00:00:00.000classes in session. Hey everybody and welcome to unlearn 16 classes in session. I'm here all
00:00:10.560by myself in my shoe slash closet. You can't see it right now because you're just facing
00:00:17.800the same old wall. That's not the point of this podcast. The point of this podcast is actually
00:00:22.760going to be kind of off the cuff, you know, completely different from how scripted I normally
00:00:28.920am listen i'm 49 and what i've realized i would say in this past maybe year maybe two is that i'm 49
00:00:46.280what i mean by that is the wheels are starting to come off the cart
00:00:51.560just a little bit right like i dislocated my pinky it's been a problem for now a month
00:00:57.480Um, you know, I, my, my body doesn't, the bottom of my feet hurt because I've walked around too much in the day. I haven't injured anything. They're just sore. It's like, it's like I turned 49 and the bottom of my feet went, we've had enough.
00:01:18.500We've seen everything we need to see, and Joanna, you know, my shoulder, unenjoyable,
00:02:00.560And what I want to talk about today is specific for women.
00:02:07.680Because, guys, I can only speak from where I freaking stand.
00:02:11.660And you know where I stand right now? And I know some of you are already saying because you've heard me complain about it 750,000 times. I'm standing on the edge of perimetopause. Right on the cross. Right toes dangling. I might be hanging from, you know, in the cartoon when you watch like Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner and all of a sudden somebody's hanging from a dandelion off a cliff.
00:02:37.480I feel like I'm hanging on to that dandelion, but not from my right hand, because this finger's broken, and not from this hand, because this, my ring finger, arthritis.
00:02:49.580So my teeth? I'm hanging on by my teeth. I'm not even going to talk about the dentist.
00:02:55.020and so as i'm entering into this era of my life funnily enough i've never felt more me i've never
00:03:03.800felt more empowered i've never felt like i've worked into my own voice or my own style or my
00:03:09.880own whatever beautiful relationship my fit listen work all these things are like lovely
00:03:17.880and it's like at this particular moment my body is shutting it all down and a big reason it's
00:03:24.840shutting it all down. Yes, I eat like garbage. Let's not talk about that. No, I do not exercise.0.98
00:03:33.060That could also be it. However, I'm also hitting perimenopause. So in perimenopause,
00:03:40.720women's bodies, and I'm going to talk from the completely uneducated point of view that I have0.95
00:03:46.220right now, but this is just the beginning. Just so you know, today is the beginning of this journey.
00:03:54.840Because I, to hell with all of it, I'm not into it. Let me tell you how I feel. Let me tell you
00:04:01.900how I'm going to fix it. And I'm going to take you guys on with me, whether it's on TikTok,
00:04:06.300whether it's on Instagram, Blue Sky, maybe I'll put something on Twitter. I don't know. Those
00:04:11.140boys don't even understand what menopause is. So who knows? I'm definitely going to continue it
00:04:17.100on here. So with perimetopause, you know, you start, your hormones start to go haywire. And
00:04:24.380the very end of the day your your body is drained of estrogen now quite a few years ago there were
00:04:31.820all these estrogen replacement hormone therapies yada yada yada and then everybody said they're
00:04:36.540horrible for you they're going to give you cancer and everybody's like oh my god so we don't want
00:04:40.140that right um so whatever goes with perimenopause most of the time we as women we don't talk about
00:04:49.500it our doctor doesn't bring it up and if we bring up that we're feeling any sort of certain way
00:04:55.260their answer to us is well that's 49. you know what screw 49 i'm not into it and i know that
00:05:04.700there are different sort of natural and sometimes chemical ways to not feel 49. let's go over some
00:05:13.340some of the perimenopause things. Brain fog, perimenopause. I lifted my left arm, my left arm,
00:05:23.300as I was driving up to sit on my windowsill with my window undone, because that's what the cool
00:05:29.760kids do. And as I got about halfway, I pulled something in my bicep insertion area, and it was
00:05:39.200injured for months. It ached. I couldn't move it. It wasn't frozen shoulder, but frozen shoulder is
00:05:47.700a huge, huge ramification of perimenopause. But what it was, was when estrogen's being leached
00:05:54.600out of my system en masse, apparently your tendons, your ligaments get dry and brittle,
00:06:02.400and they just start to snap like little tiny twigs all over your body, causing you injury
00:06:08.300left, right, and freaking center, right? Everything hurts. Perimetopause, obviously the brain fog,
00:06:19.260the memory loss. I've been losing words, which is really frustrating to me because all I do is run
00:06:25.440my mouth, right? You get heat flashes. Fine. I mean, I can handle the sweating. It doesn't
00:06:33.700really bother me. Your weight fluctuates very, very oddly. You don't react the same to food
00:06:39.660anymore. I sometimes feel a level of uncontrollable rage for no apparent reason.
00:06:49.320All of these things that are going into what perimetopause is and the kinds of things that
00:06:55.840you feel when you're going through it, we're supposed to just deal with it and move on.
00:07:04.580i'm not even you know i am going to talk about it forget that i am going to talk about
00:07:10.020what happens when you hit perimenopause and what happens to your menstrual cycle
00:07:14.420guys i lived a fairly blessed life meaning i get my period it was an inconvenience
00:07:25.060it was fine i didn't take medication i know there's lots and lots of people who do
00:07:30.740but i lived pretty you know it was contained not horrible pain not not incredibly strong
00:07:39.620period flow like it was continued i it was like last year maybe going on a year and a half
00:07:47.540that when i get my period i feel like i might hemorrhage to death
00:07:52.420i swear to god it is so horrible and so mind numbingly painful that if i don't take advil
00:08:02.620every four hours i think i might die sleep who sleeps anymore right i wake up easily every two
00:08:12.600hours and i am wide awake thinking about what i did in 1987 it doesn't really matter i used to
00:08:20.160think I couldn't sleep because there was anxiety, but I don't think it's anxiety anymore. It
00:08:23.780literally, I wake up wide awake, not stressed. You know, I have rewatched house so many times
00:08:32.120that I'm pretty sure I could be a doctor at this particular point, but the sleep problems are
00:08:36.860significant because the sleep problems then only add to all of the other issues that you're having
00:08:43.080when you're having brain fog or when you're having like any sort of, you know, um, focus
00:08:49.240problems. None of this, you talk about your metabolism, you talk about your thyroid, you
00:08:57.500talk about all of the different things that are going on in your body. You go in to talk to your
00:09:01.400doctor about it, or as I have, you go in and they'll say, well, we'll test your thyroid.0.96
00:09:05.860And they'll say crap like, well, this is just normal for being 49. That's what I have to say0.94
00:09:12.000to that. Normal for 49? I don't want to be normal for 49, doctor. I want to feel like
00:09:21.020I'm 35. Make it so, Jean-Luc Picard. I know you can do it, right? Vanessa's been telling
00:09:29.280me forever, Joanna, just come to California, go get tested by my endocrinologist because
00:09:34.660an endocrinologist is actually the individual, not your family doctor. Endocrinologist is
00:09:41.440actually going to know all of the variant levels in your body they're going to be able to prescribe
00:09:47.040healthy and natural compounds that you can take in order to give your body the things it needs
00:09:53.440as you get older so you're not drained all of these hormones some people are like well joanna
00:09:59.920that's just nature why is it not nature for men are you joking me mr hair replacement therapy
00:10:09.600mr testosterone replacement therapy mr viagra on every street corner what about all those things
00:10:20.240what what about all of those things and the horrific side effects of all those things
00:10:24.960no men shouldn't have to go through that well why the hell am i why am i skin changes right
00:10:33.760i get these patches on my neck and i mean most of the point i can live through that
00:10:39.120that's not the biggest that's not the biggest issue in the you know in the ramifications of
00:10:44.560all of the different things that i'm going through headaches sure not being able to concentrate
00:10:53.600absolutely all of these things that we have and we are told by our medical professionals
00:11:02.000you know what this is just how you're supposed to feel well i'm not interested in it truly i'm not
00:11:11.360interested i don't think in this day and age with all of the medical advancements that we have
00:11:21.600since when is anybody just aging grace stop it
00:11:26.720to each his own i'm not getting botox i'm not getting plastic surgery i'm not giving
00:11:33.440butt lifts or whatever else that people want to get and you know what if you want to get them
00:11:37.440have at it all i'm trying to figure out is how to feel okay and if there is a a medical
00:11:48.000combination of hormone therapy that can make me feel like I am 35? Why isn't this being
00:11:58.740researched? Why isn't this being pushed? Why aren't we advocating for this? I'll tell you
00:12:02.980why, because women aren't running the medical system. That's why. Side note, why are so1.00
00:12:10.720many women getting their gallbladders out? I don't know if I've heard of any men getting1.00
00:12:16.800their gallbladders out but you know how many women have got their gallbladders out it's like we get0.60
00:12:21.180all of these symptoms or we get all of these things nobody talks about the why nobody talks
00:12:27.160about the lack of estrogen and the lack of progesterone and the lack of nobody talks about
00:12:31.680the why for us it's just well honey since and honestly here's what i think it is i honestly
00:12:41.920believe that there has been this assumption that there has been this this undercurrent of since
00:12:49.440you can't have kids anymore everything else we're not going to worry about everything else gets to
00:12:58.160go by the wayside because you are no longer reproducing i am done as of today right now
00:13:07.760Wow. Mark my words. This is coming out Tuesday morning at 7am. As of right now, I'm done. I am
00:13:14.440going to find the top medical professionals that give a crap about a woman's body and a woman's0.98
00:13:22.880health and how a woman ages and feels okay and how she can access things to make her0.98
00:13:29.700insides and the way that she feels match her brain. Because I'm telling you right now,
00:13:38.240maybe this is the case if somebody at 49 50 years old by the way when we really step into our own
00:13:46.960when we really become aware and confident the same is true for men by the by when we step into our
00:13:54.960own and we're faced with this huge hormone variant shift that causes damage left right and center
00:14:01.520both emotionally, mentally, physically, all of those things. And now we have to handle that.
00:14:09.240So instead of stepping into the primer, but we're also having to juggle all of that stuff,0.97
00:14:13.680men don't have to do it. I wonder why they become the powerhouses. They are at 50, 55, 60 years old.
00:14:23.040I'm done with all of it. As of today, and anybody knows anybody, you tell them to reach out to me.
00:14:29.480I want this posted everywhere. Because I'm also done with people not talking about it.
00:14:37.660It's ridiculous. Women not demanding. I've heard that your thyroid has different gauges. Like,1.00
00:14:46.100so you have your thyroid, then you have your T4 and your T5 or something like that. And those
00:14:50.540levels need to be checked. And doctors won't even do it because they're like, well, it doesn't
00:14:54.580really matter because you're getting older fix it fix it now i do understand it's not necessarily
00:15:04.420covered i'm not thinking that we are going to block aging for everybody that doesn't i i get
00:15:11.480that in a in a in a socialized medicare kind of system a medicine system like a canada has but it
00:15:17.340doesn't matter that system doesn't cover any drugs i need extra coverage for that and i'll pay for it
00:15:23.680fine. But don't you dare tell me what I can and can't have access to or how I should and shouldn't
00:15:30.660feel when you're hanging out those little blue pills like they're going out of style, doctor
00:15:36.380whatever. I am exhausted. And obviously, I am all of these things because I'm 49. All of you guys,
00:15:49.300it was very self-serving, Joanna. You're 49. All of a sudden you care. Yeah, well, that's how it
00:15:52.560works all of a sudden you get actual experience and yeah that's how it works so i started this
00:15:59.580platform talking about education and politics i'm still talking about it and by the by if we all had
00:16:04.300a full education on this and the political system wasn't so incredibly patriarchal this problem
00:16:09.640would have been fixed a long time ago they all go hand in hand folks they all go hand in hand
00:16:16.840but if you think i'm not going to use what i got and the access i have and the big huge mouth i
00:16:22.400have to speak about this particular issue to hopefully empower educate and change that system
00:16:30.960you're dead wrong absolutely wrong so i want to find the best doctor i want to find the best
00:16:40.880clinics now i do live in ontario i'm not flying half over god's green earth but i do want the
00:16:47.280best of the best and i will go to any one of those places i can possibly go
00:16:55.600and make sure that people understand what they have access to what they could have access to
00:17:01.920and what they should demand acts access to as a basic medical right not oh well she's just
00:17:13.120getting older, you're just gonna have to live with it, hon, while all the men in the world don't have
00:17:18.660to live with anything. If it was even, I might not have as much problem with it, right? If all these
00:17:27.320men couldn't pop Viagra left, right, and center so they can cheat on their spouse at 60 years old
00:17:32.420and bear children to the nanny, Arnold, maybe, possibly, I wouldn't have so much anger in me,
00:17:38.680but I do because we're working overtime to feel like to make sure men feel like men and to make
00:17:46.020sure that the way they feel and that the access to health care that they can gain access to makes
00:17:53.180them feel good makes them feel empowered makes them feel strong both mentally and physically
00:17:57.100I just want the same for everybody else could there be side effects of course side effects
00:18:06.200of everything. Actually, I had this medical professional one time, we were talking about
00:18:10.800my mom and all the stuff that she's gone through, and we're trying to decide on what kind of
00:18:17.200medication she should be on, what dosage. And this doctor said something to me that I'll never forget
00:18:21.980because we said, well, we want her to take this pill, but we're worried about the side effects.
00:18:26.420He goes, I'm going to stop you right there. I want you to think of medication this way.
00:18:30.200All medication has effects, not side effects, just effects, meaning it might
00:18:41.860It might have negative effects for you, but the idea of it being a side effect
00:18:47.100makes no sense because the medication itself, it's not directed.
00:18:51.640And a lot of medication, by the way, that you're using for, for example,
00:18:55.500migraines is an anti-seizure medication.
00:18:59.300Wait, wait, wait. You get prescribed, if you have migraines, an actual anti-seizure medication that really works well on migraines. So technically you're buying that medication for the quote unquote side effect you didn't want it to have in the first place. You didn't think it was going to have. Medication has effects.
00:19:15.940so do i think that when i talk about hormone replacement therapy and all of the options
00:19:22.240that i may have which i don't even know because nobody's ever educated and talked about to me
00:19:25.940at all i'm gonna have to go actively search it sure i can go on the internet but god knows where
00:19:32.340that's gonna lead me um so all of these effects that medication is gonna have i get to be the
00:19:39.180judge of that as well as my health care provider right isn't that what we're doing we're deciding
00:19:45.820effects? How does this work? What does this look like? How does it impact my life? Do I get
00:19:52.280greater benefits than I get negative consequence or negative effects? All medication has effects.
00:19:59.980You have to decide, do the effects you get, are they more positive? Do they help your life?
00:20:08.520On the whole, are you getting something better out of taking it? And if the answer is yes,