43: Reproductive Health, PCOS and Menopause with Dr. Anna Glezer

When talking about reproductive healthcare, it’s easy to isolate the topic and disassociate it from the rest of the body’s organs and functions. But the truth is that everything within your endocrine system is interrelated, and each organ has the potential to, and often does, affect the system’s other organs, in turn taking it’s toll on the rest of your body and overall health. These effects often reach into a person’s mental and emotional health. So whether you’re a patient or a practitioner, it’s important to understand that women’s reproductive health is complex and multifaceted, and should be treated that way.

Enter Dr. Anna Glezer; a psychiatrist who practices reproductive and integrative psychiatry. This approach to reproductive care ensures that Dr. Glezer’s patients are getting well-rounded treatment that extends out to all the areas that the endocrine system affect. Dr. Glezer practices medicine with the mindset that size doesn’t determine health, and focuses instead on creating healthy, non-weight related habits that improve your health. 

The scale can be a tempting measurement by which to gauge your metabolic health and success, but a lot of serious issues can easily arise when we use our weight alone to determine the level of success we are achieving or how healthy we are.

We fail to form lasting or beneficial habits, and run the risk of developing potentially harmful practices. When your goal is a number instead of health metrics/achievements, this leaves a lot of room to develop bad practices in your effort to reach those goals. Tracking success with a scale can be helpful, but tracking nutrition and exercise metrics helps ensure that you’re staying on the right path when it comes to your goals.

We may fail to see health progress and successes when the focus is all on weight. Dr. Glezer maintains a HAES (health at any size) approach when working with patients. The reason for this is because size is not a great indicator of health; two people can be hitting the exact same nutrition and exercise goals and simultaneously look completely different. Things like genetics, trauma and epigenetics all play huge roles in how we carry weight and our overall size.

Tracking other metrics is a much more effective way to gauge your overall health. By setting physical goals for yourself and tracking your progress, you have a much clearer picture of your wellness, and the focus more easily remains on improving your overall and metabolic health instead of lowering a number on a scale. 

A big part of Dr. Glezer and I’s discussion centered around habit-building, and what those areas might look like that you could focus on to take the emphasis off the number on the scale.

Nutrition - This is one of the more obvious categories, and is emphasized a lot for good reason. Setting the right nutritional goals for you can have a massive impact on your health. What I want to emphasize here is the word ‘“RIGHT”. Working with a physician to develop goals that are specifically sustainable and beneficial to you and your situation can mean a world of difference for you and your journey. 

Sleep - Another important one, but one that people seem to overlook, whether accidentally or intentionally. Sleep is also a very case-by-case item, and it’s important to know how much sleep you personally need, (which fluctuates throughout your life,) and to respect that boundary for yourself. Creating healthy habits around your sleep and rest ensure your body is taking the time it needs to recoup and function at full capacity every day.

Energy - Setting goals around your energy is a great big-picture way to improve your health. More/better energy encourages changes be made in multiple areas, such as rest and sleep, nutrition, and exercise.

Emotional Health - Something we may not always think about setting goals for, but I think can be an absolute game changer. A lot of times when you change other habits in your life, you will also see changes in your emotional health. This is also affected by medical conditions and an array of other factors. Setting goals and tracking your emotional health over time can be a great indicator of how your health journey is progressing. 

Mental Health - The focus on mental health has seen a marked uptick in recent years. Your Mental health can be a great indicator as to where you are with your physical health, as well as when something is wrong. 

All of these areas serve as great ways to track your health and wellness, and large fluctuations in these areas can also indicate bigger medical issues. Your endocrine system directly relates to many of these areas, and these are all great indicators that might let you know when things are changing with your reproductive health. Keeping in contact with your physician to set and track these goals is a great way to understand your personal health and wellness journey, and know when something needs to change, as well as know when something is working for you.