Peri-sode 101- Hormones, Pregnancy, Loss and the realisation that I might need HRT

🎙️ High Tea with Lady V

Episode: The Hormonal Rollercoaster, the Vortex Below, and Why You Should Offend More Often

Welcome back to High Tea with Lady V—where we spill the tea on midlife, hormones, and the beautiful chaos of womanhood with honesty, sass, and zero apologies.

In this episode, we dive headfirst into:

💥 Why being "nice" is overrated once you hit perimenopause
 🌪️ My current hormonal experiment (estrogen-only first phase, adding progesterone at day 14)
 💊 The different types of HRT delivery routes—and why we’re out of patches in Australia (but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of Viagra 🙄)
 🧬 The difference between the pill and HRT (synthetic vs bioidentical estrogen)
 🧠 Why this journey is full of trial and error—and why that’s okay
 📋 A DIY Menopause Symptom Score Test (grab a pen!)
 🧾 What tests to ask your doctor for so you're not missing something serious
 💪 Why “knowing your numbers” now can change your future
 🎉 The teaser you’ve all been waiting for… next week’s episode: THE PUSSY. (Yes, with a capital P.)

🔥 Takeaways:

• You don’t have to suffer through symptoms for the next 25 years.
• Your hormones aren’t “bad”—they’re just changing.
• Advocate for your health, your pleasure, and your peace of mind.
• And most importantly—water your lady garden. 🌸

🧪 Lady V’s Suggested Medical Checklist:

• ✅ Complete blood count
• ✅ Comprehensive metabolic panel
• ✅ Lipid test
• ✅ Hemoglobin A1C
• ✅ Vitamin D, Iron, B12
• ✅ Inflammatory markers
• ✅ Mammogram + Ultrasound (if applicable)
• ✅ Bone density scan

💡 Quote of the Episode:

"Knowledge is power. Power is wisdom. And a wise vagina is an informed vagina."

⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only. It is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical concerns or before making any health decisions. The views expressed are those of the host and guests, not any medical institution.

🎧 Tune in next week for:
"The Pussy: A Deep Dive into the Vortex"
The hoo-ha. The fluffy. The taco. The vault. We’re naming it, claiming it, and talking ALL about it.

🎙️ Filmed from Pussy HQ.

00:00 Introduction to High Tea with Lady V

00:42 Understanding Perimenopause

01:26 Personal Journey and Unexpected Pregnancy

05:20 Navigating Hormonal Changes

09:41 Exploring Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

13:31 Menopausal Symptom Scoring Test

16:09 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Topics

Thanks for listening! What topics do you want to delve into? Let us know at v@highteawithladyv.com

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Transcript

Welcome back, ladies, to High Tea with Lady V. This is our first mini—so actually, let’s name it Peri. That’s much more fitting. Really, who can hold their attention longer than 10 minutes on one topic if we’re currently in our forties and fifties?

You young ones in your twenties and thirties—just you wait. So what’s a freaking Peri, you ask? It’s a short 10-minute Lady V rant about a topic, an item, a statement, a piece of information that I feel super passionate about. And ladies, don’t we have heaps of those rants nowadays?

So what am I here to rant about today?

A lot of women have messaged and asked, “Aren’t you too young for perimenopause?” Now, I know we’ve mentioned this before, but perimenopause and hormonal changes begin around 35 to 40 and can last up to 15 years. I’m now 42—so only nine years off the average age of menopause. I’ve always thought I was pretty in tune with my body, but we have to remember: hormonal decline is a slow burn. They don’t just disappear overnight. Those little bastards start drying up years before they leave you. Those muffin tops? They don’t just grow in a week—that’s years of foundational work going on there.

So here’s my story on how I discovered something wasn’t quite right with my hormones.

Nine months ago, I had just started Brian Johnson’s Blueprint vitamins—you know, the crazy biohacker who spent millions measuring his biomarkers and health. I was super fit. I was feeling amazing. My mind was sharp and clear—it was as if a fog had just lifted. I’d been having heel pain, and suddenly, it disappeared. Basically, I was 20 again.

I said to my husband, “I am feeling amazing—it must be this new protocol. Brian Johnson, you’re a freaking god,” was what I was thinking in my head. I felt so great. However, I’d gone for a cross-country ski, and my cardiovascular fitness had tanked. I even took a photo and posted it with the caption: “Week before period? Say goodbye to your cardiovascular endurance.”

Then I had a really rather strange period—fairly short and light. I dismissed it. They’ll get heavier tomorrow. They never did. But I was fit. Maybe that’s what it is? I blissfully thought that my monthly friend had come and gone.

Then I thought to myself, Was that long enough? Hmm… that discharge was a little like implant discharge…
Shit.

I rang my girlfriend. She laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed and said, “You idiot. You’re pregnant. Remember the implant bleeding you had for your first two pregnancies? I even took you to hospital the first time!”

I did a pregnancy test—and there it was. I was pregnant, ladies.

Maybe it is all about not getting pregnant. And darling, I’ll never forget that laugh. I rang my husband and I’m in tears. We have kids that are seven and ten. I’m thinking, What the F are we going to do?

I’d always been on the fence about a third, but I’d put my leg back over the fence, bought an ex-racehorse to train and compete. I was planning life beyond five-year-olds and toddlers. I was out for a bit more independence. I mean, they can dress themselves now. Hello, freedom-ish.

And I was feeling amazing. Freaking Brian Johnson. I did later read that all those vitamins I was taking can help with fertility—and so can a freaking handsome husband. And I’ll also blame our freaking friends who kindly gifted us a swanky hotel room. You know who you are, you bastards.

So here I was, celebrating my 42nd birthday in shock, fear, and a little bit of excitement… maybe.

I actually hadn’t learned how not to get pregnant in PDHPE, but after all the tears and the blaming of others—especially my husband—we were super excited about the impending new addition. Our kids were beside themselves with joy. And I truly felt incredible.

This was not like a pregnancy in my thirties, where I was a space cadet—absent-minded, sick, and just felt rotten. This time, my mind was sharper. I felt normal again.

Unfortunately for us, we lost our baby at 10 weeks. And that’s a whole other podcast—because ladies, for all of you who have loved and lost a pregnancy—fuck, that’s a hardship to be on. And one, frankly, I was not prepared to navigate.

But, as I mentioned, that is a whole other podcast in itself.

What the experience did make me realize, though, is that my hormones were not like they used to be. And when we are pregnant, our estrogen surges. Clearly, I had been running on way less estrogen and progesterone than I thought.

Those surges had made me feel normal again. My body wasn’t aching. I felt clear in the head. I had been feeling phenomenal. And when that ship left me, I was a mess. Granted, I would’ve been a mess in my thirties too after a miscarriage, but when my hormones rebalanced, those perimenopausal symptoms were exacerbated.

Irritability. Sleeplessness. Postural dizziness—I was always just slightly dizzy standing up. My joints ached. The brain fog—I don’t think I knew what day it was for two months. I was thinking, Oh my god, what the F is wrong with me?

I had started to experience some symptoms that were really affecting my everyday life.

Electric shock syndrome—I was getting these little electric shocks. Tingling in my extremities. I had convinced myself I was heading into major neurological decline. Sleeplessness and insomnia—waking up at 2:00 a.m. and forgetting everything.

And then there were the raging feelings—I’m happy, I’m sad, I’m happy again. Wait, hang on—what the F do I actually feel?

Then I had the inability to focus. I was a bit achy all over. Not really recovering from exercise like I used to. I felt lonely and a bit isolated—and there were like a hundred people at my house on a daily basis, and I still felt lonely.

It was like being a teenager all over again.

My pelvic floor had started to betray me the week before my period. And I got heavy periods. I was walking backwards, leaving meetings, because that menstrual cup was overflowing. Yes ladies, thank you—I actually use one now.

I had also had a full health scan five months prior which had involved a DEXA scan, ultrasound of all my organs, blood tests. I was hooked up to a machine and told to run to check my cardiovascular fitness and my heart. I had my grip strength and flexibility tested. You name it—it was tested.

I had spoken to the doctor about these weird little incidents where I’d be sitting in bed and I would feel as if air was being pushed out of my lungs or my heart would skip a beat. They couldn’t find anything.

And I had no interest in intimacy. My poor husband was holding out equally, hoping for that glisten in my eye—for me to look at him like I did five years ago, or when I was pregnant. Because he’s looking at me the same way he always has. And I was avoiding his stares.

And it made me realize that navigating perimenopause is a joint journey for our partners too. And it’s not just when it comes to intimacy—fuck, everything they do pisses us off. And as estrogen heads south, along goes empathy.

And many of us start to get resentful. Frustrated. We can’t understand how incompetent our partners are. They can’t pick up their freaking socks and dirty underwear from the side of the bed, or figure out what day the kids wear which clothes to school, or how to work the vacuum—yet for some, they’re running businesses.

Actually, a majority of men are running the world. And we start to think—how the big F did we let this happen?

Ladies—estrogen has blindsided us for years, and we start to get angry. We are not as nice or understanding as we used to be. We don’t let things slide like we used to. And we get a little resentful. Not to say that some of this resentment isn’t warranted—but as women, we tend to set the mood of the family, and we don’t want our family hating us.

Even if we feel like running them over with a bus—we actually do kind of love them. We’re just pissed off.

So I started delving into midlife hormones because I couldn’t believe the difference in my cognitive ability and mood when I was pregnant. And six months later, this led me to try HRT—or MHT, as some people call it.

My recent journey with hormone therapy has mostly been pretty positive. Firstly, I had forgotten what it was like to sleep. I can sleep for four hours after taking progesterone and still feel better than I did after sleeping eight hours without it.

I felt like me again. And yes, I’m still yelling at the kids, but now I feel like it’s warranted yelling—not just psychotic yelling.

I’m less bloated. I’m less achy. And those little heart flutters? I haven’t had one since starting HRT. My postural dizziness is gone. I’m also not waking up every five seconds to pee. And I feel mentally stable. More so—mentally strong.

So any of those shit comments from TikTok—from men about women’s hormones and vaginas when I post something—you can all F off. Because you’re only viewing my reel because you searched the word “vagina,” you dirty bastards.

But to my point—I actually don’t care. Whereas before I would’ve been under the doona hiding, thinking my life was over and taking their comments to heart. Now I feel like a stable midlife woman who doesn’t give a shit anymore. Basically, as young girls, we are taught to read the room and not offend—but as perimenopausal women and beyond, we’ve realized that’s pretty much bollocks. Offend away, ladies.

But it is early days. What I did find, though, is that during the luteal phase, the estrogen made me feel slightly crazy. So I dropped the dose a little, and this cycle, I’m trying estrogen only in the first phase, then introducing progesterone at day 14.

Previously, I took progesterone the whole way through. There are a few different ways you can approach HRT, but obviously, you’ll be guided by your doctor and your personal experience. For example, if you’ve had a hysterectomy, you can take estrogen only. But if you still have a uterus, you need to take progesterone to stop the lining of your uterus from overgrowing and potentially causing endometrial cancer.

This is actually what progesterone naturally does in our bodies.

There are also different forms of delivery—routes. Patches are a transdermal uptake of the hormone, and it’s now proven to be one of the safest routes. However… we’ve run out of patches in Australia, ladies. Yep, it’s 2025 and we don’t have enough hormonal patches for perimenopausal and menopausal women in Australia. But rest assured—there is enough Viagra. So don’t stress. Your partners can still get it up… we just won’t want to have sex with them.

Then there’s estrogen gel, which is applied to the skin, and you take progesterone tablets with this.

You can also take estrogen tablets—but there is some research to suggest that taking it via the oral route may increase the risk of blood clots.

And why don’t we just take the pill? Well, the pill actually contains a higher dose of estrogen and it’s also taken orally. Plus, the pill uses synthetic estrogen, whereas HRT typically uses bioidentical estrogen. There is one pill that uses bioidentical estrogen, but it also contains synthetic progesterone.

And yep, there’s definitely trial and error—because we are all different. Different in how we respond, and in how much estrogen and progesterone we still have. So working through these issues with a medical professional is absolutely paramount.

Now, let’s run through a standard menopausal scoring test.

Have a think about the symptoms—they creep up on us. Things change, and it’s all a slow burn.

Grab a piece of paper and a pen, and score the following symptoms:

• 0 = No symptoms
• 1 = Mild
• 2 = Moderate
• 3 = Severe

I’ll say that again—for each of the following symptoms, score 0 to 3 based on severity.

We’ll start now:

• Hot flushes
• Lightheadedness
• Headaches
• Irritability
• Depression
• Feeling unloved
• Anxiety
• Mood changes
• Sleeplessness
• Tiredness
• Back pain
• Joint pain
• Muscle pain
• New hair growth
• Dry skin
• Crawling sensations under the skin
• Reduced sexual feelings
• Vaginal dryness
• Uncomfortable intercourse
• Urinary frequency

Now, I want you to add those up. Get your calculator out—or if you’re amazing and not in a full brain fog moment, add it up in your head… or just ask Siri.

Okay—scores over 15 indicate that estrogen deficiency is likely contributing to your symptoms, and you’ll want to discuss treatment options with your doctor.

Scores between 20 and 50? You’ll definitely want to book that appointment.

Basically, we are aiming to be under 10. That’s the sweet spot. Because we shouldn’t have to live with shitty symptoms for 25 years.

And if you do choose to visit your doctor and discuss the results from the test, you’ll want to ask for a few more things too. Why? Because you want to make sure your symptoms aren’t being caused by something else.

Ask for:

• A complete blood count
• A comprehensive metabolic panel
• A lipid test
• A hemoglobin A1C
• Vitamin D
• Iron
• B12
• Inflammatory markers
• A mammogram and ultrasound (if needed)
• A bone density scan

Because knowing where we sit now—having a benchmark—can be incredibly powerful. Your “normal” might not be the same as someone else’s “normal.”

And there you have it, ladies. Arm yourself with knowledge. Speak with your doctor. Explore all the options.

I’ll 100% keep you up to date with my own hormonal journey. I’m sure there’ll be some pretty shitty moments—but hey, that’s hormones, right?

And when it comes to supporting your body through “the change,” I cannot wait to bring you one of my recent interviews. It will absolutely blow your mind—on nutrition, health, and midlife hormones, and what we can do to aid the transition.

And don’t forget—I know I’ve promised this a few times—but next week will be the long-awaited podcast:

The Pussy.

The hoo-ha.
 The fluffy.
 The VJJ.
 The lady garden.
 The peach.
 The flower.
 The honeypot.
 The cupcake.
 The kitty.
 The muff.
 The pink palace.
 The taco.
 The fanny.
 The foof.
 The coochie.
 The beaver.
 The vault.
 The pussy.

I don’t think a man’s penis has had this many nicknames. No wonder we’re so freaking confused—we don’t even know what to call it.

Yes, that’s right ladies—we are going to be talking about that vortex that is the vagina.

Till next time, my beautiful VJJs. Water those lady gardens—because they are worth it. And remember:

Knowledge is power.
 Power is wisdom.
 And a wise vagina is an informed vagina.

Please note: This podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only. The content shared is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for any medical concerns or before making any health-related decisions. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the host and guests, and do not represent those of any medical organization or institution.

Thank you for joining us—filming from Pussy HQ.