đź’“ The Heart is a House with Amy Chadwick
One thing about the menopause transition - it prompts many of us to reevaluate different aspects of our lives.
Paying more attention to hormones (I mean, for a lot of us, how can we not), means taking a closer look at our greater health picture.
Heart health is — complex. There are a lot of moving parts, and understanding our personal risk factors often can be a challenge.
🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀
With that, I’m excited to drop our newest episode of Departure Menopause with my friend, Amy Chadwick, RN, BSN, CPT.
Amy is a Heart Failure Nurse Navigator, bringing her years of experience to provide us with education and practical tips on assessing our heart health.
Tune in to hear:💓 About Amy’s role in the hospital system as a Heart Failure Nurse Navigator
đź’“ An understanding of heart failure and heart disease
đź’“ Learn the key heart health markers to monitor
đź’“ Understand why stress management in perimenopause is a key heart health behavior
💓 Hear Amy’s personal journey through perimenopause - which, spoiler alert, does not involve hormone therapy
Resources & References:HAES® / Health at Every Size® Health Sheets - Weight -inclusive education and interventions for heart disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure
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[00:00:00]
Melinda: Welcome to Departure Menopause, a podcast about weight inclusive and neurodivergent affirming care in the menopause transition. I'm your host, Melinda Staling. On this podcast we discuss making compassionate health and positive body image change through practical steps and gentle care. To stay connected and go deeper, head to the show notes to subscribe and download the regular eating guide.
Hello, hello and welcome or welcome back to Departure Menopause, where we are building a more neurodivergent affirming and weight inclusive menopause transition. If we haven't met yet, I'm your host, Melinda Staling, and today we're talking about one of these topics that's so important in midlife yet just isn't discussed as much.
The relationship between menopause and heart health is complicated. Most of the resulting disease, we're going to talk today about heart failure, but also heart attack. Arrhythmias like AFib, artery disease, and more happen after the menopause transition in post menopause and the rest of our lives.
And teasing out what is aging and what is attributed to the hormone fluctuations, and that final estrogen drop at menopause is of course super complex. We're not crediting everything that's going on with the heart here to menopause,
but there are some changes that happen around this time with the bigger picture of cardiovascular health that make it notable. And I know this is also a time when people do sort of a reevaluation of their overall health.
I wanted to stay more out of the doom and gloom and into more practical action during our interview today. But I do wanna say upfront that heart disease is the main cause of death in America,
and we have data to back up that there's an education gap where women particularly don't know that heart disease is the main cause of death.
One study indicates there's actually been a decline in awareness where in 2009, 65% of women were aware that heart disease was the leading cause of death, and in 2019, only 44% of women responded the same way.
And of course, heart disease spans across all genders.
It is also important to mention here that like any medical complication, heart health only becomes that much more challenging when you're in a marginalized body, whether that means neurodivergence or you're in a larger body, or you're black or brown or trans, it's more complicated to get care.
I also want to acknowledge that [00:03:00] heart health and heart disease depends on a lot of factors. There's our own behavior, sure. But there's also the role of genetics and our environment and social determinants of health. Some people are genetically wired to have a more complicated relationship with heart health, and it takes money and access to food and clean water and time and social support to take on a lot of these interventions.
I.
One place I might suggest you look if you're interested in options for weight Inclusive heart health interventions are the Hayes or Health at every size Health Sheets, which I'll link to in the show notes.
These papers go over the variety of options and interventions to choose from if you're looking to improve various heart conditions, and they can be great to bring along to an appointment with you to discuss.
I do want to give a content warning for today's show. We're going to talk about heart disease, and we have some mentions of heart disease and events related to caregiver fatigue, which I know can feel sensitive. Take care of yourselves and listen when you feel it's the right time for you.
With that, I'd love to introduce my guest today we're going to meet Amy Chadwick and side plot. Amy is my friend and we've known each other since high school, and now we live in the same town, which is fun. We are going to chat about Amy's role at the hospital, some practical steps to take if you're thinking about heart health, and then we wrap our conversation with some of Amy's perimenopause experience, which spoiler alert does not involve hormone therapy.
Amy Chadwick is a registered nurse and heart failure nurse navigator. She's been in the field of nursing for 27 years, including roles at Planned Parenthood and as a nurse health coach, she's run her own business as a coach and personal trainer. And like I mentioned, her energy and laugh used to light up the classroom when we were seniors in high school.
Civics.
Melinda: hi Amy. Welcome to Departure Menopause.
Amy: Hi Melinda. Thanks for having me. Super excited to
Melinda: To be here. I'm so happy to have you here. I was hoping that we could start out today and I would love to hear a little bit more about your work. And I thought you could tell us a little bit more about your current role as a nurse navigator for heart failure patients.
Amy: Absolutely. So
Melinda: So.
Amy: full drawn out title is I'm a Heart Failure Nurse Navigator for our local hospital health system, and I really like to break it down as I am, like air traffic control. For patients who have been in the hospital with heart failure and are
Melinda: Are now ing
Amy: the real world. lot of the
Melinda: of the time they.
Amy: where they're going.
They have a lot of [00:06:00] questions, they have symptoms that come up and they don't have anybody to turn to. So we fill that gap. Um, if somebody says, Hey, I
Melinda: I dunno how to get my med
Amy: was discharged, I thought they were gonna give them to me, and
Melinda: and now
Amy: I'm at pharmacy and they're not here, I don't know what to do about it. So that's where we can step in and try and solve the puzzle. Other times a patient may be going home and you know, they may have dire or got rid of some fluid at the
Melinda: The hospital,
Amy: but
Melinda: but unfortunately,
Amy: heart failure patients, this fluid can return pretty fast. And
Melinda: and now they're.
Amy: They're swelling, they're having shortness of breath at night, and it's scary, and they don't know what to ask or who they should turn to. by us handing them our name, our number, explaining our role, serving as the advocate for them, they can have somebody to help guide and direct them and advocate, you know, as I said, , for. know, better outcomes and also the education is super important. Uh, what I love about my job is the ability to help a person help themselves. And I really see that through education, um, understanding why the disease process is happening, what are the contributing factors.
And really, I mean, the ultimate goal is to keep 'em out of the hospital and help them thrive at home. So. We do so many other things like community presentations for, , our local communities, uh, as well as we do education for, uh, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies in the area as well. So we like to really disperse the education to the right people who are having touchpoints with all of the heart
Melinda: Heart.
Amy: patients in central Oregon.
Melinda: That's pretty complex and I think I. I think that I see this coordination role that you're in as being, it sounds like part prevention,
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Melinda: communication, and then like you said, a lot of education and then just some connection of next steps for people.
Amy: Yeah,
Melinda: Yeah.
Amy: we work really closely with the cardiology, cardiology providers, and we will meet patients for their followup appointments and
Melinda: And
Amy: they didn't absorb all the information in the hospital. Maybe there's some teaching points that still need to be addressed, and it's wonderful collaborating with the cardiology department, so we're able to meet them at their visits. provide [00:09:00] those extra details, um, that again, help them stay healthy and at home 'cause people do
Melinda: Do better.
Amy: at home.
Melinda: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. I would.
Amy: The hospital bed can break your back. I swear it can. So if we can get you out of there sooner with the right
Melinda: Right information,
Amy: your
Melinda: your body
Amy: won't
Melinda: will be everly
Amy: for
Melinda: for that.
Amy: is
Melinda: It's really uncomfortable
Amy: more than a day
Melinda: day. Yeah. And it's, I mean, it's interesting to hear that from the perspective of a nurse, right. , Even you, uh, don't want people to be in the hospital for too long.
Amy: No,
Melinda: I am kind of thinking about what you're talking about with heart failure, and maybe we can back up a bit and you can give us sort of the, the idea of what heart failure actually is and also maybe the umbrella of heart disease. I think it sounds. Yeah, I think it just is such a complex sort of constellation of disease, and maybe that's part of the reason I think that people don't have as much educ education as they might about it.
I.
Amy: Yeah, if you can think of the heart, like a house. So it has plumbing, it has electricity, it has foundational like, uh, groundwork, like the heart is a house. So when you get things such as coronary artery disease, which is a plumbing issue within the vessels, you have to have plumbers that address that, or certain medications that prevent those blockages. I mean, if you don't, then that ends up in things like coronary artery disease and what are called myocardial infarcts or AKA. A heart attack,
Melinda: Mm-hmm.
Amy: plumbing type of issues. Then you have things such as electrical issues. So you have nodes that conduct electricity that signal the heart to contract open and close beat, and if those wires, quote unquote, are not. Speaking correctly to each other. Then you get electrical issues like atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter. Um. You can have unfortunate things like ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, which are lethal rhythms, and those are the ones that you would need a shock for. then the foundational issue is, so you have actual the myocytes, which are your heart cells, and you have things that can make, , fibrous.
F tissues that we don't want in there, like amyloidosis. Um, or you have issues with the [00:12:00] valves, the opening and closing between the top part of the heart and the bottom part of the heart. And if there's stiffness or if you had, let's say, rheumatoid,. Like a rheumatoid issue when you're a child, those valves can actually get, um, stiff and don't function, and then you might have to have them replaced. So those are, I mean, and that's again, just scratching the surface. There's so many different things. So
Melinda: Heart
Amy: heart
Melinda: failure.
Amy: it
Melinda: It really
Amy: something is
Melinda: is happening
Amy: to the heart
Melinda: that is.
Amy: it to have to work overtime. And if you take systolic dysfunction, meaning. The contraction that the heart has to have to beat out and put a lot of pressure on that, that poor left side of your heart gets stretched out and boggy like an overstretch rubber band, then you are not getting that beautiful pump out of blood. To the rest of your body, including your head, your legs, your toes, your fingers, and then you get devoid of oxygen that doesn't feel good. And over time you are not. Your body is basically struggling to breathe then things start cascading.
So there are two types of heart failure, one that I explained. So that one has to do with the actual pumping boggy and non-effective. The other one is the type of heart failure where the body kind of makes. The heart sick, where the systolic failure is the heart making the body sick. diastolic or preserved failure is, let's say you have diabetes or hypertension. So if you have. A ton of pressure that the heart has to work at to get out, or sorry, to get the blood out against, let's say lung pressures or against your narrowing of your, um, arteries or, or veins.
Melinda: Mm-hmm.
Amy: that heart becomes, usually the muscle becomes large. And stiff, and it doesn't allow for as much blood to actually get into the heart, and because it's so stiff, it can't get that lovely contraction to get the blood out to the right places. That was, in a nutshell, it's very complex
Melinda: Well, it's, yeah, it's super complex. And first of all, I loved your visual metaphor of the house. I've never heard that before. And just thinking about electricity and plumbing and foundation and all of this just helps me kind of take myself into this landscape a little bit easier. And. I think the complexity of what you're talking to, you know, I'm, I'm thinking that it's some of the reasons why maybe our, our [00:15:00] knowledge base about heart disease, and especially here we're talking about menopause, transition, heart disease,
um, it's complicated. We're talking about so many different body systems and processes, and so it's just, it's not surprising to me that this wouldn't be a, a, an easy task to take on for people.
Melinda: . , if you had to pick, say, I, I know there are more than, I know there are more than these, if you had to pick like top five markers to sort of become a little bit more aware of and monitor, what would those be?
Amy: Okay. So some of the markers that pay attention to. As we had spoken before, will be your total cholesterol and then actually broken down the different types. So there's A-P-O-B-A-O, A-V-L-D-L, it's, especially if you have a familial history of high cholesterol, then it's really important to know those numbers. A1C, um, and. Fasting glucose levels, that is really important as well, Another one would be, if you have. Untreated sleep apnea,
Melinda (2): Hmm.
Amy (2): a huge one
Melinda (2): That is such a good point.
Amy: to address. Um, when you stop breathing in the middle of the night, you raise your stress hormones like epinephrine, cortisol, interleukins. To the point where you cause multiple amounts of inflammation and increase of blood pressure, as well as pulse rate, and that over time can lead to heart failure, as well as hypertension, as well as coronary artery disease. Um, and then again, knowing hyper, so knowing your blood pressure on a routine basis, what that looks like. a normal reading. At this day and age, we're looking for anything around one 20 over 80 or less. Um. As people get into their seventies and eighties, most people's blood pressure goes up. So then we're a little bit more lenient, like one 30 over 80. ultimately we would like to see people in the, like one teens over 70 range.
That would
Melinda (2): Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): be the easiest on your blood vessels and your heart.
Melinda (2): Okay.
Amy (2): Those, those are some good ones. Straight off the bat.
Melinda (2): Okay, I'm gonna recap and what I heard was knowing your [00:18:00] cholesterol numbers, your A1C and blood glucose. Um, paying attention to sleep apnea and then blood pressure, and then a bonus of family history.
Amy (2): Correct.
Melinda (2): Awesome. Thank you for walking us through that. I also wanted to make one point that like. Some of this is aging and just the natural process of getting older, and a lot of that starts to kick up at midlife.
if I, I don't currently take my blood pressure if I wanted to go out and find, you know, a well rated
Amy (2): Mm-hmm.
Melinda (2): home blood pressure monitor. And then start checking. You said maybe weekly to start. What would you recommend as far as like a process for that?
Amy (2): The omicron blood pressure, omicron, blood pressure cuffs from, um, you can get 'em at drug stores, they're usually like behind the counter.
Melinda (2): Okay.
Amy (2): but also on Amazon. on, I'm gonna. Omron, O-M-R-O-N, have a really good, uh, reputation. it's important to take a blood pressure correctly, so you don't want to have caffeine before.
You don't wanna smoke a cigarette before, and I forgot to talk about smoking. That's one of the other things that can absolutely impact your numbers in a good way by is quitting smoking.
Melinda (2): Yeah.
Amy (2): And then, um, you don't wanna have like a hard conversation beforehand as well. You wanna sit in your chair for about two to three minutes before you even take your blood pressure, let your body settle, feet on the floor, no crossing of legs.
Try to get your, uh, left arm to heart level as best you can, then make sure that your, um. Cuff is lined up appropriately with your blood vessel. It will give you a little arrow and shows you, then when it, the cuff is actually taking the blood pressure. Don't talk, don't move.
Melinda (2): Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): Just basically sit there thinking about a lovely beach or a lake you've been to and
Melinda (2): Yeah.
Amy (2): your whole body and that's, that's a proper blood pressure.
Melinda (2): Thanks for walking us through that. I am. I learned some tips there for sure. Since we're talking about smoking and some of these other preventable factors, do you have other, other things that come up quite a bit as far as prevention that you really recommend?
Amy (2): As far as lifestyle or behavioral modifications, one of the [00:21:00] bigger ones that is not a popular opinion
Melinda (2): Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): decreasing or stopping drinking alcohol.
Melinda (2): Yeah.
Amy (2): So. Being mindful that if someone has started to notice some fluttering almost a little weakness, shortness of breath at times, you know, maybe you need an EKG, maybe you need to go to your primary care and be
Melinda (2): Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): check this out. because that could be happening and you're not realizing it. And then adding alcohol to that just. Kind of throws it over the edge. So that's one area that, , people can make a significant change in how their heart rhythms are. If they are having these fibrillations by just stopping drinking, only have it once in a while. Um, honestly, most cardiologists will tell you never, , because of the risk. , Other things, honestly, sleep, uh, and especially as we get into menopause, I have prioritized sleep more than I prioritized exercise
When you're sleeping, you are decreasing those hormones that are in that fight or flight state. your sympathetic state, you're taking that down into parasympathetic rest and digest state. You're healing, you're recovering your body, and that over time is super important for your heart health.
Melinda (2): Okay. Is there anything that you wanna say about that, about just lifestyle piece or things that have helped either you or your patients? Um, with sleep specifically,
Amy (2): It is cliched, but it works. Sleep hygiene is
Melinda (2): I.
Amy (2): Get a routine where you are turning lights low where you are maybe doing some breathing, some breath work before bed. Again, to get into that parasympathetic state cool room as best you can. It is worth the bill to crank your air conditioning to
Melinda (2): Hmm.
Amy (2): degrees. So that it allows you to get into that deep rest. as we talked about before, that nourishing and restoration and triggering of the parasympathetic effect. Um, and then limit caffeine. Uh, I would say caffeine lasts about 12 hours in your body ish. really trying to cut it off around 10. Um, so you aren't getting any effects, even though you may not be feeling it, you [00:24:00] still may be experiencing it. Um, and then read something boring.
Another thing I do is keep my journal next to my bed. If recurrent thoughts continue and they're not stopping, I will write them down and try and get it outta my head.
Melinda (2): Get it out of your head and onto the paper. Yeah.
Amy (2): Exactly.
Melinda (2): I know that you have a special interest in stress management, and I wanted to touch on that. Why don't you tell us a little bit about stress and perimenopause.
Amy (2): Uh, it is probably one of the most underrated, contributing factors to, I would say, heart disease. the problem is, is that stress releases hormones that are in that fight or flight response that cause inflammation, that cause your liver to break down glucose. though thinks you need to run and fight, you are literally sitting at your desk trying to meet a deadline. Low levels of. Intense stress. I don't know if that's an oxymoron, but caregiver fatigue. So you see this with, I in fact, have had three patients in the last week who all had either heart attacks or heart failure exacerbation because they have been caring for a loved one,
Melinda (2): Mm.
Amy (2): is one of the most. things a human body can go through,
Melinda (2): Yeah.
Amy (2): when it's Alzheimer's or some sort of Parkinsonian. I mean, cancer, obviously a loved one with cancer. That's extremely difficult as well. So when I'm meeting with these patients who have had these events. Yeah. of focusing on like diets and exercise, it's how are you caregiving to yourself? How can that look different? Because when you give, give, give constantly, you are in that low level fight or flight constantly and, and top of that being menopausal postmenopausal. That itself puts you at risk because of those hormones anyway for depression, anxiety, and then you add a heart issue on top of that, which puts you more at risk for depression, anxiety. People who've never had depression and anxiety and have had a heart attack or having depression and anxiety afterwards because of those.
Hormones that are released. And so when you're dealing with major amounts of stress over time, one, [00:27:00] you increase your blood pressure. Two, you increase your pulse rate. Three, you release unfortunate amounts of sugar into your system that usually don't get processed well.
It's really looking at the whole picture and helping that person realize that it is time to prioritize some caregiving to themselves as best that they can given this situation that they're dealing with.
Melinda (2): What are some of your best? I think more on the practical side of tips to start out with a stress management program, if that has not been something that you've really worked into your life.
Amy (2): The easiest thing that I tell people to get each day is vitamin L. So love and laughter. Those, especially laughter. Those are some. Quick things you can get love from a phone call. You can get love from your pet. You can get love from a friend. You can get love from a child. You can get laughter from a funny YouTube video.
You can get laughter from a book, a magazine, a movie, uh, talking with friends on the phone, make it easy and tangible.
Melinda (2): Yeah. Yeah.
Amy (2): work those things in each day, just even two to three minutes has been shown to decrease that fight or flight and those inflammatory stress hormones significantly. that would be a really fast. An easy place to start. The second thing I work on again, is the sleep aspect, if you can gently move your body. It's better than sitting. If you can just go for a walk, be in nature, look at the sky ground yourself. Remember that you are part of this world. and. Again, simple, easy steps for people to try and incorporate into their busy lives. And then we can work on, when I was, um, doing all of my health coaching, then it was like starting to work on the program, like a stress management program. So how do you know stress is happening in your body? The first thing is, is like. Tuning in. Am I wearing my shoulders like earrings my gut?
Melinda (2): up to the ears.
Amy (2): yeah. I mean, is my gut sound, I call it the alien baby. Has the alien baby resurfaced in my guts? Um, am I crying all the time? Do I just wanna sleep all the time? So, oh, wow. If that is going on for me, whoa.
I [00:30:00] know I'm stressed. So now what? So now that I know that I'm stressed, what do I do? Well, I create a toolbox. I go, I look at my journal and I have a list of things that I can choose from that feel good at the moment. Maybe it is, you know, calling a friend. Maybe it is going for a five or 10 minute walk just to get outta my head.
Melinda (2): Yeah.
Amy (2): is just lying on the floor. I can't tell you. I can't tell you how effective lying on the floor is.
Melinda (2): Uh, I love a floor lie down, and I think what I really, really appreciate about so many of those recommendations were they're, they're simple things that we're adding in. They're, we're not necessarily taking things away, but we're making a little bit more space and, and adding them in.
Amy (2): Exactly. So the first thing is, is recognition. The second thing is, is, okay, what do I do about it? And then work on your toolbox, of tips and tricks for yourself. You're, you're the only one who knows how effective those toolbox tools will be for you.
Melinda (2): We talked about your journey into perimenopause a little bit. I was wondering to whatever level you feel comfortable, if you'd like to share with us some more of what's going on with you in perimenopause.
Amy (2): Sure. It's definitely been an interesting journey. Um, I like my, my friends and other women I've talked to all of a sudden. You just wake up one day and you're like, something just doesn't feel quite right. something feels like it's inhabiting my body and I don't know what it is, all of a sudden I don't have the energy that I used to.
As I mentioned before, I was a health coach and personal trainer. Um, I did that for. Eight years, I loved it. And then COVID hit. So that was one factor. But then when I thought about getting ready to relaunch my business, it literally exhausted me to the point where I did a floor lie down.
Melinda (2): You were tired.
Amy (2): I was, I was exhausted thinking about it. And that had never happened to me before. Um, that was like a huge signal. Something was different. And then, I mean, my sex drive totally tanked. That was weird. Um, and then, I mean, know I've had some anxiety depression in the past. [00:33:00] But this cyclic nature of what was going on was really bizarre. just felt like it would happen every couple weeks for no apparent reason. So all of this stuff I started looking at, I'm like, oh my gosh, I think, I think I'm totally in perimenopause. Here I am. Okay. And then what has surfaced, I would say in the last probably three years is the joint pain.
Like parts of my body that never hurt before, hurt now, then not being able to recover from, like my athletics, I was a huge athlete for years and years and years, and. Now I'm having to rest more.
And that's weird for
Melinda (2): Yeah. Yeah.
Amy (2): So those were, those have been my, like, big symptoms. And then, and I don't. I if it's relevant or not, but I will share it. Um, so I have liver tumors that were found incidentally on an MRI once upon a time, long time ago, I did egg donation blasted my. with a whole, whole load of hormones. And we think that that's possibly why I have liver tumors.
Melinda (2): mm.
Amy (2): And then because of that, I cannot do HRT. I would do HRT in two seconds if I had my druthers, but I don't. So I have to go through this thing without any real help. I think my doctor was comfortable, like if I had vaginal dryness or something like that, I could use, um, estrogen cream, I cannot take like patches, pills, anything that, because they could grow my tumors.
Melinda (2): So like a, a local vaginal estrogen would be okay, but systemic estrogen is not because, because liver is directly contraindicated for hormone therapy.
Amy (2): Yes it is.
Melinda (2): Oh boy. So anything else that you are doing? Because you had to take this detour without, without that sort of assistance. Like anything that you've found that's helpful for some of the symptoms you're describing.
Amy (2): it's all the behavioral stuff. I have a counselor, I write in a journal. I take naps. If I'm in a bad mood, I try to avoid my husband's. I try not to start fights. [00:36:00] love, like for my serotonin and dopamine, I love ecstatic dance. I go and I try and dance, and if I can't make the date and time, I have a dance party in my house.
Melinda (2): I love that you're doing that.
Amy (2): I'm just trying to my hormones where I can without influencing. My liver tumors.
Melinda (2): For sure, for sure.
Amy (2): Mm-hmm.
Melinda (2): one thing you didn't bring up, and I'm gonna ask, and if you don't wanna talk about it, just let me know, but what about the hot flashes?
Amy (2): Um, so I, funny enough, have had hot flashes since. I mean, I think I've had some sort of hot flash since I feel like my thirties and I'm not sure I always attributed them to, I was getting more in shape and my body was getting more efficient at regulating
Melinda (2): Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): faster. But they're exactly the same as they are now.
Melinda (2): Oh.
Amy (2): I just wonder if, you know, with having the egg donation, the liver
Melinda (2): Mm.
Amy (2): like, who knows?
I mean, maybe I could have had early perimenopause. But it hasn't been that much worse. I think I've had a couple more here and there. I would say where it does show up is sleeping at night. I have woken up multiple times, drenched
Melinda (2): Yeah.
Amy (2): so, so. That I am trying to do again without hormones. So I will put an ice pack on my neck at night
Melinda (2): Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): feeling warm or, you know, sleep in very, very, very small amounts of clothing. Uh, my husband and I literally have to build a pillow barrier between us. he says I radiate like an oven and burn his skin when he touches me at night. So thank God we went out and bought a king bed intentionally so that I'm not touching him. And if I get these , Uh, like night sweats
Melinda (2): Yeah. Yeah.
Amy (2): know, I'm kind of like relegated to my side of the bed. Suffer by myself.
Melinda (2): I didn't know that the hot flashes were going on for such a long time, and I've had the same experience with night sweats, like as far back as. Now at this point, as far back as I can remember, and I still have them, I know they've [00:39:00] increased in perimenopause and I know that the, the systemic estrogen has helped.
I don't have daytime hot flashes, but I, the, the night sweats have been going on forever
Amy (2): yeah, there are, I mean, feel so disconcerted like when you wake up from it and I'm literally wiping sweat off of my face and my back and like it's.
Melinda (2): You are like, do I have to get up and change my shirt and use this towel and it's 3:00 AM and I have to wake up and work and oh God, it's awful.
Amy (2): Yeah. So it's, it's funny, my friends would kind of make fun of me. I remember in my thirties and forties they're like, oh, are you hot flashing again, because I would break out and, uh. To sweats. I
Melinda (2): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Amy (2): or warm,
Melinda (2): I didn't realize you were hot flashing for so long.
Amy (2): I didn't
Melinda (2): Is there.
Anything else about perimenopause management? Anything else that you're doing?
Amy (2): Honestly, it's about just community and bonding with my friends and getting that love and laughter every day. Um, it, it really does my overall doom and gloom. Look, when I get in those. It's like, no, no, no. Let me just reach out to a friend. Let's see if we can just go have a cup of tea or walk or something and shift that mindset. Because over time, again, the anxiety, depression equals, and not for everyone, but it can equal heart disease.
Melinda (2): Sure. Yeah. I think that would be a good place to sort of wrap up. Thanks for carrying us through. From your vast knowledge of the heart to education to now your turn with perimenopause. wanna, I wanna ask you my, my closing question. How are you departing from the usual in menopause?
Amy (2): I'm just gonna say the dancing. It's just all about dancing. You know, play and dancing and enjoying yourself. The gratitude that comes with just waking up and realizing that even though my body may not be the same, it's still works. I'm here, I'm functioning, I'm giving back, and I feel really good about that.
Melinda (2): I love that. Thanks for being here, Amy.
Amy (2): Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for listening. You can find show notes and links in our episodes and on Departure Menopause Club. If you enjoyed this show, I'd appreciate it if you shared it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe and download the regular eating guide. I'll see you [00:42:00] next time on Departure Menopause.