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Hosted by journalist and Hotflash inc founder Ann Marie McQueen, this episode features Dr Leigha Saunders, a naturopathic doctor, menopause specialist and mom of two whose own postpartum sleep struggles ignited a mission to help women reclaim their rest and balance.

From her sold-out “Woman Up” event to her candid insights on burnout, radical self-responsibility, and the real roots of fatigue, Leigha and Ann Marie dig into the science and soul of women’s health. They unpack why everything is suddenly labeled “perimenopause,” the hidden role of iron deficiency, and how stress, relationships and lost self-connection lie beneath so many midlife symptoms.

Sponsor shout-out 

Thank you to our sponsor, Timeline Nutrition – makers of Mitopure™, the first clinically tested Urolithin A supplement that supports cellular energy and muscle strength. Visit www.timeline.com and use the code HOTFLASH for 20% off your first order.

Highlights

• Dr Leigha Saunders shares how her Woman Up event united over 100 women seeking health and happiness.
• Why “normal” bloodwork isn’t always optimal — and how the medical system continues to fail women.
• How midlife hormones lower our tolerance for stress and change the way we recover.
• Leigha’s own burnout and “dark night of the soul” — and how she turned it into a healing experience.
• Why perimenopause can sound like “I don’t feel like myself” — and what that really means.
• The danger of assuming every symptom is perimenopause — and what to test instead.
• Iron, B12, and protein deficiencies: the hidden causes behind fatigue and low mood.
• Why collaboration between medical and naturopathic doctors is the future of women’s health.

Where to find Dr Leigh

Website: leighasaundersnd.com
Instagram: @drleighasaundersnd

Host bio

This podcast is hosted by Ann Marie McQueen, journalist and founder of Hotflash Inc, the world’s only reader-supported, research-based platform covering all aspects of menopause and midlife. With more than 30 years in journalism, Ann Marie provides evidence-based content, expert interviews, and deeply personal conversations to help women around the world navigate this pivotal life stage.

Thank you for being here

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who might benefit — and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show. For the latest research and real talk on perimenopause, menopause, and midlife straight to your inbox, subscribe to the Hotflash inc newsletter here.

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Thank you to our sponsor, Timeline Nutrition – makers of Mitopure™, the first clinically tested Urolithin A supplement that supports cellular energy and muscle strength. Visit www.timeline.com and use the code HOTFLASH for 20% off your first order.

In this episode of the Hotflash inc Podcast, host and founder Ann Marie McQueen sits down with Laura Ghita, a Romanian psychotherapist and Family Constellation practitioner, for a deeply personal and revealing conversation about how unresolved ancestral patterns can shape our midlife experiences – and how we can shift them.

Ann Marie recorded this interview several years ago, in the middle of going through menopause, just after experiencing her own Family Constellation session. What followed was a profound rethinking of how past generations and hidden dynamics impact our relationships, our health, and how we move through the world in perimenopause and beyond.

Laura explains how this therapeutic modality works, what the science says about inherited trauma, and how this work can reconnect us to our intuition, our bodies, and our personal truth. Whether you're new to Family Constellation Therapy or already curious, this episode will move you to think differently about healing – and the invisible threads that connect us all.

Highlights:

• How Family Constellation helps women in perimenopause and menopause
• Understanding the inherited beliefs about womanhood from your maternal line
• Why we can’t think our way through healing
• How trauma gets stored in our bodies – and why it matters
• The turning point when Ann Marie felt emotion linked to her great-grandmother
• Why healing is never “done” – it’s a lifelong journey

Laura Ghita is a Romania-based psychotherapist and Family Constellation facilitator with more than a decade of experience helping individuals and groups uncover the unconscious patterns passed down through generations. Her approach is grounded in psychology, trauma-informed practices, and energetic awareness. Laura travels internationally to offer workshops and one-on-one sessions, including regular visits to Seva Wellness in Dubai. Her work helps people reconnect with their deeper selves, their bodies, and their ancestral lines to bring clarity, healing, and peace

Connect with Laura:

LinkedIn Laura Ghita
Instagram: @lauraghita.psychologist

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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This podcast originally ran on February 13, 2025

In this episode of Hotflash inc, GenX journalist and host Ann Marie McQueen sits down with neurologist and award-winning dementia care professional Dr Teryn Clarke to discuss the science and lifestyle strategies that can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, which disproportionately affect women. 

Drawing from her book, Brain Health Action Plan: Simple, Science-Backed Lifestyle Changes that Optimize Cognitive Fitness and Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk Dr Clarke shares part actionable tips to improve brain health today and protect it for the long term.
 
 Episode highlights:

• Dr Teryn Clarke’s personal motivation 
• The power of exercise and low sugar diets 
• The surprising immediate benefits of brain-healthy habits 
• Type 3 diabetes
• Intermittent fasting explained
• Seed oils 
• Hormone therapy and 
• Iron buildup in women post-menopause
• Key supplements for brain health
• The emotional connection: how stress, loneliness, and trauma increase dementia risk
• The critical link between hearing, vision, and dementia prevention  
• Why brain stimulation matters: exercise, learning, and meaningful social connections  

🔑 Top Quote

“Genetics load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.” – Dr Teryn Clarke

📚 Resources and Links

• Dr Teryn Clarke’s book: Brain Health Action Plan
• Website: brainhealthactionplan.com
• Follow Dr Teryn Clarke on X: @MDTeryn

📝 About the Guest Dr Teryn Clarke is a neurologist in Southern California and was named “Dementia Care Professional of the Year” by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America in 2015. She is passionate about educating people on the modifiable lifestyle factors that can prevent cognitive decline and is the author of Brain Health Action Plan, a practical, science-based guide to optimizing brain health.

Sponsor for the original episode was Timeline Nutrition Mitopure supports cellular energy and longevity. You can still visit https://shop.timeline.com/HOTFLASHINC  and use the code HOTFLASHINC for an exclusive discount.

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

Web: hotflashinc.com
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TikTok: @hotflashinc
Instagram: @hotflashinc
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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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BIG NEWS: Hotflash inc is the #1 Women's Health Podcast on Goodpods, and in the top 1.5 percent of podcasts according to Listen Notes. 

Thanks so much for making that happen! 

In today's episode, I talk about traveling 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.

But the main point, as it always seems to be, is loving and accepting yourself. And how to get there, even if it seems like it takes a lifetime. 

I talk about the long, hard road to building the confidence to feel worthy of being there, and to keep confident while there, about the essential-ness of connecting with other people, and of the beauty in finding and having a sense of purpose – all essentials, and all things that it can feel like midlife and peri/menopause threatens. 

But if you let them, they can be just the opposite. 

I talk about the feeling of ALMOST entering menopause, meeting heroes, becoming your own hero, and what it feels like to start to see yourself, accept yourself, and BECOME yourself, after all this time. 

Also discussed in this episode:

Not wearing heels when everyone else is + the beauty of proper hair and makeup

How I got involved with Perry, the sisterhood for perimenopause

Perry panel members: State of Menopause’s Stacy London, Menopocalypse author and Nyah Health cofounder Amanda Thebe, Behavioural Sleep Doc Dr. Shelby Harris,  The Menopause mogul Dr. Joy’El Ballard, Endocrinologist Dr. Disha Narang, journalist and midlife influencer Tamsen Fadel, ob-gyn and menopause expert Dr Sharon Malone and most inspirational-in-midlife maven Rachel Hughes

Yvonne, Hotflash inc perimenoposse member extraordinaire

Coffee in Bryant Park with pro-aging advocate Skylar Liberty Rose (apologies, I say ROSS)

Menopause Multiverse Cocktail Hour in Harlem: Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott (Black Girl's Guide to Menopause) and featuring many amazing women including Karen Arthur (Menopause Whilst Black); Jessica Jolie (Age Lust) and and the fearless, wonderfully profane and inspiring Mona Eltahawy, who has such astonishing courage that I switched my own nickname for summoning courage from LADY BALLS MONAS

The hero’s journey of menopause and midlife 

Showing up for yourself

Thank you so much to Perry and Omi and sparks & honey and everyone else who helped me be a part of this.

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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BIG NEWS: Hotflash inc is the #1 Women's Health Podcast on Goodpods, and in the top 1.5 percent of podcasts according to Listen Notes. 

Thanks so much for making that happen! 

While Hotflash inc takes a break, we are replaying a popular episode:

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.

She is bothered by the reams of health, fitness and nutrition information on social media, never mind when it comes to what we are supposed to be doing in peri/menopause.  Her approach is careful, measured, and science-based, and at 47, she's really frank about her own challenges at this stage of life with brain fog, body image and more. She's also a huge fan of putting on muscle and all that can do for us, both now and down the road.

This episode was #66, originally published on March 18, 2023.

Highlights:

• Why it's better to add things that take things away (3.45)
• Losing weight doesn't address a poor body image (4.07)
• Why we are all tired of fitness (5.41)
• How the diet and fitness world is designed to bamboozle you (7.26)
• Diet and exercise can never fix everything – and it never did  (10.12)
• How perimenopause is opening up a Pandora's box (12.42)
• We have the wisdom to figure this out, we just need to listen (18.34)
• Why the HRT conversation needs a little more moderation (21.50)
• Navigating the tricky world of interpreting research (25.41)
• Other problems in menopause reporting + research (29:16)

Where to find Maria:
Web: Fitnessinmenopause.com
IG: @drmarialuque
Twitter: @DoctorLuque
Ideafit: Dr Luque

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

Web: hotflashinc.com
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Instagram: @hotflashinc
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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Dr. Burt Webb is an Arizona-based ob-gyn and intimate wellness specialist who takes a holistic, functional, integrative approach to women’s health. (He also represents the non-invasive soundwave treatment Cliovana, which we discuss in part 2 of this podcast.)

This week 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. 

This is a fascinating conversation and the second in our first-ever two-part episode. Don’t forget to listen back to last week, on episode 83, when we talked all about why he believes a dry vagina isn’t always just a dry vagina due to menopause. And gives us major guidance on how to tackle the issue systemically. 

Highlights: 

• Vaginal estrogen and breast cancer, including specifics on how to use it differently 
• “They aren’t as familiar with the vagina” (who he’s talking about)
• That time he coached a young woman on a plane about vaginal health (she asked) 
• How he uses vaginal 
• DHEA? 
• Additional ingredients in vaginal estrogen and why they may not work for you
• Why your clitoris is a lot bigger than you think – and any treatment needs to focus on all of it 
• Why women need to educate themselves – and men – about their bodies  
• How the body’s own healing factors can be harnessed to help your vagina
• Cliovana, radio frequency, laser treatments and the O-shot – and what’s best for what issue
• Why mixing and matching – and tissue health – are key to treating each women individually
• What to look for in an intimate wellness specialist 
• How the placebo effect plays a part in treatment 

Web: cliovana.com

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Dr. Burt Webb is an Arizona-based ob-gyn and intimate wellness specialist with a holistic approach to women’s health. (He also represents the non-invasive soundwave treatment Cliovana, which we discuss in part 2 of this podcast.)

He joins the Hotflash inc podcast to talk about how our entire body plays a role in our vaginal health – and genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). With almost 30 years in practice treating women, he is one of the most switched-on mainstream practitioners to appear on the podcast. 

Contrary to the prevailing narrative – oh how we love that here – he believes a dry vagina isn’t always just a dry vagina due to menopause. And he explains all the different factors that may be going into this. 

This is a fascinating conversation and the first-ever two-part episode. Stay tuned to next week when he gets into all the different treatments, hormone therapy and otherwise – that he uses to treat the entire pelvic region. This is very different to what you are hearing elsewhere. 

Highlights: 

• The role of blood flow and nutrients in menopause – and in particular, vagina stuff 
• How and why the vagina gets lubricated (hint: it’s like a cheesecloth)
• How your gut microbiome impacts you mind, body and vagina
• The role of food insensitivities – and chemicals in processed food – in GSM 
• Why a probiotic isn’t enough 
• Vaginal hormone therapy in treating GSM 
• Why you need pharmaceutical-grade supplements (it’s about the absorption) 
• Why he looks at the tissues – and the four areas where symptoms of dryness and pain in the vagina appear
• How inflammation contributes to poor sexual health and ultimately heart disease 
• Vaginal estrogen and breast cancer - the consensus opinion 
• Why he believes most vaginal estrogen is not used correctly – and how it should be

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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Instagram: @hotflashinc
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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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Michelle Aspinwall is a Medical Intuitive, Body Whisperer, and transformative healer whose mission is to shift women’s health specifically beyond 40. 

Michelle works with women worldwide using both science and spirit channeling leading them through specific and transformative health challenges. She teaches women that how they think, believe, support, and nourish themselves creates the foundation for her to become her most magnetic and vibrant being for the entirety of her life.

She also believes that we are humans and spiritual beings, and because of that, we can take part in the entire smorgasbord of the earth’s experience: East, West, and everything in between. (As in: she uses testosterone and acupuncture for her perimenopausal symptoms)

Highlights: 

• How are various systems work together
• The vital years from 37-50
• Perimenopause and our crown chakra
• Developing our intuitive muscles
• Why and how it hurts not to tell your truth during this transition – and why it has everything and nothing to do time
• Our experience, our perception of the experience, and the stories about the experience 
• Using hormones for the human parts of us to augment and assist our spiritual selves
• Understanding the magnitude of source and how it’s reflected in us 
• Why we need to tend to our heart more than ever now – and how to begin to do that 
• How she manages her thyroid and Hashimoto’s with Western and Eastern medicine, food and living in truth 
• How the stress of the world heightens our symptoms and disorders – and how to navigate the turmoil and tumult energetically 

Where to find Michelle: 

• Web: michelleaspinwall.com
• TikTok: @BodyWhisperer
• IG: @Michellepaspinwall
• FB: Body Whisperer Lounge
• Free Meditation

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

Web: hotflashinc.com
Newsletter: Hotflash inc. on Substack
TikTok: @hotflashinc
Instagram: @hotflashinc
X: @hotflashinc

Episode website: Hotflashinc

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This conversation was life-shifting for me and I hope it will be for you too. Elisa Kurylowicz is a Canadian former World Cup freestyle mogul skier turned coach and wellness mentor and host of the highly rated Elisa Unfiltered Podcast. Elisa teaches the practice of intuitive awareness, helping women to love themselves in body, business and life. She joins the Hotflash inc podcast for an epic (but so worth it) episode about the hard process of waking up to your conditioned mind so you can heal yourself.  

Highlights: 

• What happens when you face an Olympic-level 
• Cigarettes, booze, Ramen noodles and anger
• Waking up – and then going back to sleep
• How to start asking yourself big questions
• Seeing the world for what it is
• Men is a midlife crisis, women it’s menopause
• What’s going on with our urge to belong?
• Recognizing the teachers who help lift us up
• Keys to practicing intuitive awareness
• The big scary wall of what real change might mean
• Psilocybin therapy + microdosing
• Recognizing narratives around alcohol – and breaking out 
• Navigating the early stages of perimenopause while trying to get pregnant

Where to find Elisa:

• Web: elisaunfiltered.com
• IG: @ElisaKurylowicz

Adele Stratton (Elisa’s coach) IG @phoenixrisinghc

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

Web: hotflashinc.com
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TikTok: @hotflashinc
Instagram: @hotflashinc
X: @hotflashinc

Episode website: Hotflashinc

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KC Councilor is an assistant professor in Communication, Media, and Screen Studies at Southern Connecticut State University. He is also a cartoonist who draws about the experiences of being a trans and transitioning person in the world.

His graphic memoir, Between You and Me: Transitional Comics, came out in 2019.

He has also published comics in numerous academic journals, including the Annals of Internal Medicine, Literature and Medicine, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Women's Studies in Communication. His comic Cycles was published in the Eisner Award-winning anthology Menopause: A Comic Treatment. 

Highlights

• Why he’s ready to talk about feminity
• The comic that brought him on the podcast
• What it’s like going through puberty and menopause at the same time
• At 41, how he feels about the possibility of perimenopause
• Being a trans person in the US right now
• Feelings in fatherhood
• The loud and angry state of trans in the US
• The issue of trans violence 
• What medical care has been like

Find out more about KC and his work:
Web: www.kccouncilor.com
Instagram: @betweenyouandmetranscomics

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

Web: hotflashinc.com
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TikTok: @hotflashinc
Instagram: @hotflashinc
X: @hotflashinc

Episode website: Hotflashinc

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See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information