Female Health

🎙 Guest: Claire Snowdon-Darling  ·  📅 Aired August 21, 2026  ·  ⏱ 55 min episode

Introduction

Historically, women have been under represented in all clinical research. As recently as 1992, US legislation was passed to ensure that women are represented in all clinical research. This had assumed that women respond to medications, and that there was no difference across their menstrual cycles. Further frustration to women is that it can take eight years to receive a diagnosis of endometriosis.

The medical profession also divides treatment according to parts of the body. For example, a stomach issue would be referred to a gastroenterologist, joint pain to a rheumatologist. Yet both of these symptoms might be explained by underlying inflammation.

This is the first generation where women were told they could have it all and were encouraged to actively seek it all. Stay beautiful, stay skinny, give the perfect dinner party. With this amount of stress, are we prepared for the years of menopause? In the UK, US and Australia, perimenopause years were listed as times of high suicide rates among women.

General

• Everything is interconnected
• Have women felt acknowledged by the medical system?
• Historically women have been underrepresented in all clinical research
• In 1992 US legislation was passed to ensure that women are represented in all clinical research
• Medicine has assumed that women respond to medications the same as men and that they respond the same across the menstrual cycle
• Medicine also divides treatment by body part — for example gynecology, ear nose and throat
• It takes an average of eight years to arrive at a diagnosis of endometriosis
• In the US, UK and Australia, perimenopause years are listed as times of high suicide rates among women
• Many symptoms of menopause can be caused by blood sugar irregularities
• Stress hormones intimately affect sex hormones:
  • Excessive stress can rob the body of sex hormones to make cortisol (cortisol steal)
  • This is associated with low progesterone which is associated with insulin resistance
• The immune system is intimately connected:
  • Testosterone is anti-inflammatory and immune protective
  • Estrogen can be pro-inflammatory
  • Decreased progesterone slows gut function and increases gut permeability, leading to poor estrogen detox and autoimmune issues
  • Chronic inflammation leads to high LDL particles and histamine intolerance

Her Journey

• She puts the gut, metabolic issues, hormones and sex hormones together
• She had fatigue and depression after she gave birth
• She started studying nutrition and how food affects the body
• It took twelve years to get a diagnosis (premature ovarian insufficiency) because they were not testing the right things
• We can change our hormone health in earlier life:
  • Her teenage symptoms of migraines and irritable bowel syndrome were signs that her hormones were struggling
  • Look at gut and metabolic health and stress to change hormone health
• She hopes women learn about menopause and pass it on to their daughters

Hormone Health Is Not Just About Hormones

• How well we get through menopause is determined by hormone health:
  • This is determined earlier but we can affect it
  • Our hormones are affected by our environment
  • Our blood sugar, diet and stress affect our hormones
  • Nutrition alone won’t get someone through menopause
• Red flags preceding menopause — things that we have normalised:
  • Migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, skin problems, weight problems, heavy menstrual periods, PMS/PCOS, endometriosis
  • We should treat the main cause, not these symptoms

Reasons Women Can Be Dismissed — Not Testing For

• Progesterone:
  • Is overlooked medically
  • Calming hormone — puts us into parasympathetic state
  • Anti-anxiety, anti-inflammatory
  • When stressed, the body will prioritise making cortisol over progesterone
  • Clinicians typically don’t test for progesterone
• Insulin response — HbA1c can tell how hard the pancreas is working
• Gut health

Her Recommendations for Hormone Testing

• DUTCH testing (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones):
  • Gives an indicator of what is going on in the gut
  • Need to consider the two sources of estrogen:
    • The estrogen that we make
    • Xenoestrogens that the body will encounter in response to plastics — these do not show up in a blood test and are circulating around the gut
  • The DUTCH test gives an indicator of whether the body is able to clear out estrogens
  • It is important to see which pathways estrogen is being metabolised through
  • 16OH, 4OH pathways are associated with higher risk of some cancers — should be no higher than 13 %
    • Some clinicians give these women more estrogen, making the condition worse
    • Typically this pathway is not tested for
• Proper gut mapping:
  • To see gut bacteria
  • To see if the body has the mechanics to process hormones and pollution

Should All Women Be on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)?

• It is a personal choice
• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?
• Menopause hardens our arteries and increases risk of strokes
• Synthetic hormones are not healthy and have been associated with increased strokes and cardiac events
• As a result of these adverse events, many practitioners stopped prescribing hormones in 2002:
  • As a result, a generation of women are having problems in their late 90s (uterine prolapse)
  • HRT reversed these symptoms
• There are a lot of hormone issues in younger women who may need progesterone
• She recommends HRT for anyone who would consider the birth control pill for a hormone problem
• She is a fan of women supporting their body through the menopause transition

Conditions HRT Helps With

• Migraines (can be due to low progesterone)

Patterns She Sees

• Food confusion:
  • Trying different diets for weight loss or a health kick
  • Need to know what nourishes our bodies: protein, whole food, good water, rest
• The inability to say “no”:
  • In menopause, as the mothering hormones disappear, our tolerance disappears
  • Women are taught to nurture and take care of others
  • Being busy is glorified
  • We need to be honest with ourselves — if a relationship or job is toxic, we have to change
  • Typical patterns she sees are denial, refusing self-care, confusion

Interaction Between Stress, Sex Hormones and Blood Sugar

• These are all connected
• Stress is causing comfort eating
• The increase in insulin from comfort eating is causing menstrual symptoms
• The increase in insulin spikes cortisol, causing an increase in estrogen and a decrease in progesterone
• This affects the gut and immune system
• One can start with diet
• Empowerment is important
• We need to reduce stress and support blood sugars, then the hormones have a chance of doing what they are supposed to do
• For stress, get into parasympathetic mode:
  • Calm down the vagal nerve, meditation
  • Sleep hygiene
• Diet:
  • Find out about food intolerances
  • Avoid toxins such as PEG, BPA, EMF
  • Clean water
  • If a person is vegan, there could be concerns about gut permeability and inflammation — the bioavailability of vegan protein is not as great as meat protein
• Blood sugars:
  • Minimize sugar, eat proteins
  • Good fats: butter, lard, tallow, ghee
  • Adaptogenic herbs: liquorice root, reishi, Ashwagandha root, panax ginseng, spirulina, tulsi (holy basil)
  • Short chain fatty acids

The Birth Control Pill

• She recommends short term use only (not for more than three years) as it resulted in pituitary failure in some women
• Using it for “off label” uses
• It can cause pituitary and ovarian damage
• It changes brain function
• It changes the ability to make hormones
• It has been normalised
• She recommends non-hormonal, barrier methods or apps, and the coil for birth control:
  • The copper coils have less copper in them
  • If one is concerned about the copper in these coils, consider supplements

Hysterectomy Recommendations

• If a doctor recommends a hysterectomy, get a second opinion and check progesterone levels
• Many hysterectomy recommendations are for conditions like fibroids which are related to estrogen dominance or progesterone deficiency

Sex Drive During Menopause

• Can drop due to decreased testosterone
• Cuddling is important as well

Practitioners

• Functional wellness practitioners
• Functional menopausal coaches