Your Menopause Doula

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Your Menopause Doula Am I or how do I know I am in perimenopause? What are the early signs or symptoms of perimenopause or menopause? Is HRT or MHT right for me? Why am I gaining weight? I am struggling at work could it be menopause or burn out?

There is no such thing as ‘just estrogen.’

Your body uses multiple forms of estrogen each with different strength, different timing, and different impact on your brain, heart, bones, and metabolism.
And they are not interchangeable.

The four key naturally occurring estrogens are:

Estradiol (E2)
o The most potent and biologically active estrogen in your reproductive years.
o Primarily produced by the ovaries, it plays a central role in brain function, bone density, cardiovascular protection, muscle mass, and metabolic regulation.
o When you hear about the ‘benefits of estrogen,’ you are usually hearing about estradiol.

Estrone (E1)
o A weaker estrogen that becomes the dominant endogenous form after menopause.
o Mainly produced in adipose (fat) tissue.
o It does not provide the same comprehensive protective effects as estradiol and interacts differently with estrogen receptors.

Estriol (E3)
o The weakest of the three classic estrogens.
o Most abundant during pregnancy, produced largely by the placenta.
o Has more modest systemic effects and a different receptor profile compared to estradiol and estrone.

Estetrol (E4)
o A naturally occurring estrogen produced by the fetal liver during pregnancy.
o Present in the maternal and fetal circulation only during gestation and has distinct biochemical properties compared to E1, E2, and E3.
o It’s now being studied and used in some modern hormone therapies because of its unique activity profile.

So when we say ‘estrogen,’ we are talking about an entire family of hormones, with different roles across your lifespan.

Here’s what you need to know:

During the menopause transition, estradiol (E2) drops sharply.
post-menopause, estrone (E1) produced in fat tissue becomes your predominant endogenous estrogen.

And estrone is not estradiol.

It is weaker.

It binds differently at receptor level.

It does not offer the same level of protection for your brain, bones, heart, or metabolic health.

This means midlife is not simply ‘low oestrogen.’

It is a shift from one type of estrogen (E2) to another (E1), with completely different consequences for how you feel and function.

If all you’re ever told is ‘your oestrogen has changed,’ you will miss:

• Why your symptoms feel so different now.
• Why your body and brain don’t respond to stress, sleep, food, or exercise the way they used to.
• Why a generic approach to ‘balancing hormones’ rarely works at this stage.

You are not dealing with a single hormone quietly going up or down.
You are moving through a complete hormonal redesign.

And if the person advising you doesn’t understand the difference between E1, E2, E3 and E4, they cannot fully explain what’s happening or how to support you properly.

Stop guessing and get the clarity you need to improve your health span…….you are one session away to understand what’s really going on.

Love your whole body hormone expert....PB x

Australia is running a live experiment on midlife women and blaming them for the results.

Right when women are exceling in the workplace driving leadership, process improvements and transformation decisions, their biology hits a major transition. Instead of treating our body/brain as a critical asset to understand and protect, we treat it as a know biological problem to hide.

You can change jobs and titles.
You cannot trade in your nervous system, hormones or brain.

They are the engine behind every strategy, decision and transformation you deliver. Ignoring that isn’t 'being strong' it’s the riskiest non‑decision you’ll ever make.

The question is no longer, What’s wrong with me?
It’s: 'Here’s what my body is doing and I’m going to start treating it like the most important asset I own.'

If this hits a nerve and you’re done with the shame and pain, book in your free 20min compatibility call (link in comments) and let’s talk about what your own transformation could look like.

You promised each other 'forever'.
Nobody warned you about the midlife chapter where everything starts to come undone.

This is what I’m seeing over and over in midlife couples:

She’s exhausted, touched‑out, her body feels foreign and her libido gone.

He feels shut out, confused, rejected or on the verge of giving up.

S/x and intimacy is awkward, rare or completely gone.

Every conversation feels like walking through a minefield, or worse no one talks about it at all.

Most of them tell me they still love each other.
They just have no idea what perimenopause, menopause, andropause and midlife are doing to their bodies, brains and relationship.

To assist men support the person they love the most when they feel they can't do anything right, I’ve created a live, 60‑minute online session just for men:

Forever Again for Him: Understanding her midlife hormones (and yours) so you don’t lose each other.

In these one‑off sessions we’ll cover:

💠 What’s actually happening to her in perimenopause and menopause (physically, emotionally, biologically)

💠 What’s going on for him in midlife, including his hormones, health and stress

💠 Why midlife is such a danger zone for long‑term relationships

💠 How men can show up in ways that feel supportive instead of making everything worse (even when they’re trying hard)

No recording. No group therapy circle. Cameras optional. Just a private room, honest explanations and practical ideas you can take home.

If you’re a man who cares about your relationship but feels like you’re always getting it wrong lately, this is for you.

If you’re a woman thinking, 'My husband / partner / brother / mate needs this,' this is your chance to tag him or quietly send him the link.

The men’s session link is in the comments.

And if you’re reading this as a woman thinking, “I want my own space to make sense of my hormones, desire and our ‘forever’,” there is a 60‑minute women’s session coming too.
Head to Your Menopause Doula, add yourself to the email list, and keep an eye out – my website link is also in the comments.

Let’s stop avoiding or struggling our way through marriages and start enjoying our forevers again.

'Dear human: testosterone doesn’t know your gender.'

Globally, major medical societies already agree that testosterone has an evidence‑based role for postmenopausal women with hypoactive s*xual desire disorder (HSDD). The data are from randomized controlled trials, with clear dosing and safety guidance, not from fringe clinics or biohacking blogs. Yet in most countries, women can’t access a licensed, female‑dose product. They’re pushed toward male formulations, compounded creams, or nothing at all.

Now look at men. Low testosterone is treated as a serious medical issue: it’s linked with higher mortality, worse cardiometabolic health, and profound quality‑of‑life impacts. Men get clear guidelines, properly funded research, and multiple reimbursed treatment options. We call that 'evidence‑based medicine'.

In Australia, the contrast is stark. A TGA‑approved 1% testosterone cream for women with HSDD has just been denied PBS listing, despite international consensus support and decades of development. At the same time, multiple testosterone products for men remain subsidised. When the same molecule is funded for one s*x and blocked for the other, that’s not science.

This isn’t a 'women vs men' story. It’s a human physiology story. Men and women use the same hormonal toolkit: estrogens, progesterone, and androgens including testosterone for brain, bone, metabolic, s*xual and emotional health. What differs is dose and pattern, not whether the hormone matters.

So the real question is this:

If low testosterone matters enough in men to justify diagnostics, long‑term safety studies and fully subsidised treatments, on what ethical or scientific basis do we deny the same seriousness and the same access to women?

Maybe it’s time we stopped calling them 's*x hormones' and started calling them what they are: human hormones.

What would need to change for research, for policy, for clinical practice if our systems were forced to live up to that simple biological truth?

Keen to hear your thoughts or experiences in comments as this conversation is long overdue 👇

Did you know?? Women have a 50% decline in T in their late 20's early 30's 😱

The Estradiol Conversation Has Finally Gone Global...........But Not For Women

For decades, women have been told every version of misinformation about estradiol (E2):

It’s dangerous. It causes cancer. It’s unnecessary. It’s vanity. It’s optional. It’s risky. It’s overused. It’s under‑researched.

Meanwhile, we’ve been in a five‑year national estradiol patch shortage, leaving millions of women without access to the gold‑standard treatment that directly affects their brain, sleep, bones, heart, metabolism, and long‑term health.

And then this week… something extraordinary happened.
A major urology publication released new data showing that high‑dose estradiol patches are not only safe for men with advanced prostate cancer, they may be superior to the standard treatment.

Yes.
You read that correctly.

Key findings from the research:

• Transdermal estradiol patches are as effective as traditional androgen‑deprivation therapy (ADT) for advanced prostate cancer.
• Long‑term data from the PATCH trial (1,600+ men since 2007) shows equivalent survival and time to metastasis.
• Estradiol protects bone density while standard ADT causes immediate and progressive bone loss.
• Estradiol improves metabolic and lipid profiles, instead of worsening them.
• Estradiol reduces financial toxicity, making treatment more affordable.
• Estradiol allows personalised dosing, unlike one‑size‑fits‑all injections.
• Estradiol may eliminate the need for bone‑protective drugs, reducing risk and cost.

In other words:

Estradiol improves quality of life, long‑term health outcomes, and financial outcomes.

My brain lit up reading this in a slightly sick, ironic way because the medical profession is now openly celebrating estradiol’s benefits…
just not for women.

Would love to know your thoughts? ✨

PS -
Keen to support or invest in the MHT Patch space so Aussie Women & Now MEN can rely on supply? Lorai Health By Women for Women - Building MHT Innovation.