Essential Oils Menopause Solution With Dr. Mariza Snyder (Episode 363)

Full Transcript: Episode 363

Lisa: Welcome to the Fertility Friday podcast, your source for information about the Fertility Awareness Method and all things fertility. I’m your host, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. I’m the author of The Fifth Vital Sign and the Fertility Awareness Mastery charting journal. I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting, balancing hormonal health, and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones. I’m outspoken about hormonal birth control and its impact on fertility and overall health because you have the right to know how your body works and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process. I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies. I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys. This podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles, your fertility, and your overall health.

Lisa: In today’s episode, I share my recent interview with Dr. Mariza, and we are talking all about menopause and pre-menopause — that 10-year period leading up to our very last period — and some of the things that we can do to be our best and be most vibrant during that time. This topic seems to be really popular right now. There are a couple of great books that have been released, including Dr. Mariza’s. I’ve been speaking about this with clients over the years because I think it’s time that as women we change the conversation around this period of time — instead of expecting it to be this horrific, hormonal, imbalanced, devastating period, to really deconstruct it and find out what’s going on. I’m really thrilled to be part of these conversations and to shed some of those myths about what to expect. So let’s go ahead and jump into today’s episode.

Lisa: I’m excited to be here once again with Dr. Mariza. Congratulations on the release of your new book. Your bio says you’ve written seven books — by the time this comes out you’ll have a wonderful baby. When do you sleep? And this is actually book baby number eight. The upcoming brand new book is The Essential Oils Menopause Solution. Really excited to dig into that. Tell us a little bit about your new book and what inspired you to write it and to focus specifically on menopause.

Dr. Mariza: That’s such a great question. I don’t sleep right now with our little three-month-old baby boy — but it gives me a lot of time to think about this book baby. I’m always in such awe of women and our resilience and our capacity. Where I got the inspiration from this book was when I was on my book tour in 2019 for my seventh book, The Essential Oils Hormone Solution. I had the opportunity to meet thousands of women — it was one of the most beautiful experiences, to get to meet people in person and hear their concerns, their pain points, what they’re going through. I saw a lot of women in their 40s and 50s really trying to navigate the terrain of perimenopause and menopause and not really feeling that they had been given the right tool sets — that their doctors had written them off as “you’re just getting older” or “there’s nothing we can do about it.” I can’t tell you how many times I heard: “Is there anything in this book for me?” And I felt like so many women hadn’t been served. I remember walking home one of those nights and it was like a light bulb went off. I knew that the next book I needed to write was for women basically 45 and older. And that’s the thing about menopause — once you’re there, you’ve arrived in that next new beautiful phase in your life. Where I really find the female change agents in the world is after 50. The wisdom, the initiatives, the fundraisers, the things that women are moving mountains for — usually, that shows up in a different kind of energy when we’re in our 50s and beyond. And we need more reverence around that. That’s why this transition can be so sacred, especially when we own it and charge forward, live in our passion and our mission.

Lisa: I love this topic so much. I think it’s critically important to start talking about menopause and shedding some light on it. It’s probably one of the first conversations that many of my listeners have heard about menopause that is actually positive — talking about it as this incredible point of change that represents a positive shift. I like to think of it as this energetic shift from when your body is literally creating life and giving your energy to others, and then when you go through that transition, that switches off and you get to keep that energy for yourself.

Dr. Mariza: That’s what I’m talking about.

Lisa: I’d love for you to talk to our listeners about what menopause actually is, because I think a lot of us think of menopause as the 10 years leading up to menopause — the perimenopause. And our culture is often so negative when it comes to menopause.

Dr. Mariza: Absolutely. There’s a lot of history around why we have such a negative association, and unfortunately it has a lot to do with our medical system and culture — particularly here in the US. In some parts of the world, in some cultures, there’s not even a word for it. Menopause is basically that defined point where you go an entire year without a menstrual cycle — and that is menopause. Really, what menopause is is you don’t have to buy tampons anymore. You’re not having a period anymore. That reclaiming of the energy we used every single month for all of those childbearing years — that’s the defining moment of menopause. And then we’re basically in menopause for the rest of our life, however long and beautiful that life is going to be. But yes, there is a transitional time where our bodies are gearing up. To wind down the reproductive system takes a little bit of time — it’s one of the most energetic processes in the body. When it comes to our ovaries, there are over 10,000 mitochondria per cell. That’s how much energy is required to get ready to create human life. And so as we start to shift, we’re starting to see symptoms of perimenopause. I don’t want the association of perimenopause to be like this scary, erratic rollercoaster. But unfortunately, it can be for some people. Usually we start to see shifts and changes in our menstrual cycle, in our reproductive health, around our mid to late 30s. Every woman is very different — it really depends on a lot of factors leading up to that moment. And perimenopause can be give or take 10 plus years leading into menopause.

Lisa: A lot of the women who are listening right now are charting their cycles or thinking about it, and one of the biggest fears for women who are charting is when they start to see changes. Because there’s this idea that it just all kind of ends — or just goes into this really messy, horrific situation. The concepts we have about this normal transition of life are all negative. A lot of women might mistake what is actually a normal transition for a problem. What is normal as we go into those 10 years before menopause? And how do we know when there’s a problem?

Dr. Mariza: Every woman is unique, so everyone is going to have a different experience. The ideal optimal normal is that we saunter through this with ease and grace — we don’t even notice. But the thing is, we are living in this world and women are the ultimate caretakers. We’re very selfless in how we show up in the world. And so we think about the landscape we’re operating in — how we take care of our bodies in our 20s, even in our teens, in our 30s — because that’s really going to define what happens in our 40s and 50s. What we know is normal is that our hormones are going to begin to shift. In the beginning, as early as our late 30s, we start to see a dip in progesterone. Progesterone is the hormone that goes up in the second part of our cycle right after ovulation — the corpus luteum releases progesterone and it begins to rise, peaking around day 19 or 20 in a 30-day cycle, and then slowly going down as we get ready for our period. It’s the first hormone that begins to gradually dip over time. So we’ll have a situation where women begin to see a decline in progesterone and their 30-day period becomes a 29-day or 28-day or 27-day period — it begins to shorten just a little bit. If we have compounded inflammation, if we’ve got toxins we’ve been exposed to, if we are running around with endless checklists — all those types of stressors are going to play a role. And although progesterone is dipping in the beginning, estrogen isn’t. So estrogen can become unopposed. We may see symptoms of heavier periods, migraines, tender swollen fibrocystic breasts, a little bit more weight distribution around the hips and belly. Normally we like these two hormones to check each other. When one drops and the other stays up, we’re going to see some shifting there — especially if we already have some inflammation. The ideal normal is we notice a little bit of shifting, a little bit of changes, but it’s not erratic. It’s not disruptive. But if we have those other stressors already in play and hadn’t really managed them, that’s when we’re going to start to feel more disruption. That’s when we’re going to feel sleeplessness, a couple of night sweats, cravings, brain fog, mood swings — especially right before our period starts. That PMS just starts to elevate a little bit more.

Lisa: One of the things about getting older is that there’s somewhat less resiliency. In my 20s I could just abuse my body — eat all the sugar, not sleep, stay up late, drink a lot of alcohol — and it wouldn’t really affect me. But now that I’m older it really wrecks me. It seems to be that when we get into our 40s it catches up with us. If we haven’t been paying attention to our health, if we haven’t been managing stress, it would seem like that would exacerbate things.

Dr. Mariza: If we could just remove all of what we did in our 20s and 30s and it was just about the hormones, we’d probably skate right through. No problem. Hormones are shifting, it’s all good. But a great example — my husband turned 35 and just felt the years of his 20s catching up with him. And remove hormones and let’s just talk about cellular energy, cellular damage, and mitochondrial support. Let’s call Friday night two glasses of wine “inflammation on the system.” Whether you’ve got hormones or not, you’re going to most likely feel that somewhere. But when hormones come into play, it’s not like your hormones are exacerbating the problem — it’s the two glasses of wine that are exacerbating the hormonal connection. I always say: your hormones aren’t sabotaging you. They’re being impacted by something else. They’re being impacted by a root cause — stress, nutrient deficiencies. When you drank those two glasses of wine and worked your butt off on Friday, you probably depleted a lot of things that your hormones needed — the zinc, the vitamin D, the magnesium. So really, your hormones are getting sloppy seconds and they’re not working as well, and they’re shifting at the same time. What really defines what your 40s and 50s look like is how well you take care of you. I started to notice when I had a glass of wine in my late 30s, I woke up the next day feeling foggy and puffy. I had to grapple with that for a couple of years because I love a great Barbaresco. But then my body was like, that isn’t working for us. I maybe have a drink once a quarter now. I’ve had a lot of hormone issues in my past and I’ve had to really listen to my body and say, is this serving me? If it’s not serving me, it’s got to go. As we navigate this terrain, we’re going to have to not only become very self-aware but also have some tough conversations with ourselves — decide what is and what isn’t serving us. Because what got you here isn’t going to get you to that next level of vitality.

Lisa: What advice do you have for women who aren’t necessarily used to tuning in to their bodies? Like the woman who’s like, yeah, I know the coffee kind of affects me, I know the alcohol kind of affects me, but I love my coffee and I love my wine. Are you telling me I need to stop?

Dr. Mariza: You have to weigh the pluses and minuses and decide what’s worth it. I was that woman. There were definitely three to four years where it was a constant conversation with myself about how much could I get away with without causing major disruption. And then ultimately one day saying, you know what, this just isn’t serving me the way that — at my greatest capacity. I think it’s really about asking ourselves those questions, really tuning in. I find that women in their 40s and 50s are busier than ever — navigating family, parents, careers, finding themselves, figuring out where they fit in the world. That’s a lot of transition, not just physically but emotionally and mentally. There was a time where I was addicted to stress. Stress is so insidious because it doesn’t announce itself as a disruption. Your body doesn’t send off a little indicator light that says “you’re stressed.” It can feel like you’ve got a slight edge, a little boost of energy. What is disruptive is waking up exhausted. What’s disruptive is trying to put your pants on and they don’t fit. What’s disruptive is having a migraine. But stress doesn’t necessarily feel disruptive — it just adds up over time. For me to recognize when I’m going into a stressed state, I really have to tune in to my body. I notice I’m speaking faster, I’m answering people with one line, I’m responding to “how are you doing?” with “oh my god, girl, I am so busy.” Those are cues that I’ve moved into a stressed state. And I know the implications — sleep disruption, less energy, mood swings, not being my best self. Your body is always telling you something. That fogginess is telling you something. That weird disruptive mental chatter before bed is telling you something.

Lisa: As we were talking, I was thinking about how certain stressors we can’t really eliminate — most of us can’t eliminate our jobs or our kids. But one of the things we can control, at least to some degree, is our exposure to toxins. When you think about stressors, you often think about those active, obvious stressors. But you don’t necessarily think about all the toxins and chemicals. Whether you think alcohol is a toxin or not, your body does — your liver doesn’t like it. And your liver also doesn’t like all the chemicals in our houses: the scented products, the cleaners, all of those things. And I feel like your book addresses this for a lot of women, because we want our houses clean, but we want to do it in a way that doesn’t pollute our bodies. And that’s one of the many reasons why we’re so drawn to essential oils.

Dr. Mariza: Totally. One of the reasons why I love essential oils — and this book encompasses this — the first part is really about root cause. What is really driving this? Is it really my hormones or is it something deeper? Is it a gut issue? Is it the stressors — whether chemical, physical, or emotional? What are some of those root causes that could be drivers of why you’re experiencing some of these symptoms? And then I offer all the solutions — from supplementation to lifestyle, self-care, nutrition, a 21-day program. But what I love about essential oils more than anything — I call them the instant wins. If you’re having a meltdown, you can use an oil for an instant win. If you’re having brain fog, you can use peppermint and a citrus for an instant win. If you’re feeling that mental chatter, lavender, clary sage, vetiver before going to bed at night with some deep breath work or a sleep meditation — that little combo will knock you out. You’re having a hot flash? A spritzer of peppermint, right? There are all these quick wins. A lot of the other things — changing your diet, mindful practices, meditation, sleep hygiene, supplementation — that’s a journey. And it’s the work we’ve got to do. But there are days where we deserve an instant win. What if you could just grab an oil and choose your mood? What if you could grab an oil and shift yourself back into focus and concentration? And then when we’re talking about the personal care chemicals and cleaning chemicals in our homes and increased toxicity in the air — how can we sub out those Glade plug-ins or scented candles for something that isn’t just going to make the house smell better but also boost your energy levels, change your mood, or help you go to bed at night? We have essential oil diffusers all over the house. Depending on how I want to feel that day, I can literally choose a couple of oils that will shift my mental state, shift my emotional state, purify the air in the house, and boost my immune system at the same time. Three birds with one diffuser stone. As a new mama and as a hormone expert, I know everything about endocrine disruptors. I don’t want migraines. I don’t want angry breasts. I don’t want the bigger concerns around estrogen dominance — like fibroids. If we can sub out some of those products and buy organic or make them ourselves, we are slowly chipping away and creating less inflammation in the body and really allowing our hormones to function at their peak capacity despite them shifting.

Lisa: You said so many things there. I was taking notes. You blew my mind the first time I had you on the podcast, when you were talking about the science behind how certain essential oils can reduce cortisol, meaning lower stress.

Dr. Mariza: Honestly, I don’t know who I would be today without the oils. I use them every single day. It would be a straight-up lie if I told you I’m releasing a book and I have a three-month-old and I don’t have stress. But I have all these strategies and techniques and rituals that keep me in check. I believe in a “yes and” — I believe that I can have it all. I believe all women can have it all, and I think we can do it with ease and grace and not just feel bombarded and overwhelmed 24/7. One of the ways I leverage those little moments of grace is by just grabbing an essential oil like tangerine or frankincense or jasmine — and it just shifts everything. Because whether we like it or not, those oils have chemistry, and that chemistry goes into the brain, goes into the limbic system, and literally can fine-tune it, tune it up, calm it down, relax it when maybe we didn’t have the capacity to do so.

Lisa: Give us a few quick wins. For stress in general, and also for PMS — when you’re approaching your period and you’re a little sharp. We call it snippy snappy. You just wish someone would say something.

Dr. Mariza: So you find yourself at your tipping point. My go-to oil for that — just two oils — would be clary sage. I call clary sage the Beyoncé of hormone essential oils. It’s a phenomenal calming oil. And then the other one I’d choose to pair with clary sage would be another floral — lavender, jasmine, rose, or ylang-ylang. Any of those are phenomenal. Just grab a couple of florals, apply them to your wrist or put a couple in your palm, breathe it in. Take about 15 to 30 seconds to just take some deep breaths, switch tracks from sympathetic fight-or-flight to relax mode — and you’ve literally changed your state. You’re not the person you were a couple seconds ago. For everyday management, especially if you know your cycle and your period’s coming — you’re at the end of your luteal phase and PMS is brewing — have a little alarm on your phone on the hour where you grab your little blend that you’ve already pre-made. Roll it over your palms, over your wrist, every hour. It literally takes one minute. Take some deep breaths, get that oxygen back into the brain, and it’ll literally reset you on the hour so that stress and overwhelm never gets to the tipping point. Another thing I recommend is having oils you start with in the morning. I have a tangerine I start with every single day. Citrus oils like tangerine and wild orange are the oils of abundance, the oils of happiness and joy. They feel like liquid joy in a bottle. And then at night — a lot of us think we can just run into bed from our activities and expect our brain to shut off. It’s a no-go, especially as we get older. Having a little blend of lavender, cedarwood, vetiver, Roman chamomile, a diffuser running, say what you’re grateful for from your day, have a 10-minute sleep meditation — by the time you’re done with it, you’re pretty much passed out. Just bookending your day with oils that you know work for you is going to be the way to create those beautiful instant wins and create your day by design instead of by default.

Lisa: I love that. And selfishly, my son has been saying he’s a little stuffy in the evenings — only in the evenings. I’ve been thinking about getting him a diffuser. So I figure this is a great time to ask.

Dr. Mariza: It’s a perfect time to ask. A diffuser by the bedside in the room. I’d do a couple drops of eucalyptus — this is like organic vapor rub. Eucalyptus opens up the air. Lemon is a natural immune system booster and purifier and it smells really delicious with eucalyptus. Then maybe one little drop of spearmint or peppermint or cardamom — cardamom is a phenomenal respiratory oil. Keep it simple: a little eucalyptus, a little lemon, and a little spearmint. That’ll just open things up. You can also dilute it and make a little salve with coconut oil and put it on his chest.

Lisa: Thank you. This really gives a taste of what we’ll find in your book — the practical information, the diet, the different things we need to do. I get so many questions about essential oils. Women are going crazy for it. And I think the reason is this wonderful way to make this great shift pretty much on the spot. There’s an incredible amount of research behind how these can shift our hormones, and they feel good, smell good. You feel so luxurious and they’re actually helping.

Dr. Mariza: It’s all a win. When you have to make that decision for your brain fog or your energy booster at three o’clock in the afternoon — is it the York peppermint patty or the peppermint oil? Girl, peppermint oil’s got no calories in it and it’s definitely not going to jack up your insulin levels. That’s what I love about the book — I offer what I consider to be the comprehensive solution. I think women deserve the comprehensive solution. But in the process of creating a comprehensive solution, we also deserve that right-now little fix. I’m a “yes and” girl — I’m going to give you the instant win and I’m going to give you the comprehensive plan, because while we’re getting to the big work, we deserve to feel good in the interim. Women carry so much. My mama, during the pandemic — my uncle had a triple bypass, she became his caretaker, she’s taking care of my grandparents who are almost 90, she runs her own company. She’s every woman I talk with. How can we get the wins but also create the sustainable plan so that we can be who we need to be for our family and our community, and still be who we need to be for ourselves?

Lisa: For the woman who really resonated with what we were talking about — what would you want to say to her as we close out today?

Dr. Mariza: The biggest conversation I would have is that this is a beautiful transition. I know that sometimes it doesn’t always feel that way. But what I’ve learned is that you are worthy of owning your health. You are worthy of being healthy. And at the end of the day, no matter what some doctor told you, you are the CEO of your health and you get to redefine what that is. I have seen so many women at 48, 50 years old feeling like, oh my gosh, am I ever going to recover from this — make some slight shifts and changes and have an insane transformation. Really get to paint the next decades of their life exactly how they want to live them. What if there were just a couple of minor tweaks that could shift everything — energy, brain capacity, mood, relationships, the career you love — by simply focusing on you first, because you’re worthy of that? And then watching that passion unfold. Probably one of the most incredible transformations is what I see in women in their 40s and 50s as they decide to take that ownership, empower themselves, stop listening to the naysayers and the fear mongers, and say: I’m going to define this time on my terms. It all starts with knowing that we’re worthy and deserving of all of it.

Lisa: That’s so powerful and so important. I see it as this incredible time of stepping into your power and really owning it. That’s the secret of menopause that our world doesn’t want us to know — that this incredible transitional time really coincides with this transformation of becoming more of who we are. Thank you for making that transition easier for all of the women who grab your book. Where can we go to get your book and find out more about you?

Dr. Mariza: The book is everywhere — Amazon, Barnes and Noble, anywhere books are sold. I love getting books from local bookstores too. And then the podcast is Essentially You. I just love that we are fellow sisters sharing this empowering information about women’s hormone health. My podcast focuses a lot on women in their 40s and 50s as we’re transitioning and really finding our way and healing our bodies in a way that feels in alignment with us. And if you want to check out the website, it’s drmariza.com.

Lisa: Thank you so much for being here. This was really great. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with a friend. You’ll find the show notes page for today’s episode over at fertilityfriday.com/363. I hope that you enjoyed today’s episode with Dr. Mariza. Always a pleasure to have her on the show and to talk about women’s issues — in particular, menopause, pre-menopause, perimenopause, that period of time before our last period — and talking about some of the things that we can do. I love her concept of quick wins. Sometimes we just really need to have some strategies, some go-to strategies for how to manage. Dr. Mariza’s book and her approach are really refreshing, especially in a world where we’re given so many negative messages about this period of time — to the point that we can forget it’s a normal stage of life we’re supposed to go through. It’s a rite of passage. And having these conversations with women who’ve gone through that phase, looking at it from the woman’s perspective instead of from our patriarchal society’s perspective, is how we can really look at ways to lessen any potential health impacts and decide what this transitional phase means for us. I hope that the Fertility Friday Podcast will remain one of the places you can come to have positive discussions about this natural transition of life. So with that said, I hope you have a wonderful week — and of course, as always, until next time, be well and happy charting.