Women’s Bodies and Hair Through Life Stages, with Dr. Isabelle Raymond

(air whooshes) (mouse clicks) (calming music) Headspace Studios. (serene ambient music) Hi, friends. Welcome to "Radio Headspace." Today, we're talking about something that so many women experience, but don't always hear enough about, hormonal shifts. I'm joined by Dr. Isabelle Raymond, Senior Vice President of Global Medical and Clinical Affairs at Nutrafol, and together, we're unpacking what's actually happening in our bodies during big transitions, like postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause. We talk about things like stress, sleep changes, mood shifts, and even hair shedding, and how understanding what's going on can help us move through these stages with a little more ease, compassion, and support. Dr. Isabelle, thank you for joining us on "Radio Headspace." I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today. Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to speak. Well, today I have a couple of specific questions and, well, specifically about hormones because I know this is something that you are very passionate about, and one of my first questions is, how hormones play such a central role in women's health. There's transitions that happen that I really wanna get into from firsthand experience. These transitions can be really stressful both emotionally and physically. So what are some of the major hormonal shifts that women experience across their lives? Yes, so I'm sure we're all familiar with them, but I don't think we've really, as women, or even as a society, studied them in a way that really puts them in perspective for us as we go through them. So obviously there's puberty and there is postpartum or you know, pregnancy, postpartum, and then there's menopause. And so those really are some of the big shifts. But when we think about it, women go through shifts on a monthly basis, right? We go through shifts, first part of the month is very different than our second part of the month. And so I think now there's more and more conversation that is being had, which is so good for us to be able to identify and understand what's going on with us, not only through life stages, but also through the month. And so, honestly, it just brings us back to all like, what is happening to reduce the anxiety and stress that it can bring to us, right? If we know to expect these changes or know how hormones affect us, not only, you know, throughout our lives, but even on a monthly basis, that really helps us to understand, you know, why am I suddenly feeling a little more anxious at this time of the month? Or why am I feeling anxious at this time of my life? Right? I think puberty is not something that we approach that with, but I think menopause has become such a huge, huge conversation and all of the things that are coming up with that, and also explaining to us why, you know, if you do have anxiety and stress throughout...