Midlife Butterfly: Healing, Empowerment & Self-Discovery

#18 - The Hormone Map: Reclaiming Your Body, Power & Joy in Midlife

• Kena Siu • Episode 18

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In this juicy and eye-opening episode of Midlife Butterfly, we’re talking hormones—those magical messengers that govern everything from your energy to your sex drive. I’m joined by the radiant Ashley Rocha, founder of Ladywell and herbalist on a mission to revolutionize how we women relate to our bodies. If you've ever felt like a hormonal rollercoaster was running your life (hi, midlife queens!), this convo is your permission slip to take your power back—with knowledge, compassion, and plant magic.


In this episode we explore:

  • Why hormones are the CEOs of your body—and how they impact your mood, energy, weight, and libido
  • The different hormonal phases of your life: from puberty to menopause and beyond
  • Signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalances and how to actually address them (no, PMS isn’t “just part of being a woman”)
  • Ashley’s healing journey with PMDD and how herbal medicine changed everything
  • The power of adaptogens, functional mushrooms, and nutrition in supporting hormonal health
  • How cycle tracking gives you superpowers—from productivity to intuition to better sex
  • Busting myths around hormones, PMS, and menopause—let’s drop the shame and reclaim the truth
  • Practical tools to move through perimenopause with grace, pleasure, and self-love
  • Reviving your libido in midlife and why pleasure is not optional
  • How hormonal shifts can actually enhance your intuitive gifts and creativity


Use code BUTTERFLY20 for 20% off all LadyWell supplements at  getladywell.com and follow @GetLadyWell on social media for ongoing education about hormonal health.


Reflection Questions for You:

  1. In what ways have I ignored or pushed through my body’s signals instead of honoring them?
  2. What’s one small shift I can make this week to support my hormonal harmony?
  3. How can I rewrite my story around aging, hormones, and what it means to be a powerful woman in midlife?


You can find all the podcast details right here: http://midlifebutterfly.ca/podcast

Download the Midlife Butterfly Guide with 5 Radical Practices to Heal, Take Your Power Back & Rise

Follow Kena on Instagram: @kenasiu

Join the Midlife Butterfly Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/midlifebutterfly

For Coaching, Courses & More Visit Kena's Website: http://midlifebutterfly.ca/workwithme

Request a Free Empowered Call with Kena if you're interested in working with her: https://midlifebutterfly.ca/empoweredsession


Song: Reborn by Alexander Nakarada

Kena Siu:

What if your hormones are the CEOs of your body, trying to guide you so you can experience more flow and well-being? Midlife butterfly a woman in the sacred in between. She's not who she once was and not quite who she's becoming. Yet she's unraveling, awakening, remembering. She's navigating life transitions, divorce, loss, reinvasion moves with a burning desire for freedom, joy and solid living. She feels the pull to rise, to fly. She's no longer afraid of her own wings. In this episode and Midlife Butterfly, we have Ashley Rocha, the founder and CEO of Lady Well, a hormonal health supplement company for women. She's a hormonal health expert, entrepreneur and a mother of two. This is a jammy topic, so let's dive in. You are here and also if you can tell me a bit about your story, of what brought you to this path of talking about hormones for women, for their health and well-being.

Ashley Rocha:

Yes, so I began Ladywell. It's really a mission-driven company. Based on my own life experiences, I struggled with hormones for decades. Ever since puberty, I was thrown into this cycle of monthly just gigantic mood swings, really quick to anger, so much period pain I was taking 20 Advil a day. This went on for two decades. Whenever I went to my doctor, I was always told hormonal birth control was the solution, or SSRIs, which are antidepressants. I knew I wasn't depressed because it went away after I got my period and I was also just led to believe PMS was normal and it was part of being a woman. I just need to put up with it. And though I felt like I was abnormal in my experience of being so moody, I just felt like, oh, this is just me and my personality and I'm sure you just like start to make up stories about yourself. And then, as my mid thirties, when I tried to get pregnant and I was a little bit slow to get pregnant, I was like, okay, I really want to have babies. What's going on here?

Ashley Rocha:

And so I really started focusing on my health and looking at my hormones because I knew fertility and hormones are related and so I am a herbalist. I studied herbalism and I started I knew the power of the plant world and plant medicine. So I started looking into the plant world to solve my issues because my doctors for balancing my hormones. So I started working with a naturopathic doctor, which was extremely helpful and I started finding herbs and functional mushrooms and eating right and just changing my diet and finding these herbs put together.

Ashley Rocha:

I put together formulas that really changed my life. I was able to get rid of my PMDD within about six months, something I'd had for so many decades. That affected my relationships, my productivity at work, just my overall happiness, and so that was just a game changer for my quality of life in general. And then I was able to get pregnant. I have two baby boys now, and without having to do IVF or anything like that, just naturally, and I began Ladywell. Because it took me so long to find these solutions and these solutions are so important, I want to make them accessible, easy to find for women. Accessible, easy to find for women. Hormonal health is really misunderstood. It's not, it's barely talked about. We're talking about a lot more now, which is amazing. When I was growing up like we didn't talk about our hormones, we didn't know what they were. So I want to just continue educating women about their hormonal health how, what symptoms to look for, how to fix them through plant-based medicine, diet, exercise and all that and just improve women's lives through their health.

Kena Siu:

Wow.

Ashley Rocha:

And Ladywell is really about targeted life stages, because we're all on a mental health journey from puberty to menopause. Yeah, whether we like it or not, our hormones dictate a lot about our health and who we are as women. They control everything. I like to describe hormones as the CEOs of your body. They're in charge, like the internet connection. So if your internet's like wonky and going in and out, these messengers aren't going to be sent through your bloodstream and things are just going to go awry and not work properly and you're going to feel a variety of symptoms, it's not just necessarily going to be about your period. It's going to feel fatigued, you're going to have all these things that could fall out of place. And so if your internet connection, your hormones is not working properly, things are gonna go awry in your body, so it's important that your hormones are online and functioning.

Kena Siu:

Yeah, oh wow. Thank you so much for that, for sharing your experience. I can't believe that it took you like six months to override like your experience of 20 years. That's quite like insane.

Ashley Rocha:

I mean I also. I changed. I started eating more protein and stabilized my blood sugar. You know, drinking less caffeine. So lifestyle changes too.

Kena Siu:

Other changes? Okay, yeah, to tell you the truth, I don't know much about hormones. As you said, it's yeah, it's kind of. I think I'm getting more interested now that I'm 47. Eventually I'm going to get into perimenopause, so I'm kind of like, okay, so eventually I need to know more about this. But, as you said, yeah, we'll be living through it through our whole lives as women, and it's important knowledge because it's something that you said is our CEO of our bodies, and so I would like you to share kind of like the hormones 101 for us. Can you give us like a simple breakdown of the key hormones that shapes a woman's life and how they influence our different stages, as you say, like when we are teenagers and how we are growing, and then up to menopause or post-menopause?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, so we have a lot of hormones in our body, the sex hormones. The important ones that we can talk about are estrogen Estrogen regulates mood, your menstrual cycle, your reproductive health, and this peaks in the first half of your cycle and it really helps maintain bone density and skin health. And then progesterone is known as the calming hormone and this supports pregnancy and helps balance estrogen, and this peaks after ovulation. So if you ovulate and you um have sex then and potentially get pregnant, the progesterone will help support the pregnancy and carry that through. Testosterone we hear this a lot about men and their testosterone, but we also have testosterone and this supports libido, muscle mass, energy levels.

Ashley Rocha:

We have cortisol, which you might hear about, which is the stress hormone. It helps the body respond to stress, but can also cause issues if consistently elevated. So you know it's a. It's an important hormone because it's the stress response, the fight or flight. We need that to survive in the world. But if it's constantly elevated, then we're going to be in a state of just like chronic stress and that's going to really wreak havoc on our other hormones and fertility as well. If you're trying to get pregnant, stress is horrible for that, so cortisol is bad for that? Um, there's things that spike your cortisol too, like if you drink coffee on an empty stomach in the morning, your cortisol will spike. If you do too much cardio, that spikes your cortisol. So there's other ways, other than just stress, that can spike your cortisol uh.

Ashley Rocha:

Insulins one another uh hormone that regulates your blood sugar and your energy. Insulin resistance can impact your weight and overall health. So there's a lot of times in woman's life where they, especially during perimenopause, like we gain weight around our hips and thighs. Hormonal weight is usually around your hips and thighs or your stomach, like that spare tire. So if you have a hard time losing weight, even though if you're working out and eating right, you just can't lose that extra, those extra pounds, that can be hormonal weight and that can be a sign of a hormonal imbalance.

Ashley Rocha:

And then we have thyroid hormones that regulate your metabolism, your energy and at different points in your life these different hormones are important. During your puberty and menstrual years, estrogen and progesterone and testosterone are all going to be really important. Um, during perimenopause, like, those hormones are going to start to wane and they're going to kind of go crazy, and that's what causes the chaos in your life, cause your hormones are in a state of chaos because they're going through reverse puberty, basically, and they decline unevenly, sometimes leading to irregular cycles, PMS type of intensification and mood changes. So yeah, they're, they're. Your hormones come into different, different importance at different time. You know, when you're pregnant, trying to get pregnant or pregnant, you're going to have different hormones going to play. There, like oxytocin is the love hormone that bonds the mom and the baby, so that's gonna be released during or after pregnancy and during breastfeeding and then that kind of time, yeah, okay, you mentioned that, uh, during perimenopause, like we get a bit more of, you know, fat in in our bellies and and hips.

Kena Siu:

How can we know if we have, if it's the kind of like normal in a way you know for because we're going through that period, or if it's actually an hormonal unbalance in there? How can we know during?

Ashley Rocha:

perimenopause. Yes, yeah, I think you can expect it's something like 80% of women will have menopause symptoms. So I think it's. I think it's. You can't expect not to feel different during perimenopause and into menopause. Um, but yeah, if you and it's hard because you're becoming a different person and you look back at the person you were and you're like I want to be that, I want to gain the body that I used to have, so supplements can help you with your hormonal balance and managing your hormones. And there's HRT hormone replacement therapy that can also help you, and so that can help with that, um, the weight gain and, you know, reducing that and managing that.

Kena Siu:

Okay, okay, thank you for that. Um, there's still a lot of like, shame and misinformation about the hormonal changes, and more in women, right, like if you're in oh you're in PMS, like they pull you like a big X, you know, because if your mood changes a lot and then when we get to explode of this like that or this like this, what are some of the biggest myths about a woman's hormones and how can we rewrite that narrative of those myths because of our hormonal changes?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, we're just told to push through. In life in general, women are expected to be resilient, you know, not show any weakness. Hormonal shifts might be seen as weakness, but what I want to say is pms and pmdd hormonal imbalances such as that normal if you're having like really bad perimenopause symptoms, you can fix these things. We're told that it's just part of our journey and that we need to put up with the uncomfortable symptoms or the pain, and that's just not true. You know PMS and mood swings are dismissed as being emotional.

Ashley Rocha:

Like there's so many jokes about PMS. Right, like PMS. It's been turned into a joke, yes, but our fluctuating hormone levels really directly in brain chemistry. It's biology, it's not drama. And so we just kind of just minimize that as a society because women's health is not prioritized. Men's health has always been prioritized. There's a lack of education about women's health is not prioritized. Men's health has always been prioritized. There's a lack of education about women's health and, like during studies when they tested it on women and men, they found women's hormones to overcomplicate the tests and skew results. So they focus on men during per studies, research studies.

Ashley Rocha:

And that just shows you how much they just minimize women's hormones or just didn't care. Of course our hormones are more complicated, so that makes things more complicated and worthy of paying attention to, because women are half the population, so we should have the same support that men do, of course.

Kena Siu:

Yeah, you mentioned about PDD. What is that? I haven't heard about that.

Ashley Rocha:

There's PMS, PMDD and PM and PME. Actually, there's three things, but.

Ashley Rocha:

PMDD. Is PMS like really hyped up on steroids, like so. If you have, the really intense emotional symptoms of PMS are heightened, so really easy to anger, intense mood swings. You can have depression, anxiety, like those emotional symptoms. You can still have PMS symptoms like breast tenderness, bloating, painful periods, but it's just like really bad PMS. I mean, it's not PMS, it's different than PMS, it's more of a mood disorder.

Ashley Rocha:

Um, but if you feel like you have PMS, that's getting in the way of you living your life, if it's turning into a different person and you have regret after your period came you're like who was that person? That's definitely a sign of PMDD. And there's no blood test for PMDD or anything like that. But how you can diagnose PMDD is tracking your cycle and symptom-based, so seeing where symptoms land during your cycle. And so, yes, if you suffer from PMS, you think it's PMS and it's just really intense emotionally it's probably PMDD.

Ashley Rocha:

And then PME is about. If you have. We can be confused. If we're depressed and it's only around our period, that's related to your hormones. But if you have depression in general, that's where PME comes in and it's just exasperates existing conditions, like you could become even more depressed during your cycle during the second part of your cycle, or you might have even more anxiety. So it just takes existing psychological symptoms you might have and more anxiety. So it just takes existing psychological symptoms you might have and exasperates them okay, how important it is for women to track our cycles oh my gosh, it's the most important thing, I think, for us to do, because it gives you so much data about yourself.

Ashley Rocha:

It gives you really insightful information that you can use to plan your schedule. Uh, our, we, our energy fluctuates throughout our cycle dramatically. Um, our creativity peaks at certain points, though you want to socialize during ovulation time.

Kena Siu:

Right, yeah, they're more creative yeah, yeah.

Ashley Rocha:

And then the beginning of your cycle, you're more, you want to socialize, you want to get out there, you have more energy. And then the last part of your cycle, you're a little bit more introverted. You should adjust your workouts um, like to be more calming workouts, um, it's probably not a time like you want to plan a big like if you're doing a presentation, like like you might not have that you know charisma as you would in the beginning of your cycle. And then also it gives you data for yourself. If you ever want to go see a doctor like, you'll have the data of, like your symptoms that you've been tracking and you'll know you can start relating things to your cycle.

Ashley Rocha:

Like, for example, I was every month my period snuck up on me and I was always like, oh my god, what just happened? I never tracked my cycle for two decades and I was always surprised whenever my period came. But if I had been tracking my cycle, I would have started to see these, like these, um, like this, my symptoms were coming up at the same time every month and these trends, and I I think I would have gotten to the point quicker with fixing my hormones if I really kind of saw these trends happening, whereas I was just like totally in the dark and ignored it. And then, when you try to get pregnant, you of course need to know when you're ovulating. In high school, I think we're led to believe that you can get pregnant anytime in the month, but that's just so untrue. Like you have a fertile window and it gets smaller and smaller as you age. So when you're tracking your cycle, like you'll have so much historical data to go off of and you'll be able to better anticipate your ovulation window, your fertility window.

Kena Siu:

And if you don't want to get pregnant.

Ashley Rocha:

That's also equally as important, because then you'll know when. You know when to have sex and when not to have sex to avoid pregnancy. So all this data about your body is really important your periods, your fifth vital sign. If you're having skipping periods or periods are irregular, you will know. If you're tracking your cycle and that's a red flag that there's something off in your body and you shouldn't really ignore it. I know it's like I didn't get my period. That's kind of a nice thing for for some women, but it's also like your body telling you that something's not functioning correctly. So you should listen to those and fix those before your symptoms just snowball and maybe you won't eventually want to get pregnant. And like you didn't fix your hormones like when you're in your 20s and so you're in a you're in a harder place yeah, I actually started like tracking my cycle.

Kena Siu:

It's been like four or five years ago when I learned to do this program that I was taking and it was great for me to really understand how these different phases we go through and then, as you said, to understand my body but at the same time, to understand my fluidity well, like with mood, with productivity and all that.

Kena Siu:

And I believe that when we get to understand that, we get to be more compassion to ourselves because, as you said before, like like everything is focused or well, yeah, in more in men because of the studies and everything, but, as you said, we are half of the population, or probably more, in this world and getting to know that I consider now that it has to be like at school. We need to learn this, since we get our period, like on my case, like talking about sex and periods and stuff. The menstruation at home was kind of like a taboo. I only have one conversation with my mom. I don't know how it was for you. So unfortunately, it is a lot like that for women, that we don't have the information, but because it's not given to us, we don't have that kind of culture towards knowing our hormones and our bodies better yes, we are not empowered with that knowledge at all and at all, or like all right, you know, to be fair, my mom doesn't know this information either, so it's it's just been.

Ashley Rocha:

they can't pass it down if they don't know it, and that's why I want to change the dialogue now, so our next generation of daughters have access to this information.

Kena Siu:

Oh, yes, yeah, I love that, and it's interesting that well, you have two little boys, but still, eventually, I was really hoping for that daughter, but you know, the universe gives you what you need Exactly. I mean, eventually you might have you know.

Ashley Rocha:

Yes, I'm hoping for a daughter one day. So you know. So that's how it goes, yeah.

Kena Siu:

So can you tell us what actually happens hormonally in our 40s and 50s and how can we transition through perimenopause and menopause with ease and grace?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, grace, yeah, so, um, perimenopause can begin as early as 35, which feels really young to a lot of women. People are like no, but yeah so, but generally in your forties is when you go into perimenopause and your fifties. Menopause or perimenopause can last as long as 10 years, and usually does, and it's can be a time of chaos with your hormones and you're going to feel different throughout that whole time. As I said, estrogen and progesterone fluctuate and decline unevenly and this is what leads to all these symptoms. Your cortisol levels will increase, which is the stress hormone, and this can rise and lead to fatigue and weight gain around the belly. The difficulty managing stress Perimenopause symptoms are hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, brain fog, sleep disturbances super common and these begin to appear as your body transitions towards menopause. And there's like there's way more symptoms than that. There's like 50, a hundred, you know, like it depends on what woman you are Like.

Ashley Rocha:

It's so unique to women each person. But your testosterone will decline, so your libido will be affected, which will affect your energy as well and your muscle tone.

Ashley Rocha:

That's why, as you go into perimenopause, you should start lifting weights as a form of exercise and focus on that more so than focusing on um doing cardio, which will peak your cortisol, but also, like you, just need to be gaining that muscle mass. Yes, and then what menopause is is menopause is marked by a year without your period. So once you don't have a period for a year, then you'll know you're.

Kena Siu:

Okay, thank you for sharing that. To know, what can we kind of like expect in that? How does do hormonal fluctuations here and there? But, yeah, like about our confidence and, and you know, our mental wellbeing, what other, yeah, what?

Ashley Rocha:

impact. I mean, I think it completely affects your mood, and well, I mean talk about confidence. First, we're talking about how hormones affect your body and how you physically look. There's something called cortisol phase, where, if you have too much cortisol like, you'll have this like kind of moon phase and it's just less pretty than your normal phase.

Ashley Rocha:

So, there can be physical symptoms that show about hormonal imbalance, like acne, cortisol phase, weight gain imbalance like acne, cortisol phase, weight gain. So dry skin, oily skin, like there. It affects your beauty as well and I think people like respond to things that, like you know, we're all vain on some level. We don't want to look, we don't want to age quicker, like if you're it also can like the wrinkles right, so your hormones are out of balance. It can cause things like that and that's not something anybody is going for. So, yes, I think it definitely affects confidence in that way.

Ashley Rocha:

And then your emotions are heavily affected by your hormones, like, as I was saying, with the PMDD and perimenopause. Like your emotional state is just so linked to your hormones. It's almost just one. I had such an emotional rollercoaster my whole life because of my hormones and it's truly affects you. And with women, we're we're in this cycle and our hormones are going to fluctuate through the month. And so it was was our mood, and I think we should embrace that and celebrate that. We're not men, men's hormones set every 24 hours so they don't have the same like range of moods as we do.

Kena Siu:

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Ashley Rocha:

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Kena Siu:

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Ashley Rocha:

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Kena Siu:

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Ashley Rocha:

Low estrogen or progesterone can lead to irritability and mood swings and emotional instability, affecting how confident and capable a person might feel. High cortisol will create chronic stress and lead to feelings of overwhelm and insecurity, making it hard to feel emotionally balanced or confident. And then low testosterone will lead to fatigue and lack of motivation and reduce sex drive, which can really affect your confidence and relationship and your self-image. So all these hormones are doing different things for a body and imbalances in them or a lack of them will lead to different things.

Kena Siu:

Overall will just affect your well-being is it normal to be like uh hormone unbalanced, like in general, or?

Ashley Rocha:

I think it. Yeah. Well, hormonal imbalances are common.

Kena Siu:

Okay.

Ashley Rocha:

Uh, it's about 80% of women experience hormonal imbalances at some point in our life. Um, so if you're experiencing PMS and perimenopause, I would say it's. I would say it's impossible not to experience some kind of hormonal issues throughout your life. We have a long, long life, hopefully. Yeah, Things will change.

Ashley Rocha:

You go through different life stages. You'll have you might have times of having PMS. You might have times of no PMS. You know you're going to be in your fertile years. Maybe you're trying to get pregnant. You're going to have different life stages and different struggles. There'll be times you're eating better, exercising. Sometimes you're going to be eating poorly. So you know you might have hormonal imbalances come into play there. You might have times of stress where you're feeling really burnt out from work and that's really bad for your hormones. So you're gonna have different journeys in your life.

Ashley Rocha:

Um, but hormonal imbalances are really common. Our food system in america is really not set up that well. Our food's nutritionally depleted, so we don't get enough of the things we need through our foods a lot of the time, which is really unfortunate, and we're all like overworked and stressed out and so that stress is leading to, you know, spiking cortisol, not getting enough sleep. So our lifestyle habits really put us at a disadvantage to having balanced hormones, and that's where these symptoms begin to sneak in okay, okay, thank you for clarifying that, yeah I was just gonna say, and we also are, just like, surrounded by endocrine disruptors and I think it's important to understand that endocrine disruptors are so bad for your hormones.

Ashley Rocha:

And what endocrine disruptors are like, for example, um, artificial fragrances, plastics, things like that. Those are things that will affect your hormone health and your endocrine system and that will lead to hormonal imbalances, fertility issues. It's really common. So you want to, you know, cook with. You want to get rid of your non-stick pans. You want to avoid as much plastic as possible, even though I know it's really hard to do, but like you don't want to eat out of plastic containers that have been heated up, like water bottles that like the temperature fluctuates in receipt paper, like we're handed receipts a lot of time but the coating on that paper is really toxic.

Ashley Rocha:

Scented stuff Like you're scented laundry detergent or skincare products. You want to use clean skincare because your skin is your largest organ. That stuff will sink into your body. I had to stop burning candles Like that was like my kind of like my little Haven at night for so long before I realized all the toxins that are in those, with a sense. So once you start realizing these things and kind of think that life you're going to be in a better position. We can't all't all do everything like we can't avoid endocrine disruptors completely, but you can control as much as you can yeah, oh, thank you for sharing that.

Kena Siu:

That's, yeah, it makes me think a lot of different. You know, like, which habits do I have that I might actually shift so I can avoid them? Yeah, and I, yeah, and I, yeah, I them, yeah, and I totally agree. As you said, our skin is our biggest organ and taking care of it at a core level it's very important. What are some practical ways that we can do?

Ashley Rocha:

practical ways that we can do, can use. Yes, I think it's hard to say. Well, first of all, reduce as much stress you can in your life, but a lot of us have a really hard time doing that. Life is stressful. You really just can't avoid it.

Ashley Rocha:

I that's why I incorporate adaptogens into all my products, and so I recommend all people take adaptogens. They're so great for managing stress and helping your body build resilience to stress, because stress is going to happen. But it's how we react to that which is the important piece. So if something stressful comes into, if you get laid off at work, for example, if you're taking adaptogens, your body's going to have a better reaction than if you're just like unhealthy and like in a state of disarray. Your body's going to have a better reaction than if you're just like unhealthy and like in the state of disarray. Uh, your body's going to have, instead of like having a clenching, like negative feeling. It will help build reasons and have a better effect. So it won't be as unhealthy on your body. And adaptions help you adapt to something like, say, your cortisol is too high, it'll help bring the cortisol down. If your cortisol is too low, it'll raise the cortisol. It's kind of like this magical thing in the world that helps you to stay in balance.

Kena Siu:

Okay, that's a chance. Okay, make a note on that one.

Ashley Rocha:

So we use ashwagandha and our daily hormone balance and that's an adaptogen and it really helps you build this resilience to stress and also help you sleep. Adaptions are good at that as well. Shatavari is also a great one the female ginseng. So, yeah, I recommend that okay, thank you.

Kena Siu:

Thank you. Um many women like feel more in tune with their intuition at different times in their cycle, or probably in midlife transition or something, and do you think, like hormones also play a role in there, for us to be more connected to our intuition during certain periods in our menstruation cycle or, I don't know, like in our midlife, or how do you see that?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, I think hormones can significantly influence how in tune we feel with our intuition throughout our life stages, particularly during different phases of our menstrual cycle or in midlife transitions like perimenopause and menopause. Hormones can affect our emotions or energy level, and even our ability to connect with our inner selves. So, yeah, I definitely think so Okay, yeah, good.

Kena Siu:

So what? Well, I don't know like how I feel personally. Like I feel, like I told you before, like more creative or more uh tuned in, sometimes like when I am uh in my ovulation, uh period, but then also, like when I'm just just before that, like I have more energy and sometimes I have more kind of like downloads or information, like to connect through my, through my intuition. What's your, what's your experience with that?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, in your follicular phase, which is days one through 14 of your cycle the first half of your cycle, when estrogen is rising many women will feel more social, energized, optimistic. This may lead to greater clarity and decision-making and a stronger connection to intuition. Estrogen can help enhance mental clarity and creativity, which can make more women feel connected to their inner voice.

Ashley Rocha:

To me that's a good time to make a big decision in your life. And then ovulation is peak estrogen and testosterone levels during ovulation and these can feel like increased confidence and assertiveness and energy, so you might feel more empowered and aligned with your instincts. So maybe also a great time to make a decision, um, so trusting your gut feeling during that time. And then your luteal phase, which is the second half of your cycle, like day uh four, sorry, like 15 through. This happens after ovulation, when progesterone is rising and estrogen starts to decline.

Ashley Rocha:

This phase can bring feelings of calmness and nurturing, but also may lead to emotional sensitivity, as we talked about but, also intuition, so you might feel your intuition here might be more introspective and a deeper wisdom during this phase, though you might have some mood swings going on as well, but you'll feel more reflective of your inner world.

Kena Siu:

Okay, well, you mentioned something about this before, but I want you to give more clearer, as we are in midlife and then we want to have still our sex drive and pleasure. So what role hormones play in this?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, so I mean, of course, our sex drive is really linked to our hormones. It's you know how we make babies. It's genetic, it's DNA, it's science. For young women and those in their 20s and 30s, hormone balance is really important for supporting your estrogen and testosterone levels with nutritious foods and healthy fats and regular exercise. Levito is really important at every stage, but I was just going through the different life stages.

Ashley Rocha:

So that will help you in your 20s and 30s in your 20s and 30s and then for women approaching menopause, supporting your estrogen progesterone like incorporating phytoestrogens like flax seeds, soy and legumes to support estrogen and magnesium rich foods. Magnesium is really important. I think women everybody should take magnesium supplement but this can help balance progesterone and reduce symptoms like anxiety, which can dampen libido. Adaptogens I bring those up again and are great to help balance cortisol, reduce stress and then also support a healthy libido.

Ashley Rocha:

Libido is really important, especially if you're trying to conceive, right, you need to want to have sex and usually, like the, the trying to get pregnant can really put a damper on your libido. It's turned something that's should be fun into a job and it's really stressful. So hormonal balance can make just making sure hormonal balance can make sure that your libido is in a healthy place, and there are libido enhancing supplements too, um, but if you just feel like you have no sex drive, that's a sign of hormonal imbalance in general, because we should have a healthy sex drive, even as women, like we're. Even as a woman, we can want to have sex and you should. So, yeah, so libido is important and it's a sign of hormones Like it's a sign of things are working or not working in your body okay, and during perimenopause.

Ashley Rocha:

Like you, you also have libido problems, so these can happen throughout your whole life, and supplements are definitely a solid way of dealing with this kind of stuff okay, and what are some in the case, like practices that will be besides the, as you said, like taking supplements and all this?

Kena Siu:

Are there some practices that we can do? I don't know if it's, I guess, exercise help or what else can we do besides taking supplements to support our, to support our hormonal balance?

Ashley Rocha:

Oh yeah, so you can't just take a supplement and like you can't take a pill and expect it to fix your whole life.

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah definitely not. I mean especially with natural solutions, which are better on the body. Anyway. We're not pharmaceuticals, so it's not like an Advil it's going to immediately alleviate your headache. First of all, supplements do take time to begin to work like. You should dedicate three months to gain the full effects of adaptogens and herbs in your your body to judge whether they're working. But you also have to have a nice lifestyle around it and be eating right, like eating enough protein.

Ashley Rocha:

Stable blood sugar is important. You don't want to be abusing caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine is bad for your cortisol, sugar, caffeine, alcohol all bad for your hormones. So you know, try to minimize the use of that. Exercise is really good for your hormones, good for your health. Like I know, sometimes we don't want to exercise. I hate exercising personally, but I do it. I force myself to as much as I can.

Ashley Rocha:

And then sleep is really important. So good sleep hygiene, get enough sleep. And if you had to prioritize exercise or sleep, like waking up really early to go to the gym, like, you should prioritize your sleep. Sleep is so crucial to health and we have a hard time getting enough of it. I think like we don't. You should be going to bed at the same time every night. You should be practicing good hygiene, like not looking at your phone right before you go to bed. I have sleep supplements that help you sleep better, not wake up during the night. Magnesium is amazing to help you improve your sleep quality in general, because we all I think a lot of women struggle with sleep, especially in perimenopause years.

Ashley Rocha:

But my point is we need to look at our whole lifestyle holistically and practice nutrition, stress reduction, exercise, more sleep right. And the reality is we're not going to be able to do all those things Perfect all the time. So they're going to ebb and flow, sometimes when our diet is going to be great, and sometimes when we work it out and sometimes it's not. And that's where supplements really come in, because they can kind of hack your way to better health, also fill the gaps that you you're slacking on. Like we can all do everything perfectly. We're not going to all get exactly the diet, the nutrients we want from our diet at all times. So supplementing it's called supplementing for a reason. It helps you fill in those gaps and supports you and, yeah, just really supports you on that journey of better health yeah, yeah, I love that you said it.

Kena Siu:

It has to be the, the care that we have for ourselves. It definitely has to be holistic body, mind and spirit or soul, you know. Otherwise, I mean, we then are unbalanced in those places, because, as human beings, those are our main elements. So it's key to really look at all of them, like what are we eating? How are we moving? As you said before, like kind of products are we consuming? But not also that like what kind of products are we consuming? But not also that like what kind of media are we consuming? Because that also affects our mental health and everything else. So, seeing it as an approach like that, I consider it's key for us to have a better health and well-being definitely.

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, I know it can feel overwhelming all the things I just listed that's like changing everything, but just like small changes can make a difference and over time you just want to try to become, have better habits and better rituals yeah, exactly no, and it takes time, right, as you're saying.

Kena Siu:

It's overwhelming. You see it that way, but then it's like okay, so what can you implement today that you really really like, like attracts you to say, okay, I'm curious about this, and then implemented it into your heart, into your life, until it becomes a habit, and then keep shifting more things until you get yeah, exactly yeah.

Ashley Rocha:

That's why I created Ladywell is because hormonal health is so complicated and taking care of our hormones like feels overwhelming and I really wanted to simplify the process because when I was getting rid of my PMDD and fixing myself, I was taking like 20 tinctures a day. I was piecing together all these different formulas and it was overwhelming and I think for any, any woman it wouldn't be. You wouldn't be able to continue that forever, you know. And I wanted to simplify that process and create a formula which is our daily home balance, which just takes so many different aspects of what a woman needs into one formula so you only have to take one thing in the morning instead of like having to even think about, like piecing together like these different things. It has herbs, adaptogens, vitamins, amino acids, so just like taking it, simplifying it into one thing, one-stop shop, like bada bing, bada boom.

Kena Siu:

Oh, I love that because I mean just to hear about all these names of the different hormones and stuff and then, okay, like what is this for? What is that for? Yeah, it's kind of yeah, it's also overwhelming.

Ashley Rocha:

So I love yeah, it's complicated.

Kena Siu:

Like I'm trying to make it easy yeah, I love that you get to do that in your business and then for us to, for you to yeah the kind of products that you offer. And before you share more about your business, about Lady. Well, I would like to know what happens to our hormones post-menopause and how can we stay vibrantize and balance in our later years yeah, after menopause typically around age 50, though it varies a woman's body undergoes significant hormonal changes.

Ashley Rocha:

The ovaries stop producing eggs and levels of key hormones which estrogen, progesterone and testosterone these decline dramatically and so your estrogen decreases. The most significant hormonal change during menopause is a drop in estrogen, and this can lead to hot flashes, night sweats, functional dryness, discomfort during sex, mood swings, bone density loss, increased risk of heart disease. Over time, your progesterone decreases and the drops will cause things like irregular sleep patterns, insomnia, increased anxiety and mood swings. Your testosterone will decrease, so your reduced libido and just sexual satisfaction in general. So, even though these changes are inevitable, there are many ways to stay vibrant and energetic during these times, and the focus on maintaining overall health and boosting energy and promoting your overall wellbeing should be like your number one focus. So you want to focus on nutrition.

Ashley Rocha:

Eat nutrient dense foods, so whole foods like fruit, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats.

Ashley Rocha:

That supports hormone health and overall vitality. So, yeah, good diet, I know that, but bringing in things like calcium and vitamin D are going to be crucial because your bone health is going to struggle and your as your estrogen declines. And then foods like leafy greens and fortified plant milks and things like salmon, fatty fish can really help support bone density as well. So you can get it through your food and through supplements. And then healthy fats omega-3 fatty acid you can take that supplement or you can get it from salmon, chia seeds and walnuts and that will support your heart health. You're really trying to maintain your vitality during this time and just extend that vitality. So it's just going to be about nurturing yourself with the right foods and supplements and making sure your strength training, as I said, exercise exercising regularly like aerobic exercise, is good and enhancing your mobility, so your balance and mobility will start to decline. So just focusing on that. And then I'm also going to say sleep well, because sleep matters at all points in your life.

Ashley Rocha:

And then, yeah, herbal support is great during this time as well. It'll help you manage your symptoms of menopause like black cohosh is a great herb ashwagandha of menopause like black cohosh is a great herb ashwagandha vitex. So bringing in supplements is great too. And then if you feel like you like during perimenopause, years to menopause, if you just feel like you can't get ahold of your, get ahold of these symptoms they're just so overwhelming, even after you take supplements there's always hormone replacement therapy. Hrt and using bioidentical hormones is a great option for you. You'll go to your doctor to get those and I've heard that they work pretty quickly. I'm not on them, but they work pretty quickly and so it's a great option if you feel like that's right for you and it's becoming more popular. There's definitely a point in time where there was really bad press around HRrt, but I think that's changing okay, yeah, well.

Kena Siu:

Well, thank you for letting us know that, and yeah, so then talking about the supplements is where you come in, since you are the expert in here. Can you share more about your business and how you help women, and what kind of products do you offer?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, so we're really focused on helping women wherever they're at in their hormonal health journey. We have products that help you in midlife. We have PMS, pmdd, pcos, like those type of struggles. We have fertility supplements. So our fertility and egg health is really great for boosting your fertility, improving your egg health. So you want to take that 90 days, at least 90 days in advance, to affect the genetic material that's going to make up the eggs, because the eggs and 90 day maturation process. We have prenatals that you'll take before, during and after pregnancy and those postpartum years. And then we have perimenopause supplements. So we're coming out with a perimenosupplement. Our daily hormone balance is great for women in perimenopause and that's the foundational one, and then we're going to layer on another one to help with more symptoms of peri, because peri is, like, really complex and there's a lot of symptoms. So you'll be taking a daily hormone balance and a peri support as well to help you during that time. So, meeting women where they're at different life stages, our formulas are super comprehensive.

Ashley Rocha:

As I said, I want to make it really easy. It's like you shouldn't have to be. There shouldn't be a lot of guesswork, you shouldn't have to be stacking a lot of supplements. A lot of brands out there want you to buy, like, several supplements and have to take a lot of different things, because they make more money that way and you'll buy one of them because it's the first one will be cheaper and stuff like that. But I'm trying to put a lot in my supplements so it's easier for you and I really want to make it excessively priced too. That's really important and I would say, when you're shopping for supplements, it's really important to find brands that are tested and clean, especially when we're talking about our hormones and endocrine disruptors.

Ashley Rocha:

As I was saying, you don't want to introduce those into your body. So I always our supplements are always very tested and we use glass jars, so not plastic. Um, a lot of. We don't cut corners where it matters and our formulas are all holistically formulated by a team of diverse doctors. So we really bridge the gap of Eastern and Western medicine, and that's really a differentiator and really important to me, because there's such wisdom in traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. And then we bring that into our formulations and just look at formulating from a lot of different perspectives Bringing in fertility experts when we're creating fertility formulas and perimenopause experts when they're creating peri formulas, so our formulas are very smart and well put together.

Kena Siu:

Yeah, it looks like. Yeah, I love that Awesome. And I know you said you want to offer a discount code for our audience. Yes, and you can find us discount code for our audience.

Ashley Rocha:

Yes, and you can find us. Our website is getladywellcom and I made a discount code for 20% off all supplements for your audience Butterfly20. So you can go to our website and type that in. You'll get 20% off. And then, as I was saying, we're all about education. We need to know more about our hormones, our bodies, our cycles, how to take care of them, what to do. So you can follow us on social media. Our handle is GetLadyWell. We're on Instagram, tiktok, facebook, all the places and follow us there to get tips and just educational content around your hormones.

Kena Siu:

Yeah, thank you, I'm going to share all the links in the note shows. Yeah, thank you, I'm gonna. I'm gonna share all the links in the in the note shows. And just before we close, I always ask these questions to all my guests. I would like to know, which is a pleasure that you enjoy a lot in your life.

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, I'm a busy mom. I have two, an 18 month old and a four month old. So I would say my pleasure is being my kids. But you know, if I was going to say something more selfish, um, it's just like that moment before bed. I lay in bed, I put my magnesium spray on my feet and it's like that moment of self-care. Sometimes I'll be eating some dark chocolate during that moment before.

Ashley Rocha:

I go to bed, but there's like I get like five minutes in the evening to myself after I put my kids to bed. It's like very brief, but I have my ritual and I love it. So magnesium helps me sleep and I just it just feels like nurturing.

Kena Siu:

I love it yeah, what a beautiful practice. Yeah, and a good, yeah, good to finish, to end the day like taking care of yourself, which is the main thing that we got to do, and then more. You know you have little kids. I don't have kids, but I know how moms can get like crazy the whole day, so it's good that you take that little pleasure pause for yourself before going to sleep. Yes, yes.

Ashley Rocha:

That means for a good morning and the next day.

Kena Siu:

Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you so much for being here, Ashley. I really appreciate your time, your knowledge, your wisdom and I really hope that this interview can help and inspire a lot of women to know more about themselves, about their cycles, about their hormones, to live better lives. Would you like to add something else?

Ashley Rocha:

Yeah, I think it's just. The more we know about our bodies, the more empowered we'll be. And, yeah, knowledge is power. So if you understand your cycle, you'll be better equipped to avoid disease later in life. And avoid these hormonal imbalances will just will bring you down and get in the way of living your best life. And there are solutions out there that are natural solutions, and, while it might be hard to find, they're there. So I'm here for you.

Kena Siu:

Thank you. Thank you for tuning into Midlife Butterfly. If this episode lead a spark in you, hit that subscribe or follow button on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you love to listen, so you'll never miss the magic. If you're feeling generous, drop a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps this empowering content reach more souls ready to transform their lives. And don't forget to take a photo of you while listening and share it on your socials. You can tag me at KenAsU so I can celebrate you and your expansion. Until next time, keep spreading those wings and living in joy, growth and pleasure.

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