About
In this episode of Not Your Mother's Menopause Podcast, Dr. Fiona Lovely sits down with Dr. Louann Brizendine, the renowned neuropsychiatrist and author of the groundbreaking book The Upgrade (released in 2022). Dr. Brizendine, who founded the first U.S. clinic focused on women's mood and hormone-related brain function, brings her decades of expertise to a conversation that reframes everything women have been told about life after fertility.
The episode challenges the narrative that menopause marks an ending. Instead, Dr. Brizendine introduces listeners to the Upgrade—the wisdom phase that emerges after the hormonal chaos of perimenopause settles. She explains how the transition, formerly known as perimenopause, is a period of significant brain and body shifts, but what follows is a time of clarity, freedom, and renewed purpose. Women often feel joyless and irritable during the transition, but Dr. Brizendine offers hope, sharing that the happiness quotient actually increases with each decade of life.
Listeners will learn practical brain and body hacks, including how to support the vagus nerve for better heart-brain communication and the importance of hormone therapy timing for brain protection. Dr. Brizendine also addresses the controversy surrounding HRT, urging women to consider estrogen not just for symptom relief but as prevention for cognitive decline. This is a conversation about reclaiming authentic selfhood, leaving behind the people-pleasing tendencies of the fertile years, and stepping into a powerful new identity. The message is clear: the good stuff is coming.
Episode Highlights:
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Dr. Brizendine defines the transition versus the Upgrade and why the language matters.
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The connection between dropping estrogen and changes in mood, memory, and metabolism.
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How progesterone acts like natural valium—and what happens when it drops.
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The importance of timing hormone therapy for optimal brain protection.
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Practical techniques for calming the nervous system and enhancing vagal tone.
Tune in to discover why the second half of life holds more freedom, joy, and possibility than women have ever been led to believe.
Follow Dr. Louann Brizendine:
IG | Website | Buy her book, The Upgrade
Thank you to our sponsors for this episode:
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