BONUS: A Unique Perspective on Perimenopause and Menopause with Dr. Louann Brizendine

Everyday Wellness with Cynthia Thurlow ™

Cynthia Thurlow

Alternative Health, Nutrition, Science, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I was happy to connect with Dr. Louann Brizendine today! She is the founder of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. She completed her degree in Neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine, and completed her internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. She also served on the faculty of Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Brizendine founded the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. Her New York Times bestseller, The Female Brain, and its follow-up, The Male Brain, continue to be read worldwide. Today, we dive deeply into her new book, The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, which was released in April 2022. IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN: The transition and the upgrade stage of life explained Celebrating the transitional time of life and not fearing it How hormones help guide behavior Transition Stages 1,2,3 and what they mean Then onward to the 3 stages of "The Upgrade" Estrogen fluctuations that affect sleep Be aware of caffeine in your food and drinks and how it may affect your sleep. If you are having a problem staying asleep, you may want to cut back on alcohol or drink it earlier in the day. The Women’s Health Initiative - (almost 20 years ago) disastrous misinterpretations and negative implications it caused by instilling fear in women to not use Estrogen - including osteoporosis, brain fog, anxiety, and sleep disruptions Hormone Replacement Therapy - now viewed as a positive and much-needed step in women’s health Women between the ages of 40-50 should get a bone density scan as one of the determining factors of whether or not to begin hormone replacement therapy. Dr. Brizendine suggests that women should not be fearful of using therapies today to help balance hormones. Cynthia discusses the loss of cognition later in life as another correlative symptom of not receiving needed hormones. Dr. Brizendine advocates doing your own research regarding HRT and not depending only on information from major pharmaceutical companies. Cynthia and Dr. Brizendine discuss the importance of keeping an open mind when it comes to synthetic hormones because of the good they can do. If you are not well and do not feel like you can go on, please, immediately, seek out a doctor who can prescribe medications or hormones to help your particular and unique situation. Be your best and do not suffer in silence any longer. Cynthia says the transitional time of life should and can be a very good time in your life. Consider reading Dr. Brizendine’s book(s) to learn more and to keep it as a valuable resource. Connect with Cynthia Thurlow Follow on X, ⁠Instagram⁠ & ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Check out Cynthia’s ⁠website⁠ Connect with Dr. Brizendine ⁠Website⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ Dr. Louann Brizendine’s Books ⁠The Upgrade⁠ (newest book) ⁠The Female Brain⁠ ⁠The Male Brain⁠ Resource Mentioned ⁠NAMS - North American Menopause Website

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Everyday Wellness Podcast.
0:03.7	I'm your host, nurse practitioner, Cynthia Thurlow.
0:07.4	This podcast is designed to educate, empower, and inspire you to achieve your health and wellness goals.
0:13.9	My goal and intent is to provide you with the best content and conversations from leaders in the health and wellness industry each week and impact
0:22.1	over a million lives.
0:28.9	This is the start of bonus Mondays, a compilation of the top episodes over the past three years for everyday wellness. And I have to tell
0:41.3	you, when I went through all of this research and data, it was apparent to me that we have a very
0:46.3	eclectic, diverse group of clinicians, science writers, personal trainers, and experts.
0:55.4	I know you will love this new series.
0:57.4	Every Monday, we're dropping some of the biggest podcasts of the last three years.
1:02.4	These are your favorites, the most downloaded, ones that have resonated with you.
1:07.6	And I love that we're going to be able to share these every Monday so that you can
1:11.4	revisit some of these amazing episodes.
1:16.8	Today I had the honor of connecting with Dr. Luann Brisendyne.
1:20.8	She completed her degree in neurobiology at UC Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine
1:25.6	and did her internship and residency at Harvard
1:27.9	Medical School. And she helped found the women's mood and hormone clinic at UCSF. Today, we
1:33.7	dove deep into her new book called The Upgrade. We talked about terminology and how this is
1:40.3	largely a byproduct of the patriarchy. She has coined some new terms for perimenopause
1:46.3	and menopause, namely the transition and the upgrade. We spoke at length about how our hormones
1:52.6	impact behavior, the hormonal fluctuations that happen at middle age involving our sex hormones
1:58.3	and the impact on behavior, the role of estrogen, the impact of
	...

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