108: Hormonal Ep. 4: Selene Yeager and Dr. Carla DiGirolamo Answer Your Hormone-Related Questions

In this Episode

At Feisty Media, we are all about reclaiming language and turning it on its head. That’s why we’re proud to present our limited series, HORMONAL – Periods, Pills, and Pregnancy: How Women’s Hormones Impact Sports Performance.

This series is hosted by double-board certified Obstetrician and Reproductive Endocrinologist Dr. Carla DiGirolamo, who has been featured in Boston Magazine as one of “Boston’s Best Doctors” every year since 2019.

Carla is joined by Feisty’s own Selene Yeager, who has been hosting the Hit Play Not Pause podcast since 2020, and has conducted over 160 interviews with leading experts and top athletes in the perimenopause and menopause space. Combined with her background as a health and science journalist, Selene is great at reading the research and translating it into actionable steps for active women.

In the final episode of this limited series, Selene and Dr. DiGirolamo answer listener questions around HRT, inflammation, LEA, asthma symptoms, bone density, training and racing around your period, and more, including:

• If you’re over 60, do you need to come off of HRT, especially if you’ve been on it for over 10 years? (Research Study)
• What can an athlete do if a taper brings on a period and the PMS that comes with it?
• How should I address exercise-induced inflammation post-menopause?
• Is there a connection between new onset asthma and asthma-like respiratory symptoms in perimenopause and menopause?
• What are your recommendations around micronized progesterone administration?
• Why am I so lazy to train on days when I’m near my period?
• How do hormones affect your performance in hotter temperature races?
• How do hormonal changes in women over 40 affect nutritional needs and race fueling?
• What are some of the psychological dynamics of hormonal changes?
• What should I expect coming off hormonal birth control after 15 years?
• How do hormonal changes from peri-to-post-menopause affect the quality of our ligaments and tendons and the rate of healing?
• What happens hormonally when you stop elite high-performance sport?
• Breastfeeding and performance. What should women know?

Bottom Line: “We are not victims of our hormones and we are not broken. It’s not that our hormones are doing something they’re not supposed to do. It’s that people have different sensitivities to their own hormone fluctuations. We just need to figure out what our personal path is and use all the tools available to live our best lives.”

Listen to Episode 1 of Hormonal

Listen to Episode 2 of Hormonal

Listen to Episode 3 of Hormonal

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