2752: The Menopause Solution with Dr. Lauren Fitzgerald

24:18And if they go to their primary care doctor and get it measured, their primary care doctor is going to scare them, telling them all of the misinformation that, oh, you're going to get a clot. and you're going to get cancer and all of the dumb stuff that I hear associated with just hormone replacement therapy and especially testosterone in women. But it literally changed your life as a woman. I mean, what do they notice? Sexual benefits are literally like, again, it changes everything in the bedroom. So when I talk about testosterone, when it is fully optimized in a female, you have sexual and non-sexual benefits, right?

24:48So it will increase your libido. It will help easier orgasms and better quality orgasms. It helps improve vaginal lubrication, which obviously helps everything in the bedroom, but also prevents UTIs because dry vaginas lead to UTIs that lead to sepsis that lead to death. Right. And then the non-sexual benefits, I mean, your performance in the gym. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, literally I've been on testosterone now for two years and people comment about my arms. This is like new for me, but it's, it's literally the, the muscle mass is crazy. Your performance in the gym, it will help decrease both subcutaneous and visceral fat.

25:21So if muscle mass is going up, fat mass is going down, percent body fat goes down. So composition changes, right? We have testosterone receptors in the brain, so it'll give you better mood, better energy, more motivation, more vigor. I mean, you feel like superwoman when your testosterone is optimized. I like to think of testosterone as like a, it's not, but like as a dopamine type hormone. It's like a drive, motivate, you know, I can do this thing type of deal. And people typically feel really good on it. In combination with thyroid, that's your aesthetic combo. Like that's for For visual changes.

25:53Correct. Those two make the biggest ones. Correct. But with women, it's – men, I can literally – and all of my patients, I require them to lift weights anyway. But men, if they just got on hormones and didn't lift weights, they could still see body comp changes. We women have to put the work in. Yeah. If we really want to change our body, it has to be in combination. Yeah. You mentioned DHEA. Now, that's over the counter. So why would anybody use DHEA in this hormone therapy? Yeah. DHEA has some great benefits too. It's a great anti-inflammatory. So we're all in our 40s, and this is the decade where people start to complain about the aches and pains of getting older, right?

26:29That typically, when you get that in optimal range, it will typically take that away because it's such a strong anti-inflammatory. And in fact, there's a lot of autoimmune patients that will aim for even higher levels of DHEA because it helps suppress the inflammation that comes along with it. I think, you know, when I think hormone replacement therapy, the important word on this is therapy because you're looking at a combination of hormones. You're looking at how the person's symptoms resolve, how they feel. And then you're looking at the hormones in relation to each other. That's correct. Because I noticed for myself, because of my testosterone replacement therapy, taking a little DHEA makes me feel better.

27:05And I don't think it's because I was low in DHEA, but rather it's relationship to my current levels of testosterone. And so you're looking at all these things when you're working with a patient. Absolutely. Are women generally harder to treat? Oh, yes. Okay. I mean, there are some days I'm like, I wish I could just treat men. Y 'all are so much easier. Just put them on testosterone. Yeah, exactly. Two levers, really. Yep. Well, how often do you have to? So we've obviously, we've all personally, I think personally, have sent a lot of family, friends your way and that you've helped out. If any of them ever come back to me, like questioning or concern, it's always because they're still speaking to their other practitioners.

27:43Absolutely. And they're always like, you know, Dr. Lauren's telling me this, but then I'm, my doctor saying, this is crazy. And this is this. And I'm just like, Oh my God. I'm like, I'm like, stop it. Like go, I sent you to her to listen to her. Like you, you got to ignore that because this is why you're with her. It's like, right. It hasn't worked for years. Seeing your regular physician. How often are you having that conversation? I've, I've become more intentional at that initial appointment to let them know if you're going to let me take over the management of your hormones, these are going to be the areas that your primary care doctor is going to put you in an awkward position.

28:15and with all due respect, your primary care doctor is a specialty. He specializes in primary care and not in hormones. If he did, you wouldn't be in front of me, right? So let me manage your hormones. Let them manage your primary care needs. And so like specifically thyroid, that's probably the one thing. Number one. It's so annoying. So I will let them know your TSH will be 0.0. That is almost 100 % of patients. That's where they feel their best. It's completely safe, but this will freak out your primary care doctor. They'll tell you that you have hyperthyroidism and then you'll be like, no, I'm taking thyroid.

28:49Oh, well, then you're being overdosed. No, you're not. You're being optimized. And, but they, unfortunately, they're not, they're not trained in hormones. Like that's not their specialty. So they are, they're associating the bad side effects of Graves, which is an autoimmune hyperthyroid state with being given the high dose of thyroid. So. Because in Graves, that's when you see TSH at zero. Right. But that's a symptom of this autoimmune issue. Exactly. So when you take a person's thyroid out that has Graves disease, you still get the bad side effects of thyroid that can lead to cardiac issues and all of the bad things.

29:27So they assume that because I'm giving them levels that will suppress their TSH to the same as if it were Graves, that it's the same outcome. And there's not a single study that shows that. Do you work with growth hormone? What about growth hormone therapy? Yeah, growth hormone. So it's a great hormone. it typically is done in our brain by the time we're 50s. So replacing growth hormone is typically something that I only do with patients that are in their 50s and beyond. If I'm working with someone in their 30s or 40s and I want to induce their own natural growth hormone production, I'll use some peptides like tesamaryllin or something like that.

30:01Yeah. How much have peptides now played a role in your practice? It's definitely becoming more of a role. I mean, they, the way I like to explain it, hormones are bullets, peptides are BBs. Both can do a lot of great, but let's get your hormones optimized first before we play around with peptides. Yeah. That's a cool way to give that. I've always tried to explain it because people are always asking me like what I think about peptides and like, because obviously it's popular shit right now. Of course. Everybody's seen it on the internet and everybody knows that I have access to it. So they're like saying, what do I need to do?

30:31It's like, listen, let's first get the diet and working out first. Let's go get your blood work. Let's see where your hormones are. And then I can tell you what peptides it's like. They are awesome, but it's like, it's not the big rocks. No, no. Do the other stuff first. And then - Then it makes a big deal. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Is it an issue if somebody has, let's say, unhealthy lifestyle? They don't eat great. They're not exercising, so they're sedentary, overweight, and they want to get on hormone replacement therapy. is that not a good idea to push hormones up to a level when the person is inflamed and unhealthy?

31:09Or is that just suboptimal? It's just suboptimal. I mean, oftentimes getting them started on hormones will push them to be motivated. Absolutely. Because they feel better. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's a big part of your practice too is encouraging. Let me ask you this as a doctor. Yes. I'm going to guess, but I can imagine getting someone to take their hormones is probably a lot easier than getting someone to consistently exercise. exercise and eat right all day every day y 'all know that yes but i also i mean we don't take health insurance so it's a cash pay and i'm a little bit of a bias right 100 and and i make them pay for the full year because i know specifically women just being in the health and fitness world for so long i know that they're not going to feel amazing by three months in and maybe not even six months in so i need them to buy in for the full year because nothing happens fast with hormones right it's so good you do that because that's the other conversation that i've had is that like yeah i've been doing everything she's saying it's like it's been three months like keep going yes like keep going it takes time to reverse a lot of this i literally have only had one patient at the nine-month appointment because i see them every three months right i only had one patient at the nine-month appointment that was not feeling amazing and i think other things are going on with her but that's yeah so i'm so so this is so great because uh you're speaking coach talk now because as a trainer, what's really important when you work with someone that you forecast accurately and let them know, here's what to expect.

32:34Because when they have different expectations, then it's hard to kind of back. So you're telling them like, look, it's going to take us a year to figure this out. I mean, these were back from my Beachbody coaching days. I mean, all jokes aside though, literally, I mean, I did, you know, health coach for quite a while. And so my experience with that, I just know how we want instant gratification. And we're so easy to quit if we don't see changes in the first three months. So I'm like, nope, you're bought in for the full year. And they also know that I will fire them. So, I mean, I'm very clear about that from day one.

33:08Like, if you don't do what I ask you to do, I will fire you because I don't want your bad outcome to make me look bad. Any initial side effects from hormone replacement therapy that you communicate? like, hey, when you start on progesterone, you might feel lethargic at first or when you start testosterone. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And some people feel worse before they feel better. That's part of that three months. I don't feel better. I feel like I'm worse than I was. I was like, yeah, that's you're changing. You're transitioning right now from what's going on right now. Stay the course. This is where women are more challenging than you men.

33:39Now let's talk about the way that you, because you are a huge proponent of how you advocate for testosterone to be applied. Yes. So let's talk about that because the traditional way of using testosterone is a once a week intramuscular injection. You like to use creams intravaginal or vaginal? Absolutely. Why is that? So it most closely mimics what our body was doing when we were hormonally optimized. So when you're 19 or 20 years old, your testosterone peaks and troughs every 24 hours. So that's why I like – and it's easier for – I mean I can get really high levels with that cream. So I give patients the options, right?

34:15there's multiple ways that I can give you testosterone. Pellets are my least favorite because you feel great in that first month and then month two, month three, month four, you're feeling not so great. So I want you to feel great every day, right? And when I first started testosterone, I was doing the once a week I am injection. So I can speak from my own personal experience, but then also now seeing so many patients taking them from the injections to daily cream. And I let them know, if you are not feeling great by three, six months in, we can always go back to injections. and that never happens.

34:46Is, are there, this is probably speculative, but are there receptors on the vagina that would make it so that when you use it vaginally that there's more sexual benefits? It happens all the time. So it increases sensitivity now to the areas that you're applying. Yes. I mean, women that are looking for a help in libido that I've been on testosterone, my libido is crap. I'm like, just wait. I got you, girl. Put it on here. Yes. The reason why I'm saying that is because I actually saw some places promoting like libido enhancing creams that had some testosterone in them, but also had Tadalafil, I think, which is, I believe, a PDE5 inhibitor.

35:28And it was vaginal. I'm like, wait, testosterone? I wonder if there's an increased improvement in sensitivity because you're applying it to that area. Absolutely. I will tell my women that are still menstruating, literally put it on your finger and literally stick it up your hoo-ha like a tampon. If you're bleeding, then put it on your labia. But literally, I mean, it's life-changing in the bedroom for a while. Isn't the Tadaphale or whatever, isn't that like Viagra? Yep. Yeah, that is. Okay, so basically they're putting testosterone and Viagra on. Which just the mechanism of action is just. Increase blood flow.

35:57Exactly, increases blood flow. That makes sense. So blood flow down there is effective for both men and women. Yeah. What are some of the, so what are some of the big myths you still have to overcome or conversations? I feel like people are so much more aware now around hormone replacement therapy where it's not so taboo. But what are the big myths out there? When you go do these conferences and you're talking about this, what are the things that people want you to speak about? The breast cancer thing always comes up. I mean because you hear hormones and you automatically think breast cancer because we've been brainwashed over the last 20, 25 years that hormones cause breast cancer.

36:34So I always have to break that down. And the literature is very clear that bioidentical hormones not only do not cause breast cancer, but they're protective against breast cancer. Absolutely. Think about it. The women in their menstruating years don't get breast cancer for the most part. It's typically women that are postmenopausal, right? If the natural hormones that our body was making would increase your risk of breast cancer, we would see it way more in menstruating women. So it's similar. Wouldn't you say it's similar with men and testosterone? That's still the stigma around men taking testosterone is increased cancer risk.

37:06And it's just like, no, if you're an unhealthy, low testosterone male, you're at a higher risk than someone who's at optimized hormones. Well, I also think there's, you know, there's, it may come from here as well, where when you, if you had breast cancer or you're treating breast cancer, they block estrogen at the receptor. because in that situation, hormones can drive cancer growth once you have cancer. Yeah, but won't anything drive that? Yes, but I mean, grow it once it's like at that point so you can make that case? So here's the thing. I will not take a patient who's in the middle of breast cancer.

37:44But after she's over that, she 100 % is safe to do hormones. The book that I always recommend, it's called Estrogen Matters. It is written by an oncologist and his wife is a breast cancer survivor. And so he dispels all of these myths that, oh, you have a history of breast cancer. You can't do HRT. That's just a lie. And he goes through it. It's a great book and it's written for someone that's not medical. So I always send patients to that because that's the biggest fear. I mean, even one of my own staff, she has a history of breast cancer and I cannot for the life of me convince her that these hormones are not going to increase.

38:18Because it's scary. Yeah. Well, when you have cancer, some of them are hormone sensitive. This is while you have the tumor. So for men, I'll just use an example for men. If the man has prostate cancer, taking testosterone may speed up its growth. Only if their total testosterone is less than 250. Okay. Okay. So would I take on someone as a patient in the middle of cancer? If it was my dad, I would 100 % start him on testosterone. own. But if it's someone that can sue me and this is, unfortunately, this is the life that we live in. Yeah. They'll teach us if it's you and your own, you can do this.

38:57But if it's, if it's just a, you know, a patient that's not connected to you that can come back and sue you, then don't do it. Back up for me there. So if you, if you had to start a testicular cancer and you were lower than 250 and it was your dad, we're saying, we're not, so you're not getting in trouble here. you would still take? Absolutely. Wow. Absolutely. Wow. Okay. Interesting. What do you see with hormone replacement therapy and other measurements like blood lipid levels, signs of insulin resistance, stuff like that? Do you see any changes? Yeah, absolutely. We check lipid panel once a year.

39:32The two numbers that I care most about are your good cholesterol, your HDL, and your triglycerides. The triglycerides are almost always decreased in that first year. We see a pattern of in the first year, typically a drop in HDL, and then it bounces back in year two. But overall, LDL is almost always decreased. And more importantly, the LP little a, which they say it's just genetic and there's nothing you can do. There was a drug that I think just went through phase three trials in the recent past. I'm sure it's super expensive that can apparently lower LP little a. But guess what? Testosterone can just lower LP little a.

40:06So one of my patients dropped her LPLA in just one year from 300 to 200. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And what about insulin sensitivity? Oh, thyroid and testosterone, baby. Yeah. I mean, yes. And you see a big change there? Absolutely. Wow. That's great. Their HOMA IR and their fasting insulin almost always decrease in the first year. That's great. Tell me a little bit about your practice because people go to you who've listened to the show and they just come back and they just love you. And I think they love you. You do a good job. Thank you. But I think they love you because you guys, they seem to feel like they're really cared about.

40:40So tell us a little bit about your practice and what do you do that's different? Like what's going on? I mean, I don't know what we do that's different. We just really care. I mean, I really like I'm in my purpose and I've got amazing staff that really care. We all understand that it's not just a business, it's a mission. And we have the tools to help people literally change their lives. And so, I mean, you know, I, when you come in, whether it's to be hormone patient or maybe a weight loss patient, or maybe just do functional medicine, there's always this initial evaluation. We'll look at labs.

41:15We'll talk about your options. But just like with my weight loss program, we see you once a month. I don't, I don't want you to become that, you know, Olympic face, Olympic butt person that loses 30 pounds in 30 days, and you've lost 15 pounds of muscle. Like, I'm not going to do that. So would it, would I make more money if I didn't see them once a month? Absolutely. And just recently, one of my staff members were like, can we, do we have to see them once a month? Yes, we do. Talk to me a little bit about, cause obviously GLP ones are huge now. Give me some ideas, like how, how many patients are you seeing on it?

41:49What are you, what are you noticing? What are the challenges? Like, I, I think they are incredible tools when used appropriately. And I have a lot of my patients that have reached their ideal body weight and they come off of it and they're like, can I just get back on a small dose for the inflammatory benefits? So I will literally have patients that cycle on and off a very small dose of GLP-1s, six months on, three months off, six months on, six months off. Do you have a preference over semaglutide versus trisepatide? I mean, you know, iPhone 14 versus iPhone 15, right? I mean, they're both great, but iPhone 15 does it better than 14, you know, and then retitrutide, which has the three mechanisms of action is even better.

42:29Are we using that already or is that still? Ish. Okay. Ish. Okay. Yeah. Soon to be. Yes. That's the one. That is crazy. That one just. That's the one that the body. I can't wrap my brain around the science on how it's possible to gain muscle and lose body fat at the same time. It is happening with red or true diet. It's wild. That's the one that's taken the bodybuilding world by storm. Exactly. Has anybody reported like any changes in addictive behavior? Oh, 100%. I mean, it's going to be used off-label in so many different patients. I mean, I think last time I was here, I might have told you about my patient that had the addiction to the nicotine gum.

43:05And she literally, she wasn't a smoker. She just started it because she heard nicotine gum was good on a podcast and literally had this like crazy addiction. She was losing like a lot of money every month because she was so addicted to it. And semaglutide broke it. And she was like, I don't care if I don't lose weight. this was 100 % worth every single penny that I paid for it. So, yeah, I know those, those areas in the brain. Now talk about the challenges though, because we, I mean, this, we obviously take a lot of live callers. We have written a program for GLP one. So we were, we ran a group that you've talked to.

43:38The thing that I see probably the most common is someone like who's been on a GLP one for like a year. And let's say they had like a hundred pound plus goal and they did really good. and they get like to 50 by just crushing the appetite. And then they get to a point where they're like 1 ,100 calories or something like that. And they've been at this hard plateau forever. And they're walking, they're doing all the things. Are you seeing that a lot? And do you typically lower the dose, reverse diet? What are kind of your strategies? I was about to say, I will send them to people like y 'all to help them reverse diet.

44:11But also just splitting the dose has helped a lot too. So some of our patients are twice a week. Some of them are even three times a week. and just taking the dose but dividing it. Oh, interesting. Yeah, and that's started to move the needle. So instead of taking it once a week, it's more frequent half dose. Correct. And what is that producing? Just less? It's starting to move the needle. Yeah, less of a crushing appetite and just more subtle. I didn't even think about that. So what's funny about that, by the way, I don't know if you're already doing this. You're so busy, so I don't think so. But if you ever read the bodybuilding forums, these are the cosmonauts.

44:44I definitely don't do that for the record. Let me just establish that. but if you ever really fun when you say that I do that every time if you ever want to like like go into and observe a group of people who are willing to experiment on themselves it's the bodybuilding world I do know that and they've they're the ones that have done all this oh yeah and they're that's how they use retitutride oh yeah they use they don't use one dose they use like three or four yep small and that's that's what they're saying what do we call it oh yeah no cosmonauts yeah yeah oh yeah oh yeah so that's what they typically Hey, we're pushing the science forward, dude.

45:20I am grateful for that. A few deaths here and there. Let's see what happens. That's great. So tell us about, I love that you're doing these speaking. By the way, you're a great speaker. Thank you. You and I both spoke at the Peptide Congress. Right. And when I was done. And I have to thank you guys because Dr. Seeds would have never known who I am if it weren't for you guys putting me on your podcast. Well, I got to tell you. So I had this ego boost and then I was like, what? So I come off stage and people are like, you were the best speaker. So I'm like, wow, that's so awesome. And then the next day, people were coming up to me.

45:54Dr. Fitz was the best speaker. I was like, oh, wow. That's right, dude. That's great. So tell me about the speaking engagement. Why are they inviting you on? I don't know. Oh, come on. The interest must be just exploding right now around this. Well, I think she's – I mean, every time you've been with us, You've communicated, you communicate it really, really well. And I think there's a lot of women that are being told by their general practitioners, you know, but yet they know in their heart that they don't feel right. And they're trying all the things and they're getting told you're fine or you're good.

46:29And it just doesn't make sense. And I think you do a really good job of communicating that. And I just don't think there's a lot of resources for people like that. When I was preparing to come on your show this time last year, I've been listening to you guys for a long time. So I knew all of the great people that y 'all had on board, but you'd never really addressed this thing. And so I was like, I know that you have so many people that listen that need to hear this message because normal isn't optimal. And your normal labs, you're feeling like crap. Fire that doctor and find someone that will listen to you.

47:01This might be controversial, but do you think most women should be on hormone replacement therapy once they get into menopause? What about the whole like, I'm sure you hear this argument, well, it's natural. You're supposed to go into menopause. I mean, that's fine. You can do that, but I choose. I know what my quality of life is when I'm hormonally optimized. So that's the beautiful thing about hormones is that if you get on it and you're like, this is not worth it for me, you can stop them at any given time, whether it's a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now. I'm 45 and I will be on this until the last day on earth.

47:38because I understand it protects me from all of the things and I feel amazing. I don't remember the doctor who my mother-in-law was very close friends to, but she's been advocating, this is the 30 years she's been advocating for this. And I always thought it was interesting when I first met Katrina that her mom was so adamant about when you were in your 20s and early 30s to get your blood work done, see where your optimals are, because you're soon going to be on hormones and you're going to want to be able to look back and be like, this is what my optimal is. and she like that's and she helps coach life coach people and almost every single first thing she does with every woman she life coaches is send them to go get their hormones this is what it so that's how i explain it because i have a i have a lot of cousins we're around the same age there's like nine of us that grew up together so includes my brother and so it's a bunch of dudes who grew up and you know i'm the guy on all the you know hormone replacement therapy yep and so they're asking me you look younger than all of them so seriously i also have four kids and i was divorced So I got that working.

48:35But we'll talk and it's like, you know, I'm like, look, you still get older. So it's not like I'm like, you know, I'm a 20 year old. I could still tell that I'm 46, but it's definitely very different. Well, anyway, finally, one of my cousins who's my age went on some testosterone and he's like, dude, he goes, I didn't know how bad I was feeling. Yep. You know, cause you know, he's a black belt in jujitsu. He trains and we're talking all the time. And he's always like, well, natural is better. And I'm like, listen, dude, it's not, you're not doing crazy stuff. This is optimizing you. I said, you work out, you try to watch your diet.

49:11Do you like doing your jujitsu? Do you like working out? And I'm like, you'll enjoy it more. And so he gets back on. He's like, dude, I didn't realize how low my tolerance for exercise stress was. He's like, I would go to jujitsu and I'd roll and I'd try to go easy, but I just feel beat up. You know, I was just feeling beat up from everything. He's like, man, I feel like I could train again and I feel good. And he's on like a low, he's like super conservative because he's like scared to go on higher. He's not like me. What's the most I can say? But he's coming back and he's like, dude, this feels so different.

49:45So now everybody else is starting to kind of get convinced like, and I'm a big believer. Like, you know, as you get older. But you also have to remember, it's not natural for us to eat processed food. It's not natural for us to breathe, you know, the chemtrails that we're, you know, we're exposed to. Did you watch that documentary, by the way? No, I love it. Dude, you've got to. I don't know if I can like you more than Dr. Fitz. I'm a full-fledged conspiracy theorist. Thank you very much. But, I mean, it's not natural, all of the things that we're exposed to. So if you want to go through it just, you know, naturally just to say you did it, here's your, you know, gold star.

50:23But I ain't doing that. know it's quality i'm trying to convince my best friend is like he i can't get him to i'm literally about to like finance it just so i'm like i'm gonna finance it for like a year so what's stopping him though i mean it's it costs a little bit because he's like cheap i know i know even just but just the steps of go get my blood work it's just a step and him feeling like i'm okay and i know i'm like no you're not i'm on the outside going like no you're not i know you don't say i grew up with you, you know? And again, you, you just, you get so adapted. The body is so resilient that you start to fool yourself of like, yeah, I'm fine.

50:56I'm normal. And then you get on that nice little dose and it's like, Oh, well, it's the same thing when I was talking. So my parents were my very first two patients and got on FaceTime with them. And my mom has always just done blindly what I tell her to my dad. He has to hear it from Peter Atiyah before he believes it. Right. Let's just be real. So, so my, my mom is, you know, yes, let's do it. Whatever you say. And my dad's like, Like, tell me why I need this. I'm pretty, you know, I feel like I'm pretty good. Like you are, but you're not optimized. I don't know. Dad, give me six months. And if you don't feel any difference in six months, you can go off of it.

51:29Okay. And sure enough, he was like, well, I'm starting to see muscle again. I'm like, yeah, you just, you don't know how much better you're going to feel until you try it. And what's to hurt? Like worst case scenario, you invest and you do it for a year and you're like, no, it didn't, didn't do anything. Okay, cool. like the way the next time dad says that you tell him you say hey i've been on mind pup twice peter never been on there totally the way i look at it there's a couple things first off we know that men's testosterone levels have been dropping for something like 50 years this is well documented very well documented so this is a this is not like this is not uh you know controversial in any way it's for sure going down fertility in general is going down women are more hormonally imbalanced natural women than ever why there's a there's a lot of reasons possibly why probably a combination of things nonetheless um hormone optimization is becoming less of a like like that's cool and more of a might be more necessary for a lot of people because of the things that are happening to us through our unnatural environment exposure to things like xenoestrogens and microbiome being thrown off and our lifestyles and all that stuff so um yeah well how rare how rare is our business partner i mean doug is like the only dude i know that's you know what his natural testosterone levels are i heard y 'all his totals are like 1100 yeah that's not normal yeah it doesn't look at his face yeah those are old numbers yeah oh they're higher now easy guy easy guy but he when he was in his teenage years and 20s he wasn't exposed to a lot of the endocrine disrupting agents he's also i would say you know the three of us are obviously the gurus but he's the better student right he's he he's better than all of us i think he he's he is better at working on his sleep he's better consistent with whole foods i think i think he's the one of the best i think he at that she makes a great point you know he wasn't exposed the amount of chemicals now that you grow up with totally just in your just from the things you touch and the clothes you wear and the stuff you put on your skin is just insane compared to what it was i have three families that i'm taking care of where i'm taking care of the mom and dad that are in their 40s or 50s and then they're they're adult children and the dad's testosterone is always higher than the son's testosterone who's in his 20s that's so crazy yeah because he's been exposed to all of these endocrine disrupting agents for his entire childhood and adolescence The way I try to look at it.

54:01How much is this playing a role in all these weak ass men? Oh, yeah. Can we? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We will go there if y 'all want to. I mean, I know what it's like to have very low testosterone. And you don't feel like the man you are on optimized testosterone. Imagine me being a single 45-year-old female trying to find a man that, yeah. See? Uh-huh. The struggle is real. You know, I mean, there's a couple ways, too, to look at this. is there's definitely, and I'm just going to call it out. This is what I struggle with. There's definitely, you can go on hormone replacement therapy to really push the limits and you might be a little too focused on aesthetics and that kind of stuff that happens to me.

54:41But then there's this other side, which is, you know, it will, it will improve the quality of your life. So you could do the important things more often and better. So more energy to play with my kids, more energy to perform at work, better sleep. So I feel better things that can, you know, I can enjoy the sports and activities that I used to enjoy, which bring me joy and allow me to connect with people. And I really, I think that's the main benefit. Yeah, it's how you show up to the world. Yeah, so. If you are a better version of you, then everyone in your world appreciates that. A hundred percent.

55:14We really appreciate when you come and speak to our groups. They love hearing you talk. How do you enjoy doing that? Because these are all like just coaching clubs. Yeah, no, I love doing that. Yeah, what do you think of the Muscle Mommy group? It's awesome. Yeah, yeah. I will have to say, I'm not as good about getting on school versus the Facebook group last summer. I need to be better about that, but I've been juggling a lot. Well, you know, for your own self, business-wise, I tell you what, I'm blown away by school. So that was my first introduction to it. And the UI is incredible and the things that you can do.

55:45So I don't know how much you've dove around. And we can talk off air about all the business stuff you can do with it. Very, very cool. Have you thought about, because you're very, very smart, especially even in business. Have you thought about combining what you do with like trainers and coaches and gyms? Absolutely. I just don't, I could see the synergy just so much where, I mean, we've talked about having our trainers and coaches work with doctors and stuff. Have you thought of that? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I've thought about, you know, the three of you guys, you know, doing something with me because, I mean, what y 'all bring to the table versus what I bring to the table is what most people need.

56:23You know, I've also talked about it with one of my best friends who has been in the fitness world forever. You know, she's the health coach, nutrition, whatever. And, yeah, it's I think it's the missing element for a lot of people. So do I, because I even have a friend who's a psychiatrist and we've talked about this and she's actually learning about hormone replacement therapy for her practice. Oh, yeah. because of all of the people that she sees. And she's like, you know, a lot of some of these issues could be treated with hormones. What I'm telling you about my mother-in-law, who's the life coach, that's like, they come to her and, oh, the husband, this, that.

56:58And she's just like, go get your hormones taken care of first. And then we'll work on all the other shit because you're just battling uphill. I can teach you all the tools on how to communicate with your husband and this and that. But if you're hormonally out of whack, you're fighting an uphill battle. Do you understand how many people don't need to be on SSRIs. They just need hormones. Right. I mean, when I give the patient even hope that maybe they don't need to be on that SSRI the rest of their life, they're like, are you kidding me? I've been on this for 20 years. So I know personally, I know people personally who've done this and here you have, so the symptoms were anxiety, worry, you know, mood was kind of up and down.

57:37Doctor puts you on an SSRI, which comes with the side effects, by the way, nobody talks about this. Erectile dysfunction. Well, it was a woman. It was sexual dysfunction. Oh, yeah. Libido is shot by this. Yeah. And so these are people, these are friends of ours. And it's like you feel number or numb down there. So issues with orgasm, sexual dysfunction, weight gain. Those are the side effects of this kind of numbing agent. So the anxiety got a little better. Mood's got a little better, but also sexual dysfunction, also weight gain. On the hormones, Mood is better. No anxiety. Sleeping better. Except I'm leaner, not gaining body fat.

58:14And my sexual, you know, how I respond and how I feel sexually has improved. So it's like the best, the best versus, you know, you get all these crazy side effects. Correct. Yeah. I think there's a lot of women, because again, you look at the data on women prescribed SSRIs and enzolytics. It's right around the time. Absolutely. When perimenopause and menopause hit. Oh, that's the standard. If they go to their primary care doctor, they'll be put on birth control pills and an SSRI. They're doing terrible hormone replacement. Terrible. Terrible. Yeah. No, it's I think that if psychiatrists really understood that their patients don't need all of these terrible drugs that are pharmaceutical drugs that these patients think they need to be on for life, they really just need hormones.

58:58It would take a huge portion of pharma out of business. At the very least, because I think there's a role in some of this stuff, but at the very least, you could lower doses to optimize hormones. But put it differently, a hormonally optimized person probably needs less of everything else, even if they did need something else. I think the amount of the percent of people that are on some sort of a psychiatric drug, whether it's an SSR or whatnot, would be significantly decreased to like 10 percent, maybe even less than 10 percent if we just addressed hormones, diet and lifestyle. Does that happen with you?

59:33We get these clients and then they go on hormones and they start coming off stuff. All the time. All the time. I will let them know. I don't want to even talk about it until the six month appointment. and then at the six month appointment we can talk about you doing this with whoever is prescribing that because technically since i didn't prescribe it i'm not supposed to de-prescribe it right right so you work with them yep well dr fitz you're always so awesome thank you we love you being on the show you're always such a great um such a gift to our community thank you and um i'm sure your books are totally slammed and you can't i mean are you just so booked out till march are you trying to grow yeah how do you do that i i go back and forth if i want to open a location in a warmer place because Chicago is really cold in the winter.

1:00:14Um, but I I've, I've hired, I have two, um, other medical providers and I'm about to hire a third. And then if I want to open a second location, I go back and forth, but, um, we take over one of the spaces right next door. I mean, maybe so. I mean, the weather here is much better. I will say that it's, it's snowing in Chicago today. And I sent a picture to one of my friends. I'm like, don't hate me because I'm not wearing a jacket. Well, awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I want to thank you guys though, because the amount of patients that have come to me because y 'all put me on your podcast last year, I will never be able to say thank you enough.

1:00:47I truly am grateful for that. It's an honor because you are servicing people that we care about. So the fact that they're going to somebody who knows what they're doing is good, cares about them, that for us is the best. Thank you. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, Check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs.

1:01:29With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes, and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.