914: Women’s Hormone Health: From Survival Mode to Thriving With Mandy Patterson

Katie: Hello, and welcome to the wellness mama podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama. com and this episode is a deep dive on women’s hormone health from survival mode to thriving and specifically all of the things we can each individually do in our daily lives that are hormone supportive and that help send those signals of safety and not stress to our body.

And I’m here with Mandy Patterson, who is one of the few guests I’ve had who also has six kids. She’s also the founder of two online wellness consulting businesses, including mandypatterson. com and positivityfertility. com. And she really focuses on helping high performing women struggling with hormone challenges and infertility to find their optimal health.

And she’s a naturopathic doctor, functional medicine practitioner, certified holistic health coach, fertility specialist. And like I said, mom of six on a mission to show people that they can have lasting vibrant health. And we go into a lot of aspects of that today from genetics to lifestyle factors, to the synergy between vitamins and minerals that are important for hormone health and so much more.

Mandy is a wealth of knowledge and I really enjoyed this conversation. So let’s jump in and learn from her. Mandy, welcome. Thanks so much for being here.

Mandy: Thanks for having me, Katie,

Katie: I’m so excited to learn from you today and to get to have this conversation. And before we hit record, I also mentioned not often do I get to interview someone and have a chat with someone who also has six kids. I feel like we are in a minority for sure. Um, so that’s a fun commonality.

Mandy: Yeah, I know. We’re kind of in the weirdo out there kind of club, right?

Katie: What I know for you, like that ties in actually very directly with kind of your passion and your purpose and the work that you do. And I feel like another commonality that we have that is not common is that, for you from researching this, I believe it was you, that you almost died at age 22 with your first one.

And I almost died actually at age 22 with my third one, and actually did medically flatline. And so I would love to hear if you don’t mind sharing some of your story and how that kind of brought you into the work that you’re doing today.

Mandy: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s dive in.

Katie: Amazing. Well, yeah, if you don’t mind, maybe like walk us through a little bit, what that was like, what was going on, what you were told. Um, I know it seemed like you got some dire news about future kids related to that. So

Mandy: Yeah. Yeah. So, at the age of 22, I was actually studying to be an occupational therapist. So I was on my clinicals, because once you finish your course work, then the last, phase before graduation is doing two clinicals. And so I actually was on a pediatric rotation and six months pregnant at that point. We had just moved back from St. Louis because I attended St. Louis University and we’re from Indiana. So that’s where my husband’s job was. And so we were settling in, but I was feeling off. It was right after the holidays, because it was January, and I just kept feeling like there was something not right in my body, and I kept asking my mom, because my mom has four kids, I was her oldest, and everybody was like, Oh, you’re fine.

Just, you know, put your support hose on back then and make sure you’re resting and, you know, all of those things. But when you’re on your feet all day, like doing clinical rounds, there’s not much time to sit around. And I was I doing inpatient rehabilitation and then also first steps. So in the state of Indiana, that’s like home health. So I was going around from house, different houses and coming back into the clinic. And so the beginning of that week, I had called my physician, my OBGYN and told them there’s something not right. And they were like, well, she’s gone. She’s sitting for her boards in Texas, you know, take your blood pressure and make sure you’re getting rest and that was about it.

So that was on a Tuesday. By that Friday, I mean, I had severe swelling and I was like, this is not normal. You know, it was like just that mom’s intuition. And so we just so happened to be out at a, it was a, like an estate sale that night and just so happened to run into my husband’s dad’s cousin and she’s a nurse.

And she was like, you don’t look right. You really just need to go get, you know, get your blood pressure checks like right now. So we went to the pharmacy and my blood pressure was 180 over 120. So for those of you guys that aren’t medically inclined, like stroke level high. So we call the on call physician and they were like, you know, get in here now. So walked in 28 weeks and they were like, we don’t know if you’re going to survive. Like your blood pressure is extremely high.

We’re afraid you’re going to become eclamptic, which is when you literally go into seizures and stroke level coma. And so they started prepping me and then did some blood work and then there was other information they needed to get which was like a 24 hour urine output they needed to look and see what was going on with the protein levels in my urine. And they did an initial level and it was sky high, like crazy high. So they started prepping me and were like, okay, it looks like we’re going to have a baby soon.

Like, you know, we don’t know what the outcome of this is going to be, basically get your things in order. And so being 22, a really healthy 22 year old, I had always been an athlete. I was very, health oriented, you know, obviously going into the healthcare profession and that was kind of always in the back of my mind, like my diet and my exercise.

And so, yeah, so that’s kind of how my journey started out. And so like you and I were talking before the show, my son just turned 23. He was born on January 13th. Should have been born around April the 5th was his due date. So he was a 28 weeker, weighed a pound and 14 ounces and spent almost five months in the NICU.

So, that was the start to motherhood for me.

Katie: That’s wild. I can only imagine quite the journey and, not quite as drastic as you, but I, my third was born about five weeks early and spent a couple of weeks in the NICU. For me, what it was is that they, even with having an ultrasound, they did not catch placenta previa. So at 34 weeks ish, Isat up at night, thought my water had broken and it was not water, it was hemorrhaging and it became quite this. Then they thought they had stopped the bleeding and they were like, do you want to try to do steroids for a couple of weeks to get him stronger? Or do you want to go ahead with a C section now? And something in me was like, just do it now. And when they got in there, they realized I was still hemorrhaging.

It had just sort of like, the placenta was blocking the blood from coming out. And so the doctor was like, Oh crap. And I’m like, Oh no, you don’t get to say that while you’re operating on me! And it was quite the wild day. But thankfully he’s very happy and healthy and now 15 and thriving. But, yeah, I have been through like a, a wild birth experience as well and know how that can be so transformative, but also really stay with you.

And for you, it sounds like that was, um, they’re probably pretty concerned. And then you went on to have five more healthy babies.

Mandy: Yeah, I, so like I said, his NICU experience was, it was very traumatic. Like he was on life support. So ventilator for several months and ended up having to go in for two bowel surgeries because he had an infection as a preemie. It’s called necrotizing intercolitis where it’s a risk where you feed these little babies cause they’re so tiny, but they need to be fed, but their GI tracts aren’t mature enough to really receive milk. And so he ended up having major gut infections, so they had to go in and cut out part of his small and his large intestine. And so we had an ileostomy we had to deal with for a period of time. And so, yeah, it was quite a journey and we actually ended up transferring him out from where we lived to Indianapolis.

Because they had a level four NICU with Riley Hospital. And it was, it was a God thing because there’s no way they would have really been able to do the surgery down here. They wouldn’t have had the skilled surgeons to do it, from a pediatric side of things. So, but during that journey, you know, of course it was very challenging, but kind of came through that on the other side.

And, you know, they were basically like, physicians were like yeah, you’re never going to go on and have any more kids. And if you do it’s going to either end in recurrent miscarriages or you’re just never going to get pregnant again.

And I was like, I am not okay with that. I had always wanted more kids, I loved kids. So that’s kind of the start of me literally diving in to the research. And my master’s degree ended up being in research, neuroscience and that field. So it really gave me an advantage when I was doing my research cause I was like, I want to figure this out for myself and for the patients that I work with. I don’t want anybody to ever be told like, this is your reality.

And to accept that just was not in my repertoire. So yeah, so I actually dug into genetics. Started figuring things out on my own. And so this was like back in 2003 before, like that was around the time that the human genome project was released, where we started talking more about genetics, which now it’s kind of come even further, where we’re actually using nutrigenomics and genetics and alternative and functional medicine to help people optimize their health and accept that they have so much power within the decisions that they make on a daily basis from diet and lifestyle and all of those things.

Katie: Wow. Yeah. Oh, and I love that you even back then took your health into your own hands. I say so much on here, kind of that concept of becoming our own primary healthcare provider. And I feel like it’s quite the journey. And we now have access to like you said, so much more than we used to. I actually remember that news story when they first sequenced the full human genome and the human genome project came out and now we can order a test kit for a couple hundred dollars that comes to our house and then get really actionable data related to that. But I love that you were doing that work back then. And I think also it inspires a lot of hope for anybody else who has maybe been told potentially even in a different realm, something that was going to be lifelong or very dire.

I know I was told that with Hashimoto’s as well, you’re going to have this for the rest of your life. You’re going to take medication for the rest of your life. Um, I no longer do. So I know that like very much often the body’s infinitely capable of healing. And in this conversation I’m excited to go deep with you on that related to specifically hormone health and what we have within our power to optimize naturally because I think the beauty of stepping into being your own primary health care provider and having the ownership and the driver’s seat of that is that actually there’s so much within our ability to affect change.

And it seems like you have deep expertise on the hormone side. So I’d love to kind of springboard into that. Maybe walk us broadly into what are some of the factors within our control that maybe we don’t even think to optimize or haven’t really dialed in.

Mandy: Yeah, and I think part of this is too, imparting this wisdom and education to women and even their partners, especially for those that are struggling with infertility. But, you know, the backstory of mine was the same as yours. Like, I actually was told, you know, I was probably going to have Hashimoto’s because my mom had autoimmune disease and actually she’s a reason why I got into functional medicine. She was diagnosed with multiple autoimmune diagnoses. And you know, that’s the thing and challenge is that once we have one diagnoses, we usually have multiple ones after that. It’s a very high percentage of women that go on to develop things. And so, I think, and especially having girls, because I have three girls and I feel like at a young age, I was not taught body literacy.

I didn’t understand the importance of our cycle as a fifth or sixth vital sign, depending upon who you talk to. It’s been called both, but I did know very early on in my teens that I had debilitating periods and was told that I probably had endometriosis back then. So even prior to becoming pregnant with my first one was given that and then basically told to go on oral birth control to control my symptoms and to optimize my health.

So I think that that is the standard script that most of us are given when it comes to hormones. And as young girls, like many of us don’t understand that when women or girls actually start their cycles, it’s very irregular for a period of time, for one to two years once we start our cycle. Because our body’s getting used to those estrogen receptors and that hormonal communication. And so I have a lot of young girls come to me and their moms asking for help around that. And other things might be like acne, you know, that’s another thing that a lot of young girls struggle with. And just like overall just painful periods. And so it is normal to have some irregularity, but as we kind of move into our, you know, late teen years, depending upon when we start, because everyone starts at a different time. I would say like one to two years, there’s going to be some irregularity, like cycles might be on and off. But once we kind of get into our early twenties, that should be settling if we’re doing a healthy diet and lifestyle that’s supporting hormones. So I feel like a misconception has been for many years. And this was like my reality until I started learning all of this out was that our periods have to be painful and we have to deal with moodiness. And that acne is just a side effect of it. That is actually not true. It’s imbalances like our body is giving us these signs that something is off, right?

Or that, you know, we need to do some tweaks or changes. So being in our culture, you know, the American culture is very fast paced. We eat on the run. We eat on the go. We eat a lot of convenience foods and processed foods. And you know, those things are really impacting our hormones. And unfortunately that education hasn’t been given to us because our physicians, our traditional physicians aren’t really trained in nutrition. You know when they go to medical school. So that kind of sets the stage for you kind of like, as we kind of go into it, but I find that, you know, there’s a lot of things there that we have to like work through and talk through to get deeper inside into what’s really going on with our hormones.

Right.

Katie: Yeah, so many good points. And you’re right. Certainly this is none of this is stuff I knew as a teenager when I was adjusting to all of those hormones. I didn’t realize there was a link with kind of like food and anything beyond calories until really, until I started having health problems and then dove into that research.

I do have a lot of hope actually for the next generation, seeing my daughters and their friends and how much more aware, at least the ones that I’m seeing of this generation seem to be with making those connections and understanding, like. They seem more focused on fueling their body and nourishing it versus like restriction and calories.

And they seem to understand that what they eat does impact them beyond more than just weight loss or weight gain. But I didn’t have that context as a teenager. And I know there is like a level of individualization and personalization here. And of course, that’s where the genetics can come in as well, but that there are probably also some sort of like universally applicable principles to the human body that we can all benefit from understanding and adopting.

So when you work with someone, where do you, like, how do you baby step them into that. What are some of kind of the general things that you help them kind of integrate and learn from. And then how do you also help them make it more personalized and specific beyond that.

Mandy: Yeah. So, you know, here’s the thing. You know, trained as a naturopath and a functional medicine practitioner, our goal is to get to the root cause of health imbalances, right? So we can take standard labs that you get run at your physician’s office at an annual visit and glean a lot of information from it. So I like to frame it around like blood work is kind of like a snapshot into time. So like what you want to do is see trends over time. And so like many of us, like if we’re not really having like really big health issues, we might have blood work once a year. However, if we start to have things, you know, that are off, especially as women and we get into our thirties and our forties. And for women that are struggling with fertility and like want to get pregnant later in life, that’s when like we, we kind of start diving in and start trying to understand what’s going on. So blood work is great. I also use a lot of other functional tests in my practice. I love hair tissue mineral analysis because what most people don’t understand is hair is actually dead cells.

So we can actually take hair and look at what’s going on over a timeframe and it’s like a three to four month timeframe and see what’s going on with our mineral status. So, and, you know, minerals are the spark plugs of life, and so they are the foundation for everything. So I like to frame things in health around our house, right?

Because we have our own house going on, and we want to make sure that our minerals are balanced, because that impacts all the other things downstream, including gut health, brain health, hormone health. And so many times, you know, our hormones get blamed for our issues and many times hormones are just the downstream impact of everything that’s going on upstream. So the very things that we’re putting into our mouth are impacting everything downstream, including our sex hormones. So and there’s a lot that happens in the gut and we’re learning more and more about that. Like the microbiome research that’s came out in the last five to 10 years is like, it is amazing. Like what they’re doing and what they’re finding and you know, it’s its own kind of like planet inside of our bodies. And it is dictating so many things, like our immune system. A huge part of our immune system is in our gut. So when we talk about autoimmunity, like you were saying with Hashimoto’s or hypothyroidism or a dynamic like that, our gut is intimately connected in with that. And then too like neurotransmitters. So like serotonin synthesis, which is kind of like our feel good hormone, like a huge portion of that is generated in our gut. So if our gut health is off, that is going to impact how we’re feeling, how our hormones look, you know? So when we look at like young girls that have, or even ladies that have acne issues, they might have migraines like that time of the month or like a little bit before.

We’ve got to go in and look and see what’s going on like with some of these lab levels. So the blood work, hair tissue, mineral analysis, like I said, there’s other things that can be helpful that are more advanced. Testing like microbiome analysis or comprehensive stool testing. But, you know, we can start to peel the layers of the onion back and see what is going on, what’s driving the imbalances.

And many times it goes back to inflammation and the food that we’re putting into our body, our thyroid health, our detox organs, so sometimes they can get clogged up a little bit. So like when we talk about that, we’re talking about our kidneys and our liver, and our lymphatic flow and our skin, like, you know, all of those things. So.

Katie: Definitely very multifaceted. And I think also, especially, I mean, for really for anyone, but for women, especially, I feel like this is such an important topic because I know for me, I’m not trying to have any more babies right now. However, fertility is such a great signal of kind of what’s going on in your body because I feel like it’s one of those things the body will shut down first if things aren’t quite right. Because if like, if the body thinks, for instance, we’re starving, it’s not going to prioritize getting pregnant. So I feel like kind of paying attention to fertility is actually a great way to keep a pulse on how our hormones are doing, how our nervous system is doing, how our body feels.

Um, and I love that you brought up minerals as well. I would love to dive into this because I, this is something I spent the last few years really getting excited about and deep diving on in realizing a lot of us are kind of missing some key minerals or at least key amounts of minerals based on the modern food supply and just like to your point earlier, we’re not really taught about them and the importance and or how to optimize them and how to get them.

And I know I’ve written a lot about, we hear a lot about magnesium. But there’s also so much more beyond just magnesium. I know magnesium comes into play for hormone health. But I have a theory that especially for women, I’ve noticed this in myself at least, is that if we aren’t getting enough minerals and micronutrients, our body will signal us to keep craving food in an attempt to get those things. And so I wonder if this is really connected to kind of craving and overeating cycle when really what our body’s kind of begging for is enough micronutrients and minerals. So, um, walk us through how it’s more than just magnesium and like maybe what are some key ones for women, especially to know about and pay attention to.

Mandy: Yeah, absolutely. So like on a hair tissue mineral analysis, like there are primary minerals, there’s secondary minerals and there’s tertiary minerals. And so the four macro minerals are calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, right? So those are like what we’re looking at initially, when we look at a panel to see what’s going on with that dynamic interplay of those main minerals. And so like you said, magnesium gets a lot of press and I really do believe like magnesium is one of those that many of us are so deficient in. The reason why that is just because our soils, we have much more erosion. Like we have a lot of chemicals and toxins put on our food, which also like really drive down the nutrient density. And then too, like another thing is in the U. S. we ship food all over and we get food from Mexico and it can be days and days and days before we actually receive that food. And so that many times that food is picked before it’s even ripe or like ready. So I’m sure many of the listeners have seen those green bananas in Costco and you’re like, those are very green bananas, right? So, you know, those minerals, the interaction between those are so important and like a myth that I feel like many people have been taught is, vitamin D is another factor in here. And that’s something that we’ve talked about a lot, especially since the pandemic and all the things that have gone on.

And we know that like vitamin D there’s a very specific range where we see health optimized and levels that we like people to be at. But a lot of times there’s like all this pressure around you need vitamin D supplementation. And what many don’t understand is you have to have the minerals balanced in order to have, optimal vitamin D status. So, you know, you can sit and take supplements all day long, but that actually is going to also be impacting your methylation. So if we dive into methylation, that’s basically like your nutrient sufficiency, what your body’s doing with nutrients. And then also, a key piece of that is detoxification. So many of us nowadays are under methylators. And so when we talk about that, that has to do with how our body’s processing things and like optimized. And so when we even look at like the mental health side of things, so what we’re seeing is, so back in like 1970, the 70s, people, it was about 50 50 split between over methylators and under methylators. And so back then it was pretty equal. But now what we’ve seen is over time is 80 percent of the population are more under methylators. And so when we look at that, that’s a slower metabolism or slower oxidation. which means that our thyroid is running slower. So when we kind of talk about a sluggish thyroid and other things that come along with that, that might be lower energy, that might be constipation, that could be many things manifesting that way when we go that way, that is a factor.

And so the question is, what is causing and driving this? And what we know is it’s an epigenetic side of things. So it’s this evolutionary change that we’re seeing in our population over time which is driven by many things. But you know, a lot of it has to do with our diet, because what we’re consuming when we’re pregnant, that’s impacting generations down the road.

So our great grand babies, because that when you think about with a baby, like a female baby, like if we have a female baby, they’re already developing their sex reproductive organs when they’re in utero. So those things that we’re doing day to day, so the diet, the lifestyle factors, what we’re putting on our bodies. You know, people don’t think about our skin being an organ, but that’s impacting what’s going on. So that’s kind of like a high level overview of the over and under Methylators. And here’s the thing, it’s not that either of them are bad, but we do know that minerals are a key factor on both sides and there is a sweet spot for metabolism and methylation. And so that’s what we do when we dive into this testing to try to customize and individualize a plan for someone in what we’re seeing.

So I hope that like, kind of, it was not too complicated, but

Katie: Yeah, I love that. And I’m so glad you brought that up about kind of the interplay and the synergy between minerals and vitamin D. Like, I’m glad we’re starting to understand these things more. It. To me, it felt like when we first started understanding genetics, it seems like MTHFR was one of the big ones that we kind of heard about first.

And then there was this trend of everybody jumping on taking methylfolate. And it was like all these methylated B vitamins, which can be great. And I was like, genes don’t exist in isolation. So it seemed like a lot of people sort of maybe threw some other things out of balance by taking an over, kind of overdose thing on these methylated Bs.

And like you just illustrated, this can also show up with the interplay of minerals and even pre hormones like vitamin D. And it’s not that we don’t need those things. It’s that we need to understand the nuance of what specifically our individual bodies need. Like as an example, I know for me, choline. I have a lot of genes that are dependent on choline.

Figuring that out was absolutely life changing for how I feel. Yeah, so I just feel like it’s, that’s a really helpful advice and caution against like hyper focusing on any single gene without stepping back and kind of understanding like, how does this work in kind of symphony versus a single note?

Mandy: Well, you’re exactly right. And like in isolation of certain vitamins and minerals, cause that’s the thing. And like, we have to go back to, you know I’m neutral. Obviously I’ve worked 22 years in conventional medicine. I worked in the hospital. I worked in assisted living. I did early intervention, like outpatient rehab. I have seen it all. And then for the last 14 years, I’ve worked in the alternative space, from a functional medicine side of things. And so you’re exactly right. When we sit and say, Oh, it’s just a vitamin D. Well, there’s this dynamic interplay between vitamin D and say, magnesium and even calcium.

And so those kinds of things. And so like when you talked about epigenetics, and kind of alluded to you with like pregnancy. You’re exactly right. You don’t want a mom even someone like, obviously folate or the methyl folate is a better option for somebody with MTHFR. And let’s be honest, the statistics are MTHFR is highly in the European population, which is in the United States. So a huge portion of us have an MTHFR snip. But just taking folate or methylfolate isn’t the answer for everybody and methylfolate can be problematic. And some of those people actually need folinic acid. So that’s where you need to know what’s going on with your health, like what’s going on with your labs and those biomarkers. What is like your genetics and having just a baseline to know, especially if you’re getting ready to start your family, because this is going to impact your children and their children. And those children, you know, generations down the road.

Katie: Yeah, that’s such a good point. And it seems like we’re both, we’ve both gotten to go on this journey of something I say often, which is, you know, double blind placebo controlled studies are great for understanding trends and kind of overall. And the most valuable study we ever will do is the N of 1 study of ourselves.

Because placebo controlled studies don’t apply if you’re not in that percentage. So the most valuable research we can do is that self experimentation. And so I love this conversation because I feel like what we, the beauty of what we can learn from anyone are the important pieces of our own framework that we then take and experiment to figure out and pay attention to, kind of like in harmony with our body, of what’s going to be most impactful for us.

And it sounds like you really help women do that, especially within sort of the fertility component. And you’ve mentioned inflammation and detox pathways a couple of times. Are there specific ways that we can really kind of support lowering inflammation levels in the body and or support the body’s natural detox pathways and help them to become the most effective within our own genes and our own capacity?

Mandy: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, a very nutrient dense diet. So, unfortunately, I feel like in modern day America, we don’t get enough protein. We don’t get enough fiber in our diet, which goes back to plants. Um, and so, you know, I think really optimizing our health and focusing on, especially for women that are in our childbearing years and beyond, especially as we kind of venture into menopause. Having quality protein when we wake up in the morning is really important. Now, protein is getting a lot of discussion right now. And again, when we talk about trends and what people are talking about on social media, because there’s all these influencers and all this focus is on getting 30 grams of protein in your diet in the morning. There is lots of truth in that. We don’t sit down and prioritize breakfast.

And I really do believe it is the most important meal of the day. But something to keep in mind is you can eat all the protein you want and if your gut function is off, your body is not going to be breaking down the protein into amino acids and being used as energy. So for many women, we’ve got to go back and look at the gut and look at optimizing the gut and maybe healing the gut.

So and then too, just in general it’s a challenge for people to get plants in their diet. So I talk about with my women, each plate that they sit down to eat, half of it being filled with the rainbow, as far as you know, the leafy greens. So when we talk about detoxification, we know that leafy greens, and green vegetables are so helpful. Cruciferous vegetables are great detoxifiers. So the brassica family, so like broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, like those types of plants. And then, you know, too, when we kind of talk about inflammation looking at from an omega status. So a lot of us are deficient in omegas just because we don’t have quality food that we’re eating.

And there’s a lot of seed oils in all of our on the go foods. And like, if you eat out at restaurants, that’s a challenge because a lot of times they just use cheap oils to cook our foods in. But, you know, really focusing on using good quality oils, such as olive oil, avocado oil, even coconut oil is a good one.

Although some people have to look at saturated fat levels. I am actually one of those. And I know that after running my genetics is, I need to tend more towards unsaturated fats versus saturated fats. But, saturated fats have great benefits as well. So ghee and tallow and like those. So, but when we really start to work on lowering that oxidation and those free radicals by eating more nutrient dense foods, that’s going to help not only drive down inflammation, but also help with our detox pathways.

Katie: Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like these are all like puzzle pieces that if we each get to figure out, help us have like a little bit more ability to affect change within our own lives. And for me, it’s been like baby steps of learning, like the choline thing, or that I’m very, very solar powered and light dependent.

And when I get morning sunlight, I feel amazing. And so while I used to be like a late sleeper, now I’m like, I can’t imagine not getting that morning sunlight from sunset or sunrise and sunset. Like that’s a game changer for me. Um, and like figuring out these little pieces for each of us. Are there any other kind of like high ROI compounding benefits that you see, or like kind of general starting points that you like to give women that can be kind of a big bang for the buck or like high return for effort invested.

Mandy: Yeah. So, obviously being an occupational therapist, I am very passionate about movement and moving your body. And honestly, back in the day when I was pregnant with my fifth one, so he’s now 15, I actually had really severe carpal tunnel syndrome and was in excruciating pain. I wasn’t sleeping and I was like, I have got to do something else. So they started giving me pain meds back then, which scared me, cause I was like, how’s this going to impact my baby by me taking these meds when I’m five, six months pregnant. And so I actually even went down the path of having steroid injections into my hands, which made no difference.

And so that’s when I was like, Okay, I need to go back to the drawing board here and maybe I’m missing some of these higher level things that are right here before me that I can be doing daily that’s going to help. So I actually started doing yoga back then and it made a tremendous difference. And so I feel like especially for many of us that struggle with pain syndromes or have severe PMS or even PMDD, PCOS, endometriosis.

When we dive into the research we can really start to see threads of commonality with how important movement and moderate at least exercise is for these conditions. And so again, I’m always teaching women, check in with your intuition. How does your body feel? And you know, I, in several of my programs, my coaching programs, that are hormone focused, actually, the one hormone harmony. We really focus on like eating around our cycle, like moving around our cycle because there’s different times of movement and exercise that are going to be beneficial based upon where we’re at with our hormones. And so like, we know that like, once we kind of get past the first three to five days of our menstrual cycle, that’s a sweet spot when we want to be doing high intensity interval training and we want to be doing strength training because that in our cycle is the best time to build muscle. And, you know, going back to metabolic health, muscle and bone strength is so important throughout our entire lifespan. And I knowit gets a lot of like look at when we’re in our forties and our fifties, we want to know what our bone density status is, but it’s so important even when we’re younger. So incorporating strengthtraining and weights I feel like is really valuable and can really help lower some of these challenges that we have in our cycles.

Katie: Yeah, I love that. I know when I was in kind of like active healing mode from Hashimoto’s, I was very gentle. I was very nervous system focused and very gentle with myself. So I did a lot of just walking outside, which is kind of multifactorial benefits of daylight, fresh air, gentle movement. But I did not do any of the high intensity stuff until my nervous system felt safe because I think that would have just actually compounded the kind of cortisol problem I had created for myself. But I love that and I feel like understanding that helped me springboard into understanding my cycle more. And it’s not that I can’t, for instance, attempt to lifting PR when I’m on my period.

It’s just however, often a little easier and more effective to kind of time that with a better part of my cycle. And, I have enjoyed experimenting with that over the last few years as well. I know there’s also so many more components to this than we can cover in one podcast episode, but you’ve created so much online to really help women with this.

Can you speak to what some of those resources are? And I will also, of course, link to them in the show notes.

Mandy: Yeah, absolutely. So I have a blog on my website. So mandy Patterson. com. We talk about a lot of these female struggles and challenges. And we have some stuff on there too. Like obviously having kids, I’ve always been focused on that, like yourself, like healthy families. So there’s lots of valuable resources on there. I also run a podcast myself called the Gutsy Fertility Podcast. and like you said, I love how you commented on fertility is a focus for you, even though you’re not wanting to have any more babies, because I’m right where you’re at. But lengthening our fertility out is good for us. Even if we don’t want to have any more babies, it is a pulse of what’s going on with our hormones. So we have the podcast there and there’s lots of resources on my website. I’m also out on social media, Facebook. So Mandy Patterson functional medicine practitioner. I’m on Instagram as Dr. Mandy Patterson. So, yeah, so we’re out there doing things and have a lot of resources.

Katie: Amazing. Well, I will put those links in the show notes as well as some direct resource links to things we’ve talked about and kind of springboards into more learning for everybody. But Mandy this has been such a fun conversation. I love this topic. I think it’s really important for women, especially, and I love the work that you’re doing to help women kind of put all these pieces in alignment for themselves and figure out what their big needle movers are.

So grateful for your time. Thank you so much for being here today. This has been such a joy.

Mandy: Thank you, Katie. It’s been great.

Katie: And thank you as always for listening and sharing your most valuable resources, your time, your energy, and your attention with us today. We’re both so grateful that you did. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the wellness mama podcast.