Your Guide To Understanding Menopause

Welcome to the Summit 0:00

Hi, ladies. I'm Dr. Sharon Stills. I'm your host of Mastering the Menopause Transition 2.0 Summit. Some of you may remember me from last year if you were here. And if you're new. I am thrilled and so excited for you that you're here and going to be spending the next seven days learning from all the amazing experts I have interviewed. So I just wanted to kind of say hi and tell you a little bit about me and tell you why I am hosting this summit and why your mindset is such an ally in this journey.

So I am an naturopathic physician. I have been in practice for 22 years. It's a long time and I understand what it's like to be hormonally imbalanced, hormonally frustrated to not be getting the answers you need. I too, suffered greatly. I had hormonal imbalances when I was getting my cycle that were horrific. I used to get so bloated that people would look at me and say, When's the baby due? And I'd be mortified. Like, there's no baby due. I'm just really bloated because my hormones are imbalanced.

I mean, I know that now. Back then, I don't know if I really knew what was going on. And so I suffered. I had PMS like two weeks before my period. So as soon as I would ovulate, if I did ovulate, I would go right into

My Hormone Journey and Early Struggles 1:35

PMS with breast tenderness, headaches, mood swings, chocolate cravings, bloating, constipation, you name it. Then I'd get my period, then I'd spend a week bleeding and crampy and miserable. And then when my period ended, I'd have like seven days where I felt good. And then the whole cycle would start over and over. So I went through that naturopathic medical school and was so busy learning to be a doctor and like a lot of women do, I was not putting myself first. I was taking care of two children.

I was raising on my own while I was going through med school, and I just kind of thought, All right, this is just how it is. This is this is normal. You're supposed to struggle with your periods and you're going to see a theme through the summit where we talk about things that are common, but they're not normal. And so that was not normal. When you have hormonal symptoms, it's your body's way of saying hello. Knock, knock some things out of balance. I need you to pay attention. And so I think of symptoms as your sacred messengers.

Just like a baby crying. If a baby's crying, you wouldn't be like, Shut up. You won't ignore the baby. You would go into like, Why mode? Why are you crying, little baby? Are you tired? Are you hungry? Are you wet? Are you lonely? Are you cold? And so that's how I want you to start thinking of symptoms that you're experiencing. Like, why am I having this? Why am I getting headaches? Is my thyroid low or my sex hormones off? Do I have toxicity? Am I dehydrated in my sleep deprived and stressed out, etc., etc., etc.?

There is always a reason I call myself the two year old doctor because I'm always like, Why? Why, why, why? And I'm going to dig and drill down till I figure out why it is happening for you. So we can rebalance it and you can feel great. So. So I know what it's like. I know what it's like to suffer. And when I opened my clinic back in the early 2000s, Suzanne Somers had recently written a book or was going to write a book. I opened my clinic and then I think her first book came out shortly thereafter, and it was all about bioidentical hormone replacement, which honestly, I had not learned anything about going through naturopathic medical school.

And so a patient brought it to me and said, I want what she's having because she's feeling good and she's looking good and true story. My initial thought was like, wait a second, isn't that Chrissy,the dumb blond from Three's Company? And I thought, what does she know about medicine?

Discovering Bioidentical Hormones 4:20

But I have an open mind. And I thought, all right, patients asking, I'm here to serve. So I took the book. I said, give me a week. Let me read through it. I read through it. And I was like, Hm. I think Chrissy from Three's Company is on to something. And with all my extra training in medical school in Europe, studying natural medicine there, I thought, I can even make this better and do it better. And so I helped the patient. Her husband sent me flowers. She was so very happy that I popped on the screen.

So she was so very happy. Her husband sent me flowers and she told two friends who told two friends You talk to friends like that old perk shampoo commercial. And before I knew, it had a flourishing practice of helping menopausal women slow down the aging process, reverse the aging process, get their lives back at their mojo back, get their hair back, get their mood back. I was literally getting flowers from husbands. Husbands were very happy. And I thought, wow, I was in my early thirties, so menopause wasn't even something I was personally thinking about.

But I thought, I feel a little out of integrity here, like I'm helping all these women with their hormones and I'm bloated and PMS thing and miserable. So I thought, You know what? I'm going to do what I'm doing for them, but I'm going to do it for a cycling woman, Someone do it a little different, but I'm going to do some of the same things and I did. And my premenstrual issues went away and my periods became normal and I became very happy. And so much so that when I went through menopause, like 16 years later, I never even had a hot flash.

And I've now been post-menopausal for seven years. So I was 48. I was a little on the earlier side. But remember, the average age is 50-51. So that means some women are going to go later and some are going to go before it's all healthy, it's all okay. And I have never felt better. And every year I get healthier, I get stronger, I get happier, I become more in my body. I feel better about who I am. And I want to share that magic with all of you because I see it happening with all my patients and I see it happening with all the women who came to last year's summit and how grateful they were.

Menopause as a New Beginning 6:50

And it's one of these areas that I have just found being in practice for so many years, working in the trenches with patients that women are getting gaslit, they're getting bad information, they're getting the wrong form of hormones, they're getting the wrong dose of hormones, they're having the wrong monitoring of hormones. It's like all wrong, wrong, wrong. They're being told to apply their hormones wrong. And I'm here because I want to set there cord straight for you and help you all. And so I'm really passionate about giving you information that you can take with you and share with your doctor and change the conversation and get the help you need.

Because trust me, menopause can be a beautiful, beautiful experience. And the mindset. So I'm like, Hey, menopause, I'm coming for you. And that's where I want you all to end up. Because I think a lot of us from society are like, Oh, menopause are going to get fat, I'm going to get ugly, I'm going to not be relevant. You know, society's too just wants us to think we're like big fat cows and we should be put out to pasture. And that's bias even though whether you chose to have babies or not, you know what?

Menopause is the pausing of your menstrual cycle. And you can no longer give birth to a physical child. But now that you're retaining all that wisdom, you can give birth to a new you, to new relationships, to new projects, to creativity, to new to new activities, to new hobbies, to writing a book or seeing the world or making new friends. Whatever you want. Like this is our time to shine. This is our time to say self-care is not a luxury, it's a necessity. And you know what? Me first. And that's okay.

There's nothing wrong with me first. You can't pour from a depleted watering can and water a plant. So you are the watering can you need all the water literally and figuratively, and then you can go out and be of use to the others in your life. So I really am so excited. I've got so many great interviews for you. And I really you know, you might see I write menopause with the parentheses. And so I want you to pause. It's not just the cessation of your menstrual cycle, but pause, Think about where you are, where you've been, where you want to go.

In my practice, we do the positive method, where then I assess for the A and pause your physical health and depth to see what's going on and what needs to be handled. We look at everything from your lymphatic system, your dental health, your thyroid, your adrenals, your liver, your gut. Yes, I do. Bioidentical hormone placement. But those bioidentical hormones need to go into a happy, healthy, balanced, connected body. So it's a piece of the pie. It's an important piece of the pie, but it is not the whole pie.

Then we you, we unravel what you'd like your life to look like. And then I help you step into your sacred second act. And then we keep watering because we ensure the changes. So this is not a quick fix. I'm going to do a fad five day cleanse and all is going to be okay. This is a lifestyle. This is a commitment. This is like the biggest sacred.

The Positive Method and Whole-Body Care 10:20

Yes. To yourself that I am going to take care of this physical vessel so that I can age gracefully. I plan on living. It used to be so 120. Then I started doing prolonged fasting, which we have an interview with Dr. Anton and I'm going to lead a fast after this, but you'll find out more about that later. But when I started doing the prolonged fasting and really inducing autophagy and cleaning out dead proteins, I thought, you know what? This is worth another ten years. So now I'm going to live to 130 and I'm not anything special.

I like I said, I had horrible hormone problems and I was very, very sick as a child. So if I can do it, you can do it. We can all do it. I want to change what it means to be menopausal. I want when my granddaughters look at me, I don't want them to think it's some weird thing that Bubby is 90 and, you know, in the garden or climbing a mountain that if we take care of our bodies, that can be the norm. There's a viral video of a woman probably in her eighties doing gymnastics. And I was like, Ooh, wow. Oh my God, she's amazing.

But we can all do that. So I want that to become the norm and I want you to come along and be part of that with me. So we're going to learn about read about reinventing our help, exploring our spirit, discovering our sexy. And what's sexy is, to me, maybe what's different than what's sexiest you. And we're going to use the mindset of a natural Catholic physician because that is how I am trained. So we're going to first do no harm. We're going to utilize the healing power of nature. We're going to identify and treat the cause.

We're going to use the doctor not as the guru, but as the teacher, as the guide, as the partner helping you because I eat eaten, Breathed, lived this stuff for 22 years. So let me share my knowledge with you to help you have a better, happier, healthier life. We're going to treat the whole you. Like I said, it's not just fixing your gut. It's not just balancing your hormones. It's not just reducing stress. It's not just getting your lymph flowing. It's all of it. We got to do all of it. And some things we need to focus on more.

It depends what we've already been doing. It depends what our genetics are and where our weak links are. So together we will help figure that out. And then of course, prevention, because as I told my story, because I did what I call pre gaming, because I took care of my hormones when I was way, you know, not even thinking about menopause, I pre-game and unknowingly but you could pre-game anyone can pre-game. So I'd be so grateful if you know someone who's perimenopausal in their late 30's, their 40's, and they're not thinking about menopause.

The stuff we're going to talk about here is applicable to them. Honestly. The stuff we're going to be talking about can even be applicable to your male partners. Some of the stuff we're going to talk about is just applicable if you're in a human physical body. So I just wanted to come tell you how excited I am to be here, how I am on a mission and I'm not going to stop

What to Expect from the Summit 13:40

and I want to bring you along with me and to enjoy this summit. We've got a wide variety of options from what you need to do to lose weight, from what you need to do to get your liver functioning optimally, to release your fascia, to get out of pain, to understand essential oils. I mean, I've just covered it because it's all about you. It's all about how you're going to heal and all the different pieces that you can put into place to help. You have a red hot, sexy menopause. So gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude for all of you.

I and I've been working so hard on this. There is a lot of work that goes into it. And so the fruits of my labor pay off. When you come, when you join in, when you watch, and even if it's just one thing, just one thing that could change your life that you take from this than my job has been done. So enjoy. I'll be giving a talk every start of every day, a little mini talk, and there'll be more. I'm going to talka bout bioidentical hormones. I'm going to talk about your lymphatic system and sleep and all sorts of interesting things that you need to know.

And then there's going to be the interviews all day and it's going to be a blast. So enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. I honor you for being here, for taking your health into your own hands and for being your own best doctor. See you at the summit. And stay tuned, because now there's some great talks coming up.