Someone Should've Told Me: Navigating Peri-Menopause with Dr. Jennifer Ashton

Imagine sitting down with your bestie, someone who knows the ins and outs of health and the human heart. That's the warmth Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News' Chief Health and Medical Correspondent, brings to our in-depth conversation about life's transitions, women's health, and so much more. Our laughter is contagious as we reminisce about our first meetings, the strength in affirmations, the grace in aging, and the power in embracing one's authenticity. Dr. Jen's insights lift the veil on topics that are often kept in the shadows, like sex after 50, menopause, and the importance of open, supportive dialogue.

Transitioning through life's stages can feel like a solitary journey, but it doesn't have to be. This episode illuminates the nuances of menopause and perimenopause, clarifying misconceptions and underscoring the impact these changes have on women's mental health and overall well-being. From the relief we both have found in hormone replacement therapy to the caution needed when considering testosterone pellets, we dissect the variety of treatment options available. It's an honest exchange about the individual nature of healthcare, the need for empathetic providers, and the journey I've taken through perimenopause—reminding us all that we're in this together.

 So, join us as we chart a course through the beauty and complexity of womanhood, offering companionship and understanding every step of the way.

Links:
You can catch our guest, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, weekdays on ABC's Good Morning America and GMA3. Please follow her on Instagram at @DrJAshton.
Grab your copy of Dr. Jen's Magazine here.
Dr. Jen is also the author of several books including: The Self Care Solution , The New Normal,  Your Body Beautiful, and Life After Suicide.

About Our Host:

Intimate Details with Dr. Tiff is hosted by Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry and produced by Rideia Wilson. Follow Dr. Tiff at @DrTiffanieTV on Instagram.

For media inquiries, feel free to email at hello@drtiffanietv.com. If you're interested in supporting the podcast through sponsorship or wish to book your client to be featured on our program, email us at intimatedetailspod@gmail.com

All interviews are available for viewing on YouTube. Click the link below or tap HERE to WATCH EACH EPISODE! https://www.youtube.com/@DrTiffanieTV/podcasts

Transcript

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 2:25

It's important to note that the information provided here today is not subject to your unique health concerns. Before making any changes, we ask that you consult with your personal physician to determine a course of treatment that is specific to your individual needs and treatment goals. All right, you know my next guest, Dr Jennifer Ashton, as the Chief Health and Medical Correspondent for ABC News. She is the best-selling author of six books, including the Body Scoop for Girls Remember that one. That one's an oldie, but a giddy. Your body beautiful and the self-care solution. You can catch her each and every afternoon on GMA3 on ABC. But today I'm just thrilled to have my friend here with me, Dr Jin Jin Jin. Welcome to Intimate Details with Dr Jin. Thank you so much. Can you even imagine no, I can't that we're here.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 3:17

I can't imagine, this is bananas, to me Bananas, and I'm so thankful to have you.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 3:24

I know first of all, you know because I'm always your followers on your Instagram must think I am a crazy woman, because I am that person as advertised, you are. I am the person who writes down on, I would say, one out of every five of your posts. You are so beautiful, Same.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 3:46

You are.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 3:46

I love you and people don't know that we actually do love each other, that we are we have a whole lesbian relationship going on. We are sisters from another mister for 12 years going on now.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 4:01

Yeah, I know I was getting ready to say over a decade is so crazy. No, and IU, you know I love you down Thinking about like just texting you, I'll just be, you know, I'll wake up early, see you on GMA, and I'm like it looks really good today. Let me just text her and let her know, Because these are the things right. We need to know, we need the affirmation that we're doing okay, that things are aging well and we're holding it up. We need to know that.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 4:30

Yeah, and we need our girlfriends to tell us every now and then. I'm just excited to be on your show.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 4:36

This is wild to me. I was trying to figure out. So I was driving the other day and I was thinking has Jen? I know we've been on shows together and I believe you did interview me on the Doctors, if I'm not mistaken. I believe, you were on that segment, but this is my first time ever like interviewing you and this is so weird to me. I love it, but it doesn't get me to work.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 5:02

I know because I feel like you know what. I have tasks right, I have paper here that I'm trying to make sure I answer, ask all the questions that I want to ask. But I know this is going to go off tangent as we do. There are things we have to catch up on. There are things that you and I both need to know. So I mean, just I would say to our audience today just sit back, grab yourself a little drink in a nosh. Just, you know we're going to just kick it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 5:31

Answer the questions talk, the talk and all of that, but when friends who also happen to be a licensed sex therapist and a board certified gynecologist get together, I mean I think that's going to be a good time.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 5:49

Yeah, A very good time. Anything can happen and everything will be discussed. Correct, Everything will be discussed Now. Do you remember? Because I just can't believe you're here. It has been everything to try and get you here. I think you have come at the absolute right time. Do you hear that dinging? What is that? Is that?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 6:08

me Hold on, that might be on my side oh what do you do? Well, that might be my notifications, but hold on. That also presumes that I know how to shut that sucker off.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 6:20

Okay, are you on a Mac?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 6:22

Uh-huh.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 6:22

Okay, go to F six. What F six? Yeah, oh Jesus. And now she's throwing.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 6:30

F six.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 6:30

Okay, and you should have seemed like a do not disturb, come up. Oh, okay, look at you. Look at you moving into 2024.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 6:40

Thank you, I didn't even have to call my analytics for that one Now, when we get ready to end.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 6:47

I want you to take that off, otherwise, okay, I cannot be responsible for what happens after we close out the program.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 6:55

Gotcha, we'll do.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 6:57

All right, so do you remember? Yeah?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 7:02

of course Okay.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 7:03

Sure do.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 7:04

Okay, it was. I want to say it was 2011. Uh-huh For sure we were being. We had just been cast, if you will, as co-hosts on the ABC daytime show the Revolution, and we were. I just remember that. You know, there were five of us, or maybe four of us initially at that point, and I think you and I looked at each other like we're about to get on a roller coaster.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 7:34

We don't know what this ride is going to feel like we don't know if we're going to survive it, but nice to meet you and I think we're going to get through it together.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 7:44

So my memory same, sis same. But my memory we were doing, I think, press photos, I think is the first day that we might have met. That's definitely my first day spending time with you. Darra was doing your hair and makeup because I was from Atlanta, I didn't have a hair and makeup there, so they brought someone in for me and I remember Darra leaning over and she's like they're not going to let you wear your hair like that. Of course my hair is natural and it's, you know, it was a fro-ish situation and I'm like, yes, they are. She's like I'm just totally a girl. They probably not going to let you wear your hair like that because you know it was TV. I remember like just freaking out calling the REP over and Kim Miller calling Kim over and just being like you hired me like this and I plan on wearing my hair like this you know what, you know what.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 8:44

Now that you mentioned it, I remember another hair incident that you and I had oh my God, there are so many. Where we went, because we were doing the show in New York, but we were doing something in LA.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 8:53

Yeah, we were both now maybe a month in and we knew that it was a runaway train not a roller coaster but a runaway train and you and I showed up for some shoot and we go into hair and makeup. Do you remember this? And the hairstylist? You looked at the hairstylist who I think she might have been Asian or white, I don't remember what she was.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 9:18

This was no yes.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 9:19

But you said to the hairstylist have you ever done black hair? And did or did they tell you that you would be doing a black woman's hair? And she said they told me that I'd be doing ethnic hair. And you were like what?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 9:42

Wait one second? I said wait one second. And then no, this is the same one, this wasn't in LA, this was in New York. I went, I stopped her and I said you know what, sweetie, hold on. Hold on, because she was a hair and makeup person, like they didn't hire a separate person. And so I went and I said she can do my makeup and I have a picture of this woman too she can do my makeup, but she cannot touch my hair. I said absolutely.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 10:08

You were like ethnic what is that? Asian, I don't know what it is. Hispanic? No, no, this is.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 10:17

But here's what she did that made me say hold on one second, sweetie. I remember she took a pencil. Yeah, I remember she took a pencil. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, ok, turn on your computers right now. If you were in your car driving, stop the car and go over. This video will be on Spotify and it will be on YouTube. She took a pencil, a number two to be exact. Ok, she took my hair. I remember she wrapped it around the pencil. Yeah, yeah. Then took a flat iron to sear it so that it would be coily. I said hold on a minute.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 10:57

Hold on one minute, ma'am, Hold on. I got I need to go do something right quick. I said I will do my hair myself. I will look like whatever, I don't care. And that picture. I hated those pictures. I didn't like my hair in those pictures. It was good enough. It was better than it would have looked had I let her finish, because all of my hair would have been on the floor. I said this lady cannot touch my hair. So I'm so glad we've gotten so off topic.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 11:23

And now listen come full circle, and this is why I love our friendship and sisterhood, among other reasons, is that we intersect as friends, as moms, as wives, as professionals, as friends. What you know, all of the above as a white woman and a black woman, I'm going to move forward now 10 years, to when I had all that hair damage and I started wearing wigs and right. Do you remember when?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 11:48

I called you and I was like Tiffany, I got a wig it's a full wig with a lace cap, and I'm wearing a ponytail. And I am, I'm obsessed with this now. Now I see what. And you go hold on Now. You see, black women have been doing this for 30 years. I go well, I'm a little slow to the company, but now I am there.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 12:15

I will never go back. Oh, my gosh, the damage, the damage, and I mean it is so it is. It's a gift and a curse. It is so glamorous to have somebody, to really be lucky enough to have great people doing your hair and your makeup, so that that's something that you don't have to worry about, especially when you're going on camera. But honey, the trick, the torture that it does to every single follicle, you can't do that. You've been on TV now with, can I say, 25 years.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 12:45

How long? No, 17 years 17.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 12:49

Yeah, I feel like it's 30. Yeah, 17. Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 12:53

But I learned I learned from all of the black women that I work with how to protect my hair, and the thing that I have found so interesting is that black women are so upfront about it, proud of it, you know, like transparent. Yeah, white women are, I tell everyone. I tell the sound guys when they're like I'm like watch the hair and I go by the way, that's not my hair, and everyone's like shocked that I say no, no, this is a wig. Well, this is not a wig, listen. And I'm like what is the secret? I look at it no differently than my earrings, anyway, yeah, and so you and I had a full circle moment.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 13:38

Oh, honey, and yes, and the fact that you know you've always been someone to like. Just you know what she is, who she is. She's a black girl and she needs you know what she needs her things. I'm going to let her do her. I will be there to back her up if she needs it. I will advocate on her behalf if I need to, but I know she's got it, but I'm still here with her.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 13:59

I've always just had such a great relationship and I've so appreciated that over the years and loved you and loved watching all of the wonderful things that you've been able to do and same, same, yeah, yeah, life experiences, all of that stuff. So it is just my joy, honor and pleasure to have you here today. I'm just so ecstatic. I do have one more question before we get to the magazine, and this is another. Do you remember, do you know? This is a? Do you know? Not, do you remember? But do you know what my favorite, my favorite Dr Jen quote is? Oh God, no, no, here it is. My feet don't go in cheap shoes.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 14:50

That is true, that is true. Cheap bag, sure. Cheap clothes, yes. Cheap shoes Hell no. My feet just get on happy in cheap shoes.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 15:11

I love that for you.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 15:13

I love it. I love it.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 15:14

No, that's always been my favorite, like out of all the things we've ever talked about. That is the one thing, and that was an early on quote, but I was like, oh, she's my people.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 15:23

I remember I also have big feet so they can't go into cheap shoes.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 15:30

Yeah, they can't go in just any. Yeah, yes, we have a lot of stuff to celebrate here, most notably the release of the second issue of your magazine. Can you hold that up for me, because you had the honor of having one in your hand? I don't have one, not because I don't love Dr Jen, not because I haven't looked for it. I have, but I'd love to say that it's sold out, but I think it's just scurrying its way across the country and just hasn't made it to the public in Atlanta, georgia, yet. Let me tell you, here's the thing.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 16:04

Magazines are not like I don't know other things. I guess Each newsstand, each store gets to decide what magazines they buy, and not every store buys every magazine. So if you see in touch or us weekly, that's the same publisher as my magazine. So this should be there. But and here's the good news your listeners, your viewers can go to magazineshopus and buy the magazine for the same price that is available on the stands and it will always be there. So absolutely.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 16:42

And my first issue is there as well. But the best part about this issue is right here. See this sex after 50. Dr Tiffany Davis Henry is the core expert for that article, so it was so fun to do. Thank, you for contributing to that, of course.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 17:04

Of course you know, girl, you already know, like anything you asked me to do, we're, I'm there. I'm there, I'm there. You know that. No, it was so fun to do and, yes, we will put the information that you just gave about how they can access the magazine, as well as the books and everything that we talked about today. We'll put it in the show notes so that people can just click. They don't even have to think about it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 17:26

Just go to show notes and click Thank you.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 17:28

And you'll be able to get that magazine delivered to your door, her unto. But no, it was such an honor to contribute to this magazine because we got to answer so many of your readers questions about sex after 50, the changes to anticipate sexual pain, lubrication.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 17:48

We got to talk about desire discrepancy, how long an orgasm should take or last, or take take weight gain during menopause, all of that and I know that that's that's something that you're super familiar with and talk about all the time with your patients, but it was really, really. It was interesting what people really, what really was front of mind and of concern to women at this particular stage in their life, and it was just just a blessing to me to be able to offer some insight.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 18:20

You know, and I was honored that, that you participated, and I'll tell you what was really fun for me, tiff, with this magazine, this issue and the first issue and the next issue that we're already working on is that you know for people who I hope your viewers and listeners watch or you're watching Morning America and GMA3, but you know in in news television it's not up to me what we talk about every day, right, and I guess it's up to the producers, but we are responding to a story that's in the national headlines.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 18:59

So I call that reactive television or coverage, medical coverage, and this magazine is like your podcast, proactive. No one is telling you what questions to ask me, no one is telling us what to discuss. We're bringing our expertise and you know our day to day kind of knowledge and experience to the content and not vice versa. So that's something that I've really loved with the magazine is that I know what's important to women because of being an OBGYN and a nutritionist and a board certified obesity medicine doctor and I that's what I want to talk about. I don't get to make those decisions for Good Morning America, good Morning America and GMA3, but I do get to make those decisions for the magazine. So it to me was a no brainer to have you do, you know, a deep dive on sex after 50. And you will be back, I hope for more.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 20:02

You know I've already been told I'm coming back. So fine, yes, you are, you are Absolutely Well. I mean, I think that intention, that intention that you put into the magazine is very much, is well received and is definitely noted. And the care concern when you get the magazine. It is not, it is not your typical magazine where you read it once, you throw it away when the next issue comes.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 20:28

This is more of a coffee table journal, a reference point. It is something where I can. I can pick it up for what I needed, for in this moment and if, even if I don't need it because, guess what, Mama's not 50. I'm not 50. I have the knowledge, I have the expertise to tell you about it. Right, but let's say, in a year I am 50. I promise you a year or two or three, whatever that information is going to hold up. And that is across the board, from issue to issue. With this magazine the information is top tier by top tier professionals. It will hold the test of time, stand the test of time and you will be able to pick it up no matter what, anytime, any generation.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 21:14

We will all be able to get something from this magazine going forward, so I just thank you for putting it out there. It's great, great information.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 21:20

Thank you, I've had a lot of fun doing it. And oh listen, I have new. I have breaking news about the magazine. It was named. It was named by the, the leading magazine trade kind of blogger article one of the top 10 magazine launches of 2023.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 21:39

Shut your mouth. I mean, I mean go friend, go friend.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 21:47

I'm super excited, but most important, I'm just the response. You know, I have women post on my Instagram that they got the first one and they absolutely loved it, and that's you know. That's why I became a doctor, that's why I do what I do on television is just to have this conversation with women about important medical and health information, and just it's so. It's just so rewarding for me to hear that people are enjoying.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 22:15

And I'll tell you in this last time I say because I could go on about this magazine all day. The thing is it's not filled with a whole bunch of fluff. You know what I mean. And I know that you have to pay advertisers and I know that magazines have to like they have to make money on the back end as well, because magazine industry is very different than maybe it was 15 years ago. But I feel that there is so much substance in the magazine that is so worth it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 22:40

It's so worth it. Thank you, it's so worth it.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 22:43

I want to see it in every doctor's office. To be honest, I feel I do, I do. I want to see it in every doctor's office. The problem is that magazine is probably going to walk out of this office I mean, I'm used to tap the ears so you guys are going to have to check it out from the front desk and bring it back. Thank you, thank you, yes, you are welcome. You're most welcome. Now, in this season and this is our second season of Intimate Details with Dr Tiff we're really focusing our content and our conversations around two key pillars, and those are relationship enhancement and intentional self care. And so, while I have been wanting to have you on for so long, I really wanted to be intentional about our time and making sure that I have you on at the right time to ask the right questions, and this seemed like the best time. It didn't work out to have you on season one, like I think it was schedule complex and you know all of the place.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 23:40

But this is perfect time One, because the magazine just came out and we can talk about that and it leads us so beautifully into our conversation today. I'm thinking back a few months back. You and I did a segment with Ally Whitmer on GMA3 and that was on menopause. You said something I'm always hanging on your every word. You said something that day that had me in a chokehold from the time you said it until this very moment. And I know you don't know what it was, because you talk and you talk and you talk and these things just flow out of your mouth and you don't know what you're doing. You're just saying the facts, you're just letting the people know what you know. So we're going to do a deep dive into menopause and I'm going to get back to the question. I promise you I will. Let's talk about menopause, but also the real nuts and bolts. Everything I want to know is really about perimenopause. That's where I want to get us to. But menopause, what exactly is menopause? And then we'll dial it back to perimenopause.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 24:52

So menopause is a one line super short medical definition, which is 12 months without a menstrual period, 12 months no bleeding, that is the definition of menopause.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 25:10

Now menopause. I am fascinated by the discussion, the topic, the surge in popularity and attention of menopause and perimenopause, because and I know that this is probably what you've been thinking to you know yeah, as a doctor and a science person, I'm all into the physiology and the endocrinology and all the allergies about menopause, but I'm also interested in the sociology behind this stage in a woman's life and this is why I think you are the perfect person to bring this conversation to a deep dive level, because, as far as women have come in a lot of ways, right.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 26:03

We still have a hell of a long way to go and a lot of that is in our control, but a lot of it is not in our control and what's sadly not in our control but I'm gonna try to give this situation the benefit of the doubt is that menopause and perimenopause have not gotten their appropriate degree of attention in the past, I believe because society, as well as the medical community, views women at that stage in their lives as not sexy, not useful, over the hill, past their prime whatever kind of negative descriptive you wanna use right, and I think that this time in a woman's life just needs a really good PR campaign.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 27:01

And you and I are gonna give it to them. We're gonna give it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 27:04

Because I think that 100 years ago women didn't live to the age of 50 or 51. So there was no menopause and perimenopause, which typically can start 10 or more years before official menopause. Also, what's going on when a woman is 40 or 37, she's busy A lot of times raising kids, a lot of times working one or two jobs like getting her career and her finances and her family, and so any of the symptoms that she may start to have, which we'll get into. She's probably too busy to really give it much attention and I think that-.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 27:47

As we do as women, right, we kinda sweep it all in Like it's just something we have to do.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 27:52

We're just gonna muscle through, get it done and now, I think, luckily, that's all changing and this is a stage in a woman's life where I'll give you, I'll drop, a really, I think, encouraging medical statistic on you and your viewers and listeners, which is that if a woman gets to age 65 without a diagnosis of heart disease or cancer, her life expectancy could be 88 or 89 years of age and a baby girl born today can be expected to live to 100. So you think about it a woman at 40 or 50, she's maybe at the halfway point, right, and now that we have the time, the experience, the money, the knowledge, the social cloud to bring attention to this stage in a woman's life, the gloves are coming off. And this is this rocket ship is about to explode, and I'm here for it, I think it's great.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 28:55

I'm here for it too. The conversation for me is super important. This perimenopausal is kinda where I am full self-disclosure. But this is a safe space. We can talk about this, right, we can talk about it. Yeah, that's where I am. But I think that we have had a history of using the term menopause and perimenopause kind of interchangeably, to where a lot of people didn't know they thought they were in menopause when they were really perimenopausal and that menopause is that endpoint, like you said, of after not having a period for 12 months. Then that's when you are officially in menopause. Perimenopausal that's that period, that's before. And many women are experiencing a whole lot of symptoms that they don't even associate and this just goes back to your point don't even associate having anything to do with their hormones, anything to do with menopause or perimenopause. They just think this, I'm just getting old, or this is how life is, or I'm just a mess or whatever, but not understanding. Oh girl, there's a name for this.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 30:07

Yeah, yeah, and I'm gonna tell you something I lived it and learned it myself as a board certified OBGYN. And it's only now because I'm 54, that I'm on the other side of it that I say to myself oh my God, yes, yes, well, I've literally had every single symptom that I didn't realize as I was going through. I just there you go, and so that, and that's the thing.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 30:41

That is why, yes, it needs a great PR agent. Because the thing is, we are all and I think I told you this when we were sitting down in that segment like you are not me, you us, as women, we are not being good girlfriends If we don't talk about it with our girlfriends, if we don't tell them girl, you better go get those levels checked. Girl, have you thought about it? Because this, it doesn't have to be like this girl. You need to check these things because these are definite, there are definite correlations and this could all be leading back to the one thing that we're all going through at this time. That's correct.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 31:22

And so I think that's the first thing that women need to know is just the definition of menopause. Is one year without bleeding, one year without a period? Now, what if you've had a hysterectomy and your uterus comes out when you're, let's say, 35 or 40, right, unless your ovaries have come out with your uterus, you're not in menopause yet. But you don't have the bleeding to say I am or I'm not. What do you do then? Well, okay, two options. One, the average age of menopause in the United States is 51 to 52 years of age. So you can say, okay, well, if I'm 57, chances are I'm in menopause.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 32:05

Right, you mentioned having your hormone levels checked, and that can give you an idea. But there's remember that's generally when you check certain hormones, ie most hormones. Hormones fluctuate hour to hour, day to day, right? So if they're very clearly in the menopausal range, that can be helpful. If they're in a gray zone and you're having symptoms, you could then connect the dots and say, okay, well, let's say you're 45 and your blood tests, your blood levels, are in a gray zone and you're having symptoms, yeah, you're perimenopausal right.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 32:48

But it's not always definitive. I think is what I'm trying to say and what we need to know. It's not like a throat culture for strep throat where it's either positive or negative. It helps to round out the picture, but it's not always definitive. And I would caution women also. Don't fall for the doctor or provider that says I'm gonna check your saliva levels or I'm gonna check your hormone levels and then I want you to come back every week and I'm gonna check them every week. That's for this, that's not because it's gonna get you any answer. That's because they're gonna bill for it and charge for it and make money from it. Salivary hormone levels for reproductive hormones have not been borne out in the peer review medical literature to be reliable, so we go by serum or blood hormone levels and again, it's part of the equation. It's oftentimes not the whole equation. But I'm glad you're talking about perimenopause because I have a big, big, big old theory about making menopause easier and it starts when you're in perimenopause.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 34:01

Yeah, it starts with the conversation, like we just have to just make it a normal check-in with your good girlfriends.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 34:07

hey girl, let's talk about this. Let's talk about these symptoms and things we're going through and especially, you know, as I'm talking with a lot of my patients, as they're talking to me about different types of symptoms, I'm checking that file and saying how old are you? What are? Let's just look at the lineup of things that you're experiencing and I don't want to attribute oh well, you're just anxious or depressed because of a bad breakup or because something's going on at your job. Let's talk about all of the life factors that are going in, and perimenopause could be part of what's feeding a lot of the angst, anxiety, the depression, all of that.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 34:43

Yeah, and I'm going to tell you something else. You mentioned all of the factors. I say to my patients a lot. You can have more than one thing going on at a time. You said that to me.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 34:55

You said that to me, do you remember?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 34:58

So I've talked about this. Yeah, I'm a mess. Okay, you can say it out loud, so listen. I've talked to my listeners in the first episode of season one. If you didn't listen to that episode, go back and listen, because it's all of my mess. But I talked about having. I didn't mention you in that episode and I absolutely should. This was when I was struggling with the autoimmune stuff. I had thoracic malitis and was having trouble walking, and then I ended up with blood clots, which we're going to get to today too. But I was attributing my difficulty breathing with the thoracic malitis and just spots in my chest and things like that.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 35:40

And I was thinking, oh, that steroids aren't working. And you said to me then, like you can have more than one thing at a time. I was thinking, oh, I don't need to go to the doctor. And this is when I had all the blood clots. I'm thinking that I was having some lung issues and the steroids and all of the stuff from the malitis or whatever. And I'm like it's just that, it's just that the steroids aren't working. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. And meanwhile I'm making four flights, four transatlantic flights, in like a week's time and had blood clots all in my lungs, so many of them couldn't count, which can be fatal. Yeah, which would have. I mean, by the grace of God, I'm sitting here today, for sure. But like you told me, I think, when I called you and talked to you about it, you were like, girl, you can have more than one thing at a time. Like, don't, like, don't.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 36:30

If you'd ignored that and God forbid you would have died. I just want to let you know right now you would not have one restful moment in your final resting place because I would come after you. I would be like I know you're dead, but I'm gonna kill you.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 36:48

I know you're dead bitch, but wake your ass up.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 36:51

Oh, my God.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 36:51

One more thing to say.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 36:53

Oh my God, you are so lucky. I would have killed you again.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 36:59

I know, I know, I know, but thank God you don't have to cuss me out in my death bait. Okay, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. And so I live to tell the story and I'm glad, I'm so thankful that I'm able to tell that story.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 37:15

And I tell people that I use those same exact words all the time, that more than one thing can be true at a time we have more than one diagnosis, and just because you think it's one thing doesn't hurt to go to the doctor and figure out if you're right or wrong.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 37:30

Correct, you know. So back to the segment that we did together on GMA3, we were talking about menopause and perimenopause and the associated symptoms. You were rattling off some of the things that women experienced during that time and you know, maybe it's weight gain, fluctuation in weight, maybe it's irritability, maybe it's depression, difficulty sleeping, hot flashes, you know, I mean, it just goes on and on. But the one thing, the one thing that had me really about to go into a stale tailspin, it floored me and it vindicated me ADHD.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 38:15

Oh, I didn't know where you were going with that. I was like is it sex? Is it dry vagina?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 38:23

What? No, I mean, you mentioned that too. But yes, no, attention deficit. I am someone who has self diagnosed myself as having ADD, especially within the last few years. I cannot get my shit together to save my life.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 38:41

And you saying that I was like, oh my God, Let me just have for you, because I think I have a little of it too, which is which I'll tell you. I'll front load it by saying I think for me, it helped me in my life and career, sure, in the past, absolutely, because I was always wanting to do something different and I would go from one thing to another thing, to another thing.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 39:13

And as a surgical specialty, obgyn. You have to be like you have to do this and then you have to go there and you have to. So for me at the early in my 20s, 30s and early 40s, I think it actually helped me. But, let me give you some mini med school on ADHD. Harry, menopause, I need it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 39:35

There are estrogen receptors in the brain and progesterone receptors in the brain. Okay, they can affect blood flow. They can affect blood flow in the brain is tied to everything Electrical activity, synaptic connections, you name it. It's going on and it has. It needs two things the electrical activity and the blood flow. Right, the brain, just like the heart. If you go back to high school science and my favorite as a math and science geek was the Venn diagram- you remember?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 40:13

that Venn diagram. Yes, I do Circles, and where they overlap, right. And if you make a circle for perimenopause with all the symptoms you just mentioned, and a circle for ADHD or ADD, and then where they overlap, there's going to be some similarities, right? So perimenopause brain fog can't concentrate, can't get as much done, need more mental energy to complete a task as you used to. Okay, those are all symptoms of perimenopause, right? All of it. And guess what? They're also symptoms of ADD.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 40:56

Now, I learned a lot about ADD because I have a child who's now 25, but I have a child with ADD who was diagnosed when that said child was 12. So 13 years ago, when I was 13, which was 41 years ago, and no one had ADD, right, no one was diagnosed, and certainly girls were not diagnosed, right. But here's the thing it wasn't new. It's not new now. It existed then. It's just that it wasn't common, it wasn't diagnosed, it wasn't kind of mainstream, it wasn't treated as widespread and as readily as it's treated now with certain prescription medications. So now fast forward because, as I said, I'm 54. So if you talk about 40 years ago, right, there's 40 years of women who could have ADD who were never diagnosed because they're now in their 40s or 50s.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 42:03

And it wasn't done then, when they were teenagers, and so they've spent their entire lives compensating for that ADD right, maybe with better success, some versus others, maybe with more effort, some versus others, but they have been compensating for it their whole life.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 42:24

Now you get them to the perimenopause stage, which could be 40, 45, 49, 50, whatever right. That stage of about roughly 10 years before the official. You've crossed the finish line into menopause and now they have less estrogen and progesterone circulating through their entire body, including their brain, and now their compensation for that ADD that was never diagnosed or treated. Now it's really kind of the deck is stacked against them and now they have not one, but two. You have the overlap in that Venn diagram of those two circles and those are the women who are like WTF like what is happening here?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 43:14

right.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 43:15

And I'm going to tell you that that's where that self talk and that inner dialogue, or the dialogue that women have with their gynecologist or their primary care doctor or their PA or nurse practitioner, that's where it basically is like a fork in the road. It either goes well and it helps the woman, or it goes horribly wrong and it leaves the woman thinking there's something wrong with me, what the hell is happening. I don't know how I'm going to cope or get through this, and it's just snowballs from there.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 43:51

Yeah, I mean, since you've already opened my life story, can you just? I mean, when can we go to the publisher? Because you just no, that's exactly how I've been feeling for, I would say, a couple of years, but definitely within the last year or so, where I'm like I really like I'm just going to go through this. I'm like I really like I'm saying to myself I've got to get my shit together, but at the same time, just not being able to get my shit together, and on the outside, because I am a functioning person at a high level, of always function, at a very high level, my normal level of functioning, or me not functioning at that optimal level that I like to, it seems good enough. It seems good enough on the outside.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 44:37

I know, though, this is not like. This is not. I can't, my brain is all over the place, I can't think clearly. I like, as soon as I will have a vision of something that I need to do, right, I'll open my computer. In the moment I open, my computer is gone. I'm like what did you get ready to do?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 44:58

I have to tell you, this is where I, as I write my magazine, as I, you know, am preparing to launch a whole digital platform, by the way, come in this spring, you'll be the first to know that's really going to be a resource and a community and a source of content and education for women, for their weight and nutrition and menopause and hormonal issues. Tiff, I have said to myself the exact same things, and it started when I was like 48.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 45:34

Right, I didn't officially 47. Yeah, this is it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 45:38

That's when it started and I didn't officially cross that menopause finish line until I was 52 52 and a half. I started hormones, by the way, at 51 and a half, even before I was officially in menopause. But I I was saying to myself what is happening to me and I thought it was the stress of Rob's death. You know my, my children's father and my ex husband died by suicide in 2017. You knew him. I thought maybe this was, maybe I just which would have been?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 46:12

legit Right and, yeah, it would have been a little bit of a lie.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 46:14

I'm going to say the same thing to myself, that I said to you yes and yes, you can have more than one thing, going on.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 46:22

And and I kept on.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 46:24

And then the pandemic comes and I'm like, is this because of the pandemic? Like why, yeah, what I used to be so efficient, why does my to-do list is so long now? Is this? What? Is this cause of COVID? Is this cause of menopause? Is this cause then I? I met the love of my life, tom, and I got married a little over a year ago. You were. I was fortunate enough that you and your husband, handsome husband, jason, were at my wedding. And now I say to myself, is this because I'm in love, why I can't concentrate? And it's because I'm in menopause, you know, and I probably had mild ADD before then. So this is so common.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 47:10

Neat. We need to stream this from the rooftops, because I think that people just don't understand that this is what that has been done. What that's been diagram is what's going on here. We are thinking, we are losing our minds. We are thinking that I and I was talking to a girlfriend of mine both two girlfriends of mine, they're both psychotherapists and I was telling them oh God, I feel, because at the point when I was really struggling with it in October, I was like I think I I feel like I'm struggling with anxiety for one.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 47:46

Oh, I had that too.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 47:48

Yeah, check that one off too. Yep, yep, not alone. But I was like I don't know what's going on with me. Give me a referral to to a psychiatrist or somebody, because I have to get this. I cannot live like this. It is holding me hostage.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 48:03

And then somewhere in the, in the conversation, you know and they're both therapist friends of mine and so they were like you know, be gentle with yourself, as you know, as we do, and you know what's going on. What can we help you with all of that, those things and I was like girl, I really think that it has something to do with my hormones. And then I'm pyramid impossible. And they were like oh, girl, of course it does. What are you saying? Oh, you're fine, like. As soon as I said that, they were like oh, yeah, that's exactly what this is. Yeah, you know, we have to be able to have these conversations. You and I have to have a conversation, and we also have to spread this knowledge, disperse it to other folks, not just people that are our age, but also those that are younger, that are coming up because they haven't had these conversations. They don't know that this is what's up, this is what's going to happen.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 48:51

That's correct.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 48:52

And girl, there are things that you can do to help yourself out, so that you don't have to deal, you don't have to live as long as we live with those symptoms. Yep, and I feel like okay in hindsight, oh, now I recognize what that was. I want to recognize what it is while I'm going through it, so that I can get through it a lot quicker and enjoy my life.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 49:16

Yep 100%. And so I think that, look, if I, if I was you know that question what would you say to your 40 year?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 49:26

old self, or your 30 year old self, or whatever.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 49:29

I were speaking to my 35 year old self and just imagine the magnitude of this, this comment, because I am a board certified gynecologist.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 49:42

That part. Jane you know better.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 49:45

I would say to my 35 year old self Be on the lookout for any of these 20-some odd symptoms, head to toe, and don't be surprised when you get them. If anything, you should be surprised if you don't get them.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 50:04

Right.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 50:05

Assume you will get them. Prepare for them, because I always say women are so damn strong, we are tough as nails, we can handle anything, as long as we know what's coming.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 50:16

So when I was still delivering babies.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 50:18

I would say to women this is going to hurt. Okay, this is going to hurt like a mofo. Stay with me. If you want an epidural, you want pain medication, you just say the word or make some kind of safe word hand signal. But as long as we know what's coming we can handle it. I didn't even know.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 50:45

But you did know, you knew. Intellectually, yeah, but intellectually you had the information, you had all the information, and I know you, you know everything. Right, you had the information, but for whatever reason, we don't apply it to ourselves. Correct. What kind of craziness is that?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 51:04

So I think that it's about whatever you want your mantra to be as your 35-year-old or 40-year-old self. If you're listening to this, to get yourself prepared, think of it as if you are a mother and you've had a baby and you've gone through pregnancy. You can say to yourself this is the next chapter and I'm going to prepare myself for it. I am going to prepare myself for this like I prepared myself for pregnancy, and maybe I'll have an easy time. Maybe I'll have a more challenging time, but I am going to prepare myself for it, and the best way to have a good menopause is to have a good perimenopause.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 51:51

Yes, so let's talk about how we can do that. So, for my, I know there are lots of different things that we can do, hormone replacement therapy being one of them. Creams, injections, pellets let's talk about, let's get a good overview, and again I'll go back to what I said when we first started this is a great conversation that we are having here today, but ultimately, we don't know your health concerns, your goals and all of those things. So this conversation, I just need you to put pins where you can put pins, and discuss all of this stuff with your physician, who knows your medical history, so that you can get targeted and unique treatment that is specific to your unique concerns. All right, so what do we? What options are there out there For?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 52:38

perimenopause For perimenopause Out there for us, yes, Well, first of all, you know, let's start with the big one, which is hormonal. Right, there's a saying in gynecology, like treats, like that's a saying in a lot of specialties of medicine, which means you know, if it's a hormonal problem, don't have surgery, right, that's for a structural problem or an anatomical problem. So if you are having something that has a cause by low or irregular or unstable or out of balance however you want to describe it hormone levels, the first and most obvious way to treat it is with some kind of hormonal therapy. Now, as you just said and I say this also, I say this on the air to millions of people, I say this one on one to real patients and real women, girlfriends, you name it there are more options than ever. It is not one size fits all.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 53:40

There are so many myths and misconceptions out there that have been circulating and being propagated for the last 20 years, often without medical or scientific basis. We've heard that before, Hello, Mm-hmm. So I will tell you that, when it comes to hormone replacement therapy HRT it's also known as MHT, menopause, hormone therapy that there are a slew of different options out there. There are pills, there are creams, there are, you know, patches. There are pellets, which I personally don't believe in and use. I think they're more of a pain in the neck than helpful. But there are a lot of different ways you can get hormone replacement therapy. But it's not candy. It does come with some side effects and some risks I have. I mentioned before, I've been taking hormone replacement therapy for about three and a half years now. I love it. I felt a million times better, almost within two days. That's how quickly hormone replacement therapy can work.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 54:53

And the myth, or misconception, that it causes breast cancer. It has been based on a 2002 flawed study, based on its methodology, and even cancer specialists who have reviewed that data have come out and say no, that is not the case. Remember Brett, there's a zillion different types of cancer. Breast cancer is one of them. It's not the most common cancer killer of women, by the way, not even close. Lung cancer is, and you know it has to be right for you and it's a good option and it can be a safe and effective option. Then there's non-hormonal prescription medication and there are a bunch of different medications. One new FDA approved medication that just came out in the last year that doesn't work hormonally. That is really good for hot flashes, but remember that when you go to the non-hormonal category, that's going to be less effective at treating the whole head to toe perimenopausal symptom list, because the cause of all those symptoms is low estrogen.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 56:14

Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 56:15

Yeah. And then there's what I call the option or alternative column, the third column, which are the kind of natural or supplemental things that a lot of women like because, rightly or wrongly so, they're perceived as safer, which again may have some truth to it, may not. Just eating a plant-based diet, a half a cup a day of soybeans, believe it or not, was shown in one recent study in the last couple of years to reduce the severity of hot flashes by 88%. That's meaningful, right. And then there are other natural products. One of them is called RELISIN, which women can look up online R-E-L-I-Z-E-N.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 57:00

I have nothing to do with that company, by the way, but I've been recommending it to women and patients for about 10 years. It's cytosolic B pollen extract and it does not stimulate the breast or the uterus, so it doesn't work hormonally, but it's effective in about 65% of women in helping their sleep and hot flashes. But if you're talking about, let's say, musculoskeletal pain or vaginal dryness or change in your hair or skin, which almost every woman has, other things to treat those symptoms may do a little, but none of them will do as much as estrogen, because that is in fact the root cause of that symptom. So the bottom line is there are more options than ever for women to choose from.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 57:56

So for someone like me who can't take estrogen because of my history with blood clots, what would you recommend for me? Because you're not my doctor technically but off-limits?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 58:09

don't you.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 58:10

Yes, but what would you recommend for me? And then I'll tell you what I'm doing.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 58:16

So, first of all, when I got my degree in nutrition because doctors don't learn anything about nutrition I really, really believe in this concept that food can be our medicine. It can also be our poison. So for someone like you, I would definitely go to a largely plant-based diet. It doesn't mean never eat meat, because I know you like your southern barbecue. I do.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 58:46

I like barbecue, but I like fish, I like chicken and I like barbecue.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 58:49

It doesn't mean never eat that, but it means, as much as you can, plant-based, and that means things like soy, tofu, lentils, beans, non-dairy, because dairy is a big source of inflammation, and all those things can help move the needle a little bit. And then, by the way, if you do that the majority of the time, and let's say one time a week you have barbecue or you have your steak or whatever fine, that's certainly not going to undo anything, right?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 59:26

So for me it's the estrogen, but it's also the inflammation because of the autoimmune stuff. So I'm picking up what you're laying down. I don't like it, but it's kind of like when your dog poops, you know you got to pick it up. You don't want to, nobody wants to do that, but we kind of got to.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 59:43

And it takes time to retrain your taste buds. It does. I talk about that a lot in this issue of my magazine. By the way, I have a five day eating plan that we actually put some GMA3 viewers on, and they not only feel a lot better, but they've lost five to 10 pounds in a month. So it's easy to do and it's just five days a week. So that's something that, over time, you can get there, you can.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:00:16

Why does this feel like we're going back in time to the revolution? Yeah, it feels like we're going all the way back.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:00:27

So I think that food is the first place that I always always recommend that you start, always, and then you can try again normally what I recommend. If you look at those categories of food the complimentary stuff, the non hormonal prescription medication and then hormonal you, like my daughter Chloe, can't take estrogen, can't, so for you the options would then be the other three columns. The food is an easy one because there's no risk to that.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:01:04

You don't have to do it 100% of the time, you could just do it most of the time. And then when you talk about the non hormonal prescription medications, it depends what your symptoms. If your symptom is hot flashes and sleep disturbance, there's there are two medications now that I think are kind of getting the most attention in the field of women's health and gynecology. One is the name effects, sir, that's the brand name, and that in higher doses, as you know, is an antidepressant, but in lower doses it's incredibly effective for hot flashes, Incredibly effective. Okay, so it's used for over 20 years in gynecology, right, and it's inexpensive. You do have to kind of get used to it because some people are more sensitive to the side effects than others, but that's an option. And then there's a new FDA approved medication called the OSA that works in the brain and can improve hot flashes and sleep in women. Insurance may or may not cover it and it's very expensive. It's about $500 a month. But those are the two kind of prescription mainstay.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:02:19

Or let's say you're a woman who's just having, you know, brain fog and that's really your only perimenopause and menopausal symptom. You could consult with a psychiatrist and say you know what I do feel like I had undiagnosed ADD most of my life and now that I'm perimenopausal or menopause it's even worse. I can't or don't want to take hormones. What do you think about a prescription focused stimulant medication like an Adderall or a Vivant or a Focalin, and maybe that's enough for you. So it really depends on what your symptom is and what your profile is and what you want. How bad your symptoms are, you know, and you as an individual. That's why this is not robotic cookie cutter.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:03:11

Right and I love that. I actually love that that we all don't necessarily have the exact same symptoms and we can't. I love what you just said about just making sure that we understand, like, is it something I can manage, Is it something I can deal with, or is it something that I need a little bit?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:03:27

of help with.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:03:27

Because some of the symptoms like don't bother me, I'm not a hot flashes, knock on wood, I'm not hot flashes. You know sweaty mess, night sweats, can't sleep, that kind of thing. My problem was extreme fatigue, like wanting to sleep all the time, just always being tired, the brain fog not being able to get anything done because it can focus. Getting up in the morning, getting sky off, to school, then like being so exhausted, still just never getting adequate rest, and, of course, when you don't, you know you don't get adequate rest, you can't do anything.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:04:01

No.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:04:02

So just feeling like I was always on this hamster wheel and never getting caught up. And so I did. Finally, I had already talked to my doctor about it before I had my big meltdown in October, but so we started. And one thing that you haven't said and I want to know what you think about she because she knows my history obviously can't take estrogen, but she did recommend testosterone for me.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:04:28

Hmm, how do you feel on it so far?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:04:32

Oh my gosh, it has been amazing Really, and I know you don't like pellets and I want you to talk about why. I know, I think I know why, but I want you to talk about why because I think it's. I think it's an important conversation to have, whether women have them or not, or thinking about them or not. I think sometimes we hear so much of the pro and we don't realize that there could be cons, and so I think it's interesting that you said you know Well, I was experiencing like for you, because it's different for everybody. So let's talk pellets, or something that I've heard about for years and never understood what it actually was. So tell me about pellets what you like, what you don't like, why you prefer to go an alternative route and yeah, okay.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:05:19

So pellets basically look like a grain of rice that get inserted, implanted Subdermally right under the surface of the skin and then they release their hormone Slowly and steadily over a prolonged period of time. Usually that's several months now here's why I personally don't recommend them. In the last how long have I been in practice? Almost 20 years, 19 years. I have never had one patient and I've had thousands of women as patients.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:06:03

Obviously, who has had pellets, who's been happy with them? And in fact I've had the opposite experience, where I've had women get pellets and then come to me because they can't stand the side effects and they cannot be removed. Right, because they start to disintegrate or they're too small. You can't. So you have to wait Until that that stuff is fully deployed. You just have to wait it out, which is not the case for any other route of administration creams, patches, pills. They are out of your system Within days to, in some cases even less, the second you stop applying it.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:06:47

Basically, yeah, right, you can't do that with a pellet. So if you have a bad side effect and ironically the worst patients I've seen have had bad side effects to testosterone pellets, because they start getting acne, they start getting body hair. They start getting voice deepening and I'm like, yeah, this is what happens. We're on to high a dose of testosterone and they go well. I want to stop it and I say you can't. You have to wait a long time till these. You know all of the the hormone has, boyd and is out of your system.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:07:27

Yeah, it has to quit you. You can't quit, that is.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:07:32

Now what are the benefits? Anything that you don't swallow. So again, this would be pellet cream. Patch has a slightly safer profile in that it avoids what we call first-past liver metabolism so that through a very long and complicated pathway Can slightly lower some of the clotting factors that get activated in that Hippatic or liver metabolism. But again, you could go the cream or even get a compound, it patch Roo if you really want the testosterone and not go the pellet root. But again, that's just my clinical experience in 19 years of being a practicing gynecologist and Bad bitch and I get it and I think that and I think that you know it's just something that first the the tree decision-making tree should be Do I want to take testosterone, yes or no?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:08:38

Or or estrogen or progestin? Yeah, by the way, if you have a uterus, you have to take progesterone with estrogen. Have to, or you're risking uterine cancer. If you don't have a uterus, if you've had a hysterectomy, then you can take estrogen alone. But a lot of women's perimenopausal symptoms are due, are caused by low progesterone also. So most are caused by low estrogen, and then I'll get to testosterone a second. But some are also caused by low progesterone. Testosterone, fun fact also plummets. Not so fun, actually, as we get perimenopausal and menopausal, because Half of our testosterone as women are made in the ovaries. So your doctor isn't wrong to say, well, you can take estrogen, but you can take some testosterone. So let me give you some of that, since that's going down too, and see how you feel. I would just say, if we were in a vacuum and I was the only doctor, let's not go the pellet root, because if you don't like it, you're stuck with it until it gets out of your system.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:09:50

Yeah, so for me, I'll tell you what I noticed. I would I would say that part of my anxiety is Situational, obviously right. So there are some things that were going on in my life that were making me incredibly anxious, and that was situational and it was going to even itself out over time. But I also know that I, I know my body and I know how I experience things and I know anxiety when. I know anxiety when it shows up at the door. So I wanted to definitely address that.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:10:20

The mental clarity, or lack thereof, was there, the fogginess, the severe fatigue, sleeping all the time, all of those things, and when I, you know, talk to my doctor about it, and we have been talking about this for a good, I would say, six months, almost a year. And we circled back and she said you know, let's think about just a little bit of testosterone To me to see how, see how you do, and that's that's what we did. And we did do the pellets, um, and I was like, and right after I got the pellets is when I heard you say somewhere, I don't know where, I heard you say this, but you don't like, I'm like, god damn it. Now, she knew you didn't know that I was getting no, because if you did, you would have told me. But I'm like telepathically, you should have known. So how do you tell me the good things that you felt?

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:11:10

Right now I'll tell you because I've been on them for.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:11:15

It's almost two months. I'm going on two months. Um, I feel I have so much more energy, so much more energy. Um, that feeling of, okay, I get up and get my kid out of the door. I would want to go like, literally crawl back in bed, and sometimes I would. I would go back to bed and just bring my computer into my bed and I will just work from bed, like, but really go to take another nap because I wasn't going to go to bed and I will just work from bed, like, but really go to take another nap because I wasn't ready to get up. Um, that's gone. I get so much more done. I still feel like I'm kind of bouncing a little bit, but I actually do get more done. I'm more focused. I'm not as focused as I want to be, but more focused I'm getting more done. I have more motivation.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:11:59

Um, any changes or your body? Um, no, not yet. Um haven't had any issues with, like acne. I was already on seronal lactone for acne symptoms. Um, so skin has been Fairly good. No hair in weird places yet. Um, the biggest and most noticeable noticeable change, though, has been um sexual desire up, up, way up, like to the point where poor Jason. Honey, I feel bad for the man I love that. Yeah, I mean he's because he's you know he's a skeptical person.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:12:46

He's in in desire. But what about orgasm? Any notice? Any notice in that or that's?

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:12:51

Honey, she's never had a problem with that.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:12:54

However.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:12:56

However, I mean easy, easy, like he could just blow on it, honey, and I'm, I'm there, okay, wow, it's been. That's what I said. So, um, I haven't had the only thing, um, and I talked. I actually talked to the nurse the other day and I said, you know, on the next Injection, if we continue on this pathway and I continue to feel like this, we can dial it back a little bit, because I'm about to wear his ass out.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:13:29

Next guest.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:13:34

He is about sick of me. He's like listen, girl, give me, give me a minute to catch my breath.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:13:41

That is, it's a lot, it's a lot.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:13:44

So listen, I will just say because this is important and I want to make sure that that before we go, we we have the safe things um, please is testosterone can increase your lipid Profile, so your bad cholesterol can go up your triglycerides and go up, okay, and it can increase your risk of breast cancer also. So just this is this does not mean that I wouldn't give it to a woman and that does not mean that I think you should discontinue it because you've been so far. You feel really good on it. But it just means awareness. It just means that. So you know, an example is okay.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:14:30

If you're taking something that you know can increase your bad cholesterol, that should even be more motivation, an impetus to go more plant-based, because you want to counteract Anything that the so that way, pardon the pun, you get to have your cake and eat it too. But any provider who gives a woman testosterone Should be explaining that it increases. It can increase your lipid profile. That's part of the reason why men have more heart attacks than women and it can increase your risk of breast cancer. It doesn't mean if you get breast cancer that the testosterone caused it. It this just means oh okay, I'm aware I accept that risk and Guess what, if I'm going to take the testosterone, I'm going to make sure that I'm on time with my mammograms and my ultrasounds and all of that, so that You're just balanced. You know what I mean. I appreciate that, yeah, no.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:15:27

I do Thank you and I love you for that, and I think our listeners love you for that as well, because you have given us so much perspective, so much insight so much knowledge. I can't thank you. You guys see why I keep this woman on speed dialed. Dr Jen, thank you so much. I love you.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:15:45

I love you and and listen I will your. Your viewers and listeners will see my comments on your instagram. My Instagram is dr J ashton Um and I will, you know, also post links and all that kind of stuff. I hope you all like the magazine. I hope you all like dr Tiffany davis, henry's yes hollam as a core expert in the magazine and I can't wait till we do this again.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:16:10

Yes, I can't wait till we do it again either. I'm going to put all of your information, your context, your, your Instagram handles, the magazine links, the book links, everything. I'm going to put it in the show notes so everyone will have easy access. They can go on there and get in where they fit in, get all of the things, um Will, I may, even I may even throw up a picture or two in post. Just uh, a retro.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton: 1:16:35

I'll send you some of my good ones too. I have some great picks of us.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry: 1:16:40

I love that. I love that. Um, we'll link all of the stuff below. Thank you so much for being here, jenjen, and thank you guys as well for joining us today. This wouldn't be this Without you, and so please don't forget to like, comment, share and subscribe to the podcast. We're building a beautiful community of folks who are really serious about enhancing their relationships and taking much better care of themselves, and if that's you, you definitely don't want to miss an episode. You definitely have to be here, so go ahead and subscribe, and until next time, we'll see you later. Ciao, thank you, jen. I love you.