Jeanne Andrus, The Menopause Guru. Jeanne’s been coaching, writing, and speaking about menopause for over a decade. She’s the author of the internationally Best-Selling “I Just Want to Be Me Again!” and the host of the podcast and the TV Show “Menopause Matters.” Her approach to resolving menopause symptoms is wildly esoteric, rooted in her own blend of coaching known as Menopause Mastery Coaching, bolstered by hypnotherapy, Reiki, yogic breathwork, and a love for science and anthropology. Buckle up and listen in as Jeanne shares with us the secrets of a good night’s sleep.
Fine Jeanne:
{{3-ways-we-help}}
Transcript
Transcript
Welcome to the New World Order Showcase program.
Today we are speaking with Jeanne Andrus.
She is a menopause Guru and she's here to tell us all about how we can sleep better, feel better and have more energy.
Welcome, Jeanne.
Hi, Jill.
I just want to call you Jean.
So good to be here.
It's OK.
That's the way it's spelled.
But yes, I adopted the Cajun pronunciation of the name, so it's great to be here with you today.
Don't tell us all about you.
I know you're traveling right now, which is kind of exciting.
I am traveling right now.
My husband retired a couple of years ago and we bought a travel trailer.
So toward the end of COVID realizing that camping was a great way to see the country and not leave the dog behind.
So we now spend a month or two in the summer away from Louisiana, which is also a good idea, traveling parts of the country that we really haven't got had a chance to explore up till now.
Good thing good. Thanks.
So we're.
Having a great time doing it.
I'm still working, so if anyone is.
Needs more information about what I do and how I do it.
I am still working all summer, but I'm just doing it.
Our time.
The laptop life.
It's a laptop life, yes, and.
You're running a marathon.
Well, no, I'm not running marathons.
I'm running relay races.
As long as a marathon.
So I I run relay races which are 36 hours of running between places or around the woods and it's a huge amount of fun. You just have to get used to doing it. It's not something for everybody, I would say.
Well, I admire you for getting out there and.
Just participating.
So tell us about the menopause guru.
So the menopause gurus started when I was in in my early stages of parament pause and in fact looking back on it, I probably wasn't even in early stages.
But I was angry.
I was depressed, I had no libido left and.
I was struggling and it cost me my marriage.
It cost almost cost me a job.
Fortunately, I got out before I got fired.
It it was really.
Very difficult for me and I had no idea what was going on.
I would talk to my doctor and I talked to therapists and all I got was here's what to do for.
Russian and my gynecologist eventually hinted that this might be that that I might be in perimenopause, but never anything about what I what to expect.
What I would experience, what the symptoms were, why it was going on nothing.
And so I was clueless.
And after my marriage broke up and I went, I moved from one area of the country to another to.
For a lot of real.
And I decided I needed to get healthy and happy again because it wasn't working.
The way it was.
And so I you know.
Couple of ways.
I kind of lucked out in that my choices were good choices for hormonal balance and I started to rebalance my hormones.
I felt better.
I got healthier, I started doing crazy stuff like running and whitewater kayaking and things like that.
And after a few years of.
Being in a much better place myself.
I decided that I wanted to do this for other women to help other women.
Understand what was going on to ditch their symptoms to reclaim themselves and their lives and really flourish because someone who's going through all these symptoms.
Isn't living her best life, and since menopause the process can take.
10 to 20 years.
That's a long time to.
Leave yourself out of your best life.
And so I really, I started coaching, I started writing.
I started speaking.
I started doing a podcast and a TV show about it, and now I that's really what I do is help women get through this, understand it and move their way through it.
I have a huge number of modalities that I use.
When I do it.
When I work with a woman.
So I might use hypnotherapy.
I might use Reiki, I might use stress management techniques.
Diet and exercise are part of it depends on what the particular woman needs and what she's experiencing to really find her best path through menopause.
So I've listened to your workshops in the past and been really impressed.
One of the things that you do talk about is the different stages.
So do you want to just cover those quickly with everybody?
Because I think a lot of.
People don't really.
Know the difference between the different stages and what?
You can expect.
And really, our even our science language, even our medical language doesn't really cover it because parameter pause is is a word that means near menopause and it's applied to women to that stage of life.
In which your reproductive system has started shutting down.
You're not ovulating regularly anymore.
Whatever regular was for you.
And so you've gone from.
A monthly or a little more or a little less depending on you.
Ovulation to sporadic ovulation.
You might miss one cycle.
You might miss two or three cycles and then go back to having cycles.
You might have more frequent cycles even.
And that that's all really sort of the early parament pausal stage.
And you may have symptoms or you may have symptoms that come and go fleetingly.
But it's not.
Not a real solid thing that you can put your finger on and therefore a lot of doctors.
Don't put their finger on it and even.
Even there, some of the older doctors don't even see it as part of perimenopause.
They say it's something else going on, so your doctor may not help.
Then you come to late perimenopause and this is a time in your life when most people would agree that menopause is.
On its way.
So it's you may be skipping periods.
You may be having heavy periods.
You might have periods that go away for four to six months and then come back sort of late paramount pause and you're pretty you can be pretty sure that something's going on with you.
Menopause is the day that you haven't had a period for a.
So it's the first anniversary of your last period and truly that is the point at which you can expect never to get pregnant again without intense medical intervention or ever have a period again under normal circumstances, if you do, it's a problem.
Go talk to your doctor.
If you do have a period after that one year Mark.
So menopause is just a day.
And it can be celebrated as the last time you can expect to have a period.
Everything after that is post menopause.
But your hormone levels slow you.
Your body slowly adapts to its new hormonal levels, to a greater or lesser extent, some women you know, they get.
Six months postmenopausal and they feel great again.
Other women? Never.
Ever feel symptom free again?
So it's a real?
It's an interesting.
Situation in which our hormones change and if we don't do something to.
Maximize the hormone levels that we have left.
Which can be done naturally.
It doesn't need to be done with drugs.
It doesn't need to be done with hormone replacement, but if we maximize the hormonal balance that we have left, we can live an incredibly fulfilled, exciting and wonderful.
Life and I'm living proof of it because I don't take any drugs for this.
I don't take any hormones for this.
But I feel fantastic 90% of the time, OK, after those long runs, not so much. But once I'm rested, I feel better.
I would have to say that also on the other side of menopause.
It's the better part of life to me.
I I had lots of kids and I enjoyed that part of my life.
The reproducing part of my life, but just having the freedom to not worry about getting pregnant, I don't know.
How about you?
But I spent an.
Inordinate amount of time in my life.
Worried about am I going to get pregnant or am I pregnant or?
Wanting to be pregnant, just like my wife was consumed with this my reproductive system and it just like seems so unfair at the time and now.
It's just.
Like, yeah, that's yes.
And you can.
Recover your libido.
You can recover your sex life.
And it's better now than it was then.
It really can be.
Put it out there on the table.
And for some women, it's it doesn't come back.
And I I feel sorry for women who are in that position.
But they can also be really, really happy and fulfilled in a low libido situation.
So libido is is something that where yours is is really dependent.
Whether you're OK with it is really dependent on you whether this is something someplace you want to be.
So yeah, it can be an amazing time of life.
And as I tell my the women I work with and I.
Cover this in my book.
One of the best things about menopause and even.
Parament pause is that we start.
Start to stop regarding other peoples needs, wishes and opinions as something that we need to be listening to so we can stop being people pleasers.
We can stop feeling like we need to be the person to take care of everybody else's needs.
And that we can be.
The person that we want to be now.
I'm not gonna say that that means you're going to be totally selfish and self-centered and not do anything for anybody.
It's, but it's a choice.
It's a choice that you get to make at this time of your life, and it's wonderfully empowering and you get to say this is who I want to be right now.
I could be saying I have to be the perfect grandmother or I could say I'm going to be a great grandma when I show up with my grandkids and when I'm not there, there is a whole lot of stuff I want to do with my life, like travel all over the country like run these crazy races.
Have I run?
And it's wonderful.
It really is wonderful when you get to that point in your life where it's just like, OK, I can step into being me who I am.
And you know you can take me or.
Leave me.
It's up to you.
I don't have.
To be part of your life, I can be part of your life, but I.
Don't have to be.
Right, right. And it's.
So much of what I what I deal with on a ongoing basis is that women.
Believe that they did something wrong in in being people pleasers or taking care of other people's needs for those that time of their lives.
But the truth?
Is that's the way our bodies are programming us?
And so we, we do spend that time when we're raising our kids.
Pointing at other people to make sure that we stay in a relationship with them, that's a part of what our biology is telling us to do.
Whereas when we hit this stage of our lives, we get a chance to say ohh.
Hmm, maybe I want to make different choices for myself and we get to do that.
It's amazing.
So empowering, honestly.
Some people I know in my relationship with my husband, it's been.
It's changed a lot. We've been married for almost 29 years now and.
On the the one hand, when we were raising the kids and we had to do all of these things in order to, you know, just keep the family going, it was one thing and he made a lot of sacrifices.
But as he's retired and I'm doing stuff that I want to do now.
It's been a whole new dynamic and it's really sparked our relationship because you you're, you're not just, like stuck in these roles that you played for so long.
And it's I keep saying it's empowering but it's freeing it, you're just like.
You can do wild and crazy things.
Exactly, exactly.
And I I wrote a book designed for women to help get help their men understand what's going on.
For me, that didn't happen because I didn't know what was going on.
Our relationship was changing my ex and I.
Our relationship was changing and we didn't have a framework to put it inside into.
If I had known what was going on, it would have made a big difference in how we related to each other and got through that period of time of our lives.
As it was, he wasn't.
That wasn't what he wanted.
He didn't want to, to have to do the work, and therefore our relationship fell apart.
Happens to a lot of people, a lot of.
Women out there.
It happens. It happens.
They don't know what's happening to them, and they can't express it and they just it bubbles up as a rage.
And a lot of it.
Is just like.
A lot of it is anger.
A lot of it comes out as anger because we see ourselves and it's almost like the switch turns on and we say ohh.
People pleasing, that's not good.
I don't want to do that anymore.
I'm going to stop doing that.
And the guy or the children or the sister or the mom?
Flip out because they don't know what's happening to you and why you're changing like this.
And so it creates conflict.
And so the relationships, one of the cool things about it is it gives you an opportunity to reframe and rebuild that relationship.
Sometimes it doesn't last.
Sometimes it does, and that's wonderful.
But it's OK either side is OK.
Either side is OK.
And as you step into your power and.
You realize that?
It just your whole.
Life opens up for you because the possibilities are.
Actually endless right, especially right now.
Yeah, yeah, the pot.
I see so many women say this is what I was meant to do.
At this time of their lives, they realize that they are meant to be something different in the world than they were.
1020 years ago.
And we find.
And I.
Think because of it, the world is changing.
It's becoming a better place.
And you learn you learn in a lot of ways, you learn how to deal with people and talk with people and be in relationships with people that don't.
That don't rely on that same dynamic of you doing everything for, for, for people and.
It's really an amazing situation for our lives that we get to get a chance to choose who we want to be.
I agree so much.
It's been.
Such a.
It's been such a great part of my life I it's probably been.
15 years now, yeah.
Closer to 20 but.
Excuse me.
I just like.
I I'm getting to do things that I never would have dreamed I would be in this situation.
And be able to help people.
In a way that.
Makes me feel good and.
Without having to do the people pleasing thing.
Yeah, you can choose.
You can choose your own boundaries.
It's wonderful.
Yeah, boundaries is kind of a.
New thing?
So yeah, boundaries are something that I teach.
Teach my clients and that and very often they have not.
They have not thought about setting boundaries with the people they spend their time with because.
They've always been in this idea of doing, doing for others and you know you can.
You can do for others without.
Giving yourself away.
How's that?
Yes, that's true and you can value yourself.
And by boundaries do add value to who you are because you're not available for everyone, nor should you.
Be available for everyone.
But I know that you have written the book. I know that you have group programs or is it just one-on-one coaching?
How does that look when people work with you?
So what the way people work with me mostly is one-on-one I do I teach a class and I teach it.
Fairly often myself.
In a in a group setting and it is available if that's all you want, is just to learn what's happening and it's a.
It's an informational class, so that probably teach again starting in August sometime.
I haven't really set a date for it, but I think it's going to.
Be in August.
Uh, But the primary way people work with me is one-on-one, because everyone's symptoms look differently. Everyone's journey is going to be different because you have different history. You have a different body, you have.
Different ways that you eat and exercise and different stresses in your life, so it's going to affect you differently.
And so my one-on-one coaching program is designed to take a woman who is experiencing a number of symptoms and find the right holistic health plan.
Maximize that hormonal balance and also add in some elements of life coaching, like going back and getting rid of some old beliefs and thoughts around things, thoughts, thoughts around things that that have happened, women.
All the Toronto lead.
Generally do not reach their late 40s without having experienced at least some trauma, and so if it's.
If it's mild, we do it ourselves.
If it's really complex, I I refer it out.
I'm not a trauma informed counselor so.
I do have people on my referral list to help with that, so we do things like reversing some, dealing with some trauma and getting rid of old beliefs about stupid stuff that's getting in the way.
I was working with a client the other day who felt like she couldn't go to bed if she didn't have her dishes.
Washed and.
You know, OK, it's a good thing to to get your dishes washed and your kitchen clean.
But it's also OK to just say I'm tired.
It's time to go to bed.
I'm forget it.
I'll do them in the morning or honey.
Be there tomorrow.
Honey, the dishes need doing.
So those are things that that we grow up, we have these silly beliefs.
And it's usually our mom in our heads saying you can't go to bed with dirty dishes.
So getting rid of some of that stuff, getting rid of things that that have plagued us from before setting boundaries, examining, reexamining your values.
What it is that you want your dreams, your visions for yourself.
So it's a combination of.
Health coaching and life coaching, that's all informed by what your body is, how your body is changing, the way you think, the way you feel, the way you.
Approach your relationships.
Your weight, everything about you is changing because of this.
Hormonal change in your body and we deal with all of those things.
And like I said, we deal with sleep, we deal with stress, we deal with what the best diet for you is the best nutrition, nutrition and exercise plans so.
I've added recently, which is really cool. I've added 5-6 actually 6.
What I call intensives, I hate the word intensive because it's it isn't intense, but it's quick and it's quick.
It's designed for quick symptom relief around some of the most obnoxious.
Symptoms that we have.
Around brain fog and being able to focus and concentrate around hot flashes.
Around mindful eating around insomnia and around just overall relaxation, and then finally, if you happen to still be addicted to those cigarettes that are now even greater health risk for you, I have a program specifically.
Around stopping smoking so that you can get that out of the way and then deal with the rest of the symptoms in a more sane.
Manner and it's based in hypnotherapy, but it also brings in the Reiki and it brings in habit formation and stress management.
So those are, that's just recently I've started working with them and they're all amazing.
They're getting amazing results with the clients I'm working.
With those.
Yeah, well, I know.
Your clients get results because like I said, I was at your workshops and the strategies that you talk about for getting.
Sleep. They work.
Ohh, that's the other one.
That's the other one.
It's not relaxation, it's sleep.
That that important one, yeah.
That important 190% of women have periods of time between.
2 two months and 20 years of insomnia and fatigue during their menopausal years during their menopause journey, so it's in it's super important.
It throws your hormonal balance off, just not sleeping.
And so fixing.
Fixing how you feel is so dependent on fixing how you sleep and the insomnia program has just revolutionized women's lives just.
Just done amazing things and then.
Just getting good quality sleep makes such a difference in our lives.
And it's a five session program. I don't even require it to be 5 weeks long, so if somebody's really, really agonizing over sleep, we can do five sessions in a couple of weeks and just revolutionize how they feel and how they get sleep and.
Waking up in the morning so.
Yeah, I'm super excited about those.
OK.
So are they happening right now or are these the things that are going to be happening?
In August.
No, they're happening right now.
The lovely thing about this, this trip I'm taking is we've built in plenty of leisure and plenty of time for me to take care of my clients right now on even while I'm on the road.
When we jump on zoom it looks different than when I'm at home because I'm in my camper, but it's it's all done over zoom, so I just schedule appointments around our travel times.
That's perfect. So what's?
The one thing you want.
Our listeners to take away from this conversation today.
Oh, let's see.
How about?
How about a three parter?
Can I?
Do a 3 parter.
Perfect. Yeah.
OK, menopause happens to every woman sooner or later, if she lives longer.
Enough and living long enough, by the way, means 42 or 43, because that's when it starts happening. The second thing is, menopause is normal.
There is nothing abnormal or diseased or malfunctioning in your body stopping.
Having periods stopping ovulating.
That's perfectly normal.
And unfortunately, so are many of the symptoms.
And the third thing is that when you get beyond the symptoms.
When you have your body back under your control, menopause is the most immense gift.
That you could possibly have.
That is so beautiful and so true.
I love that, John.
It's sometimes hard to believe if you're.
In the middle of it.
That it can be a gift, but.
Work with somebody who can help you resolve the symptoms in a way that's not taking away from your body in a way that's doesn't have horrible side effects.
The side effects of my program, the biggest side effect that people have working with me is they lose weight.
Or if they're losing, if losing weight is their problem.
They stop losing weight and they become and they find themselves at a healthy weight and feeling great in their body again.
Those are side effects.
We can all live.
With, aren't they?
Yeah, absolutely.
So how can people get in touch with you?
How can women get in touch with?
You people can get in touch with me at you can reach out to me at.
Jeanne Delaney Andrus DULANEY Andrus is ANDRUS am on Facebook.
I do accept personal friend requests from women who are interested in help around menopause.
I have a page called menopause guru on Facebook.
You can find me at menopausebooks.com and menopause dot guru. I'm there and you can e-mail me at Jeanne at menopause dot guru.
So those are all ways that someone can get in touch with me. You can also catch me on my podcast menopause matters or my TV show on Phoenix FENIX. For people who can who want to spell it the right way. Phoenix app.tv. And again it's menopause.
Matters and that's my TV show.
We talk all things menopause on those shows and I really love it.
Connecting with listeners with people, women who are struggling with menopause and need.
To get it fixed, you don't need to go a decade or more without fixing this.
And just Sean knows what she's talking about.
Let me tell you.
Just just from the workshop, my sleep is.
I've been able to just fall.
Asleep so much easier and it it's just like.
I'm indebted to you, Jeanne.
I'm indebted.
I on menopause guru I will post the date of the next live workshop.
It should be within two weeks.
I just have to look to make sure that it's a night that will be in a stationary campground and not trying to pull into a campground.
10:00 o'clock at night, so I will be doing that again really soon and it it is a good workshop.
It's for people who aren't sleep.
And well, and I teach a couple of my favorite techniques for getting a better night's sleep.
And they really work so.
If you're struggling at all.
You're definitely going to want to get at least.
Tuned in for the workshop and get a hold of.
Jeanne, she will.
Fix you right up.
Thanks so much for being.
Part of our show today, Jeanne.
Thank you so much for having me, Jill.