The Hormone Solution | Menopause, Perimenopause, & Women's Midlife Health

You are taking the supplements. Drinking the water. Maybe you are even on HRT. And yet you still feel tired, puffy, anxious, inflamed, constipated, foggy, wired at night, and completely drained during the day.

What if one of the missing pieces is far more basic than another hormone, peptide, or supplement?

In this episode, I sit down with Caroline Allen, The Mineral Geek and co-founder of BEAM Minerals, to talk about the role minerals play at the cellular level. We get into mitochondria, energy production, hydration, nervous system regulation, detoxification, adrenal and thyroid function, and...

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Dr. Anshul Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and leading expert in Hashimoto's disease. Through his work, he helps people better understand the root causes of Hashimoto's and how a functional medicine approach may he...

What do you do when you finally start HRT and instead of feeling amazing, you feel exhausted, puffy, bloated, or like something is just not right? Or you start a GLP-1, lose weight, and suddenly your hair starts falling out?

Today's episode is another listener Q&A, and we are getting into the real-life questions women are asking when hormone therapy, thyroid treatment, weight-loss peptides, and menopause symptoms do not fit neatly into a textbook.

We talk about progesterone intolerance, oral versus topical progesterone, when estradiol may still be too low even though your doctor...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

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This week we're tackling the misconceptions around health and weight loss, and exploring sustainable ways to achieve wellness goals. I'll tell you some practical tips to debunk dieting and exercise myths, and emphasize the importance of...

You cannot open your phone anymore without hearing about Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, retatrutide, and before-and-after transformations. One person says GLP-1s are the greatest thing ever. Another says they are going to destroy your health.

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

In this episode, I break down GLP-1s specifically through the lens of perimenopause and menopause, because midlife women are dealing with a completely different metabolic landscape. Estrogen is changing. Muscle is easier to lose. Insulin sensitivity may be shifting. Sleep is falling apart. Belly fat is showing up where...

If you are taking HRT, it is not enough to only ask how much estrogen you are using. You also have to ask a second question: how well is your body actually processing and clearing that estrogen?

In this episode, I sit down with David Roberts and John Gilday from Mara Labs to unpack estrogen metabolism, estrogen receptors, environmental hormone disruptors, detoxification pathways, and why the conversation around "estrogen dominance" is often way too simplistic. We talk about the difference between having high estrogen and having estrogen that is not being metabolized efficiently, especially in perimenopause when...

Have you ever felt like you are doing everything right and your body is just not cooperating?

You are eating well, exercising, tracking your protein, fasting, taking supplements, getting your steps in, and still gaining weight, feeling exhausted, sleeping poorly, and wondering why the strategies that used to work suddenly do not anymore.

In this episode, I sit down with Debbie Potts to talk about what may actually be happening when healthy habits become unhealthy stressors. We get into the connection between the nervous system, metabolism, hormones, muscle, recovery, under-fueling, overtraining, and the chronic stress...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

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Angela is an award-winning Nutritionist, Health & Performance Coach, Keynote Speaker and Host of The High Performance Health Podcast.

A former corporate lawyer turned industry leader in biohacking and health optimisation for women, Angela regularly gives keynotes to large fi...

Grab Your FREE guide "Is Your HRT Actually Optimized?"

How do you know if your HRT is actually optimized? Not just enough to stop a hot flash, but enough to support your bones, brain, mood, metabolism, sleep, sexual health, and overall quality of life?

In this episode, I break down one of the most confusing parts of hormone replacement therapy: dose, levels, and symptom response. Because the old-school advice to simply use the lowest dose possible until your symptoms disappear does not tell us the whole story. At the same time, more is absolutely not...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

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What actually works when it comes to anti-aging skincare, and what is simply expensive marketing in a very attractive bottle?

In this quick hits clip Karen sits down with Amitay Eshel, co-founder and CEO of Young Goose.

...

Something happened after my conversation with Natalie Jill on her podcast, Midlife Conversations. Women flooded my inbox and my community, not with questions about dosing or side effects, but with something closer to relief. They finally felt heard. That reaction told me this conversation needed a second chapter, so I'm bringing you the rest of it here, along with some of the raw, honest messages from women in my community who are done being quietly shamed for a choice that has changed their health and their lives.

In this episode, Natalie and I go back to where...

Karen Martel grew up with a front row seat to diet culture most of us only felt secondhand. Her mom didn't just live it, she ran a weight loss center. Butter was called Vaseline. Popcorn was the enemy. And by her teenage years, Karen was deep in an eating disorder that would shape her relationship with food for decades.

In this conversation, Karen gets honest about that history, and about something she still checks herself on today. Because here's the twist. We told ourselves we moved past the thin obsession. Body positivity was supposed to be the...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Listen to the full episode here.

Have you ever thought about what you truly want in your sexual experiences? Are you curious about the often misunderstood aspects of female anatomy and how they play a critical role in pleasure? This episode with Susan Bratton, who is the "Intimacy Expert to Mi...

In part one, Dr. Liz Bartman and I broke down why PMDD happens: the histamine surges, the GABA receptor glitch, the progesterone metabolite that either calms you down or completely wrecks you depending on your unique biology. If you haven't listened to that one yet, start there, because this episode builds directly on it.

Now we get into the part everyone actually wants to know: what do you do about it? We talk about why popular fixes like DAO supplements and strict low histamine diets usually fall short, and what to focus on instead, starting with your...

You've been told menopause is a hormonal transition. It's also a vascular one, and almost nobody is talking about it.

In this episode, Karen sits back down with Cathy Eason, Chief Science Officer at Berkeley Life, for round two on a molecule most women have never heard of but should know by heart: nitric oxide. It is tiny, it is a gas, and it touches nearly every system in your body. When estrogen drops in perimenopause and menopause, nitric oxide production drops right along with it, and that decline may be quietly connected to your fatigue, your...

If you've been on social media lately, you've probably seen it: women swearing that a combo of Pepcid and Claritin, ordinary histamine blockers, gave them their life back during the worst days of their cycle. It sounds too simple to be real, and honestly, it kind of is. But the reason it's working for some women and doing absolutely nothing for others is the whole story, and it's a story almost nobody is explaining correctly.

In this episode, I sit down with one of my all time favorite guests, Dr. Liz Bartman, to go deep into progesterone...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

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This weeks quick hit we are jumping right into a very important topic: uterine fibroids.

Maybe you have experience with fibroids, or maybe you do not even really know what they are yet. Either way, this is a co...

This is not just a conversation about hormones. It is a conversation about what it means to age as a woman in a culture that is obsessed with youth, terrified of wrinkles, and wildly uncomfortable with female power after 40. In this roundtable episode, I sit down with Dr. Amy Horniman and Elle Russ to talk about the very real physical, emotional, and identity shifts that happen as women move through perimenopause and menopause.

We get into everything from early perimenopause symptoms, thyroid issues, SHBG, testosterone, progesterone, estrogen, libido, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, pelvic floor changes, and how...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

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James O'Hara is a family nurse practitioner who utilizes a utilizes an integrative approach to health which combines lifestyle interventions, appropriate supplementation, and medications when indicated to empower patients to feel better and live longer, he...

If you've ever wondered why you don't want your husband to walk through the door and rip your clothes off anymore, this episode is for you. If you've ever quietly believed something was wrong with you because you don't orgasm easily, or at all, this episode is for you too.

I sat down with Dr. Sally Greenwald, a board-certified OB/GYN with specialized training in menopause medicine, and what she shared genuinely stopped me in my tracks. We were taught to protect ourselves from pregnancy and disease. We were never taught how our bodies actually work. No...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Listen to the full episode.

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With Dani's guidance, we're exploring how simple changes in light exposure and grounding can revolutionize metabolic health, particularly for those grappling with conditions like PCOS, hypoglycemia, acne, or weight loss resistance. Dani shares her personal journey and expert insights on ho...

You've made it to part three, and this is the one that ties everything together. If parts one and two left you with a clearer picture of your stress system and your sleep, this episode takes you somewhere deeper: into your thyroid, your brain chemistry, and a layer of midlife that almost nobody talks about on a podcast about hormones.

I'm breaking down why your thyroid and your adrenal system are locked in a relationship that most doctors never explain, and why a normal TSH does not mean your thyroid is actually working. Then we go into...

You're eating "pretty well." You're moving your body. So why does it feel like your muscle is disappearing and your effort isn't paying off the way it used to? In this episode, I sit down with Liz Plosser, former editor-in-chief of Women's Health and a woman who has spent her entire career reporting on health and fitness, to talk about what changes in midlife and why the old rules stop working.

Then we go deep on amino acids, what they actually are, why your body becomes less efficient at using them as estrogen declines, and why an...

If you are exhausted all day, wired at night, and waking up between 2:00 and 4:00 AM with your heart pounding and your brain suddenly wide awake, this episode is for you. Because midlife sleep issues are rarely just about needing more progesterone or taking a melatonin gummy. They are usually a sign that a whole system is asking to be recalibrated. In this episode, I go deeper into the sleep side of the midlife stress puzzle and break down what may actually be happening beneath the surface.

In this episode:

If you are waking up between 2:00 and 4:00 AM, lying there wide awake with your heart beating a little too fast and your mind solving every problem in your life, this episode is for you. Because this is not just about bad sleep. It is about what happens when the hormonal, adrenal, and nervous system shifts of midlife collide with the stress load most women are already carrying. And for a lot of women, this is the moment they stop feeling like themselves.

In this episode, I do a deep dive into what is actually happening beneath the...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

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If you have been told menopause is just hot flashes, aging, and something you have to "push through," this episode will challenge that entire narrative.

In this episode, I sit down with Maria Claps an...

This conversation is not just about menopause symptoms. It is about what it actually feels like to live inside a changing female body in midlife. The grief, the confusion, the vanity, the softness, the strength, the reinvention. All of it. In this episode, I sit down with fitness hall of famer, JJ Virgin for a real conversation about what happens when your body starts changing in ways you did not expect, the things that stop working, and how to hold onto yourself while also becoming someone new.

We talk about the reality of perimenopause and menopause when...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Listen to the full episode here.

How can GLP-1s like Ozempic truly transform weight management and wellness—and what makes them so controversial? Dr. Gus Vickery, who specializes in total body and mind optimization, dives deep into how these groundbreaking treatments are revolutionizing weight management, nutrition, and even menopause. Why...

We talk a lot about hormones in midlife, hot flashes, weight gain, sleep issues, low libido. But one of the biggest complaints I hear from women is actually about their brain. The brain fog. The anxiety that comes out of nowhere. The flat motivation. The unpredictable sleep. The feeling that you just do not feel like yourself anymore. And for a lot of women, that is the part that feels the most unsettling.

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Scott Sherr to go much deeper into what may actually be happening underneath those symptoms. We...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Listen to the full episode on iTunes

Joanne Kennedy is a highly experienced Naturopath and specialist in MTHFR, Methylation and Histamine Intolerance. Joanne runs a successful clinical practice in Sydney, Australia and also caters to patients worldwide through online consultations.

Could your migraines or skin issues be tied to...

Menopause is finally having a moment, but with more conversation has come a whole lot more confusion. In this solo episode, Karen breaks down the three camps she sees in the menopause conversation: women who are informed and empowered, women who shame or dismiss HRT, and the large group of women who are still suffering without answers.

This episode is a real, honest look at why women are still so confused about hormone replacement therapy, why "menopause is natural" is not the full story, and why every woman deserves education before making decisions about HRT.

...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode: https://karenmartel.com/blogs/podcast/the-great-estrogen-debate

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-great-estrogen-debate-with-dr-felice-gersh-dr/id1438772276?i=1000661314092

Dr. Felice Gersh, Dr. Daved Rosensweet, Dr. Lindsey Berkson, and Dr. Julie Taguchi join us in this episode. Today, we're going deep into the complex world of HRT for women with these four leading experts, debating the nuances of different estrogen ty...

If you have ever been told your thyroid is "normal" while you are exhausted, gaining weight, losing hair, constipated, freezing cold, and barely making it through the day, this episode is going to hit a nerve. Because the truth is, thyroid care is still failing women in a big way. Too many doctors are only testing TSH, stopping there, and missing the full picture completely.

In this episode, I sit down with my friend Dr. Amie Hornaman to talk about why thyroid treatment is still so broken, especially for women in midlife.

We go into...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Discover innovative therapies like low-dose naltrexone and light therapy that are reshaping the way we think about detoxification and healing. What are the unexpected benefits of these treatments, and how do they interact with our immune and endocrine systems? Get ready to explore cutting-edge insights that could transform your approach to wellness!

What happens when three menopause podcasters sit down together with zero intention of staying surface level? You get a smart, honest, hilarious, and deeply validating conversation about some of the biggest midlife topics women are trying to figure out right now. In this roundtable episode, we get into bone health, hormone testing, HRT mistakes, libido, trauma, desire, and the much bigger cultural story around what menopause is actually meant to be.

We talk openly about why so many midlife women feel disconnected from sex, why female arousal is so misunderstood, and how much emotional baggage, conditioning, and...

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Listen to the full episode: https://karenmartel.com/blogs/podcast/breaking-the-silence-andrea-donsky-on-103-menopause-symptoms-and-taking-control

Known as the "Menopause Educator and Researcher" to her 340,000+ TikTok followers, Andrea Donsky is a nutritionist on a mission to change the conversation around perimenopause and menopause. Her new book "Nourishing Menopause: Powerful Nutrition and Lifestyle Strategies to Fe...

In this episode, I sit down with Cynthia Thurlow, nurse practitioner, TEDx speaker, and author of The Menopause Gut, to unpack what is really happening inside the body during this transition. We get into why so many women suddenly feel bloated, constipated, reactive to foods, inflamed, and resistant to weight loss, even when they are eating well and doing all the "right" things. Cynthia breaks down the gut-hormone connection in a way that is smart, practical, and incredibly eye-opening.

We also go deeper into leaky gut, digestive enzymes, bile, hydrochloric acid, short-chain fatty acids, fiber, stress, trauma...

Join our FREE upcoming masterclass: Why Midlife Weight Gain Won't Budge A smarter way to use GLP-1s in midlife without wrecking muscle or metabolism When: April 30th 11 am PST Register here: https://coaching.karenmartel.com/glp1-masterclass

Welcome to Quick Hits — where we bring you the most impactful moments from past episodes in under 15 minutes.

Today's clip comes from one of our most replayed conversations.

If you want the full episode, check the link in the description below.

Listen to the full episode here: https://karenmartel.com/blogs/podcast/metals-amp-menopause-the-impact-of-heavy-metals-on-your-sex-hormones-thyroid-and-energy-and-how-to-properly-detox-them-with-dr-chris-shade

Three years ago, GLP-1 peptides were barely being talked about in the midlife women's health space. Since then, Jessica and I have personally used them, experimented with different approaches, and helped over a thousand women inside our peptide program navigate what works, what backfires, and what women in perimenopause and menopause need to know before jumping in.

In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on our own GLP-1 journeys, including my rough start with Ozempic, why Tirzepatide worked better for me, Jessica's experience with Semaglutide and fatigue, and why Retatrutide is becoming one of the most...