The Helpful New Rules of Menopause with Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Stephanie Faubion [Episode #835]

This week’s topic is: The Helpful New Rules of Menopause with Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Stephanie Faubion

I am so excited to have my very special guest, Dr. Stephanie S. Faubion, who is the director of the Women’s Health Clinic in the Department of Medicine and director of the Office of Women’s Health at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Faubion is one of the nation’s leading experts on menopause and regularly treats women with menopausal concerns. Listen in as Dr. Faubion shares how your lifestyle impacts your experience of menopause, tips for how to treat the symptoms, rethinking how we conceptualize menopause, and so much more!

[BULLETS]

• Your lifestyle and its impact on your experience of menopause…
• How to treat menopause symptoms…
• We discuss menopausal differences in other cultures…
• Rethinking how we conceptualize menopause…
• Tips on how to manage headaches…
• Embracing menopause as an empowered stage of life…

[FEATURED GUESTS]

About Dr. Stephanie S. Faubion

Dr. Faubion, medical editor of The New Rules of Menopause, is the director of the Women’s Health Clinic in the Department of Medicine and director of the Office of Women’s Health at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. She’s one of the nation’s leading experts on menopause and regularly treats women with menopausal concerns.

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Dr. Stephanie S. Faubion’s Interview

• Stephanie’s Website
• Stephanie’s Book: The New Rules of Menopause
  

Other Podcasts you may enjoy!:

• How to Empower Your Body Through Menopause and Other Hormonal Shifts with Dr. Taz
• Hormone Balancing Tips for Managing Symptoms of PMS, and Supporting Women’s Health
• The Ayurvedic Perspective of Regulating our Menstrual Cycles and Fibroids with Dr. Jay
• What Is Sexual Wellness and Why It Matters in Our Overall Health

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Namaste Loves and welcome back to our Monday interview show where we have a wonderful and practical show to share with you today with the conversation I had with the very knowledgeable Dr. Stephanie Faubion, who is the medical editor of The New Rules of Menopause. She is the director of the Women’s Health Clinic in the Department of Medicine and director of the Office of Women’s Health at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Faubion is one of those really powerful women who knows their stuff and we get so many questions about menopause, and so she’s directed this book from the Mayo Clinic, which is really evidence-based. If you’re feeling confused about what works for menopause, if you’re experiencing a lot of symptoms, you’re suffering with hot flashes or migraines, sleeplessness. There is so much knowledge that Dr. Fabian brings to our show today and also in this book, which we will link to directly in the show notes.

01:06 So I appreciate Dr. Faubion so much because she’s so strong and such an advocate for women’s empowerment and whatever age we are, whatever phase we’re going through. I think it really is important to educate ourselves about all these different shifts and transitions because more evidence shows that the more educated we are, the more healthier we can be through all these different cycles and prepare ourselves, so we will get into our conversation in just a moment. Before we do, I just want to leave a little reminder that over on our website, which is mysolluna.com, you’ll find a place where you could submit questions for our q and a show, which is always on Thursday. You can also find links to other podcasts. I think you would enjoy the show notes from today. Recipes are amazing Properly Food Combined recipes and meditations articles, there’s so much on there, so please check it out all on our central hub, which is our website. Alright, all that being said, let’s get into our interview today with Dr. Stephanie Faubion.

Interview with Dr. Stephanie Faubion

Kimberly: 00:37 Dr. Fabian, thank you so much for being here with us today. As one of the nation’s leading experts on menopause, we get so many questions about menopause and it seems like it should be this natural transition, just another part of our hormonal shifts as a woman. But it just seems that so many people today are really struggling and they’re looking for answers about why they’re experiencing such extreme symptoms and it feels something that is supposed to be natural, starts to feel very unnatural. Can you explain a little bit, doctor, about why today we’re hearing so much about menopause versus in the past?

Why there’s more discussion about menopause than in the past

Dr. Faubion: 01:21 Well, I don’t think menopause is a new phenomenon by any means. It’s been

Kimberly: 01:25 There for, oh, the struggles. Yes, the struggles

Dr. Faubion: 01:27 For a long time, and I think the struggles are not new either. So I think women’s experiences of menopause probably are not appreciably different than they were 50 years ago, but we are talking about it more, which is a good thing. I also don’t think that maybe many women years ago used to necessarily recognize that some of the symptoms they were experiencing actually related to menopause. And I think that’s actually still true today. I think many women who are experiencing some of the symptoms like joint aches or palpitations or anxiety symptoms don’t really attribute those symptoms to the menopause transition. So while it’s good that we’re having more of a conversation about it, I think we have a long way to go in terms of educating both women and the clinicians that care for them about these symptoms because women still end up in a lot of different doctor’s offices during this time with a lot of different symptoms and no one’s really putting it all together.

Kimberly: 02:31 And so what are some of the top lifestyle factors that we know women have an influence over, right? Because sometimes women say, oh, well, this is what happened with my mother, my grandmother, this is around when they experienced menopause or this was how it was for them. But how much of an impact does our lifestyle have on our experience of menopause as individuals that you’ve seen in your research?

Your lifestyle and its impact on your experience of menopause

Dr. Faubion: 02:54 Yeah, I think our lifestyles have a lot to do with our interpretation, the events. So I think there are a lot of things that we can do to make symptoms be less bothersome for us. So for example, regarding the sleep problems that women have, so about 50% of women after menopause are going to report difficulty sleeping, but there’s a lot of things that we can do to help with our own sleep. So staying on a regular sleep wake cycle, avoiding things that are going to disrupt our sleep, like caffeine and alcohol exercise is great, but not right before bed, using the bed for sleep and sex, making sure it’s dark and cool enough to fall asleep. These are all really important things that we can do that are lifestyle things. Similarly, maintaining a healthy body weight, not necessarily easy in midlife, but that’s something we should all strive to be doing. And then regular exercise. So it’s all the stuff that you’ve heard before that can help us get through this transition, but more importantly, we need to make sure that we’re mindful of our cardiovascular risk because this is a time where our risk for heart disease goes up through the menopause transition for a number of reasons. And that’s still the number one killer of women. So we need to be very aware of that and making sure that we pay attention to those factors.

Kimberly: 04:20 Well, as you mentioned, Dr. fbe and some factors or some of those lifestyle habits are ones that we hear about throughout our lives. So for our younger listeners, if we start practicing healthier lifestyle habits and educate ourselves about menopause, let’s say in your twenties and thirties, can that have a more positive impact on menopause later in life?

Dr. Faubion: 04:42 Sure. But I think your average 20 year old is probably not going to want to get educated on menopause, but

Kimberly: 04:48 Starts to implement good lifestyle habits, cardiovascular

Dr. Faubion: 04:52 Health. I think emphasizing those good lifestyle habits starting in very early life is a great idea because the earlier we get these ingrained and sat into our regular patterns and habits, the better we are. So it’s sleep, it’s exercise, it’s a healthy diet, it’s not gaining weight, it’s not smoking. All of those things that are good for heart health, they’re also good for brain health. So yeah, absolutely. Good point.

Kimberly: 05:18 Well, it’s funny, Dr. Fabian, because next week I’m speaking at the National Alzheimer’s Foundation and it’s targeting people in their twenties and thirties, these influencers to get the word out that with some of these diseases like Alzheimer’s, it actually is bioaccumulation from an earlier age that lifestyle habits. So historically, 20 year olds are focused on very different issues, but it’s also empowering to know that these habits that we create can really make all these different junctures, fertility, menopause, everything works together and there’s great power in the choices that we make on a deal. A hundred percent.

Kimberly: 05:58 So what’s your position, doctor? There’s one end of the spectrum. We hear about hormone replacement therapy and we hear about prescriptions, and then on the other end there’s clinicians out there and experts saying, well try the herbs first, or the black cohost and things like that for hot flashes or different symptoms. What is your, I know it’s hard, it’s individual to say in general, but what would you advise a woman who’s not sure what’s the best path for her? What are the rules that word that you use in your book confused, you think, what are we supposed to do? Who are we supposed to trust here?

How to treat your menopause symptoms

Dr. Faubion: 06:39 Exactly. Well, I think first understanding what symptom are you trying to treat is important. We know for example, that hot flashes, they’re the most common symptom. Probably over 75% of women are going to have hot flashes and night sweats doesn’t mean that they’re going to be severe enough to warrant any treatment, but for some women, they are really incredibly disruptive and they can happen multiple times an hour. They can wake women out of sleep, they can stop you from doing your job. So for a lot of women, they’re bothersome enough to manage. Unfortunately, there’s no over-the-counter supplements that have really been proven to be effective for hot flash management. Now, that’s specifically for hot flash management. It’s not to say that there aren’t other things out there that help with stress or mood or other things, but just hot flashes. We just published our statement on the non-hormone therapies for management of hot flashes and reviewed all of the evidence with the Menopause Society guideline recommendation.

07:38 And unfortunately, none of the over the counter supplements have been found to be effective. So you can save your money on those and instead if your symptoms are severe enough, then hormone therapy, and we don’t call it hormone replacement anymore because we actually aren’t trying to replace what the ovaries used to make. We’re not trying to get you back to the state that you were in your twenties. We are just using the amount of hormones that are needed to manage symptoms, and that is often a much, much lower dose than it would take to replace what you actually made before menopause. So that’s why we don’t call it hormone replacement anymore. We just call it hormone therapy, but it it’s, it remains the most effective therapy for hot flash management. And for those women who are under the age of 60 and within 10 years of menopause onset, the benefits tend to outweigh the risks.

Kimberly: 08:40 And that would be something that you would take potentially through the process, but not forever or not super long term?

Dr. Faubion: 08:47 Well, we don’t put a strict deadline on when you have to come off anymore. It’s not a three year deadline or a five-year deadline. It’s getting women through the worst time of their symptoms, so getting them over the hump. For some women that’s just a couple of years. For other women, we really don’t try to get them off until closer to the age of 60. For some women, they stay on it longer term because they try to come off and their symptoms come right back and they feel like they need it or they just feel better on hormone therapy. Or we may be going for a different treatment goal. We may be actually trying to protect their bone density. It’s also FDA approved for reduction of fracture risk and prevention of bone loss. So there are many reasons that one might use hormone therapy and the length of time that you take it may differ depending on why you’re using it.

Kimberly: 09:40 What would be some of the disadvantages

Dr. Faubion: 09:43 To using hormone therapy?

Kimberly: 09:45 Yes,

Dr. Faubion: 09:47 So there are potential adverse effects that are associated with hormone therapy. So we know that it works for hot flashes and night sweats. We know it works for prevention of bone loss while you’re on it. When you do stop it, you will lose bone again, but not at a more rapid rate than you did before. We know that for women in their fifties, it’s probably even beneficial for the heart, but certainly not harmful for the heart. We know, however, if you start it later in your sixties or seventies, there’s either no benefit or potential harm associated with it in terms of heart disease risk and also in terms of dementia risk. So we know that the timing hypothesis or when you start it is important and early is often protective or at least neutral and late is harmful. And that is true for both heart risk and brain risk or dementia risk.

10:38 In terms of breast cancer risk, it depends on whether or not you have a uterus. If you have a uterus, then you have to take a progestogen along with the estrogen to prevent that uterine lining from growing too much with the estrogen alone. If you don’t have a uterus, then you don’t have to take the progestogen. And we know that for women who can just take estrogen alone, women without a uterus, that the risk of breast cancer did not increase with hormone therapy according to the Women’s Health Initiative study. In fact, those women actually had a decreased risk of breast cancer compared to those women who took a sugar pill. And after 18 years of follow-up, they had a reduced incidence of breast cancer and a reduced mortality related to breast cancer. Whereas the group that had a uterus and had to take the combination therapy had an increased risk of breast cancer after about five years on the treatment. However, that risk is considered to be rare. It’s about the same as having one to two glasses of wine a night. It’s about the same as being inactive, and it’s about the same as having obesity. So what it equates to, it’s about less than one extra case per thousand women after five years of treatment. So it’s considered rare, but still you wouldn’t want to be that woman. Right? But it’s a rare risk.

Kimberly: 12:04 Dr. Fabian, how do you keep all these figures in your head? How do you know? Well,

Dr. Faubion: 12:08 This is something that I go over in my office with women all the time because these are commonly asked questions.

Kimberly: 12:17 Did you always know that you were going to go into women’s health? Were you always really passionate about supporting other women?

Dr. Faubion: 12:22 No, I actually tried not to go into women’s health. I tried to do everything I could not to go into women’s health because when I first finished my residency training program, because I was a woman, I kept getting pushed and people would say, oh, you want to go work in the breast clinic, or you want to do women’s health because that’s what you are. And so I was very insistent about not doing women’s health when I first finished my training. And it wasn’t until the Women’s Health Initiative study came out and women couldn’t get treatment, they couldn’t get therapy that I think I had to get mad to be pushed into women’s health. And so then it was really a matter of advocacy.

Kimberly: 13:02 Wow. Is it difficult for you to separate your feelings and getting close to when you see these things that may anger you or upset you or things that just don’t seem fair? Going off topic a little bit, I was speaking to another doctor about how women are underrepresented in certain studies, obviously not with women’s health, but just when you see things, do you channel that into your work and supporting people as you can or

Dr. Faubion: 13:31 Absolutely. I mean, we do things that drive us, right? And so I think you have to follow your passions wherever they may take you, and you’re always going to be better at that because you, you’re really motivated to make a difference in whatever that is. So absolutely. And you said, well, we know about women’s health. We don’t know a lot about women’s health, and that is, think about women’s health in ways that you wouldn’t consider it before. Like any heart health is women’s health, right? Any bone health is women’s health. And to flip it, all the studies on osteoporosis, most of them were done in women. We don’t have a lot of data on osteoporosis in men because men weren’t included in those studies. So the flip side is true as well, but there’s still a whole lot we don’t know about. This is more sex-based medicine than necessarily women’s health. But when we know the difference in studies between what happens with men and what happens with women, that benefits everybody.

Kimberly: 14:34 Now within, let’s focus back on menopause for a moment. I read a survey that said that certain racial groups doctor are experiencing menopause up to a decade earlier than other groups potentially because of products they’re using. And I don’t know that there was a study attached to this or this is conjectural, but have you seen that in your work where there’s actually swaths of women experiencing menopause at entirely different time? Part A of the question and part B, is there an ideal time for women to know, okay, this is the window that’s the best from a health standpoint for this big hormonal transition of menopause?

Dr. Faubion addresses if you can choose when you go through menopause

Dr. Faubion: 15:16 Okay, a couple of points to that question. So one, we can’t choose when we go through menopause. It’s going to happen. And there’s probably nothing that you can do to change when you would go through menopause except don’t take your ovaries out. That’s one thing you have a choice over. But I think what you’re referring to is, so there is some data from the study of women’s health across the nation or the swan study that showed that women of color tend to have, and it wasn’t that they go through menopause 10 years earlier, it’s that they have hot flashes for a longer period of time than the white women and their symptoms can last on average 10 years. Whereas in white women, it’s more like seven to nine years. So there in

Kimberly: 16:02 Nine years,

Dr. Faubion: 16:03 That’s the mean. Wow. The mean is seven to nine years. So we used to pat women on the head and say, don’t worry, it’ll be a year or two. It’s just not true. The mean is seven to nine years and over a third of women will hot flash for a decade or more. So black women tend to start earlier hot, flash longer and have more severe symptoms. But there’s a lot we still don’t know about the experience of black women. It’s probably not that there’s some sort of genetic difference. It’s probably the social determinants of health that are really making a difference for different races and ethnicities. We know that Asian women in most of the studies tend to report fewer symptoms. Again, that is probably not necessarily genetic, it’s probably more a cultural phenomenon. But yes, we definitely need to learn more about the experiences of different groups.

Kimberly: 16:58 So can we talk about perimenopause for a moment? Is there anything that, because obviously today there’s so many women doctors waiting to have children later and family plannings, it’s just everything seems to be shifting a bit. Is there anything we can do to shift when we go into perimenopause or is also it’s just our bodies say, Hey, this is happening right now. It’s not based on diet or the other factors you mentioned better sleep or anything. Is it hereditary? Is it based on, because I think, oh wow, my grandmother had healthy babies to 48, right? I don’t know how that plays out. And she was from the Philippines. Like you said, there’s different factors. How do we know?

Dr. Faubion: 17:43 Yeah, that’s a good question. There may be some genetic influences, and we know that for some families that have earlier menopause, there’s probably a genetic component to that. We probably know of a few, a handful of genetic mutations that are associated with earlier menopause, but there’s so much that we still don’t know. But in general, you can look at your mom and that may not be what happens to you. So it really doesn’t seem to follow a genetic tendency or a familial tendency that closely. But there’s a lot of things that influence how and when we go into menopause and we’re learning more that, for example, third world countries or countries who have trouble with nutrition or chronic war, menopause tends to come a little earlier. Smokers tend to have a little bit of an earlier menopause if you have your uterus out, but keep your ovaries, you tend to go through menopause a few years earlier.

18:47 So there are a number of factors that we know. There was a recent study that showed that if you experienced physical abuse in childhood, you had an earlier menopause, and if you were that same woman but also had a child who experienced sexual abuse, I think the mean age of menopause was 38. So trauma can be associated with earlier menopause. And that’s probably just related to the chronic stress on our hypothalamic pituitary axis. So it’s chronic stress. I think there’s more work to be done in that area for sure. But generally speaking, the average agent, menopause hasn’t changed that much in this country over the last a hundred years.

Kimberly: 19:34 So it has nothing to do. It’s not correlated at all with earlier menses. Right? We hear girls

Dr. Faubion: 19:39 Down period. So when you start, your period doesn’t have anything to do with when you stop it.

Kimberly: 19:43 Okay. It’s not start early and early.

Dr. Faubion: 19:46 No,

Kimberly: 19:47 The window. Interesting. Wow. So as we said, doctor, there’s obviously women have always had menopause, they’ve always struggled. But today we hear so much about the environmental toxicity, the microplastics, the phthalates, there’s all sorts of things floating around the endocrine disruptors. Does any of that exacerbate menopause symptoms as well potentially that you’ve seen?

Dr. Faubion: 20:12 Good question. We don’t know that answer.

Kimberly: 20:15 Yeah,

Dr. Faubion: 20:16 We don’t have good data to suggest whether they do or they don’t.

Kimberly: 20:20 And when you look to other countries and you look to other cultures, are you seeing a difference? We mentioned some of the racial differences, but are there some places in the world? I remember seeing Dan Buettner’s, Blue Zones specialties, dear friend of mine. He’s been on the show of several times and I believe in Japan, or they were saying that the menopause is quite ease useful in certain places. And I don’t know if that’s anecdotal, if it’s research based, but have you heard any, well,

We discuss menopausal differences in other cultures

Dr. Faubion: 20:50 That’s what I just said about Asian women tend to report less symptoms. There you go. The question is why? Well, is it because there’s no word for hot flash in their language or that it is not considered culturally acceptable to report a symptom? Right. So we don’t know what the reason for that is, is what I’m saying. But I’m not sure it’s that Asian women don’t get hot flashes. I think they’re just not reported.

Kimberly: 21:24 It can be such a confusing world out there for us, Dr. Fabi, and there’s so much information, so much going on. So was that one of the motivations for you being the medical director for this book, the rules of menopause, to sort of have a central place evidence-based knowledge that a woman can say, Hey, here’s a handbook, because I’m just confused and so much is being fed out. That’s not evidence-based and spend money on, like we said, things, it’s all over the place.

Dr. Faubion: 21:55 You’re exactly right. And a hundred percent that’s why we did the book again, is that there’s so much misinformation out there. So things that are just not correct, and I think it’s a good thing that we’re having more conversations about menopause, but I think menopause is having a moment, if you will. And I think a lot of people have finally figured out that midlife women are having a problem that needs to be solved. It’s a large market. Forbes estimates the menopause market to be worth about $660 billion. And so we’re having people jump into the market now to give women solutions for things that they may not need solutions for. So I think women need to be aware and really understand, is that product really bringing them value? Is it really helping them with anything? But I think there’s a lot of jumping on the bandwagon to promote skin products, hair products, whatever you name it, rebranded for menopause and at three times the price. So one figure out is the product useful to you? Is it doing anything for you? But there’s a lot of snake oil out there, so be careful.

Kimberly: 23:09 So what is the central message you would tell women about this transition? Because again, in some cultures, me being half Asian women are so celebrated as they become elders in this time of wisdom and leadership. And it’s not like you said, replacement, trying to recreate being 20, but how would you frame it? We’re transitioning into this different time. Your hormones may be different, your skin and hair might be different, but there’s a lot of beauty in it as well.

Rethinking how we conceptualize menopause

Dr. Faubion: 23:38 I love this. And somebody said menopause has a bad PR agent, and I think it’s true. I think we need to sort of rethink how we conceptualize menopause and it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And we are moving past a time where we need to worry about bleeding and pregnancy risk, et cetera. And it isn’t a time when women feel often more empowered or are in leadership positions, and this is when we need to be celebrating women. So I love that you bring that perspective because I actually totally agree with that. But we’re also a time that’s associated very closely with aging. And so that’s one reason why women may not want to have conversations in the workplace about their menopause status, even though they may be suffering or having trouble. I also think it’s a reason that we may have the leaky leadership pipeline that we do and not as many women in the C-suite as we should have is because women have these challenges in midlife. And instead of recognizing that these women are at the peak of their careers and they’re extremely valuable, experienced employees who could take the next step, often they choose not to, they even get out of the workforce altogether or they don’t get the promotion. And I would hate to see that menopause symptoms are part of that limitation because women don’t need to suffer with these symptoms if they’re really bothering them. We have plenty of safe and effective treatments out there.

Kimberly: 25:12 And to that end, or to that topic, Dr, one of the things that I hear a lot of women complaining about that can very much affect their work is the headaches, right? In the sense of lightheadedness or headaches. What are some of the things that you recommend in your book that can help that particular symptom?

Tips on how to manage headaches

Dr. Faubion: 25:30 Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. So we know that migraines are super common in women, and a lot of women with migraines have a hormonal component to the migraine. So they tend to get headaches when their estrogen levels specifically drop. So that’s why women who have migraine tend to have migraines right before the menstrual cycle when estrogen levels are falling. So therefore, if you have trouble when estrogen levels are falling, you can have more trouble during the menopause transition because you have a lot of swings in your hormone levels and those drops when you go up, you have to go down and when you go down, that can trigger migraine. So the good news is that migraines typically tend to get a lot better after menopause. So even for those women who have regular headaches with their menstrual cycles or right before during their reproductive life, it may get a little worse than perimenopause because of the swinging around, but those typically get much, much better after menopause.

Kimberly: 26:34 Are there any foods that can help or anything or we just have to wait through evidence?

Dr. Faubion: 26:38 Well, some women may notice that they have triggers that so not might be a trigger. For some women, red wine may be a trigger for some women. Some women get headaches when they don’t have caffeine. So making sure that you’re not getting too much caffeine to where you have big drops in your levels. If you have three cups of coffee in the morning and then nothing after that, it could be a problem. So I think there are dietary factors that are associated with triggers that women can avoid, but hormones are probably a very potent trigger too.

Kimberly: 27:14 So do you think doctor, one of the pathways to really empowering women in a larger sense is to keep this conversation going and out there and normalizing it and just making it not weird to talk about menopause or that, oh, now we’re old, but rather, hey, now we’re moving into this empowered stage. Like you said, we’re in a position to use our creative power towards other means and leadership, and this is a whole new way of looking at it.

Embracing menopause as an empowered stage of life

Dr. Faubion: 27:42 I love that. And it’s really a time to take stock. So you have this big transition. You may have kids that are leaving the house or maybe they’re not leaving the house, but women are often in the sandwich generation where they have, they’re taking care of parents. But it’s also a time where you may be going through relationship changes during this time, but now is the time to say what in your life is good that you need to keep? What in your life is not healthy that you need to get rid of? What new healthy habits do you need to start right now? Or could you start? So I think it’s really that time to say, am I doing what gives me joy? Should I be going in a different direction to make that happen? If that’s not what’s happening, and many people take up different careers or go back to school or take up a new hobby like playing the piano or learning something new or traveling or whatever it is, but expand your horizons during this time and really focus on what is for you for the next stage. And it’s okay to be a little selfish in the way you think about it because many women spend so much time taking care of everybody else. It really is okay to take care of yourself.

Kimberly: 28:58 And also, doctor, I think it’s really amazing to celebrate the beauty at all the different ages. There is a trend towards not coloring your hair. And my husband always says to me, oh, when you have gray hair, it’s you’re going to look amazing. I wish all of our society starts to shift towards that. Your hair, your skin, your hormones don’t have to look the same, but there’s this whole new power that can come in. And I also think the more that we look to the elder women and our grandmothers, the women and ask them for wisdom and advice, I think there’s a lot that women have to offer. So we can start in our communities and in our own families and really creating that orientation to seeking the maternal wisdom.

Dr. Faubion: 29:39 I love that. A hundred percent. Absolutely. Yes. This is a time when women have lived a lot of life and have a lot of life experience and have a lot to give back,

Kimberly: 29:52 A lot to give back, a lot to share. Is there anything, doctor, that you would love to leave us with? You’ve shared so much wisdom with us, so thank you so much in your power with the facts, with the research, but also coming with your heart and that drive, we can really feel that steady power for women. So thank you for spending time with us and your book as the medical Director of the Rules of Menopause, which we will link to in our show notes. Is there anything we didn’t mention that you’d love for women to know?

Dr. Faubion: 30:23 Well, I think the most important thing is this is normal. It’s natural. A hundred percent of us are going to go through menopause. I was speaking to a group recently and they said they wanted me to talk about menopause. And they said, we know this is a niche topic, and I just went and I let it pass for a minute, and then I go, can we go back to that? What you just said? This is a niche topic. I go, this happens to 52% of the global population and 100% of those. So this is not a niche topic. And so I think it’s super important that we’re having this conversation, but I also think that women need to empower themselves with the knowledge. And some women may breeze through this natural transition. Some women may struggle a little bit more, but you don’t have to suffer. So we’ve got plenty of solutions out there.

Kimberly: 31:21 Well, thank you so much for being such a strong advocate for women, for being the medical director of this wonderful book and for taking the time out of your day, Dr. Favi, and we appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank you

Dr. Faubion: 31:32 So much.

I hope you enjoyed our conversation today. As much as I genuinely loved being with Dr. Fabian, who is such a force, so smart and really in it as a driving force to educate women and to empower women in their health and how they feel day to day, and so please be sure to check out the show notes over@mysauna.com. We will link directly to Dr. Fabian’s book that she was the medical Director over, which again is called The New Rules of Menopause, published by the Mayo Clinic, and more information on Dr. Fabian as well and other podcasts. I think you would enjoy articles that we’ve written around menopause, other topics, meditations and recipes. There’s so much on our website, so I encourage you to definitely go over there and check it out. Please be sure to join our mailing list so that you can receive our monthly newsletter and information and stay on top of all things sauna. I will be back here Thursday as always for our next q and a show. Till then, have a wonderful week. Find me on social media at Kimberly Snyder and sending you much, much love. Namaste.