29. Dr. Jessica Shepherd: Hormones, Fertility, Longevity, and Optimizing Your Health at Every Stage of Life

In this episode, Sam meets with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an OBGYN who has made it her life's work to support women's health and hormones as they age. She explains the importance of your pelvic floor (not just during pregnancy), how muscle mass improves your longevity, what we need to know before getting pregnant, and how to navigate postpartum and menopause. Her mantra is "don't just add years to your life—add life to your years." And today, she's teaching us how. Listen to this episode if you are interested in taking care of your hormones, if you're trying to conceive, if you're struggling postpartum, if you're experiencing menopause, or if you want to be informed BEFORE you hit these stages of life! Key moments: 00:00:35 Guest intro 00:04:48 The gender gap in health information 00:08:21 The best resources for women to seek out health information 00:12:26 What your pelvic floor IS and DOES (hint: it’s not just important for pregnancy) 00:16:25 How to actually strengthen your pelvic floor (more than just kegels) 00:18:18 How does increasing muscle mass make you live longer? 00:21:08 Does it get harder to build muscle mass as you age? 00:23:08 How your lifestyle impacts your hormones 00:25:41 Is cycle syncing real? Does it actually make an impact? 00:28:56 What should we be doing to support our hormones in every stage of life? 00:32:40 How to offset the decline in your hormones as you age 00:34:38 What we should be doing NOW if we want to have children LATER 00:40:42 What people DON’T know about trying to conceive 00:42:49 How your male partner’s health affects pregnancy success 00:46:48 How to support your body and your hormones during pregnancy 00:49:07 What does postpartum actually look like? 00:53:53 A mantra for moms struggling postpartum 00:55:30 What is perimenopause and what does it do to your hormones? 00:57:52 Menopause: what it is and how to survive it 01:01:03 The biggest misconceptions about these transitional phases in a woman’s life 01:02:10 What we’re getting wrong about women’s health Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Zocdoc.com/CAPSLOCK⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠FunctionHealth.com/CAPSLOCK⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thanks for listening! New episodes are released every Sunday at 8 AM ET, so if you liked this episode, subscribe or follow to get notified about the next one. And please leave me a rating or review, so I can continue to improve the show. Talk soon! Follow along: Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifeincapslock TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@lifeincapslock YouTube: www.youtube.com/@lifeincapslock Threads: www.threads.net/@lifeincapslock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices