A lot of women hit their mid-to-late 30s or 40s and suddenly feel like their body changed the rules without telling them. They start waking up at 3 AM. Their anxiety increases, their weight starts shifting toward the middle, even though they’re eating the same way and exercising the same way.
And when they finally ask for help, their symptoms are dismissed, normalized as stress. Or they are told different things: either they’re too young for perimenopause, or this is just a part of aging.
But perimenopause is not always a clean, obvious hormone story. It can look like burnout, thyroid dysfunction, blood sugar issues, gut problems, stress overload, poor sleep, mood changes, or a body that suddenly feels harder to manage. That’s why so many women (and clinicians) miss it.
Dr. Anna Garrett, pharmacist and hormone expert, helps women understand what is actually happening underneath those symptoms. Her approach is not “everyone needs hormones,” and it’s not “just push through it.”
It starts with the person in front of her. What are her symptoms? What is her stress level? How is she sleeping? Is she ovulating regularly? Is she constipated? How is her body clearing estrogen? What role are alcohol, blood sugar, gut health, exercise, under-eating, or over-functioning playing?
In this episode, we unpack why your body changes so much in your mid to late-30s and early 40s, and what to do when you’re sure that you’re not the way you used to be.
Things You’ll Learn In This Episode
Perimenopause can start earlier than you think
Women in their 30s and 40s are often dismissed because they don’t fit the outdated picture of perimenopause. So what are the signs that your body may already be entering perimenopause, even if your labs look “normal”?
Your symptoms may be signals, not separate problems
How do you stop treating each symptom in isolation and start asking what the body is trying to communicate?
It’s not random insomnia
Middle-of-the-night wakeups can be tied to progesterone changes. If sleep is the symptom, what is actually waking the body up?
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