Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 8: A Perimenopause Perspective with Trina Altman, PMA, E_RYT 500
394 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to Episode 8 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel is joined by her friend and colleague Trina Altman. Together, Laurel and Trina discuss Trina’s experience with perimenopause. Trina shares her personal story along with tons of resources for women going through this change of life.
- What is perimenopause?
- Doctors have a tendency to minimize women’s suffering
- Brain fog and hot flashes
- Challenges women face when navigating the medical system
- Finding a doctor that spends more time with you AND is evidence-based AND is current on the research
- The Women’s Health Initiative and fear they created around estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
- Weight gain and perimenopause
- Scope-appropriate advice for movement teachers working with perimenopausal and menopausal students
Guest Bio:
Trina received her training through STOTT Pilates® and is an E-RYT 500. She created Yoga Deconstructed® and Pilates Deconstructed® to show teachers how to take an interdisciplinary approach to foster an embodied understanding of yoga and Pilates in relation to modern movement science.
Trina has presented at Momentum Fest, the International Association of Yoga Therapy Conference, and Kripalu. She also created and taught a Pilates continuing-education course for physical therapists and was part of the faculty for the Brain Longevity conference at UCLA. She was the co-creator of Equinox’s signature program Best Stretch Ever, which utilizes the mobility stick to improve functional range of motion, body awareness, and total body strength.
Trina was a finalist in the Next Pilates Anytime Instructor Competition in 2017. Her work has been published in Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and Pilates Style magazine and her classes have been featured on Yoga International and Yoga Anytime. She is also the author of Yoga Deconstructed®: Movement science principles for teaching, which shows yoga teachers how to integrate modern movement science into their classes and is published by Handspring Publishing.
Reference links:
North American Menopause Society Doctors
If there are no doctors local to you, this website is all telemedicine North American Society Menopause Doctors: https://gennev.com/
Research on HRT and the risk of breast cancer
Dr. Heather Hirsch podcast on breast cancer and HRT
Sign up here for the Movement Logic Newsletter for course discounts and sales!
Watch the video of this conversation at: www.movementlogictutorials.com/podcast
Want more Movement Logic?
- Follow us on IG: @movementlogictutorials
- Get on our mailing list for tons of free content
- Contact us (we're super friendly)
Thanks for listening!
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic podcast with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beaverstorff and physical therapist, Dr. Sarah Court.
Philosophy and Approach
00:00:14
Speaker
With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement, and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong opinions loosely held, which means we're not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we're here with up-to-date and cutting-edge tools, evidence, and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher.
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to episode eight of the Movement Logic podcast.
Introducing Trina Altman
00:00:46
Speaker
I'm Laurel Beaversdorf, and I'm here with a very, very special guest, Trina Altman. Many listeners to this podcast are probably familiar with Trina's work. Trina is a yoga and Pilates teacher, a teacher's teacher in every respect. She is the creator of yoga deconstructed continuing education workshops and programming, and she authored a book called Yoga Deconstructed, Movement Science Principles for Teaching.
00:01:09
Speaker
Trina is also a co-creator and founding collaborator of Movement Logic Tutorials. So together, Trina, Sarah Court, our podcast co-host extraordinaire, and I created the pelvic floor tutorial. And our very, very first baby tutorial was the low back pain tutorial. We were just getting started. Trina is also a long time dear friend of mine.
00:01:32
Speaker
I talk to Trina sometimes for hours on the phone, and we have spent a lot of time together in a car lost in LA. Actually,
Inspiration for Interview: Perimenopause
00:01:43
Speaker
today's interview is inspired by our most recent phone conversation that I found absolutely
00:01:55
Speaker
Eye-opening, inspiring, and really compelling. Do you remember that conversation, Trina? Oh, yes. Yes. Today we're talking about perimenopause. I wanted to read because I'm big on establishing a definition of terms and I grabbed this right off the internet. I want to read a definition of perimenopause, so we're all on the same page. Perimenopause is the transitional time around menopause.
00:02:23
Speaker
Menopause is when a woman's period stops and it's marked by changes in the menstrual cycle along with other physical and emotional symptoms. It can last for up to two to ten years apparently. So
00:02:38
Speaker
The thing I, since having that conversation with you Trina and I think we talked for close to two hours and it was really just intended to be a catch up but part of the catching up was this topic that came up, right? And it brought up a lot of memories of my mother when she was going through this transition in her life and
00:02:58
Speaker
So many questions. So you inspired me to learn, as you always do, Trina, so much more on a topic that I really didn't realize I knew almost nothing about.
Discussing Perimenopause and Menopause Openness
00:03:09
Speaker
So the thing I have been sitting with, this question I've been sitting with since talking to you is, I just wonder why? Why are, with regards to perimenopause and menopause, if it affects 50% of the population, why aren't more people talking about it? Why am I not hearing about it?
00:03:27
Speaker
Why is it seemingly so taboo, I guess? It seems like people don't feel comfortable talking openly about it. And I feel that people are much more comfortable talking about, say, puberty, right?
00:03:44
Speaker
and when when girls do get their period and and those changes that take place during that time i think we've we've gotten past some of the taboo around that but we seem to be still very much stuck in this idea that hair menopause menopause is just something you know what we'd rather not talk about and it's not just men it's women as well i feel and it's a total mystery to me and i and i don't think that it should be taboo and i do think that we should be talking much more about it uh in the open so
00:04:13
Speaker
Anyway, I think we should just dive into some questions, okay? Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Truvina, tell us about your experience with Para-Menopause and what it's been like for you.
00:04:25
Speaker
Sure. So being the total nerd that I am, I always prepare. And so I have some notes. And before I forget, like right at the outset, I'm going to just say a few things just to put it on the table. Yes, I am known as the author of that, you know, article about scope of practice from maybe three or four years ago in Yoga International. Like I have very firm beliefs about scope of practice. So
00:04:52
Speaker
Here's what I want to say before I dive into my personal experience on this topic. I am not a medical provider, and this is in no way intended to be medical advice, nor am I advocating for or against any type of medical treatment.
00:05:09
Speaker
My experience is unique to me as yours will be unique to you. And so if you have questions about this topic, you should definitely consult with your doctor for treatment options. And
Challenges in Finding Menopause Specialists
00:05:24
Speaker
there's going to be links in the show notes for resources that I use to find health care providers who are knowledgeable about menopause because that can be a roadblock. And then this is where I would recommend starting if you need help on this topic.
00:05:38
Speaker
So there's what's called the North American Menopause Society doctors, and that's a group of OBGYNs and other types of doctors that have been, you know,
00:05:54
Speaker
gone through this training and are essentially up to date with the latest research on this topic, as opposed to maybe other doctors who read the big Women's Health Initiative research in 2002, which was 20 years ago and haven't learned anything since.
00:06:12
Speaker
And then the other stumbling block that I came across, so I went to the North American Menopause Society doctor portal to search for a doctor, an OBGYN, a NAMS OBGYN in LA. And believe it or not, yeah, I live in Los Angeles. It was difficult to find. And if I did find them, you know, LA is LA. So it was like, okay, it's only nine miles away, but it's going to take me an hour and a half each way to get there.
00:06:38
Speaker
some other way because I'm going to be stressed out like that I can. So the next place I found, so if there's no doctors local to you, there's a website and it is all telemedicine, North American Menopause Society doctors. So it's basically all the NAMs doctors online Zoom appointments.
00:07:01
Speaker
I feel relieved. Yes. Like so relieved, just I want to share that with you that I now in my own podcast have all these resources. Yeah, I mean, this is just everything. I mean, that's why we're teachers, right? And why we're, you know, this is all the stuff I wish I had known. And, you know, I'm very grateful that it's 2022 and there's an internet and I could find out this stuff on my own.
00:07:29
Speaker
But it's nice when people cull things together and curate so you don't have to go down any like strange crazy rabbit holes. Exactly. And so of course, the big thing, whenever you talk about, oh my gosh, I'm having all these symptoms and maybe I should do hormone replacement therapy. The first thing anyone says to you is, you'll get breast cancer.
00:07:53
Speaker
And so there is a research article that we're going to link to in the show notes that talks all about hormone replacement therapy and the risk of breast cancer. There is a link to a book.
00:08:10
Speaker
And it's called Estrogen Matters, it's by Avram Blooming, I think is how you pronounce it, and Carol Tavras. I had not read, I have not read this book. I listened to a podcast, I read the research article, and I listened to the podcast interview of the author with Heather Hirsch, who is from Brigham and Women's Harvard University, like runs the whatever, menopause, you know.
00:08:40
Speaker
clinic or whatever the thing is. And then I read the book called Menopause Manifesto by Jen Gunter.
00:08:51
Speaker
The reason why I really want to talk about the podcast interview, and I will get into my personal experience with the author and Heather Hirsch, is a personal story.
Common Healthcare Issues: Dismissed Symptoms
00:09:05
Speaker
So I'm married to a doctor. My husband is a musculoskeletal radiologist, so he's an MD.
00:09:11
Speaker
And whenever anything goes wrong with me and my body, you know, because he's a doctor and he knows all the worst possible things that can happen, he's always like, oh, you're fine. You know, like when I was like doubled over in pain and I had appendicitis, he was like, I'm sure it's just IBS or, you know, period cramps. You'll be fine. You know, because
00:09:32
Speaker
Doctors don't want to think that somebody that they love could have anything wrong with them. So they kind of go into denial. And so I'm telling you this because in the podcast interview with Heather Hirsch of Avram Blooming, the doctor. He's a medical oncologist.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yes. And he co-wrote the book with Carol Tavras, who's a PhD in, I think, social psychology. Yes, social psychology. And in the podcast, he talks a lot about like the only writing I've ever done has been research. So she helped me write a book that like people could actually understand and was interesting. Yeah. And so right at the outset of the interview, he talks about why the book even exists. And the book exists because he's an oncologist.
00:10:19
Speaker
And he focuses on breast cancer. And so for years and years and years, you know, he was working with women who had breast cancer and they would go through the chemotherapy and then they go on a medication
00:10:37
Speaker
Tamox, I forget what it's called. Anyways, there's a medication that you go on. Our dear friends are at court, like it's very close to home. I actually had a breast cancer scare last summer that was just, that's another story, but yeah.
Managing Menopause Symptoms
00:10:54
Speaker
Anyways, and so these women would come in because he gives them the medication that induces menopause.
00:11:03
Speaker
as soon as you're done with the chemotherapy to prevent it from coming back. So if you're breast cancer and you're 30, you're in menopause. You're breast cancer and you're, you know, however old you are, like if you're not already in menopause and you get through the chemotherapy, go on this medication and immediately you're in menopause.
00:11:20
Speaker
Okay. And so they're immediately menopause, they're coming for their follow-up visits, and they are complaining to him of all the symptoms. What are the symptoms they're complaining of? Yes. So brain fog.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah. Well, for somebody like me who, you know, is like straight A students, kind of a little on the nerdy side, it's horrible because I've never experienced brain fog unless I've drank too much alcohol, right? Like it's just not something that has ever happened to me.
00:11:54
Speaker
Do you not have the ability to remember things? Is that what it is? Or do you lose your train of thought? What happens when you have brain problems? A little bit of both. For you. I think it's different for everybody. Yeah. So the biggest thing I noticed was forgetting people's names. And I'm the person that all my friends call and are like, remember that woman who was in our teacher training eight years ago? And I'm like, oh yeah, so and so.
00:12:20
Speaker
You're a connector. You're a connector. I think of you as like a quintessential connector who knows people and connects people who could benefit from having a relationship together. Yes, yes. So I was forgetting people's names, people's names that I should not be forgetting. And it's interesting, I'm going to talk about this briefly.
00:12:43
Speaker
When I was at the height of all of my symptoms, it's traumatic, right? And whenever, at least for me, I experienced something traumatic, it's all very vivid and clear. So it's good we have the conversation when we did because I told you everything. But now it's April, which is only what, like three months later or something? And I'm, I don't, I kind of blocked out a lot of the really bad stuff, which is a healthy,
00:13:11
Speaker
response to trauma and stress because I'm in such a better place so the names that was like the mode and then just like being in the middle of a sentence and forgetting what I was gonna say like there was a little bit more to it but I feel like those were the two main things
00:13:26
Speaker
And then, of course, hot flashes. Okay. Tell us about those. So the first one I ever had, I remember, was in 2019 because it was Thanksgiving and we went to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit my parents. We were out for dinner one night. I think Thanksgiving was Thursday, so it was like Friday or Saturday night.
00:13:50
Speaker
all of a sudden just breaking out and dripping sweat and it's November and it's cold outside, you know. And you are not a cold person. Yeah, I mean my hands and feet because of my low blood pressure. You don't mean you don't love the cold is what I mean. I don't like the cold and I tend to be cold. Right. Because of the hypermobility and the low blood pressure, I almost always have cold hands and feet. So it can be like summertime and I touch for that and he's like,
00:14:22
Speaker
I remember when you stayed at my apartment in New York. I think it was early spring. So, you know, in all fairness, it was kind of cold outside in New York. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we always complained about it being so hot in our apartment. Right. And you were in the room that we had, because we didn't have Eliana yet, so you were in the guest room. And you were so cold, I had to get you like two space heaters. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.
00:14:44
Speaker
I remember being near the window, which was great because the sun was streaming in, but I was like, it's freezing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So hot flashes, which was not a big deal until it was. So it started to become a big deal, I would say like end of last year. So, you know,
00:15:05
Speaker
So that was like two years later. They were more often. So I would just be like sitting on the couch watching Netflix with Farzad and I'd get a hot flash. So I'd like peel off all the layers, you know, down to my sweat tank top and it was winter and I'd have like, you know, long sleeve shirt sweatshirt. And it would end and put the layers back on because I'm cold. Another hot flash, like, you know, all the layers off. And then it started happening at night. Yeah.
00:15:34
Speaker
And then that's when I am a sleeper, which, you know, I have always been able to like easily sleep 10 hours a night. Nine is like my go to. But if I only get, say, seven hours for a couple of nights, I will make it up and sleep 10, 11 hours a couple of. So so I was waking up in the middle of the night with the hot flashes. And then, you know, I've
00:16:01
Speaker
throughout my life suffered from anxiety and depression, but all through my 20s. So it's interesting because this period of time in my life has, I'll be 50 in May, has kind of taken me back to my 20s because that was when I was, you know, really struggling with
00:16:23
Speaker
life after school essentially like how do you be a working person when you're really good at school and you like school and you don't want school to end. So it reminded you these symptoms and the suffering that you were having from these symptoms reminded you of that type of suffering of kind of starting over.
00:16:43
Speaker
Or starting something very foreign and new. Having hormonal changes, you know, so while in my 20s it was more of, you know, like, how am I going to survive in New York City? How am I going to get through every day of a job that I hate that doesn't challenge my brain in any way whatsoever? Right. And, you know, kind of being in relationships that weren't really
00:17:10
Speaker
You know, I knew we're not going to be long term and just having anxiety and depression that affected my ability to function on a daily basis. And then having symptoms again that, you know, the brain fog and the memory loss, I was like, I remember telling you this that I was talking to my friend Nikki and I was like, do people ever retire at 50 because
00:17:31
Speaker
I think I'm done, you know, and it was because I was just feeling like I couldn't remember things. And, you know, like there are things I need to remember in order to do the work that I do. So it kind of took me and then being a guinea pig of like, okay, I have to navigate the medical system. This was when SSRIs first came out.
00:17:55
Speaker
So SSRIs are serotonin reuptake inhibitors, two SS. But anyways, you know, like before the 90s, basically you just, you didn't want to tell anyone you had a tiny hair depression because there was really nothing to do for you other than like shock treatment or, you know, like stick your head in the oven, like Sylvia path, which I'm laughing, but it's true.
Menopause Awareness and Stigma
00:18:20
Speaker
You know, it's just kind of like one of those things that you just kind of, you know,
00:18:25
Speaker
He didn't talk about, and there was nothing they could do. It kind of sounds like paramenapods and menopause. Exactly. Yes. And so, you know, Prozac came out on the market. Elizabeth Wertzel's book, Girl Interrupted, I'm sorry, Prozac Nation came out. The movie Girl Interrupted with Angelina Jolie came out.
00:18:43
Speaker
And then, you know, there was Paxil, there was Zoloft, there were all these different medications that, you know, in conjunction with psychotherapy, you would figure out. But I was like, they put me on every single different one until finally, like,
00:18:58
Speaker
eight years later we realized I just needed 20 milligrams, one pill a day of Prozac and I was good. But that was after being on lithium and Paxil and Zoloft and Wellbutrin and Ritalin and Ativan. And so I was like, oh shit, am I gonna be going through this again? I see, I see. Of being a guinea pig, navigating the medical system and having to figure out what is gonna work.
00:19:24
Speaker
Because no one is really telling you clearly what is happening to you and what to do about it. Right. Yeah. Because that's where we are right now. It seems like that's kind of where we are. We're the equivalent of the 90s and mental health. Yes. They're not the same thing. I'm not meaning to paint an equivalency here, but it does feel like we're all kind of out to sea and no one's really talking about it for that reason.
00:19:48
Speaker
And also, you know, people I think are afraid to share what it is they're doing because it hasn't been, you know, maybe substantiated or something or it's, we'll talk about hormone replacement therapy a little bit, estrogen replacement therapy a little bit, but it seems like there are a lot of conflicting messages about all of this. So, all right, well,
00:20:08
Speaker
Is there anything that you feel like you haven't shared about your experience with menopause and what you've learned about it along the way? Because I wanted to ask you your next question, which is really related to the first question. So you can always chime in with those things that we didn't talk about yet. But if there's anything that you feel like you wanted to say. Yeah. I mean, I think it just...
00:20:34
Speaker
As somebody who kind of figured out in my 20s what I needed to be, obviously you always have your ups and downs, but if I went to therapy once a week, talk therapy, and I
00:20:55
Speaker
took the Prozac pill one time a day, I was pretty good. I was never somebody who had horrible period cramps or I also
00:21:07
Speaker
I was on the birth control pill when I went to college. I remember my mom was like, we're going to the GYN. Here's the birth control pills. Don't get pregnant. And being on them and always having sore, tender breasts. And then eventually being like, you know what? I can tell this is not.
00:21:33
Speaker
like, good, I'm going to go off of them, you know, use condoms and a diaphragm, which is not ideal, but I felt so much better when I was not on the birth control pills anymore.
Personal Experiences with Hormone Therapy
00:21:46
Speaker
And so again, that's another reason why it kind of took me back to this place because it felt like
00:21:57
Speaker
How do you explain it? As a woman, it's my responsibility to not get pregnant. I'm the one that has to take the pill or do the thing because I knew I never wanted to have children. My goal was like, just don't get pregnant until you're in menopause.
00:22:16
Speaker
Which is, you know, and I succeeded. But, you know, and then- But you can't get pregnant anymore. Well, I mean, actually I just, I have my period right now, so I'm not quite there yet. But I'm close. And so, yeah, it was just, you know, I guess as a feminist and then, you know,
00:22:41
Speaker
My age, so when I was growing up, where I lived, there were no female gynecologists. Women weren't going to medical school and had graduated and were working as OBGYNs in the 70s and 80s until Oklahoma.
00:23:00
Speaker
Definitely in the 90s, yes. So it just, you know, had that sort of, and I knew like about the OBGYN, like the kid that I went to school with whose dad was the, you know, OBGYN who, you know, like cheated on his wife with all this patience. Wow. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but that's just like, you know.
00:23:18
Speaker
I was like normal stuff back then. I mean, probably. Anyways, you know. And so I guess, you know, I do also remember my mom having a book on her nightstand and it was by Gail Sheehee. And I think it's called The Silent Passage. So it was like the only book on menopause at the time.
00:23:41
Speaker
Oh, which yes. Yeah. And so going back to what you were saying about mental health in the 90s, you know, there was no internet then there was no social media. There was Elizabeth Wurzel's book. But now actually we are definitely like not in the same place in the sense that there are all these like, you know,
00:24:07
Speaker
Ivy League educated OB-GYN women who are hardcore feminists, writing books, sifting through all the research. You can go and watch every single YouTube video on Heather Hersh's channel, listen to all the podcasts. The information is there. It's the opposite. Do you have, always talk about, people say, well,
00:24:33
Speaker
So you can relate to this like my undergrad was worthless. It was you know liberal arts education, but it wasn't like my undergrad education was an education like the whole thing was like.
00:24:45
Speaker
Okay, Trina, here's this political science theory. Here's all the books written by this political scientist and what they say and their research to back it up. And here's the opposing views and their research. Now you need to write a paper talking about what you think is right with research to back it up.
00:25:06
Speaker
experiences like that, not experiences of like, here's the information that's going to be on your test, memorize it, regurgitate it and get all these multiple choice questions correct. I was like, no, you got to not only write a 20 page paper, you also like every test is an essay question or you have to do a presentation. And so coming to this hurdle at this time in my life, while it was somewhat stressful, I was like,
00:25:33
Speaker
I can do this, like got the internet. I'm very discerning about who I will listen to and won't listen to and then finding people that I will listen to and finding people that are saying the opposite so that I know that I'm not. But I know that that's not everyone's cup of tea. That's not what everyone wants to be doing. This is making me think of
Influence of Upbringing on Reproductive Health Views
00:25:58
Speaker
my own past. And then also just a question I have for you about your experience looking for resources, doctors in LA. So I was raised in a very religious household where the approach to female reproductive rights was abstinence only. And so when I was coming of age, it was all on me and it had to all be undertaken in secret.
00:26:25
Speaker
until I was on my own in college where I could freely go to the campus clinic and get the things that I needed and get the advice that I needed. And so when I embark on a topic like perimenopause and menopause, which has to do with women's reproductive bodies and life, it brings up a whole bunch of feelings around that that are
00:26:53
Speaker
ones where in the beginning of my life, I largely wasn't allowed to really talk about or really become curious about because it was sort of like that's off limits. We're going to talk about that to the extent to which the conversation ends in abstinence only. Of course, I revolted against that and did a 180 when I went to college and became what I would also call a liberal feminist.
00:27:23
Speaker
So your experience is really interesting for me to hear. On the other hand, something that's very, very interesting to me about my past and that I'm starting to recognize is that my mother was super open about her perimenopausal experience and her menopausal experience. It's like very open. She would talk openly about them in front of my brothers, my father, me. I think my parents were divorced when she started to get hit with the symptoms pretty hard.
00:27:52
Speaker
But I was privy to a lot of information around what was happening and changing in her body and the things that she was trying to do about it.
00:28:04
Speaker
She was taking black koha. She was taking the herbs. She was drinking ice water. She was just trying to manage. And she was working. She was an English teacher, a high school English teacher. So it's just the dichotomy there is very interesting to me that we weren't really allowed to talk about my reproductive life when I was young and coming of age and hitting puberty and interested in dating and things like that. But we talked all about
00:28:30
Speaker
her transition, which I'm grateful for. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that she shared so much with it about me. And I think that I am a little bit more open and curious about this transition as a result. So the question that I have for you is, having been somebody who was really given no resources, and there was a lot of secrecy and shame, I'll just say, around pursuing my own reproductive health and rights as a young woman.
00:29:00
Speaker
for you in LA, what I remember talking about with you on the phone.
00:29:05
Speaker
was that you actually had a hard time finding doctors who would answer the types of questions that you had, or had the knowledge to answer the types of questions that you had, or would entertain certain treatment approaches that you were interested in learning more about. If you want to talk about hormone replacement therapy, we can talk about that. And then thinking about how you're in LA, and I'm in Alabama,
00:29:31
Speaker
So now I'm thinking, well, if Trena had a hard time finding somebody in LA, how's it going to be for me in Alabama? And then all of these worries about like going into my OBGYN's office and asking her, because I have an appointment in like a month.
00:29:49
Speaker
Can you talk to me about hormone replacement therapy, estrogen replacement therapy? I'm 41. I'm thinking about perimenopause. I'm not experiencing symptoms yet, but I want to be prepared. And for her to say something like, we don't do that here. We don't talk about that here. It's like all that like past.
00:30:08
Speaker
developmental stuff might come back rearing its ugly head and just that feeling of not having support, I guess, is really what I'm trying to hint at here. What was it like for you, I guess, in LA struggling to find somebody, an authority and an expert and a doctor who could help you? And then I think I remember you telling me that it was actually not that easy in LA.
00:30:35
Speaker
Los Angeles, like the city. Yeah. So I did not have an experience of going to my OB-GYN and trying to get information about HRT or perimenopause or menopause.
00:30:53
Speaker
having difficulty. That was actually not what happened at all. All of the symptoms that I had were just like I would have hot flashes every once in a while or I would notice that I was eating a lot less and exercising a lot more and I still weighed the most that I've ever weighed in my entire life. But I was like, well, it's
00:31:22
Speaker
It is what it is. But it was when the brain fog, the memory loss, the mood swings, and the hot flashes that were keeping me up all night basically interfered with, I couldn't, that's when I was like,
00:31:37
Speaker
I think I need to just retire and stay home because I can't really function, I can't sleep. I'm super angry and mood swings. So I actually knew at that point, based on the research I had done, that I didn't, I only wanted to go to a doctor that was specialized and knew the current research on menopause.
00:32:04
Speaker
So I was like, I will not go to my regular OBGYN. Okay. You didn't even drug him. No. And this, I'm very grateful to my mother. My brother was born with a congenital heart defect, so he had a hole in his heart.
00:32:20
Speaker
And at that period of time, there was nothing to do for it. And then my mom did all the research. We would travel from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Houston, Texas Children's Hospital every summer, because that's where the best pediatric cardiologists were for him to have his checkups. Then they finally invented the surgery that would
00:32:43
Speaker
fix the problem. The surgeon who invented it was the only person that my mom would let my brother go to. His name is very famous, Denton Cooley. We waited until his heart was big enough, and Denton Cooley did his, and now it's like an outpatient procedure in a clinic.
00:33:02
Speaker
But for him, it was three open heart surgeries and he almost died and it was only supposed to be one open heart surgery. Oh my gosh. And then he just had one recently where, you know, because it was so archaic and knew when he had it, there was just like crazy scar tissue they had to clean up a couple years ago. Anyways, so I grew up in the opposite situation. I grew up
00:33:20
Speaker
Jewish which typically Jewish culture is you get lots of second opinions you find the absolute best doctor Right and then not only do you find the best doctor you find multiple best doctors and you use your critical thinking skills to compare and contrast what each one is saying because there isn't really like you know as we know a
00:33:46
Speaker
You might come to me for strength training or Pilates or yoga and I have lots of knowledge and I'm a great teacher, but so are you and so is Sarah and we might get different exercises in person, right? So when you were doing your research, I'm curious about how you went about figuring out, is it this organization that you mentioned at the top of the show that you actually just went and looked at their roster of doctors?
00:34:13
Speaker
And they didn't even have a search portal then. So I literally was like searching every single place in California. And I found somebody in Palos Verdes who, her website is The Menopause Lady. And I think, yeah. This is what I remember from our conversation. Okay. And it was out of pocket.
00:34:37
Speaker
But you could, I think, submit it, you know, for reimbursement, like as out of network. But she sent me a questionnaire form. It was like six pages long with all the questions about everything. Super thorough. Spends a whole hour talking with you, listening to you, educating you, answering your questions.
00:34:57
Speaker
So, that's where I went first, but her degree, she's not an MD. She's an NP, which is a nurse practitioner, and then she's also, I think, a social worker with a counseling degree. So, I was like, okay, good. I've got this cornered. Because MDs are notorious for literally spending no more than 10 minutes with you.
00:35:19
Speaker
Right. Right. And so I'm like, I'll get a full hour with her. But Farzad, who was a doctor, was like, great. But whatever she does, promise me you will also, you know, being married to a doctor is the second thing. On top of the Jewish thing, you will also go to a NAMS doctor that's an OBGYN. And the NAMS doctor is the National Association of
00:35:43
Speaker
Menopause. Yes. That's the one you mentioned at the top of the show. North American Society Menopause. Okay. Yeah, doctor. All right. So you found an MD and this. The MD that I found though was in Beverly Hills. I called and I asked how much it was and they said it depends. They said how much is a consultation. They said it depends.
00:36:05
Speaker
And I was like, and I hate Beverly Hills. It like totally traumatizes me to drive there and park there and be there. And also I saw like a lot of woo woo stuff that she was also selling that I was just like, I don't want. Critical thinking skills. Yes, exactly.
00:36:23
Speaker
And she could be fantastic at earning a living and making a lot of money and be a great doctor. Anyways, those were red flags for me. So that's when I found Gen F, which is spelled G as in girl, E as in elephant, N as in Nancy, N as in Nancy, E as in elephant, elephant, V as in victory. And there's actually, I just listened to another Heather Hirsch podcast and I think there's another company now called
Telemedicine and Menopause Care
00:36:50
Speaker
So anyways, these are telemedicine practices that are only OB-GYNs that are North American Menopause Society certified. So then I did a telehealth appointment with an OB-GYN through Gen-F who actually went to UCLA, grew up in the next town over in Ormosa Beach, lives outside of Seattle.
00:37:14
Speaker
And it was I think $80 for 30 minutes or like $120 for an hour. You can submit it for insurance, but you know, it's not. And so then I finally went to a third OBGYN who is not North American menopause society that's local to me.
00:37:36
Speaker
After going to the two, you know, the one in Pals Verdes, the menopause lady, the one on Genev, the Talmud, and then just the regular OBGYN that's not nams, and told her kind of like what information I got from the first person, what information I got from the second person, and asking her her thoughts.
00:37:53
Speaker
This sounds like you made this your job for a while and that you really went aggressively at getting answers to your questions and fact checking, not fact checking, but at least checking for consistency.
00:38:08
Speaker
in terms of what people were telling you. Do you think that you're a regular lady living in the United States? Do you think that this is most women's experience when they encounter, when they start to experience the symptoms of perimenopause and they go to their doctor, it's their OBGYN and maybe it's some small town or mid-sized city in the United States. I guess we're speculating here,
00:38:38
Speaker
I think I know kind of generally what I think might kind of go on there and I have lots of students that are experiencing perimenopause and menopause and they talk to me about
00:38:49
Speaker
how kind of hopeless they feel and they don't know what to do about it. And the symptoms are pretty debilitating. They're suffering considerably from them and they're not really getting the help that they need. What can you say about like how your experience might kind of match up to other people's if you're also familiar with other people who have shared their experience with Parramenopause.
00:39:15
Speaker
This episode is brought to you by Movement Logic, a library of evidence-based movement therapy tutorials to help your students who are in pain and looking to you for help.
Movement Logic's Mission
00:39:25
Speaker
What most movement teachers need are critical thinking skills to be able to respond to their students' needs in the moment. But let's face it, whether it's a private client or a student after class, questions about what to do about pain and discomfort can be challenging to address for a movement teacher.
00:39:40
Speaker
However, it's possible to be able to address students' needs skillfully using evidence-based reasoning and tools, all while staying within scope of practice. This happens by becoming anatomically and biomechanically informed, gaining a deeper understanding around pain science, and acquiring a diverse set of teaching tools that you can apply immediately. With movement logic, you will do just that, all while building a foundation of critical thinking skills to reach a broader clientele.
00:40:09
Speaker
Want a free peek of what you'll learn in our tutorials? Right now on our website homepage at www.movementlogictutorials.com. You can sign up for our email list to receive updates on course sales and discounts. When you do, you'll also receive four free pelvic floor videos that take a movement-based approach to working with clients with an array of pelvic floor concerns.
00:40:33
Speaker
Within these videos, we help you understand specifically how the movement or breathing exercise can influence awareness of and connection to the pelvic floor specifically, as well as many other structures it directly influences. Go to movementlogictutorials.com, enter your first name and email address, and get four free pelvic floor videos. And now, back to our episode.
00:40:56
Speaker
I have this personality of where if there is a problem, I'm going to figure that out. I don't know if we're explicit or not explicit yet on this podcast, so I'm not going to curse. Oh, you can swear. Okay. Yeah, and I'm very determined, and I don't trust people.
00:41:19
Speaker
So, yeah, so, you know, even if somebody, like I was saying, like, oh, yeah, you know, like the Women's Health Initiative information has been debunked, and it's fine to take HRT, but you should only do bioidentical hormones. And I learned that bioidentical hormones are not FDA approved. I'm like, f that, right? Like, yes. Okay. Just a second. So the Women's Health Initiative.
00:41:45
Speaker
came out with what may be, and this is being called into question through the book Estrogen Matters, which I am currently reading, listening to on audiobook, that the Women's Health Initiative came out with sort of these proclamations, so to speak, that basically scared people into stopping hormone replacement therapy slash estrogen replacement therapy.
Controversy of Hormone Replacement Therapy
00:42:11
Speaker
because it caused breast cancer. Estrogen Matters is a book written by these two individuals that we named at the top of the show, Dr. Abram Bluming and Dr. Carol Tabris, that basically dismantles those claims made by the Women's Health Initiative and actually puts forth many pretty convincing evidence-based arguments for why estrogen replacement therapy and hormone replacement therapy
00:42:37
Speaker
is potentially life-saving for many reasons and the way that it protects women's hearts, brains, and bones were the big topics of discussion. Cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and fractures, life-ending fractures from osteoporosis. How estrogen replacement therapy can stave off those degenerative diseases
00:43:02
Speaker
and actually increase a woman's life by several years, how the risks of cardiovascular disease vastly outweigh the risks of breast cancer in terms of mortality, death, and also
00:43:17
Speaker
And then when you get into like the life ending effects of bone fractures that the benefits of, it seems as though the argument they're putting forth, which seems very convincing. I'm also a very skeptical person and I don't trust even really smart sounding people on an audio book called Estrogen Matters with PhD after they are, MD after they, but I have to say that a lot of what I'm hearing in this book is shocking, frankly, shocking. And anyway,
00:43:47
Speaker
I just wanted to jump in there and say, what is the women's health initiative? Where's this controversy coming from around estrogen replacement therapy, hormone replacement therapy? I feel like this might be the edge of a really maybe exciting movement in women's health, this idea that we should
00:44:05
Speaker
maybe start taking estrogen from the time we start to experience perimenopausal symptoms for the rest of our life is the argument that I'm hearing. Depending on who you are. This is what's being put forth in this book though, which I'm finding very convincing, but I again am very skeptical as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's sort of like, so in terms of storytelling,
00:44:34
Speaker
Avram Blooming is an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer. And so he would help all these women not die of breast cancer because they would get chemotherapy. And then they would come into his office. This is a story that he told on the Heather Hirsch podcast when she interviewed him. And they would say, I have brain fog. I have memory loss. I have mood swings. I have anxiety. I have depression. I have weight gain.
00:45:01
Speaker
I'm not sleeping because of the hot flashes. Basically, I can't function and my life is awful. What can you do to help me? And he would say, aren't you just glad you're alive and you didn't die of breast cancer?
00:45:17
Speaker
And then here's what happened. His wife got breast cancer and she went on the medication after the chemotherapy that put her into menopause and she had all of these symptoms and he actually lives with her because she's his wife. And he talks about how she is extremely smart and that her favorite thing to do is read books and she would be reading a book and could not remember what she had read two pages prior.
00:45:47
Speaker
And he said that he thought to himself, hmm, I wonder how good this research really is. And then this is an interesting personal anecdote, but many of you know Jules Mitchell and she went to Arizona State University and she actually interned at the Women's Health Initiative because she majored in, I believe was engineering and women's studies. So it was part of her women's studies.
00:46:13
Speaker
And they wanted to hire her after she graduated. But she said the pay was going to be, I think, $8 an hour. So she was like, no, sorry, I can't do that. But anyways, she's an expert on teaching yoga teachers how to read and interpret research. And she said even then she was so skeptical of how they were doing the research and what they were concluding based on who they were doing the research on. So most of the research was done, I think, on women over 65.
00:46:43
Speaker
Yes. And a lot of statistically insignificant findings were put forth in a way that made it seem like they were significant. Yes, yes.
00:46:55
Speaker
And so I think, you know, as with my story of my husband who, you know, never wanted anything to be wrong with me because he's a doctor, right? And as a feminist, it's interesting that, you know, a male breast cancer surgeon, oncologist, doctor, you know,
Women's Health Issues and Dismissive Attitudes
00:47:16
Speaker
is not, you know, he finally couldn't sleep at night anymore because he had told so many women to suck it up cupcake, right? Suck it up cupcake. He's glad you're not dead of breast cancer. There's nothing I can do for any of these symptoms until his wife had the symptoms. Right. And I will also say this, suck it up cupcake is something women are very, very familiar with hearing in many stages of their reproductive lives.
00:47:44
Speaker
including period cramps, labor, prenatal, labor, postnatal issues, pelvic floor traumas after giving birth, pelvic floor pain, pelvic pain, and now perimenopause and menopause. And so kind of just to go back a little bit,
00:48:06
Speaker
I don't want to be that woman that walks into that office and hears that type of treatment from my medical care providers. But I also want to be that woman like you who does extensive evidence-based reviews and research of the people who will be giving me advice so that it's not just, I want to have 30 minutes with my doctor. It's actually, I want to have a doctor that listens to me and
00:48:36
Speaker
is current on the evidence and then gives me advice that will actually help me and doesn't say suck it up buttercup. You're a woman. That's just the way it is. Right. And luckily we don't have to anymore because there are male breasts. I mean, there are female doctors of all specialties, but for a very long time there weren't. But I think for me, because I didn't experience any, the last time I had issues
00:49:06
Speaker
like dealing with birth control and it affecting my hormones in my 20s or getting my period and having period cramps when you're 13 and all that. This kind of hit me hard because I've been kind of smooth sailing for a very long time because I skipped the whole pregnancy, postnatal, prenatal, that whole phase, which may be why I had so much energy for this phase to research it.
00:49:32
Speaker
Right. The thing about the umbrella issue that we might be talking about in this conversation is about
00:49:47
Speaker
women's rights, feminism, the patriarchy, of course, right? It's kind of all sitting there in the room with us, these characters, right? And these create sometimes invisible barriers. They create invisible obstacles that we're actually always battling, but we might not realize that we're battling. And so we start to wonder, what's wrong with me? Like, why can't I just suck it up, Buttercup? Why can't I get it together?
00:50:16
Speaker
And so I find that even if listeners maybe aren't going through the symptoms of perimenopause, maybe male listeners who never will, that maybe what we're also listening for in this conversation is about those inequalities and those invisible obstacles that different populations, not just women,
00:50:40
Speaker
face in a society. So fascinating. Can I ask you another question that's related to the ones before it? Yeah.
Impact of Menopause on Lifestyle
00:50:50
Speaker
Because this is a podcast for movement teachers spanning yoga, Pilates, strength, also physical therapists, can you speak to how the symptoms of perimenopause affected you physically?
00:51:04
Speaker
in terms of your physical activity. You are an extremely active person. You are big in strength training, which I find very inspiring when I see your posts on Instagram and talk to you about strength training. We geek out about it. How did perimenophos affect your energy levels and the different types of activities, modalities that you practice as a practitioner? And then you can also speak to teaching as a very physical job as well, if you want to speak to that as well.
00:51:35
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's been a really interesting time for me because of the pandemic. You know, I guess, let's see, I'll be 50 in May. And so in March of 2020, I was not quite, I was 47. And I think average age of menopause is 51. But it can be, you know, people 55. So
00:52:01
Speaker
I had the unique privilege of having a lot of extra time to be outside, number one, and go on walks. I used to never have time to go on walks because I was driving everywhere, but also to exercise because I wasn't commuting and I wasn't driving and I wasn't looking for parking and I wasn't traveling.
00:52:26
Speaker
Yeah. And so I think it was a gift in many ways because I really only had time to, before the pandemic, I would do one like strength, high intensity interval training class a week on Tuesdays and one
00:52:43
Speaker
weightlifting session with my personal trainer. So it's kind of like one and a half ish weightlifting. And then when the pandemic came, you know, I was doing twice a week weightlifting, but also like I was home and I'd do some pull ups every time I walked through the doorway at the pull up bar, you know, like there was just and then eventually like built up my whole garage. So, you know, into a gym.
00:53:09
Speaker
And I would say that what was really interesting is, you know, as I said, I was exercising more. I was eating a lot healthier because I wasn't eating out anymore. I was eating at home. So while I ate healthy when I would eat out, like say you go and you get, you know, like
00:53:28
Speaker
We have tender greens or whatever and you get, you know, like the chicken or the salmon and it comes with like vegetables and rice or, you know, mashed potatoes and a salad. But like the protein is kind of small and the carbs are pretty big and the vegetables are a little, you know, so like at home you're like, oh, I can have all the vegetables I want. And that's not like, you know, I can put however much oil on it I want. I don't have to like coat it in oil like they do at the restaurant.
00:53:53
Speaker
And this scale just kept going up and up and up. And so I had to learn actually a lot about nutrition. I was one of those people, I know you as well, where it just, I mean, I...
00:54:10
Speaker
eat and eat and eat. And when I see people eat small portions, I was like, what's wrong with them? Why are they doing that? And then even as a kid, I was the kid that would eat the funnel cake and then go on the roller coaster. I was the kid that when I got my tonsils out, my mom's like, where do you want to go eat? And I'm like, taco bueno. I want to get the bueno chalata with jalapeno.
00:54:36
Speaker
So I guess going back to your question, yes, like people who are like me genetically privileged with whatever skinny jeans or like good digestion, that changed as well. I kind of suffered from IBS off and on throughout my life.
00:54:57
Speaker
But yeah, and so I guess as a teacher, you know, just being aware that your students, you know, don't give your students medical advice, but you can, if they come up to you and talk about perimenopausal symptoms, like suggest resources like the North American Menopause Society doctor website suggest
00:55:16
Speaker
sent going to the Genev website and doing a 30-minute consult with OBGYN on Zoom. Maybe recommend a couple books or podcasts that you think might be helpful and just tell them that they should really go to a doctor or two or three to get some information. Yeah, and would you say there are any relevant questions that a movement teacher could ask, say,
00:55:45
Speaker
if you were the student or client of a movement teacher, are there any scope appropriate relevant questions that a movement teacher might ask if your client has offered up this information that they're going through perimenopause or experiencing those symptoms, what would be in scope, session relevant, movement relevant, programming relevant questions that you might ask your student? Can you think of any?
Advising Movement Educators
00:56:12
Speaker
Well, and like two things are coming to mind. The first thing is I'm a big proponent of don't really like figure your stuff out first. So if you are also perimenopausal, right? This is something that kind of irritates me, but I find that a lot of movement teachers like to give advice on topics that
00:56:38
Speaker
are issues they have themselves that they haven't dealt with, right? So they're like, oh, you have Achilles tendonitis? So do I. But they still haven't gone to the physical therapist themselves to deal with their own Achilles tendonitis. And they're like looking at YouTube videos and recommending this thing and that thing that they've done, but they haven't actually gone to a professional.
00:57:00
Speaker
Right. Right. And so same thing with this. It's like, you know, sure, share your personal experience. I'm sharing mine. But you know, and you can say what has worked for you because that is your personal experience. But
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I feel like so many issues are brought up, you know, to us as movement teachers that should really be issues that are brought up. Like the same thing happens with pelvic floor stuff, right? So like, you know, I'll get a teacher who will ask me, you know, a bunch of my students are asking me about pelvic floor stuff. I need to take a pelvic floor. I want to take a pelvic floor training so I can help them better. And I'm like, why don't you first
00:57:46
Speaker
go to a pelvic floor physical therapist yourself, and maybe even if you don't need to, at least just interview them and say, I have a lot of students that need this. Right. Tell me about how you might be able to help them. And send your students.
00:58:04
Speaker
So the person who has a doctorate in physical therapy that then did like an extra two year fellowship training program, instead of just all of this random like searching the internet and guessing, that's fine, but that should be on top of an in addition to going to a clinician or a doctor.
Access to Affordable Healthcare Challenges
00:58:23
Speaker
Yeah. The one thing I'll say about that, though, is that in a country like the United States, where many people don't have access to affordable healthcare, where seeking affordable healthcare and receiving it can be a financial hardship, that can sometimes feel like non-advice.
00:58:43
Speaker
Right, right, absolutely. And I'm not asking about what advice should you give. I'm asking what questions should you give or ask. I was thinking along the lines of, you know, how are your energy levels
00:58:57
Speaker
Would that be a relevant question to somebody experiencing symptoms of perimenopause? What would feel good right now? What are your goals right now? What do you want to work on? I have, for example, I have students who, who do share with me that they're, you know, they, they want one student wants a, um, wants to be active. They want to stay active every day.
00:59:21
Speaker
And what helps them stay active every day is being given a program, basically being given a list of classes to take.
00:59:32
Speaker
they can then pick and choose based on a couple of different options that I give them, which one sounds better for them on a given day. Other students might, for example, want to work on their strength. I have another private student that I'm working with who really has decided now in this stage that her goal is, whereas before it was that she wanted to do mostly body weight, Pilates,
00:59:56
Speaker
type work. She's recognizing she wants something a little bit more strength training oriented. And so I just wonder if you would know of any other particularly relevant questions that would keep a teacher actually in scope that only deal with how that teacher actually provides a service for their student within the scope of practice of that teacher.
01:00:19
Speaker
So yeah, now I understand. So I've been teaching private sessions since 2007 and that's always been the bulk of my business. So I have been asking these questions at the beginning of every session for 15 years.
01:00:36
Speaker
whether the person has, you know, whatever, they always have something because that's why they're doing private sessions, you know, or they don't and they just want to learn. And so, so yeah, I think that is the beauty of a private session, you know, because it is completely catered to the individual. So yeah, I think that should just be no matter what, like at the beginning of every session I check in with my client,
01:01:02
Speaker
You know, how are you doing? How are you feeling? What do you want to focus on today? I have a plan, like I have your whole program typed up in the spreadsheet on the Google Doc, but we can completely scrap it. If something's going on, I don't know about that. I need to change everything.
01:01:20
Speaker
And so, yeah, I think that should just be a given no matter what. And then, yeah, yeah. Also maybe to not be surprised when a student wants to tell you that they're having perimenopausal symptoms, right? And to not be taken back by that and maybe to learn a little bit.
01:01:39
Speaker
and this includes our male teachers out there, learn a little bit about what perimenopause is, what it can entail. It's different for everybody as you said at the very top of the show. I've heard of women who have had no symptoms in any stage of perimenopause and menopause.
01:01:55
Speaker
And I don't even know it. And then suddenly they're like, wow, I haven't had my periods for a year. I guess I'm in menopause. Exactly. I'm so happy
Broader Health Symptoms Beyond Menopause
01:02:02
Speaker
for you. So then also maybe something to note is that if someone says that they are experiencing perimenopause or menopause, don't assume that they're having any symptoms at all, right? You just take the lead of the student and check in, which is common.
01:02:16
Speaker
common practice, right? Yeah, and I think a lot of the symptoms of things that happen in perimenopause happen not because of perimenopause. So say you're having mood swings and trouble sleeping. Well, I have students of all genders of all ages who have mood swings, anxiety, depression, and difficulty sleeping.
01:02:35
Speaker
And so a lot of these symptoms that happen in perimenopause, you know, I have a lot of clients that have brain fog and memory loss and they're not in perimenopause, right? It's for other reasons they have brain fog and memory loss. And so yeah, just really thinking about
01:02:52
Speaker
You know, I think as movement educators, we tend to really be like, oh, well, if you have this condition, I should know these protocols and ask these questions. And instead, just like everything is biopsychosocial, like your male clients might have brain fog and memory light.
01:03:09
Speaker
or mood swings. Not to overly worry about educating yourself on every possible condition because we are so lucky that we actually don't have to do what the doctors do, which is spend 12 years of their lives going to school, specializing in one little teeny tiny thing and then only being able to know about that and treat that.
01:03:36
Speaker
On the other hand, I will say that for me at least, my inroad to being able to empathize and have compassion for others is to try to understand what it is that they might be experiencing and whether that takes place on an interpersonal level, an intellectual level, an academic level. I do think that knowledge is compassion making. It can be at least. It can also be the opposite.
01:04:00
Speaker
Well, and I think, yeah, the way you learn is by being a recipient of the kind of treatment you want to receive. So if you go and you take private sessions with somebody who's really good at what they do, you're going to see, you know, how much knowledge they have about you and your specific conditions. You know, like I have a new client who has
01:04:24
Speaker
joint hypermobility EDS. So of course I already know a ton about it, but I just bought like the brand new latest book, you know, that's 300 pages about it because it's like, cool, I can help her even more. Exactly. Yeah.
Personal Growth and Student Guidance
01:04:40
Speaker
Make your pursuit of knowledge specific and practical to the people that need you the most. Exactly. Wow. This has been a really fascinating conversation that I feel like
01:04:55
Speaker
I learned so much having with you Trina. So thank you so much. I wanted to ask you two more questions. One related or unrelated to our topic. What are you really excited about right now in your teaching slash personal life, anything you want to talk about? What's like really getting you excited?
01:05:13
Speaker
Um, teaching my private clients. So this is the first time in my life, um, that we've owned a house. So we bought a house to be in a pandemic. And my, as far as I have my husband is very kind. He let me turn two, we have three bedrooms, one bedroom into a room that's just for yoga, semantics and filming another bedroom into a room that has the Pilates reformer.
01:05:38
Speaker
and the rebounder, and then we turned our garage into a gym. And so when my clients come over, I can say, you know, what do you wanna do today? Do you wanna lift weights? Do you wanna do some somatics? Do you wanna get on the reformer? Do you wanna do some cardio on the tramp? Like, do you wanna do a little bit of each? And it has, after surviving the pandemic online, I mean, it just makes me so happy.
01:06:06
Speaker
Yes, you've seen people in person. Seeing people in person, not having to rent space at the studio, not having to drive in traffic and park, and literally just having them show up and welcome them into my house and then teaching my in-person class.
01:06:24
Speaker
Wow. Wow. That is next level. That is next level. They come to you. They come to me. And if I want to go overtime with them, I can because I don't have to pay extra or I don't have a client waiting for me at the top of hour. I book buffers in between each client. Game changer. It's such a yes.
01:06:47
Speaker
That's cool, but it's a particular type of person I think that would really love to have people come into their house. I'm thinking about that for myself, and I'm like, I'd have to think about that a little bit more. I mean, I don't have children, and Farsa does work in the hospital.
01:07:05
Speaker
the only person at home. And I only teach my privates during the day, during the week. I don't teach nights. I don't teach weekends. So no one's here except for us. Yeah. Seems like it is a perfect fit.
01:07:18
Speaker
It is. For you and for your space and your circumstances. That's wonderful. Thanks for sharing that with us. And where can people find you, learn from you? What are all the ways? Yeah. Best way to stay in touch and to learn about what I'm offering is to join my email list. So I regularly send out free content.
01:07:37
Speaker
teaching resources through it. You can sign up for my email list on my website which is TrenaAltman.com and then we'll put a link in the show notes where when you sign up you get a free somatic sequence that you can use in your two sequences actually that you can use in your personal practice and teaching.
01:07:57
Speaker
Fantastic. Well, Trina, thanks so much for being here with me to talk about your personal experience with perimenopause I think that the resources that you've provided the anecdotes that you've shared the wisdom that you always lead with Will be so helpful to our listeners So thank you for sharing so generously as you always do and I am so grateful to you for being being here with me
01:08:22
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for providing this forum because yes, all the research that I did, I really want to share it so that I can help other people so they don't have to slog through as much stuff. I know you will and I am grateful and I am following you and listening to everything you're saying because I'm right behind you.
01:08:47
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode and you want to support us, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you'd like to watch, head on over to our website at movementmagictutorials.com forward slash podcast, where you can watch the video version. We'll be back in your ears next week to nerd out about movement without taking ourselves too seriously in the process.