The Hotflash inc podcast

222 Roxanne Prichard: Sleep Is a Feminist Issue

🌿 THE HOTFLASH INC SUMMIT IS COMING BACK IN SEPTEMBER! Get on the newsletter to be the first to hear, so you can sign up the moment doors open. You do not want to miss this year. Get on the newsletter → here. This was one of my favourite talks from last year's inaugural Hotflash Inc Summit, recorded back in mid-2025. My guest is Dr. Roxanne Prichard, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of St. Thomas, where she's built a career studying the science of sleep and mental health. She's designed popular courses on sleep and dreaming, led workshops for college professionals on sleep, and served on the NCAA Taskforce for Sleep and Well-being. Her TEDx talk, Addressing Our Children's Sleep Debt, was featured in the lecture series Transforming Education, and her research has been covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, and USA Today, among others. What makes this conversation so special is that Roxanne is a true scholar of sleep. Highlights 02:57 – Why women sacrifice sleep more than men 04:44 – The biopsychosocial model behind perimenopause sleep loss 05:52 – The three most common sleep changes in menopause 08:18 – Sleep apnea isn't just a "men's disease" — and it's underdiagnosed in women 09:02 – How to test for sleep apnea from home 11:13 – What parasomnias are and why they happen 12:30 – The dementia risk of untreated sleep apnea 13:25 – The history (and risk) of sleep medications, from barbiturates to benzos 16:14 – The melatonin problem 19:04 – The science of morning light and your circadian rhythm 20:36 – How your circadian rhythm controls half your genes 20:54 – Roxanne's number one sleep tip for perimenopause 21:58 – The truth about sleep trackers, wearables, and "orthosomnia" 25:21 – What the research says about hormone therapy and sleep 30:27 – Reframing sleep as resistance 32:15 – Roxanne's parting wish for every woman listening For more from Dr. Roxanne Prichard: TEDx Talk, Addressing Our Children's Sleep Debt Ms. Magazine, Sleep Is a Feminist Issue: Why Women's Rest Is Political LinkedIn: Roxanne Prichard Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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221 Dr Aviva Romm wants to know: how are you really feeling?

THE HOTFLASH INC SUMMIT IS COMING BACK IN SEPTEMBER! Watch this space, get on the newsletter, or follow us on socials to find out more. This is one of our most popular talks from last year's inaugural event, recorded in mid-2025. Dr. Aviva Romm is a Yale-trained MD, board-certified family physician, and world-renowned midwife and herbalist who's spent four decades studying women's health from every angle – obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, and integrative medicine. She's a longtime home birth pioneer and birth activist, and the bestselling author of Hormone Intelligence (2021), who has never been afraid to challenge the status quo in medicine. In this conversation, recorded for the very first Hotflash inc Summit in September/October 2025, she brings all of it – the decades of clinical experience and the humility of living through this transition herself. It's easy to see why people who attended the summit online loved this interview so much: Dr. Romm doesn't do fear-based menopause content, and she doesn't do "just take the hormones and move on" either. She does nuance – which is exactly what this moment needs. Highlights 03:54 – Why nature gets left out of the menopause conversation 05:11 – The historical roots of dismissing women's bodies (and nature) 09:41 – Is hormone therapy the icing, or the cake? 10:36 – The three questions every woman should be asking herself 13:26 – Why so many of us never learned to ask them 14:31 – Should you take hormones to prevent future disease? 19:21 – The most overlooked fix: vaginal estrogen for recurrent UTIs 21:11 – The good, the bad, and the unregulated: herbalism and botanicals 25:04 – Yes, herbs can have side effects too 30:44 – "This is the third way" 30:57 – What the research actually says on pine bark extract 31:42 – Her go-to herbs for sleep and hot flashes 38:13 – Where are the midwives and nurse practitioners in this conversation? 40:24 – The"alarming" entry of GLP-1s into menopause care 48:53 – It's not just pharma – the whole wellness industry sells fear 50:16 – Why checking your hormone labs in perimenopause is often pointless 57:57 – Fear as a marketing tactic Connect with Dr. Aviva Romm Website: avivaromm.com Instagram: @dr.avivaromm Facebook: @AvivaRommMD X: @avivaromm Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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220 SOLO: THE ONE QUESTION EVERY WOMAN IN PERIMENOPAUSE NEEDS TO ASK HERSELF

🌿 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy — I mapped what's actually happening in our bodies, the 12 different (and often conflicting) approaches to prescribing hormone therapy that are on offer – YES 12 – answered the tough questions, pointed out the gaps and so much more so YOU can feel good about what you decide and how you choose – or whether you even choose hormone therapy at all. Know why you are doing what you are doing – and get regular updates as things change. Find out more 👉 here 🔥 Free: The Fix-It-Fast Perimenopause List — And if hormone therapy definitely isn't for you, 👉 here is a really good list that will help you find some relief. This week Ann Marie is going solo – and getting straight to the point. If you're going through perimenopause or menopause, she says, you have exactly one job. It's not losing the weight, fixing your hormones, saving your marriage, or finding the perfect supplement. Ann Marie talks candidly about the health crisis that sent her looking for deeper answers and why she's suspicious of anyone – however well-meaning – who's selling a single fix for a complicated transition. It's a call to stop outsourcing the question of who you are, and start trusting what you already know. Highlights The blame-game buffet: hormones, gut, patriarchy, cortisol What if this decade is for questioning everything? Breaking down fear, shame, and expectations The real job (and it’s not fixing yourself) Wishing someone had told me THIS in my 40s Everyone’s selling their solution as THE solution The heroine’s journey: the descent, the meat hook, the dark night Your one job today Why it’s worth the trip to find out Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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219 'Perimenopause Doesn't Break Relationships – It Reveals the Cracks Already There' – Simon Salt

🔥 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy – get the guide that cuts through the noise on HRT Simon Salt spent four years watching his wife get dismissed by doctors – told it was UTIs, bad diet, lack of sleep, anything but perimenopause — before she finally got a diagnosis. He spent another year and a half after that figuring out it wasn't happening to her, it was happening to both of them. Now he's a certified menopause coach and the writer behind The Quiet Transition, a publication helping men in midlife support their partners through peri- and post-menopause with actual empathy instead of good intentions and bad timing. Highlights 8:29 – The slow erosion: loss of intimacy, and filling the silence with stories 18:20 – The yogurt tub story – and what those irritations really mean 22:46 – Renegotiating intimacy when what used to work stops working 29:00 – Simon's framework: sit, listen, believe 34:12 – Why releasing control is so hard — and so necessary 40:22 – The new wave of men writing about menopause, and what Simon makes of it 42:58 – "There is no man who doesn't know a woman going through this" Quotable "Perimenopause doesn't usually cause cracks in a relationship. It reveals them." – Simon Salt, certified menopause coach, The Quiet Transition Connect with Simon Salt The Quiet Transition: Substack: https://www.thequiettransition.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsalt Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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218 Anissa Nova on Reclaiming Menopause with Traditional Chinese Medicine

🔥 Breaking news! Get The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy – it's out now! This is a digital guide to help women and the women who care for them to navigate the chaos. Anissa Nova spent years in corporate tech before retraining as a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, herbalism and energy work. Now she runs Pure Alchemy in Sydney, Australia, where she blends strength training, breathwork and rest with acupuncture and energy alignment to help women reconnect with their bodies. Highlights 02:04 – The Yellow Emperor's Classic and the 7-year cycle 03:52 – Yin, blood, and turning inward 06:59 – The liberation of no longer being "fertile" 09:05 – Hormone therapy isn't the only solution 10:30 – "We weren't built incorrectly" 12:06 – Helping women transition off HRT when it's not working 17:23 – The energetic nature of herbs 21:43 – What medical qigong actually is 26:12 – Mind, emotion, and energy shaping reality 28:31 – Applying a modern model to ancient medicine 29:47 – Why clinical trials don't reflect real-world treatment 31:06 – Where science's gold standard falls short 31:48 – Appreciating the placebo effect 36:11 – Emotions are energy — clean up now or later 37:30 – Acupressure vs. acupuncture 38:41 – Those electric zaps during acupuncture, explained Connect with Anissa Nova Website: Pure Alchemy LinkedIn: Anissa Nova Instagram: @Purealchemytcm Pure Alchemy — Sutherland Shire, Sydney, Australia Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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217 ADHD, Perimenopause + the Female Nervous System with Adele Wimsett

🔥 Need help right now? Hotflash inc has got you: The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy is a clear + comprehensive guide to understanding the entire landscape of prescribing approaches – at least 12 – to empower you to make the right decision, for you. The free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List offers quick, practical non-hormonal relief options. Or cover all your bases and get both! Adele Wimsett spent 20 years working in the criminal justice system before a health crisis of her own – her period stopped due to "healthy" habits like fasted training and keto – sent her down the rabbit hole of gender bias in medical research. She retrained as a women's health practitioner, and after her own ADHD diagnosis at 41, turned her science-nerd brain toward a question almost nobody was asking: what do hormones actually do to the ADHD brain? Highlights 10:06 – The "perfect storm": ADHD plus declining progesterone 12:26 – The problem with medicine's obsession with estrogen 18:35 – Organized at work – trauma connection 19:37 – The hidden cost of decades of masking 23:26 – Estrogen and testosterone through a neurodivergent lens 31:08 – Is an ADHD diagnosis essential? 35:57 – 3 practical daily tools Connect with Adele Wimsett: Instagram: @adele_wimsett Free SKOOL Community ADHD & Hormones Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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216 Why Perimenopause Might Be the Perfect Time to Try Psilocybin

🔥 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy is here — my guide mapping 12 different approaches to hormone therapy, built from 250+ practitioner interviews and six years of research. $47 until July 15th, then $97. 👉 The Hot Truth Eve Simonsen is a certified psilocybin facilitator and microdosing guide based in the US. We get into why it works, microdosing vs. macrodosing, real side effects and contraindications, what a retreat looks like, and why you should never get your information about this from mainstream media. Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making decisions. Psilocybin remains illegal under federal law in many countries, including the US and in most jurisdictions outside of regulated state programs. Highlights 07:29 – Why perimenopausal women are drawn to this work 10:33 – Full journey vs. microdosing, explained 19:02 – Real side effects and contraindications 25:39 – Who actually shows up for this work 29:40 – The real fears that hold people back 38:58 – Where to actually go for good information Go deeper Eve's own research available via her Linktree. Psychedelic Passage is a referral network that connects people to vetted facilitators. MAPS is a nonprofit that's been funding psychedelic clinical research for 30+ years. Hystelica is a UK-based nonprofit specifically studying psychedelics and female biology. Deva Collective is a women's-health-and-psychedelics research nonprofit. Double Blind and Lucid News for responsible journalism. Connect with Eve Website: cycle-alchemy.com Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc Linked in: Ann Marie McQueen

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215: Think you know about calcium supplements? With Seen Nutrition's Dr Adrienne Bitar

Dr. Adrienne Bitar has a PhD working on food studies scholarship and is the co-founder — along with pharmacist Dr. Jenny Han — of Seen Nutrition, a food-first bone health company born out of two very personal experiences with osteoporosis. Dr Bitar brings a deep understanding of how diet culture, food history, and the stories we tell about women’s bodies have shaped everything from how we supplement to when we get screened. Highlights 03:42 – Deconstructing the narrative of inevitable bone decline 05:40 – How personal osteoporosis stories built Seen 08:22 – The calcium confusion: what’s actually going on 12:30 – Types of calcium — what to look for, what to skip 13:40 – The “food matrix effect” explained 15:13 – Are there calcium supplements you shouldn’t take? 18:00 – The cardiovascular risk debate, debunked 27:50 – Balance and fall prevention — the other half of fracture risk 28:42 – Strength training and bone health 30:27 – How menopause accelerates bone loss 35:17 – Why waiting until 65 for a DEXA is too late 39:45 – Why third-party testing should be non-negotiable 44:45 – Why so much of the supplement market is gross and hard to trust 49:32 – DCE: three things to do for your bones this week For citations check the comments or this podcast episode on Substack. Connect with Dr. Adrienne Bitar & Seen Nutrition Website: www.seennutrition.com Instagram/TikTok: https://www.instagram.com/thecalciumqueens / https://www.tiktok.com/@thecalciumqueens Facebook Group: Osteoporosis Nutrition and Supplementation Phone: 607-216-8722 🔥 My long-awaited digital guide to hormone therapy is live — The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy. Five short videos, five PDFs. Unbiased, BS-free, and you can get through it in under three hours. Practitioners, doctors, and women who want real information are already buying it. Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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"Why I Stopped Weighing Myself For Good": Anne Poirier on Body Neutrality

🌿 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy digital guide is here. An unbiased, birds-eye view of what's happening that will help you cut through the confusion and have a real, informed conversation with your doctor about HRT. Get it now: go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth Anne Poirier is a nationally recognized body image expert, certified intuitive eating counselor, and author of The Body Joyful, where she traces her own path from self-loathing to self-acceptance. She's also a pioneer in the body neutrality movement – a middle ground that's often misunderstood but, as this conversation shows, might be exactly what so many of us need in midlife. Highlights 01:39 – How Anne's eating disorder started in 7th grade gym class 05:42 – Working in fitness while struggling with her own body image 07:28 – The cultural pendulum swinging back toward thinness 10:39 – How she quieted her own food noise without medication 14:31 – Why perimenopause can also trigger eating disorders 15:45 – Body positivity's origins vs. body neutrality 17:34 – Exhausting wellness trends: protein, heavy lifting, vibration plates 20:52 – Listening to her body instead of outside rules 25:15 – Why she refuses to weigh herself 27:00 – Where to begin 28:47 – Your body as "the vessel you get to experience your life in" Connect with Anne Poirier Books: The Body Joyful, Not a Fat Annie, The Body Neutrality Playbook Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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Episode 213: Why you're confused about hormone therapy (and why it's not your fault)

🌿 Pre-order now: The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy — A Journalist's No BS Guide to the Lay of the Land Five videos, five PDFs, and a bonus guide on talking to your doctor. Launches June 15th for $47. 👉 https://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth After six years researching hormone therapy – interviewing more than 250 practitioners, following the money, tracking the influencers, and regularly reading the research – I've still had moments of being completely bamboozled. In this solo episode, I break down something I've been mapping for years: the 12 distinct belief systems around hormone therapy, from hormone maxxing through to the Estrogen-Free camp and finally, the groups that don't believe hormone therapy is required or even recommended. They're not just different opinions – they're entire belief systems, and most of them are convinced they are right. This episode is the clearest lay of the land you're going to find – and it's the foundation of my new guide, The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy. Whether you're newly curious, deep in the weeds, or a practitioner trying to understand what your clients are navigating, this one is for you. Pre-order the guide now at https://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth. Highlights 3:10 – The commercial forces shaping the HT conversation 4:30 – Research gaps: less data than hormone therapy in cows 5:50 – Why OBGYNs leading the charge is complicated 7:15 – The 12 belief systems, explained 16:20 – Why testing is a minefield 17:45 – Progesterone-forward prescribing and why it's been ignored 23:15 – Traditional medicine systems: TCM, Ayurveda, homeopathy 24:30 – The problem with tribalism inside belief systems 26:00 – What women actually need: a map before a decision Quotable "I think everyone just has pieces of the puzzle. Very few people have the whole picture." — Ann Marie McQueen, journalist and founder of Hotflash Inc Resources mentioned Dr. Felice Gersh episode: The Hormone Therapy Revolution You've Never Heard Of Dr. Neal Barnard episode: Dr Neal Barnard is a Soy Man The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy guide: https://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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Episode 212: 'Menopause was the most important event of my life'

🌿 Grab my new expanded and improved free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List. 🔥 Get on the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy: A Journalist's No-BS Guide to the Lay of the Land (in Under 3 Hours) – it drops June 15. Luce Beaulieu is a certified menopause coach, researcher-turned-guide, and founder of the Midlife Temple community. She came to this work from the design and business world after being hit simultaneously with menopause, a traumatic breakup, and a toxic workplace in her late 40s, all during COVID. She clawed her way through, found HRT, healing practices and a 4,000-year-old myth called Inanna — and now she helps women do the same. If you like what you hear, lucky you! Luce has opened the doors to Portals of Liberation, her 4-week guided deep dive into the four thresholds your body is already asking you to cross. Don't wait! It starts June 22. Highlights 04:30 – Menopause as the most impactful event of Luce's life 05:02 – Why treating it as "physical deterioration" misses the point 05:27 – Grasping for resources beyond the purely medical 08:00 – Leadership, peak career, then menopause hits like snakes and ladders 08:30 – Ageism: from sought-after to invisible 10:21 – 20–30 hot flashes a day, no sleep, depression, suicidal ideation 13:16 – Why she'd assumed she wouldn't "need" hormones 20:30 – The U-shaped descent 23:13 – Getting back into the body through somatic work 29:57 – The missing archetype between mother and crone 32:24 – What a spiritual awakening actually feels like Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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211 When Hormones Don't Work: Dr. May Hindmarsh on Histamine, Epigenetics, and Trusting Your Body

🌿 Grab the free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List so you can make sense of what's happening and what to do about it. 👉 http://go.hotflashinc.com/fix-it-fast 🔥 Join the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy — the only in-depth guide that looks at all the approaches so you can make an informed decision for your body. Out June 15! 👉 http://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth-waitlist Dr. May Hindmarsh is a Canadian-trained family medicine doctor who — along with her husband, also an MD — has been questioning the medical establishment long before it was fashionable to do so. Their podcast, BS Free MD, was born from decades of clinical experience that didn't match what the pharmaceutical reps, the government, or the studies said it should. May has seen it all and she's landed on team what actually works for each individual woman. May is also speaking as a patient who spent three years convinced something was catastrophically wrong with her, while she was already on hormone therapy and working with hormone specialists. Highlights 02:04 – Training as scientists vs. trusting pharmaceutical reps 12:39 – Practicing before the Women's Health Initiative — what Mai actually saw clinically 17:47 – How the WHI hit her practice and why the data didn't match what she was seeing 20:25 – Her own perimenopause begins: libido tanks, testosterone at zero, migraines spike 26:17 – When things started to go wrong 35:40 – MTHFR, COMT, and why genetic variations change everything 45:06 – What mast cells actually are and what histamine does in the body (way beyond allergies) 51:22 – Why nutraceuticals can be just as overwhelming as pharmaceuticals 53:11 – Why "just optimize more" culture is so harmful 57:06 – What she's doing now 1:01:14 – Why you have to trust yourself over your practitioner Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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210: Dr. Maria Luque wants you to stop chasing squirrels in menopause

Grab the Fix It Fast Perimenopause List: http://go.hotflashinc.com/fix-it-fast Get on the waitlist for: The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy: A Journalist’s No-BS Guide to the Lay of the Land (in Under 3 Hours) https://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth-waitlist Dr. Maria Luque is a health scientist, fitness expert, and menopause coach – for Halle Berry no less — and the author of New Moves in Menopause. We talk about body image, exercise addiction, the pressure to "fix" yourself, and what it really looks like to build a movement practice that's sustainable and joyful, and actually yours. Highlights 02:20 – The slow erosion of identity through life's demands 03:10 – What "I want my 20-year-old body" really means 06:25 – Why community is the biggest tool you have 08:08 – Letting go of the lifelong self-improvement project 10:10 – Grey rocking the body image monster 12:12 – How the fitness industry makes body image worse 13:15 – Having a child as a turning point for body kindness 15:00 – The Valley of Neutrality — and why it's the goal 16:28 – GLP-1s, peptides, and people selling you a magic map 17:15 – Maria's take on supplements and products she won't promote 19:38 – How fear-based menopause content crosses a line 26:41 – Integrity as a core value, full stop 27:08 – Consistency over perfection: why 10 minutes beats 60 30:16 – The truth about heavy lifting (and who actually needs it) 32:23 – Meeting women where they are with equipment they have 34:07 – Maria's own hormone therapy journey — what's worked and what didn't Get Dr. Maria Luque's 📖 New Moves in Menopause: www.newmovesinmenopause.com Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

209: The Best New Menopause Book I've Read – Andrea Donsky on Nourishing Menopause

🌿 Get the free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List — your quick-start guide to feeling better now. → http://go.hotflashinc.com/fix-it-fast 🔥 Want to understand the full hormone therapy landscape in under three hours? Get on the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy. → http://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth-waitlist I don't say this lightly: Andrea Donsky's new book Nourishing Menopause is the best menopause book I've read. And I've read a lot of them. What makes it different is that Andrea actually bridges the gap — the one between "go see your doctor and get hormones" and "go natural and avoid everything." Most women don't even know that gap exists. Andrea lives in it, and she wrote an entire book from there. With a foreword from a naturopathic doctor and a foreword from a board-certified OB-GYN and former president of The Menopause Society, this book doesn't pick a side. It just tells you the truth. Highlights 00:29 – Why Ann Marie called this the best menopause book she's read 01:31 – In perimenopause for 14 years without knowing it 06:57 – Do supplements actually work? The evidence they won't tell you about 10:30 – Artificial sweeteners, seed oils, and why research supports everything 11:35 – Why we need to start listening to our own bodies again 12:41 – 17 reasons women gain weight in perimenopause 13:12 – The Gen X diet culture PTSD we all carry 14:45 – Why the self-blame has to stop 18:46 – What misinformation actually looks like 22:20 – Phantom smells, itchy ears, and why the symptom list needs to grow 24:46 – How to actually evaluate research you see online 26:45 – Why Gen Z kids are already menopause savvy Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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208: The Hormone Therapy Revolution You've Never Heard Of

🌿 Get the updated + free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List. → http://go.hotflashinc.com/fix-it-fast 🔥 Get on the waitlist for my new digital guide, The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy. → http://go.hotflashinc.com/hottruth-waitlist Dr. Felice Gersh is a dual board-certified OB-GYN and integrative medicine physician here to talk about Rhythmic Physiologic Dosing (RPD) – and what she believes is wrong with the current approach of "low, static" dosing of hormone therapy. Highlights 07:40 – What "regular" HRT looks like vs. RPD 12:00 – Her argument why "lowest dose" makes no sense 15:00 – Why measuring estradiol blood levels matters 19:52 – Yes, you will have a bleed — that's the point 21:00 – Growth factors, the brain, mitochondria, and estradiol 27:00 – The case for endometrial ablation as an option for RPD patients 31:31 – Vaginal and rectal progesterone — why it matters 38:00 – Progesterone intolerance — what's going on 43:39 – The tissue hormone argument — and why it doesn't pick up the slack 54:47 – Is this safe? 55:35 – The future: hormone pumps and new ovaries Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YouTube: @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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207: Hot 50 & menopausal with comic JoAnna Ross

🌿 Join us for the Emotional Fitness Retreat Transform Perimenopause into Power Wilson4Q x Hotflash inc Menla Mountain Resort, New York June 4-7 2026 Sign me up! 🔥 Need help right now? Grab my free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List for quick, practical non-hormonal relief options, and get on the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy, a clear + comprehensive guide to understanding the entire landscape of options and empowering you to make your best decision. This week, I’m talking to Joanna Ross – a former Broadway dancer turned stand-up comic, yoga teacher, and creator of the deeply personal comedy special Hot 50. We talk about reinvention, the strange and often frustrating reality of navigating menopause, and what happens when you decide to put the truth – all of it – on stage. This is one of those conversations that wanders in the best way. It’s real, it’s funny, and it gets to the heart of what so many women are quietly dealing with. Highlights 03:39 – What comedy really teaches you 05:20 – How menopause became her material 06:01 – The ‘wild west’ of menopause 07:24 – Celebrities, marketing & mistrust 10:41 – Doctors, hormones & “don’t suffer” 12:54 – When symptoms hit hard (and fast) 14:13 – The advice that misses the mark 15:14 – Finding relief (and stability) 17:19 – Why isn’t this being diagnosed properly? 18:00 – Learning menopause on the fly 21:08 – The problem with “quick fix” wellness 22:14 – Healing your relationship with food 25:12 – Why women need conversation, not products 27:57 – Comedy meets menopause 29:01 – Prepare before you’re in it 31:32 – Why it’s never too late to start something new 34:46 – The problem with yoga 41:19 – Intuition, discernment & midlife wisdom Connect with JoAnna Ross 🎧 Comedy Album & Special: Hot 50 (available on major streaming platforms) 🌐 Website: https://www.hotjoanna.com Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc Linked in: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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206: Emotional fitness, primal wounds and perimenopause

🌿 Join us for the Emotional Fitness Retreat Transform Perimenopause into Power Wilson4Q x Hotflash inc Menla Mountain Resort, New York June 4-7 2026 Sign me up! 🔥 Need help right now? Grab my free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List for quick, practical non-hormonal relief options, and get on the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy, a clear + comprehensive guide to understanding the entire landscape of options and empowering you to make your best decision. _______________________________________________________________ When I first heard Janice Taylor describe Emotional Fitness Intelligence, something clicked. It felt like the through-line of 15 years of therapy, books, experiments, backstops, progress and questions. Janice is the founder of Wilson4Q, and what she’s building – Emotional Fitness Intelligence – is her attempt to define, measure, and teach something many of us have been trying to figure out the long, hard way. It also happens to land right at the heart of midlife. Quotable "The moment you give anything power outside of yourself, you are operating from your emotional injury." – Janice Taylor Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc Linked in: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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205 SOLO: Emotional Fitness shouldn't take 15 years

Emotional Fitness shouldn’t take 15 years In this solo episode, Ann Marie shares a deeply personal story from her years in breaking news journalism and how unprocessed trauma shaped her internal world well into midlife. She explores why perimenopause can surface long-buried emotional patterns – and why traditional approaches often fall short. This is a conversation about awareness, nervous system reality, and finding a more complete path forward. Highlights The TV character that mirrored my internal reality The moment at a crash scene I’ll never forget- What adrenaline does in trauma – and what happens after The coping patterns I didn’t understand at the time Why I thought something was wrong with me “How long have you been like this?” – the question that shifted everything How perimenopause cracked open deeper self-inquiry The “messy beach” and what hormones reveal Why emotional fitness might be the missing piece 🔥 Need help right now? Grab my free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List for quick, practical non-hormonal relief options, and get on the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy, a clear + comprehensive guide to understanding the entire landscape of options and empowering you to make your best decision. 🌿 Join us for the Emotional Fitness Retreat Transform Perimenopause into Power Wilson4Q x Hotflash inc Menla Mountain Resort, New York June 4-7 2026 Sign me up! Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc Linked in: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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204: Why is perimenopause so freaking hard? With Dr Kirsten Smith

Naturopathic doctor and menopause specialist Dr. Kirsten Smith unpacks why perimenopause and menopause symptoms can feel so intense, where hormone therapy helps, where it gets overpromised, how stress, lifestyle, blood sugar and inflammation shape the experience, and why midlife often becomes a reckoning we aren't ready for. Highlights 05:47 – Why midlife demands radical responsibility 08:46 – The deeper root cause: self-worth, self-criticism, and women’s relationship with themselves 11:10 – Menopause as sovereignty: freedom, boundaries, and becoming more yourself 16:41 – Hormone confusion on Instagram, soy panic, and how nutrition advice gets distorted 23:19 – GLP-1s, blood sugar, inflammation, and why this conversation is much bigger than weight loss 33:59 – Dr Smith’s own frozen shoulder experience, hormone therapy, and what this reveals about oversimplified menopause messaging 43:02 – Why hormone therapy can be valuable without being a cure-all Fact check: 3 studies referenced Cleaning at home and at work in relation to lung function decline and airway obstruction. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. doi:10.1164/rccm.201706-1311OC; Oxalate (dys)metabolism: Person-to-person variability, kidney and cardiometabolic toxicity. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14091719 MGLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women: current evidence. doi:10.1097/GCO.0000000000001015 Connect with our guest Website: drsmithnd.com Instagram: @drkirstensmithnd 🔥 Need help right now? Grab my free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List for quick, practical non-hormonal relief options, and get on the waitlist for The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy , a clear + comprehensive guide to understanding the entire landscape of options and empowering you to make your best decision. Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc Linked in: Ann Marie McQueen Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

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203 REPLAY: Is estrogen really the problem?

This podcast originally ran on 17 July 2025 In this deep-dive episode, independent researcher and Energy Balance Podcast host Jay Feldman walks Hotflash inc founder Ann Marie McQueen through his bioenergetic approach to health, exploring how modern life disrupts our energy systems and misleads us around hormones. Jay explains why perimenopause symptoms aren’t necessarily signs of estrogen deficiency, what progesterone’s underrated role is, and how metabolism, stress, and gut health all converge to influence the midlife transition.His work has been instrumental in helping Ann Marie connect the dots between her own thyroid, gut health, fatty liver, and hormonal changes. If you’re curious, overwhelmed, or stuck between conflicting advice – this one’s for you. Highlights: Why the mainstream medical model didn’t cut it for Jay How energy production impacts reproductive hormones The cultural lie of “eat less, move more” Seed oils, PUFAs and what they’re doing to your metabolism Sunscreens, toenail polish, and endocrine disruption Why low estrogen blood levels don’t tell the whole story What your liver and gut have to do with your hormones Why estrogen replacement might be a band-aid, not a solution Guest bio Jay Feldman is a health coach, independent researcher, and the host of the Energy Balance Podcast. With a background in neuroscience and exercise physiology, he takes a bioenergetic approach to health that focuses on restoring cellular energy and dismantling modern myths around nutrition, metabolism, and hormones. Jay’s personal mission is to help people heal by reconnecting them with their bodies and understanding how modern life throws off our internal systems. Work with Jay & explore more Website: jayfeldmanwellness.com Free Guide: jayfeldmanwellness.com/guide Podcast: The Energy Balance Podcast Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.com Newsletter: Hotflash inc. on Substack TikTok: @hotflashinc Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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