EP 56: Perimenopause Explained: Hormones, Metabolism, and How to Support Your Body After 40

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I am 46, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach helping women over 40 become their best. And today we are talking about perimenopause. And I want to get that out there right away because this is something that I think most of us are already experiencing if we are 40 plus, but very few of us feel comfortable or maybe confident to talk about. And that silence is a problem because when no one explains what perimenopause actually is, women don't think, oh, this is a hormonal transition.

0:33They just think something must be wrong with me. And I hear it all the time. And I used to have these thoughts too. Like, I just don't feel like myself anymore. My body feels softer, even though I'm trying harder. I'm tired, but I'm wired. I'm doing all the things that I used to do, but nothing really seems to be working. So instead of being curious, we get critical. We assume that we lost discipline or motivation or willpower. But what's actually happening to our body is that it's changing hormonally, metabolically, neurologically, and no one prepared us for this season of life. So today, we're going to talk about it.

1:08We're going to be open and honest, and I want you to have information, not to scare you, not to overwhelm you, but to replace confusion with clarity and self-blame with understanding and compassion for where your body is. Because perimenopause is not breakdown. It's a transition and it's an invitation to treat your body with compassion and care and to align yourself with the habits and the plan that's going to support your body during this phase. And probably habits that we should have leaned on years ago, but the hormones that we had when we were younger were protecting us. So we got away with some of those suboptimal plans, but now it's different.

1:45Our body needs us to understand it and to offer it the right support. And once you understand what's really happening, you can start working with your body instead of fighting against it. Grab your favorite drink or your coffee and let's dive right in. Let's talk about first what perimenopause really is. Perimenopause is the transitional phase leading up to menopause and it can last anywhere from four to ten years. During this time, your ovaries begin responding less consistently to the signals coming from your brain. And this is important. Hormones don't decline smoothly, they typically fluctuate.

2:21So some months, estrogen is higher than it used to be. Other months, it drops off suddenly. Ovulation becomes inconsistent. Progesterone production becomes unreliable. That inconsistency is what makes perimenopause feel so confusing. It's why symptoms show up randomly and why you feel fine one day and completely off the next. Hormones are chemical messengers. When they change, your entire system changes. Your brain, your metabolism, your gut, your sleep, your mood, your body composition. This is why perimenopause doesn't show up as just one symptom. It shows up typically like a pattern. So here are some things that most women will start to notice that are signs that they are in that perimenopause phase.

3:06Number one is cycle changes. So it could be heavier cycles, lighter, shorter, longer, and just very unpredictable. Number two is your sleep feels lighter or broken. Number three is waking up in the middle of the night, feeling wired, like two, three o 'clock you wake up and it's like you are wide awake. Number four is stress just feels louder. You can handle what you used to. Number five is that patience just feels thinner. You are just more triggered, a lot easier. And then lastly, that your body just feels softer, even if your weight really hasn't changed. And emotionally, there's often this quiet thought of like, why does everything just feel harder right now?

3:49And that question alone is a sign that hormones are probably involved. Now let's talk about the hormonal shifts that are happening during perimenopause so you have a clear understanding of what's going on with your body. Estrogen during perimenopause becomes very unpredictable. And estrogen affects far more than reproduction. It influences your brain, your gut, your cardiovascular system, your skin, your joints, and even how your body manages inflammation. So when estrogen fluctuates, women often notice brain fog or forgetfulness. Digestion feels slow or feels off. Arteries become stiffer, which can impact your blood pressure.

4:29Skin feels thin or drier. Your hair may shed more and your joints feel stiff and achy. When you zoom out, you start to see why perimenopause is like a full body experience. Then we have progesterone. Progesterone is your calming hormone. It helps to support sleep, reduces anxiety, and helps balance out estrogen. And it's often the first hormone to truly decline in perimenopause because it's only produced after ovulation. So as ovulation becomes less consistent, progesterone quietly drops. That's why so many women feel more anxious, more reactive, more on edge, more wired at night, even when nothing in their life really has changed.

5:10This is also why sleep can become harder. And that change in progesterone can almost create an estrogen dominance environment, not because estrogen is too high, but because progesterone is no longer there to balance it. Then we have testosterone, which is something that we absolutely need. testosterone helps support muscle, strength, motivation, energy, confidence, and your libido. It also helps with mental drive and resilience. So when testosterone is declining with age and during perimenopause, that decline becomes more noticeable. So if building muscle feels harder right now, if recovery is taking longer for you and your motivation just feels like it left the room, that's not a character flaw.

5:51It's probably physiology. When estrogen is fluctuating, progesterone is declining and testosterone is slowly dropping, it creates a very real internal shift. And understanding that is incredibly freeing. Now, don't worry. I understand that all of this sounds like, holy cow, my body is crashing and burning, but we're going to get to the good part later on. And I'm going to tell you how we can have some positive impacts on all of this. But let's first talk about some of the metabolic changes that happen because of these hormonal shifts. So hormones and metabolism are deeply connected. So when hormones shift, metabolism can shift too.

6:28One of the biggest changes during perimenopause is a gradual decline in lean muscle mass, unless you are actively trying to protect it, which is why I am enthusiastic and dead set on encouraging every woman after 40 to be muscle centric with their fitness plan and their goals and their nutrition. Muscle has to be the priority, period. It's going to help everything. It's a metabolically active tissue. It helps regulate your blood sugar, burns more calories, and it maintains a healthy body composition. So as muscle declines, insulin resistance becomes more common. That means your body doesn't handle carbohydrates the way it used to.

7:05So you get blood sugar spikes more easily, cravings show up faster, and energy crashes feel harder. Fat also redistributes at this time, going more towards the midsection, even if your weight doesn't change. This is all because of those hormonal fluctuations. This is why body composition can shift even when the scale more or less stays the same. And it's why tracking more than just your weight can be so helpful during the season. So things like pictures, measurements, and using a scale that tracks body composition can be so much more powerful. This is not about obsession. It's about understanding what your body is actually doing.

7:42And we are less worried about body weight right now and more worried about body composition. And the more we focus on getting more muscle on our frame, the better we're going to feel hormonally, physically, mentally, all of it. So now that we touched on how these hormonal shifts are impacting metabolism, we have to also talk about the emotional impact here. Perimenopause doesn't just affect your body, it affects how you feel in your body. So hormones influence neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA, which impact your mood, your stress tolerance, your confidence, and your emotional regulation.

8:18So if you feel more overwhelmed, less confident, or like your identity is shifting, that's real. This phase can make women feel almost like they're not in control of themselves anymore, especially when their bodies are changing in ways that they don't understand. And that's why talking about perimenopause matters. Normalizing it matters. Community matters. You are not alone. And this is not the end. This can be the beginning of a more empowered chapter for your life. That said, let's get into how we can support our body during this phase and this shift in our life. Perimenopause is the season where lifestyle interventions matter more than ever.

8:58Not extreme ones, not ones that are pushing you, but ones that are supportive and intentional. Nutrition becomes more about stabilizing blood sugar and supporting your lean muscle. That means limiting refined sugars and simple carbs, leaning into fiber-rich, complex carbohydrates for energy and gut health, including high-quality fats like olive oil, grass-fed butter, avocado for brain and hormone support, and prioritizing protein, trying to aim for 30 grams per meal so you can support your muscle and your neurotransmitters. Movement is also a place where we want to be intentional as well. Strength training becomes the foundation of our fitness plan because it protects our muscle and our bones and our metabolism.

9:42Walking is also something we want to lean on because it complements strength training beautifully by supporting insulin sensitivity, stress regulation, and recovery without overtaxing our nervous system. Sleep also becomes a non-negotiable. You want to make sure you have a nice sleep regimen. A cool dark room, keep a consistent sleep and wake time, have light exposure in the morning, minimize those screens at night. Sleep will help regulate hormones better than almost anything else. So really make it something that you have a supportive routine for. And then stress management becomes intentional.

10:19Things like breath work, prayer, connection, really leaning on tools that build resilience instead of trying to numb yourself with screen time, scrolling, watching Netflix, staying up late, having wine, turning to sugar. Food is fuel, but it cannot fix stress and it cannot fix what's not hunger. So we want to lean on the things that will help support our stress and not add to it. Now, those are the lifestyle shifts that we can make to support our bodies through these changes. There are some supplements that we can take, but I want to preface with the fact that they are not magic. They are not a magic bullet that can take away or replace hormones, but they can support our systems when they are in this transitional period.

11:02Some of the things that I think that are really effective and helpful are digestive enzymes and probiotics to help us with our gut health. Protein supports muscle and neurotransmitters. Look for a grass-fed whey protein. That's the most bioavailable protein, and it has all the amino acids that your body needs to have that muscle protein synthesis. Creatine also will help support muscle strength and brain health. My favorite brand for protein and creatine is Legion. They are fully transparent with their products. They are third-party tested. They are grass-fed. All of the ingredients in their supplements are high quality and they are clinical effective doses.

11:44And their customer service is the best. So if you ever order something and it doesn't work out for you, you call them, you let them know, they refund you on the spot. I will leave my supplement guide in the show notes. If you cannot get enough protein through diet alone, supporting yourself and your body with a high quality whey protein is really going to help. Now that we understand how important nutrition and supplements can be in this phase of life, I'm going to leave you a couple of resources in the show notes. My Nutrition for Women in Perimenopause article, as well as my supplement guide.

12:17You can find those both in the show notes if you want to take a deeper dive as to how you can support yourself with those two things. Now, one of the most powerful things we can do to support ourselves during this time is hormonal replacement therapy. This is very individual. It is really up to the person as to whether or not they want to pursue it and maybe when. But I think getting an idea of what that looks like is important. Educating yourself and knowing what options are available to you. A couple of caveats here. It's important that you seek out someone who is a hormone replacement therapy expert, not necessarily just an MD or an OB, because it is a very complex topic and you want someone who's going to look to optimize your hormones, not just get them in a quote-unquote normal range, because that can look very different.

13:06And sometimes women are in a normal range for hormones, but still experiencing a lot of symptoms. So you want someone who is wanting to optimize your hormone levels, not just get them in a normal range. And that's going to take working with someone who is a specialist. The other thing you want to look for is bio-identical hormone therapy. Oftentimes, if you do go to a general MD or an OB, they will offer you something like birth control, which is not the same. So you seek someone who has a clear understanding of women's hormones and has bioidentical hormone therapy available to you. This is something I have recently ventured into.

13:43I'm just in the early stages and I have to say it has greatly impacted my overall emotional well-being and my sleep. I'm only about month two into my therapy, but I can already tell it's having a big positive impact. So if that's something that you're curious about, I will also leave a link in the show notes to a trusted women's hormone testing and medical support team. This is not something you have to do. It's simply an option if you want a clearer picture of what's happening with you specifically, hormonally. They offer comprehensive testing and medical guidance, and they're able to support women who want a deeper dive and look at their hormones.

14:22So if you decide to explore that route, you can let them know that I sent you. And just know this is about support, not pressure. So I hope that this episode kind of gives you a little bit more clear understanding about what might be going on with your body at this age and stage of life. And I hope it empowers you to approach your body with a different and more supportive plan. And I wanna leave you with this, is that perimenopause, it might be the end of something, but it's also the beginning of something beautiful. Yes, we're experiencing some hormonal shifts, but none of this means that we are broken.

14:56It means our bodies just need a new approach, one that is rooted in strength, in nourishment, in recovery, in support. And when we do those things, we can look and feel better than ever. I'm going to leave my perimenopause nutrition article in the show notes as well as my supplement guide and the information on the hormone testing if you want to explore that further. And if you want structure, guidance, and want to be surrounded and immersed in a community of women who are going through the same shifts as you are, I invite you to join my January Soft to Sculpted Over 40 Challenge, where you will have the plan, the resources, most importantly, the women and the community walking this same journey with you.

15:37Because perimenopause can be empowering. It's not your body failing you. With the right support, it's absolutely possible to feel stronger and better than ever. I genuinely hope this episode made you feel more knowledgeable, more empowered when it comes to your body. I hope it was helpful. If it was, I would be so thankful if you left a rating or a review. It just helps more women like you find the show. And as always, if you have episode ideas, please DM me on Instagram. I love hearing from my listeners. And until next week, you know what I'm gonna say, keep getting stronger, keep leaning into the things that are gonna help you grow and become your best.

16:17Please know I am always cheering and rooting for you. I love you so much. And until next week, keep getting stronger.