Muscle, Hormones & the Menopause Transition with Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD (Episode 253)

Hit Play Not Pause

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.9 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As active women, muscle is the engine that powers us through our lives, no matter what sport we love. When we hit midlife and menopause, it can feel like that 8-cylinder engine drops to six—less punch when we hit the gas, even though we’re still training. We may notice less muscle and more body fat when we look in the mirror. Muscle and strength loss during the menopause transition is multifactorial. It’s hormonal changes and estrogen decline. It’s inflammation. It’s symptoms like poor sleep, joint pain, and fatigue. It’s body fat gain. It’s how we recover and fuel. And, of course, it’s aging itself, as both women and men lose muscle with age. Our approach to making and maintaining it has to be multifactorial as well. This week we talk all about muscle and menopause–from basic science to menopause symptoms to hormone therapy–to understand what’s going on under the hood and help keep that engine strong.

Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD, is a Double Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Obstetrician/Gynecologist specializing in infertility and menopausal medicine. She is also a Crossfit Level 1 trainer, Certified Nutrition Coach, and member of CrossFit Health. She is a MedFit Care provider and provides weekly workouts and medical updates at her Substack Athletic Aging. She is an Endocrine Consultant for Wild Health and Women’s Health Director at Eternal Health. Most recently, she has launched her own private practice specializing in helping active and high-performing women reach their performance potential from puberty through menopause. Dr. DiGirolamo is now seeing patients for virtual consultations for menopausal care and performance optimization. Visit her website www.drcarlad.com to learn more about her services and schedule an appointment.

Resources

Athletic Aging with Dr. Carla DiGirolamo on Substack

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Hit Play, Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
0:14.7	I am your host, Celine Yeager. Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform you best no matter what your hormones are doing.
0:25.0	This show is a production of Live Feisty Media.
0:30.4	Hello, Strong Feisty Women.
0:32.5	I hope you all are well.
0:34.5	So I am recording this intro in mid-November, and I just got back from our first ever
0:39.8	feisty 40-plus strong retreat at Iron Soul Gym. That's Cassie Neiman's gym, who does our strong
0:46.6	course in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And all I can say is, wow. You know, whenever we do live
0:53.2	events, I am blown away by this community. How supportive
0:58.0	and generous and engaged and intelligent and funny and just awesome you all are. And this was no
1:05.2	different. We had 20 plus women come out and get under some barbells and learn to lift and dial in their big lifts.
1:12.4	And it was just incredible. And there are so many reasons to learn to lift heavy and make a part of
1:18.7	your practice. It's good for your muscles and your bones and your brain and your heart and
1:23.2	metabolic health and of course your performance. But really the benefit that pops to me when I
1:30.2	see women in real life is confidence. The look in everyone's eyes after moving some heavy weight,
1:37.6	that shit is priceless. So thank you to Cassie and Iron Soul and her amazing coaches, Sam and
1:44.0	Caitlin, and to each and every woman who came out and showed up for herself and for each other.
1:49.2	You are all the reason that I love doing this work now five plus years into this.
1:55.1	So thank you again.
1:57.4	Okay.
1:58.0	Speaking of lifting heavy shit and muscle and menopause, this week we're digging in,
2:02.4	and I mean digging in at the cellular level into the topic of muscle and menopause.
	...

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