
00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.679
Life had been insane. There was a lot going on.
00:00:39.979 --> 00:00:42.579
So when I started waking up at 3 AM and couldn't
00:00:42.579 --> 00:00:45.539
go back to sleep consistently, I just blamed
00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:49.079
stress. When I felt like I was constantly carrying
00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:53.200
this high anxiety, like my body was always slightly
00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:56.679
on edge, I blamed that on stress too. And because
00:00:56.679 --> 00:00:58.939
I wasn't having hot flashes, perimenopause was
00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:01.280
really not even on my radar. That was basically
00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:03.240
my understanding of menopause for most of my
00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:05.620
life. Hot flashes, moodiness, eventually your
00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:08.040
period stops. That's pretty much the curriculum
00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:10.900
that I knew. What Dr. Troutman helped explain
00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:12.840
is that for a lot of women, it does not look
00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:16.099
like that at all. It can look like fatigue, anxiety,
00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:18.900
disrupted sleep, difficulty concentrating, brain
00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:22.040
fog, feeling overwhelmed, or just that vague
00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.659
feeling of not quite feeling like yourself. And
00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:27.659
that matters because none of those things stay
00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:30.400
neatly contained in your personal life. If you're
00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:32.939
not sleeping, that follows you to work. If you
00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:35.480
can't focus the way you normally do, that follows
00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:38.620
you into a meeting. If your anxiety is suddenly
00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.519
much higher than usual, that can absolutely affect
00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.620
how you communicate, make decisions, or show
00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:47.719
up in a high -stakes situation. So one of the
00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.239
biggest takeaways for me was to stop assuming
00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:53.200
everything is just stress. That does not mean
00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:55.560
your stress is not real. Most women in this stage
00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.480
of life have plenty of it. You may be leading
00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.239
a team, raising kids, helping aging parents,
00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:03.659
managing a household, running a business, and
00:02:03.659 --> 00:02:05.719
doing some combination yes of all that. You're
00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.280
under a lot of pressure. But what Dr. Chapman
00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:10.960
kept coming back to was the idea of asking, what
00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:14.840
if it's not just stress? That's such a simple
00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.379
question because I think it's also so important.
00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:20.680
It gives you another explanation besides, am
00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:23.000
I just not handling things as well as I used
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.979
to? And that is where women can get really hard
00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:28.520
on themselves. We start thinking maybe we need
00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:31.759
a better routine to get more organized. Maybe
00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:34.900
we need to exercise more and sleep better, manage
00:02:34.900 --> 00:02:37.400
our time better, or somehow become more disciplined
00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.770
than we already are. Meanwhile, there may be
00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:44.169
a biological reason why everything feels harder.
00:02:44.669 --> 00:02:46.650
Dr. Trotman called this the silent tax, and I
00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:48.349
thought that was such a good way to describe
00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:50.830
it. We keep compensating for what is happening
00:02:50.830 --> 00:02:54.009
without really understanding it. We make more
00:02:54.009 --> 00:02:56.610
list. We over -prepare. We put reminders everywhere.
00:02:56.650 --> 00:02:59.110
We work longer because it takes more effort to
00:02:59.110 --> 00:03:02.590
focus. And then when something slips, we take
00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:05.750
it personally. This is where it becomes a career
00:03:05.750 --> 00:03:08.400
issue. Brain fog is one thing when you're standing
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.479
in your kitchen trying to remember why you walked
00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:13.340
into the room. It feels very different when you're
00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:15.740
presenting to a client, leading a meeting, or
00:03:15.740 --> 00:03:18.000
sitting in a room where your credibility matters.
00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:20.599
You know the information, you've said the word
00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:22.979
a hundred times, and then suddenly it's just
00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:26.639
gone. The problem is that in that moment you
00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:28.900
were not only trying to remember the word, you're
00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:30.919
also thinking about what everyone else in the
00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:34.189
room now thinks about you. Do they think I'm
00:03:34.189 --> 00:03:36.830
unprepared, that I can't handle this? Do they
00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:39.729
think I'm losing my edge? And then, because we're
00:03:39.729 --> 00:03:42.710
human, we start asking ourselves the same questions.
00:03:43.569 --> 00:03:45.590
That's the part I really want women to hear.
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Struggling with sleep, anxiety, focus, or brain
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fog does not automatically mean your capability
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has changed. And the timing of all this is especially
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frustrating because perimenopause often shows
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up during some of our biggest career years. We
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have finally built the experience, the confidence,
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the credibility. We're leading bigger teams,
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taking on bigger roles, running companies. And
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at the exact same time, our bodies may be making
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some of those things feel much harder than they
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used to. This does not mean we're past our peak.
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It means we may need to understand what is actually
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happening before we start making big assumptions
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about ourselves. The other big takeaway from
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Dr. Troutman was that normal does not mean you
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have to suffer. She said there is no metal for
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suffering and that line stuck with me because
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women are very good at powering through and calling
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it strength. We take care of everybody else first.
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We handle the appointments, the schedules, the
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work, the family stuff, all of it. And meanwhile,
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we may not have been sleeping for six months
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and thinking, I'll deal with it eventually. I
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did that too. I also brought up some of these
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symptoms with another doctor before I met Dr.
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Troutman and basically got, yeah, that's normal
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for your age. And I walked away thinking, OK,
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so I guess that means I just deal with it. But
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normal and untreatable are not the same thing.
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That's an important distinction. Dr. Troutman
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was also very clear that every symptom is not
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automatically perimenopause. A good provider
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should look at the full picture and rule out
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other things that can cause fatigue, anxiety,
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brain fog, or sleep issues. But if you're in
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this stage of life and something feels noticeably
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different, it's worth having a conversation with
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someone who actually understands menopause care
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and gives a shit. There are options. For some
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women, hormone therapy can be incredibly helpful.
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For others, it may not be appropriate or may
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not be what they want. Dr. Troutman talks about
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looking at the full picture through meals, movement,
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mind, and meds, which can include things like
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nutrition, exercise, strength training, sleep,
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support, stress management, therapy, coaching,
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hormone therapy, and other medications just depending
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on the person. And I think one of the most useful
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things that she said was that sometimes telling
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an exhausted woman to just eat better and exercise
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more is not especially helpful. It's not bad
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advice, of course. It's just hard to execute
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when you are completely depleted. Sometimes you
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need help feeling better before you can consistently
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do all those other things to help support your
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health. So if you're listening to this and thinking,
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okay, this sounds very familiar. Here's where
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I would start. Pay attention to what's changed,
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not just hot flashes. Look at your sleep, anxiety,
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your energy, your concentration, patience, and
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even whether you just feel like yourself. You
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don't need to track every emotion and turn this
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into a giant project, but it's worth noticing
00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:44.600
patterns because those patterns help you have
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a much better conversation with the provider.
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And then find someone who knows what they're
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talking about. Ask whether they regularly work
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with women in perimenopause. Ask how they evaluate
00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:58.139
symptoms. Ask what treatment options they discuss
00:06:58.139 --> 00:07:00.860
and what else they want to rule out. If you feel
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dismissed, keep going. You are not being dramatic
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because you want to sleep through the night.
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And remember basic nouns. I mean, these are very
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reasonable goals. And finally, be careful about
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turning any of this into a statement about your
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competence. If you're struggling with focus or
00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.259
sleep or anxiety, get curious before you get
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critical. Do not immediately decide that you
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are not as sharp anymore or maybe that you can't
00:07:25.910 --> 00:07:27.850
handle the role or maybe you should go after
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a less opportunity. There may be something biological
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happening that deserves attention before you
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make it mean something bigger about who you are.
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And if you need some support at work, you get
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to decide what that looks like. You do not need
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to announce your medical history in a conference
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room. You may simply need to talk about the impact,
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whether that's sleep disruption, a health issue,
00:07:49.069 --> 00:07:51.350
or needing a little more structure around something
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just for a period of time. Every workplace is
00:07:54.089 --> 00:07:56.449
different and disclosure is personal, but quietly
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struggling is not your only option. So if there's
00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:01.850
one thing I want you to take away from this is
00:08:01.850 --> 00:08:05.060
that. Perimenopause is normal. It's common. Yes,
00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:07.459
it's going to happen. And it can absolutely affect
00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:09.579
how you show up in your career. But that does
00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:11.839
not mean that you're declining. It does not mean
00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.980
that you are suddenly less capable. And it definitely
00:08:13.980 --> 00:08:16.180
does not mean that you need to spend the next
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several, and I mean several years, white -knuckling
00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:22.500
your way through it. Pay attention to what's
00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:25.019
changed. Ask questions. Find someone who listens
00:08:25.019 --> 00:08:27.959
and explore the options that make sense for you.
00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:30.839
Because taking care of yourself is not separate.
00:08:30.990 --> 00:08:33.289
from being a strong leader. It's part of how
00:08:33.289 --> 00:08:36.129
you stay one. And there's absolutely no metal
00:08:36.129 --> 00:08:38.570
for suffering through this alone. If you have
00:08:38.570 --> 00:08:40.529
not listened to my full conversation with Dr.
00:08:40.610 --> 00:08:42.950
Case Troutman, go back and listen. There's so
00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:45.570
much information about what perimenopause actually
00:08:45.570 --> 00:08:48.429
is, treatment options, and why this matters so
00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:52.529
much for women at work. Until next time, stay
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loud, stay lifted, and know that you are not
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in this alone.
