379: Menopause Mastery w/ Zora Benhamou

Transcripts are auto-generated.

Courtney Townley 0:00
There’s no denying that the menopausal transition can be oh so hard, and there are so many things that we can do to make the transition a little bit easier and a lot more grace filled for ourselves. I am so delighted today to have my guest Zora Benham, here with us to share some of what she calls bio hacking strategies to help make this journey much more grace filled. So if that sounds intriguing to you, stick around. There’s so much goodness to come.

Courtney Townley 0:30
Welcome to the Grace and Grit Podcast made for women who want their healthiest years to be ahead of them, not behind them. Join your host Courtney Townley right now as she breaks down the fairy tale, health story you have been chasing all of your life into sensible action, steps and lasting change.

Courtney Townley 0:58
Welcome to the Grace and Grit podcast. My name is Courtney, Townley. I am so delighted you’re here, and I’m really excited to share today’s episode with you. I had the privilege recently of interviewing Zora Benham, who has been a long time women’s health advocate. She’s a gerontologist. She has spent a lot of time talking to women about their menopausal transition, not just within the US, but globally. She’s talked to women all over the world, and she really does an exceptional job at helping us to better understand some of the stigma around aging. And she also has a wealth of information in terms of how to bio hack menopause.

Courtney Townley 1:37
Now let me be clear, the way that she talks about bio hacking is really running experiments, which I appreciate, right? Because there really aren’t shortcuts, per se. There’s still work involved in getting through this transition seamlessly, but she gives us some really incredible resources and Intel for doing that with more ease and grace. So we are going to explore all kinds of things in this episode, and without further ado, let’s get right into it, because there is so much ground to cover.

Courtney Townley 2:08
Hi, Zora, I’m so happy to have you here. Thank you so much for having me.

Zora Benhamou 2:14
That’s such great energy. I’m so excited to have this conversation with you.

Courtney Townley 2:17
Well, I have to tell you some of my a lot of my favorite people in the world, or people that I met through other people that I adore and love. And of course, we both know Lainey Gray, and she’s the one who introduced us. And so it makes sense that our energy kind of matches, and that we would just feel comfortable and have a connection. So I definitely want to give a shout out to Lainey for that, I have to tell you, as with all of my interviews, of course, I do my due diligence of research before we get on. And when I was reading through your website, I was like, Oh my gosh, she speaks six languages.

Zora Benhamou 2:48
Oh yes, yeah,

Courtney Townley 2:52
Six languages. You’re a self described nomad. So you love travel, you love adventure. And I bring this up because you have such an incredible series on Instagram about interviewing women around the world about menopause, which is so potent. And if anyone listening wants to go check that out, head on over to hack my age. That’s your handle for Instagram, because you post them. So you said, how many have you done now, of those interviews,

Zora Benhamou 3:20
Over, 200 I don’t know two 230 something like that. And I just did another one yesterday, and she doesn’t want me to post it. Can we not post it? I’m like, Oh, this is for the good of womanhood. We need you. Really, I’ve interviewed a lot more than 250 but I because I get a lot of rejection, and women who do want to talk about it, but then they don’t want to be on camera, right? I think that’s so interesting, isn’t it?

Zora Benhamou 3:44
Because I think a big part of, you know, stepping into our confidence and all those things as we age, is that willingness to be seen. But it’s amazing, like that tape that plays in our head about, you know, the judgment, the self doubt, all the things. So it’s interesting that that’s showing up there. Anyway. I just wanted to tell you that I think that I think that that’s an incredible thing that you’re doing, and it helps to normalize such a interesting stage, for lack of a better word of life, where so many things are shifting and changing, and we feel like we’re the only one. But here you have all these women who are from around the world, in all these different cultures, all these different places, telling us that they, too, are experiencing the ups and downs Exactly.

Zora Benhamou 4:27
And you see little nuances with each person as well, because we interview or with I, we, I, I’ve got the camera in my hand just interview people from all different socio economic levels as well. So somebody’s selling fruit in the street in Vietnam to a friend of mine who’s lives in Spain, or something like that. It’s all kinds of people, and you’ll see some nuance. And there’s a lot of and I try to share on my Instagram Stories, at least as I’m filming if I’m traveling a new country, the last place I did was.

Zora Benhamou 4:59
So difficult. It was in Czech Republic, and just nobody would want to talk to me. It was like pulling teeth. It was hard everywhere you go. But that one was a particularly hard place. So I also try to share some of the behind the scenes, because you see some of these women out there, and you have to keep in mind when we, you know, we, some people call this research or observational research, but we have to keep in mind the woman who’s open and willing to be filmed with a complete stranger has got to be a certain type. So total sense.

Zora Benhamou 5:30
And I do get a lot of women saying, Well, you know, I don’t want to talk in front of the camera because it’s so bad. I’ve had such a hard I’m not going to be a good story for you. And I’m like, that’s the one that I want to hear. It is, it is what it is. And I have no hidden agenda. I just let the women speak most of the time. I disagree with her completely in terms of way things. I just shut my mouth and let her speak and and it is unfortunate that we do get a lot of women who just, they don’t, they don’t want to talk about it, and they do still, or they’ll see it. They think that their experience is unique, that they’re suffering. And I’m like, No, this is, this is the reality of things, so please, and I beg and I plead, and some women do, and some women don’t, and but most of the women who don’t, you know, have have a really a difficult time with menopause, and I can’t always share that.

Zora Benhamou 6:26
So sometimes, you know, I do attract people who have like, you know, either it’s okay, it’s not as bad as they said, or, Oh, it’s been fabulous. And I don’t want to give that impression either, that it is all great. So I do have a harder time finding those women. So we have to keep things in perspective at if somebody is willing to speak, they may have a more positive experience. And that doesn’t represent the whole world, right, or the rest of the world. Why is Americans just, you know, suffering everybody else isn’t? Yeah, no, they, they. We have to keep in perspective some, some of these things.

Courtney Townley 7:00
Curious. Do you think part of that is shame like women, because they feel like they’re the only one, or it’s just their unique story, they’re suffering more than most, and so they don’t want to speak about it.

Zora Benhamou 7:10
That as well as when I stop a woman on the street and I ask her, Hey, will you talk to me about menopause? Or can I ask you five questions about menopause in Czech Republic, particularly, I would get these looks like, how dare you, you think I’m it was rude. It’s if, it’s if I were saying, Hey, you’re old. Can I and I’m like, I’m in it too. Like, let’s so and I could, after it happened over and over and over again, I had to find some people. And I said, Look, is it maybe I should get a translator? Maybe I should.

Zora Benhamou 7:43
And when there was these were younger women, they were saying, No, it’s just the culture. They will not speak. Even if you spoke perfect check, she will not talk to you because she thinks that you’re basically telling her you’re old and ugly or something like that. And unfortunately, well, that’s an ageist stereotype, an ageist attitude. And the worst part of it is that they have the the ageist attitude towards themselves. And that is some of the most damaging type of ism there is absolutely

Courtney Townley 8:16
well, I want to commend you for having the the bravery and the courage to go out like in a in a country, where do you speak? Do you speak Czech?

Zora Benhamou 8:25
I speak Ukrainian and Russian, and I understand a little bit of Polish and Czech. I kid, man, I have one interview where I was speaking half polish, half Ukrainian, and she was answering in check. I understood and we could, we got the interview done. I was like the poor editor who’s gonna try to do this?

Courtney Townley 8:46
Yeah, this is hard, but to be in a foreign country, not being fluent in the language, talking about a topic that maybe has been, well, taboo, I think, for all of us for a really long time, and to still persevere like That’s awesome. It’s so awesome. And I just thank you from women everywhere, because it’s so important, and it’s the only way the conversation is going to change. So great stuff.

Zora Benhamou 9:11
I’m hoping, I’m hoping the conversation will change as much effort I tried in many it’s I would find the most difficult countries were Eastern European countries. Poland was a lot of rejection, but, oh, I’m shy, it’s okay. Whereas in Czech Republic, it was no and get out of my store like attitude it was, it was very Yeah. So I think you’ll find different attitudes. But as we go more Western Europe, a little bit easier. And I was surprised that in countries in Asia, certain countries like in Thailand and Vietnam, much easier to speak about this. I thought it would be the opposite, but they were really open to speaking in front of a camera to a stranger and talk about their libido and their sexual life and. Yeah, I was like, This is fabulous. And they were there. Was really, it was really fun, actually doing in those countries.

Courtney Townley 10:07
I’m curious to know, like, have you seen any patterns with just the level of suffering through maybe the menopausal transition, like in certain areas of the country or certain areas of the world?

Zora Benhamou 10:18
Yeah, well, menopause is universal. Go through it. No one’s getting away with it. Symptoms are universal. It’s not like in China. They don’t have hot flashes, and we do. It’s they have them, yes, but I noticed that the attitudes towards menopause is different in the sense, not with everybody, but in generally that they and again, maybe this isn’t in front of the camera with a stranger. We have to put things into perspective. But they were more I got this feeling that when I asked the question to woman selling fruit on the street in Vietnam, and she’d look at me like, This is the weirdest thing. Like, of course, I’ll talk to you, but it was just why, and who really cares? I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’m trying to sell fruit to feed my family. Like the menopause is like the last thing on my mind.

Zora Benhamou 11:13
And so I noticed certain things like that, other things, and many most the time in in the in Asian countries, they were, they were more like, yeah, it’s just hey, it’s part of life. And the, you know, when you ask for what would you recommend women do, they just say, just chill out. Like, just take it easy. I know it’s hard, but relax. Do whatever it takes to relax or drink juice or exercise or, you know, but it was, it was, um, don’t worry, this will pass. And, like, kind of, like, a little bit of a suck it up, kind of a thing, yeah. And no, no real awareness of hormones or menopause therapy, or it was with anything, maybe some supplements and herbs, okay, to get through it. But the attitudes are a bit different. Instead of, say, Asia versus US and Europe.

Courtney Townley 12:05
Oh, it’s so fascinating. Okay, so let’s circle back to where I often will start, and we just got there a different way with you. But I would love to hear like, what got you so passionate about women’s health to begin with, and then, more specifically, what really pushed you into this sort of channel of the menopausal woman, because that’s really the population you’re working with now, yeah,

Zora Benhamou 12:28
it’s it’s actually my audience who threw me into this because I I’ve always been interested in health and wellness in general, and women’s health, because I’m from LA, it’s in your la DNA. I’d always want to be sick and healthy. But when my mom died of breast cancer when she was only 57 and I was 23 I thought, Okay, wait. I don’t want to just look good in a bikini. I want to not die early. So what can I do?

Zora Benhamou 12:51
So I dove into just for my own personal reasons, and then because you become that health person, all your friends ask you all these questions, and then they want to be coached. And then I said, Well, maybe I should get some kind of training or certification. I did the health coaching thing, and then I found the bio hacking world, and I thought this makes perfect sense to me, only because through the coaching and trying to help people, it’s like, why is it certain things working with some people and not with another? And then you learn, okay, we have to tweak things. And that’s just generally what biohacking is all about, is doing his own little self experimentations on you. And we love the science, and we love to dig into this, but we are very clear that the N of one experiment meaning there’s only one person that’s important in this room, and that’s you has to respond to it. Who cares what the science says if you’re not responding? Right?

Zora Benhamou 13:40
So, so I really liked that attitude. So I started to, I created the podcast just five years ago, and then I I was more about biohacking for women over 50, because that’s, I’m 54 and I thought, well, that’s I was 50 back then. And I thought, this is, this is, anyways, something I should I interested in. But then as I grew the podcast, I would get more and more requests for talking about menopause and hormones. And so go invite guests who are experts in this, and doctors and researchers. And so I said, You know what? I probably should, because I’m going through this right now myself, and that’s why I kind of entered that menopause space, just because it was, it was demanded by my audience, yeah. And

Courtney Townley 14:23
you took it way further. You went back to school for Gerontology at what 5049 like?

Zora Benhamou 14:31
Well, I got my degree at 52 so I was doing my started the podcast, and I was doing a degree in a Master’s of gerontology, which is the Study of Aging and Longevity, and we don’t only look at the physiological aspects, but we look at the psychological and sociological aspects of aging, and why we age and and why certain people get diseases and why not. And we look at the whole lifespan, from birth to death. It’s not just older adults, although we do have a focus on that. And so I thought that was fascinating, because I love the biohacking, but. But there is no biohacking degrees like the next best thing.

Zora Benhamou 15:05
But what I found was, was that not only was I not aware of what’s happening in the world of older adults, but and I’ve learned a lot there, but I realized that in gerontology, they know nothing about biohacking and that we can do certain things to modify aging or the experience. So, so I learned things, and they learned things, and it was a really great experience. So I got my masters, and then when I started the menopause, I went to I got a certification with the Institute of bioidentical medicine, which focuses on hormones, and it’s actually a program made for doctors to teaching doctors how to treat women through menopause. And even though I’m not a doctor, I I was really curious, like, what are they teaching these guys out here and girls and

Courtney Townley 15:51
so we’re not trying them or not teaching them acting. Yeah. So

Zora Benhamou 15:55
really, my first experience in in getting more of a professional background in hormones and menopause. And I’m no hormone expert, by no means, but I got an understanding of what women who are going through menopause of all kinds are being treated what happens when they walk into a doctor’s office, and what can happen and what doesn’t happen. So I was really grateful I had a chance to do that, and then I’m using everything I’ve learned to help women as much as I possibly can through social media and the website and podcast, of course,

Courtney Townley 16:30
so good. So this audience, because we’ve had a lot of conversations about menopause and perimenopause, and I feel like they’re probably more educated than most about what menopause is, but there’s always listeners who are new to the show, or someone who may not be as familiar. And let’s face it, I don’t think we can hear it enough times. So can we just start with really helping the listener understand the different stages of menopause before we go deeper into the biohacking piece?

Zora Benhamou 16:59
Yeah, yeah. I think that’s a good idea, because I was entering this myself. I was in perimenopause. Had no idea what that was at the time. We didn’t have this word perimenopause. But I will first start with menopause, even though it’s not exactly the where we start, because it will help us understand what is going on after and around this period of time. So in North America, in most Western countries, the average age of when we hit menopause, which is 12 consecutive months without your period, that’s like the general word that we’re the way we determine menopause. If you go to a doctor’s office, it’s kind of ridiculous. But okay, that’s you’re officially in menopause, or, you know, on that date, that’s your menopause birthday. And it usually happens around 50 weeks

Courtney Townley 17:49
menopause birthdays. By the way,

Zora Benhamou 17:52
your menopause birthday? Yeah, exactly. It’s a one day event, yeah, and so. But in India, I think it’s 46 and other other countries that are more under developed are even younger. So 4648 that’s the average age, okay? And with white women versus black women, black women go through menopause earlier than white women. So if we’re talking about North America, so different countries, different cultures, different races, ethnicities, have different birth dates, menopause, birthdays, okay, but when you could say, okay, that’s the day hit menopause, well, what’s going on before and after that? So right before that is what we call perimenopause, and it’s meaning around you know you’re gonna get hard towards menopause soon. And that happens usually in your mid 40s, 40s, mid 40s. That’s on average again. And so that’s when you start to have your periods going a little bit wonky. Maybe it’s, it’s, you know, bleeding heavier, or maybe you skip a period.

Zora Benhamou 18:50
And again, there’s early perimenopause, mid perimenopause, and late perimenopause, which I won’t really go into, but the early menopause, let’s say, can happen in your mid 30s to early 40s, because that’s when your progesterone, which is your calming and relaxing hormone, starts to tank. It’s the first one that goes and it goes quite quickly. Actually, people go, Oh, estrogen goes out the window very quickly. But progesterone goes even more quickly, and that’s why maybe in your mid 30s, late 30s or early 40s, depending when you’re starting your perimenopause journey, you start to have sleep troubles, or you’re getting a little bit more anxious, and you get a little bit more moody, and this is usually due to progesterone. So that’s perimenopause, and everything before that would be called pre menopause, because a lot of people mixing up pre and Peri all the time.

Zora Benhamou 19:39
Pre is when you are of child bearing age, let’s say, okay, and that’s, that’s, that’s pre and and your period is regular. Everything’s happening wonderfully, the way it should, hopefully, if their hormones are balanced, and then if you are, if you happen to have menopause. Before, earlier than the normal. This is called early menopause. That’s that would be happening in your 40s, like early 40s, 40 to 45 and that’s about five to 12% of the population in the US do this. Okay? And we’re talking about natural menopause, not medical menopause, which I’ll talk to you in a minute moment about that. So that’s just, it’s normal, totally common. It’s just happens a little earlier than that, you know, average age. And then if you were to get menopause, into menopause in your 30s or under 40, then that’s called premature menopause, happening a little bit too earlier than normal. It’s about 1% of the population.

Zora Benhamou 20:38
And then if, on the other side of the spectrum of menopause, birth date we have post menopause and and then that’s anywhere after the age of 50 more or less. And then if you happen to get your into menopause, that again, that’s 12 consecutive months without a period after age of 55, or older than your late onset menopause. So I’m 54 still have a period. It’s going wonky, really weird. So you would call me late, I guess, very, very late perimenopause. Yeah, and I will, I will be one of those late onset menopause people and, and so yeah, we have the post menopause. And I think that menopause word is so it’s thrown around so much when people say, when they use that, because when we say menopause, we sometimes mean perimenopause, because that’s the time where we’re really struggling the most, yeah, with the with the biggest symptoms, and then things to kind of even out a little bit after, you know, post menopause.

Zora Benhamou 21:40
And then sometimes I meet women and I interview them, and then I they say, they said, Oh, you can’t ask me questions, because I didn’t go through menopause. And I’m like, how you said you were 62 right? And they say, yeah, do you have a period still? No. I said, well, then you’re in menopause, or some people would say you’re post menopause. So we’re Yeah, we’re using these words, but what she’s referring to is that I didn’t feel the symptoms that are classic, like the hot flashes or the night sweats, so I didn’t go through menopause,

Courtney Townley 22:11
like I didn’t have the flu, I didn’t have menopause. So funny, isn’t

Zora Benhamou 22:17
that crazy? So so many of those are basic and you have the surgical menopause, which can happen if you have had a hysterectomy with your ovaries taken out and and you have or you have chemotherapy from from breast cancer, or things like that, and that can just literally throw you skip the whole perimenopause experience, and you go straight into menopause. And so that’s those are sort of the different stages.

Courtney Townley 22:42
So that’s the surgical menopause. Would be synonymous with medical menopause. Yeah, yeah, yeah, got it. Yes. That’s very clear. Thank you for that. So let’s talk about what you mean by biohacking menopause. And I just want to circle back to what you said earlier, because I think it was so beautifully said and so simple bio hacking. The way you use that word is self experimentation,

Zora Benhamou 23:03
yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s a self experimentation. Again, understanding, I mean, assuming there are risks, no risks if you do things and the risks you don’t think do things right, it’s a risk if you decide to fast, right? But there’s maybe a risk if you don’t. I mean, I

Courtney Townley 23:18
don’t know what’s gonna work for you. Nobody knows until you try it

Zora Benhamou 23:22
exactly. So we have to understand and it’s if you can look at things in a perspective like that, you’re less disappointed if something just doesn’t work for you. It’s like, that’s okay, your biology doesn’t resonate with that therapy or that treatment, or that diet or that, whatever it is that you want to say, and that’s okay. And there’s a billion things that we can do to try to change our biology, and that’s what we’re really trying to do, is hack things in our bio biology. It’s for the best of our you know, for best of our health. So So you just move on to the next experiment, and don’t get disappointed. It’s okay. And there’s you can go on.

Courtney Townley 24:02
I really appreciate the distinction, because I think for so long when I have heard that word bio hacking, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, because I’m sure a lot of my listeners have felt this way at some point too. It’s almost like, well, it’s gonna be a quick fix, right? And it’s like, we can probably ease your suffering with the right experiments, maybe a little more quickly, but it’s a process, right? And the length of someone’s process is wildly different from the next person’s.

Zora Benhamou 24:29
Yes, you’re absolutely right. That hack Word gives us the impression that we can bypass the foundation, right? And I look at the bio hacking foundation like a pyramid. The foundation is the good nutrition or appropriate appropriate exercise, getting the sleep, the stress management, having community purpose in life, etc, etc, that is bio hacking, right? We can do a lot of things in that foundation. And once that foundation set, and I meet women who they’re doing all of that, I still know. Working. Well, then we go to the middle part of the pyramid, and those will be maybe some supplements, or ice bathing, or some some type of technique that we can bring into our lives that we don’t need a doctor for, yeah, so then we that’s not working.

Zora Benhamou 25:15
Or if you you want to go to the top of the tier, well, that you probably need a doctor. And those will be perhaps injections, PRP injections for joint pain, or you maybe need hormone therapy, or whatever it is. You need some more guidance there. But very often with the foundation, you don’t need the rest of the tiers. Or if you don’t do the foundation and you do need those tiers, they don’t work as well. If you don’t have the foundation set or at all, because you need to have these things, and it’s really important in biohacking. The difference between, say, a biohacker and just a health enthusiast is that we like to test, measure and assess, yes, and of course, we like the gadgets and data and blood tests and all that, but you can just measure how your pants fit when you you’re trying to get a certain body composition, like, that’s a that’s a measuring tool, and you can assess to see if something’s working for you. But you’ve got to do it, or you’ve got to take the photo of yourself, do some kind of measure. Because as your body’s changing, or something’s changing in your life, you it’s a slow going thing, you’re adapting slowly, so you don’t notice

Courtney Townley 26:20
these changes. Oh, yeah, it’s got a lot gotta. Yeah, you

Zora Benhamou 26:24
gotta, you gotta test measure and assess to see if something’s working for you. That’s that’s another thing that I really like. And also I

Courtney Townley 26:29
think that that approach the test measure and assess, it helps to manage your brain. Because I always say to my clients data over drama like, let’s focus on the data. Let’s focus on what you’re actually doing and what’s working, and what metrics you’re using to measure progress, because without that, we’re just making all these wild assumptions, and that can get us into a whole lot of unnecessary stress. Well, I really, I really love that, that just the visual of the pyramid. I’ve never heard it explained that way, but that is such a sensible way to think about it, that the foundation is your lifestyle, and that we can get more complicated and more personalized from there, but without the foundation, right? Like everything starts with a solid foundation. Great homes are built with solid foundations. So exactly,

Zora Benhamou 27:18
exactly it makes sense and but it’s the hard work. Everybody know who wants to do the hard work? Take a supplement. My problems go away. Like, wouldn’t that be great?

Courtney Townley 27:29
Wouldn’t that be great? Yes, okay, so let’s debunk some menopause myths. And, yeah, talk about some different ways of thinking about the myths.

Zora Benhamou 27:40
Oh gosh. Well, one of them, we kind of said that just drives me nuts, is that, oh, I didn’t go through menopause. So some some women, they associate that menopause experience, or the typical symptom, with menopause. And in fact, I I worry most about the asymptomatic woman, because she’s not likely to go to a doctor to get checkup. And so I would tell her, Well, wait, you need to still see. Your bones are still getting brittle and you don’t feel that. Your arteries may be getting full of plaque, and you don’t feel that. So you still need, you are in menopause, okay, you still need to go through that. And the other side of the coin is, when you I would interview, maybe somebody using 45 or 48 and she says, Oh, I’m too young for menopause, and because she doesn’t realize that there is a perimenopause experience. And so I have to explain, no, there’s perimenopause. And in fact, it’s more than just hot flashes and losing your period. There’s 103 symptoms. If you talk to Andrea donsky, she’s done some incredible research, and from from tinnitus to to joint pain to itchy skin, itchy eyes, itchy ears. And a lot of women will go, that’s me. I had no idea that could be my

Courtney Townley 28:54
hormone. Tell you how many friends and colleagues and and people that I see suffering, and I, you know, will approach that conversation, and not as a not necessarily as a coach, you know, but I’m more as a friend that, Hey, have you considered that you are in this phase of life? And it amazes me how many people will dismiss it as, no, that’s not what I’m going like. That’s not has nothing to do with what’s happening right now, and yet all the signs are there. So I find that fascinating, especially at a time where we are talking about it so much more. It reminds me how young the conversation still is, because so many women still don’t understand that those tweaks and those shifts and that that new suffering is related to what’s happening hormonally. Absolutely,

Zora Benhamou 29:46
hormones affect everything, and maybe it isn’t okay. You just need hormone therapy and that’s it. Maybe there is something else going on. Maybe it’s your thyroid, maybe it’s your insulin, I don’t know, or maybe some crisis in your life. Yeah, I get a lot of women who. Who reach out to me and they say, Well, gosh, you know, I’m not sure if it’s menopause or not, or if it’s my hormones, and I’m feeling really anxious and I’m really stressed out. I’m really sad all the time. And I said, Well, what’s going on in your life? And I hear, Well, I’ve lost my job and my boyfriend left me, and I’m like, well, hormones or no hormones, like, of course, that’s gonna be distressful. Yes, I so it’s not just,

Courtney Townley 30:26
of course, it’s not No but,

Zora Benhamou 30:29
but the lack of hormones makes it harder to go through. It’s like you lose a bit of resilience when you don’t have those hormones. Because I’ve heard this when I mention this, and then oftentimes the women will say, Well, I used to be able to handle it better, like I’ve lost a job before, but this is like something else. And so, yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s a bit of both. Of

Courtney Townley 30:53
course it is. Yeah, I, you know, I use that analogy a lot, the stress bucket, in terms of the total stress load of our lives. And I really think of hormones kind of as the bucket. They help to hold the stress, they help us to tolerate the stress, they help to make us more resilient, like you said. And as we’re going through this stage of life, our bucket is just a little more rickety, like it’s the hormones are shifting so much that we’re kind of losing the integrity of that bucket a little bit. And this is where these bio hacks and these the lifestyle and all the things you mentioned previously can really help to counter that, so we can create, carry a sturdy bucket and not spill and make giant messes with our reactivity from our stress,

Zora Benhamou 31:38
exactly, and we are. It’s what you talk about a lot. Was in in Aging and Longevity, would say there’s this allostatic load. Yeah, you have a bucket and and as we age, that bucket gets pretty full, yeah, and men and women, so we all have sort of our limitations. But it seems to me that as you going through menopause and the stress that we’ve had, it is, and our hormones really shifting very quickly, which men don’t seem to have. We our load seems to be getting a little more overflowed faster than the guys. And that’s can be very, very distressful, absolutely,

Courtney Townley 32:16
too. I think we have a lot more stress like, right? We’re in the throes of our careers, often we’re trying to get kids off to whatever that next phase is, and it’s usually expensive, you know? We’re contending with parents, yeah, marriage challenges, finding retirement on the horizon, like all these things and so, recognizing that life looks very different than it did 10 or 20 years ago, and your physiology is very different. It’s both and, yes,

Zora Benhamou 32:46
yeah, I think so. And we can do so many things on all sides, yes, to support our health and to get through this phase and become bigger, better, faster, stronger. And really, I think menopause should be the best years of our lives, and i That’s why I’m trying to to help as much as I can to get that message out that menopause isn’t all doom and gloom, like if we could just shift the attitude a little bit and understand that we do have a lot of things that going on that are great, and a lot of things to look forward to as well. So that takes a little bit of introspection, a little bit of changing perspective, and that’s life is so much better when you can look at it that way. And again, menopause, if your health is off the rails, menopause is a time. It’s an opportunity to become the best version of yourself. And why not take it that time to do it

Courtney Townley 33:41
absolutely, absolutely so on that note, let’s talk about some of the specific bio hacking that you would often introduce to menopausal women, and also prefacing that by just reminding the listener that, again, it’s an experiment for everybody. Everybody’s going to respond a little bit differently. But what are some of the big players that you usually pull out of your tool bag?

Zora Benhamou 34:05
Well, the easiest thing to do is, is the hormone therapy. I have to say it’s, it’s, I’m a big fan, but bio identical, I just because I’ve seen it change so many women’s lives, from, you know, being completely derailed, to can’t sleep, night sweats change, and how you expect a woman to go to the gym and eat well, if she just has not had a good night Exactly. It’s been going like this for years and years. So I like to say it’s even though it’s the top tier, the pyramid, it’s it’s a support, it’s a crutch. But that doesn’t mean you don’t do all the foundation, because sometimes it’s really hard to get someone to do that. So once they get a little bit of their hormones replenish, or topped up, or however, you know, they do it, because there’s 1,000,001 ways to do this, then they can finally get this energy to go to the gym and be get do all the, all the healthy things, but we do everything together. So that’s kind of, I think.

Zora Benhamou 34:59
One of the biggest hack in terms of menopause, but you need a doctor to do this. And it doesn’t mean, and just because, you know, I think it’s a great thing, doesn’t mean that’s the only way there’s, there’s 101 ways to skin a cat. So, so if you don’t want to go down the hormone route, then we have, we have, of course, we have certain types of supplements, and we have certain types of phytoestrogens. If you want to go the, you know, I hate that we use that word natural, because bioidentical is quite, quite natural too. It’s there’s nothing more natural than your own hormones. But I think there, there is that that is a great, great hack is to go down some of those roots. But it depends maybe on your symptom. So if you are dealing with hot flashes, let’s say, and night sweats there, and you don’t want to do hormone therapy, then there’s a really cool supplement called Pycnogenol. I think it’s called the French pine, for French, I don’t know it’s French pine, something like that, okay, but it’s Pycnogenol, so I can remember. And it is.

Zora Benhamou 35:56
It’s just a simple, simple supplement that seems again, supplements, and in the research, is kind of hit and miss. And I see the same thing in my community. I can say, look, there’s you can try it. Ask your doctor, obviously, if you can take some supplements, and then off you go. And I’d see maybe some say, This is fabulous. Other ones be like, I gotta move on to the next thing. Yeah. And that’s fine too. When it comes to weight gain, which is a big Sure thing that people have. And I hate to use that word, weight gain, and I try to shift the perspective and say, We’re gonna build muscle. Okay? We’re gonna focus on getting strong, not getting small, getting thin, getting it’s

Courtney Townley 36:31
not losing weight, it’s gaining health. Is a way I hear it that I really love, right? Yeah,

Zora Benhamou 36:35
you’re gaining health, yes. But in terms of, if that’s really what you want, is like, burn the fat. Let’s build muscle, because muscle will burn the fat. Okay? And it’s something more positive to look at and and muscle weighs more than fat, so don’t even bother looking at a scale. You may not lose anything, or you may even gain, but your body composition is going to change. And so when we are talking about building muscle, there’s two things that are really, really important. Well, we know that we have to strength train. It’s probably the most effective.

Zora Benhamou 37:06
Because what’s happening in our generation is the 80s generation. Let’s say we’ve been doing Jane Fonda and doing all this kind of chronic cardio kind of stuff. I’m a big fan of Jane Fonda, by the way, and I was doing aerobics and all that. I’m just saying no, right? But we’re running the treadmill, doing all this stuff and trying to burn the fat with all the cardio. It doesn’t seem to be working as well. And then we’re eating less. Yes, you know, put those two together, and then we’re fasting. I mean, talk about stress on the body. I know cortisol. Cortisol loves fat, particularly around the belly. It’s just a recipe for disaster. So let’s eat more. Let’s build the muscle. And when we’re we’re trying to build muscle, that’s why we talk a lot about strength training, HIIT training as well. You know that high intensity interval training? Don’t want to go more than 45 minutes, because you’re doing this pretty intensively, and then you’re going to get into that chronic cardio zone.

Zora Benhamou 37:58
But those, those types of exercises that seem to be working really well for for our generation. And of course, we have to adapt in case. You know, people have injuries, and we do, we have surgeries and injuries, and things are happening at this age, so you could be mindful. And obviously get a trainer would be to get proper form and not hurt yourself. Yeah, but you cannot build muscle if you don’t feed it. We need to get the protein in. And I’m on that protein bandwagon like everybody else, because I’ve seen it work so well, yeah, in terms of giving satiety and not overeating and building the muscle. And it just does so much. And so getting getting enough, adequate protein, whatever that is for you, because the ranges are all over the place, and you’ll hear different things from different people, and it depends on your you and your body weight and your goals, and how much exercise you’re doing, etc. We’re not even going that. But I want people to understand that just because you’re exercising, lifting heavy, and you’re trying to fast, you’re trying to eat fewer calories, it’s it’s a recipe for design. Now you gotta eat. So who doesn’t like want to eat?

Zora Benhamou 39:09
I do meet a lot of women our age who just can’t fit it in. It’s hard. They’re so used to depriving themselves or going running around all day long and then just eating one big meal, you got to treat yourself like a five year old. You wouldn’t tell your five year old, oh, we’re going to fast all day, and then, you know, forget breakfast and lunch. You would never do that to your child or your five year old self. So now you would feed them before they go to school, and you’d give them a lunch and maybe some snacks, and then you have a proper dinner. So I find this formula works really, really well, especially if women have been depriving themselves and much happier when they start to build muscle. And when you’re building the muscle, you’re burning the fat.

Zora Benhamou 39:51
And one of the cool hacks that we have in the bio hacking world for anyone who is struggling with building muscle. Or is injured, or who’s had a surgery, or who can’t get all their movement in, is blood flow restriction. And I’m a big fan of the cuts to bands. And these are, these, are these, these bands that you put on your arms or your legs, and it partially restricts blood flow. So if you’re doing cuts to is pretty, pretty safe for most people, but if you’re doing just the traditional blood flow restriction band, flow restriction bans, you need to get the guidance of somebody. But there’s so much research done on this, and I’ve gone through several years of this with myself, as well as my community, and seeing the benefits when you are really struggling. I I had I had osteoarthritis. I couldn’t walk for two years, no exercise like I used to, no impact, just boring rehab, and it just got worse and worse, until all I did was just a bit of mobility, and then I had surgeries, and then I did not lose any muscle, but I actually gained it, because I was keeping my protein up, even though I wasn’t burning it like I used to, and I was doing my rehab as much as I could, but I had these katsu bands on, and that was it’s a life saver for me. I’m not saying that.

Courtney Townley 41:11
Is it pushing more nutrition into the area?

Zora Benhamou 41:14
No. What happens. It, it, it. So imagine if you’re partially restricting blood flow, and then you suddenly release it. You get a lot of blood flow going, and you have release of growth hormone. So it’s your own endogenous growth hormone that is being created inside of you. So you would be wearing these bands just for 1015 minutes, and your body thinks it’s doing 100 burpees, yeah. You don’t feel it. You don’t you’re like, going through the day. You’re like, I feel fine. I’m doing this for 1015 minutes, but your body is getting a totally different signal and and so I think this is just, I don’t know why, in gerontology, no one’s talking about this, because I’m not getting my 85 year old father in law to go lift heavy weight. He won’t do it, but I could put him some bands on while he’s puttering around the house, at least, right?

Zora Benhamou 42:05
So again, it’s, I don’t think it’s a replacement, but I think it’s a great add on when you need it, or where you’re really, really struggling, and you’re just not, you know, you don’t know what else to do, but, but we do have so if you have the the traditional it’s a constant, a constant restriction, because the ones I have cuts to have this sort of cyclical nature. So you feel like, Oh, I could go all day with this stuff. It’s easy, not painful, but if you have the constant one, it’s a little bit more painful. And you can’t it’s like, it was great during COVID, when I couldn’t get to the gym and I was lifting just a little water bottle, and it actually was so heavy, it was hurting so much because you’re it’s, it’s an extra load on you. So there’s different ways to do BFR, but again, if you’re going to go into this world, please contact somebody who knows what they’re

Courtney Townley 42:53
doing. Yeah. And just to clarify, what does the BFR stand for? Blood flow restriction. Blood flow restriction. Okay, and it’s cut soon the bands, and

Zora Benhamou 43:02
it’s actually a partial. It’s not like fully restricting your blood flow. And there are contraindications as well. So that’s one again, don’t buy this stuff on Amazon. And, you know, I mean, it can call me and I’ll hook you up and send you the right person.

Courtney Townley 43:18
Yeah. Oh, that’s so fascinating. Okay, good to know. And on this note, I guess I would love for you to share a little bit, because I know you just had, was it your second hip replacement? Yes, yeah, you’ve been through some pretty intense surgeries in the past few years. What do you want to share about that, in terms of recovery, and in terms of because you did recover quite quickly? Oh,

Zora Benhamou 43:40
yes, yeah, yeah. I just had my three month checkup with the second one today, and he’s like, amazed. He’s like, I can’t he’s like, but he keeps telling me, you I know you feel great and you still you gotta take it slow, like and most. And I hear this story a lot of but a lot of people get surgeries where they just say you feel so much better that you just feel like a racehorse. You just want to get right out and get your life back, and you had to reel yourself in. But one thing I want to talk about in terms of surgeries, osteoarthritis, or maybe a knee replacement, or whatever kind of surgery when you are younger, let’s say and you’re in your 50s, and you expect this to happen in your 70s, it’s a real hard thing to accept in the beginning, if you’ve never been exposed to other people who’ve had these types of surgeries, and I had so many people say, How in the world did this happen to you?

Zora Benhamou 44:32
Because you’re the healthiest person I know in the world. And I’m very disciplined, and I try my hardest. I’ve been able to bio hack it for years, which is quite amazing, until the bio hacks didn’t work anymore, and I have osteoarthritis because of many that had nine out of 12 risk factors, which is usually age and being female and having an injury, being very active and having sports and things like that. So because I was genetically sort of set up for this without realizing it, and. Yeah, so I think I love talking about it, and I appreciate you allowing me to speak about it, because you do feel alone like very much like menopause, because no one, no one’s really talking about it. I’ve even found celebrities who talk about it only years after they’ve had the replacements. And I’m like, God, I wish she would have spoken about this, because I would have not feel so bad, and then you realize, wow, there’s this whole other world of athletic people who do have to have surgeries like this, partially because of genetics and age and being athletic.

Zora Benhamou 45:33
So once you’ve, you know, opened up that box, and you’ve accepted that and understand, then you move into the surgeries. But I’d love to share some bio hacks in terms of any kind of surgery. And in this age, we’re having hysterectomies and mastectomies or, you know, knee replacements, whatever it is, there’s so many important things that we need to know in before the surgery, during the surgery, and after the surgery. And this is a whole hour podcast that I’ve created on this. I can just send it to

Courtney Townley 46:00
you for sure. We’ll put it in the link or in the Yeah,

Zora Benhamou 46:04
but I really want to preface that. Most importantly is you got to train for your surgery if you want to have a quick recovery. Yeah, if you don’t care about quick recovery, do whatever you want. Because a lot of people say, You know what, I can’t move, I hurt. I’m in pain. I understand it, and I believe it. I know exactly what you’re going through, but you still need to try to maintain muscle mass that you’re going to be cut open, your tissues, everything. So try your best do whatever rehab or mobility that you can and get your protein in. And you’re going to need it more during the surgery, right?

Zora Benhamou 46:39
Even if you have aging parents try to get them to eat more. And when you cannot eat more, that’s when you go into essential amino acids. They come as pills and powders and all kinds of stuff that you can take that is going to support the muscle and rebuild the tissue. So when you’re going into the surgery like those are kind of major things. And of course, there’s all kinds of supplements and things that we can do to prepare, but we’ll talk about that another time. But I think another key thing was, when you are well, and when you’re in surgery, of course, you’re not going to really feel like eating or all this stuff, and that’s kind of when those essential amino acids are really fabulous. You can just pop those in, yeah, and then after the surgery, and you can do this before the surgery, there’s, there are some pretty cool peptides that you may want to consider in terms of rebuilding and and recovery of muscles and

Courtney Townley 47:32
tissue listeners what a peptide is? Because I think a lot I was gonna say peptide, yeah, are short

Zora Benhamou 47:37
chain amino acids, basically anything. I think it’s more than 20. Don’t quote me on this is called a protein. Okay, protein is broken down amino acids. And a peptide will be a short like 2345, of them together, and they’re very powerful. And a peptide, when you take them in this way, for surgery or for any other issues, there’s peptides for your skin. There’s peptides for anything. So they could be topical, it could be a cream, it could be sublingual, it could be an injection. Billion one ways to do this. And that peptide world is growing so fast and and you got to be careful again, because, because people are trying to sell all kinds of stuff. So you got to do your research before you do this stuff. But when you have a big surgery like I have you got to do the injectable.

Zora Benhamou 48:22
And I hate to say it, you know, that’s I hate injecting myself. I’m not, I know. I’m a bio hacker, but I don’t like doing that stuff. I try to avoid it, but I try to talk my way out of it, because I got some really fabulous tips from our guests, right? Yeah, right. And so we have added access to all these brilliant doctors, and so I got these cool protocols from them. And the two peptides that I think were really, really effective for me and for anyone going through surgery, and they’re pretty standard, is called BPC 157 okay? And I think it’s called Body Body protective compound. I think that’s what it means. And then you have TB, 500 or thymus in beta four, okay, TB, 500 thymus aboard the same thing, one synthetic, one is natural, but they’re all injectable, and what these do is to it helped to repair tissue. It promotes angiogenesis, so you have more more blood flow, you have more connections, you have better recovery. And I noticed a fast recovery, because with one surgery, yeah,

Courtney Townley 49:28
how cool. You didn’t have them before the first time.

Zora Benhamou 49:30
I know, well, the first time, I did do the BPC seven, and then with the second one, I added the TB 500 Yeah. And I noticed enough an uptick with the second one? And I said, Gosh, I think this is a really great combination. And you’ll see these sold very often in combination, and that’s why my doctor originally wanted me to two, but they’re expensive. Okay, so I’m like, gosh, you know, that’s why, on the first time, I only did one, and then I’m nervous, like, I’m injecting myself. This is crazy. And what if something goes wrong? You know, you get all these things in your head. Is. As the bio hacker, I am the one and and so I think those are two definite peptides to look at when you are going down this road in terms of recovery. And then, of course, you know, there’s the whole nutrition piece and the protein, and then you’ve got getting your exercise and the rehab that’s super important post surgery, as well as there’s a ton of supplements that you can take. You know, we won’t go into that, but I just wanted to throw out some, just some peptides from the bio hiking world that I think would be really, really useful for people to look into when they’re going

Courtney Townley 50:32
to surgery. Yeah, and I love that. Bring it up because I don’t think we’ve never even had a conversation on this podcast about peptides. I know, I know it’s becoming more mainstream. I hear about it a lot more in the spaces and places that I travel in, but I can connect you to some great do, because I’d love to have somebody on the show to kind of do a deeper dive into that. That would be fantastic. Yeah, so great. I love all of this. We could talk forever. I do want to ask you, because so much of what we’ve talked about today, even though we did introduce, like, the full span of, you know, the life cycle of a woman. Hormonally, we’ve mostly been speaking to women in sort of that perimenopause, post menopause phase. You have a daughter, yes, yeah, I guess are on your website. What do you want her to know? Like, for the stage that she’s in life. She’s young like, what do you want her to know to help prepare her for not seamless travel, but maybe more grace filled travel through this phase

Zora Benhamou 51:33
her she should understand her body and how hormones are affecting her. Yeah, I think that’s I teach her that. I mean, she’s, you know, she’s very much, hears everything about menopause, so she’s really prepared. But if anyone here obviously is not having that conversation with your daughter, please have the conversation about menopause and perimenopause in general without scaring her. Because this is what happens, is now we have all this social media, and we have a lot of that, those comedy things about women dying and sweating and horrible. It’s just so when you have somebody in their 20s and 30s looking at that, they’re looking at that, they’re absolutely yes in their in their head, and as we know through all these interviews I’ve done, it’s a spectrum. You have 25% of women feel nothing, not that nothing’s happening, but they feel nothing, great, smooth transition. And then you’ve got 25% on the other end of the spectrum, who got every single symptom in the sun? And most of us are somewhere in between, right?

Zora Benhamou 52:25
Have something going on. So I think I tell, I tell my daughter to test her hormones. You can test them through blood. You can test them through urine, just kind of understand them a little bit. No, get familiar with the words estrogen and estradiol and progesterone, and then dial into your body, know your period, track your cycle, right? Because this is part of the hormone piece. And when you know your body, you know your period is coming, and you know what things to happen. And you can you notice the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you move, can affect your body and how you feel on how it looks. This is, this is so key, and then you don’t need gadgets, or we don’t need stuff. If you’re really dialed in, it’s nice to have those gadgets to maybe confirm what we are suspicious of. Or if we’re totally like, not in tune with our body, eventually you can just let go all those gadgets, because you know yourself so well. So I think knowing yourself, knowing your body and understanding your hormones

Courtney Townley 53:21
such a good point. It’s interesting. This past I’m 48 this past summer, I had a uterine ablation because I was a really heavy clotter. I have a blood disorder, and it was just affecting my period to the point that I felt like I was losing weeks of my every month, right? I was expecting periods. Yeah, it was awful. So I had an ablation, which, oh my gosh, what a game changer. And I got concerned a little bit, because I thought, okay, I know I’m deep in the throes of perimenopause for so many reasons. I’ve, you know, just I’ve known that for a while. How am I going to know when my periods start changing and all the things? But what’s fascinating is, because I do know my body very well. I know when I’m ovulating and also tracking with something like an aura ring, which is, you know, fairly simple to use. It’s tracking my temperature, so my, you know, I can watch my temperature change, and then I can correlate that with my symptoms. So it’s like, oh yeah, I am having a period, and I’m 28 days on the nose, and that’s still happening, even though I don’t have the blood. So it’s just interesting that you bring up that point, because that’s very much been my experience, that being knowing my body so well, I feel like I’m still very much in touch with my menstrual cycle, even though I no longer have a period.

Zora Benhamou 54:34
So good for you. Good for you. That’s exactly where you want to be. And I wish I knew this when I was younger. I just don’t even know. The first time someone tracked explained to me what the menstrual cycle looks like, I think I was 48 Yeah, and it was from a man. I was so embarrassed. Oh my God, he’s showing me. This is estrogen and this is progesterone, and this is what’s happening. I’m like, oh my god, this is so embarrassed. Thing, and I was in my 40s. I mean, this is ridiculous. I’d never paid attention, never cared, but I also didn’t have I had pretty easy periods. I was really lucky in that sense. It was pretty uneventful. I didn’t care. I would train whether I’d period, no period, just again. But I do wish I was better in tune, because when the perimenopause hit, yeah, and, and you’re like, okay, yes, what’s happening? What’s going on. But I think the aura ring came just in time, like you said, I can say, and I also use the app called clue, and that’s I kind of what before, or now aura, you can log your period, yeah, time it didn’t. But clue is pretty cool, because then you can say I’m spotting, or I feel like this, and, and, and there’s, there’s some perimenopause feature on there that I haven’t bought yet, because you have to pay for that, sure, but okay, but

Courtney Townley 55:52
that’s good to know. Clue is, it’s called, okay, good to know. Oh, this was so great. I love this conversation. I’m sure listeners are going to reap a lot of value from this. Where can I Yeah, go ahead. Go

Zora Benhamou 56:03
ahead. Can I ask you just, I think I don’t know if it’s interesting for the listeners, and you can edit this out if it’s not interesting. But what is your menopause experience like this transition? What are you feeling, and what have you done about it?

Courtney Townley 56:14
Yeah, you know, first, I think I would say that I think I was very well prepared, not because I was well educated in terms like, like, my mom didn’t really teach me anything, and she definitely put fear, the fear of God, in me about turning 40 and 45 because I watched her experience with it. But I think because I’ve been training my whole life, you know, I’ve been a, have been heavy weight training since I was in my early 20s, I’ve been really into my nutrition. It’s just because it’s interest of mine. It’s always been an interest of mine, and I think that that has made my experience. I don’t want to say soft, but softer. I would say my biggest challenges are before my my period starts, I definitely have some sleep disruption. You know, where I just if something wakes me up, I can’t get back to sleep, or I’ll wake up, you know, at a weird hour and not be able to get back to sleep.

Courtney Townley 57:07
The anxiety you spoke of with the drop of progesterone, I’ve never had anxiety in my life. That is something that I’m more aware of, especially around my cycle. I’m most aware of it. But in general, I’m so curious about HRT, because I think I feel good, and I often wonder, would I feel better? So I haven’t crossed that bridge yet. I haven’t had that conversation with my provider. I mean, we have the conversation all the time, but I haven’t really poked her about about putting me on it, but I’m definitely very open to it.

Courtney Townley 57:42
And interestingly, I think that my education around all this has been so timely, because, like I said to you, I have a blood clotting disorder, which, five years ago, no doctor would have touched HRT with a 10 foot pole knowing you have a blood clotting disorder, but now you know that that’s not true. It’s there’s so many different forms of hormone replacement that we can use. And thank God, because I remember when I got my diagnosis, my physician told me my first question, and she laughed out loud, my first question was, am I not going to be a candidate for HRT? And I was like, 40 at the time 41 she goes, I can’t believe you’re asking me that question. That’s the first thing that came out of your mouth. And I was like, Yeah, because I work with the population. Yes, it was, you know. And her response was, you’re not a candidate.

Zora Benhamou 58:34
Oh, my God. Oh. She laughed because you were not a candidate.

Courtney Townley 58:37
Yeah, she laughed because I asked him. And then her response was, also, you’re definitely, you’re not a candidate. And now, like, having had all these amazing people to talk to and being educated more about it, and all the different various types, I just like, gently, you know, get pushed a little information her way, like, that’s not true, and we are going to re approach that conversation.

Zora Benhamou 59:00
That’s really good when you when anyone is listening to and included is it’s always easy to give it a try. Like you don’t like it, you just stop. It’s not like something you have to wean yourself off of, or you will never be able to stop ever. It’s kind of it. Just try it, you know, again, it’s an experiment. And if it works, great. If not, you can try around tweaking it and seeing if you can find your dosage and your formula and your delivery method. And if you’ve tried everything and you still don’t like it, well, you just stop.

Courtney Townley 59:29
Yeah, I love that point, because I think that that’s such an important thing for people to hear that it’s not a forever decision, and it does take some calibration, which is why you need to be working with a menopause specialist, someone who really understands hormones, because you probably will have to recalibrate your doses. And ultimately, if it doesn’t work, okay, now you know you know yourself better. Great. Move on.

Zora Benhamou 59:54
Yes, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Oh, great.

Courtney Townley 59:57
Okay, so where can people find out more about you? And also we were going to talk about, you know, I always love giving a gateway into your work. So if there’s, you know, an offer that you have in terms of helping them to dive a little deeper into anything we’ve discussed, I think that would be awesome to share. Then

Zora Benhamou 1:00:15
everyone can find me at hack my age.com, and all my social media is hack my age, then we have tons of freebies. I got a page just called freebies, but I will send that link to you. Can choose if you want to learn more about sleep, if you want to learn how to biohack menopause. 101, I’ve got radiation protocols if you have to go and get an A mammogram or an I got a different MRI that’s from the galley to get a gadolinium. But if you have any kind of X rays, whatever, there’s so many great freebies out there. But I also send you the link to the menopause quiz because maybe somebody’s listening going, I’m not sure, or am I in menopause or perimenopause, or, you know, if they didn’t quite get it, you can always take the menopause quiz and just throw out freebies at you.

Courtney Townley 1:00:59
I love it. I love it. Well, what a pleasure to talk to you. And I I’m so grateful for the work that you’re doing in the world. I am sure you are helping to alleviate unnecessary suffering for so many women. And yeah, I’m sure that we will have more conversations in the future.

Zora Benhamou 1:01:15
Oh, I’m excited. Thank you so much for having me.

Courtney Townley 1:01:17
Zora have a great day.

Courtney Townley 1:01:25
Thank you for listening to the Grace and Grit Podcast. It is time to mend the fabric of the female health story, and it starts with you taking radical responsibility for your own self care. You are worth the effort, and with a little grace and grit, anything is possible.