10 Subtle Health Symptoms Women Should Never Ignore: What Your Body Is Telling You About Hormones, Metabolism, and Aging.

Natalie Tysdal (00:00)

Hi everyone, it's Natalie. Welcome to the podcast. Today, I want to talk woman to woman about something I think a lot of us need to hear. Just because something is common doesn't mean that it's something that you should ignore. So many women spend years brushing things off when it comes to their health. We tell ourselves it's distress or it's hormones. We tell ourselves it's part of getting older, just part of being busy, part of being a woman. Sometimes,

Not very often, but sometimes those things are true. Too often, that kind of thinking keeps us from getting curious, asking questions and paying attention to patterns that really do matter. This episode, it's not about fear. It's not about diagnosing yourself because we're really good at that. It's definitely not about spiraling every time something feels off. But here's what it is about. It's about noticing and listening sooner. It's about reminding you.

that you know your body better than anyone else. If something is shifted in your energy or your sleep or your mood, maybe your cycle or your digestion or your focus, and those things keep showing up, that is worth your attention. So today I'm gonna walk through 10 things women should not be brushing off. And these are the things that so often get minimized, maybe laughed off or just pushed aside or normalized.

when they really deserve a closer look because you matter, your health matters, and I want to help you with it. So before we get into it today, be sure you're connected with me outside of the podcast. You can find more episodes. I now have hundreds of episodes and resources and conversations like this at Natalie Tisdall. That's T-Y-S-D-A-L dot com. And I'd love for you to join my weekly newsletter. You'll find it there on the website. But if you want to go straight to it, it's Natalie Tisdall dot com forward slash.

newsletter goes out every Friday morning and it's where I share an extra perspective or two, some takeaways, some encouragement for women who want clearer, smarter health conversations. It's hard to get those right now and I hope that by listening and by going to my website, getting my newsletter, that you're able to get that very easily. Okay, let's get into the conversation today. The 10 things you should not be brushing off and you should tell your friends, your moms,

your girlfriends at whatever group you're going to that these are the things you need to pay attention to. Number one, sleep changes. And I'm not just talking about an occasional bad night's sleep, but when they start adding up. when your sleep is clearly changed and you keep telling yourself, it's no big deal, I'll catch up later. Maybe you fall asleep, but now you're waking up at two or three in the morning and your brain is wide awake in the middle of the night. Maybe your sleep feels lighter than it used to be.

Maybe you're tossing and turning. Maybe you wake up exhausted, even after what should have been enough hours. You're in bed eight or nine hours, but you're just still exhausted. A lot of women brush this off because sleep problems, are so common. It touches everything. It affects your mood. It affects your appetite, your ability to think clearly, your stress levels, your hormones, your patients, your resilience, all of these things. When your sleep gets off life,

is just harder overall. And here's the thing, women are expected to push through poor sleep. Like it's just a part of being busy. That's what I did for so many years when I anchored the morning show. I four or five hours sleep and I just brushed it off. Like I'm just a busy mom. It's okay, I can handle it. It was not okay. As a matter of fact, I got so bad that my health started to suffer. And that's why I'm so passionate about helping women with these things. So track your sleep, look for patterns.

and ask questions because sometimes sleep disruption is one of the first signs that something deeper is shifting in your body. Okay, let's go to number two, brain fog. This is one that women, we laugh about, we're like, ⁓ it's just menopause, it's just brain fog, it's just getting older. But it can be deeply unsettling when it's happening to you. Maybe you lose your words mid-sentence, maybe you walk into a room and you forget, wait.

Why did I come in here? What was I doing? You feel scattered. Maybe you can't focus the way you used to for a couple of hours to get some heavy work done. Maybe you're forgetting things that you normally wouldn't forget and you start to wonder what is going on with me. Brain fog gets brushed off all the time. We joke about I'm just overwhelmed or we say we have too much on our plate. And yes, sometimes that is part of it. But brain fog.

is another sign that something else is going on and it matters. Might be connected to sleep, might be stress, might be hormonal shifts or it might be mental overload, but it's something that you need to listen to. The point is not to jump to any conclusions. It's not to dismiss it just because it's invisible, but when your mind doesn't feel like your mind, pay attention to it. All right, number three, let's get to this.

Number three, the things that you should not be brushing off is anxiety. Maybe it feels new or it doesn't feel like the version of you you used to know. A lot of women hit a season in life where they suddenly are on edge. They're snapping at their husband or their kids and it's happening more often. Maybe you're more emotional or reactive. Maybe you feel a sense of dread that you just can't explain. You don't want to leave the house.

Maybe your thoughts race at night when you're trying to sleep. Does any of this sound familiar? Your patience is gone. It might be the smallest thing that's pushing you over the edge. And what happens? You just tell yourself to calm down. You tell yourself, I'm just being too sensitive. I need to get away from everything or just go on a walk. Those are good things. Going on a walk is a good thing. Maybe you tell yourself that I just need to pull it together. But if anxiety is showing up,

in a new way, that is worth noticing because not all anxiety is just emotional. Sometimes it really is caused by something physical and it can most certainly be hormonal. Sometimes it's sleep deprivation. Again, notice sleep, the number one thing, because it affects everything else. Sometimes it's just burnout that has caught up with you, but that's something you need to look at.

You don't have to shame yourself for the way that your body is responding to the outside world, but you do need to listen. Okay, let's talk about number four. Number four is changes in your cycle. And this is a big one. Women normalize it way too quickly. If your periods are suddenly heavier, closer together, farther apart, more painful, or just different than they used to be,

Don't automatically just write it off and wait for the next month to see if it normalizes. Cycle changes can happen midlife. know that hormones are shifting, but common and normal are not always the same thing. If you're bleeding more heavily than you used to, or if your cycle has become unpredictable, if you're skipping a cycle, that means something. If your PMS has ramped up, if you're flooding through products or feeling completely wiped out,

That's not something to casually brush aside. It's something you need to take to your doctor. Your cycle gives you information about what's happening. It's one of the clearest monthly signals. We get the signal every month that your body is normal or that something is wrong. If that changes, pay attention to it. All right. We're almost halfway through number five, weight gain that suddenly feels stubborn or different.

than what you've experienced before. This is one of the emotional issues for all of us women because it gets tied so quickly to our self-worth and self-blame. Maybe you feel like you're doing the same things that you've always done. You're eating the same breakfast, you're exercising the same way, or the things that used to work when you needed to feel back on track, those things aren't working. Your body is responding differently. Maybe that weight is showing up in different places. Like maybe you've got that

⁓ middle weight gain, that pudge that we all hate. Maybe your clothes are just fitting differently and the strategies again that you used to use to feel better, it's just not working and you're panicking. Well too often women make this about discipline. They just assume I'm failing, I'm not doing things right or that I just need to try harder, I need to work out harder. If your body composition is changing,

Well, that deserves curiosity, not shame. There may be hormone shifts. More than likely, there are hormone shifts because that's naturally what happens to our bodies. But there may be sleep issues, might be stress, might be muscle loss or blood sugar swings, or it could be changes in how your body is handling things like alcohol, exercise or certain foods. The point is this, when your body changes, don't immediately make it your fault.

Do pay attention. Do get informed. Ask your doctor more questions. I've said this so many times. And as a health journalist, it's what I learned to do is ask more questions and not feel guilty that you're asking those questions, not feel like I'm being a bother. You deserve the answers. So ask better questions to your doctor. OK, number six, digestive changes. it's a big one. Feeling bloated.

Maybe it's constipation. Are you pooping every day a couple of times a day? Because you need to be. Maybe it's reflux. You get that burning or that reflux in your throat. Food sensitivities that you didn't used to have or feeling uncomfortable after meals. Maybe not tolerating foods that used to be just fine for you. Digestive issues are easy to minimize because they can feel vague, random, or not serious enough to deal with. You just kind of.

wait through it and wake up the next day and hope you feel better. A lot of women, they just adapt or they cut things out. They live with that discomfort and they joke that their stomach is just, having a weird stomach day, but your digestion is central to how you feel and what's happening in your body. Listen to the person who had major gut issues and ended up in the hospital from it. You can go back and listen to that episode probably about a year ago. When your digestion changes,

It can affect everything again from your mood, the inflammation in your body. And yes, every one of these, your sleep, that could definitely be affected and how you absorb nutrients and just your overall quality of life might not be dramatic, but it doesn't mean that it's insignificant because your gut is sending you all kinds of signals. So don't ignore them just because you can still function because functioning is not the same thing as feeling.

well and having energy. All right, number seven, the thing that women should not be brushing off constant exhaustion. And I mean the kind of tired that doesn't go away with just a good night's sleep, the kind where you wake up and you're already tired or maybe you get to work and you're like, man, I'm already tired. You're pushing through the day or you crash in the afternoon. You start relying on caffeine and sugar and just, need more willpower. A lot of women live here for years.

because we're really good at carrying a lot. We're good at showing up functioning when depleted and we get skilled at just surviving on fumes. But exhaustion should not become your personality. You're not supposed to feel deeply depleted all the time. And when you do, it doesn't mean that you're weak. It means that something's going on. Something needs attention. You don't have to live like that. The biggest red flag is not one dramatic symptom. It's the quiet constant feeling.

that you just have nothing left that day. So please don't brush that off. Moving on to number eight, loss of strength, not just weight, not just appearance, but actual strength. Do you feel weaker than you used to, maybe less steady or less capable, more achy or fragile? Everyday things start to feel harder than they should. This really matters. Strength is not just about fitness. It's about function and about aging well.

resilience, it's about protecting your independence, your metabolism, your bones and your confidence. I want to be able to move that couch behind me and not feel weak. And if I'm doing everything right, I should be able to even in to my older age. And yet a lot of women don't think about muscle until they realize that they've lost some of it. If your body feels less strong, don't brush that off as just getting older.

because midlife is exactly the time to be paying more attention to strength, mobility, and how supported your body really is. Number nine, mood changes, especially when you just don't feel like yourself anymore. Those days when you're crying more easily or you're just more irritable. And I'm not really saying like I cried over something that's totally normal, but when it becomes a more regular thing.

Maybe as I mentioned before, your fuse is just shorter or you feel flat, numb, or just disconnected from a conversation. Maybe you've lost motivation to get things done, or you just don't feel like the version of yourself that you recognize or that you like. This one matters because women often blame themselves first. Are you guilty of that? I certainly have been. Women assume that

they're failing emotionally or they assume that I'm just too stressed, too negative, too sensitive, something like that. But sometimes what looks emotional is also physical because again, it all comes back to those hormones that change in our bodies. Remember hormones matter and you can do something about it. Sleep matters. You can do something about it. Stress overload, all of those things.

They really do matter. Your body and your mind do not operate separately. So if your emotional world has changed, don't dismiss it. You don't need to be dramatic about it. You just need to be really honest with yourself about it. Journal so that you can track these things. If you don't feel like yourself, listen. All right, the last one. Does it feel like I'm like preaching or harping on you? I hope it doesn't because I'm really just trying to help. So last one, number 10.

Maybe the biggest one of all the habit of putting yourself last because underneath so many of these issues is the pattern that women fall into a minimizing, delaying, dismissing, or D prioritizing their own health. See, this makes me emotional because I see so many women do this and I've done it. Maybe you notice something is off, but you wait. You mean to make that up. I have a list behind me still.

appointments I need to make. I make them for my kids right away, but I delay in making that one for me. You can't do that. I'm reminding myself as I'm reminding you, you maybe tell yourself, I can't wait for this because my health means that I'm going to be better for everyone else. Maybe you tell yourself other people need you more than you do, or you're probably, I'm just overthinking this. So if that's the deepest thing that you're thinking,

You just stop and think, I can't brush myself off. Like say it to yourself. I can't brush myself off. Not just the symptoms or the reflex to ignore yourself, but overall your health, your emotions, all of it. You matter. Your health matters. Your energy matters. Your peace of mind matters. Paying attention to yourself. It's not selfish, everyone.

It's responsible, it's wise, and frankly, it's overdue for a lot of women. So if any of these things hit home for you today, please let this be your reminder. You're not supposed to dismiss every signal that your body is sending you. God gives us these signals in our bodies to help us become more aware of what we need to be healthier. You're not being dramatic and you're not weak.

for needing support. You're not overreacting by getting curious about your health. I hope that this episode doesn't cause panic. I hope it gives you permission to do these things, permission to stop brushing those 10 things and anything else out there, permission to stop brushing them off and to ask better questions and to take yourself seriously. You don't have to wait until things get worse to start paying attention. Do it today.

Tell yourself, I'm going to do this starting today. And if this episode resonated with you, share it with another woman who might really need to hear it today. Maybe text it to a friend or your sister, whoever you think might just need this little nudge today, something that they might be quietly pushing through that really matters. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Lots of great episodes still to come this year. Also come join me on my newsletter and my website, natalie.com.

I'll be sending more insight, more encouragement, more health tips and conversations just like this designed to help women feel informed, supported and less alone in what we are all navigating at this point in our lives. You can also find more episodes and resources again, natalietisdell.com. Thanks for being here today. So glad that you stayed to the end and I will talk to you next time.