 Hello, everybody. Hello. Happy Tuesday. Welcome, everybody. I did not send this message out. I did not send a message out that I would be coming on today. So I'm not sure how many of you will actually be with me today. If there's not one person that shows up live today, that's perfectly fine with me. I'm sure some of you will catch the replay, but today I want to talk to you about perimenopause symptoms and fibroids and what to actually do about them. So let me go ahead and get into the topic. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Chelsea Knudson, and I am a fibroid healing coach, a life transformation coach. And I help Christian women heal wound issues and emotional traumas using food, herbs, God's word and prayer as medicine. So if you are tuning in live, why don't you tell me where you're tuning in from and be sure to get your questions ready. You can put them in the chat if you have any questions in the chat. If you come and watch the replay, please put your questions in the replay in the comments below this video for replay, and I'll be happy to answer questions even after the live is over. I happen to try and answer all of my questions that I get. If I don't answer your question is probably because I haven't seen it. Sometimes questions come in. I don't quite understand what the person is asking. So try to be as clear as you can in your questions. And I'll answer them. I love answering questions one day. It may be that I am not able to answer questions as frequently as I can now. So get them while it's available, I should say. Also chat in. Tell me what kind of reproductive issue you have or womb issue you're dealing with so that I know what kind of content to produce for you going forward. But today we're going to talk about dealing with perimenopausal symptoms. And I'm going to give you some tips for relieving those symptoms. First of all, perimenopause can be very brutal. And it doesn't have to be. Keep that in mind. It does not have to be brutal. But for a lot of people, it very much is a brutal process. As a matter of fact, it's probably more brutal for people for women. There's more people struggling than not. And I think a lot of the symptoms that people have are perimenopausal symptoms. They just don't always know that they're perimenopausal symptoms and there's actually something that you can do about these issues. But what is perimenopause? Perimenopause is a natural process. It happens because the ovaries that during childbearing years are used to working to produce hormone, to give you eggs. So the ready for implantation and it's the process between the time that that slowdown starts to happen and menopause actually happens, which is when your period actually stops. So the menstrual cycle in the perimenopausal state might gradually make some changes. I've seen it do things from lengthen to long periods of time, all the way to the flow being a really, really heavy or irregular or erratic. Every other month, every six months or twice a month, like these things are different for every woman. So there's not really a one size fits all for what your period is going to look like through perimenopause. Just know that if you start having like these erratic changes in your period, it probably is perimenopause. And this type of thing can happen all the way until your final period. Now what I am finding is that perimenopause can be, and this is sad to say, because this wasn't the case 10, 15 years ago, perimenopause can be like late 20s. I know you're like late 20s. Are you kidding me? And I'll tell you why in just a second, it could be like late 20s all the way up to like 65. There are women who are actually still menstruating, even though you don't hear about it very often in their 60s. So it really just depends on the woman. It depends on her genetics. It depends on a whole lot of factors as to when, where your period is. Now, perimenopause is starting earlier and earlier because of our environment, how we take care of ourselves. So I like to lump it into a category that says is what we eat, what we drink, what we think, and what we're putting on our body, which is basically our environment. And some of those things we can control, some of them we can't. Like for example, when we go outside in the atmosphere, we are bombarded with whatever is out there and our bodies are affected by that because it is our environment. And what we can control is what are we putting on our bodies like lotions and potions and what are we cleaning our clothes with those types of things, those things we can't control. Others we can't. So what I like to teach is we do the absolute best we can for those four categories, what we eat, what we drink, what we think, and what we put on our bodies. And things will typically fall into place. And be sure if you have a question to go ahead and chat that question in, we're talking about perimenopause today, the symptoms, and I'm going to give you some information about what you can do for some relief. So what happens is when the food drink, what we eat, what we drink, what we think in environment is when it's impacting our health, when it's impacting our bodies, what it does is it changes our hormonal level. So that's what actually creates the symptoms in our bodies. It's called hormone disruption. Or yeah, hormone disruption, that's probably the best way to put that. So for example, when estrogen is higher, you might have symptoms associated with PMS or you might have, you know, fibroid growth or endometriosis or some type of, you know, cyst or lump or bump somewhere in your reproductive system. This is just an example. When your estrogen is low, for example, you might have hot flashes or night sweats or something like that. But if your estrogen is low, doesn't mean you're not estrogen dominant, you can still be estrogen dominant and have low estrogen. What that, what estrogen dominance means is that your estrogen is high in comparison to the amount of progesterone that you have in your body. So hormonal changes in your body. Excuse me. I'm so sorry. So hormonal changes in your body is what produces the symptoms. Now, some people will say, well, how do you get diagnosed with perimenopause? Well, it takes a very special doctor to actually take the time to go over your history, your medical history with you and do a proper physical examination. And ask you questions about yourself to actually come up with that diagnosis. And further, it takes a very special doctor that actually knows what to do about it. So you really have to be your own advocate as far as how you're going to go through diagnosis. For some people who go to the doctor, they can take a blood test and their hormones are measured and that can tell you whether or not you're in perimenopause or not. I don't know how accurate those tests are because I've actually spoken to women who have had all the classic symptoms of perimenopause and their blood test came back and it said they're not in perimenopause. And I'm thinking to myself, I don't know how this person is not in perimenopause, but I'm not a doctor. So who am I to suggest that you are or not in are or are not in perimenopause? So I recommend doing hormonal tests that are like over time. And one of those tests are called the Dutch test. That's a test. And it's I last time I looked it was expensive. I mean, so if you have the means you can go ahead and take the test if you want, but it'll give you it'll it's the best way to check your hormones and to know exactly where you are. As far as hormonal concern is concerned, because lots of people say, well, what's the blood test that I can go take at the doctor's office to just check my hormones in general, whether you're checking to see if you're in perimenopause or menopause or not. You know, some people want to know what they're where their hormones are. And the truth of the matter is, is your hormones could be one way today and tomorrow they could be another the next day they could be another so it really depends on where you are in your menstrual cycle like it depends on a lot of things to get that blood test that you get at the doctor's office to bound to check your hormones to see if it is actually accurate. So anyway, so that's why I don't mess too much with that's around too much with the hormonal test that you can get at your doctor's office. But I go by signs and symptoms of what's going on in the body and I go from there because there's no real medication that you can take to actually stop all the symptoms like this is this is a lifestyle. Condition that it well it it takes lifestyle to create a positive experience while you're going through perimenopause that's probably the best way to describe it. So if you happen to find a doctor, which it is very hard and I think the reason it's hard is because they don't know what to do about it. Or they think that women show up at the doctor's office with all these symptoms and that it's just all in their head and they just need to exercise and eat better and everything is going to be okay or even maybe they don't even say that maybe they just say here's some birth control pills and not recognizing that that can make things worse for them or just not having the time. Because they're having to see so many patients every single day to actually give to the person to actually figure out what the best solution is for yourself for you. So my suggestion is is that you figure out the solution for yourself and maybe try and find a doctor if you need if you need to have that. So just kind of walk alongside you meaning like if you do need a blood test or if you do need this or you need that whatever you feel like you need maybe your doctor can work in tandem with you. But unfortunately it's very rare to even find that so you have to be your own advocate. So the hard part about perimenopause is it's not like just black and white. Like for example you experience this that the other and here's perimenopause. It doesn't work like that there's so many symptoms and I'm going to name some of them and even the ones that I have I'm naming isn't all of them. Just tell you that right now they're just they're just not all of them. So for me probably before I go into the symptoms of this just to give you my personal experience with this. I recognized that I was in perimenopause about four years ago but I didn't recognize it until after the fact I'm looking back at some of the things that I was experiencing. And now I know that it was perimenopause that I was going through at that time or I was either starting or it was getting or I was getting into perimenopause. And just so you know perimenopause is typically about 10 to 15 years. So I'm sure I was probably in perimenopause before that it's just it's when it happens. So some of you who are watching may know this story because you might have been in some of my coaching programs because you may have heard me tell it. You might have heard me tell it here on alive or on one of my videos but I remember 2020 happened early 2020. I was my husband at the time was traveling a lot for work. And I would be home alone like our kids had left the house though so I was home and I had a lot of time on my hands. You know like I would work but like when I wasn't working I had time on my hands and previous to 20 like right before 2020 my father passed away in December of 2019. And I was grieving but I it was one of those things where I knew that he was going to pass away so I had time to prepare for it. So I wasn't in as much grief as like I would have been had it been sudden if that makes sense. So here in Raleigh, North Carolina there is the 5G towers were turned on in my area in February of 2020. I remember the day that the 5G tower was turned on in my area and something shifted in my body. So remember in the beginning of our conversation here in this video that I was saying that perimenopause symptoms just like other reproductive issues as you've heard me talk about happen. Or the complications of perimenopause happens because of what we eat what we drink what we put on our bodies that kind of thing right what we're thinking. And the tower being turned on was an environmental factor. I actually felt it in my body physically when they turned on that 5G tower. And from that moment on I experienced things in my body that I hadn't been experiencing previously because I had changed my lifestyle. I was I was feeling you know good because of the things that I have been doing that I teach you all that I've been teaching publicly like with you know coaching clients since 2017 so I was fine. So I wasn't having all the craziness like with all the bleeding and all the things that I used to struggle with. But then I felt a difference in my body but I couldn't put my finger on it and I didn't recognize then that that was the thing that was causing me to have some some symptoms not a lot some symptoms with perimenopause. So I'm going to mention the symptoms that are very popular and I'll tell you which ones I started to deal with at that time not recognizing that it was perimenopause that was was giving me these symptoms so mood changing mood changes. I don't think I struggled too much with that but changes in my sexual desire that started to dip right then. But some of you might be struggling with that maybe you don't have any sexual desire. And you can change that if that is your case trouble concentrating headaches night sweats hot flashes vaginal dryness trouble sleeping now this one was interesting so I would. I went through a period of time where I just couldn't fall asleep at like like I would wake up at like four o'clock in the morning 430 in the morning because I like to get up and spend time with God and so I can get my exercise and and all things that I need to do in the morning so that I can. You know get my day started. What was happening is I was getting up early but I couldn't go to sleep till like 10 11 o'clock I would be in bed 9 o'clock but I couldn't go to sleep. This was this what happened sporadically and I would have those issues that was one of the things that I had and some people have the issue where they can fall asleep or they can fall asleep. And they'll wake up in the middle of the night and they cannot go back to sleep and then when it's time to get up in the morning that's when they get sleepy and they're ready to sleep again so that's a surefire sign of. A perimenopausal symptom joint pain muscle eggs heavy sweating like if you're sweating in places and you you know like you're just you can't stop and it's like embarrassing that is a perimenopause symptom. Having the P often PM PMS like symptoms like cramp be feeling often. This is one that I did struggle with for a period of time right here thinking I was crazy like thinking I was like off my rocker like I would think of one thing and then like. Another somebody would be talking to me and it would seem like they were saying something that they actually weren't saying and then I'm like am I crazy I don't know if that makes any sense. More like absent mindedness that's probably a better way to describe that. I'm like wait a minute didn't I just wasn't I just talking about this. Didn't I just say this like like concepts weren't firing on all cylinders like my brain was not like doing what it was supposed to do. And a big one that a lot of people struggle with is anxiety anxiety fear which we've started doing prayer and fasting against that. But I actually think that that and some of that anxiety that people are struggling with is a pair of perimenopause symptom. Now this is a this is a pretty exact this is a pretty good list but it's still not everything. So like what I would like you to do if you are struggling with perimenopause or some of these symptoms or if you're not sure of some of the things that you are struggling with is perimenopause. Put them in the chat put them in the in the comments section because it's possibly something that is perimenopause especially if it's something that you didn't use to struggle with. But now you do struggle with. I'm sorry to say that that's that's just the case. So I'm grateful that there is something that you can do about perimenopausal symptoms. You should not have to struggle with them. You should not have to let them rule your life. And honestly I just wish that I had connected the dots for some of the things that I told you that I struggled with. You know when I first recognized that something was different. I didn't recognize that it was that it was perimenopause at the time. I wish I had known that but I'm giving you this information so that you can either you know like pinpoint what's been going on with you or if you're not at this stage yet and maybe some of this starts to happen. You can say oh this is perimenopause. Let me do this so that I can help myself. So now what I'm going to share with you is a few tips that you can use to help you to overcome this problem because it is overcomable. You do not have to suffer. And some of you are not going to like this one but exercise exercise especially hit exercise and I'm not talking about the kind of hit where you're jumping up and down being hard on your joints. And like putting pressure on your body where you don't need pressure. I'm talking about even just something as simple as walking really fast for 30 seconds and then walking slow walking really fast for 30 seconds and then walking slow talking about that. Or like doing hit type weight training weight training actually helps balance your hormones out exercise in general helps to help you balance your hormones out. But if you can just lift some weights some women with weights are so afraid to that they're going to get big and bulky like a man look like a man if they got muscles. But I'm going to tell you what lifting weights is one of those things that can help you reverse this problem in such a way where it puts you in like a class where you are overcoming a lot faster than you would without exercise. The next thing is hydration you have to hydrate you have to flush your body with hydration and I'm not always talking about water when I talk about hydration I believe I have a video on my YouTube channel about hydration. Hydration I also teach it in my coaching programs about hydration but hydration with like juices that you make at home fresh pressed juices high water content fruits like water melons grapes any kind of melon actually citrus things like that. Or when you drink your water adding things like lemon and lime or oranges or something like that to structure your water and when I say structure your water that means to make the water change the structure of the water so that it is more absorbable by your body. So when you add things like that it causes the water to go and penetrate the cells so that it actually hydrates you versus it just fly and you know you drinking and it flushing through your body not actually not actually absorbing into your cells and you just peeing it right out. The next thing that I think is so important for women who are in the mirror Perry men of pause age is we have to be careful about what we put on our skin and women get bombarded with this the most because we're the ones who wear makeup. And so we wear makeup we want to smell good we want to you know do all the things. The beauty routines and everything but we have like our skin is our largest organ. And so we have to be careful about what we are actually putting on our skin because our skin actually soaks in what we put on it. So if you're going to bath and body works and slather in your body with that lotion even though it makes it feel all nice and soft because of all the parabens and chemicals and perfumes and all the stuff that they put in it. You're actually doing your hormones a disservice by doing that. So if you can't change everything in your body try to use the things on your skin that are the cleanest possible. So for me I use my coconut oil that I sell in my herbal shop because I think it's the best coconut oil on the market because of where the way it's made it's just very high quality all coconut oil is not created equal. And what I'll use that with is I will mix it with some kind of butter. It could be shea butter could be coconut butter it could be mango butter or something like that and I use that for my skin and I use other brother butters too but that's the that's the main thing that I use. And I also like Osea I did a review video on them back probably in the summer I linked it down below in the description box and I love their facial cleanser and I love their. There's this one called Holoronic Assets it's a serum that you can put on your skin. It actually is wonderful but they got a lot of beautiful products a lot of oils and and lotions and cleansers and like all the stuff that you need for clean beauty. I love it and and the other thing that I like is it's versatile like it can it helps with dark skin light skin white people. These people like it like it's versatile doesn't matter the type of skin that you have. There's something there to work with and it's clean beauty and they've been around for a long time so I like them and I have a link in the description box for 10% off if you are interested in them. My code is WCE 10 WCE 10 for 10% off if you're interested in that. So so so far exercising hydration changing what we put on our skin from head to toe and for me personally it's been very difficult for me to find like a foundation that is really really clean like clean clean because my skin is dark. If your light skin is pretty much it's easier to find a clean beauty that actually works and actually is consistent. I if you guys know of a cute clean foundation that is consistent that is for dark skin that won't got a business in two seconds please link it down in the description box because I would love to explore it. I haven't found it. I don't wear makeup every day but I like to have it whenever it whenever I whenever I want to use it. So next thing is what are you putting in your body if you haven't already downloaded my foods to avoid list please go down in the description box and get that list because that list are the things things on that list are the hormone disruptors. That send people into perimenopause. And it is why people have so many symptoms it's why people have the reproductive issues and I know that a lot of you will look at that list and you probably have seen the list before some of you have probably seen the list before and you're like wait a minute. You mean I got to get rid of all of this. Well if you allow your body to cleanse if you give yourself time to heal get rid of this stuff for a while. Maybe you'll be able to add some of those things back in if you want. So it's not you know for everything for everybody but it's a place to start if you want to feel good and the other thing when your hormones are a mess. It doesn't just affect your reproductive health it affects all your health because our bodies are run on hormones all different types of hormones not just female or hormones. And when one of those hormones are out of balance so is the rest of your body of the rest of your hormones are out of balance. So remember that your hormonal balance or imbalance comes from what we eat what we drink what we think and what we put on our bodies. So you change what you're eating to high water rich foods fruits vegetables lots of raw fruits and vegetables nuts seeds you can eat some it some beans. You can eat things like quinoa you can watch the YouTube channel and look at some recipes that I've done over the years there's a playlist down in the description box of this video. Now some of you may be like I don't know how I'm supposed to do this and I've got all kinds of videos on this channel so if you take the time and watch the videos you can figure some things out. But if you feel like you need help I do have resources look down in the description box for those but in May I'm starting my new 90 day. coaching program for women who have womb issues. I'm a fibroid healing coach but fibroids and endometriosis or ovarian cyst or hormonal imbalance is the same root. It's the same root cause. So what I teach you for healing fibroids is the same thing I would teach you for healing infertility is the same thing. They just like to shrink a fibroid or to shrink a ovarian cyst or are you know the time is probably a little bit different but it's the same approach. So my new coaching program is a Christ centered 90 day program where I teach you how to heal mind body and do some things you know in the spirit like in your spiritual life to help you to heal. To overcome some things that have kept you stuck in your life. It's a 12 is 90 days 12 weeks where we do group coaching sessions there's a community for support. I teach you how to heal holistically I also do some mindset work on you so you change the way you're thinking. It's like if you're caught up with fear doubt and unbelief and all the things that have kept you in bondage to your current situation. I do some spiritual support teach you how to lean on God's wisdom on his word teach you like like how to pray how to step into your faith so that you can be built up in your inner man so that you can walk in the place where you were called to walk to. All the while healing the whole health teaching you how to heal the whole person versus just healing for the fibroids because or the whatever womb issue you have because let me just tell you right now. This journey is not just about fibroids people like to look at it that way but it's not. They think that let me go get a surgery or let me go get a hysterectomy and they find that they still their problems are still there and even sometimes they can even be worse but they're not connecting the dots it's the fact that they took the womb out. If you're listening to this and you're somebody who has had a hysterectomy you can still work on yourself as if you have wound. You still work on yourself because taking the womb out didn't get rid of the issues that cause the womb issue in the first place if that makes sense. So hopefully this has been helpful to you. Let's see if there are any questions. Yes. Let's see Miss Callie. Hi Lisa Lisa Lisa Lisa. This makes sense to me. Thank you so much for addressing. It's a real part of a woman's life and the doctors try to medicate it away. Yes Veronica they do and the other thing they do and I learned this from you too Veronica whether you know it or not. Is that you have to be a real advocate for yourself during this time and you have to make your own decisions. You can take what they say take what they say pray about it and then come up with your own solution even if you decide to do what they say do is still your decision. So thank you for that. And Lisa hydration yes and flow Joe hi welcome everybody. So thank you for joining me today. I'm actually going to be here all week I'm going to because I was praying like last week late last week Friday I'm sorry Thursday or Friday one of those days. And I just felt like the Lord gave me some topics that he wanted me to talk about something to be here for the rest of this week. And I even believe that I'm going to be here next week at noon. I was supposed to actually start yesterday with a topic and I was disobedient because I didn't I was busy and I was like how am I supposed to do it and instead of relying on the Lord to help me do it. I did it. And so I will be here on Saturday morning at probably about nine o'clock. So just watch the community tab on my channel I'm not going to send out any emails or anything about this because I don't want to end date your boxes but about this but I'm going to come on every day for the rest of this week at noon and on Saturday just this week about 9am. So I'm just going to say 9am. That's what time I'll be here on Saturday so if you have a topic that you want me to discuss please put it in the chat I'll be glad to consider it but I you know the Lord has already given me all the topics for this week. Tomorrow I'm going to be talking about the gut a little bit constipation that kind of thing. And a lot of people don't think they're constipated but a lot of us are full of poo poo and we don't realize it and it's causing a lot of our problems. Callie 83 I had a meeting with my doctor about the fibroids and do you know that they told me that because I'm a black because I'm black. That is the reason why I have fibroids. Wow. Wow. Now I've heard them say that the majority of people who get fibroids are black now that's true. That is true but it's not because you're black. I think they're just ignorant. They don't know any better. Wow. I was like really dude that was the most racist thing I've heard about reasons for having fibroids. Wow. Yeah. I don't know what to say. Anyway we've got to be our own advocates. We can get well from this stuff. We don't have to let it control our lives. Yes that is true. It was a very ignorant statement. Very ignorant. So the other thing I want to say about that vein with going to the doctors and since not vast the doctors stay because there are some good doctors out there. But you know they only know what they know because they've been indoctrinated. I mean think how long they go to school. They have their premed biology whatever it is they take an undergrad and then in four years they're in medical school learning medication and being programmed by the pharmaceutical industry. So they have no clue. So they don't even have time to study what this means. All they know is they got this black all these black women showing up in the office saying they have fibroids and it must be because they're black that they have fibroids you know. And there are many black women who don't have fibroids. Unfortunately I meet more that do or did have them than others but doesn't mean it's because you're black. So anyway be your own advocate. Take your health in your own hands. Take your situations to the Lord and let him work them out for you. Let him work them out for you. Yeah. That one was interesting. And also I have when I was struggling in my 30s I had this lady that I worked with who was in her 50s at the time and she said hey. You know since you're having these issues you should go see my. No actually I was in my late 20s actually she's just go see my gynecologist Constance battle was her name. And I don't think I ever went to go see Constance battle in particular I might have went to her practice but I don't think I saw her. But recently I looked up Constance battle just to see like is she still practicing because I wanted to know because she was somebody who was doing a lot of history. So again I would have had like a surrectomy for women back in those days and she's dead the woman is dead and guess what she's dead from a female related condition. The person that diagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome when I was in my early 20s he had a sudden heart attack like and he was only like 60. Do you know what I mean. Like look at the messenger when you go to the doctors and they tell you all this stuff and you get discouraged. Look at the messenger, look at their life. Are they healthy? Some of them are. Some doctors do take care of their health, but look at the health of the people who are giving you these diagnoses and telling you to do all this stuff. Do they have a story? Are they doing? Are they practicing what they're saying, preaching? Is medication that they're prescribing to you actually working for them? That's really what I'm trying to say. Anyway, let me get off this soapbox. I just wanted to just talk to you all about this perimenopausal stuff. You're not alone. Be your own advocate and think about what you eat, what you drink, what you're putting on your body and what you think. That's all that doing. That's affecting your hormones. When you change that to a positive experience, you're eating right. You're drinking, staying hydrated. You're thinking right, meaning your connection with God is good and your environmental stuff is good, then if you can do that, then your health will fall into place. You might have issues that you might need to work out over the years or whatever or figure out because you're trying to work this thing out called life, but you will get there. You won't. If you don't do anything, it'll be horrible. If I did nothing, I know I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you all. Not just because this is what I do for a living, but I don't think I'd be alive if I hadn't done anything. Anyway, y'all, let me stop it. I love y'all. Hopefully you'll join me tomorrow, and if no one told you that they love you, Chelsea in North Carolina loves you very much, and I'll talk to y'all soon. Lots of love. Take care.