Successful Relationship with Emma

Demystifying Women's Hormonal Journey Throughout their Life Cycle with Dr. Serena Goldstein (Ep.21)

• Emma Viglucci • Episode 21

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Hormones are a big deal! They seem to rule our life if we are a woman because so much depends on them for our cycle and reproductive life if we want children.

But aside from that aspect, they still affect so much of our health, wellbeing and how we experience our world, including the relationship with our partner… Men are affected in their own right obviously, and also when supporting their female partner.

Without going into a whole scientific or medical explanation, suffice to say that hormones regulate and control many of our body functions and development. They affect our rhythms from sleep, sex drive, hunger, motivation, body temperature, menstrual cycle, growth, metabolism, stress response and so much more.

In today’s episode I’m excited to have a conversation with Dr. Serena Goldstein to address how to support ourselves on our Hormonal Journey throughout our lifespan. We have a rich conversation covering: Identifying symptoms that might indicate a hormonal imbalance that just add unnecessary challenges to our life, what testing one might need to help identify these for proper treatment, how to use life rhythms and lifestyle to address imbalances and promote health, and what might be needed to smoothly sail through different life stages while taking personality, relationship dynamics and energetics into consideration… Enjoy!

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🌟ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Dr. Serena Goldstein is a Naturopathic Doctor who guides you to trust and understand what your body is telling you. She has a diverse, deep and growing knowledge base around conventional medicine, natural modalities, energy medicine modalities, and spirituality, where she seeks to find and address the root cause of symptoms with an individualized plan that also feels like relief. Dr. Serena works with those experiencing weight gain, hormone imbalance, poor sleep, stress, thyroid, mood, and gut health issues who want to learn more of what their body is saying and needs. She has shared her expertise on different media outlets, has appeared on NYU Doctor Radio Sirius XM, has written research articles on mind/body healing, presented at conferences, and serves as an Advisory Board Member for Natural Practitioner Magazine. You can find her at DrSerenaGoldstein.com.

Gift from Serena:
Spirituality Medicine

Find her also here:
Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin

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DISCLAIMER: This content is meant to support your Journey and not as a replacement for professional assistance. Additionally, the ideas and resources provides by our guests are their ideas and recommendations alone and not necessarily a reflection of the host’s.



Emma Viglucci:

Hello lovelies, welcome to another episode. I am so excited for today's topic. We talk about the hormonal journey for women and all of the things that she might worry about at each stage of life. We address the topics from all different angles, like using different lifestyle changes, different treatment modalities, supplements, even mindsets, and we even throw in there some woo-woo spiritual things to really support you and help you nourish yourself and your body, so that you come free of the energy that might be spent on worrying and addressing and dealing with all these things and it could be better spent on creating a beautiful home, a beautiful family, beautiful life and a beautiful relationship with your partner. The conversation takes place with Dr Serena Goldstein. It is so fun and resourceful. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and that you especially hone in into that woo-woo stuff Like it's a really nice different angle that we added to this conversation. I hope that you enjoy it. Stay tuned, you're in for a treat. Let me read you her bio and then we'll say hello to Serena.

Emma Viglucci:

Dr Serena Goldstein is a naturopathic doctor who guides you to trust and understand what your body is telling you. She has a diverse, deep and growing knowledge base around conventional medicine, natural modalities, energy medicine modalities and the spirituality, where she seeks to find and address the root cause of symptoms with an individualized plan. That also feels like relief. Dr Serena works with those experiencing weight gain, hormone imbalance, poor sleep, stress, thyroid mood and gut health issues, who want to learn more of what their body is saying and needs. Dr Serena has shared her expertise on outlets such as MindBodyGreen, forbes and Shapecom, has appeared on NYU Radio Cyrus XM, written multiple research articles on mind-body healing, presented at numerous conferences, and serves as an advisory board member for Natural Practitioner magazine. Without further ado, let's say hello to Serena. Hello Serena, how are you today? I'm so happy to have you here with us.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yes, and thank you so much for having me.

Emma Viglucci:

I am really excited for this conversation, as I like to share. I am a nerd for all the things wellness and body and things aside from the work that I do with couples and I always like to deepen the conversation, so I'm so excited for us to dive in and more specifically into the hormone side of things. So this is going to be so good and I want the audience to get hooked up with details about what's going on with their hormones if they're not feeling well, and how you and your profession and your angle might bring something different to them that they might not have considered, and how we'll take care of them. Good.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Awesome.

Emma Viglucci:

Yeah, perfect, all right. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your profession, your, your, what do you do like neuropathic medicine?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

exactly so. It's actually and that was a good example because that it's actually pretty common have. People may say oh, is it neuropath, natural? There's so many different pronunciations of it. Interestingly, you may hear naturopathic on the East Coast and naturopathic on the West Coast. There's a lot of different accents in this country.

Emma Viglucci:

Yes, yes, yes. I don't remember what I said. I hope I said it properly.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So go right ahead.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yes, so in naturopathic medicine it's similar to conventional medicine in the sense that the first two years so just to give everyone some context it's basic sciences, and then we take labs, imaging, diagnostics, pathology, and then we have our first set of board exams, which are like the USMLEs.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Then the next two to three years are all the ologies, so I think cardiology, endocrinology, gynecology, pediatrics, geriatrics, so forth, and then not only do we take pharmacology, so all the drugs, and then we take nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, iv therapy, chiropractic and minor surgery. There we go. So it's really more tools in our toolbox to not just treat the patient but to get to the root cause of disease. And what that really means is that it's more than just palliating a certain concern or just making you feel better right away, which of course I want and I know you want to but it's being able to explain physiology in such a way which we will get into with hormones, that they move through so many different organ systems that let's also boost the nourishment and the health of those organ systems. So really everything is functioning so much better.

Emma Viglucci:

I love that. Yeah, you know, it's interesting because sometimes it feels like the functional medicine or the more traditional doesn't go to that, to that the bottom line. Of course it won't make you feel better, but it feels like a bandaid Okay. So they take this, you know, and it's like okay, but what cost it? And how do we fix the root of the problem? I suppose to like now I still have the problem, now I have a band-aid and the band is causing other problems. I was like right, so, yes, love this conversation. Okay, so tell us a little bit more then about at what point for yourself, did you like what brought you into this and at what point for yourself did you find that it was a hormone thing for you and I might be going too fast here. So do you specialize in hormones? Do you have other specialties? And then like, how did you hone in?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

yeah, so I'll. I'll wrap it all up because everything can be so intertwined. So before psychology, which was my original path, before medicine, which is what I had first desired, I remember my hormone journey a few years prior. So around those teenage years I used to double over from cramps and pass out, like many my age, you know we had might all in our backpacks and proactive that every so often I would only stop it once it burnt my skin. I had the pimple poppers and the clear assault.

Emma Viglucci:

You might be aging yourself right now. I can relate to all of these things.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yes, definitely aging myself. And you know at the same time, that's what we've heard of, that's what everyone knew and that's what we heard of, that's what everyone knew and that's the advice that was given. However, from the more naturopathic side and my own journey so I was a competitive gymnast. I injured my elbow in gymnastics and when I couldn't play the trombone or do gymnastics, I was not a happy camper. So at 15, I went to the library and I began reading young Erickson and Freud to try to figure out what was going on with myself.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

And then, like many of my patients and people that I tend to work with and be around, I wanted to do all the research and fix myself at some point. But I was also reading so much I was thinking you know what? I need? Help, I need someone, I need to bring someone in. So I did actually try a couple of different therapists, landed on one who was a PhD. She made such a difference in my life that I thought, oh my God, I want to get my doctorate, just like her. So I started college as a psychology major and Japanese minor, because I finished with three honors. So I finished with three honors in high school, tested into Japanese too, did not get along with my teacher. And then a close friend said why don't you go pre-med? And I thought you know, there's no doctors in my family.

Emma Viglucci:

Is that pre-med? Okay, you know there's no doctors in my family. It's that pre-med.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Okay, you know, like the drugs, I don't know. It seemed, I hesitate to say, simple, but it just seemed like one extra thing. But it was an extra thing in addition to talking. So I thought, okay, I could do more for people. But when I found naturopathic medicine as you've heard my explanations oh, all hands on. Okay, I could do more for people. But when I found naturopathic medicine as you heard my explanations oh, all hands on deck, I could do a lot for people.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

At the same time, my journey through college and especially into my 20s, my weight had so many different fluctuations. I would, or I would have like a South Beach diet bar in one hand and like a calorie counter in the other, so I would try. I would have like a South Beach diet bar in one hand and like a calorie counter in the other, so I would try mixing diets. I gained a freshman 15,. I gained weight in med school, lost some, went to the gym. I did so much. I saw a nutritionist, I have my own naturopathic doctor. So this is where I've gone through some of the fluctuations myself and then realizing how much it could also impact your life. So now when I work with people, I always say, like balanced hormones, balanced life. You need to make room for yourself and to have fun and enjoy. Your body will do what it needs, as long as we're nourishing everything that's there.

Emma Viglucci:

Yes, I love that. I mean, our bodies are such technological vehicles for us to do our journey right, and if we don't treat them as this amazing machinery, chemistry, layer, like you know, like like we have everything, we don't treat it as such, we just I don't know how we usually think about it. It's like kind of weird, like we, we just move around, we totally ignore it, we don't give it enough credit for what it does. At the end of the day, as women, we create a life inside of our own bodies. I mean, like when we really take a step back and and think about what the human body is, and especially as a woman like whoa right, and it's just such a beautiful thing not to be neglected, because the more that we nourish it I love the word nourish for all of this it knows what it, what to do and how to do it right. Like we don't have to go, do all of the things and sometimes make it worse because we throw everything out of whack right, and that's sometimes.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

It is that we think we're doing all the right things. And I remember sometimes I would see people taking 40 plus supplements, or sometimes none at all. Or they don't believe in it or they don't believe in it, and or they don't believe in pharmaceuticals, and you know, there's all these different belief systems. So I feel like, by the time, it's not about me quelling your beliefs or trying to change your mind. It's saying hey, here's what's going on at the moment. The beauty in working with someone is that things can always be temporary and then, as you start to heal actually sometimes other you know past symptoms do wind up, popping up. It's also part of the healing journey. But how can we also make this long term? And then listening to our body will definitely be a whole other part of the conversation. I'm sure what?

Emma Viglucci:

that's something that we should do, right? Oh, my goodness for sure. But so that's interesting that you brought up supplements. So what is you said? Some people take too many, some people take none. I think I shared in our first conversation that I become the one probably the ones, that probably take too many. So I would love to learn a little bit more about that. What's's too much, what's too little, and how do you choose, how to find that middle ground that makes sense?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So this is where I say it's usually per person, because, in all transparency, there are times I've had patients call me out on taking too many and because this is too many for them. So the beauty of what I do, too, is we could talk about all right, well, is it just that it's too many for them? So the beauty of what I do, too, is we could talk about all right, well, is it just that it's too many pills? Do we need to put things in powders? Do we need droppers? Because there's also some great forms out there. When you see the tinctures, you know that you know, especially with herbs and everything. So we can also talk about different forms. There's also IV therapy, and those have been so popular recently. So that's another way of getting vitamins in, and I always say too, it helps double as some R&R. You usually get to be in this nice big, comfy chair, if you're okay with needles, of course.

Emma Viglucci:

Unless you're a medical doctor. Right.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

And then when it comes to getting the supplements, I mean even just logically, whole foods will naturally, no pun intended or any health or even any small health food store, will likely have more healthful supplements than, let's say, costco or walgreens. Right, you know any of those, yeah? So how to know if you're kind of at wit's end is if some of the symptoms still keep coming back, or maybe they haven't completely gone away, or maybe they go away for a time being, but then and something else pops up instead so you know what?

Emma Viglucci:

why don't we jump into that for a second and describe what are some of the symptoms that people might be experiencing that might be signs of hormonal imbalance or something else going a little array that this type of approach might be helpful for?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yeah, so typically we think of hormonal imbalances like food cravings, weight gain, especially around the abdomen, but it can also happen around the hips as well Acne hair growth, so it's called hirsutism, which is you know where. If there's any facial hair sometimes chest hair it's usually pretty dark, but some other, you know, which seemingly unrelated, but still can be very much in that hormonal sphere, because hormones actually can mirror some of our neurotransmitters which are responsible for mood stress and it. I mean chances are the body's already stressed, but it's almost like you're now in this freeze response, like everything just becomes too overwhelming so to speak yes you know, brain fog, memory issues and then just feeling snippier with people.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

That tends to be a big. You know, if your personality starts changing a little bit or you just inherently feel like, okay, well, you're a little more bloated, things aren't digesting. Well, you're just not as thrilled anymore that that tends to be more of. Okay, we could talk gut a little bit. But certainly stress adrenals with the two little glands that sit on top of the kidneys and hormone imbalance can certainly be a huge portion of everything.

Emma Viglucci:

Cool. So if somebody is having all of those symptoms and then they're like okay, I don't even know where to start. Is it my food? Is it my exercise? Is it my supplements? Is it my things? Should I be taking something else? What's wrong with me? I don't know what to do. Like, where would you start with all of this?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Well, the first thing I would do is look at someone's rhythm. Are they always on the go? Are they eating at regular times? Are they getting enough protein in, which is huge, because most people, especially if it's grab and go, aren't really thinking about the protein content, which I always recommend, like 40 to 50 grams a day. You know, special for men and women, you know, maybe for men a little bit more, more if you're working out, and what protein helps do is it helps build muscle and it really helps stabilize blood sugar. It's also very like, on a more metaphysical level, kind of grounding for us. So it just helps bring us back within the body.

Emma Viglucci:

We could say definitely back to that point. To come back to, I'm going to pin that.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Awesome, you know, having enough healthy fats, drinking enough water, because all of these two, if we're not getting enough water in and we're made of mostly water, then yeah, we could get pretty irritable. So it's also part of the fuel that our body needs. So first I'm really looking at what is your whole rhythm like, what is your diet generally looking like, and then, if we need to bring in any tests, same thing I'm going to be looking at especially your cortisol levels for that circadian rhythm. And is someone sleeping? Which chances are they could be waking up in the middle of the night if they're having these different stressors, or maybe not even really being able to get out of bed properly. So all these different telltale signs, even in the history, where I'm like all right, here's where we need to start, definitely usually on the stress and hormone piece. But, yes, we could always bring in some tests as needed beautiful.

Emma Viglucci:

You know, out of all the conversations that I've been having with people, you're the first one that mentioned that just what is the rhythm of the day and the routines, and I love that because I'm all about the routine, the habits, the daily. You know what is the daily structure for the day. Um, you know, how do you maximize what you put in, how do you nurture yourself, what's your self-care like? All these different things, right? This some of the some of what I bring to the conversation with my clients as well. And how do we build in habits or tactics or whatever we need to put in there to support everything that you're saying, so that we can function the best we can, so that we could be the best partner that we wanna be to our partner in our relationship. So the habits are just not wellness habits but also connection habits, so all kinds of different habits just to do our life better.

Emma Viglucci:

So what you said is perfect, just going with the rhythm, right, like from the moment I open my eyes, okay, what is my life like, and then what happens? And then what happens, and then what happens, right, until I close my eyes again at night. And can I do anything different to make my life easier and better throughout the day, so I love that that's where you start, that you didn't automatically start with blood work. Let's take 27 vials of blood I'm not going to say who did that and let's find out all of the things you know. That's fun, and I'd like that you start there and then what's indicated, and then we'll do the test or any test that might be indicated Cool, very cool. So what are some things that you look at when you do do the blood work and or all the tests? What are the tests out there as well?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Right. So when I recommend blood work for patients, it's usually not that much different from what their MD would do. So what I always say is I may go a little more thorough, like, for example chances are their MD may order just only a tsh, which is a measure of your thyroid itself. Or how well, um, your pituitary, which is one of the glands in your brain, talks to the thyroid, which is controlled also by the hypothalamus, before that. So you have the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid axis, or called axis, because they're all kind of talking to each other, and then the thyroid spits out about 99% of T4, which is your inactive hormone, and then about 1% of T3, which is your active thyroid hormone. Fun fact, most gets converted in the liver, another portion in the gut and then know the rest around the body. However, in conventional medicine they may only test your t4 levels, which isn't really going to tell me anything.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So then I say oh, if I'm not converting, it was right, it was not helpful exactly, yeah, then we, then I could take a look at your conversion levels because you could have, okay, if your tSH looks okay. Well, at least for my standards anyways, I tend to tighten the ranges, yeah, but then what if your T4 looks okay but you're also not feeling good? Then it's not giving us the best information. So this is where I may order or may recommend just a little bit more.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

I don't go too in depth testing wise, because I also want to make sure that they can get what they need from their MD, just because a lot, well, the majority of the states that I've practiced in, I'm not able to directly order blood work, so I'm so I'm just grateful that, hey, you know what, I have some tools for them.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

I can, you know, help them say hey, here's actually the reasoning, knockwood, their MD is usually pretty good with it, and then they just bring everything back to me. So, yeah, and so this is where, again, you know, coming to just some basic blood work. And then you know, usually, for my end, where then I would start recommending more of the specialized tests we can go into genetic testing, urine testing for cortisol and hormones, saliva testing for the same thing, neurotransmitters, stool tests. We could do heavy metals, but we could also do some heavy metals and blood work, which is something that we would always talk about as well, but what I find is that a lot of people, too, they're interested in the tests, but it's also having the test as part of a plan, you know, even having them spaced out enough to say, hey, did we really maximize this, get the results that we need before we move to the next one.

Emma Viglucci:

that's smart, gotcha, I like that. So let's go back for a second. We move to the next one. That's smart, gotcha, I like that. So let's go back for a second to the conversion. So if you have enough T4, but you don't have enough converted to T3, and you see that converts primarily in the liver, the gut and some other parts of the body as well. So what if you could see that you're not converting? Well, first of all, how do you know if it's not converting? Is there a test for that? You could order a free T3. Okay, so then if you don't have a T3, you know it's not converting.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Correct. So this is where. So usually with TSH, conventionally the range is like 0.5 to 4.5. But usually people stop feeling good after two or two and a half, interestingly enough. So this is where it's already kind of a borderline of all right. You know what like also what's happening further off as well. So then depending on how much T4 there you know that's coming out of the thyroid, sometimes that it may be on the low end of normal, I've seen like normal to low end, but then it's the T3 that can potentially take a little bit of a nosedive or a little bit of like. Okay, it's probably not converting this, which would make sense, because if the person is stressed out, there's also a marker called reverse T3, which literally is a marker of stress. So either t4 converts into t3, which is what the body uses, or it converts into reverse t3, which is another inactive form, like it literally doesn't do anything right?

Emma Viglucci:

yeah, don't convert to things that are not helpful. Wow, interesting. So what converts? What was? Is it an enzyme, or I forget what converts? Yeah, there's, there's a couple of.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yeah, there's a couple of different enzymes and I want to say that I I'm probably going to mispronounce the diadonase, the the different enzymes, because what's happening is that it's cleaving off the different molecules to make literally t4 to t3. You know those active, you know from the inactive to the active. But that's also why you know minerals like selenium iodine, you know especially like potassium chloride and even like, from the more macro side of things, you know sea salt are so important is because it really does help with all these conversions. So what I'm thinking about okay, well, again, looking at this overall health, what we see the liver now is this sort of underrated organ, because now not only is it responsible for thyroid, but it helps with cholesterol, it helps make and metabolize hormones, it's going to help with all our detox pathways and getting just literal crap out of our body. You know that it needs. So you know.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

To the original question, maybe if supplements aren't quite working, people think, oh well, thyroid, I need to take thyroid stuff. Well, what if they actually need more liver stuff? Right, what if they also need adrenal support, of course supported by a healthful lifestyle, because it is possible to out supplement supplements with a not so healthy lifestyle. But they need adrenal support to help mitigate the stress response. This is going to be stress that's going to throw off the thyroid right, love it very, very good, right.

Emma Viglucci:

So liver support, adrenal support, all the things not necessarily just target the thyroid itself. All the other organs also need to be in good balance too, so everything works well, makes sense. So what kind of supplements? I guess would be the next question. Would it be helpful or can you? Can supplements help with the hormonal balance? Like, how does that tie together?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

yeah, and I think, um, you know, touching on too from the hormonal side of things. This is also how I help balance hormones, without birth control and without hormone replacement therapy, when I'm looking at the nutrients of like all the organ systems, of course, including the gut. So this is where I'm thinking about and then coming back to the rhythm, what are the person's main concerns? Like, if they're not sleeping? Right, we got to get them sleeping and then you know, look at what time the person wakes up in the middle of the night is in Chinese medicine? That could also point to which organ system do we really need to look at? So, like, one to 3am tends to be more liver and blood sugar related. 3 to 5 is like kidney, adrenal. Well, those are the few that tend to pop up.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Um, so, supplements that I really like and things. Magnesium involved in over 300 reactions in the body. So this is coming from that big picture. We're versus sending everyone out saying, okay, go get this for this and this for that and that for that. Magnesium can cover a whole lot and it's and it's calming, which we all need nowadays. Um, get your vitamin d3 levels checked as well.

Emma Viglucci:

So that's a big one yeah, I was just gonna add that I like that, that mindset of let's grab this supplement that takes off a bunch of boxes I'm supposed to in this and this and this and this and then and they have a gazillion pills to take or gazillion powders, or gives most of things.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So yeah, I really like inositol. Oh so it's actually a type of b vitamin, but, and same thing, I find it very grounding. It helps make serotonin, which is our happy hormone. It helps with blood sugar, it helps with just hormone health overall. So same thing it it's. It's a's a multifaceted one. I've seen it, you know pill, both pill and powder. So those are really good.

Emma Viglucci:

Lovely. What's the name of it?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

again Inositol, so it's I-N-O-S-I-T-O-L.

Emma Viglucci:

Very nice, I learned something new. I like when I learn stuff nice, I learned something new.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

I like when I learned stuff. Yeah, yeah, it's one of the. It's not so well, it's interesting. It's well known, but I don't know how well known it is if someone you know again just goes and does a bunch of research per se, right it might be well known, but not well known to me.

Emma Viglucci:

It's okay, exactly cool, um, wow, so we cover this from, from the very specific to the hormones. So, since we're in this realm, how did this imbalances show up, with period issues, let's say, if the, if a younger woman is listening to this, um, and? Or or a woman with a with a teenage daughter, or a young adult daughter, and we just want to be helpful to the younger population, like what might be going on and what might we see in terms of some of the things that you're mentioning?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

well, great questions. So, interestingly, in the teenage years not only are they battling hormones, but in the developmental side they're also. They also now have this new identity Right, and there's this new burgeoning almost adulthood, but not really. Their body is changing, but it hasn't settled in yet. So now it's really going on.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So some of it could be whether it's a little symptom palliation, but of course we also want to make sure. I would want to make sure I'm due to due diligence of okay, well, let's say, if there's heavy bleeding, is there any chance of fibroids? If she's having like any hair growth, you know, looking at polycystic ovarian syndrome, like any cysts on the ovaries, if there's any like really big changes in the period. So usually a period is 25 to 35 days, but if it starts getting shorter or longer, same thing, you know. Want to look at any estrogen, especially like estrogen dominance related issues. Um, you know which, interestingly, men and women tend to have, usually like a low progesterone, high estrogen, acne could be testosterone related. So, looking at all these different factors, same thing. They're going to benefit from these nutrients as well, especially as their body is going to start to level out.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

But if we could get them early, you know and really teach them about prevention and listening to their body, and because now they're literally going to have a monthly visitor, they could also really track it by their food, by their stress levels, even when they're around, what makes them feel really good, because all of these factors are going to then kind of make a sum into, well, what is their period going to be like this coming month? And they could track. Is it a little more painful? Ooh, what were they eating? What were they doing? You know what were their stress levels like the month before? I mean, that's the thing is, you know we were talking about earlier.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Some of the hormone imbalances can literally manifest as anxiety attacks, panic attacks and, just you know, migraines are a big one, you know. So I mean, not what I never had, you know, migraines, but I definitely had a lot of other symptoms that were in that sphere and it's taken years to, you know, really understand. Okay, it's not just about the imbalances, but what am I doing every month to also better myself? And then, if there's a month that wasn't as good, where can I reflect?

Emma Viglucci:

because especially, you know, when you're sitting there and not feeling fantastic, it's a good time to reflect too so I've been diving a little bit into cycle thinking also, and so I think that that might be really helpful with everything that you're saying as well. So if I know that, you know I'm in this phase of the period of the cycle, then this is how I line up my lifestyle and all the things that you're suggesting. If I'm in this phase and I line it up like this, so then I, then I could be aware of how I'm in support, supporting and nourishing my body. Um, right, so so that I have a better period, is this month, or an easier month, altogether Easier?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

one, oh, definitely. Well, and too you know from the whole cycle circadian rhythm piece. What's interesting as well is that you know you may find that whatever you feel like doing or not doing is actually kind of aligned with that cycle syncing part. So I can find that cycle syncing it's great because it can bring some awareness. But, yeah, when it comes to familiarity, I'm like it also gives us that chance to really listen in and understand of, okay, what does make me feel really good around certain times.

Emma Viglucci:

Because, especially as women, we have at least we have like four hormones in flux that is so good to be in tune with that, because you know, if this week I'm not feeling like seeing anybody, let's say then, oh, it's interesting, it's okay, I'm not being a bad person or not being crazy or I'm not being lazy or I'm not being whatever things people might sell themselves. If I don't feel like it, it supports that part of the cycle. It just means, like you know, it's time to like kind of slow down and hibernate a little bit. It's okay, it's just going to slow down and nourish, right.

Emma Viglucci:

There might be another phase of the cycle where like, woohoo, party time, and then it's like, doesn't make you a bad person, too active or too whatever, like, whatever the things are that you know, party animal and not responsible enough, whatever the stories are that people might say, right. So if I'm partying all the time, that's okay. You're in the social part of your cycle, right. So whatever the cycle is, it's okay to honor what you're feeling and what's going on. So then you get the most out of each cycle and you don't have to beat yourself up for, like last week I was partying so much, how come I can't party this week? Or last week I wanted to. I was nice and chilling. I'm like crazy or whatever. So it's okay. You don't have to be the same every week. So as then, that's teenagers, young adult. Now we start getting a little bit older in our life. Now we might be in a more committed relationship, we might be thinking of having babies. So how might all of this play out in our fertility?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

All right, yeah, so well, fertility is pretty big because it's, yes, we want everything balanced, but we also want to make sure those eggs are viable. So this is where getting a blood test like AMH, you know, the anti-malarian hormone, can actually help. You know, with the um, the test, the quality of the eggs as well, yeah, so that, so that will be helpful, and actually inositol is further helpful for that as well. Um, in addition, right, yeah, it has multi-purpose. Um, yeah, fertility is is interesting because it's also part of the journey and I feel, for women, you know, there is, oh, if we get into a little more of the spiritual, um, there is, I know where this is going now.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Uh, right, so we have the divine masculine, the divine feminine. So the masculine side, which we all have, the two sides, but the masculine, you know, men, of course, will have more of that energy. Women, you know, have more of the feminine. The masculine provides the women can multiply, and that's exactly what we do. They provide the sperm, we can multiply it, and so it's also meaning keeping us clear and on this rhythm and, you know, and moving away from the society of the go, go, go and do, do, do, I mean, hey, if it warms someone's heart, fantastic, and that's. You know where they are, you know. No, clearly no judgment, but what I have found, you know, there are times along the fertility journey of maybe being able to step back or have certain shifts in mindset that have been helpful as well.

Emma Viglucci:

I love that. Can you say a little bit more about that? So, because infertility is very, very common, I see that a lot of my practice with the couples that I work with and so that's interesting that you went more to a mindset angle on on this and an energetic angle. So can you touch a little bit more on both of those things?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

sure. Well, I feel like even just personality wise, or what I've seen, what I've noticed is that I know there's a lot of the stereotypes of oh down with the patriarchy, and I used to be like that, but you could say, since my awakening, since some other understandings, it's not necessarily the patriarchy itself, but it's more for the fact that women have been taught to control, to know that we could be literally just like men, even though we know we're not. We haven't even been in enough research studies ourselves, because most blood work is actually based on men. And so here we are, acting like men, are taught to act like men. But where does that leave room for the men to literally be men and step up and provide and be emotional support for the women who may go through some different throes throughout this journey as well?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So, from the again, from the big picture, I do believe it starts with the, with the people themselves, the women, knowing their, you know, understanding the role as women, so to speak. We are meant to create and multiply. That said, as a disclaimer, this is certainly not to limit anything. You know, we can do anything, as you know, as it's from our heart and the creation, but the men are there to be sturdy as well and to support. So I find that it's with this dynamic, and as long as both couples really are, or both in the couple are supportive of each other and have that, then it's certainly going to be a better chance than the woman who's going to feel resentful and who still has to control and is still sort of stuck in a certain mindset.

Emma Viglucci:

Wow, you know that's so beautiful. I think that that's very coming, especially with with the couples in this area. So I mean, I know that this podcast and the audience is all over, but the people that we work with, primarily one to one, are New Jersey, new York, like this Northeast area, and so the energy is very much. The women are very much in their masculine. Just go getting right and again, nothing wrong. We have masculine and feminine in all of our bodies. We're both. But when we're constantly in our masculine and doing part of ourselves, we're shutting down all the other stuff. Well, not for nothing. We can't produce the eggs and we can't have a group of hormones and we can't get pregnant. Like, where's the feminine? Right, literally right. So, and it's a hard pill to swallow, to sell or to sell that, to sell the pill. So so it's interesting to have a different angle on what might be going on.

Emma Viglucci:

It's not just literally your biology, but what's contributing to your biology. Your biology is affected by your mindset, your lifestyle, how you're just, how you're showing up, how you're doing everything. Your whole body, your whole makeup is affected by all of the other things, right? So if we have this mindset of, I could, could provide two. I could make money. Two, of course you can. We could do anything we want.

Emma Viglucci:

But how are you going about that? Are you shutting down your feminine? Are you shutting down, literally, your ovaries, your organs, your things, right? Are you throwing your hormones out of whack to work at the same pace or in the same style, with a 24-hour circadian rhythm that men have, as opposed to 28 average day lifestyle cycle that we have? Right, we're not honoring ourselves, we're not for nothing in our bodies are not supporting us and doing what we wanted to do.

Emma Viglucci:

So thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. Really puts it into context, right, in terms of dynamics between the partners and using our bodies to their full capacity and supporting it and nourishing to its full capacity, as opposed to doing life in a way that breaks it down instead shuts it down. And just the energetics between the partners. What are the dynamics there that contribute to that mindset or to the approach to life that creates a funkiness and then people shooting themselves on the foot. So, yes, very nice, very nice. Okay, so that's the fertility years, but in terms of the energetics, in the dynamics, emotional and energetics, anything that you want to add to that?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

so I would say it's.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

There are times I feel like it's not a be all and end all, because there could also be people that we wouldn't even expect maybe to get pregnant, or women, I should say, and they do, and maybe there was no other rhyme or reason you could say there's, you know that higher power, god's plan, however the soul was meant to enter, you know, so be it.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

But, as I know, we do have similar demographics, that, for the most part, but yes, having that healthy masculine and feminine dynamic, you know, I feel will be so helpful. And what I wanted to add too is that, even though we could say, okay, well then, change what's in the head, it's like, well, you gotta also change some of the physiology, because some of the physiology is going to affect you know we talked about mood and all the other things that hold. You know how hormones can look, like neurotransmitters and vice versa, that you know they can also affect each other, so you're sort of going in like a little spiral, like that. So, yes, I think, working, you know, from multiple angles, um, you know, doing energy medicine, techniques like reiki, even acupuncture, that there's so many other wonderful modalities out there to also just help get the woman to relax and achieve optimal health and, you know, really do all the things.

Emma Viglucci:

So good, yes, beautiful sleepiness nights, waking up in the middle of the night, all of the things that we require of early motherhood or infant stage, and then all the other demands as the kids grow older, anything for that part of life to support yes, so progesterone is definitely well.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

yeah, so you have a couple of different hormones going on. I will say I'm not as well versed in that area and that's probably where I would go more into testing a little sooner, because, from what I do know, at that time, oh my god, hormones are just all over the place. And then it depends if a woman's breastfeeding if they're not breastfeeding because if they're breastfeeding it's going to help speed up their metabolism a woman's breastfeeding if they're not breastfeeding because if they're breastfeeding it's going to help speed up their metabolism they go yay. But then if they're not, it's like, well, then what happens with this extra weight kind of deal.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So this is where definitely working out, building muscle, you know I would say this would be their time to get back to the basics with everything. And then, because I have worked with some, you know, right afterwards and heard some of their stories and everything, and it can take a minute, you know it's not again, not a quick fix. It is about now establishing a mama-baby type rhythm as well. I mean, there's so many different schools of thoughts on you know, then, how the baby is going to be parented as well and the energy that's going to be put in, so it's really an interesting time.

Emma Viglucci:

Yeah, that's, that's one of my favorites, very nice. So what is your? Your, your specialty, age or topics?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So I tend to see women mostly from 20s to 60s. Okay, I have supported women in getting pregnant. I have helped them, usually a few years after, so it sometimes just so happens that way. Personality types this is where it tends to be pretty similar. It's the well-read. They are probably already taking supplements, or just I need to know what to take. They've had certain diagnosis. They have a lot going on not sleeping right, high stress levels, either want to get off birth control just got off birth control and or don't want to take hormone replacement.

Emma Viglucci:

Let's pay a hormone replacement. We'll come back to that in a second Right. So those are your people, very good. So then, speaking of that, once the whole fertility years going to start waning down and perimenopause, menopause, like what's happening there, and what's the best way to support the women at that age?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Also those diagnoses which I always explain first. These are diagnoses of exclusion If you're not getting your period, if you're having the hot flashes and the weight gain and all of that again, let's get your rhythm back, let's manage your stress levels, because clearly your body knows something is up. But if we can help bring that back into balance then maybe it who knows? Menopause will likely not be as painful. You may not, your hot flashes may not be as prominent, so to to speak. So this is all the prevention that we can do. And again, just because you know, a blood test may say you know that, okay, well, you're in menopause kind of deal. Well, it would also last quite a bit. Or, you know, there have been times too where someone could think they're coming into it, but they literally just had a hormone imbalance and their period lasts for a number of more years.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

I know, culturally it can look different. I remember being told that in the Middle East women do tend to have their menses a bit longer, you know, than in other cultures, which is interesting. So for a lot of these women, interestingly, as they're coming into that perimenopause menopause era, it's going to be blood sugar. That's slightly that takes slightly more precedence than hormones. So, even though it's like okay, oh my god, we go right to the Like, we actually really got to look at blood sugar, because any sort of blood sugar imbalance is going to throw off hormones, and so around this time progesterone really plummets. So now they're left with this kind of high estrogen, and then in menopausal women there's a type of estrogen that shifts. So now you're going from the potent one that you know usually made their face all shiny around ovulation you know their hips all wide to now this less potent form, which is actually what contributes to the apple body, you know, which is sort of like what men have or can have too right.

Emma Viglucci:

So at this point, then they're aside from the well we want the lifestyle to do, I should say, or the rhythms to do is sure that we're still producing estrogen, good estrogen and enough progesterone. So any suggestions for that?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

yeah, so we could always do things naturally. So there are natural progesterones, but I would say some of the supplements that I recommended, like definitely getting your vitamin D levels checked, because vitamin D helps make hormones. Um, you know, magnesium B complex is another great one. So B B vitamins are involved in over over 500 reactions in the human body, so the adrenal support will actually look different for each woman. So these could be things like ashwagandha, ginseng, rhodiola so there are some really good herbs there, sometimes liver or shrew, because that's like a nice phytoestrogen, so it acts like an estrogen, but it doesn't have all the potent side effects.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

So, again, this is now more per the woman, because she's also dealing with the emotional transition as well, and that's a big piece that really comes into. You know, maybe we do a little more heart centered, like the flower essences. Um, I really like the herb hawthorn, which is great on the mental, emotional, for the heart, like just heart nourishment, and it also helps hawthorn cool, yeah, and then it also helps lower anxiety and then it's going to be great for blood vessels. So you're looking for benefits with hot flashes and everything.

Emma Viglucci:

Oh, how beautiful. I love that. So that's the wonderful way of supporting through the transition from peri to meno and post, and just how do we do it as gently as possible so we don't suffer through menopause right or the transition, but not just physically but also mentally. There's different ways of supporting that the identity and the laws and everything that comes along with this time of life. Um, and I love these herbs and vitamins and supplements, concoctions to support the different parts in support center. I love adding that to the mix here.

Emma Viglucci:

You know, serena was really wonderful about this conversation is that you not only bringing in all the medical and all the natural pet stuff, which rich and beautiful, but I love the whole more energetic and the whole other piece that comes along with this and and the more woo stuff, if you may. You know I'm hearing another podcast in there. I'm hearing, like all the patterns and the energetics, how they all play out, but different conversation possibly now. So that's one thing. You you mentioned personality a few times. So anything else about patterns, relational things, personalities to throw in here to close this up.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yes, so I know, the other piece that we talked about earlier, and then even on our own, was the whole piece of anger control. So, as we talked about the feminine that's still in a way trying to act like the man, so to speak, and usually women know when they're, when they're just feeling this high stress and the competition and just literally unable to like, unable to let go in a way, is that? Well, that's when we see same thing with hormones, say, balanced hormones, balanced life, but if they're too much on this anger control, this that black white, what do I do? Oh, my God. Oh, we need to turn in. We got to go into the heart space and that's why, too, you know, again, like recommending the Anastol, getting us grounded in our bodies, starting with nature, starting with that circadian rhythm, maybe getting some hawthorn to really get us into the heart and to love ourselves, because that's so much of who we are as human beings are you talking about self-love practice?

Emma Viglucci:

what? That's crazy talk. I love that so much. Yes, the personality type that is. So I have to be in the man mode kind of thing more in my masculine, in the control piece, in the competition piece and all these different things. It hurts us right. So if we're more able to let go and to open up, which is more feminine, that's where we get more in alignment and where we support ourselves better. So then, what do we need? What practices do we need to put in place to cultivate and nurture that parts more? And it doesn't mean that our career is going to take a hit. It doesn't mean that we can't have high power jobs. It doesn't mean that we can be go-getters. But how do we balance it out with some of these more nourishing things so that we are not killing ourselves literally?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Do what you used to do as a kid, what you love to do as a kid, there's got to be something. If you love to draw, I'm sure you could still draw if it was being athletic. Oh my god, there's so many sports or team sports nowadays that there's got to be something with an age group that you can join somewhere, you know. Yeah, it's getting back to what gets us uninhibited and really feeling safe.

Emma Viglucci:

Beautiful. Those are beautiful parting words, I think, right there. So this is so, so good. I want to talk with you for a million hours, but of course, we're going to be respectful of time yours and the audience's so we're going to keep this contained. I know that we're going to have another conversation that has to do more with the brain and all the neurotransmitters, and wellness and diagnosis and how we're doing with our mind and all the brain and all that, so we're going to hone in even more. So I'm looking forward to that conversation, and so anything else for today, and do you want to share with the audience what your free gift is?

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yes, so, like all this, my free gift is all about spirituality and medicine, which is really about getting back to the basics, getting back to ourselves as we incorporate it with what's going on within our body. So I'm sure you'll have the links and everything below.

Emma Viglucci:

Yes, yes, I'm going to add that to the show notes. Oh my gosh, Serena, you have been most informative. Gorgeous, beautiful, radiant, all of the things. Thank you so much for being here and I really look forward to the next conversation so we could dive in into the different body part and what that means for our life and our relationship. So I look forward to that conversation then. Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate it.

Dr. Serena Goldstein:

Yes, thank you.

Emma Viglucci:

And to the audience until the next one. Bye.

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Emma K Viglucci, LMFT

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