SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hello, and welcome back to Empower Your Menopause, the podcast that looks at health, happiness, and hormones for women 40 and above. I'm Coach Julie Medacy.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

And I'm Coach James Ellis.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Today we are joined by a very special guest. Sharon Lemoyne is a nurse practitioner, entrepreneur, public speaking, and advocate for a new model of healthcare that integrates faith, science, and personal responsibility. So with more than 25 years of experience in emergency medicine and over 30 years in healthcare, Sharon has dedicated her career to helping patients move beyond symptom management and reclaim their ownership of health through hormone optimization, functional medicine, preventative care, and faith-based wellness principle. And the conversation that we wanted to have with Sharon today is one that comes up again and again. Why do women over 40 so often need longer, better, more joined up conversations about hormones, health, and midlife? Because by the time a lot of women reach this stage, they're not usually dealing with one neat little issue that can be solved with a seven-minute appointment and a leaflet, right? Which is what we often get at the doctor's office. So there might be changes in things like energy, sleep, weight, mood, confidence, appetite, libido, stress tolerance, brain fog, and you know, all tangled up into a rather unhelpful spaghetti junction for us in midlife. So today we're going to talk about what better assessment looks like? Why does that matter? And why does it matter that we look at the whole person rather than jumping straight to the what seems like it might be the obvious solution, and how women can start actually asking better questions about their own care. And of course, as always, none of this is about panic or doom and gloom, right? This is about understanding what's happening, getting clearer information, and then making decisions from a place of confidence rather than confusion. So, with that long winded introduction, Jay's, I'm going to hand it over to you to get started.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Okay, so Sharon, welcome to the show. We're really, really pleased to have you with us. I wonder if you could start off by just telling us a little bit about your background. How did you move from working in emergency medicine to more personalized midlife and hormone care? And why are you so passionate about this subject? Because we've we've seen your videos and we know just how passionate you are about it.

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Well, first off, thank you so much for having me on your podcast. Uh, I love connecting with like-minded providers. Uh, I have an extensive background, as you mentioned. My passion really was emergency medicine. And I did that and did bedside nursing, and then went on to get my nurse practitioner license where I can work independently as a provider, which I did in emergency medicine here in the state of Washington, and really enjoyed my career, it was very challenging. Although, you know, with corporate health care here in America, it as well, as globally, it can be very challenging. And of course, as I was navigating my own health, I saw the barriers that I was facing with my healthcare providers. And roughly 22, 23 years into my career, I dabbled a little bit on the side in aesthetics and thought that would be a great skill set to have. And I quickly realized, as that business was growing, that my passion truly was health and wellness. My personal background is I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic at 31, and that was roughly 25 years ago. And so there have been a huge learning curve in managing my own health. I've always looked at it as a gift from God because it certainly has made me understand the disease process, the challenges with that, and has allowed me to really relate to my patients on a whole nother level. So as my business grew, we went quickly into weight loss. That's what our community was really wanting. And it was interesting because every middle-age woman coming in and sitting in my chair and having that initial consultation, it was the same exact story. And I thought, okay, this is much bigger than just a couple extra 10, 20 pounds. My women were just completely defeated. They were tearful when they were coming to see me, you know, and at the end of the appointment, they were so incredibly grateful that number one, I took the time to listen to them and they felt validated and were given hope that we could take the time, dissect their needs, really dive in, and address their true valid concerns. And that really helped me develop my practice now. And we are thriving. I am very blessed to be in this space. And as you know, there is a huge movement right now on menopause education. Women are advocating for themselves, and I think we are all here trying to hold their hands along that journey and give them the tools they need to take control of their health.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, that's amazing. And I, you know, you said the women coming in were basically having the same issues. So what were you seeing? I mean, we know the whole overwhelm and kind of burnout, but what other things are you seeing in women over 40 that that made you have that thought? Like, hang on, these women need a lot more than just a quick appointment. There is this stuff here that we have to address. Because I I know for for us a lot of our clients come in looking for weight loss specifically, but it's never about the weight, really.

SPEAKER_04 6:37

Right, right. You know, there's so many layers to that alone. And stepping out of corporate health care, I was in that same bucket of providers that had not been taught functional medicine application. I had not been taught in-depth hormones or menopause care. So I certainly had a big learning curve on my own. I found that women coming in were really feeling defeated because they were trying to do everything correct. They are killing themselves in the gym, showing up at 5 a.m. five, six days a week, watching and barely eating, right? Really, it was for them, it was cutting calories, less in, and they think they're gonna just work harder and be skinnier. And so there's obviously an education piece around that. The significant fatigue, the irritability, the mental health, whole nother podcast on how that specifically relates to hormone deficiencies. That was a big eye-opener for me, but the irritability, uh, the depression, the uh, of course, you know, the classic signs, the hot sweats, the joint pain, the brain fog. So when these women were coming in and saying, I just really need to lose this 10, 20 pounds to feel confident, as we really dove into all of those symptoms, it was obvious that there was this was multifaceted and multi-layered. And that really just led our practice to dive in deeper.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

What do you think it is that makes so many women reach this stage of life where they feel dismissed, they feel confused, they tend to be told that what they're experiencing is just aging. Is that a society thing? What is it that's that that's driving that?

SPEAKER_04 8:35

I do think it's a society issue in regards to women, you know, we're resilient and we're taking care of families. We're fighting hard in in the corporate world and in our careers. And I think the message has been, you know, tough it out, put your head down, do the grind. And I think we're very quick to discount our our our symptoms. I do think that we are in tune with our bodies. So we truly feel the changes that's happening. But the society we live in is very fast-paced, high stress, lots of demands, and it's so quick to put our own health and discount our needs to meet other people's. We're caregivers, right? And so many levels. And trying to rewrite that narrative to put our health number one, because if we are optimized at our best, we're able to do the job, we're able to take care of the families, and so we just have to rewrite that priority of the symptoms and how important it is to manage that.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah. Well, and the I know certainly the medical care system today, if you look at some of this, the research and statistics about women who say they have pain, being dismissed, you know, being considered just complainers. Um it's it's a real stigma in in some cases in the medical community. But you know, we do have this sense, and certainly I went through the same thing during my menopause, uh, transitioning to post-menopause, I guess I should say. What so if a woman comes to you and she's like, I just don't feel like myself, like I I don't know what's wrong, I just don't feel like myself. Where where do you start?

SPEAKER_04 10:37

I hear that often. And we really have to start, and you know, again, we can make excuse me, we can make that assumption that it is hormones, but we don't want to miss the obvious. So we always start with a very comprehensive workup to include a full thyroid evaluation, vitamin deficiencies, um, the ferritin levels, like all of these levels are like the basic necessities we need to address first. And then, of course, on that workup, we have to look at all the hormone levels. And it's it's once we see these numbers and we can really sit down with the patient and point out okay, this set of symptoms is likely because of this particular data, and this set of symptoms is likely related to this data. And we can slowly sit down and come up with a plan, but it's it can be very multi-layered. And I always tell my patients, I can throw everything I have at you right now. I still want you to feel good. Um, but we have to do it systemically too, because we want to know exactly what's working, and you know, it makes it interesting because every woman can present very differently.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah. What would you say some of the most commonly overlooked pieces of the puzzle are that you're finding, Sharon? Because you're obviously doing these in-depth tests. Is it sleep? Is it stress? Is it blood sugar? Is it thyroid? Is it gut health? Lifestyle, medication history. What do you think is what are people tending to miss before they actually see the results of your tests?

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Uh, great question. And I want to say initially, all of it, right? But yes, you know, it's like you have to figure out where to start. Uh, I have started with sleep, which is often disrupted very early in perimenopause. And uh we know, and when we're looking at hormones, just to back up a little bit on the biology piece of it, we're looking at not only estrogen and progesterone, but we're looking at testosterone in women, and that's a big education piece right there. We start losing our testosterone when we hit 30, and it's usually one to four percent each year. And one piece of low testosterone is sleep disruption, irritability, anxiety. So now I've got a woman that comes in and says, I cannot sleep. Now they have an increased cortisol release because of that disruption, and now they're irritable. And so it's a cascade effect of even if we're just talking about sleep. So I try to start there and address that, typically with testosterone and or some progesterone, because as we know, that will help with sleep as well. We also have to balance out irritability and anxiety, and motivation is another huge one. If we're gonna sit here and say, look, I understand you're fatigued and your joints hurt, and you can't get out the door to go work out because you're so completely exhausted, then we have to figure out let's address those symptoms first so we can do the work. So the the the symptoms are just really trying to dissect where to start. But typically, yes, sleep, the fatigue, irritability, probably those would be the top three. And then the fourth uh is probably a low libido because we have women that are really wanting to connect with their partners. They love them, they're in healthy relationships, and our sexual health is a big piece of our overall wellness. And so that is another big piece that builds confidence with yourself, with your partner, and uh it becomes that whole package.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, for sure. And it, you know, one one other one question, just because I know that you know, we're whole beings, right? We look at the whole person. Um all of us here do that. That's really important because we can't just be a blood test or a symptom. But we a lot of these things can be integrated or caused by other health factors, right? So separating out what might be related to menopause or what might related be related or worsened, related to or worsened by other health factors. Like, how do you sort of balance that for these women? Or do you need to?

SPEAKER_04 15:43

Yeah, absolutely. Thyroid issues, huge, right? It's very prominent. And more times than not, we are seeing that Hashimoto's thyroid dysfunction is starting in the gut, right? We live in a toxic world. I have patients that are eating clean, really trying to watch their chemical exposures, and they're still struggling. And I believe we are all in a state of inflammation. And so if we are optimizing the gut, and that is first and foremost, then we can start addressing the autoimmune disorders, the thyroid disorders, um, rheumatoid arthritis, MS. I mean, it goes on, right? And so again, it many, many women are coming in with undiagnosed Hashimoto's, undiagnosed dysbiosis, and an unbalanced, unbalanced microbiome, right? And yeah, they're very, they're very hungry for the information in corporate health care. We're not talking about those things. We're not addressing, nor do they have time in that setting to dive in. So again, I think our patients are doing a lot of homework on their own. They're coming in with a lot of information already and looking for that provider that's going to sit and again dive into each section and address each issue. And it's it's not overnight, right? This is a process. Um yeah, very, very multi-layered.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yeah. Just jumping back to weight loss a little bit, Sharon. You mentioned that a lot of people come to see you, and that is their first thing that they come to see you for. And we said we see the same thing as well. Um, before you do any assessments, or what actually needs assessing when it comes to weight loss before you jump into anything like diet advice or hormone therapy, or I don't know whether you prescribe weight loss medication or not in your clinic. So, what what what kind of things do you accept?

SPEAKER_04 18:02

We we do, I'm very proud of the program we have developed in our office. And again, it there's been a little bit of a learning curve that they do. And I think they can be a beautiful tool if done correctly. So, in our office, the very first thing, and this is actually true for all of my patients, whether they're trying to lose weight or not, they get on our uh in-body scale, which is a body composition measurement tool. And this will measure where their skeletal muscle mass uh is and body fat percent. And it gives us lots of data. But those are the two numbers I think every single patient needs to know. If they are fit and weight loss is not an issue, they know okay, this is how many pounds of lean muscle mass that I have, which drives how much protein I need to have in my diet daily to maintain that muscle health. Then from there, we can decide what is your body uh percent, body fat percentage. We're looking at extracellular water, visceral fat. And once we get those numbers, we sit down and counsel the patient on the overall health effects of making those corrections. Then, before we start them on a GLP1, we have them make sure they go home and know what that protein intake is going to look like. So we do some education on sources of protein, how much they are supposed to have in a day. And truly, a lot of people don't know what 100 grams of protein look like? And how difficult is that to get in your diet? Once they have that visual, once they've done it for a few days, they're like, oh man, that's that's a little tougher than I thought. And the other piece of it is I do have a lot of women that have underestimated the value of weightlifting and weight resistance training. I know I'm from the era of cardio, right? I used to be a runner, it was all cardio, and we now know muscle is like the goal, the the true value of our health. And so we make sure our patients understand that and have started to incorporate at least three days of resistance training before we get them on that GLP1. So we're setting that standard first. That proves, number one, they're committed, that they've got the right education and the right approach to adding in that GLP1. Because quite honestly, I tell my patients, you've seen how difficult it is to get that protein in in one day. What happens when I cut your appetite in half? And so they are very receptive. They're starting to make those lifestyle changes. We add in the GLP one, and then we make sure they're coming into our office once a month and we are measuring the same body composition data. And if that muscle mass starts going down, we do not want to burn muscle for energy. What ideally we want to see is that muscle mass maintain or go up with that body for percent body fat percentage slowly going down. And so each month when they're coming in, number one, it's a great accountability. We get to really understand our patients. You know, so much of it is emotional and making sure they know they're supported. They can come in and discuss like, hey, I'm really struggling. I really want that donut after church on Sunday. You know, we can talk about just those little things and little tweaks that we can make in their routine. And with that program, it's it's been very Satisfying to see our patients improve their health and do it correctly.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah. The interesting thing there is one of the challenges we see about GLP1s is that quite often people will go on them and they won't have an off-ramp, which means that as soon as they come off the medication, they just put the weight back on. But it seems as though you're already conditioning your clients into an off-ramp by educating them, by coaching them before you even start them on the medication in the first place, which seems like a really smart way of doing it.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

I really think so.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

And we have the same conversation with the rest of our patients in our office. Where are you at with your diet and exercise? There's been studies, and I love the little tidbit data pieces that I can share with my patient. Simple things, when we're talking about exercise, if you exercise and strengthen your quadriceps and your glutes, you're decreasing dementia by 40%. So when I give them these little tidbits, they're like, wow, I never even thought about that. And so not only are we getting them healthy, we're thinking 20 and 30 years down the road, where is your health going to be at? And so, yes, we have to lay down the foundation. You know, and another common question I get is if I go on a GLP one, am I going to be on it the rest of my life? And that is a very individual conversation. In my perfect world, less is more, less medicines, less things that we rely on. In a perfect scenario, we are getting our weightlifting, we are getting our protein, we get that body fat percentage down, we wean you off the GLP1 and you continue that lifestyle and go on your merry way. You know, in all reality, we all struggle. It's a little bit of a roller coaster, and we are on track for a while and we fall off. We go on vacation, we have an event, and that is just the reality of it. And so, do my patients go back on a micro dose of GLP1? Absolutely. I struggled with that a little bit, thinking, am I doing good by my patients by having them rely on that? But for me, the overall picture, and I continue to watch the research on these GLP1s to ensure, you know, that there aren't going to be any long-term health effects. And they are coming out with more and more research showing other health effects than just weight loss, you know, uh neurogenesis, the uh brain protection, the cardiovascular protection, anti-inflammatory effects. A lot of patients have better gut health. Uh, so there's a lot of correlations to the areas we're trying to improve. But ultimately, for me, if I have a patient that has to stay on a GLP1 and it gives them that projection of a healthy outcome, keeps them active, keeps their cholesterol down, keeps their numbers, blood pressure, everything within a normal range, I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

For sure. Yeah. Well, and I, you know, you you talked about people coming into your office and or even into their other practitioners' offices, armed with lots of research. And I know that it can be difficult to separate what's real, what's reliable, and what's just kind of the latest thing that you know we're seeing on on TikTok or Instagram. But but I mean it what it comes down to is needing to advocate for yourself. But how do you how do you think women can do that without feeling like they have to go to medical school, you know, or or do some kind of research degree just so that they can have reliable information and um and get the answers that they need?

SPEAKER_04 26:01

Great question. You know, there's so much information out there. And when we're talking GLP1s, and then the next level is peptides in general, that is a booming discussion and industry, and daily as a provider, I'm trying to navigate that and really figure out what is valid and accurate information. So when my patients come in, yes, they've done their homework. And you know, honestly, I'm learning a lot from them. But together, we've got to sit down, always, always look at the source, look at where this information's coming from, look at the background of the provider and who's telling you these things, right? It can be very, very difficult to navigate. The the other idea is access to you know, semaglutide, terzepatite, all the different peptides. Um, there's some very uh uh valid providers, and then everybody's out there to make a quick buck and not putting the patient's safety first. So I don't have a really good answer for that other than doing enough homework to look at the background of where that information is coming from. It's the same thing as a provider when I'm looking at research. I have to look at who's these uh companies that are doing the studies? Do they have ulterior motives? What's their hypothesis? What kind of study did they do? Uh, I love a good observational study. It doesn't have to be a random double-blinded study, uh, which is interesting because I think in our setting these days, a lot of us are doing the research every single day in our office. And uh so observational studies are great, but you have to know really are these good sources? And so that's a whole nother subset of homework you have to do. So be cautious. That's this is my suggestion: be very cautious of uh people making quick claims, um, making it a little too easy to access some of the treatment options. Sometimes it can't be too good to be true, and ultimately lining yourself up with a provider that you trust, that you have built a rapport, and that has some specialized training in naturopathic medicine, uh, peptide therapy, hormone therapy, because it truly is a subset of what we are learning in traditional uh medicine. So you've got to make sure you're getting the information from a provider who is getting the correct information. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

That's great. Thanks, Sharon. Um we're about coming up to the end of our sort of like scheduled 30 minutes. If a woman listening feels like she's been brushed off or she's lost confidence in her body, what would you like her takeaway to be from what we've talked about today and from your own experience?

SPEAKER_04 29:26

The first and foremost is I hate to see women defeated. And that really segues into where we became a faith-based practice because I think relying on our faith to give us the motivation to care for ourselves, to take a step back and realize this is a beautiful gift. These bodies we get one time, and we have to choose what to do with it and honoring it in a way of being faithful and using that as our motivation has been a huge piece of our practice to rewrite that narrative to ask yourself, why do I want to take care of my body? So the advice I would get give to my patients is keep doing that homework, do not discount your symptoms, they are truly valid. And align yourself with a provider that is like-minded. Because once you find that connection, and it might take a little bit of work, right? It's the same thing as a mental health therapist or a best friend. You know, it takes a while to find that right connection. So be diligent in that. And once you find your person, they should support you and validate you in taking care of your health and wellness.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Awesome. Thank you. So thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolutely fascinating conversation. I feel as though we could have gone on for like another two hours or so. Um, but sadly we don't have time. So for people who are interested in you, what you offer, what your clinic offers, where's the best place for people to look you up and find you?

SPEAKER_04 31:11

So we are located about 45 minutes out of Seattle, Washington. I do have a private clinic uh based with nurse practitioners with a background in emergency medicine. So we really can't do full primary care, really focusing on hormone optimization. We treat men and hormone therapy with them as well. Uh, I do have a passion to really just speak out and advocate and educate women. So you can find me on YouTube on my channel, Health Hormones and Faith. That has become very popular. There's lots of content coming out there. And then I am on Instagram at the ConcierNP. So again, reaching globally, and again, I appreciate the opportunity with you today. Really, I appreciate the work you're doing, and we really have to stand together to advocate and educate our patients. So uh very blessed to be in this space with all of you.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Excellent. Yeah, thank you. And of course, we'll put all of those details in the show notes so that um people can can find you easily. Um, so that's what we've got for today. Uh, we've been James and Julie. We'll be back next week with another episode of Empower Your Menopause. In the meantime, stay strong and stay fabulous.