Episode #74: You deserve to feel amazing into menopause and beyond with Shirley Weir
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Today, Rhonda welcomes the incredible Shirley Weir to talk all about the phases of our sexual health lives, and how to ensure a healthy, powerful lifestyle while feeling AMAZING through them all!
Shirley Weir introduces herself as a Menopause Chick. Her perimenopause journey began in her 40s with sleep deprivation, brain fog, anxiety & depression which led Shirley to her doctor’s office, the book store and “Dr. Google,” but she was left feeling confused, overwhelmed and alone.
From sleep to stress to vulva, vaginal & sexual health, Shirley's research shows that 77% of women have questions, and she has made it her personal mission to ensure 100% of women have access to quality answers.
Shirley never imagined she’d become a “vagina health evangelist” but back in 2016, she surveyed her online community about what information and education they were craving—and the responses were, overwhelmingly: MORE options for treating vaginal dryness!
Why? Because vulva and vaginal health are important pillars of overall health—and because over 80% of women experience vaginal dryness in postmenopause—yet less than 4% currently have a viable solution.
This glaring gap in women’s health is not ok so Shirley has made it her personal mission to bring this statistic DOWN…through quality information, education and thoroughly-researched products...because we all deserve to FEEL AMAZING!
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LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN EPISODE
Follow Shirley Weir on Instagram
Menopause Chicks private Facebook community
The Nest private community - use the code FIRSTMONTH to get your first month
free
PODCAST LINKS & RESOURCES
Check out Rhonda’s FREE Resource Library
Pelvic Health and Fitness Podcast
Book with Dayna (Rebirth Wellness)
SHOW NOTES:
(0:49) - Rhonda welcomes Shirley Weir to the podcast!
(3:04) - Shirley tells us a little more about herself, and how she got into the space of navigating perimenopause and menopause
(4:46) - What is menopause?
(7:49) - What is actually happening to our bodies that make us perimenopausal?
(10:17) - What are some things we should be watching for that indicate we are in perimenopause?
(15:36) - If someone is in the age range, what is the first step? Blood work? Or do you start investigating after people start having issues?
(18:24) - Shirley talks with us a little bit about hormone therapy
(27:38) - Shirley walks us through some more symptoms (and why Shirley is such a stickler for language around them)
(31:58) - Shirley shares with us a bit about vaginal dryness - what causes it, and what can be done to change this? (and some prevention tips!)
(40:42) - Does Shirley talk with clients about prolapse?
(44:12) - I love how your focus is on helping women feel amazing! Why is that your tagline?
(47:42) - What is Shirley’s biggest take home message to leave us with?
(48:36) - How you can find and work with Shirley!
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Episode #74: You deserve to feel amazing into menopause and beyond with Shirley Weir
We're excited to have you join us for this episode of Pelvic Health and Fitness. I'm Dayna Morellato, Mom, Orthopedic and Pelvic Health Physiotherapist. And I'm Rhonda Chamberlain, Mom, Orthopedic Physiotherapist and Pre Postnatal Fitness Coach. On this show, we have open and honest conversations about all phases of motherhood, including fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, menopause, and everything in between.
We also provide helpful education and information on fitness, the pelvic floor, and many aspects of women's health, including physical, mental, and emotional wellness. Please remember as you listen to this podcast that this is not meant to treat or diagnose any medical conditions. Please contact your medical provider if you have specific questions or concerns.
Thanks so much for joining us. Grab a cup of coffee. Or wine. And enjoy!
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Pelvic Health and Fitness Podcast. Today I am so excited to welcome the incredible Shirley Weir. Shirley Weir introduces herself as a menopause chick. Her perimenopause journey began in her 40s. With sleep deprivation, brain fog, anxiety, and depression, which led Shirley to her doctor's office, the bookstore, and Dr.
Google, but she was left feeling confused, overwhelmed, and alone. I'm sure a lot of people listening will relate to that. From sleep, to stress, to vulva, vaginal, and sexual health, Shirley's research shows that 77 percent of women have questions, and she has made it her personal mission to ensure that 100 percent of women have access to quality answers.
Shirley never imagined she'd become a vagina health evangelist, but back in 2016, she surveyed her online community about what information and education they were craving, and the responses were overwhelmingly more options for treating vaginal dryness, which I'm excited to talk about that because that comes up with my clients a lot.
Uh, why? Because vulva and vaginal health are important pillars of overall health and because over 80 percent of women experience vaginal dryness in postmenopause, yet less than 4 percent currently have a viable solution. That's mind blowing. The sclera gap in women's health is not okay. So Shirley has made it her personal mission to bring this statistic down through quality information, education, and thoroughly research products, because we all deserve to feel amazing.
I love that tagline. Thanks so much for joining me, Shirley. Yeah. Thank you for the invitation. Yes, and yeah, we were just discussing before we hit record, I've met Shirley at a event hosted by Eramosa Physiotherapy, um, menopause mixer. And honestly, that day, Shirley, I just was so impressed by you. And just your message was just so positive and so optimistic.
Um, which I think is so needed in the menopause space. So, I just had to reach out to you and was so excited to talk to you. Thanks! This is fun! Yeah! So, how about we just start out by, you know, I get a little bit of your bio there, but just tell our listeners a little bit more about you, and what got you into the space of navigating perimenopause and menopause.
Yeah, I mean, I have a few different answers for that question. A lot of people want to hear about my own personal journey, which of course, if everyone has the privilege of privilege of growing older, we will navigate perimenopause to menopause to postmenopause. Um, the second answer is that I do have an older sister.
She's 10 and a half years older than I am. She reached menopause at age 36 and her health journey, very different from mine, but you know, she was 36. I was 26. She was like trying to be her own best health advocate without Dr. Google because it wasn't really available to her at that time. What I learned from watching her go through her journey was how to be your own best health advocate.
So then when it came to, you know, I have a background in marketing and communications, I'm, you know, fast forward, I'm in my forties and I'm going online looking for information. I was really disappointed, sad, frustrated that it hadn't gotten better, you know, that we hadn't done a better job of closing the gap on the confusion and the conflicting messages.
And so, um, those are kind of three reasons that got me this job. I thought that I was going to start a blog originally, and that would be my gift to the world. And it very quickly became my full time vocation. Oh, amazing. So great. So let's just do a quick definition for people. So I have talked about menopause on the podcast before, but for folks that might just be tuning into this episode first, what exactly is menopause?
Yeah, so menopause is a big social construct. It, the word itself often gets used, misused, misinterpreted, um, it can mean many things to many different people, healthcare professionals included. Um, but the true definition of menopause is, it's the end of ovulation. It's a point, one point. On our reproductive timeline, where we no longer ovulate, we can no longer reproduce.
And obviously we will no longer, um, menstruate. And, uh, really the definition that's agreed upon is that 12 months period free means that a woman has reached menopause. And then of course the phase of life leading up to that day. Um, that includes hormone fluctuations is called perimenopause and every day after menopause is postmenopause and we are in postmenopause for the rest of our lives.
This is a super important definition because We live in a world where if you still have a period, you might be like, Oh, I don't need to listen to Rhonda's podcast. I'm not there yet. And if you no longer have a period, you might be saying, Oh, Rhonda been there, done that. I don't need, you know, I don't need to learn about it.
And it's like, no, no, no. Both of those things you need to lean in and listen up because it's all about our health, right? Yes, yeah, and I think that was something you talked about in the talk that I saw with you, that menopause is literally one day. I don't think I truly grasped that, that you can go 11 months without a period and then get a period and you're not, you haven't reached menopause.
I don't think, again, no one talks about this stuff, right? So I had no idea, so. Well, the term perimenopause was only coined in 1996. Wow. Six. So it's really new in the, you know, in the medical community, it's really new in our vernacular around talking about women's health. And that's why you will hear the word menopause kind of inferring a lot of different things.
So it's sometimes used as an umbrella term, i. e. you know, at menopause checks, it's an umbrella term because we're talking about women's health, basically 35 and up. Yeah. And so Sometimes, unfortunately, the word menopause is used in a sentence that means symptoms or suffering, and that's incorrect. Yeah, similar to postpartum, I find I talk about That's sometimes where I say I'm a postpartum fitness coach and people equate that to postpartum depression.
Exactly. That's a great analogy. I'm going to borrow that one. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Um, so when it comes to perimenopause then, what, let's nerd out for a bit, what is actually happening? to our body with our hormones, with, you know, things that are happening in our systems that make us perimenopausal. Sure. So, um, the first thing I will say about perimenopause is that it is not a synonym for So a lot of the conversations lately that surround perimenopause leave us kind of thinking, Oh, if I, if I'm not suffering, I must not be in perimenopause, not true.
And the analogy that I often use for that would be puberty. So the day that a girl gets her first period. Is not like her body didn't wake up and just change that day. It was preparing probably for a good two, three or more years where hormones were fluctuating, maybe when she was 10, maybe when she was 11 and then she got her period at 12, right?
So the exact same thing happens at the other end of the teeter totter, except it's our body preparing. For menopause. So hormones are fluctuating. Um, and that can mean nothing. You might not notice a thing, or it can mean that as progesterone, that's our first hormone to decline in perimenopause. Um, and because progesterone is the hormone responsible for mood and sleep and regulating our bleeding, we might notice.
You know, I've been able to tell you that, uh, I, I've had a lot of severe stress changes in those areas. And, uh, that may have been the case with me, although, you know, you have to overlap a lot of other midlife experiences like stress. And raising a family and looking after aging parents. So, you know, it's really hard to say like, was I not sleeping because of stress or was I not sleeping?
because my progesterone had started to decline. Doesn't really matter. What it got, where it got me to in my own journey was asking for help and learning. how my body works. So perimenopause really is defined as hormones fluctuating, progesterone starting to decline. Um, estrogen can still be quite high in perimenopause and then it goes for a steep decline postmenopause.
Right. And so what are some things that we should watching for when, you know, we're in that 35 plus range, maybe Like you said, there's so many factors that could be happening, right? So I think, I don't know if you notice this, I feel like online too, everyone's quick to say, Oh, I'm perimenopausal. But is it that, or is it like you said, is it stress?
Is it you're overwhelmed? You know, so what are some things that, you know, folks listening, they're like, Am I perimenopausal? Or is there things that I should be investigating with my doctor? What are some things that we should watch for? Yeah, so I'm not even a big fan of the word perimenopausal because I find it gets misinterpreted as suffering as well.
And so I would just extend an invitation to anyone who is 35, 40, 45, 49, 52, wherever you are listening to this conversation today to be like, Oh. I'm within five to 15 years of 51 because 51 is the average age of menopause in North America. So if you're within, let's say five years of 51, you are in menopause, it doesn't matter when your last period was it doesn't matter.
what you're experiencing, your body is about to prepare itself for the end of ovulation, full stop. Yeah. Then my second response to that would be, and I wish somebody had actually hit me on the side of the head with a brick on this one, is it's an incredible window of opportunity to learn how our body works, right?
Because, you know, in grade six health class, we learned how a baby was actually. fertilized, you know, and we learned how not to make a baby, but no one told us the roles and responsibilities of estrogen and progesterone and, and how they actually take care of our body. So I would say, get up to speed on that education if you can.
The reason why is because it helps you make a plan for when those hormones are not doing those important jobs. And then, Take care of that lifestyle level, the eat, it's a big bucket, eat, move, sleep. If you, you know, have been a really good sleeper up until now, and maybe things are starting to change, you're waking early, pay attention to that, um, because it's going to be so foundational on supporting your hormone health going forward.
Equally important is stress management. Maybe you survived. getting to 40 or 45 without meditating. But now, like you have to include some mindfulness activities, whether that's formal meditation, or just making sure you take a walk in green space every day, it's going to make a huge difference. And then I talk about other levels to like nutritional support, getting really curious about other health conditions, like a thyroid condition is often overlooked or underdiagnosed in women, and that might be impacting your quality of health.
So, yeah. Yeah. So many things, right? And humans, we're so multi layered, right? So it's like, where, where do you even start? It's multifactorial for sure. For sure. Yeah. And it's, it is interesting, you know, um, my focus again is sort of postpartum is my, my jam and That's where I help most of my clients through, but so many parallels, you know, we, I talk with my clients all the time about, um, you know, how to take care of their pelvic floor, right?
And so a lot of that is, yeah, stress, mindfulness, breathing, yeah, sleep, nutrition, getting enough water. You know, all of it overlaps, so I think that's my biggest passion too is if we can help folks during pregnancy and postpartum, ideally even sooner, ideally teenagers are talking about these things, right?
But yeah, if we can educate ourselves on these types of things, it'll just help prepare us so much more for menopause. Definitely. Yeah. It's confession time. I'm 57 years old. I gave birth twice, uh, in my 30s. I didn't even know that I was going to be talking about pelvic health when I launched menopause checks, right?
Like it was like this, Oh, and this door opened. And I was like, Oh my goodness. Like that survey you referenced where women are like, can you please figure out a solution? For us in this area. So for sure. Yeah, and I really do. Thank you. Yeah, definitely didn't think I would be getting into this either. But yeah, I think so many of us are sort of forced into it because we have our own issues and realize even as a physiotherapist, I was like, no one taught me this.
I didn't learn about the pelvic floor in physiotherapy school. To me, there's something wrong with that. Anyways, that's a whole other thing. But, uh, I think, again, just so great, the work that you're doing. And so, would it be beneficial? So if someone, you know, is in that age range, what's the first step?
Would it be beneficial to get, like, blood work done to check hormone levels? Or is it? Is it more so only if people are having issues that you start investigating? Or what does that look like? So when I talk about like, and I do get the question about blood work or testing. Um, it's not necessary. Okay. But I always add in a caveat.
The reason. So first of all, explain why it's not necessary. The reason it's not necessary is because hormones are their text messages, like from our brain to our ovaries. and they're constantly fluctuating. When you do a test, um, you know, blood, urine, saliva, you're getting a snapshot in time. And especially in perimenopause, those hormones are fluctuating.
So you could take a test in the morning that could change tonight, next week. You know, a month from now. What's really important is your age, your stage, your date of last period, and any symptoms that you might be experiencing and areas that you want to invest in, right? So, might be nutritional, might be investigating thyroid, might be seeing if you have an iron deficiency.
Those are the things that are most important. The caveat is. Hormone tests are, were invented for a reason and a very good reason. So my sister, who reached menopause at 36, no period, she needed to have her hormones tested because, well first they needed to rule out a pregnancy, like kind of dig through all the reasons why she no longer had a period.
That's super important. My daughter, when she was 17, was diagnosed with PCOS. Originally her period went missing. And I was like, Oh yeah, that happens. You're an athlete. You know, I was minimizing it the way we minimize so many other things in women's health. And then kind of a huge wake up call after working with her health team and realize that what we do now with, uh, supporting her hormone health.
predicts may predict her future fertility, right? So really important. But generally speaking, as we navigate perimenopause to menopause to postmenopause, it's not necessary to have your hormones set. tested. Um, we can pretty much tell you where they're at by, you know, a general, like if you're post menopause like me, although I'm on hormone therapy, um, you know, if you're seven years post menopause, your estrogen is going to be low and your progesterone is going to be low.
You don't need to test for that. What you really deserve is quality treatment. Right. Yes. Awesome. Can you talk to us a little bit about hormone therapy? Because I think that was something that was revealed to me in your talk too. And I think over time I'm learning this because I think there was, you know, I don't even remember when that study happened.
There was a study that related hormone therapy to higher risks of cancer. Right. And I think How much time do you have? I know. I know. No, I can do it. I can do a short Ted talk on hormone therapy. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Do you want to just give us like a little, a little snippet of that? So I'll start where we are right now.
2024 hormone therapy is the first line evidence based recommended treatment for women navigating menopause, postmenopause, and sometimes perimenopause. Second thing I will say is that hormone therapy is also an umbrella term. So underneath hormone therapy, we have the birth control pill, we have the hormone based IUD, we have tamoxifen, which is a treatment for breast cancer, but it's also a form of hormone therapy.
Then as we move into the perimenopause menopause, post menopause stage is called menopause hormone therapy. Um, sometimes women will start with progesterone therapy in like before, um, they reach menopause while they still have a period because they need that support. They need the support of mood, sleep.
They might need their bleeding regulated. And so that's really common. The most common hormone therapy is estradiol. Which is one form of estrogen. We have three. Estrogen therapy and progesterone therapy in post menopause. The challenge that those of us that have worked in this area for a while are that we're trying to undo, if you will, is that there was a study, um, it was abruptly stopped in 2002, so quite a long time ago, and it really blew the lid off of a common treatment that was prescribed to women prior.
And then the study. Was halted abruptly because sorry, I just need to take a drink of water. Yeah, of course.
So the intention of this study, it's called the WHI, the women's health initiative. The intention of the study was pure. It was really good. What they wanted to do was recruit 30, 000 women. Put them on hormone, put half of them on hormone therapy and half of them on placebo and see if it impacted their heart health, follow them for 30 years.
It's a very aggressive goal, a good one, but it was really hard to recruit 30, 000 women who are at midlife and see if half of them would take placebo. And so what they did was they compromised the study. They went with a much smaller group of participants. And the average age of those participants was 60 plus.
It was like 61 or 62. Okay. As they followed them in the first two years, they found higher incidence of heart disease and stroke, higher incidence of breast cancer. But the truth is when you're at that age, you are at higher risk for heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer. Stop the study. And then it became a PR nightmare.
So the press release had left the station. It got on the front of every newspaper, you know, Time Magazine, all of that. Doctors stopped prescribing hormone therapy. Women started flushing their hormone therapy down the toilet. And then the very next week, PR nightmare. They are back in their doctor's office saying I can't live with these hot flashes and night sweats or vasomotor symptoms.
I can't function any longer without that. And so that's when our epidemic of antidepressant prescriptions started. Because there is a side effect of an antidepressant that will manage. vasomotor symptoms, but it doesn't give back your body what it used to make on its own. Wow. Which is the estrogen and progesterone.
The pendulum has swung. And that study wasn't all bad. We got some really good research and data out of it. The PR management, the public relations management of it was poor. And, you know, once you hear something, it is really hard to unhear something. So we're still kind of, you know, a lot of us in this work are still fighting with the fact that physicians don't want to relearn, you know, it's, it's hard to unbake a cake.
Yeah. Yeah. And just the legal fears, right? If things happen, if I, if I refer and that does happen to somebody, will they blame me? Yeah, I'm sure that it's hard. North American menopause society and all of the other menopause societies in the world have done a really great job at highlighting the fact that hormone therapy does not cause breast cancer.
Yeah, but that breast cancer is cause like the risk of breast cancer is first of all having breasts. Second of all, age. We, we have a 1 in 8 chance of getting breast cancer if we live to be 85. If you're not yet 85, your risk is lower. So age is a huge factor. Genetics plays a role, but that's going to be on an individual basis.
And hormone therapy should be prescribed on an individual basis. All therapies of any kind. Fine, should be individualized. Just makes sense, right? Yes. And then the other factors that they highlight that we need to do a better job of communicating is those modifiable factors. So alcohol use. increases your risk of breast cancer.
So does obesity. And so does lack of exercise. Um, hormone therapy doesn't really make the, the, there's no significant increase if you're taking hormone therapy, other than you might get five years older or 10 years older, and then your goes up. So yeah. Right. And the quality of life improvements. far outweigh any risks anyway, as you would think, right?
Totally. It really, I mean, I, it's not my job to tell someone to take hormone therapy. It's my job to convince someone that their health is worth having an investigative conversation about what the benefits might be for them. Right. I will add to that, however, that many of us. You know, our might be experiencing a decline in our health, and that decline might be silent.
So bone loss, for example, is huge. We lose approximately 20 percent of our bone mass post menopause in those first six years. But that's silent. No one really feels it, knows it, unless, you know, we fall and unfortunately break a hip or another bone of some sort. Then osteoporosis sets in and. And we have my, my generation is facing, you know, one in three of us will fall and break a bone due to osteoporosis.
So we have to have these types of conversations now to say, hey, 51 year olds, this is your window of opportunity. To invest in your health, whether it's your heart, your brain, your bone, or your vulva and vaginal and urinary health. Oh, I love it. And that I spend so much time talking about that with my clients that there's so many things in life that we don't necessarily see an immediate payoff, right?
And I think that's what's so hard to be a human is we have to invest similar to our finances, right? We have to make small investments every day. To see that positive payoff, but you might not see a positive effect right away, right? So I think that's such a challenging thing to be a human is recognizing.
Yeah. Strength training. That's my jam strength training again, drinking enough water, getting adequate nutrition, getting good sleep. You might not notice a day to day difference over the long term though. It's going to make a massive difference. So I think just focusing on those. Yeah. Like you said, modifiable habits.
is where it's at. And then just recognizing that there are so many things like hormone therapy that can add to your quality of life, right? It's not like that's a fix. Everything else has to be factored in there too. Totally. Yeah. There's always multiple layers. I often refer to a Rubik's cube so you can, you know, sometimes Those smart people out there can solve one side of the Rubik's cube.
And then you turn it over and you're like, Oh, wait, what? I still have more work to do. Um, and that's kind of my analogy for being a human, as you say. Yes. Amazing. So talk to us a little bit about some of the other symptoms that folks might be dealing with. So hot flashes, hot flushes. I loved in the talk, you all about language, right?
You sort of mentioned already pre, uh, pre, uh, pre, uh, Perimenopausal should not be part of our language, similar to probably hot flashes, right? Because vasoderms, right? Is that the more correct term? Um, I'm a little bit of a dog with a bone on some language and terminology, but here's why. When a man has a vasomotor event, which means blood vessels are dilating, we send him to the hospital.
When a woman has a vasomotor event, which is blood vessels dilating, and shows up as a hot flash or a night sweat. We make a joke, we tell her to put a fan on her desk, we tell her to dress in layers, we do this to each other, and it breaks my heart. Because vasomotor symptoms, uh, doesn't mean you have heart disease, it means your body, yet, doesn't mean you have heart disease yet, it means your body is trying to tap you on the shoulder, it's like the check engine light.
Coming on in your car saying your hormones are changing. This is an invitation for you to invest in your health. And as you just pointed out, it might be an opportunity to treat. Those specific symptoms, which can be debilitating, can be disruptive to sleep and so on, but also invest in your health because it's a sign that, you know, your progesterone and estrogen has declined or is declining and now you have this chance to be like, Oh, I can give my body back what it used to make on its own.
I love that. I talk to my clients all the time about our body has a way of talking to us, and I think there's so many layers to that too, that whether we've been dismissed, or whether culturally, I come from an athletic background, so I was taught to ignore my body symptoms, push through, no pain, no gain.
That type right and I think again the dismissal over time women, we just start ignoring our body right and we don't listen to it. Diet culture plays into that too. I talk about that with my clients that we don't read our fullness or hunger cues. We are taught, you know, follow these strict diets and ignore everything else.
So I think that in and of itself is so challenging for so many women. What do you mean listen to my body, right? We don't know how to do that. So I think. That's such a great way for you to say it, like a check engine light. And there's a societal expectation specifically around vasomotor symptoms. So I will have women, you know, come to my community and they'll be like, you know, I don't have any hot flashes, so I guess I'm okay.
And I'm like, uh huh, but you're still not producing the estrogen and progesterone you once did, so understanding the roles and responsibilities while we still have a period, I hope, helps us connect the dots to our health later in life. And, you know, estrogen is a great example, because I will often, um, meet people who, um, Women, individuals who are waking up in their late fifties, mid sixties, and they're like, surely I thought I was okay.
I thought I got through this. Now I've had six UTIs in the last year. I have vaginal atrophy. You know, my doctor is dismissed. This is just something I need to get through all these stories. And it breaks my heart because now these, you know, women who are like essentially in the prime of their life. Like, you know, you reach midlife and you've got five more decades to celebrate.
That's amazing. But yet if we don't have our health, if we can't do the activities, the exercises, cause it hurts too much or can't, some women can't even wear the clothes that they once did, like the jeans that they love. We've got a lot of work to do. Oh yeah. Heartbreaking. Let's get into that because that's, that's my GM two pelvic floor stuff.
So yeah. Share with us a little bit about changes that happen, um, to our vagina, to the areas, you know, what causes dryness? What causes that uncomfortable feeling that people start to get vaginal atrophy? Can we just have a little talk about that? Sure. Um, okay. So it starts with understanding the role of estrogen when cycles are regular and we take it for advantage.
We take advantage of it. So estrogen is our juicy hormone. It's responsible for keeping our eyes moist and our mouth moist. It's responsible All of our skin, including our vulva and vagina, keeps it lubricated, keeps our joints lubricated. And when estrogen goes, like in my classes, I usually use a picture of a cliff diver because just to give that visual of, you know, estrogens kind of doing its job.
And then you think, Oh, I'm all good. And then you reach menopause and estrogen goes for a steep decline. You may not feel it immediately. But it never returns. And so, as I said, maybe it's something you feel in your 50s. You might not experience it until your 60s or 70s. Many women in my community are also caregivers or, you know, looking after aging parents.
And they have a mom in her 70s or 80s dealing with UTIs. So, what happens there, not only, um, is the, you know, the natural, um, healthiness of our vulva and vagina, um, changing, but the urethra is getting smaller and shorter, and that makes it more susceptible to infection. So, you know, anyone can get a UTI at any age, but you're more susceptible post menopause.
And, you know, we need to understand what our doctors have in their toolkits too. So we go to our doctor with a UTI, all they have available is a prescription pad that you're going to get. A prescription for antibiotics, and that's great to treat the infection, but you can't do that six or eight times a year or the effectiveness is going to wear off.
So I want to back up and find all the ways possible to prevent and invest in our genital urinary health. That's amazing. And so what are some preventative things that can be done to help with those issues? Sure, go see a pelvic floor physiotherapist, number one. Is there anybody listening to this that doesn't know that already?
Um, that's job one because you know, individualized care really important, really important that, um, that your pelvic exercise routine is customized for you. Um, Kind of maybe some new information, although most of us have, you know, benefited from the beauty industry, introducing us to hyaluronic acid. And I know when I first saw hyaluronic acid in beauty and cosmetics ads, I thought it was, you know, something external.
I thought it was like an ingredient that they had created and invented. I've, you know, I since learned that hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring molecule that our body makes on its own too. And it helps to keep our eyes and our mouth and our joints and our skin, um, healthy. So the thing with hyaluronic acid though, is it starts to decline.
in our 30s and in our 40s. And so, you know, that's when some of your clients even might be noticing changes to the skin tissues of the vulva and vagina. So hyaluronic acid has been shown as a moisturizer ingredient to be as effective as estrogen therapy. at preventing and in some cases effectively treating vulva and vaginal dryness.
Um, you asked about atrophy. So I'll address that atrophy and any muscle, um, as you know, any muscle can atrophy if you don't use it. Um, but that doesn't mean like you have to use it or lose it. I don't like that phrase when we're talking about vulva and vaginal health, but over time without the estrogen.
The vagina can shrink in size and really change the composition. And traditionally we talk about that as maybe showing up as pain with penetration and that it was a sexual health thing. And if you weren't having sex, it wasn't important. And I'm here to debunk that myth. Vulva and vaginal health is important.
If you own a vulva and a vagina, um, And so, yeah, we want to make sure that you're able to wear the clothes that you want to move, to dance, to go to yoga, to enjoy penetrative sex if you choose. And so, moisturizing is something that, you know, we can do without a prescription. Um, so that makes it accessible for everyone.
And then, obviously, um, as we move into postmenopause, Um, I'm excited to have that investigative conversation about the benefits of vaginal estrogen therapy, um, or DHEA. There's lots of new things that are happening in this space, which makes me really excited. Um, in the traditional medical model though, sometimes I get really frustrated because they're really good at treating vaginal estrogens.
Things that already exist, i. e. you could, like, after a grape turns into a raisin, then they want to treat it to bring it back to a grape. And I'm kind of in the camp of, if we can keep a grape, a grape. Yeah. Prevent. Yeah. Prevent. That would be great, but I just want everyone to know that options are available for everyone.
It's never too early or too late to prioritize our vulva and vaginal health. So amazing. And yeah, I will, I'll share a story. I I'm nothing is TMI on my podcast. So I, uh, when I was, um, postpartum, I was getting, um, just a lot of dryness, a lot of itchiness in my vagina. And I saw a pelvic floor physio and. I, yeah, I didn't really understand what was going on, but she said that can be a common thing postpartum too, which again, no one had talked to me about.
I didn't know that was a thing. So I went to my doctor and my doctor did prescribe, um, an estrogen cream and yeah, same thing. I'm like, why? I didn't know this was a thing and it was a miracle. Did such a great job at helping me feel better. The vagina loves estrogen. Yeah! And I heard someone say, you know, similar to how we have to treat chapped lips, we have to treat those chapped lips too, right?
And I'm like, again, this needs to be common knowledge. So now I, I use a vaginal cream and a moisturizer. And similar to how I put, you know, ChapStick on before bed every night. Like, why don't we do that to our vulvas too, right? Like, show them some love too. I love this. Um, but we still have a problem. And you've just kind of highlighted it.
You know, the statistic about how I said, you know, over 80 percent of women experience, um, vulva and vaginal dryness and less than 4 percent currently have a solution. I hope that 4 percent number has gone up in the last few years, but still, big gap. And I don't say this publicly enough, but one of the reasons why there's such a gap is because women aren't talking.
So I work with a lot of individuals in my community and they love getting answers to their questions and they love getting solutions, but I'm not yet convinced that they're going and telling 10 friends. Right. And I get that it's hard and it's not always a cocktail party conversation or backyard barbecue, but it needs to be because if we continue to do the one to one like, Oh, I'm so great.
I saw Rhonda today and she educated me on all of this. That's great. But we have to go at least tell our daughter, at least tell our mother. And then if you can tell, you know, all of your friends that's going, that's, what's going to make the difference. 100%. That's why I have a podcast, really.
Amazing. Um, do you talk about prolapse much in your work? Yeah, well, so many members of my community are surprised to learn that prolapse is so prevalent. And I share my own story. I actually went to a pelvic floor physiotherapist before the, maybe 2019. Um, and I thought I was doing it as like a gift to my community.
I was like, Oh, I'll go and I'll take a video and I'll record art. Like not the, you know, The x rated parts, but the conversation because I knew that it was going to be such an educational part. Yes. And then I was floored when I found out that I had a stage two, three bladder prolapse. And so I love to share that story with my community because I would have called myself symptom free before I went to that appointment.
So like loud public service announcement for all menopause chicks is to go have at least one appointment. Just do it. 100 percent Yeah, that's that's a huge part of my work too. That's a part of my story is I got diagnosed with a grade two prolapse postpartum as well. And again, I was a physiotherapist and was clueless about how to rehab my body, and how to A lot of prolapse is learning to manage symptoms.
And I, you know, I like that you shared that you got diagnosed as grade 2 3, but you were asymptomatic. I think that's a huge myth too. So the grade of prolapse does not always equal symptoms, right? You can have, yeah, a large prolapse with no symptoms. You can have a small prolapse with large symptoms, right?
So I think that's a huge, yeah, misconception. So in your work is that I talk about with my clients, you know, In my brain, it makes sense that if we're strengthening and we're, you know, using our pelvic floor, we're strengthening our whole body, our whole system. It might not prevent prolapse, but at least it's going to improve the quality of the tissues in and around that area, right?
Similar to using, like, a moisturizer. If everything in our, like, urogenital area is feeling supple and healthy and great, even if there's a descending prolapse, I don't think it will feel As symptomatic. I don't know. Does that make sense to you? Like, what, what do you talk about with clients? Well, I think, I mean, I'm certainly not a pelvic floor.
Yes. I want to raise awareness on the fact that, um, I do get a lot of pushback from women. You know, earlier we were talking about, You still have a period I get pushed back. If you no longer have a period, I get pushed back when it comes to pelvic floor, the pushback I get is, Oh, I don't have any problems in that area.
And I'm like, okay, well, neither did I. And please don't wait until a organ is bulging out your vagina before you go and get help. Although if anybody has that experience. There is help available. So it's that, it's that healthy balance of like, I don't want to shame anybody because maybe they've let it go too long and think that there is no help available to them or that they need surgery and they might need surgery.
Um, but that they might not have to jump to surgery as a solution. They might be able to rehabilitate with a great physio. So. Amazing. So great. Yes. Yes. And yes, like do all that. Check, check. Yes. Love it. So in your talk that I heard you speak in Cambridge, when you came to Airmosa Physiotherapy, I loved your focus again.
So positive on just helping women feel amazing. Why is that your tagline?
That's such a great question. I, I have a marketing and communications background. I am, I know that hashtags and search engines and search engine optimization and algorithms, they all feed on negativity. And I don't think for a second that Shirley Weir from Port Moody, British Columbia can change an algorithm, but darn it, I'm going to try.
Right? I just don't want my daughter, who is now 20, to, and her and her friends, to grow up in a culture and a society that continues to dismiss and disappoint and shroud these conversations with only negativity. It's just not right. I love that. Oh, so good. Yeah. I feel like that resonates a lot with me too, because in, in my work, I, I come from a lens of non diet and, uh, I don't focus on weight loss.
I don't focus on body changes with my clients. I just want you to feel amazing also. That's kind of my focus too. So I think that's why I was drawn to you. But similarly, the algorithm and, you know, society marketing, you know, there is so much of a focus on weight loss and all of these things that I'm just, that's not with my values.
And so I just remind myself, like, it might take me longer for my message to get across, but I'm okay with that because I don't want to compromise. My values. Totally. And you know, it is so rewarding when I see those light bulb moments with individuals when I use the word deserve. Like if I say to somebody who's clearly like distraught, you deserve a good night's sleep.
They're like, What? Who, me? What? Who, me? Right? And that is part of our culture, but it needs to be part of the feminist movement, is that yes, you deserve a good night's sleep. Yes, you deserve to feel amazing. Um, but you might also need a permission slip. You might need a little nudge, um, forward, and that might be all it takes.
Yes, for sure. I think again, that's, there's so many layers to these conversations, right? I think it, it does really come back to self worth and how we're socialized as females to be quiet and not complain and suck it up all of these things. Right. And so that is a huge part of, it sounds like what you do and what I do as well is yeah.
Having people remember, like you are important. You deserve to feel amazing. You deserve to have your needs met. You deserve to be listened to. Yeah. I mean, even if the journey sometimes goes through a little place called not yet amazing, just reminding women that they deserve to feel amazing, like hanging that carrot out there.
Um, and amazing is a spectrum, right? Like I might be a seven today and an eight tomorrow and a three last week, but it's a spectrum. It's constantly moving and evolving just like we are. I love that. Amazing. So many great chats today, Shirley. So, um, if we were to summarize today's talk, what would be sort of your biggest take home message to leave our listeners with?
Well, that's it. You deserve to feel amazing. Um, and I really extend a huge invitation to learn the roles and responsibilities of your hormones when your cycles are regular. That is going to be the best investment so you can make a plan for when they're not. And you can also make sure that you're not assuming something is hormone related or perimenopause or menopause related and miss a giant opportunity to diagnose something else.
So it's really about moving women's health from the back burner to the front burner. Love it. So yeah, I would love for you to end off by just sharing with people how they can reach out to you, how they can work with you, join your community, all of those things. Bye bye. Yeah, so I spend most of my time in a private online community.
It's at menopausecommunity. com. Um, menopausechicks. com is my website and blog. Um, I'm on Instagram at menopausechicks. And I also have a, um, a new private community. It's called The Nest. And the tagline for that is that it's a soft place to land. And what's been happening, it's new in 2024, and women are showing up every Monday.
For like a small group coaching session, it's kind of a Q and a with me, but we're also really focusing on script tips and script tips are changing the way in which we show up for our health appointments. And I would love for everyone to come. Um, you can use the code first month. If you want to join. And the reason why is I think it's going to change.
the healthcare system. We're so used to maybe showing up at our doctor's appointment expecting an education on how our doctor, uh, you know, how our body works, but yet our physicians only have eight to 10 minutes for that appointment. So we have to show up informed with an understanding of all of our options on the menu and really learn to how we can advocate for our own health and make health decisions that we're comfortable with.
Yes, that's, that's so great because I think it can be intimidating, right, to go into an appointment and, you know, And disappointing sometimes to walk out. Yeah. Invalidating, right? So I think, yeah, just having people look at it differently, right? So I think, you know, maybe the attitude might be, well, I shouldn't have to do that.
I should be able to just go to my doctor and they should know these things, but I think looking at it differently, just again, you know, showing our body that respect, showing it that love and attention. Part of that is educating ourselves, right? And yes, we are overloaded often. Build a health team. You can't get everything from one person.
You know, you can't get everything from your family physician, but keep your family physician and build out your health team. Um, I'm 57. I'm worried that. You know, the curriculum at medical school is probably not going to change in my lifetime dramatically. I'm worried that the healthcare model is not going to change dramatically in my lifetime.
So what I am hoping my legacy is, is that more women feel informed and empowered when they're going to see their healthcare professional, whoever it is, and that they're the drivers of the health bus, that they get to invite whoever they want onto their health bus and make. decisions that are aligned with their values that are right for them.
Amazing. Yeah. All about collaboration. That's, that's my jam too, Shirley, is recognizing as a healthcare professional, I can't be everything to everybody. I don't have all the answers. And so I try my best to refer out as often as I can. I don't know if that happens enough in the medical world, but hopefully that will be part of the change too.
I agree. Love it. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. So great, Shirley. You're just, yeah, a breath of fresh air and full of so much wisdom and knowledge. And I'm just excited for people to hear this conversation. Thank you, Rhonda. Yeah. Thanks for being here.
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