Welcome to the Dear Brittany Show. This is a podcast where you'll hear everything I always want to say and everything we're all thinking. I know it's you too.

 

So get ready for a raw slice of reality. I'm your host Brittany Krystantos and I am an author, speaker, mental health advocate and host of a mental health series. I am very proud to say I have made an impact on the mental health of others for a decade now.

 

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Blendquik.co. Hi everyone, it's your girl Brittany Krystantos, welcome to the Dear Brittany podcast. We're going to be talking about something that Nikki Steele over here is very excited about. She loves talking about her heat flashes and her hotness and her menopause and today is I'm hot as hell with menopause and let me tell you right now, Nikki has her face cloth.

 

Right here. Right here. For dabbing. Dabbing.

 

Yeah, and especially because we have to have the lights on so you guys can see us. And it heats me up and I'm sweating all the time.

 

So I'm 26, we all know, I'm a Gen Z. I don't have menopause, but I will tell you that I do have something really interesting called the monthly cycle. You know, I get the pimples on my chin. I get very moody, but my moody is not that bad, is it? No, your moody is not that bad.

 

I don't find it that bad. I mean, the people you live with might find it bad, but because you know, when you live with people that you're a little bit more yourself, but I don't find it that bad. She just gets a little bit cranky here and there, but you know, she's fine.

 

I go, Nikki, you're talking too loud. Yeah, she gets mad. She's like down a notch.

 

So me. OK, and then also later today, we are talking with a very special guest, the incredible Joanna Strober. She is the CEO of MediHealth, and Joanna is dedicated to providing expert care for women navigating menopause.

 

And you know what? We need people like her because we need help. There is not a lot of doctors and not a lot of, you know, women talking to women and doctors talking to women when you come into your primary care physician for them to just start discussing it with you. Nobody really says anything.

 

So this is why Joanna is important. You know, we have to spread the word that there is help out there and you can make an appointment online. You don't have to leave work.

 

You don't have to leave your kids and you can get expert advice and information about how to help yourself with the symptoms and all the different things that come along with menopause. So I'm very happy about that. Let's talk about your menopause right now.

 

Oh, tell us about it. Tell us about it. Well, first of all, I have a friend of mine, Claudine.

 

She's a wonderful girl. Absolutely amazing. She says, oh, don't hug Nikki.

 

She sweats. She's sweating. Are you sweating, Nikki? I go, oh, yeah. She goes, Nikki doesn't just sweat. She's wet.

 

Yeah, I'm wet. I'm soaked to the skin all the time. I'm soaked. My hair is soaked.

 

My head, I'm I'm I'm just I'm hot all the time. Right now I look dry, but I feel hot all over. And by four o'clock, I'll be soaked.

 

Yeah, like it's just nonstop. I got this fan that goes at the bottom of my bed and it sits under the sheet and it's almost like a little curvature and it blows air into the bed. And I just sit there naked.

 

I lie back, boobs flopping down, you know, on the sides, legs open, everything's open and ready for some air. And let me tell you, ladies, that is the menopause happiness of life. You know, you're giving everyone a description of you naked on a bed with your tits flopping and you're naked.

 

Me, Nikki, naked on a bed. Come on. It's good.

 

Come on. OK, so how's your I don't know. Like I heard menopause makes you not have sex drive.

 

Are you feeling that? So again, I am not the norm. I love sex. I have a huge sex drive. I'm jumping all over the place and I don't have the dryness and I don't have, you know, the pain and the stuff that comes with it. I don't have the the the different things that come along with menopause. I'm lucky, but I don't know if that's going to last, because a lot of times we do lose the estrogen in our vaginal walls, in our face, in our skin.

 

And over time, doctor, medical over time, medical work, we start to get every symptom of menopause. So it could be on its way. I'm definitely with the sweating like that's I have to carry a bag with me everywhere I go.

 

It's called the boobie bag. It's my boobie bag.

 

I bring my bag. It always has a T-shirt. It has a change of clothes. It has things that I need because my neck fan, because you never know when it's going to hit.

 

And I try to keep it as contained as possible. Actually, I have a good story for you about a wedding I went to recently with one of my best friends. So I went to a wedding with one of my very best friends, Jason, and dressed up to the nines.

 

Both of us, we had phenomenal time. But I'm sitting there during the first course. And I had a glass of wine, of course, because I'm Nikki and that's what I do.

 

I always have a glass of wine, always, you know, like Nikki Newman, like Young and the Restless, you know, Nikki, she's always sexy with a glass of wine. Genzy, I never watched. How do you not know Young and the Restless? You know, come on.

 

I went to the set once in L.A. Did you? I never watched it. Well, I'm a little Nikki Newman. You know, I'm walking around.

 

I got a little tour of the place at the Grammy Award. Really? Behind the scenes. But I never watched it.

 

Brittany, she's she's getting around there, Brittany. She's getting around. Anyways, I'm back at this.

 

Well, I'm at this wedding and I'm sitting there having the first course. And all of a sudden, whatever was in the wine, the amount of sugar that was in the wine was too much for my body. And I started to sweat like when I mean sweat.

 

I mean, it was dripping off my face. My hair went flat. I I couldn't breathe.

 

I had to get up and go outside. I had to get napkins. I didn't have my little towel with me because I was at a wedding.

 

I had to get napkins at the bathroom and really try and dry off. And it was that bad. So it can hit me at any time.

 

I was in a formal gown and women were across the table and I'm, you know, trying to cool down. Right. And this woman, she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm hot.

 

I'm overheated. Oh, I went through it so bad, so bad. Oh, it's so bad.

 

She goes, I used to sweat into my food. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Like that's where I was headed. It was pretty bad. God forbid you're eating your sweat.

 

I know. But thank God my makeup held out. I mean, it was it was pretty good.

 

My makeup looked OK. I looked very shiny. But I looked OK.

 

Yeah, right. Right now, I mean, you're sweating. I can feel your heat off of me.

 

I feel your heat. I don't even know how you're wearing a sweater. I'm wearing short sleeves.

 

I wear short sleeves here all winter long. It is very sexy. She's very sexy.

 

Brittany can wear anything and she's always sexy and she's never sweaty. She just looks glowy and gorgeous because she's 26. I feel sweaty right now.

 

She's 26. She's got that, you know, Am I aging? Fabulous. I just want her compliments, everyone.

 

I love seeing Brittany every day. She has the most like beautiful outfits she puts together. Today, she's wearing a sweater.

 

I have no idea how she's wearing a sweater. I don't know. A sweater with a matching bra.

 

I know it looks good. But I wear outfits that I can layer. OK, so that I can take on. But off, on, off, on, off. Tell us a little bit more about what it's like to be Nikki Steel. You want to know what it's like to be me? Your your hot sweats, your I don't know, talk about your vibrator.

 

The story you're telling everyone about the cat. You want vibrator discussion? Sure. That's menopause, right? It's all about menopause right now.

 

I'll tell you what it is. When you have a friend, another best friend, I've got some good friends and they give you a gift called the rose. OK, the rose knows where it goes.

 

You know what I mean? There's a hole at the top of the rose and that rose is a vibrating rose. But it sucks and it sucks. That's all it does.

 

And let me tell you, when you pull that thing off of you, it goes. It has a suction and it does not end until you end. Oh, my God.

 

And let me tell you, OK, any one of you out there having a hard time achieving orgasm because of menopause, get yourself the rose, look up the rose for women. It comes in a little cute little package. You can get a red one, a purple one, a green one or a blue one.

 

And it it charges on your nightstand, standing up like a rose. It's absolutely hilarious. My husband walks into the bedroom and he goes, he sees the rose and the roses, it's flashing because it's charging.

 

That's because my friend gave it to me and she told me, you have to charge it up fully. Right. So I said, OK, so I plugged in and he walked in.

 

He goes, the hell is that? I said, that was my gift. He goes, from who? I'm like, Hilah. Hilah gave me a gift.

 

Hilah is a good friend. He goes, what does it do? It's not like a regular vibrator. I said, no, women are starting to build different toys for women.

 

And that is where it all comes into true play, because women understand what women need. And I'll tell you, this is the cat one. I have a cat, too.

 

There's a cat with the same. Someone else gave it to me. It's the same thing with the sock.

 

It sucks. But it's the face of a cat with a mouth. And the mouth sucks.

 

And it's got two ears. It's absolutely fantastic. Both of them are great.

 

But that rose. Rose knows. Let me tell you, I can't get over that rose.

 

Do you have toys? Do you use toys at all? Like regular toys? Yeah, because I don't know. Like, am I? Oh, too much. I don't know.

 

You don't discuss that. I forgot. No, no.

 

But I forgot. You know, Brittany, Brittany maintains a certain, you know, genre way of who she is and the level of panache that she's going to give us. Me, on the other hand, you can ask me whatever you want.

 

I'll give it to you. Not a problem. I think everyone wants to know the dying question.

 

Are you a hot mess right now? Like all over or everywhere? Everywhere. I'm always a hot mess. I'm always a little sweaty and I'm always ready to go.

 

What happens if you're on a date and you're like sweating and like you get your sweat on his food or is that going to gross him out? Well, I do have a husband still. And if I go out with him, he kind of is used to me at this point. He's used to like what's going on with me and, you know, who I am at this stage and how I'm feeling.

 

He can tell by who I am, even who he knows me. I also have problems with dessert because of sugar. Anytime I'm eating a high sugar situation, wine, like a fruit juice, anything like that, chocolate cake, stuff with lots of sugar, caramel, I start to sweat.

 

It's really bad. I feel when I'm in my period about, I don't know, two weeks before a period. I start to really crave chocolate.

 

Yeah. Like I'm craving chocolate right now. Yeah.

 

And I'm hungry. I don't know if anyone can hear my belly is grumbling. I hear it.

 

I hear it. But I'll tell you, I I'm that person that's in menopause eating a chocolate bar on the treadmill at the gym. You know what I mean? I don't give a shit.

 

If nature's calling me to have something, I have it. And I'm not borderline diabetic. So don't write in and ask if I am, because I'm not.

 

But I got to tell you guys, I got to tell you when we were going to do this episode, I was I was right in there. I'm like, I've got a lot to say.

 

I've got a lot to say. Say it, Nikki. You know, it's it's it's definitely a passage, definitely a time that you pass and you you you go through. We're done having kids.

 

We're done bearing children. Your body's change. But it's a good time.

 

I kind of like it. I enjoy my children being older and I enjoy not having a period and I enjoy not worrying about periods. It does come with other difficulties.

 

And that's why Joanna, she's such an integral part of what we need. Again, women helping women, women understanding what women need. You know, so do you have a woman? Do you have a woman doctor or do you have a male doctor? Who do you see? So I have a female doctor, of course.

 

But recently I was sick with a really bad pelvic disease. I was sick for six months. I haven't really spoken about this yet publicly, but I almost died.

 

Yeah, I'm alive. She was so sick. I'm alive.

 

And the doctor that was helping me was a man who was. You know, a man, he was fantastic, though, I have to say, he made you feel happy, comfortable, you know, in control of what was going on. And and that was that was really good.

 

I was so worried about you. He got me through it. He helped me.

 

We had a lot of vagina discussions and it was very embarrassing. Vagina, vagina, vagina, my problems. But he was really great.

 

And I'm alive because of him. And I'm alive because of your sister. Oh, my sister. Yes, my sister.

 

Well, what happened was I met Brittany and we started to work together. And she was sick.

 

She was really sick and she really just couldn't get better. And no matter what doctor she saw, they weren't prescribing the right things. They weren't nailing the issue.

 

And it kept getting worse and worse and worse. And I, you know, I really didn't want to get involved. It's her health business.

 

And her mother was on top of it and everything. So she had a lot of help, like she had a lot of support. But I have a family of doctors.

 

And I finally my sister's brilliant and absolutely brilliant. She's incredible. Really, if you're listening to this, you are the best.

 

Like she's the best, you know, medical practitioner that thinks outside the box. And that's what we need these days, because you can have something. But when it's been going on for so long, sometimes you need to think outside the box to really knock it out for good.

 

And the problem was she had an issue going on for so long that nobody was knocking it out. I finally went, you know what? That's it. I'm taking over.

 

I'm calling my sister. I'm calling my sister. I got on the phone with Lindsay.

 

I explained the whole situation. Then I said, Brittany's going to talk to you, talk with Brittany. And my sister got on the phone with the doctor at her family doctor that she speaks with, that she deals with at the clinic she was going to.

 

And they had a really great discussion. And they both were thinking outside the box. And Lindsay basically gave the information of what Brittany needed at this point to knock it out. And boy, did they knock it out. Knocked it out. Knocked it out.

 

I got knocked out 14 days of two drugs. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Two needles in my body. Yeah. Oh, my God.

 

Like heavy, heavy. You were on, but you were on all of those like antibiotics. I was on 12 antibiotics before.

 

It was constant. Let's go back. We're going to go back.

 

I don't want to talk about Brittany being sick. That's sad. And no, because Brittany's well now.

 

Brittany's happy. Brittany's well. Brittany's flowing.

 

Brittany's life is taking a good turn. Brittany's life is great. She is a new Brittany and she is.

 

Yeah, you're slaying it now. I'm lit. You are lit.

 

I'm slaying this shit. Lit. She's feeling great.

 

I am. I am. I'm feeling good.

 

I'm talking about myself. Oh, she's feeling great. She's feeling happy.

 

She's feeling hormonal. You know what? That's great. Talk about yourself now.

 

Joining us today is the incredible Joanna Strover, CEO of MediHealth. Joanna is dedicated to providing expert care for women navigating menopause. Welcome, Joanna.

 

Thank you. We're so happy to have you here today. Yeah, we're so excited.

 

It's a funny connection, meaning that I still deal with, obviously, my monthly cycles and I deal with like my heat flashes and I'm so hot. I'm hormonal because my period's coming. Pimple is coming.

 

And then Nikki here is already telling me how hot she is. Her heat coming off her body is bothering me because I'm overheated and I'm already sweating. And I already have something here to do this because I'm always hot.

 

And I usually have a neck fan that one of my very best friends gave me that absolutely helps in so many, so many ways. But yeah, we both deal with different things. The fact that we are a dynamic duo and she's 26 and I'm 50 is just very interesting.

 

Well, it's all hormones, right? You're really dealing with the same thing. You're just different stages of the hormonal journey. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So if I were to write a coloring book about menopause, there would definitely be tornadoes in the coloring book. OK, like whipping me around.

 

OK, like that's how I feel. OK, and there would definitely be water because I'm always drenched and soaking. It's just it's a wild, wild thing to go through.

 

Yeah, I remember when I was, I think, around Brittany's age, around 26, I called a good friend of mine and I was crying about something. I don't remember what it was. And my good friend very nicely said, is it possible you're about to get your period? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Yeah, you know what? I don't want to downplay what you're experiencing, but maybe you're just about to get your period. You're hormonal and you're you're we're up, down, up, down, up, down. You know, it's nonstop.

 

Yeah. So so can you start by maybe telling us who you are and your background and really what inspired you to be an advocate and help women dealing with menopause? Yeah, so I'm Joanna Strober. I'm the founder of a company called Midi Health.

 

We are a virtual care clinic for women and we deal with all the aspects of menopause. We deal with perimenopause. We actually deal with a lot of women in their 20s who are coming because they're having hormonal questions, too.

 

Essentially, we're a hormone clinic to help you navigate your hormonal issues. And women come to us for hot flashes, for anxiety, depression, joint pain, painful sex, sleep issues, all the issues that are related to their to their hormones. And and what's can you tell us a little bit about your your program? Exactly what how does it work? The woman walks in, she says.

 

All online, everything is online. OK, that's great. OK, online, walking online.

 

See, I'm 50 born in 73. So I'm still in that old school thinking that we're walking into a clinic. But really, it's online.

 

And so how do you offer different, you know, opportunities for them to help themselves? Yeah, so what's really important is, you know, women mostly don't have time to take off a half a day to go to a doctor, right? Children, they're going to work. There's a lot. So everything we do is offered virtually. It's all it's all virtually.

 

You go to our website, which is joinmidi.com. You book a visit. You answer some questions on our pre-visit questionnaire.

 

You. You answer, right. So answer questions because of our pre-visit questionnaire, and then your insurance will pay for your visit with us.

 

So you come, you have a visit covered by insurance. And that is essentially how it works. And then, you know, you come back to us and we take care of different symptoms.

 

So it really just depends on what symptoms you're experiencing. And then we take care of you. OK, that's great.

 

And and so if there is a symptom like, you know, the painful sex, what exactly how to what what is what? Do you have painful sex? I feel like you're saying something here. Let's talk. Let's discuss.

 

Let's discuss. First of all, I am not the norm. I am definitely not the norm.

 

I have no problems with sex. I have no problems with dryness. I have no problems with pain.

 

And as menopause moves forward for me, I get more horny. Now explain that to me. This is a little bit too much TMI.

 

But go ahead. Listen, you want me to be raw.

 

I'm raw. Do you ever have people like that? You know, so I'm not a provider. I want to be clear. I'm not a doctor.

 

So my job is to create an environment for you to come to ask the right questions. But truthfully, 85 percent of women or more actually do experience basically dryness in their vagina. And the reality is that for most women, vaginal estrogen is the best answer for them.

 

They can it's something very easy. It's inexpensive and it can help. There are also other medications like testosterone or Addy that we can prescribe if you are experiencing low libido, for example.

 

There are a lot of different options for women and many women come to us because they're scared. They've lost their libido. They've lost their arousal.

 

They've lost their desire for sex. And they're trying to figure out how am I going to navigate the next number of years with my marriage when that's happened? Honestly, we also have a lot of women coming to us and they're divorced. And they want to start having sex again.

 

Maybe they haven't had sex for quite a long time. And so there are things that we can do to help them. So sexual health is a big part of what we do for women.

 

And I think it's a really important part of their lives. And our job is to just make sure that you understand that you have options and that your body might be different than it was when it was 26. But that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy a great sex life.

 

We just have to make sure you have the right solutions. That's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful.

 

I like your shirt. Menopause is hot. Yeah, I love it.

 

Menopause is hot. That's cool. Well, I mean, like I think I'm on the lower lower age bracket of the heavier menopause, you know, where things will start to really take place.

 

So I'm happy that I'm still jumping around the bedroom ready to rock. You know what I'm saying? Because if not, I mean, I don't know when this is going to hit me, but it could be soon. So I might need your services.

 

You never know. You know, honestly, it would be very unusual to age and not have some of these issues because it's all related to your estrogen in your body. Right.

 

So estrogen fluctuates. There are just different things that happen. And, you know, for example, estrogen actually is one of the reasons why women start to look older, because as our estrogen goes down, our skin gets thinner and and less moist.

 

And that's actually why when you that's why when you see older women, they have very they can have very thin skin. And so actually, maybe we prescribe a estrogen skin for your cream for your face as well, because just like the vaginal cream, just because, you know, just like the vaginal wall that gets thin and gets dry and you put estrogen in your vagina and it makes it the walls thicker and moister, you can actually do the same thing for your face with estrogen. And so we prescribe an estrogen cream for your face as well.

 

So, you know, honestly, I think the goal, our goal at MidiHealth is to make sure that, you know, all of your options. If you have a great sex life, that's great. I'm very lucky.

 

I'm very lucky. But truthfully, I do know people that are suffering like I do know, you know, and the seven dwarfs of menopause is itchy, bitchy, sweaty, sleepy, bloated, forgetful and crazy. I think, you know, actually makes me super sad, right? Because women don't know that all that can be treated.

 

So they think of it as something they have to suffer. And they live with it. And they live with it.

 

I have a question for you about the like vaginal substitute and the, you know, the cream for the face and it's got hormones in it. And of course, the uptake into the vaginal walls, the wet mucous membrane pulls it all in and it runs through the body. Does it cause, you know, any kind of problems? Ovarian cancer, breast cancer, anything like that because of the constant additional hormones? Yeah, it doesn't matter.

 

Actually, they've done a lot of research on it. It's not systemic. So if you're scared of the hormones, you can actually still, even breast cancer survivors can use the vaginal estrogen on there and it is not systemic and it does not have any impact.

 

Okay. I used to know a pharmacist actually that would put together vaginal substitutes that didn't have any estrogen or testosterone in it, but it did cause more lubrication. And is that a good first step before the hormones? No.

 

I think as a 26 year old, my, I guess you could say sex drive or has gone up since I took away my IUD with the hormone. Right. Is that common thing? Because when I had that, I had like no sex drive.

 

I've heard that before. Yeah. You know, honestly, I think what's important to understand is it's all hormonal, right? Like this is all hormonal and for everyone it's different, but a lot of, a lot of iterating needs to happen.

 

So really a lot of iterating needs to happen. So for sometimes, sometimes maybe you have more sex drive with estrogen and maybe other times less, but what you need is someone to talk to, to help you to iterate and to try different things. And honestly, a lot of it is I don't want you to suffer.

 

So I just don't want women to feel like they have to suffer through, as you said, the seven dwarves of menopause, but really all the things that you shouldn't, there's, there are really good medications or supplements that you can take to help you deal with all of those things. And I think for too long, we've just been willing to say I think for too long, we've just been willing to say, suffer, grin, bear it. It's just normal parts of aging.

 

And you know, we don't say that about diabetes. We don't say that about hypertension. We certainly don't say it to men about erectile dysfunction.

 

So I think it's time to stop saying that to women. Right, right, right. Okay.

 

Wow. I look, I'm the kind of person that gets a major sugar craving. I'm running on the treadmill and I'm eating a chocolate bar.

 

So like I'm there, I understand. Sometimes you do what you have to do, but there's also time to fix what's going on and help help what's happening. So I get that, you know, I want to take it back.

 

What you said there about how people really don't talk about menopause. And I wanted to talk about, you know, why, why has menopause been such a taboo topic and how can we go forward to, you know, empowering other females to talk about it and to be like, Hey, I like Nikki, I have hot flashes. I'm a hot mess, but that's fine.

 

Right. Like how can we move past the whole embarrassment? Um, uh, sorry. So, um, how can we move past the whole embarrassment? That is a really good question.

 

I mean, I think you shouldn't be embarrassed, right? It's just a normal part of body function and you shouldn't be embarrassed and you should just, um, experience it and get treated for it. I think when women are embarrassed, maybe it's partially because they don't know what can be treated. And so they, they think it's secret.

 

If you don't know you can get treatment for something, maybe you're much more likely to be secret about it. Honestly, in the workforce, there's an enormous amount of discrimination about for older women and they're scared probably of that discrimination happening if they acknowledge it.

 

Um, and then, you know, honestly, with regard to the painful sex stuff, for example, I think they're really scared of losing their marriages, right? And so they don't want to talk about it. Um, but instead we have to shout from the rooftops that there are solutions because it gets