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Lots of experts have training and nutrition advice for midlife and menopausal women that is grounded in scientific evidence. Yet, the advice doesn’t always agree…and doesn’t necessarily work the same for everyone. That’s because, while there are general guidelines that are helpful for many women, in the end, we are all scientific studies of one, and no one approach will work exactly the same way for every single woman. So, you need to be willing to experiment and trust yourself, which no one knows better than this week’s guest, Hailey Babcock. Hailey offers her own training services and she partners with some of the biggest names in the business, helping turn their training and nutrition philosophies into practical advice on a personal level–something we talk all about this week.

Hailey Babcock is the owner of Hailey Happens Fitness. She is a past gymnast, runner, and triathlete, and has been a certified classical Pilates instructor for over 20 years. She has multiple certifications including TRX, kettlebell, barbell, and foundational training, along with being an ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Today she has made it her mission to convert women, especially those in their 40s and beyond, to the miracle of strength training. She uses her experience, training, and knowledge to help anybody looking to find more health and happiness through fitness. You can learn more about Hailey and her work at www.haileyhappensfitness.com

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Phantom smells. Lack of focus. Dizziness. While everyone is talking about hot flashes and night sweats, women know that the transition to menopause brings on tons of signs and symptoms that no one ever talks about. This week’s guest, menopause educator and researcher Andrea Donsky is on a mission to change that. As the co-founder of Morphus, Inc., Donsky has become a data collecting machine and has recently published four abstracts in the journal Menopause, including The Wide Range of Symptoms of Perimenopause and Menopause and the Means By Which Women Seek Support, where she addresses the dozens (103 and counting…) signs and symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. We talk about the importance of specific symptom tracking, the need for better healthcare provider education, and much more this week. 

Known as the “Menopause Educator and Researcher” to her nearly 350,000+ TikTok followers, Andrea Donsky is a nutritionist on a mission to change the conversation around perimenopause and menopause. Andrea is a four-time published menopause researcher and entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in the health and wellness space. Andrea hosts the popular podcast ‘Menopause Reimagined,’ and appears as a Menopause Expert on television across North America. Her latest venture, www.wearemorphus.com helps women to “Reimagine Menopause” as a journey of empowerment so they feel heard, supported, and validated. Morphus empowers women to take control of their symptoms and health with nutrition, lifestyle, research, and science-backed supplements. Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @andreadonsky and @wearemorphus to learn more.

Resources

Andrea Donsky’s four poster presentation abstracts published in Menopause here (page 23)

Morphus White Papers on women’s health during perimenopause and menopause here

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Veterinary surgeon Debbie Tacium, 55, wanted to flip the script of my menopause. After suffering pain, loss of coordination, weakness, and changes in body composition during perimenopause, she went back to the sport she loved most in life–gymnastics. She wanted to use it to bring herself back to herself and remember what it was like to be a child who could fly. This week she shares her journey, what it’s brought her, and what we can all learn from challenging our beliefs about what’s possible during this season of life.

Debbie (Debra) Tacium, DMV, works as a veterinary surgeon and is an adult gymnast, former competitive child and pre-teen gymnast, and all around self described “gymnastics nerd.” She came up through the sport in a time when you were schooled to push through pain and do what it took to be as small and light as possible. Acute and chronic injuries took her out of the sport until perimenopause when she returned to the sport determined to reclaim her body and open her mind to what was possible in your 50s. Now, she’s experiencing joy instead of heartbreak and excited about where she can go next.

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Bill Campbell, PhD, has spent his entire career as a fat loss researcher. So when his wife hit menopause and wanted help with body composition changes, he thought it would be easy. Spoiler alert: It was not. Which made him realize his field had a lot to learn, especially about active women whose bodies change even when their training and nutrition has not. Now he’s on a mission, diving into the literature and conducting research of his own to further our understanding of body composition changes during this time of life. We talk all about it, what he’s learned, and his work developing a Female Fitness Menopause Survey to learn more.

Bill Campbell, PhD is a Professor of Exercise Science and Director of the Performance and Physique Enhancement Laboratory at the University of South Florida. He is also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist from the National Strength & Conditioning Association and former president of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (where he is also 1 of 35 individuals to be recognized as a ‘Fellow’ of the organization—an honor reserved for those individuals who have outstanding contributions to the field of sports nutrition). He has published over 200 scientific papers and abstracts, three textbooks, and 20 book chapters in areas related to physique enhancement, sports nutrition, resistance training, and dietary supplementation. You can learn more about him and his work at www.billcampbellphd.com

Resources

Estrogen modulates metabolic risk profile after resistance training in early postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial, here

Transdermal Estrogen Therapy Improves Gains in Skeletal Muscle Mass After 12 Weeks of Resistance Training in Early Postmenopausal Women, here

Metabolic effects of menopause: a cross-sectional characterization of body composition and exercise metabolism, here

Powerpenia Should be Considered a Biomarker of Healthy Aging, here

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Running through the menopause transition can be challenging. If you feel like throwing in the towel sometimes, you’re not alone. This week’s guest, distance runner and blogger at runandbebrave.com has faced it all: injuries, setbacks, poor sleep, fatigue, vanishing motivation, hot flashes, and all the joint pain that accompanies the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause. Through it all, she found a way to keep going, and she believes you can, too. She talks all about how this week.

Normi Coto, PhD, is an English teacher by day and a writer by night. She writes about running, writing, prayer, rhetoric, and mindset. A runner since 1983, Normi ran through three pregnancies back when running was misunderstood almost as poorly as women’s health. She has run 6 marathons, and is most proud of qualifying for Boston twice, running it once (2001), and finishing her first 50K ultramarathon in 2023 in Washington D.C. at the age of 54. Normi’s PhD dissertation was Persuasion by Word of Foot: A Rhetorical-Ontological Inquiry into Barefoot Running as a Health Practice–a practice she has found helpful for resolving her own stubborn running injuries. 2024 was her hardest year yet when she ran straight into menopause. But she’s still going. You can learn more about her and her work at www.runandbebrave.com

Resources:

Running and Menopause: The 9 Ways I Made It Through the Roughest Running Year to Date, blog post here

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Welcome to Menopause Research Review! Now that menopause has hit the mainstream, we’re swimming in a steady stream of studies, which is great and can also be overwhelming. So for 2025, we’re introducing a regular segment called Menopause Research Review where we break down key research as it comes out with resident reproductive endocrinologist and menopause performance specialist Dr. Carla DiGirolamo. This week we kick it off with a study published in Menopause: The range and variation in serum estradiol concentration in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women treated with transdermal estradiol in a real-world setting: a cross-sectional study. We dive into hormone testing, what it tells us (and what it doesn’t) as well as what it means (or not) to have therapeutic levels.

Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD, is a Double Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Obstetrician/Gynecologist specializing in infertility and menopausal medicine. She is also a Crossfit Level 1 trainer, Certified Nutrition Coach, and member of CrossFit Health. She is a MedFit Care provider and provides weekly workouts and medical updates at her Substack Athletic Aging. She is an Endocrine Consultant for Wild Health. Most recently, she has launched her own private practice specializing in helping active and high-performing women reach their performance potential from puberty through menopause. Dr. DiGirolamo is now seeing patients for virtual consultations for menopausal care and performance optimization. Visit her website www.drcarlad.com to learn more about her services and schedule an appointment.

Resources

The range and variation in serum estradiol concentration in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women treated with transdermal estradiol in a real-world setting: a cross-sectional study, Menopause 

Hormone replacement therapy (oestradiol-only preparations): can the laboratory recommend a concentration of plasma oestradiol to protect against osteoporosis?, The Association of Clinical Biochemists 

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Spikes, crashes, excursions, and elevated numbers. Blood sugar is on a lot of active midlife women’s minds. But what do we really know about what this all means…and what it doesn’t, especially when it comes to long term health? This week’s guest Oxford nutrition scientist and globally recognized type 2 diabetes expert Dr. Nicola Guess helps sort through all things elevated glucose and helps separate what we need to worry about with what we don’t. 

Nicola Guess, RD, MPH, PhD, is a dietitian based in London specializing in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Westminster, Research Fellow at King’s College London, and Head of Nutrition Research at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait. She also runs her own private clinical practice. Her primary research interests are in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, including the effects of nutrients on the underlying pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. Dr Guess is a National Institute of Clinical Excellent (NICE) scholar investigating meal provision for inpatients with diabetes; a member of the NICE expert committee; a member of the Diabetes UK Clinical Study Group, and previously a Winston Churchill Travel Scholar investigating approaches to type 2 diabetes prevention in the UK and China and a Diabetes UK Academic Health Partnership Fellow investigating the role of diet in the prevention of type 2 diabetes. You can learn more about her work and follow her research at drguess.substack.com/

Resources

Erratic glucose in normoglycaemic athletes: insufficient protein? blog

How useful are CGMs for athletes? blog

Blood Glucose Levels of Subelite Athletes During 6 Days of Free Living, Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology (JDST)

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Women are often accused of being “too emotional”, whether it’s PMS, perimenopause, or just plain life. Worse, we’re made to believe those emotions make us weak. What if the opposite were true? What if our emotions were our super power, a force we could channel to give us strength in and out of the gym? This week’s guest Aimee Anaya Everett is living proof we can do just that, as she has channeled her own emotional turmoil into a world class Olympic coaching and lifting career. Now she helps other women in midlife and menopause do the same. 

Aimee Anaya Everett is the co-owner of Catalyst Athletics. She has devoted the last 29 years to the sport of Olympic Weightlifting as an athlete and a coach. In her time as a coach, Anaya Everett became the second female International Coach in USA Weightlifting, and the first American female coach to coach at the Olympics. Aimee is also the head lifting coach for Mat Fraser’s HWPO Training. Aimee coaches Olympic Weightlifting athletes across all levels, including a multiple American and Pan Am record holder, World Championship multi-medalist, and a Youth World Champion. She also loves coaching beginners and garage lifters with no desire to compete. Aimee has a passion for mental training and toughness, and has a Masters Degree in Human Behavior Psychology. You can learn more about her and her work at

www.aimeeanaya.com

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For the longest time, endurance athletes avoided the weight room, afraid unwanted muscles would weigh them down, while strength athletes all but kicked cardio to the curb. Now we know that no matter if you’re running an ultra or competing in a CrossFit competition, the right blend of cardio and strength is the secret sauce for success–especially once you hit midlife and menopause. This week, renowned exercise physiologist Dr. Alyssa Olenick dives in on how our hormones impact our muscles, metabolism, and general physiology, and how the right blend of hybrid training can help you stay strong, fit, healthy, and injury free during and beyond the menopause transition.

Dr. Alyssa Olenick holds a PhD in exercise physiology and is a certified sports nutritionist and CrossFit Level 2 Trainer. Alyssa completed her doctoral training in exercise and human metabolism, sex differences, and menstrual cycle physiology. She also completed a postdoctoral research fellow investigating the areas of menopause and metabolism. As a coach she specializes in the areas of endurance, strength, and hybrid training. She runs her online business ‘Doc Lyss Fitness’ and training programs ‘The Lyss Method’. She is also a strength athlete, ultra-marathon runner, and all-around fitness lover who is passionate about educating people on science-based fitness to get them into the gyms and on the roads/trails — or often, doing both at the same time! You can learn more about Dr. Alyssa Olenick and her programs at www.doclyssfitness.com

Resources

How to exercise for menopause with Dr. Alyssa Olenick on YouTube

Menopausal Women Need Unique Muscle Making Guidelines, Feisty Menopause Blog

Resistance training alters body composition in middle-aged women depending on menopause - A 20-week control trial, BMC Women's Health

Effect of Concurrent Training on Body Composition and Gut Microbiota in Postmenopausal Women with Overweight or Obesity, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

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Previnex: Get 15% off your first order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/

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