In this solo episode on the podcast I talk about travelling to New York for my first big event on behalf of Hotflash inc. And how I finally realized that I belong in the room. The broad themes are connection, confidence and purpose.

Dr Maria Luque is an Austin, Texas-based, United States Air Force veteran (she was a fitness program manager) and health science professor who studied fitness in menopause for her doctorate.

I started leaning into my hot flashes. I stopped dreading them. Which means I stopped denying them. I started approaching each one with curiosity and detachment, as a neutral experience that I will soon get through, and that has made everything better.

Arizona ob-gyn Dr Burt Webb he gets into all the different treatments, hormone therapy and otherwise – that he uses for the entire pelvic region. With almost 30 years in practice treating women, he is one of the most switched-on mainstream practitioners to appear on the podcast.

The average woman, according to a report from the Female Founders Fund, spends US$2,000 a year on trying to manage symptoms. Here are a few evidence, expert and experience-based suggestions on how to tackle how you feel without forking over any more cash.

Arizona ob-gyn Dr Burt Webb tells the Hotflash inc podcast why dry vaginas aren’t always dry vaginas due to menopause, and how he takes everything into account – including the health of the gut microbiome, food insensitivities and nutrient deficiencies – in coming up with treatment plan to lower inflammation and get the blood flowing.

When the natural and mainstream medicine worlds battle it out, supplements tend to be caught in the crossfire. There are several truths worth considering here: hormone therapy is not for everyone and hormone therapy might not help everything.

I’d call my 40s a roller-coaster, similar to the kind of ride many women report experiencing in perimenopause. I would easily and often stew and ruminate about people, or their actions. Anxiety was near-constant; I was always fighting a lurking sense of dread – a feeling that hit hardest in the morning. I ran myself ragged trying to cope: exercising like a crazy person to feel better and on the weekends, drinking too much just to relax.