Ep 50 | Menopause, Misinformation & Other B******t with Amanda Thebe

Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su (0:05)

Hello, and welcome to OvaryActive. I'm Dr. Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su.

Amy Voedisch (0:09)

And I'm Dr. Amy Voedisch. And we are your expert guides on the strange and often uncomfortable journey that is perimenopause.

Hey, everybody. We've got some really exciting information and news for our California listeners of some events that are upcoming this month of October 2026 Rebecca, do you want to take it away?

Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su (0:37)

Yeah. So we're doing three intimate gatherings with listeners and book fans. The first will be in Los Angeles on October 19, 2026 And I'll be appearing there. It's a dinner at a private house. It's got limited enrollment. So you'll get a lot of really great intimate time and we'll sign books and talk about the process. And then on the 24th of October, we'll both of us be in San Diego for a brunch, which will be really fun. And then on November 1st, we're going to be in Amy's neck of the wood in the Bay Area in Burlingham. And we'll be doing a dinner there. So sign up. The link is in the show notes. It's also on our website, the Prairie Menopause Doctors. And for the price of admission, you get a meal. You get to spend some intimate time with us talking about Prairie Menopause. You get a signed book.

So please come and join us. The signups end a week before the event. So sign up soon. Limited spots available. So get in there as fast as you can. We hope to see you there.

Today, we are thrilled to have a guest to talk to Amanda Thebe. So Amanda, will you please introduce yourself and talk about how you came into this menopause space?

Amanda Thebe (1:47)

So happy to be here. Thank you for the invitation. Congratulations on the book. I actually owe you guys a shout out on Instagram, but I've been traveling a lot lately. I am a personal trainer and nutrition coach and a certified health and wellness coach. All that to say is that I've been doing health and wellness in the women's health space for about 35 years and I really like it here and I really hate it here, both in equal measures and I started talking about menopause after my own personal experience, which I think a lot of women do.

Actually, being in the health and wellness space and really having a good understanding of human physiology from an exercise science standpoint, it sort of whacked me in the face and I was like, what on earth is going on? And I actually didn't have any idea. Nobody had ever told me in any of my education about menopause. And I spent about two years in this like medical sort of hamster wheel, trying to get answers of very, very kind and diligent doctors who just didn't know what menopause was. It was that simple.

And then when I was 44, two years later, a gynecologist, I think I was in there for my cysts or something.

Amy Voedisch (3:03)

Yes, we're in for one thing and we start talking about something else.

Amanda Thebe (3:06)

I was like, I'm a cysty person. And then he was like, no, your cysts are fine, but are you okay? So I started crying. After going through my whole two-year experience, he basically just said, I see this every day. I think you have depression, quite sure. Quite sure you're struggling with migraines, with aura.

And I think you're in perimenopause. I can help you. You're literally not losing your mind, you're losing your estrogen type thing. And I went, peri-what?

I actually swore at him, but I'm going to be really clean on this podcast. I was like, what the F is? No need. What the fuck is perimenopause? And he started laughing. And in fairness to me, I hadn't even considered it to be menopause. Nobody 12 years ago in any type of forum was talking about perimenopause. I'm 56 now. And so I just was like, I need to go down a rabbit hole. And I sort of did, came up with a community and I just thought, I want to be the person that is advocating for women, that finds the information and does that knowledge translation and helps them understand what's happening. I've never ever positioned myself as an expert. I've never ever positioned myself as a medical doctor. And I think because of that, the medical community are okay with me. I say that in the best possible test because I'm not trying to be somebody I'm not, right? I just, I'm like, this is what nobody ever told you, why?

Yeah.

Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su (4:37)

You know, Amanda, you and I met several years ago because you were doing some content with us at Genève and you're right, as medical doctors, we feel very comfortable with you because you're very upfront. You're like, this is what I know about, this is what I don't know about.