Not Feeling Like Yourself Anymore? The Truth About Perimenopause, Menopause, and the Female Brain and Body with Dr. Liz Lyster, MD

Progesterone is the first hormone to drop, often in a woman’s 30s. It calms the brain and supports sleep, so the earliest signal usually looks like anxiety or a wrecked night rather than anything hormonal.
How estrogen enters the body changes its risk. Liz explains the first-pass effect through the liver, and why the clotting risk attached to oral estrogen did not follow transdermal estrogen in the data.
A “normal” hormone level can be the least useful sentence in an appointment. Liz treats symptoms first and labs second, starts low and goes slow, and says women still have to raise the subject before the doctor reaches the door.

About the Expert

Alya Ahmad, MD, FAAP

Too Curious MDs

We are two and too curious physicians applying the lens of Narrative Medicine, exploring Integrative practices and psychedelic treatment in healthcare. Together with our guests we weave new learnings from stories, expertise, and the sciences. With the wisdom from holistic, alternative, and conventional medicine, we’are here to challenge the status quo!!!!
We are curious about the connectivity and complexity between diverse fields of knowledge as they relate to consciousness, chronic illness, mental health, resilience, and beyond! Stories of illness in the context of caring for patients in psychedelic medicine, what emerges and what we can learn as health care changes.

Guest

Liz Lyster, MD

Women’s Midlife Health Expert & Board-Certified OB/GYN in Private Practice

Dr. Liz Lyster is a board-certified OB/GYN, hormone specialist, and women's midlife health expert who has spent over 30 years helping women (and men) get real answers when everyone else shrugged.She graduated with honors from Cornell University, completed her medical training at UC Irvine, and earned a Master's in Community Health Education from UCLA. She then spent decades in clinical practice watching accomplished women get dismissed, under-tested, and handed antidepressants when what they actually needed was a hormone panel. So she built something different.Dr. Liz is the author of several books, including Dr. Liz's Easy Guide to Menopause, Go for GREAT, and Sacred Libido, and the host of Hotness, the podcast where hormones, confidence, and desire come back online. She speaks nationally on hormonal health, menopause, and midlife medicine.Outside the exam room, she celebrated her 50th birthday by climbing Kilimanjaro, dances Argentine tango, and has logged thousands of hours in personal growth programs since age 19. She's the proud mom of two incredible adult sons — and yes, she's living proof that desire, confidence, and hotness don't have an expiration date.