Part 2: Solving the Mystery of Low Libido and Adrenal Fatigue with Dr. Renee Wellenstein

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March 30, 2022 - Episode #93 - Part 2: Solving the Mystery of Low Libido and Adrenal Fatigue with Dr. Renee Wellenstein

Women are not just small men.  Yet for some reason when it comes to women’s health, we are treated like men.  Our bodies are not the same!!  And no, I’m not making a political statement here.  I’m trying to help you feel better, take control of your health and today is Part 2 of a conversation with Dr. Renee Wellenstein Gynecologist and Functional Medicine Doctor.  

We are continuing on to solve the mystery of low libido and adrenal fatigue.  In today’s podcast we discuss hormone imbalance, toxins, the role of testosterone, estrogen dominance, what alcohol does to our hormones and the benefits of sex.  Like last week, this convo is not really meant for little ears.   

We are joined again by Dr. Renee Wellenstein.  She is a Functional Medicine physician and a gynecologist.  As you heard her story in Part 1, you see how her tremendous health struggles led her to become the tremendous doctor she is today. Dr. Renee is known as the Libidologist and is the host of The Real Heal, one of my favorite podcasts.  She helps busy professional women take their health, fitness and lives to the next level so they can feel Amazing! 
You can follow Dr. Renee on FB and Instagram @drreneewellenstein and her website www.drreneewellenstein.com 

As promised, I like to feature reviews for the Healthy harmony podcast, This one is from from Francine Rivera and this 5-star review is entitled "So informative".  She writes…."So much great info broken down into understandable segments! If you want to work on your health, this is a must listen."

Follow Francine's lead and leave a rating and review! And maybe your review will be featured right here on the podcast.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT

March 30, 2022 - Episode #93 - Part 2: Solving the Mystery of Low Libido and Adrenal Fatigue with Dr. Renee Wellenstein

Speaker 1:
Women are not just small men yet. For some reason, when it comes to women's health, we're treated like men. Our bodies are not the same and no, I'm not making a political statement here. I'm trying to help you feel better. Take control of your health. And today is part two of a conversation with Dr. Renee. Wellenstein gynecologist and functional medicine doctor. We're continuing to solve the mystery of low libido and adrenal fatigue. In today's podcast, we discuss hormone imbalance, toxins, the role of testosterone, estrogen dominance, what alcohol really does to our hormones and the benefits of sex. Like last week, this combo is not really meant for little ears. I'm glad you're joining us again today on the Healthy Harmony podcast.

Welcome. This is the Healthy Harmony podcast. I'm Jennifer Pickett dietitian turned functional medicine, health coach. I help spiraling moms overcome the overwhelm through functional wellness coaching for the body, mind, and soul so they can transform their health and live a deeply fulfilled life of freedom and harmony. Okay, let's get real. When it comes to your health, you know what to do. I help you make this shift from knowing to actually doing the last 25 years at experience have taught me that the absolute last thing a woman needs is a lecture about self care and another unrealistic diet plan. I recognize the importance of compassionate and intentional health practices. So you can feel good because guess what, when you feel good, you are more likely to make better decisions your health. If you're ready to take control of your complete health, address the obstacles standing in your way and live a life of freedom and harmony, my friend, you're in the right place.

As promised. I like to feature reviews for the healthy harmony podcast. This one is from Francine Riviera and this five star review is entitled so informative. She writes so much great info broken down into understandable segments. If you wanna work on your health, this is a must. Listen, thank you Francine. I really appreciate that review. Now, why don't you follow Francine's lead and click the subscribe button and leave a rating and a review. I would really help it and it helps me bring on fantastic guests to help empower and encourage you.

We are joined again by Dr. Renee. Wellenstein. She is a functional medicine physician and a gynecologist. As you heard her story in part one, you see how her tremendous health struggles led her to become the tremendous doctor. She is today. Dr. Renee is known as the Libidologist and she is the host of the Real Heal.

One of my favorite podcasts. She helps busy professional women take their health, fitness and lives to the next level so they can feel amazing. Please. Welcome back, Dr. Renee. All right. We are back part two. If you missed last week, Dr. Renee Wellenstein really talked about her story and her struggle and what she's been through. If you suffer from adrenal fatigue, adrenal dysfunction, then you have got to go back and listen to that podcast will inspire you. It will encourage you. It will empower you. It's exactly what you need to hear. So I'm really excited. We get to continue the conversation and Dr. Renee you're back. Welcome back.

Speaker 2:
Thank you for having me back.

Speaker 1:
So fun. So we're just continuing the conversation today. I love how we are just getting to the heart where women struggle. So I want us to talk more about hormone imbalance and what women are struggling with. Now. You're a very busy woman and you help a lot of different women. So tell us, what do you see women struggling with the most when it comes to hormone imbalance?

Speaker 2:
Well you know, I feel know like what I started talking about across all social media platforms and across the internet last year was low libido. And I think that's a huge struggle for women. That's, it's actually very complex. Hormone balance is actually one of the causes there's other causes, but I came out publicly to talk about this because it was a topic when I was a conventional OB GYN that I really didn't have a good treatment for in conventional gynecology, you know, we didn't have that perfect medication, cuz again, conventionally trained. I was taught to you, come in to see me, I take all your symptoms. I put 'em in a diagnosis box. I throw a medication on it and out the door you go. And nothing that, I mean, I, I don't bad talk any of my colleagues. That's how we're trained and I'm married to a physician that does that, but he's in the hospital. So he's saving your life to do that.
 
You know, there's a time and a place for that. And you know, I found that I didn't have a good answer for women, low libido, cause I didn't really have that magic pill. And so for my 20 plus years of working with women, I've really been baffled by low libido because for 15 of those years, when I was in OB GYN, conventionally, like I would essentially crouch down in my chair when someone would say, oh doctor, I have low libido. I'm like, oh, like I hate this topic.

Like what do I do? What do I do to this person?

Because you know, we're in the helping industry. Like we are supposed to help people. They were supposed to walk out the door with a prescription. And I didn't have that from majority of the women that would complain about it. What was interesting as, as I transitioned into functional medicine, I was really intrigued by this because I, for four years in my, in my brick and mortar, I actually worked with men as well. And I saw this huge difference between men and women as far as libido. And it really got me studying libido more and women and like what works, what doesn't work. And I found that, you know, testosterone is not the answer for women. Number one, all women, I should say it's and I'm not saying that it's not beneficial for women. I'm just saying it's not the end all be all for libido.

And number two, we are so complex. That is not, not negatively, but like we we're in a good way. We're complex. We're like men, they usually have low testosterone, which is causing their low libido that you give a, you got a new man, like on so many levels. It affects his energy, his emotions, his muscle lean muscle mass, like all of it, like you give him one hormone replacement. It's like night, night and day. I didn't see that with women. And so it really got me studying this. And so I do think is one of 'em I have to say, like, I always say the women come to me with what they call, I call the triple threat. It's always weight gain, which is, can be hormone, balance stress, which can lead to a hormonal balance and low libido. And hormones are involved in all of them,

Speaker 1:
Obviously. I mean, just it's and I think we know like we know something else is going on, but I mean, these are the things that take top priority. We're like, I'm gaining weight. Why am I gaining weight? Why can I not lose weight? And it's so very frustrating. And again, I think we just don't feel heard. No one's validating our feelings and really digging to find out what's at the root of the issue here. So you're saying that hormone imbalance is at the root of the issue. Why is it, why is this like low libido? That, that is a very, very taboo subject. So why is that such a taboo subject?

Speaker 2:
Well, number one, doctors don't wanna talk about it. Like I never wanted to because we don't have a great solution. Number one, we don't have a great pill to fix it. Right. There's no pill out there. I'm sorry to say. They're, they're constantly coming out with these pills and when I look what they're for, like we're, we're actually trying to treat women like men. Like we're not men.

Speaker 1:
And we're not. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
We're not like it's not a blood flow issue to the, the pelvic tissues. It's it's a lot of times starting up in the head, I hate to say it, but that's, you know, where we start, whereas men, it starts below the belt, right? So like we are not men. So a lot of these studies coming out and, and prior to recently, there were no studies on women. Like none, I see it coming out a little bit more, but you know, women are really hard to study cuz we cycle, like we can't, we're not very well controlled. So like we're very hard to do a study on, but I do see an effort being made a little bit more as far as like really trying to look into why women have a low libido. And I do love the fact that so many more people are coming out like myself.

I mean, not many, but I have seen a few to talk about the things again. I said in the last episode, things that aren't sexy, like mindset, huge. Yeah. Foundational for libido and women like huge. And so, and I always talk about when we talk about hormones, like that's the icing on the cake. A lot of times the foundational work that we do to address your mindset, to help with your communication, to, you know, deal with your stress, try to address toxins in your life. And you know, obviously address your, your nutrition, your diet, those all will naturally correct. Many times, correct hormone balances. And so, you know, and I say the icing on the cake with the hormones, because at the end of the day, you know, every woman out there doesn't need a to fix her libido like that, that's just not feasible. Like that's just, that doesn't make sense. You know? So

Speaker 1:
On a quick fix, right?

Speaker 2:
No, no. I mean, some women, a hormone replacement of some sort, whether it be a female or a male will help certain aspects, but it's not again, not the end all. So, you know, we have to look at the, the layers of the onion peel back that layers and find out like, okay, foundationally, this is what we work on. We kind of come out and put the onion back together to the point where on the outside, if there's any imbalances of the hormones left, then we take care of those.

Speaker 1:
So important. So how is hormone imbalance playing into low libido and what do we do about it?

Speaker 2:
Yeah. I can, can talk about like, you know, the interesting thing. Let me talk about testosterone a little bit. Okay. the interesting observation that I had back in the day, that, and again, you can tell, I talk, I think about this subject all day, every day, if like 20 years, because it was such a challenge to me, but I would have a woman come into my office 25 years old, optimal hormone. Like, you'd think like, oh gosh, she's cycling the regular. Like her life is great, no libido,

Speaker 1:
None,

Speaker 2:
None, not on the birth control pill, which we know will affect your libido, nothing. And I was like, huh. And then I would have a 75 year old who should I put quotes on that to have a low libido. Right. Cuz that's what we're told. She comes in and says, doc, I met this new partner. It's great. We're having sex every other day or every day, three times a day, whatever. And I'm like, whoa, wait in my mind, in my conditioning as an OBGYN, you're not supposed to want sex and you 25 year old, you're supposed to want like what is going on here? Yeah. So that's really when I started questioning testosterone because the 75 year old woman is very low in testosterone, as well as her female hormones. If she's not getting rep repeated and the 25 year old has beautiful hormone levels, estrogen, progesterone, a testosterone like, so what, what, what is it?

It's not a testosterone issue. And so, you know, throughout my, my training and you know, research, I should say of, of functional medicine and like what deep down is causing this, what I have found again, aside from the underlying, like the mindset and the communication issues, which we talk a lot about in the last episode, when it came to your adrenals, which again, adrenal health is also huge and foundational and in another hormonal balance that you can have that leads it to low libido. As far as female hormones. The biggest one I see is estrogen dominance. Okay. So, you know, estrogen dominance can be so females who have two main hormones, estrogen, progesterone, we do have testosterone. It's one 10th of what a male man man's testosterone is. However, we are very sensitive to that testosterone. So we don't need a lot to actually feel the effects, but you know, let's focus on estrogen progesterone since those are our main hormones and you know, they cycle throughout the month.

One goes up, you know, progesterone peaks. Mid-Cycle if you are still cycling, you know, progesterone says hi, in the second half of your menstrual cycle, then both estrogen and progesterone fall right before your period. And we get this beautiful cycle every month. The problem is, and where I see the problem lies with many women is when the balance between the estrogen and progesterone is off. And a lot of times this is what we call, you know, when we refer to a hormone balance, this is a big one because it can be unnatural. So a lot of women, I would say mid thirties to early fifties when you're in that par menopausal phase of life, which again is very taboo for a lot of women. Why we don't talk about it it's cuz it's, you know, and no one wants to talk about it. It's it, it makes us feel inferior that we're perimenopausal, that we're aging.

Speaker 1:
Okay. That's a whole other podcast.

Speaker 2:
It is. It is. But my point is, you know, that is when we kind of have an, a natural estrogen dominance in that our ovaries are making lots of estrogen to thicken the lining, but we may not be what we call a every month. And that's when you release the egg and that release that the egg is what actually increases your progesterone. So if you're a woman out there who is starting to have those irregular cycles, so you're having a cycle either every two weeks, 14 days, which is really short or over say 40, you know, 35 days is actually the normal, but I would say 42, 50, 60, or a few months, you probably are not ovulating and you might be a little estrogen dominant. So that is the physiologic like normal. But what I am finding is there are a lot of women out there that had estrogen dominance, not necessarily related to what their ovaries are doing and it's coming from a lot of times from endocrine disrupting chemicals out there, like to like personal care products and plastics are disrupting our hormones and, and, and chemicals and food, like, you know, hormones and food.

So what these are essentially doing is they're acting like estrogens and our body sees them as estrogens, but our body's not producing them. They're getting exposed to them, but we're still getting all the, the symptoms of estrogen domes, which usually includes access by you. Can't, you're gaining weight kind of a common theme from our last episode. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
Yeah.

Speaker 2:
You are really moody. I see a lot like you're, you're like, I don't know why I keep lashing out at my husband. I, I just, I just can't stand him, you know, like, but I, I love him, but I can't see him. Well, that's probably a hormone because estrogen is what makes us beautiful women. It gives us our hips and our lush lips and all the things, but like too much of it makes us cranky

Speaker 1:
A monster, a monster. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
And so I don't wanna, I don't wanna demonize estrogen, but too much of it can definitely make us on the spectrum of like beauty. Yes. And you know, I think it, and obviously the menstrual issues, like if you find that your periods are heavier, crampier maybe more frequent. Again, this could be an estrogen dominant pitcher. And so I mean, I feel like that is the biggest one that I see out there. Again, you know, this could also be a not a dominant picture, but an imbalance picture could also be related to what we talked about in the last episode with adrenal fatigue, because in producing the stress hormone cortisol many times when we look at the hormone pathway, the precursors or the things that we use to make our female hormones and testosterone also make cortisol. So when you're super stress EST, you can actually, and it actually can leave a hormonal balance with estrogen progesterone because technically what usually gets robbed when they, we call it the pregnalone steel, essentially what gets robbed to make the cortisol is usually progesterone and testosterone.

So with sparing of estrogen, so that could lead again to a more estrogen dominant picture as well. So if you have like this exposure to lots of toxins in your life the other thing is a dysfunctional gut microbiome. We have lots of helpful bacteria in the gut and there are certain bacteria in the gut called the ESLO that actually break down our estrogens. And when we don't have, when we maybe have too much of this particular enzyme, his gut bacteria, we are not getting rid of the estrogen like we, we should be doing so the liver starts by packaging up the little estrogen, ships it down to the gut, the gut because of these bacteria and enzyme, and these bacteria should further package it up and send its way out into your poop. If that doesn't happen, it reacts in your body leading to estrogen dominant.

So, you know, and again, we can kind of get this, like from all aspects of like, you know, the food we're eating, the chemicals we're putting in and on our body. Again, I wanna just kind of highlight this for the women out there, cuz this was me. I love makeup. I love smelling good. But ladies, those personal care products are probably disrupting your hormones. A lot of our personal care products, makeup, you know, and we probably put, I think the average is like over hundred chemicals on our, on our body a day, you know? Yeah. Think about it. Like you're putting on a foundation, there's probably 30 ingredients in that, right? Like maybe a, a powder setting powder, another 15 eyeshadow, eyeliner mascara, lip liner lipstick. Even before that primer moisturizer, soap, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, like all of those things. So the chemicals in the products, as well as the fragrances can really disrupt our hormones and we're doing that day in and day out many. Yeah. So many.

Speaker 1:
And I think most people don't realize, I know I, I went for a very long time without fully understanding that these chemicals contain endocrine disruptors and that is contributing to hormone imbalance. Right. And so I think, I think you've opened up a lot of people's eyes here.

Speaker 2:
I just wanna highlight one other area that I think is really pertinent after this global pandemic is alcohol.

Speaker 1:
Okay, let's go there. Let's talk about it. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
Alcohol interferes with how your body breaks down estrogen as well. You know, just having more than one drink a day alcoholic drink will increase your estrogen and your cortisol. So, and I know, and I, and I say this and I wanna address it because I know a lot of people, men, women are have all, you know, turned alcohol and you know, we see a lot men, they start developing breasts because of high estrogen levels. And you know, women obviously start gaining weight around the midsection as the effects of the estrogen dominance. And so and the interesting thing is the higher your estrogen levels, the more sensitive you alcohol. And so what that means is that your brain, the little reward center in your brain actually gets turned on a lot more by the higher estrogen levels to alcohol. So like it's like a vicious cycle, like the alcohol leads to the inability to break down the estrogens and then the higher estrogens actually increases your brain's desire for more alcohol. So it's

Speaker 1:
A catch 22.

Speaker 2:
It's a catch 22. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
That's interesting.

Speaker 2:
It's yeah. So your brain is much more like in tune with the pleasure effects of the alcohol. And then, and again, and this leads addiction in women, you know, especially now after a global pandemic and all the stressors, we just wanna a glass to unwind or what leads to leads a couple bottles. Now like our brain, you know, is more sensitized to the, to the alcohol, the wine or whatever alcoholic beverage you choose. So again, it's harder to stop because you find such pleasure in doing it. So this is, this is kind of a catch 22 that we're in which is further disrupting hormone balance or hormone balance and our libidos

Speaker 1:
Goodness. And I think, and two plays a huge role with the gut microbiome, correct? 

Speaker 2:
Correct. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, and fat storage, like your body meta, like will prioritize alcohol over every other macronutrient. So, you know, you're not gonna be in fat burning mode when you're drinking alcohol. Cause your body's like, oh my God, toxin alert, toxin alert. Let's like shut everything else down to just break down this alcohol including your liver too, your liver is not gonna package those estrogens as nicely. Like all of it is affected by the alcohol and I'm not, again, I'm not demonizing alcohol. I just, I just kind of wanna put it in perspective that if you are struggling with this, that maybe it's an area of your life, you can cut down significantly to see if that improves your estrogen balance.

Speaker 1:
And I think just creating that awareness and, and explaining why, you know, instead of just, well, you don't need to drink alcohol, but like really explaining why, cuz I think the reality is that we get stuck in that trap of I'm trying to deal with my stress. I'm trying to calm myself down. And I think for a lot of women, what I'm hearing too is that, you know, it helps you fall asleep because it's a depress, it's a depressant and it makes you sleepy and then you fall asleep, but it's so disruptive to that good deep restorative sleep. It literally is. It's just a catch 22. And so we get stuck in that cycle of caffeine to get up in the morning and drinking caffeine throughout the day. And then at night you're so wired and tired, you're gonna drink wine to help yourself relax and deal with the stress. And we get stuck in that disastrous cycle. And there's just not a whole lot of talk about it.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And so if you listen to the last episode, we can see how this is intertwined, right? Like with the stress and the adrenals and that, you know, inability to get to sleep at night or, or you have your stress and you wanna drink the wine and now with a hormonal balance and libido, like they're all connected. And so, and like you said, it does it places an additional stress around the body as well. You know, you find that your cortisol levels will be higher at night because of your body having to detox this alcohol, you know, like sleep is a natural detox process. You're detoxing your brain, but you don't wanna place if possible. And again, I'm not demonizing anything. I just am saying like, you know, most nights of the week, let's try to give your body less stressors as far as detox and allow your body to detox, whatever you've exposed it to in the environment throughout the day.

And, and that includes your brain. Like the little, the little street sweepers come out in your gut to like, make sure you get all your undigested food particles moved along and in your brain too, like you, you kind of, you actually remove toxins from your brain at night and you have obviously integrate thoughts and memories and all the things. So like it's a really good time to, to learn to, you know, make memories and, and actually restore your, your brain and your gut health when you're sleeping. So, and again, if we introduce alcohol on top of that, that's just kind of allowing or not allowing your body to do what it does naturally optimally.

Speaker 1:
So is that where you would start? Like if we're, if we're talking about what can we do right away to start improving our libido and, and, and moving towards hormone balance, where do we start?

Speaker 2:
Alcohol is a big one. Alcohol definitely. Try to cut down or cut out is, you know, and again, I'm not about, I, I think the biggest thing with working with women too, is I never want 'em to feel that a change is hard or that they're feeling deprived. Right. I just, you know, I think I, I challenge your listeners if you are drinking alcohol excessively or not, or don't even notice like next time you go get a glass of wine, ask why you're getting it. Is it to deal with a stressor in your life that you're not really dealing with. You're just numbing it with the alcohol and same with food, but like, we're just talking about alcohol right now. So like I just challenge, like is, are you having it? Cause you you're mindful of the fact that you're pouring that glass of wine cause you wanna drink it great. But if you're drink poor it and saying, Ugh, I've had a, I'm tired. I wanna de-stres I don't wanna deal with my husband. I deserve this. I question that and say, you know, if that's happening most nights, like, could you do something else that's actually celebrating your body, like going and taking a walk or sitting and reading a book with even some kombucha instead, you know, celebrate with some, some really

Speaker 1:
Good kombucha and a wine glass.

Speaker 2:
Exactly. I do that all the time. So you know, watch for the added sugar and the kombucha by the way. But yeah, I do think it's, it's really nice. Little, if you wanna treat, there you go. Got your kombucha. And again, I'm not saying every night, but if you're you're reaching for that glass of whatever alcoholic beverage, it is more times than not stop and ask yourself why and start addressing that. I think important. Yeah. And so I do think that's a huge intervention at a baseline, especially now. Because I do think that a lot of people are turning to it for that comfort for, I mean, everyone was lonely for over 20 months now. Like everyone, like we women, especially we thrive, we, we survive and thrive on connect and we've really not had that. I mean men as well, but I, I work with women.

So I think that we've, we place that connection with food and alcohol. And now I, I just, you know, we're coming into 2022. I really would encourage everyone. Just kind of pull back and say like, what do you want to happen differently and life in 2022? And if you're not feeling your best and your libido's low and you think you have estrogen issues, well start with potentially cutting down on the alcohol and, and definitely addressing why you're drinking it excessively. If you feel like it's excessive because a lot of people don't even know it's like habit, you know, a lot of people have formed a habit.

Speaker 1:
It is, it's a habit.

Speaker 2:
It is a habit and it, then it just becomes a part of your life. And then that reward center, like we were talking about in her brain is just like, oh, this is wine time. You know, like time to get my wine. And eventually what happens is that it becomes harder for you to resist that wine because it feels so good. And so and that, and again, like any habit it's you gotta, you know, again, try to reverse it in with small little baby steps, but that kombucha in a wine glass definitely helps.

Speaker 1:
I love that. You said small baby steps. I think that's so important, especially as we're talking to women because we just get so overwhelmed and sometimes those health changes feel so overwhelming. Oh my goodness. Where do I start? And so we need to start simply, you know, and that's why I love the way you speak to women. So is there anything else that you wanna share with us with regard to libido? First of all, you know, we talk about libido, but I think a lot of women are, well, why like, why is that important? Okay, Dr. Renee, like, why is my libido even important? Like I've never liked sex or like, what are the benefits of sex besides obviously creating babies? What are the benefits of sex? Yeah. Do we need sex? Yeah.

Speaker 2:
I'm gonna get into that, but I just wanna say for your listeners, like if you, I don't ever want someone to feel bad, like I don't want sex and I don't care about it. That's fine. Like I'm not here to talk about that to you because there are definitely women out there that could care less about intimacy and they're not bothered by it. That is fine. I'm here for the women that are out there that are like, I don't wanna be intimate with my partner. I think there's something wrong with me. It's affecting my marriage. It's affecting how I feel about myself. That's who I'm here to talk to and bring them to the, to the limelight of like, let's talk about this, let's talk about that elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. And so there's that. And you know, and for those women out there that are struggling with it, you know, again, we, we kind of went through that roadmap of a lot of different little things.

And again, I don't mean to make the sound such like, oh my gosh, it's so overwhelming. It's so complex. But there are definite like, you know, when I always ask women like, you know, answer these three things for me and start there, like, how's your mindset? How do you feel about yourself? How do you feel about your relationship? Do you feel appreciated? Are you, you know, how's your communication with your significant other and how's your stress level, you know? Like, so are you feeling heard? Are you feeling like your needs are met and again, how's your stress? So like generally speaking, a hundred percent of the women, I ask that question to, they're like, yeah, I have an issue with one, two or three start there. Right. But when we start working on that, like, I want you to see the end of the road. Like, what are the benefits? Like, why do I even want it? Right. Like, I know I wanna, I love my partner. I wanna be intimate with him, but why number one, it burns calories.

Speaker 1:
Everybody's attention.

Speaker 2:
I speak to my ladies out there, cuz again, women come to me, weight gain, it's a great calorie burner. And it's probably one of the big, biggest stress relievers. So like two are the three things that women come to me. It's like, boom, boom. Like we can take care of those right away with just with just being intimate. And you know, with that also it helps our immune system. It actually helps ironically, and then they study college students. It actually increases your antibodies. Like, so it boosts your immune system your brain health. So you can think better your heart health, mostly because of the stress, reducing ability of sex, like your heart, less heart attacks, less strokes, like all of the good things that come from a lower stress level. It does actually help boost your testosterone. In both men and women and women, it does help with estrogen.

So there is a little bit of a hormone boost there as well as oxytocin. Oxytocin is, is our love hormone. And we can get it just by even 20 seconds of cuddling, like hugging. And that is actually what it does. Two things when your, your oxytocin goes up, your cortisol, which is our stress hormone goes down, it's like on a little Teeter totter. So, you know, you find even hugging like your dog or your, your kids or hanging out with your kids and laughing like that all increases your oxytocin. So we wanna do more of that to decrease our stress.

Speaker 1:
I love that. So you said 20 seconds or 20? Yeah.
​
Speaker 2:
20 seconds. Yeah. 

Speaker 1:
That's amazing how that boost your oxytocin, like that quickly with like 20 seconds of hugging your kid, you know, hugging your spouse, you know, petting your dog.

Speaker 2:
Yep. Yep. And you know, it's got great anti-aging benefits. It helps you look younger. It helps you, you know, feel more confident, like all of the things that we want as women, you know, we wanna be less stressed. We wanna look younger, we wanna lose the weight. Like all that can be bene side effects of, of intimacy and, and sex. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
I love that. I love that. And I really like how you said at the beginning, speaking to the heart of a woman and, and finding out what else going on, not just, okay, you must have this broken about you, but you know, are you, are there communication issues? What is your stress level? Like? You know, I mean, cuz obviously emotional intimacy, sexual intimacy, those two go hand in hand. And so a lot of times something's broken when it comes to emotional intimacy. So a woman's like, there's no way I don't wanna be connected with my partner, but because I we're not clicking right now.

Speaker 2:
Yep. Yep. And it's something you have, you know, when I, I get a woman on the phone who wants to work with me and she says, I, I hate my husband. I was like, okay, we got a bigger problem. Like, you know, and I, and I'm not gonna say that it's not something else going on. But I think again, the biggest thing we have to work on when you have like an obvious like resentment or like you don't even want to be near your partner, like why, you know, is there communication issue is there, which is usually what it comes down to. You know, we, as women think that men should read our minds. I, I speak for myself. Okay. I, I used to think that my husband should read my mind and I'd get frustrated when he would do the things that I thought he, that I'm saying in my head, meanwhile, he doesn't have any clue cuz I look like I have it all together.

So when I actually started to verbalize what I needed from him and he now either does them automatically, or he asked me, how can I help huge benefit to our relationship? Because I'm not so stressed, running around thinking I'm doing it all and not feeling appreciated and he's helping out when he can. So, you know, that is huge. And I kinda wanna go back because the way I talk about libido for women, a lot of people think I'm gonna come on and talk about like what's happening in the bedroom. There's enough for experts out there that talk about that. I get women to wanna get into the bedroom. The women I deal with, they don't even wanna be touched. They don't want connection. They don't want, they want nothing to do with that bedroom. So I can't, they're not even in there. So I have to actually work to the level of like, okay, why don't you wanna get in there?

And you know, once, once we, you can get 'em in there, if there's any issues in the bedroom, well then we can work on that. But like I do think that there's a huge disservice to women on the outside of the bedroom, cuz we're not addressing why they don't even wanna get in there and they're beating themselves up. Relationships are getting destroyed. Men are feeling like they're not loved and I hate, and I hear that. So that's why I can say it because cause this woman feels like she's broken and needs to be fixed. And meanwhile, there's just something I always say, low libido is just another symptom. There's something else going on that we just need to address

Speaker 1:
So important. It, yeah, it's just another symptom. Something else is going on. And I love how you take that again. That's that functional medicine approach. Y'all that functional medicine approach of why is this happening? Why does this woman not wanna get into the bedroom? Excellent. But I mean, such a, such a kind of a difficult, tricky taboo subject and you have, I think made us all feel very encouraged. You've made us feel normal. Like there's not something, you know, we're not weird. We're not by ourselves, in our, in our feelings and our struggles with our health. And you've made us look at hormone balance in a, in a really, in a new manner. And you pointed out some very key things that we can easily change. I have just absolutely loved our conversations. Dr. Renee,

Speaker 2:
Thank you. I I've really enjoyed having this conversation and you know, I just wanna start the conversation with women, with their friends. Like just start talking about it, you know, let's start taking the taboo outta low libido let's and let's not normalize a low libido. Let's start talking about it and how we can help each other improve our libido to the level that we want it to be.

Speaker 1:
Yes, definitely. Now tell us what resources you have available for listeners?

Speaker 2:
Oh my goodness. Well, I have on my website. Yeah, I do have I did have these very highly downloaded 100 libido boosting foods on my site, which should still be there, but I just replaced it with a libido type quiz, a quiz that I have spent two months working on because I wanna give women a resource to start focusing on like what a, okay. I have a low libido. There's so much information out there a lot. That's not helping me like where can I focus my time and energy to start to improve my energy. So I literally just put this quiz on, out into the world. I think it went on my website today as we're recording this at Dr. Renee Wellenstein.com. So go to the website, be able to take the quiz. I actually give you that one, but two like pro tips on how to get started with improving your libido depending on what your type is.

Speaker 1:
Awesome. Awesome. Good, good, good. That is a, a huge resource. And give us an name of where everyone can reach you, your website and social media, et cetera.

Speaker 2:
Yep. So there's a ton of other free content on libido on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. I have a general holistic health podcast that the Real Heal, but across social media, I'm at Dr. Renee Wellenstein and my site is drreneewellenstein.com.

Speaker 1:
I love it. Thank you so much. And y'all, I will tell you, I've been listening to her podcast. It is one of my top favorites and I listen to a lot of podcasts, but like, this is one of my absolute favorites because it is so simple, easy to understand down to earth. She's had excellent guests while all the excellent guest. She's a tremendous expert, but she's bringing in all of these other experts and here's, what's most important. They're, they're easy to understand. So that's very important for us. Otherwise we shift into that, that level of overwhelm so highly recommend her podcast. Her website's very easy to get to. I will make sure that I have all of those links in the show notes, so you can access those easily. So Dr. Renee, this has been amazing. We recorded two episodes here and I can't wait to do the next one.

Speaker 2:
I absolutely agree. I can't wait to meet again.

Speaker 1:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Good stuff, right? Good stuff. I am always going to point you towards real practical advice and encourage you to be your own best health advocate. So keep listening, click, subscribe, and do me a favor. Leave a review and you know what? Don't forget. We're in this together. Bye y'all.