The Professor and Heather Anne
Although we don't have all the answers, we hope we can encourage and excite you.
We're here sharing our lives to inspire you to make the most of the second half of your life.
Join us each week, my friends, where you're sure to get a smile -- from lessons learned to mishaps, the adventures go on for miles...here on The Professor and Heather Anne.
The Professor and Heather Anne
The Hard Truths About Menopause: How to Advocate, Test And Treat With Confidence
The conversation gets real fast: Night sweats that derail sleep, weight that won’t budge despite the macros and the miles, labs that say “normal” while life screams otherwise. We trace two different menopause paths, one medically induced after a hysterectomy, the other arriving shockingly early at 37. We also unpack the physical, emotional, and relational fallout that follows when hormones shift and answers are hard to find.
Shae Rozzi, Fox 23 news anchor, joins us to share what her on-air series uncovered: How poorly menopause is taught in medical training, how many women are told they’re “too young,” and why deeper testing changes everything.
We revisit the confusing headlines about hormone replacement therapy with a clearer lens: Age of initiation, individualized dosing, and up-to-date research that now shows benefits often outweigh risks for many women. From brain fog and mood swings to painful sex and thinning tissue, we talk practical solutions: Tailored HRT, local therapies, pelvic and sexual health care, and the power of direct communication with your partner to keep intimacy alive.
Bone and metabolic health get a spotlight too. Estrogen loss accelerates bone loss; a timely DEXA scan can reveal issues years before a fracture does. Strength training, weight-bearing walks, vitamin D and calcium, and smart medical support form a spine-saving plan. On the metabolic side, we explore insulin resistance, updated weight-management options, and why “eat less, move more” fails without hormonal context. Throughout, we emphasize a simple rule: track symptoms, ask for the full hormone panel, recheck when needed, and change doctors if you aren’t heard.
If you’ve felt dismissed, confused, or alone, consider this your invitation to take the mic back. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review with the one question you want answered next—we’ll bring the experts and the honesty.
We never thought about talking to our moments about it. And then we get our third one so we started experiencing everything.
unknown:Your next favorite podcast quick starts now. Here's the Professor Heather Anne.
Joe:Welcome to the Professor and Heather Anne. Although we don't have all the answers, we hope we can encourage and excite you. We're here sharing our lives to inspire you to make the most of the second half of your life.
Heather Anne:Well, today I'm actually very excited about our topic. It is something that every woman goes through in her lifetime, but it's also something that we don't talk about very often. I've been finding out that the last couple of years more and more women are talking about it. But we're here to talk about menopause and the health issues that go along with that. And until you actually start to hit perimenopause or menopause, I don't think we fully understand just how that totally affects every aspect of our life. I'm very excited to have here with us. We'll be joined by Shae Rozzi, the Fox 23 News Anchor. She herself has been doing segments on the news about menopause and how that's affected her with another group of women. So I'm very excited to hear more about that. But let's talk about menopause. So I um actually went medically induced menopause because about my late 30s I had a full hysterectomy. And even though they talked to me briefly about it and told me what would happen, they didn't really tell me about all the symptoms that were going to happen or what to anticipate. I was fortunate enough to at least be there is an estradiol patch, and I was on that for a few years until I became allergic to the adhesive. And then all of a sudden, um they just told me everything's fine. I don't need to be on any more hormone replacement, it probably wasn't good for me, all the side effects, all the things. It could cause heart problems and breast cancer and all of the bad things that went along with it, and I was like, okay, great. But I struggled for many years with sleep, energy. Um the weight really started coming on, and that was my biggest thing I had. I was very fortunate I'd never had a weight problem before, but as soon as I hit menopause and um the weight just no matter what I did, no matter how much I worked out, no matter how much I ate, didn't eat, whatever I tried, it just would not work for me.
Joe:And so so this was twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, exactly. And these effects are they're still with you.
Heather Anne:They're still with me. It it's been the last five years that I started doing more research on my own, trying to figure out why am I not losing the weight. I've had metabolic testing, I've worked out with I do hard workouts, I um work out with trainers, I track my food, I track my micros, I do all of this stuff, and still was tired, and I've noticed over the last few years more brain fog has happened. Um and all I was told for years and years is, oh, your labs are fine, or my doctor would be like, Do you want to go on antidepressants? No, I don't want to go on antidepressants. I'm depressed because of what my body's doing to me, but I'm not depressed. So that was very frustrating. And it's been really nice to see the last few years more women talking about it. I kind of been joking around that it's because the Gen Xers are going into menopause and we're not used, we're used to just saying what we want.
Joe:Yeah, yeah, not not just suffering in silence.
Heather Anne:No, we want to find out what's happening to us and what's happening to our bodies.
Joe:So for me, uh I I felt like I needed to accommodate uh how sometimes you have low energy and some of this uh at first because it was something I didn't I didn't expect, and uh frankly a source of annoyance, like when we would have some event that we would have already bought the tickets for, and then you would cancel it at the last minute because you just didn't have the energy to to deal with going to whatever it was.
Heather Anne:That's also my ADHD. I just was done peopling. So it was just like I've had enough, I've done enough peopleing for the week, I do not want to go out, I just want to put my pajamas on and stay in the house and uh not be bothered. So that is some of that, which also I was diagnosed late in life. So I was diagnosed with ADHD about 10 years ago when I finally said something to my doctor. Um, because especially with women, we're just good at hiding those things and overcompensating in other areas, but I was finding myself that I couldn't do that, that I just couldn't concentrate, that I wasn't completing tasks and it was starting to affect my business. So I needed to figure out what that was. So um I was on ADHD medicine for a couple of years, but then I just didn't like the side effects of that either. So it helped for a little bit, but again, it's just a journey, and uh doctors just won't tell us what our bodies are doing. And it comes to a point where you just feel like your body hates you, is really what it comes down to, is like, what did I do to you so when I was younger so much that you just hate me at this age? So um Yes.
Joe:But I I've I've gotten to be I'm okay with it if we're gonna be events canceled, and we're just gonna get in our pajamas. That's okay.
Heather Anne:Um or we'll just go to dinner by ourselves, or I just want to spend time with you. That sounds good, right? Um so the biggest thing that drove me that has driven me crazy for many years is you go in, you get labs, and you're expecting your doctor to do the right labs, you're explaining to them how you feel, and then you get the labs and they come back and say, Well, everything's fine. It's like, but everything is not fine. Can we go deeper? Is there no, there's no reason to go to do any different labs, these are fine. And I just actually assumed that they did those hormone tests every single year, and I just recently found that out in the last couple of months. They do not. I hadn't had my hormones checked in three over three years. And that was completely shocking to me. That I'm an older woman, shouldn't that just automatically be done with your regular you go every year to your doctor and you get a you get a wellness checkup and all of that? Isn't that part of your wellness? Is trying to find out where your hormones are because with all the year the years that I've been doing a lot of different research and stuff, your hormones uh play a huge role on the rest of your body.
Joe:So sex hormones affect a whole lot more things than just sexual traits. Uh they're uh they're involved in uh in the nervous system, they're involved in uh in the metabolic system, and so forth. And so, so you know, this brings up so they they tell you your labs are normal, so normal for a post-menopausal woman is having very low levels of estrogen. So that's normal in the sense of like statistically normal, but it's also it's having such low estrogen has all sorts of effects, right?
Heather Anne:It does, and it's not just the estrogen, it's the testosterone. So one of the things I've learned over the uh this actually the last six months is uh women who play sports who are very active when they're younger, have a tendency to have higher testosterone. So when you're younger and you're going through puberty in your 20s and 30s, you already have high testosterone. So then when your testosterone starts dropping, which it does in menopause, then that really starts affecting you as well. And I just recently learned through my labs that my testosterone has drastically dropped in the last three years. And so it's like, uh wouldn't it have been nice to know that? And I just feel like the the medical establishment just likes us to feel like we're going crazy. So um what I would like to do is go ahead and bring in Shae. And I would like her to share with us what she's been doing, um, what her journey is. And welcome, Shae. Thank you very much for coming on our podcast.
Shae Rozzi:Thank you, Heather. Thank you, Joe, for having me. I was so excited when I was invited to be on your podcast to talk about menopause because I'm sitting here across from you at the table, nodding my head, like, yes, yes, preach, sister, preach, because you're exactly right. Um, so many women don't know what's going on with their bodies. And one of the things I've learned working at Fox 23 News and doing a recent series on menopause stories, and then sitting down with the other women of Fox 23 to have an open conversation about our personal experiences to help the next generation. The the young uh journalist who interviewed us, Morgan Martin, our weekend anchor, she's in her 20s. And um, Michelle, Jana, Sonny, and I are all like right at 50, a little above, a little below, but right at that 50 mark. And so for Morgan, she was so grateful to listen to all of our experiences, to learn from us so that she is empowered and can ask these questions whenever the transition starts happening to her or any of her friends. And one of the things for me, I hit menopause at 37, and I had no idea until I was in my second pregnancy. At that point, our first daughter had, um, she's already five, turning six years old. We're like, okay, great. Well, now if we have two kids, we'll have college paid for, we can start again. You know, you get a car, you can start again, all the things thinking financially. Um and uh we were just a few weeks in, you know, you don't really know you're pregnant until a few weeks in. So it just beyond that, so I'd say maybe a month or more in, um, where we were just starting to tell our immediate family that we were pregnant again. Um, and then, and then I just had one of the craziest days at work where this was when I was working in North Carolina and it was running around reporting all day, you know, news gathering and everything, and then coming back to the station to fill in on the anchor desk. And like I said, it was just like meeting those last-minute deadlines, and then like, oh gosh, you know, I gotta freshen up and you know go out for um anchoring. And I just happened to use the ladies' room one last time before going out to the set. And I won't be too descriptive, but I knew when I went to the bathroom something was wrong. Um, and um I was like, okay, well, it's like just minutes before the newscast starts. I can't bail. And so I just had to like block that out of my mind, anchor the news, run my report, et cetera. And then after the um newscast was over and I was driving home that night, I first called one of my girlfriends who had had a miscarriage and explained what had happened. And she said, It sounds like you've had a miscarriage. Call your OBGYN and schedule an appointment as soon as possible so they can, you know, run tests, make sure you're okay and everything else. And and I called my husband and told him that too. It was weird, you know, I didn't want to call him first to say, hey, this is what happened, but I don't know what it is. So that's why I called my girlfriend first and then my husband to um explain uh what had happened. And then I went to the doctor and she said, while it sounds like you were pregnant, you know, you had the positive pregnancy test, your body was experiencing changes for pregnancy. Um, and it does sound like you had a miscarriage. When she started running blood tests and hormone tests, she's like, You're postmenopausal. Your FSH levels, follicle, stimulating hormone levels, like they're, you know, beyond, like you're already like menopause, post-menopause. I'm like, what? I'm 37. How is that even possible? And um, and then come to find out, both my mom and my sister hit menopause at an early age as well. But you don't think to ask those questions because I really didn't feel like I was experiencing the symptoms at that time. But then reflecting back, I was like, oh, well, maybe I was.
Heather Anne:See, and I find that very interesting because I come from a family of women. My mom has had five sisters, I had a lot of female cousins and stuff. Pretty much almost all of my mom's sister, including my mom, all had hysterectomies in their 20s. So we had nothing to go by. We never thought about talking to our moms about it. And then we hit our 30s and we started experiencing my sisters and I and my cousins perimenopause. And we and we would bring it up to our doctors, and they would just be like, Well, that's just not possible. You're too young. So why is it that you think that you didn't you're didn't talk to your sister and your mom about it?
Shae Rozzi:Yeah, I guess I don't know. I guess I just really didn't think about it at the time. I mean, I'd have maybe a few night sweats, but working in news, it's always stressful. You're always running. There's like this adrenaline rush. Some days are very emotional, some days are very challenging, and some days you get to do the rewarding story. So, I mean, truly, that in itself brings your emotions all over the place. So part of it, you know, you may just be thinking, oh, it's just my job, you know, I'm just a little stressed, or maybe I'm overworked, overheated, exhausted, and um, you know, night sweats and things like that. Maybe I'm just stressed. So I didn't really think about it at the time until the doctor um, you know, told me that no, you're you're in menopause, you're more toward the post-menopausal level. And um, but I I was just baffled by that. But then a lot of stuff started making sense. Now, in terms of having any more children, the doctor talked to us about different options. But my husband and I were always of the mindset, God gives you what you can handle. And maybe we were only meant to have one child, but that is not to discourage any couple out there from exploring your options if you want to grow your family, because there are indeed uh different options for you. Um, but just over time, I've noticed um and what my husband noticed too, he'd be like, wow, like you like sometimes, you know, you'll just kind of lash out when you wouldn't normally. And we call it the cobra strike. Like, you actually don't see it. I like that. That's a great explanation. Yes, you'd be like, that's the cobra strike. Oh, you can say that together and be like, oh, where did that come from? And um, so sometimes it's kind of mood swings, and then other times, you know, the lack of interest in the bedroom, like, where did that come from? You know, because when you first meet, let's face it, you're essentially all over each other. And then you're like, wait a second, well, well, this stinks. Is this how it's going to be? So it's also having that open communication with your spouse, with your partner too, and just like, this is what I'm feeling. And, you know, when I first started talking about hormone replacement therapy, uh, when my OBGYN talked about it, um, not right then, but a few years down the road, um, we had news reports saying, like, oh, there's studies out showing HRT can lead to a greater risk of breast cancer. And the one of the challenges working in news is you you essentially be while you become very educated knowing a little about a lot, you also become paranoid in a sense because you see that one in a million, one in one hundred thousand chance of something happening to happen happening to someone every day, because that's what you're reporting on. So when you report on these studies of like HRT um hormone replacement therapy, potentially increasing your risk of breast cancer, you're like, well, I don't want to have breast cancer, you know, I don't want to have another health issue to deal with. Correct. But my OBGYN it did say, like, but wait, stop, don't, don't just go with the surface report on that and in what's you know circulated in local and national media and what um what those so-called health experts are saying. Like, really look at the research. She said, I've read the full report, and I'm telling you, most of the women who took part in that study, they were older to begin with, 60s or older. So they already had an increased risk of breast cancer. She's like, this is where you should have, and one of the things I would I'll tell your listeners today is where you should have your own conversation with your doctor because um she had recommended it to me at the time years ago, but I was too nervous about it. And now, as we've recently reported, the FDA is looking to remove the black box uh warning label off of hormone replacement therapy and saying the benefits outweigh uh the risks, especially when younger women are being diagnosed with menopause and suffering from the lack of hormones and all these changes, night sweats, mood swings, brain fog, weight gain, um, all of these things. Doesn't it sound like fun, Joe? Don't you want to experience it?
Heather Anne:The aches and pains. Your joints just hurt.
Shae Rozzi:Everything. In fact, from our Fox 23 conversation on menopause, our morning anchor Michelle Lynn was saying she had frozen shoulder. She couldn't lift her arm parallel to the ground. And her doctor had said, Oh, it's probably because you were roller painting, you know, on your walls or you were doing yard work. She's like, You don't know me. I do neither one of those things. Like, there's no way that's that's the cause. And then she started doing more research and she um found that with the lack of estrogen, you know, you lose it during menopause. Um, estrogen helps with the elasticity. And so as you start to lose estrogen, it also can lead to more inflammation. And so that can also be a cause for frozen shoulder. And I had an aha moment during our conversation. So I was like, oh my gosh, I've been dealing with shoulder issues. I went to physical therapy a year ago for it. And then she was telling me about this softwave therapy that's more for stem cells for her shoulder that worked. And so I've started doing that since our conversation, which is helping me where I can now like stretch more, reach higher than I was able to because I didn't realize it was menopause and the lack of hormones and estrogen keeping me from truly healing my shoulder.
Heather Anne:But you had to do that research on your own. Yeah. Your doctor didn't just say, oh, this could be it. And that's what I find in the one reason why I wanted to have you on and have this as a conversation, is that I feel like we're just out there researching our own. Now, I do think you need to do that. Yes. Everybody's different, everybody's body's different, things affect me differently. Even my doctor will sometimes say, Well, I'm not going to give you that or talk to you about that, because I know you're going to find an alternative. So since you've been doing these segments, what are some of the questions that are I'm assuming women are writing in, asking questions? What do you think is some of the biggest questions that you are being asked?
Shae Rozzi:Well, I think um you brought up a very interesting point with your own personal experience, having to have a full hysterectomy. As you mentioned, you were told just briefly, oh, you'll start to experience menopauses symptoms. But you weren't walked through what that means for you? What does that mean for you on the daily? So if you start experiencing this, that's what this is from. You start experiencing this, like the, you know, the hot flashes or hair loss, brain flaw fog, and things like that. And um, and maybe hormone replacement therapy is better for you, having that at a younger age because you shouldn't have to suffer for so many years. Um, when we started doing these segments, it happened to be at the same time the American Heart Association, which I um I partner with quite often, uh, was doing a speaker series on menopause. And I met a woman named Dr. Carrie Anthony, and it's yourmenopausemd.com. And she said it wasn't until she started going through menopause as a doctor that she realized, oh my gosh, I was not taught any of this in medical school. And that was one of the things we learned in our reports is that so many doctors aren't even educated very well about menopause, even though half the population, everyone is gonna go through menopause.
Heather Anne:Every woman, whether it is medically induced or whether it is natural, will go through menopause no matter what. It's just what our bodies do. And speaking about the doctors, I have been following one of the doctors as well. She wrote a book called The New Menopause and um by Mary Claire Haver. And she's a doctor too, and she all of a sudden until she started going through it, is the exact same thing as what have I been doing? They didn't teach me about this in medical school. I've been finding a lot of female doctors when they're hitting menopause. The same thing is like they didn't teach us, they didn't talk about it. And several of the doctors have even like shut down their practices because it's like I feel like I'm doing a disservice. I don't know enough myself that I can't even necessarily have to treat myself first before I would be able to treat my patients. And um I I find that fascinating. I find that that it's if this is something that women go through, every single woman goes through, how is it that it's not talked about? How is it that it was not taught in it's not taught in medical school? Right. Well, I hope they're listening now.
Shae Rozzi:I hope so too. And I hope there is a greater focus on it because you mentioned doctors closing down their practice. This doctor locally happened to realize aha, she that was her aha moment. If I don't know enough about it, and half the population, my female patients, all of them go through it, then that needs to be the focus of my practice. So that's what she does now. And um, I went to her conversation that the Heart Association hosted, and you just learn so much. And also because um sexual health is a big part of a healthy marriage. Yes. And um, and what she explained is there are different medications that can help women. Um, one, the hormone replacement replacement can simply be helpful in just giving you some of your energy back and some of that interest. But also for some women, just scientifically speaking, um, vaginal lining thins. And for some women, sex can be painful, or just sitting down can be painful. Not even in a sexual, you know, situation. And so um, she was explaining there are so many different medications and treatments now that you can have to, you know, have a healthy sex life once again, or just simply um treat the pain that your body is going through because of all of these two.
Heather Anne:Because it's hard if your body is hurting you and seems like it's fighting you, it's hard to feel sexy. So that comes through as I'm not in the mood. Um because for women it's all mind and right, you know, we have to be in the right mindset and stuff. And so the I think that is a great um point as well, is that just because we're getting older doesn't mean we still do not want to be intimate with our husband or our partner. Um and you start feeling bad. You you and I think that's another thing is it's not just the physical things that happen to you, it's the emotional things that you go through when you're not understanding what what your body is, and when you're you know, your husband's telling you, oh, you're beautiful, I love you, and everything, but you're like, I don't feel that at all. Right.
Shae Rozzi:And Joe, I want you to be able to come back into the conversation too, because husbands do have to be so patient. They have to be so understanding. And then the hard part is, and I don't, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but I know my husband and I have talked about it too, um, at other stages where I was struggling, where he's like, I just feel rejected. Like, I feel like you don't want me. And it's like, no, it's not, I I it's like, I want you to want me to trick. I'm like, I want to, and I want to want you, but oh my gosh, I like can't. I was struggling, you know, at the at the time. Things are better now. Yes.
Heather Anne:He brought that up at the first of the year.
Joe:It's yeah, it's something that to adjust to, but like, yeah, this is not about it's not about me and it's not about our relationship.
Heather Anne:It's it's but you did come at the first of the year. Um, you know, we've only been together for three years, so so yeah, there was a honeymoon period. Yes, and there was a little lull at the first of the year, and he came to me and said, Hey, is there something I've done? Um, you know, because we've openly discussed this coming from second marriages. We've very we try to talk about uh everything um because we want to make sure we're not bringing in other things from our previous marriages.
unknown:So smart.
Heather Anne:So that was something that was discussed from the very beginning of our relationship. So when um at the beginning of the year is like, did I do something? Do did I make you feel bad? Is there something I need to do?
Joe:So I'm I'm I've I've gotten to be I I've gotten I've gotten to be psychologically very very comfortable with this.
Heather Anne:That um uh that you know it's not you.
Joe:I know it's not me.
Heather Anne:Or that I make you talk about your feelings. Because that's a whole nother segment, a whole nother topic as well. So but you you it is what it is.
Joe:And you know, you're you're you know, there are some things I can do, but then some of it is just have to be accommodating to what you're feeling.
Shae Rozzi:Well, and I think one of the challenges is uh one of the things that I learned about this is perimenopause can last up to 10 years before you actually technically hit menopause. So um for your listeners, menopause, as the doctors in the medical field describe it, it's a full year of not having a period. But all of these symptoms that we've been discussing, those you can experience for up to 10 years before you actually hit menopause, and you're like, my goodness. And oftentimes for men, when it comes to their sexual health, it might be one issue and then they can take a pill and within a few minutes they're you know, they're okay and you know, um, back in the game, so to speak. But for women, it doesn't work that way. Right. We have all of these things from the emotions, and my main thing now has been hair loss, and so I've had to use like what I would use as my gray cover-up spray. Now I gotta spray it to cover. I'm like, oh my gosh, you can see my scalp. See, now I got Joe looking at my hair here, but uh but anyway, so it's just like another fun thing to deal with.
Heather Anne:And it's you know I've been dealing with the hair loss more this past year, and and yeah, I fully understand.
Shae Rozzi:It just shedding, and you're like, oh my gosh, I gotta clean up all this hair.
Heather Anne:You wake up in the morning, you got hair all all over you, but it's it's interesting that you bring up the perimenopause. I actually know now that even before I had my hysterectomy, I was already in perimenopause. I actually, so we I have two boys, nine years difference, um, and I was already missing periods.
unknown:Okay.
Heather Anne:And I was actually surprised when I got pregnant with this with our second son. It was just like, wait a minute, hold on. I thought maybe I was going into menopause. And then after having him, it's just like then I started having all kinds of health problems, and it's like that, it's almost like that pregnancy was against me. Oh, and I did. I had uh bad pregnancy and bed rest and all of that.
Joe:So early C section, right?
Heather Anne:Yes. Uh he would he was uh they knew he was. I wasn't going to go full term the whole time. So again, I was already starting to have those and really concentrate on my health. And I truly believe, even to this day, that I was able to get pregnant because I was so obsessed with my health at that time. I was taking all the herbs, I was working out, I was really being conscious of my food and everything. So it is interesting how some women can enter perimenopause and be only in a few years, start menopause, but how that can affect us even for 10 years and nobody still talking to us about it and telling us this is what you're really going through. These are things that you can do to help. Maybe we do want to put you on some hormone replacements to help ease you into full-blown menopause.
Shae Rozzi:Yeah, because you talked about being on the patch earlier. I am now on an estradiol, estrogen uh pill and progesterone pill that I take each morning. And I have noticed a difference. I have definitely noticed a difference. So that has helped me. And that was all just recently. Um, and within the last few months. And my doctor also ordered a bone scan for me because people, I was always told by my other doctors, as soon as I found out that I had hit menopause earlier, one of the risks is developing osteoporosis. And just this year, at the age of 50, I finally had a bone scan. And my doctor says, Your back looks like the doctor of looks like the back of an 80-year-old woman. You have severe osteoporosis in your lower lumbar uh region, the lower part of your spine. And so um I'm now on a weekly pill to help with the osteoporosis that hopefully we can help reverse it. And then I've also upped my um vitamin D and calcium intake in vitamin form um and hopefully help support my bones. So the main thing is so it might be a fallen and I can't get out of it because I heard something's like you're at great risk for a fracture if you do fall. And um, so that's another thing women need to know about if you hit menopause early, is um listen to your doctors because again, I hit it at 37. Here I am at the age of 50 and finally had the bone scan, and I already have severe osteoporosis. I also started walking with one of those weighted vests, not too much weight because you also don't want to hurt yourself, but just something to help build up my core and build up the muscles around my spine to help support it since my spine is weak. Um, I need to do more weightlifting too. I walk every day with my um neighborhood friends. We have a little walking group, but um I'm also you're also strongly encouraged menopause and um and guys too to be lifting weights. That weight-bearing exercise really helps us as we get older. I do want to go back to something that you said earlier. When you were testing for hormones and the doctor's like, no, you're fine. And you keep getting at the times when you would get tested, since you weren't being tested for hormones every year. So, yes, some notes for your viewers. When you go have your annual blood work done for your physical, ask for your hormones to be tested. Tell them to run the gamut of hormones because you want to see where you are and compared to the the year prior. But also, when it comes to your hormones, what I learned from your menopause MD, the Dr. Anthony I met, um, was that you could go in for testing one day and your hormones are like, oh, fine, they're at these levels. That afternoon it could be like this, and they'd be like, oh yeah, we'll come back next week. And you just happen to have like a high day with your hormones. So your hormones truly are all over the place. Yeah. You're not just going through mood swings, but your hormones can be all over the place. So it might be a matter of when you had the test. So worth asking to get the test, but it might be a matter of when you when you get the test and what your hormones are doing that day, where your doctor may be, well, I'm I'm reading your chart, Heather, and it's fine. So I don't know, but you but so it could be to take in everything else you're telling them.
Heather Anne:Because I like that you're bringing that up because it could be you normally get your testing done in the morning. Maybe you need to be doing those tests in the afternoon. Know your body and how it feels in the morning and in the afternoon. Um, I like the test for the osteoporosis. Um, I've been having hip problems for a while. Something I should probably go and uh check out myself. I don't believe I have had that test, or it's been quite a while since I have. The other question I have for you, with all the research that you've been doing, is because you started menopause just as early as I did. One of the things I'm seeing, even in the in the research I'm finding out, is that if you haven't done any hormone replacement, a lot of times they're saying if it's been over 10 years, it's too late.
Shae Rozzi:Well, this is where you should talk to your doctor because it's been 13 years for me, and I just started it this year, and I'm already noticing it.
Heather Anne:So you did you take hormone replacement? I never took any. When they when your doctor came to you and during, you know, because you were going through a lot. You had the miscarriage, you had you find out that you're 37 years old and having menopause, they did not put you on any hormone replacement.
Shae Rozzi:No, and I honestly I can't remember at the time if they suggested it then, but I know when we moved here to Oklahoma, it was um now 12 years ago, the first I always say the lady doctor for those the first lady doctor I had here. Um, and she was amazing, but she was the one who said, Yes, I know about the research that has kept you from doing hormone replacement, but you're dealing with all these symptoms. You should really consider it because as she mentioned, the women in the research, they were older to begin with and more likely to develop breast cancer to begin with. Now, that's not to say hormone replacement can't increase your risk of breast cancer because, again, everybody's body reacts differently. Correct. You watch the FDA fully tested medical commercials for whatever pharmaceutical drug, and while it may help the majority of people who take that specific medication, you'll hear, almost like when they read the fine print out loud, it may cause a risk for heart attack or stroke, you may die. And um, but so unfortunately, while there are adverse effects to some medication, they often help the majority of the people or they would not have been approved. So hormone replacement, I'm not gonna say someone is not going to have an increased risk of breast cancer. I mean, my doctor did warn me, um, the one who just put me on the hormone replacement recently, he's like that you'll likely feel tenderness in your breast, just pay attention to your breast health, continue with your annual mammograms so that we can track your health. And but hopefully it helps and that you know it doesn't increase my risk of breast cancer in terms of the benefits outweighing the risk for now. But um, but I don't recall the doctors when I was younger um telling me to get on hormone replacement. But then as I started experiencing these stronger uh side effects and symptoms of menopause, that's when it was brought up. Well, you might want to try hormone replacement, but then I myself was too scared from the research out there. Um and then just more recently being like, okay, I'm at this age, I'm still dealing with this stuff. And now that more doctors and now most recently the FDA coming out saying we're gonna remove that black box warning because hormone replacement should be doing um uh more good than harm, especially for younger women who are diagnosed with um menopause early.
Heather Anne:And and I I just really think again, that just goes back to the medical establishment. So whether the black box warning's there or is or isn't, your doctor should be constant to be following up with you, having conversation with you. And I just feel there's just and I'm not bashing the medical establishment, we need doctors, we need them to help heal us. But I just feel with women there's just not enough conversation.
unknown:Right.
Shae Rozzi:And that's where social media has really done us some good. Social media isn't always the best thing, however, because so many people now do put their life on full display in you know, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, that women have been sharing their symptoms, and that really has shined a light on menopause and sparked these conversations. And that's what helped us to do the specials on Fox.
Joe:And these books, I mean, Dr. Haver's book, that's not the only one. There have been several books.
Heather Anne:Just in the last year or two that have come out that have been very eye-opening. Um, he actually, since we decided we were doing this segment, he's been reading, Joe's been reading the book and and finding out some things. There was a few things you said, well, I didn't even know that. Because you're you're an anthropologist.
Joe:Yeah, so so I you know pretty much the only thinking I've done about menopause has been from an evolutionary anthropology point of view, wondering why it's a huge well, it's not so much anymore, but for a long, for a while, there's a lot of research on why humans are the only primates that have menopause. They're the only primates in which the female reproductive system shuts down long before I mean on average, shuts down long before every other physiological system. And so there's a just as a species typical trait, there's this long post-reproductive phase only for females. So there are some other mammals, certain whales that have menopause, but no other primate does. And so this is like, I'm not gonna get into it. It's I'm not gonna nerd out here on it. But you know, well, why, why, why do you because from an evolutionary point of view, it's a it's a puzzle, you know. Like if um if you're not reproducing anymore, then from an evolutionary perspective, well, really, there's not any point in you being alive anymore. And so so what you know is this have to do with elderly women or older women being able to direct more care to their grand offspring, other, you know, um uh or is it just like an artifact or the fact that you know we live longer now than we used to? That's true.
Shae Rozzi:So that's you know, yeah, that that's I'm glad you're just not calling us whales.
Heather Anne:Yes, yes. Yes. But no, that's an interesting point. That in all these years, doctors have never spoken to women about menopause. It was just a thing that you were expected to go through. And I do feel like women today are just like, we've had enough. We want to talk about it, we want to find out about our bodies, how can we live because we are living longer. So if we're living longer, then I don't want my body hating me. Right. And I don't want to hate my body because you know, that's again a whole nother topic. We're taught at a very early age. Um, so many women grow up hating their bodies. So when we I feel like, especially for me, when I went through menopause, that I did, I just really hated my body. And it was just like, you know, why me? Why is it doing this? I know of other women that have gone through menopause and haven't gained the weight like I have. Why is my body doing this to me? And literally the last five years, that's what sent me on my journey is, you know, how can I improve? What am I doing? You know, we're doing all the things, we're taking the vitamins just like you. I'm doing the vitamin D. Found out recently my vitamin D is real low. And it's just been fascinating on how our body really works and lacking the hormones, then that causes other issues in your body. Uh, because you have these issues, then that causes that could that could deplete your hormones. So, what's been the most fascinating thing that you have found about menopause?
Shae Rozzi:And I think the most fascinating is simply just talking about it because it does hit everyone differently, hits them at different ages. But I think talking about it just like you, the two of you, are being more open in your marriage now and communication now, I think it's that's what couples need to do. That's what girlfriends need to do too. And that's what we did in that Fox 23 news special was just share our experiences because what I may go through, I may have information to help you, you may have information to help me, like Michelle was helping me with my shoulder. Um, Jana Clark said her mom didn't really experience um much of menopause symptoms. So she had no idea what Jana was talking about when Jana um shared what she was going through. She's our investigative reporter. And um in so for her, she felt really alone. And so I think the biggest takeaway is really start paying attention to your body. Now that we are putting it all out there, when you start experiencing these symptoms, pay attention to your body. Start asking your doctor uh what is best for you. And if your doctor is still like keeping you in the dark, then find a different doctor.
Heather Anne:Find a different doctor. Yeah. I cannot stress that enough. Go to another doctor. And if that doctor still won't listen to you, go to another doctor and find one that's really going to sit down and have a conversation with you.
Shae Rozzi:Yes, because one of the women I interviewed for the story, along with the doctor who was the guest speaker, um, she was saying, Well, I found out what uh what I was taking wasn't working for me. And then I got on a whole other treatment, and then it's like, see, I'm not crazy. And, you know, all these symptoms that she was having, it was it was the newer medication was helping her and getting her right back to her normal self because menopause also leads to divorce, which is crazy when you think about it and so heartbreaking and sad. But we just talked about how it can affect your sexual health. We talked about how it can affect your mood. If you suddenly have these, like, uh find yourself having the cobra strike and you're lashing out at your husband, like you are not the same person I married. Like, what is wrong with my wife? And so it can lead to major issues. And for couples who don't talk about it and don't get the help they need, it can lead to divorce, which is so sad. So thank you so much for having me on today to share all this. So I hope we do empower more women and more couples to be like this part of a life.
Heather Anne:I really do want to stress that as well is that men are in the dark as well. It it's affecting us, it's affecting our bodies, but it's hard to explain to my to your husband, your partner that my body just hurts today. I really just am fighting with my body, and my mind just doesn't seem to be where it needs to be. It's very hard for them to understand. Now they do go through hormonal changes and everything as well, and we are going to have a segment more about that because we need to be talking about that as well. Just as much as the doctors don't talk to us, men don't talk about their physical health and the things that they're going through. But it I think it's important that we're opening up those conversations to our husbands, to our partners. I think it's very important that we open up the conversations just with younger women.
unknown:Yes.
Heather Anne:What can they be doing at an early age in their 20s and 30s that can help them possibly ease into menopause a little bit easier?
Shae Rozzi:And I think also if you're planning to have a family and now so many women, you know, in the workplace and and um climbing the corporate ladder and everything else, so many women wait to have children. So, but if children are in your future, then start talking to your doctor early for the FSH level testing and any other pregnancy hormone testing, things like that, so that you know you hear that biological clock is ticking birth to torment, you know. And unfortunately it is for us. It truly is. It's not just, you know, a punchline in a movie. Um, and so if you are a working woman, and even if you're not, but if you're you know possibly delaying pregnancy and having a family, make sure you talk to your doctor and see where you are to be like, oh, you know, maybe we shouldn't be waiting much longer.
Heather Anne:That is a great recommendation. I highly recommend that for all young women to start having that conversation as early as possible. Um, because again, like you said, a lot of women are delaying uh childbirth and they're waiting until their late 30s, early 40s to have children, and that could possibly uh be hindering their possibilities of having a positive outcome. Well, we really appreciate you coming on. Do you have any other parting words?
Shae Rozzi:Or oh, I just say take control of your health, get answers. Um, you know, the the internet is your friend, but don't believe everything.
Heather Anne:Because you can go down a slippery slope.
Shae Rozzi:But write down your questions because then once the once you finally get into your doctor's office, you may forget all the questions that you have. Keep track of your symptoms. What are you experiencing? Are there certain times a day? Is having too much caffeine leading to something?
Heather Anne:Um and certain times of the month, even though you're not having your cycle, that still does affect you as well. So certain times of the month can be worse than so than others.
Shae Rozzi:Yeah, just open up notes on your phone, keep track, and then so when you go to your doctor, you can have the conversation and make sure you get all your answers, uh all your questions answered. And if that doctor is not answering your questions or making you feel comfortable or making you feel stupid and not validating your concerns, you need to find another doctor. It's okay to break up with the doctor.
Heather Anne:It is okay to break up with the doctor. I cannot stress that enough. If you were walking away from your appointment and just because I know I've done it myself, go just sit in my car and cry because it's like, well, they didn't hear me. They didn't hear me. He didn't give me any solutions. Maybe I truly am going crazy. Maybe I do need to be on antidepressants. I know that that happened to me quite a few times. And and truly, and I love my doctor, been going to him for years, but also with talking with him, I just want to say this real quick, talking with him about the weight gain and stuff. He actually had me bring a picture of when I was younger prior to my hysterectomy to see that I did not have a weight problem prior to my hysterectomy.
Shae Rozzi:But doesn't that just tell you that the hysterectomy and all the hormones and everything else is playing into your weight thing that you need to drink right now? I was like, I was like reverse effect here.
Heather Anne:It was like I had to prove to him that this wasn't something that I had been dealing with my entire life or my adult life. I it's like I had to prove. And but I still continued going to him afterwards, going, okay, well, here's a picture. I was happy to show him the pictures. Yeah, look at I, you know, was a size zero when I was a teenager and I was a size five after having my first son. So hey, this is great. But didn't trust your account of your he did not trust like when well, I want you to write down everything you're eating and stuff. So again, my high my recommendation, like your recommendation is if your doctor is not listening to you, if you're leaving the doctor's office and you're in tears and just not believing anybody's listening to you, where maybe you are going crazy, definitely seek out another doctor.
Shae Rozzi:Absolutely. And my blood tests show that I was borderline diabetic. I had gestational diabetes with my pregnancy, and then just recently had um, I was like right at the line basically with my A1C and a higher blood sugar. So I am taking one of the diabetic weight loss injections that is FDA approved for weight loss, and it has helped me lose about 30 pounds so far this year. Um it just turns off that hunger voice in your brain. That's how it's worked for me. I don't know it's it's if it's more successful for me because I'm kind of wired moral like a diabetic, um, and it helps with insulin resistance, but that's what helped me. Um again, something to talk to your doctor about. I'm not pushing anything on anyone, but it's just helping to inform other people of like these there are options. There are options. And if something is not working, if you get on a medication and you don't feel well, then you need to talk to your doctor about stopping it. Correct. Don't suffer through that. Don't you need to get treatment if it's not working? Do not suffer through it. Talk to your doctor right away so you're not taking something that is going to hurt you or continue to hurt you.
Heather Anne:And I cannot stress that enough as well, because I'm on this journey of trying to find out what hormones and stuff work for me and one did not. And uh so it's it's a continual thing. Everybody's body's different, just listen to your body is the biggest recommendation that we have.
unknown:Absolutely.
Heather Anne:Well, again, thank you very much for joining us. I really joining us. Obviously, we can have more and more conversations about this. We can continue longer. But uh we hope that we've brought some great information and that our listeners and we hope that women will go out and uh talk to their doctors more, talk to their husbands and partners more. Shae, again, thank you for coming on, your vulnerability, your leadership, being willing to talk to here on our podcast, but also to your audience on Fox 23 News. Um, I I really think we can, the more we talk about it, um, the more women that we can definitely help and hopefully not just get women to be talking about it, but doctors paying attention and wanting to help their clients, uh their patients more. So um that's my hope also. Thank you both so much for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you. We're going to have more guests, and we'll be having uh more episodes on this topic because again, um I think the more information that we can get out there, the more women we can help. So join us here each week, my friend. You're sure to get a smile from lessons learned to mishaps, the adventures go on for miles. Here on the Professor and Heather Ann.
unknown:Thank you for listening to The Professor and Heather Ann.
