Integrative Women's Health Podcast

“Your body might be acting up right now, but your body is amazing, and it will respond.” - Monica ReagorUp to 1 in 5 women struggle with PCOS, and while it can start with irregular cycles or difficult periods, over time it tends to lead to other symptoms and conditions, from fatigue and insulin resistance to anxiety, fertility struggles, chronic pain, and many more. Unfortunately, many women spend a long time being dismissed by practitioners while their list of symptoms and the impact on their quality of life grows year after year.PCOS is a chronic condition that requires constant adaptation. It’s an ongoing relationship with the body that shifts through different phases of life, from the first menstrual cycle to perimenopause and beyond. Living with PCOS, like with many other chronic conditions, requires women to constantly work to balance life with PCOS with careers, caregiving, productivity, and all the other demands. That’s one of the reasons access to community and long-term support makes such a difference.In this episode, I’m joined by Monica Reagor, co-founder of the PCOS Awareness Association, a community, support group, and resource organization for women living with PCOS. We discuss the lived experience of PCOS, the importance of creating sustainable support systems for women navigating complex hormonal and metabolic conditions, Monica’s delayed diagnosis journey, the emotional impact of trying to keep up with life with chronic illness, the physiological and mental impact of PCOS, the overlap between PCOS and perimenopause, why healing often requires more than protocols, and more.Enjoy the episode, and let's innovate and integrate together!---Learn more or watch the video version of this conversation at https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/advocating-for-better-pcos-care-pcos-resources/.Connect with me and access our entire platform at IntegrativeWomensHealthInstitute.com (https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/).Find and follow us @integrativewomenshealth on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@integrativewomenshealth) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/integrativewomenshealth/).

“It's very accessible to understand what's happening in the body by looking at the self and how one feels. You just have to learn that language.”So much of cycle tracking is built around prediction. Apps guesstimate ovulation days, wearables collect temperature and sleep data, and algorithms try to tell women about their individual cycles based on averages and patterns. But our bodies don’t work based on averages. They shift in response to stress, illness, travel, sleep, inflammation, recovery, and the realities of everyday life. And for many women, relying on cycle tracking technology ends up creating more disconnection from their body instead of more understanding.The conversation around cycle tracking needs to focus on the specific person living the cycle. We need to move beyond collecting data and actually learn how to interpret symptoms, emotional shifts, pain patterns, cervical fluid changes, energy fluctuations, and nervous system responses in context. That kind of awareness can completely change the way practitioners approach conditions like endometriosis, PMDD, chronic pelvic pain, infertility, PCOS, perimenopause, and even mental health care because patients are empowered and patterns start becoming more visible in a clinically useful way.In this episode, I’m joined by Laura Federico and Morgan Miller, midwife and co-creators of The Cycle Book, a thoughtful pen-and-paper tracking and education tool designed to help people better understand their hormonal and physical patterns over time. We discuss the limitations of cycle-tracking apps, data privacy concerns, why algorithms often misidentify ovulation and cycle phases, how tracking physical and emotional biomarkers can support earlier recognition of many conditions, the relationship between cycle tracking and mental health care, collaborative treatment planning, and more.Enjoy the episode, and let's innovate and integrate together!---Learn more or watch the video version of this conversation at https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/cycle-tracking-for-mental-health-mcas-endometriosis-pcos-pmdd-and-more/.Connect with me and access our entire platform at IntegrativeWomensHealthInstitute.com (https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/).Find and follow us @integrativewomenshealth on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@integrativewomenshealth) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/integrativewomenshealth/).

“IBS can precede an autoimmune diagnosis by about 5 to 15 years.” - Dr. Izabella WentzIBS is the ultimate catch-all diagnosis. It doesn't really tell you anything, and so many women spend years with their symptoms expanding way beyond digestion. Bloating turns into fatigue. Food sensitivities become anxiety, skin issues, pelvic pain, brain fog, autoimmune symptoms, cycle changes, or chronic inflammation that no one can ever explain. As practitioners, it’s our job to unravel that IBS diagnosis and help our clients to get to the root cause.Gut health is never only about the gut. The intestinal lining, the microbiome, the immune system, the nervous system, stress physiology, infections, and nutrient status are constantly influencing one another. This is why gut issues often show up with other chronic conditions like endometriosis. Once your gut ecosystem loses resilience, the ripple effects can show up almost anywhere in the body.Today, I’m joined by Dr. Izabella Wentz, pharmacist, thyroid expert, and author of The IBS Solution. Izabella shares how her IBS diagnosis during pharmacy school eventually led to uncovering Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and a much deeper understanding of the gut-immune connection. We talk about intestinal permeability and autoimmunity, the role of stress and nervous system regulation in shaping the microbiome, why IBS can sometimes mask other conditions, how to start thinking more systematically about root causes, functional testing, practical clinical strategies for helping clients move beyond symptom management, and more.Enjoy the episode, and let's innovate and integrate together!---Learn more or watch the video version of this conversation at https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/getting-to-the-root-cause-of-ibs-with-izabella-wentz/.Connect with me and access our entire platform at IntegrativeWomensHealthInstitute.com (https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/).Find and follow us @integrativewomenshealth on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@integrativewomenshealth) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/integrativewomenshealth/).

“We forget the skin is a living organ and we just treat it as a cosmetic surface.” - Dr. Natalia BorkowskiThere’s a moment many women experience, typically in our 40s or 50s, where something shifts. It might be a photo, a different mirror, or a passing reflection, but suddenly the image looking back doesn’t match the one you’ve been carrying in your mind. For a lot of us, that moment isn’t just physical, it’s emotional. It feels disorienting, especially in a culture that continues to equate youth with value.Hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause affect collagen, hydration, circulation, and overall tissue integrity, but we can’t look at the health of our skin in isolation. Skin health is deeply connected to nervous system regulation, sleep, nutrition, movement, and the daily environments we live in. The way we respond to the changes we see in our skin shapes not only how we look, but how we move through this phase of life.In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Natalya Borakowski, a licensed naturopathic physician specializing in dermatology and aesthetics, to talk about aging, identity, and skin health. We explore the physiological changes that impact the skin during perimenopause and menopause, the psychological experience of watching your appearance evolve, the role of foundational health practices like sleep, how to think about skincare in a simple and sustainable way, how to approach cosmetic treatments with intention, what it means to age well, and more.Enjoy the episode, and let's innovate and integrate together!---Learn more or watch the video version of this conversation at https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/aging-skin-and-aesthetics-for-women-over-40-with-natalya-borakowski/.Connect with me and access our entire platform at IntegrativeWomensHealthInstitute.com (https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/).Find and follow us @integrativewomenshealth on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@integrativewomenshealth) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/integrativewomenshealth/).

“We have accepted making health decisions with only 20% of the data.”Hospitals can save a life in a crisis. They can stabilize, diagnose, intervene, and provide exceptional care in our most vulnerable moments, but we need more than hospitals can provide. By the time most people need that level of care, they’ve already spent years under the influence of other forces shaping their wellbeing.The future of healthcare can’t be only inside clinics, hospitals, or electronic records. It has to include the realities of daily life. It also has to acknowledge that more data doesn’t automatically mean better care. Information is useful when it’s connected, interpreted thoughtfully, and applied in ways that honor each person’s unique context, values, and capacity for change.In today’s episode, I’m joined by Nasim Afsar, MD, MBA, physician executive and author of Intelligent Health, to explore what it would take to redesign healthcare around prevention, personalization, and true consumer ownership. We talk about why clinical care represents only one piece of the health equation, how AI and predictive tools could help identify risk earlier, why fragmented data limits progress, the true costs of emerging technologies, misaligned financial incentives in healthcare, and why clinicians must have a voice in shaping the systems being built around our patients and communities.Enjoy the episode, and let's innovate and integrate together!---Learn more or watch the video version of this conversation at https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/health-intelligence-a-vision-for-safe-and-healthy-health-and-care-with-ai-with-nasim-afsar/.Connect with me and access our entire platform at IntegrativeWomensHealthInstitute.com (https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/).Find and follow us @integrativewomenshealth on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@integrativewomenshealth) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/integrativewomenshealth/).