Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to The Bean Talk with me Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother, joined by my trusted partner in life and in the mission of Mungbean Health, Jeremy. Here at Mungbean Health, we're on a mission to unlock the secrets of fertility and natural wellbeing one episode at time.
Speaker: and welcome back to another episode of The Bean Talk with Rhiannon and Jeremy. Hi guys and welcome back to the podcast. We are excited. Yep. Happy to be here.
Speaker: Full of energy, full of beans. It always seems that we do it that mid-afternoon slump. I've had a patient day today, day full of patients and big bean, little bean.
Speaker: We've signed back up to a gym. We have. It's exciting so exciting because we were once gym goers when we had spare time yeah that we do not have pre-kids, pre-business, pre-kids, just us living our life, young teens, early twenties. We were in the gym and it felt good to be really active and fit and strong.
Speaker: Yeah. I think I've spoken about this before, but one of my goals is to get stronger because obviously going through pregnancy and postpartum, like so many times, lots of body changes. Yeah. Positive, amazing, love it, but I'm just ready to feel strong again and not feel like it's hard to like do things. Yeah.
Speaker: want to be able to just pop up when I need to just like, you know, if I'm in danger or something. i just couldn't run. Just get right up and go. And so we've been going and we've been consistent for the last couple of weeks. We've been going three times a week, yeah which is good. I feel like that is a good amount of time.
Speaker: Three to four, two to four. Feeling a little sore. I know, feeling sore. Leggies are sore. what happens i know and everything um so if you don't know it's delayed onset muscle soreness actually we used to like go to the fitness expo and just like do all the fitness stuff it was so good good times anyway we probably won't be getting back to that but we're just more about like our body feeling good and just getting fit and it does make it easier doing it together as well 100 so i'm classing that as our big bean and little bean today
Speaker: Yeah, I'm happy with that. That's what we got for you. It's been a huge thing. It's been something we wanted to do and it's just hard to fit in the schedule. The hardest part is walking through the door. The hardest part is tying your shoes up to get out the door. That is the hardest bit. But yeah, so exciting. And once you're there, like it's the environment. So you really get into it. It's not like a home workout where think like I'm going to be so motivated and get in there and get it done. It's like you don't like, but in the gym, you just see everyone else working out and like all the equipment's there and you go harder. You're 100% doing it. And some people are so good at home workouts where they'll do it and they like put their mind to it. But yeah, you can always put off easily. You're like, Oh, I'll do it later. Oh, I'll do it later. Yeah. Yeah. When get to the gym, like whatever time you're there, you just work out get into it. And we know how important muscle and strength training is for healthy aging.
Speaker: We're no spring chickens, no more. We've got a bit of time up our sleep, hopefully left, but yeah, We're definitely not in our early 20s. So you start to feel it. And I know when we're in our mid 40s, that's when we'll be feeling it so much worse. So we're doing it now, doing the hard yards and pick your heart.
Speaker: Always think of that. Pick your hard. Which hard do you want? you want it to be harder when you're older? You fall over, you can't get yourself back up? Or do you want it to be harder now where you're like in the gym or lifting weights and doing the hard things now? I know what I choose.
Speaker: But yeah, we know how important it is working out doing resistance training or weight training for our hormones, which we're all about hormones at Mung Bean Health, as you know, whether we're talking about fertility,
Speaker: Whether we're talking about libido, whether we're talking about skin. Thyroid. Yeah, we talk about thyroid too. Hormones, yeah, they're thyroid hormones. You're right. It's absolutely spot on. Stress hormones. And today I just wanted to talk a little bit more about something that can completely change the way you understand your health.
Speaker: It's hormone testing. Yeah, very important. So important. This is something we investigate with the majority of our clients in clinic, right? Many come to us believing that they've already had their hormones tested and they've been told a familiar phrase, which is everything looks normal or everything looks fine.
Speaker: But when we take a closer look, the reality is often very different. And I'm talking about when you go to the GP and you say, hey, ah got this going on. I'm tired. Not feeling right. skin's all over the place, my bleed, my period. It's all weird. They're like, you look fine to me. Yeah. They're like, here's the pill script. No, but often they'll be like, yeah, cool. Let's test your hormones. Unless you're breastfeeding. They're like, no, no reason to test your hormones.
Speaker: They've done that to me infuriating, but they'll like most doctors, there's some good ones out there. Don't get me wrong. not throwing hate on everyone. Just saying the reality of what many people Yeah. There's some great ones out there. They're just very hard to find. They'll often test your hormones, but they'll tell you, they'll give you a referral and they go, here you go go, and do this test. And you'll have no other information. You won't know when to test it. You won't know in your cycle, the best times you'll have one referral for your progesterone, and estrogen, LH and FSH, when really they should be tested at different times throughout the cycle.
Speaker: So much more to it. So this episode is perfect for anyone who has ever had a blood test come back normal. but they still feel exhausted, struggling with acne, irregular periods, weight gain, PMS, PMDD, bad moods, irritability, infertility, or just know that something doesn't quite feel right.
Speaker: because they're Because here's the truth most people aren't told, and that is it's not just what hormones you test, it's when you test them.
Speaker: It's how you prepare for the test, which type of test you're using, and this can all make a big difference. Yeah. Timing. Everything's about timing, you know? is. It absolutely is. Everything. And also our hormones are consistently changing throughout the day, throughout your menstrual cycle. Testing at the wrong time can paint a completely different picture.
Speaker: Let's dive in, shall we? let's do it and also men this is more based on obviously females yeah because men they're like every day can look very much similar they're not on a cycle like us yeah we do have changes though yeah absolutely not as not as as frequent as a woman yeah there'd be have to be something seriously wrong or drastically wrong for our hormones to be like you haven't been sleeping well you've changed your diet or you exercise your hormones would be positive yeah yeah why the timing matters let's talk about it so unlike many routine blood tests hormones are very dynamic they're constantly responding to things like can you guess stress yep your menstrual cycle overall sleep you mentioned before yep food is a huge one like if you eat a high carbohydrate it's gonna or if you change your diet i've had clients go on like really strict diets like keto lost their period
Speaker: Oh, damn. Yeah. And that's because they were like overweight and then lost a lot of weight quickly. Amazing. a lot of stress. Yeah. And the body's like, hold on a second. What's going on here? Let's prioritize that and not worry about our cycle and pregnancy and having a baby right now. And it was also a positive thing because one, she did need to lose that weight.
Speaker: because her inflammation was high and her insulin was high and it really ended up being a positive and actually what helped her get pregnant. But she had to do that first. Don't be trying to get pregnant while you're doing that. Quickly do that for a couple of months and then and then jump over. But also medication as well. And also exercising when it's like quite not like us, not like what we've started with where it's like just some sessions in the gym, like more like triathlons and stuff. Like super intense stuff. that like shocks your body and you Yeah. not prepared for it yeah exactly so testing hormones without considering these different factors is a little like checking the weather once and then assuming that it'll be like that all year the timing gives the results a lot of context so when should you test if you're having did you know
Speaker: like If you're having regular periods, your menstrual cycle gives us valuable information. I feel like this is so good because you already know so much about like the woman's body and like hormones from obviously our work and everything.
Speaker: But this is so good for you to learn this because one day Evie's going have this cycle and she's going to like, dad. Well, I just send her your mail. But how good for you to know that. oh yeah. It's so good. ah But, yeah, when should you test?
Speaker: If you're having regular periods, your menstrual cycle gives us valuable information here. So day two to three of your cycle, this is usually the best time to assess your baseline reproductive hormones outside of progesterone. So these common tests are things like our FSH, our LH, our estrogen, our oestradiol, our testosterone, our DHEAS, our sex hormone binding globulin, or SHBG and our prolactin, depending on the situation. These tests can actually help us to assess things like our PCOS or PMOS now. Commonly known as now, ye the new name. Yep.
Speaker: Was known as PCOS. It's great that they updated, but now it's it's got two names. yeah Fertility and also menopausal health and pituitary function as well.
Speaker: And then that's the first half and good to test them, those hormones then. And then around day 21 or seven days before you ovulate or seven days before you bleed, but that is so hard to sort of pinpoint. That's why it's better to like pinpoint ovulation seven days later because it's different for everyone. but the textbook is 21 days in a cycle.
Speaker: Many people don't fall on that. So it's just better to know seven days post ovulation. One of the biggest misconceptions is that progesterone is always going to be tested on day 21. Okay. So this can vary a little for women as not everyone has a 28 to 29 day cycle.
Speaker: The real goal is to test progesterone that seven days after we ovulate. I'll say it again for everyone in the back. Seven days after ovulation, we wanna test it. If you're not sure when that is though, 21 days is usually a pretty good dark target if you have that 28 day cycle.
Speaker: Progesterone testing is commonly used to, one, confirm ovulation has happened, two, investigate fertility, we need to know what progesterone is doing, and also three, assess luteal phase function.
Speaker: What if you don't have regular cycles? What are you going to do here? If your periods are irregular or absent, timing becomes way more individualized. Factors like PMOS, hypothalamic amenorrhea, perimenopause, breastfeeding, or hormonal contraceptive like the pill, they can require different testing strategies. This is where working with a practitioner can make interpreting your results much more meaningful. And it's also best to talk to your practitioner before you go out and get bloods. because then or testing because then they can say do it at this time or wait until this or you don't need that do this instead so many people always ask that what do i get tested what do i get tested it's like we don't know your case so i can tell you go get these random tests and then i'll be like oh when did you get it i didn't know i should do it's like exactly that's why we go over your case see what we request see what's going on and then interpret them properly as well yeah good point
Speaker: Try it. So should hormone blood tests be done fasted? Should they? Depending on what you're testing.
Speaker: Very true. For many hormone tests, we do recommend you can complete them fasted, prior to caffeine and before exercise. It's not necessarily you need to for like our sex hormones and things, but it's more about getting the same...
Speaker: continuity between the tests. So if you eat a big breakfast one day and then the next time you fasted and then the next time you have toast and then the next time you have Cheerios. need to it controlled. Yeah, so it's like what's one way we control that is via test ah via fasting. yeah But if it's someone who's like really nauseous in the morning and they need to eat something and they can't, well, then it's okay, but we can sort of control that. But if you can,
Speaker: It allows us several important markers to be sort of measured accurately at the same time a day as well is great. So fasting is particularly helpful when testing things like insulin.
Speaker: very important glucose obviously fasting glucose is what we want to see lipids cortisol especially when we do it in the morning although i like saliva cortisol testing not necessarily bloods and then reproductive hormones when combined with metabolic testing again it's just more of a controlled thing so we can say okay you were fasted when you did those ones and you were faster when you did those ones yeah not you were faster and then you had a big mac that's going to change like your hormones are be changing exactly So it's more around that than not getting the right result, if that makes sense. yeah
Speaker: A morning blood test after an overnight fast also helps to standardize standardize the results. So what we usually recommend is trying to fast for 8 to 12 hours unless advised otherwise. Stay hydrated with water, so drink like lots of water all the time. Really important for blood tests. avoid strenuous exercise beforehand so don't go to the gym and then go and get it get it and then go to the gym but also actually no that's probably not good advice when you with lifting weights because you're not meant to like lift heavy things with that arm so you just don't do the exercise that day the next day or do like some walking or something have blood collected early in the morning like first up is good and these simple steps can improve the quality of your results
Speaker: Then we've got the different types of testing. You've heard me say saliva in there, but let's talk about bloods first. Blood tests are most important.
Speaker: Blood tests are the most common way to assess hormones. The benefit of them is they're widely available. They're well validated. They're excellent for diagnosing many endocrine conditions and can measure hormones alongside nutrient deficiencies and metabolic markers. The limitations is that blood provides a snapshot of what's happening at one point in time. And since hormones fluctuate throughout the day and cycle, one test doesn't always tell the whole picture.
Speaker: Blood testing mechanisms. blood testing measures the amount of hormones circulating in your bloodstream. For some hormones, this includes both the protein bound and the free or the biologically active forms. While for others, specific tests can measure the free hormone alone. While blood tests are excellent for assessing hormone levels at a single point in time, they don't always tell us how your body is metabolizing or clearing those hormones.
Speaker: An example of this is if someone may have estrogen levels that fall within the normal range on a blood test, but they're not effectively metabolizing and eliminating estrogen through the liver and the bowels, they may still be experiencing symptoms of estrogen excess or estrogen dominance. In these cases, alternative testing like saliva or urine hormone profiles are going to provide much greater support.
Speaker: In our clinic at Mungbean Health, we are always looking at saliva because it is like fine tuning and jumping ahead. However, if you weren't able to do that, we would still look at bloods, but we're looking for optimal.
Speaker: We're always looking for best. We're always striving for best. And then if you fall short of best, we're you still doing better than average, right? So saliva testing, if you're one of our clients, you've obviously been recommended saliva testing for your hormones, like our cortisol and sex hormones. Saliva testing measures the free biologically active fraction of certain hormones rather than those bound to proteins in the bloodstream.
Speaker: It can be particularly useful for daily cortisol patterns and getting to the bottom of hormonal imbalances. Some benefits, non-invasive.
Speaker: Don't need to have a needle. Yeah, a lot of people are scared needles. I know. can collect it at home. Which is easy. Which is great. And you can collect multiple samples throughout the day. yeahp Helpful for looking at cortisol rhythms rather than a single value. If you come to me with a blood cortisol and it's done in the morning just randomly, it doesn't tell me much. You'd have to go back four times throughout the day to get a good idea of what's going on. Which who wants four blood tests one day? Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker: One blood test is enough. Testing is only one piece of the puzzle. This is probably the most important point of this entire episode. Hormone test hormone tests should never be interpreted in isolation.
Speaker: Your symptoms matter. Two people can have identical lab results and completely different experiences. So good hormone assessment combines other things like your symptoms, your medical history, your menstrual cycle, lifestyle, blood tests, and where appropriate, saliva, which is always appropriate for our clients usually, and or urine testing.
Speaker: It's about understanding the whole picture, not chasing individual numbers. For this reason, we actually do not actually recommend testing, as I said, to our clients before you come and see us for your initial appointment, as we may want to add or make changes to suit their needs better. So we may want to say, get this instead, or let's get this. And you might go, I just got a blood test. I hate blood tests.
Speaker: Should have waited, sis, you're going to get another blood test. We always want to try and make our clients feel comfortable as well, but sometimes we just need to see the results. So we'll always work with you as best as we can, but please, if you can, just wait until we take your case. And I always think about it like back in the day, like when there wasn't any testing, like the case taking was the most important part. That's why at Mung Bean, I'm very big on blending both of our traditional methods and also our modern methods. So traditional, we should be able to do a lot of it And then we just confirm it with the with the evidence-based testing and everything.
Speaker: Some common mistakes that we see is some of the biggest reasons hormone testing leads to confusion, which are things like testing progesterone at the wrong day of the cycle. It's a big one. Testing cortisol at the wrong time of day as well. Not fasting or just like being very different when you're going and getting your tests. If you were to eat the same thing for breakfast every single day and you got it at the same time, it'd be fine.
Speaker: Comparing results without considering cycle phases, treating lab numbers instead of the person, and also assuming normal means optimal. Also, people trying to interpret their own results. Oh, I see that there's this, and it's like, yeah, but you didn't think about this, and it's because that's not their job, and they don't know, they're not trained.
Speaker: or Or Google said this. Yeah, but Google doesn't know your whole case. Remember, normal references and reference ranges are designed to identify disease, not always to explain why you're experiencing these symptoms. And also, we're always looking for optimal, not just within range.
Speaker: optimal you want to be the best and the range is pretty high like you could be like say i don't know iron or something and it could be relatively low and you can feel it because you're usually sitting normally at a higher range and the doctor's like your iron's fine but it's sitting at the low of not the normal range and it's like well not really for you for your case you used to sit at in the middle of the range and now you're at the bottom of the range and it's like well no wonder you feel tired absolutely iron's actually my favorite example of that because they change i think we're mainly 30 now to start with but a lot of them were 15 before i haven't seen 15 in a while they did i think move it up to 30 um
Speaker: All the way to, we used to be 15 to 150. So now I think it's 30 to 150. But then they put us with men and they made us like go all the way to 300. Anyway, some labs I think have stayed 30 to 150 or 30 to 200. But you could be 32 and they'll be like, within range. Yeah. But you're feeling very tight. see you in one period. Like, oh, you've got endo, you're bleeding heavy, your ener energy's fatigued. See you in one bleed and then you'll be under. Yeah.
Speaker: And you're not taking on because they haven't recommended anything. So, yeah, it's very frustrating. So, yeah, absolutely. And you could be normally sitting at 100, which is amazing. But then you've gotten lower and lower low and lower and you're feeling more tired, more tired. And tell you're fine. You're like walk out thinking, well, thanks. yeah Still feel like crap. And then you're not going to go straight back and go, hey, test me again. Because you're like, I was just told everything was fine. Yeah.
Speaker: That's why you need a naturopath on your team, because we're going to look at it from an optimal and go, oh, you're looking very suboptimal there. Let's get you back to 100 or let's get you close, as close as we can. So you're feeling good.
Speaker: Doesn't matter if you have ah a heavy bleed. Yes, we're going to work on that. But it doesn't matter if you have a heavy bleed. You're not going to then lose all your iron. Yeah, exactly. Right? The final takeaway of today's episode is that hormone testing isn't about ordering every free test that there is available. It's about choosing the right test for you, the right time to test and the correct way to test it.
Speaker: When hormone testing is done well, it can uncover valuable clues that help us guide your personalized treatment, support your recovery, and give you a clear understanding of what's happening in your body. We're so much more complex than people realize, especially women with our reproductive health.
Speaker: Because when it comes to hormones, timing really is everything. Yep. Pretty important to know and it's always a nice little reminder. And it's cool we have these things available to actually have an inside look what's going on in our bodies. And how good you can do things at home as know, yeah. Because I know people that are so scared of getting blood tests. Like sometimes we have to get blood tests like for our thyroid. yeah But if we can just check your sex hormones at home, it's like such a great start with saliva. So good.
Speaker: Thank you guys for following. Oh, a little message. If any of you guys are following, we started a well, Jeremy started a page. Yeah, started my own page. Fertility Fairy Godfather. Yeah. It's very cute. I'm going actually do a giveaway on there. I'll link it up with Mungbean. So please go and follow. Give him some support. He's coming out of his shell. He wants to share. I'm bit He wants to share lots of information for the dads. Yeah. So yeah, stay tuned on that. But I'll be doing a little, we'll do a little giveaway on there.
Speaker: Yep. And if you have listened to this and want to reach out, you can find us at www.mungbeanhealth.com. Yes. or you can go onto our Instagram, which is mungbean underscore health. You can find us on TikTok or me on on TikTok, mungbean underscore health as well. You can find our Sproutling Supplements, which is Sproutling underscore supplements. Or check the website out at www.sproutlingsupplements.com.au. And it's Sproutling, S-P-R-O-U-T-L-I-N-G, supplements.
Speaker: And if you have any questions, reach out, please. We love it. I've had many of you listeners reach out and say, hey, I've listened to the podcast and I've got this question or so I love it. So please reach out. It's not as hard a waste of time. Yes, we've got our listeners. Yeah. Hopefully there's one of you out there anyway. Well, I've had a couple, which is good. ah So yes, can't wait to share the next episode with you guys. And if you enjoyed this, make sure you check out our other episodes.
Speaker: There's a few of them. Yeah. And we've gotten better as time goes on. Yeah, definitely me.
Speaker: Bye, guys. I'm always a little late to the party, but I show We're here. You show up. You're a good time. All right. All right, guys. Bye. And that's a wrap on today's dose of wellness. I'm Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker: Stay connected with us on Instagram at mungbin underscore health.
