Herbals for PMS, PMDD, Perimenopause, and More: Interview with Ashley Rocha
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Show Notes
Welcome to the SYNC Your Life podcast episode #308! On this podcast, we will be diving into all things women’s hormones to help you learn how to live in alignment with your female physiology. Too many women are living with their check engine lights flashing. You know you feel “off” but no matter what you do, you can’t seem to have the energy, or lose the weight, or feel your best. This podcast exists to shed light on the important topic of healthy hormones and cycle syncing, to help you gain maximum energy in your life.
In today’s episode, I interview Ashley Rocha, founder of Ladywell, a hormonal health supplement brand for women that gives women the tools to care for their hormones and well-being. Ladywell was created to make hormonal health solutions easily accessible to women and close the knowledge gap around hormonal health. With a culture hyper focused on quick symptom relief, Ladywell aims to treat the root cause and reestablish what it feels like to have a “normal cycle.” In this interview, we discuss herbal powerhouse remedies for issues like PMS, PMDD, and common symptoms experienced during perimenopause. We also touch on optimizing our fertility and so much more.
To learn more about Ladywell, click here.
To learn more about the SYNC fitness program, click here.
To learn more about virtual consults with our resident hormone health doctor, click here.
If you feel like something is “off” with your hormones, check out the FREE hormone imbalance quiz at sync.jennyswisher.com.
To learn more about the SYNC Digital Course, check out jennyswisher.com.
If you’re interested in becoming a SYNC affiliate and Certified Coach mentored by me, you can learn more here.
To learn more about Hugh & Grace and my favorite 3rd party tested endocrine disruption free products, including skin care, home care, and detox support, click here.
To learn more about the SYNC and Hugh & Grace dual income opportunity, click here.
Let’s be friends outside of the podcast! Send me a message or schedule a call so I can get to know you better. You can reach out at https://jennyswisher.com/
Enjoy the show!
Episode Webpage: jennyswisher.com/
Transcript
308 – SYNCPodcast – AshleyRocha
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[00:00:56] Welcome friends to this episode of the sync your life podcast. Today. I have my new friend, Ashley Rosha. She is the founder of a company. You’re going to learn more about here on this podcast. I know I’m more excited to dive into it myself. She’s the founder of lady. Well, it’s a hormonal health supplement brand for women that gives women the tools to care for their hormones and wellbeing.
[00:01:16] Lady. Well was created to make hormonal health solutions easily accessible to women and to close the knowledge gap around hormone health with a culture hyper focused on quick symptom relief, which I know I could get behind lady. Well aims to treat. To treat the root cause and reestablish what it feels like to have a normal cycle.
[00:01:32] So I’m excited for this conversation. Anytime I’m talking with somebody who has their own struggle that turned into their purpose and their message and, and what they really want to serve women with, I know it’s going to be a great conversation. So without further ado, Ashley, welcome to the show. If you will just sort of tell my listeners who you are and how you got to doing what you’re doing.
[00:01:49] Ashley Rocha: Hi, thank you so much for having me. I am Ashley, I’m the founder of Ladywell. And Ladywell is a hormonal health company, as we just talked about. Uh, we serve women for all life stages with really targeted supplements to change hormonal imbalance symptoms or struggles or problems women are having. And the reason why I began Ladywell was really out of my own hormonal health struggles, a lifelong journey.
[00:02:14] Ashley Rocha: I had the worst PMDD from day one of puberty. I had just like really high highs and low lows and mood swings right before my period. And then my cramps were just like off the charts. I was taking about like 20 Advil a day just to subdue the pain that was associated with my period. And then I had all the normal symptoms like bloating, acne, Um, breast tenderness, hormonal headaches.
[00:02:38] Ashley Rocha: So just like I had, I had it all basically. And I had this for so many years, almost two decades, I’d say. And it really affected my relationships. It affected my work, my productivity. Um, like one week a month was taken down basically by this hormonal imbalance that I had. And when I was younger, there just weren’t a lot of resources to help, help women.
[00:03:03] Ashley Rocha: First of all, figure out what was going on with their bodies. And then second of all, how to treat that, um, that information wasn’t there. And then towards my early thirties, you know, I started thinking about having kids as most women kind of do during that time. And I started trying to have babies and my fertility wasn’t as on point as I thought it was going to be.
[00:03:23] Ashley Rocha: I didn’t get pregnant. pregnant immediately. It took me about a year before I even addressed the issue. And so at that point I was like, Hey, there’s definitely some big hormone problems at play here. Like I have this PMDD issue. I have fertility issues. And I was also studying herbalism. So I started looking to the plant world to fix my own issues with my hormone imbalance.
[00:03:43] Ashley Rocha: And I also started seeing a functional medicine doctor. Because when I went to the mainstream, um, conventional doctors, they just told me to take birth control and take more Advil. And, you know, after like two decades of doing that, it just wasn’t working. So I, I really had to take my health into my own hands.
[00:04:00] Ashley Rocha: Um, and then with my own studies and with the functional medicine doctor, I was able to find all these different herbal ingredients and functional mushrooms and lifestyle changes that really just. drastically changed my own, my own trajectory of my hormones. So I started feeling better, you know, within like three to six months, I started not having as much PMDD.
[00:04:23] Ashley Rocha: Like over time, it just slowly lessened and lessened and lessened until it basically went away. And then I was able to get pregnant. I have two baby boys now. So it was, it was, I was just so, so happy I was able to overcome this, but it also made me sad at the same time because it just took me like so long to find that information and to change my, my health and how I was feeling day to day.
[00:04:47] Ashley Rocha: And that information is so hard. It was so hard for me to find. I didn’t want other women to go through that same, that same struggle as I did. And, um, I know the conversation around hormones and women’s health is changing within the last few years, and it really makes me happy, but there’s so far for us to go.
[00:05:06] Ashley Rocha: A lot of women still think PMS is normal. We’re still told that, you know, PMS as a woman is something we just have to put up with, um, but that’s not the case. If you have PMS, that’s a sign that there’s a root cause, an underlying issue there that you can fix. Right. Just look at your symptoms, address them through lifestyle changes, supplements, and you can live a more fulfilling life.
[00:05:26] Ashley Rocha: Like we don’t have to have these issues that we’re all putting up with.
[00:05:31] Yeah. Amen to that. I was just with a group of women, I was doing like a little intimate hormone health education event and I’m always shocked by the number of people who, you So on birth control. Cause you know, we don’t want to have to peel back the onion and figure out what’s going on.
[00:05:46] It’s just easier to take birth control or even had one girl tell me that because of her heavy painful periods, the doctor actually has her on two pills at the same time. So she’s taking two different birth control pills just to calm, you know, the symptoms she’s having. So let’s start there because, I mean, I definitely want to touch on, you know, PMS PMDD and that kind of thing.
[00:06:05] But. But even outside of that, you know, my, for my listeners, they know 72 percent of women will deal with hormone imbalance at some point, if not before perimenopause than during. And it’s just, it’s, it’s something that while common doesn’t have to make, be your life, right? Like you said, I know you and I have similar stories.
[00:06:23] Um, I used to plan my, my life around my period and even now with the migraines coming back and perimenopause. I’m finding myself like, Oh gosh, like I’ve been asked to speak somewhere. Is that going to land on my period? Like I can’t, you know, like I know I’m not going to feel my greatest, um, necessarily.
[00:06:38] And so I know there are women out there that feel this way. I know there are women out there who feel like they can’t take that trip or they can’t do that thing because they spend a week of the month miserable, whether it’s migraines or cramping or bloating or whatever. So let’s kind of just start with the basics of hormone imbalance.
[00:06:54] Like You know, what are the most common symptoms that women could be facing that, like you said, in their mind, they could be thinking, oh, this is just. This is just what women have to go through, right? This is just PMS, or this is just what I have to do. Maybe this is their first awareness that, no, it’s a sign that something else is going on.
[00:07:11] So what would you say are the most common, you know, signs or symptoms that women are experiencing?
[00:07:16] Ashley Rocha: Yeah, I think a lot of the common signs are just really easy to overlook because they feel like they’re just part of our daily lives. That, you know, we’re meant to be tired, we’re meant to be this way. So it’s, it’s easy to ignore.
[00:07:29] Ashley Rocha: Alright. I think the obvious ones are things that have to do, like, literally with your menstrual cycle. So, irregular periods, skipped periods, like, uh, overly heavy or even like too light of a flow. Cycles that are shorter or longer. So, anything that your period feels off or if there’s big changes in your period, that’s definitely something to look out for.
[00:07:51] Ashley Rocha: Um, I was just talking about fatigue. So, I think a lot of us are just, like, persistently tired. Um, and we have so much going on, we’re all like over packed our schedules, but persistent fatigue is definitely a sign of hormone imbalance. So if you’re constantly tired, even after a full night’s sleep, which I think is an important piece to note here, that can signal that there’s an issue with your cortisol, thyroid hormones, or progesterone.
[00:08:16] Ashley Rocha: So always look out for that mood swings or anxiety. And then this is associated with your cycle. So if you have sudden irritability, anxiety, or depression, like you just change as a person a week before your period or in your luteal phase. So your luteal phase is the time leading up to your period. So if you notice your mood changes a lot during that time, then you will know that it’s linked to your cycle and most likely your hormones.
[00:08:45] Ashley Rocha: Um, if you have a depression and anxiety always, then that might be a different issue. So just kind of looking at how these symptoms are aligning with your monthly cycle is important. And then weight changes. I think like we, some people have problems losing weight or difficulty losing weight, um, and have like the, the tire around the stomach.
[00:09:05] Ashley Rocha: That’s definitely a hormonal sign there. There’s so many acne, skin issues, hair changes,
[00:09:13] yeah, anxiety, yeah,
[00:09:14] Ashley Rocha: yeah, libido, you
[00:09:16] know, yeah, and I really do think, you know, if you’re listening to this podcast for the first time, you know, um, let me just say that tracking your cycle is truly where it starts for so many women.
[00:09:26] And I feel like when I teach hormone literacy and self advocacy and knowing what to ask in the doctor’s office and all these different things, at the core of that is if you don’t understand your cycle and how long your period or how long your menstrual cycles typically are and whether or not you’re ovulating, if you’re having signs of ovulation, if you’re experiencing these types of symptoms, especially in the week leading up to your period, if a lot of women don’t know, when I ask the question, like, what day of your cycle are you on?
[00:09:49] They’re like, well, what do you mean? Like, what is day one? They don’t know what that means. We’re just not, we’re just not taught. So. So tracking your cycle could be really beneficial for you. There’s so much, even if you’re not looking to cycle sync, I know my people typically find me cause they, they, they hear cycle syncing.
[00:10:04] That’s sort of like the icing on the cake, right? But it starts with understanding what your cycle even is for you. And it’s different for everybody. I know I was taught in, you know, Sex ed, middle school, like, you know, you’re given like the textbook, like here’s the textbook menstrual cycle. It’s 28 days, you know, you ovulate on day 14, this is what happens.
[00:10:21] And then you realize that like, actually that’s happening for almost no one. Most people are not having a textbook cycle. So, uh, that’s where you have to dig deeper on your own, on your own health. So let’s kind of dive into, you know, PMS, PMDD. I would love to just start with, can you identify the difference between PMS and PMDD?
[00:10:38] Ashley Rocha: Yes, so, PMS is something we’re probably all familiar with on some level, and that has a lot of those symptoms I just mentioned. Um, like painful periods, cramping, cravings, acne, sometimes you’ll get hormonal headaches, breast tenderness, um, you get the period poops. The craving, I said cravings, but brain fog is associated with it as well.
[00:11:02] Ashley Rocha: So all these common, you know, PMS symptoms that we’re all used to hearing about, um, definitely mood swings is like one that people like to joke about on PMS. Um, and so PMS can affect your life or can just kind of be an annoyance. So it’s, there’s kind of a, there’s a range with PMS. It can be mild to somewhat severe.
[00:11:24] Ashley Rocha: When it starts tipping over into the severe category, like it’s really impacting your life, your mood swings are drastic. Then you’re moving into the PMDD territory. So PMDD, PMDD is really, I would say marked by more emotional symptoms. So if you have really, If you’re really irritable, if you’re really angry, really easily, um, if something triggers you easily, if your mood springs are very high, that is probably A-P-M-D-D issue.
[00:11:52] Ashley Rocha: So, um, PMS might be more of a physical, you still have some emotional there, mission issues there, but PMDD, like you, emotional issues are really kick in. Um, and PMDD wasn’t really. identified as a disorder for so many years and only recently in the last decade has it been, um, officially like the doctors officially recognize it.
[00:12:18] Ashley Rocha: So, which is a good thing. That means we can get help for it for people with PMDD. They can go to their doctors and there’s more help there if they, if they choose to do that path.
[00:12:26] Yeah, it does make me wonder just, you know, I, I was reading this statistic recently that said that, um, I think it’s around over 50%, over 50 percent of women will be offered an antidepressant during perimenopause.
[00:12:38] And, you know, we see women, you know, over the age of 35 to 40, we start to see progesterone decline. We start to see mood changes as a result, lack of sleep, of course, which would make anybody grumpy. And so all this stuff starts to happen. And then. You know, doctors, similar to how we hand out birth control in our society.
[00:12:55] Um, it becomes, you know, okay, well, you must just be, you must just be depressed, right? Like it’s, it’s, it’s really kind of sad and I’m not here to shame modern medicine, but there is, there is a different way, right? There’s a different way, whether it’s herbals, whether it’s a functional medicine approach, just really.
[00:13:11] Understanding, um, that these things do, you know, stem from hormones and unfortunately hormone health has been something that’s just been very understudied for women until the last decade or so. So I just read also that 3 percent of practitioners are knowledgeable when it comes to, like, truly helping somebody peel back the onion with hormone health.
[00:13:30] Yeah, I’ve heard that doctors have
[00:13:31] Ashley Rocha: like one day of
[00:13:33] Yeah,
[00:13:33] Ashley Rocha: studies on that. So that’s just not enough.
[00:13:37] Well, I think there’s a new documentary out there by Tamsyn Fadal called the M, the M, I think it’s called the M Factor. M Factor. Yeah, menopause. And she says there that 50 million women are entering menopause in the next decade and only 3 percent of practitioners are knowledgeable.
[00:13:50] So there’s obviously this big gap. And that’s why women are feeling gaslit in the doctor’s office. That’s why they go in saying, my check engine light’s flashing. I, I have, you mentioned fatigue, I’m low energy, right? Like I’m not functioning, functioning optimally. And the doctor’s like, well, I don’t know, like here’s some birth control or guess what?
[00:14:06] Your labs are normal. Right. And they’re not getting anywhere. So I want to touch on this. You know, the one thing that I think you and I, when we met, when we met previously. Really jived on was this idea of really serving the woman through the different transitions of her life as it pertains to hormones.
[00:14:22] This is something that my listeners will hear more about in 2025 from me as I really shift into this. I’m going to go through this idea of serving the woman and every transition from puberty to, you know, pregnancy or infertility, postpartum perimenopause and menopause. We go through these different transitions where men, right?
[00:14:39] They just have a sort of steadily, steady, steady decline in testosterone as they age. So we go through these different transitions. And as we just alluded to, right, modern medicine, hasn’t quite caught up to how to really help us through those transitions. And so I love what you’re doing. I’d love to hear more about just sort of the herbal side of things.
[00:14:57] This is something we haven’t touched on on the podcast, but I’d like to kind of touch on, like, how can we like, so maybe start general by telling us, like, what is, you know, what are herbals and how can they really serve us in our health? But then also share with us, like, What are the cool nuance things that we can use during these different transitions to really help us live optimally.
[00:15:17] Ashley Rocha: Yeah, so herbs and the plant, the plant world in general is just full of beautiful medicine that’s often overlooked. And doctors, uh, like as we were just talking about, don’t have a lot of in depth education on any of these things. These like supplements or herbs or functional mushrooms, that’s not part of their curriculum.
[00:15:39] Ashley Rocha: So they, therefore, they can’t prescribe something that they don’t know about. Um, they don’t want to lose their license or they’re really restricted when it comes to what they can and can’t do. And if they don’t know something as well, doctors don’t typically You know, say like, I don’t know what that, I don’t know the answer, you know, here’s no, they just prescribe something they know, like a hormonal birth control or a antidepressant that they know works on some level to mask these symptoms that a person’s having.
[00:16:07] Ashley Rocha: So, I’m not saying, I’m not trying to say doctors are bad, it’s not their, it’s not really their fault because they’re just not given these tools. So herbs and functional mushrooms are super powerful and there’s, there’s so many of them for different aspects of a woman’s health journey through puberty, reproduction, pain, menopause.
[00:16:27] Ashley Rocha: There’s a lot of them that overlap and do a lot of different things for a large range of your life. Um, and I’ll talk about some of those. Um, the first one I will bring up is saffron and saffron is just such an amazing, Amazing one because there’s a lot of clinical research back behind it. Uh, you know a lot of these herbs aren’t, don’t have a ton of clinical research to back them up.
[00:16:53] Ashley Rocha: Some do and some don’t. So that’s another reason why doctors don’t necessarily want to prescribe things like this. Unless they have that clinical data to show that this works for that reason. But saffron is a great one because it does have that research backing it up. It’s called the sunshine spice. Um, it has remarkable potential in managing PMDD and PMS due to its mood enhancing and hormone regulating properties.
[00:17:16] Ashley Rocha: So there is clinical evidence showing that it improves your mood and has anti inflammatory effects as well, which help you, help you ease those physical symptoms like cramps and fatigue. Um, it boosts mood naturally with bioactive compounds and enhances the production of serotonin, which is the feel good transmitter.
[00:17:38] Ashley Rocha: So that’s why it’s helping with those mood swings and depression, irritability, and also reduces anxiety and stress and regulates hormones. So it does a lot for women’s health. So you can work it into your day to day. into your diet via like, you know, putting in your pasta and cooking with it. Um, but I include it in my daily hormone balance as an ingredient.
[00:17:57] Ashley Rocha: So it makes it easy for women to get saffron. You don’t need a ton of it. You know, it’s so delicate and small. And then one that I think is probably the most common one is Chastberry, also known as Vitex. And this is great for hormone balance and it will work for somebody who has PMS and it’s great for people going into perimenopause.
[00:18:16] Ashley Rocha: So it’s a, it’s a great one. That’s a catch all for a lot of things. Um, fertility as well. So it’s, it helps with breast tenderness, irregular periods, mood swings, irritability. So, you know, if you have, if you’re trying to get pregnant and you have irregular periods, that’s a, that’s a big problem. So you have to get your cycle in order for conception and then mood swings and irritability, you know, PMS.
[00:18:40] Ashley Rocha: So, how this one works is it supports hormone balance by acting on the hypothalamus pituitary ovarian axis. So, HPO, it helps regulate prolactin levels, which can improve mood and reduce the physical PMS symptoms. So, um, Reduces mood swings caused by hormonal fluctuations. It stabilizes that luteal phase, so reducing those emotional and physical distress symptoms there.
[00:19:10] Ashley Rocha: Um, that’s like the thing that helps with the irregular cycles or the severe PMS. And then, the last one I’ll talk about is ashwagandha. And I think Ashwagandha has gotten a lot of publicity in the last few years, which I think is great because it’s really a great, um, adaptogen for everybody, men and women, but we’re talking about women here.
[00:19:33] Ashley Rocha: So it really helps with stress and emotional resilience. And I would say that stress is like one of the worst things for us. I think we mostly all know that. If you’re trying to get pregnant, like stress is your enemy. If you have PMS, you have perimenopause stress, once again, like exasperate those symptoms.
[00:19:51] Ashley Rocha: Um, so I, I recommend ashwagandha for emotional symptoms like anxiety, stress, insomnia, fatigue. It works because it’s an adaptogen that helps the body manage stress by regulating cortisol levels and then supporting the adrenal glands. So it really improves resilience to these physical and emotional stressors.
[00:20:10] Ashley Rocha: And when you’re thinking about taking any herbs, like you want to look at what your symptoms are. Are they physical? Are they emotional? Are they related to your, your age? So, um, if you’re in your twenties and early thirties, it’s probably PMS. Like if you’re moving into your later thirties and forties, it’s, you’ll have an overlap of PMS and perimenopause potentially, but you’re going to be starting moving into that perimenopause zone.
[00:20:35] Ashley Rocha: So really looking at your age, your. Um, your symptoms that’s going to help you choose your, your herbals that you have with my company and my formulations. I created formulas that are really comprehensive. So they’re, they’re tacking these, um, symptoms from multiple angles in creating a formula that combines a lot of these different herbs.
[00:20:59] Ashley Rocha: So they’re touching on All of these physical emotional symptoms at once and then combining those with vitamins and amino acids So I was trying to create something that’s kind of like a one stop shop that you don’t have to have like 10 tincture bottles on your counter or like, you know I want to simplify the supplement cabinet because it can be overwhelming when you’re taking like 10 supplements every morning.
[00:21:24] Ashley Rocha: So I, I definitely worked hard to create something that was really comprehensive and holistic that embodied what most women will need during those times.
[00:21:34] Yeah. But what I love the most is that it’s not just one supplement for all age women, right? It’s not like this one size fits all hormone balancing supplement.
[00:21:42] Right. And what you just said, so pivotal for people to understand, like what you’re going through, if you’re going through a stressful time in your life or you’re in perimenopause, when those adrenals start to take over, right? Ashwagandha could be your very best friend, right? Whereas somebody in their cycling years, like Vitex could be what they need.
[00:21:59] So I love that you’re doing supplements in a very bio individual way where it’s like. Okay, what are you going through and what are you dealing with? What, you know, what is your age range? Like, what is, what is your life experience right now? And then let’s really support your hormones where you are. And that’s, that’s, you know, ultimately, um, what I think matters most there’s right now, you know, hormone health is trending.
[00:22:18] So it’s the number one topic on Instagram. Um, And I really so yeah, it’s a good thing because women are tired of feeling sick and tired and feeling gas lit and feeling low energy on the flip side, though, especially someone coming from a network marketing background, someone coming from sort of the health coaching side of the world.
[00:22:38] There’s also a lot of companies out there trying to take advantage of that trend and labeling things hormone health, right? Like, Oh, here’s our new hormone health supplement. That’s really a one size fits all supplement. And that’s where I have issue with it. Or even in seeing things that are created, like here’s your menopause supplement.
[00:22:54] Well, everybody’s individual, right? So until they really understand like what’s going on in their unique bodies, that’s when, I mean, I think herbals can be really powerful. There’s It’s interesting because I think it was probably around, I think my oldest was around a year old. So it’s probably been about six or seven years ago.
[00:23:10] I started to kind of go through a little bit of an adrenal fatigue. Which granted my oldest did not sleep through the night for the first year of life. So probably was a result of lack of sleep and all that kind of stuff. Yes. Um, And ashwagandha, you know, adaptogenic herbs, um, even using Vitex to be honest, because I, my body kind of stopped ovulating as response to that stress, which is very typical, you know, as my friend, Dr.
[00:23:35] Page says, like sex hormones are never the front bowling pin. So if the body is going through stress, we tend to see menstrual cycle dysfunction down the line, right? It’s kind of, It’s never the cause really, but it kind of happens downstream. And so I started to kind of see that sort of domino effect happening in my own life and different herbals that I tried during that time were game changing for me.
[00:23:56] Um, I also want to mention though, that a lot of times people want to Grab the symptom relief. They want, they want like, what is the herbal that I can take? Or what is the supplement or even pharmaceutical that I can take? Cause this is uncomfortable and miserable,
[00:24:07] Ashley Rocha: but
[00:24:08] they don’t want to address the underlying issue, which is the stress, right?
[00:24:12] So for me, like just using my own story, since I already mentioned it at that time, I had a one year old, I wasn’t sleeping and I also owned a gym. I was teaching 5 AM bootcamp classes. I was, so what did I need to do? Yes. The adaptogenic herbs were a game changer. But I also needed to back out of the gym.
[00:24:28] Like, I also needed to hire more trainers and, you know, preserve my own stress. And so a lot of times I see women wanting to grab, whether it’s a pill bottle or the herb bottle or whatever, whatever the case is, but they don’t address the actual stressor in the room, so to speak.
[00:24:44] Ashley Rocha: Yes, that is the hard thing.
[00:24:46] Ashley Rocha: We, we really want just something, a pill, magical pill that does it all without addressing lifestyle changes. And there’s no, I mean, yeah, supplements were always, you know, Help if you’re taking the right supplement as you’re to your point, but yeah, you can’t just supplement your way to Like better health necessarily.
[00:25:02] Ashley Rocha: It needs to be holistic You can you can get maybe halfway there, but you still if you want to go a hundred percent you gotta You gotta address other issues.
[00:25:11] Yeah, for sure. I have a question for you, if you’re willing to answer, regarding, you mentioned mushrooms. So, I know you’ve mentioned herbs so far, but is there anything that you could touch on when it got, cause I, I see this popping up.
[00:25:21] In fact, um, one of the companies that I represent, we just launched a cacao with adaptogenic herbs. Um, it’s got some chaga and some lion’s mane, stuff like that in there too. Is that something that your company is, is doing as well? Like, kind of utilizing mushrooms? Yes.
[00:25:35] Ashley Rocha: Yeah, actually, in our daily hormone balance, we use Fuling Poria mushroom, and it’s a great traditional Chinese mushroom.
[00:25:42] Ashley Rocha: It’s prized for its calming and balancing effects on the body. So it’s really beneficial to managing symptoms of like PMS and PD due to these adaptogenic and grounding properties. It suppresses inflammation, which helps menstrual cramps, alleviates depression and mood. I mean, it does amazing things for women’s health, um, gets support as well, reduces bloating and water retention.
[00:26:04] Ashley Rocha: Like, bloating’s a huge thing that most women, like, want to get rid of immediately. Um, so yeah, I think mushrooms are great. I, I definitely use mushrooms in my formulas and I love them. Yeah, I cook with them too, and they’re available at the farmer’s market.
[00:26:18] The more and more I learn about them, the more fascinated I am.
[00:26:21] So
[00:26:22] Ashley Rocha: they’re, they’re, they’re awesome. And I will continue to add them as much as I can to formulas in the future.
[00:26:28] Very cool. So I also know that I have women listening who are, you know, Either preparing for pregnancy or, um, kind of in there, you know, I’ll say fertile years. And I know you and I have similar stories, right?
[00:26:42] Like things weren’t happening in that department for us. So we pursue other things. And of course, I know for me, it was like, I think I was probably close to my mid thirties before everything’s the puzzle kind of all fit together. Like, oh my gosh, Jenny, like you’ve always struggled with. Menstrual migraines, painful periods, you know, heavy bleeding, like all these different things.
[00:27:00] Oh, it turns out infertility is now in the mix too. Of course it is because related to hormone imbalance. Um, and so, you know, I, I, it breaks my heart. Like every time I speak to a woman who is going through something similar. In fact, I just had a heartbreaking conversation with someone the other day. She was 37.
[00:27:16] She and her husband had been trying for several years. Um, and it’s just, it’s, it’s not working for them, but again, just to Plant the seed, you know, even in her journey, and I know in my journey, the fertility specialists aren’t necessarily there unless you seek out a functional fertility specialist, um, the average fertility doctor in this country is going to go straight to the injection straight to the.
[00:27:40] medication straight to the IBF, like that kind of thing, if things aren’t working. And I’m not saying that there’s not a place for that. Like, I think there’s an absolute place for that, but a lot of women could really benefit from understanding how to really like optimize their body or their spouses or significant others, um, bodies, which is why I created a functional fertility course to really help women understand this from a hormone literacy perspective.
[00:28:02] But I would love your take on it from an herbal perspective. Like what can women be doing With her. Well, you mentioned Vitex. Is there anything else that you would recommend that they investigate with their doctor?
[00:28:12] Ashley Rocha: Yes, and I think a part of this is women just wait until like the very end to go to the fertility specialist and at that point if they’re like 39 the fertility specialist is gonna say like we have to get on this because you’re running out of time You women should just start thinking about their fertility far in advance from when they want to have preg want to get pregnant.
[00:28:35] Ashley Rocha: So, you want to start prepping your body. That doesn’t mean you’re going to start, you know, trying to have sex in a targeted way. But you, I would say years in advance. Like, if you’re on birth control, you I would recommend, you know, weaning off birth control, going off birth control, because that does have an impact on your health.
[00:28:53] Ashley Rocha: Um, and I won’t dive too much into that. into the impact it does, but you want to make sure that you’re far away from birth control and that you are prepping your body with targeted supplements and removing stress. So, I mean, definitely, I always recommend a year before you try to start getting pregnant, you stretch.
[00:29:11] Ashley Rocha: Start taking your prenatal to get your nutritional stores up. Uh, look at your, so I, I recommend the Daily Hormone Balance as well from my company, because you want to get your, your cycle regular. You, if you’re having PMS, once again, that’s a sign that there’s some things at play. So you shouldn’t be ignoring these things.
[00:29:29] Ashley Rocha: So you, you want to make sure that your cycle and your hormones are balanced and functioning correctly. far in advance from the day you want to be pregnant. Um, I have a fertility and egg health supplement, which is really great for just making sure that your fertility is in order. It’ll boost your fertility.
[00:29:49] Ashley Rocha: It’ll make sure that eggs are As healthy as they can be so you you would want to start taking something like that in advance as well So six months in advance start taking a supplement that like my fertility egg health that includes coq10 folate vitamin d amino acids um Start getting your nutritional stores up in that way so I always recommend that women just don’t wait until the day they want to be pregnant to start Getting their fertility in order several years in advance is highly recommended because yeah, if you you’re turning 38 and you’re like, Oh, this I’ve been trying for a year.
[00:30:26] Ashley Rocha: This isn’t working. Let’s go test my fertility. You’ll go to the doctor. And yes, they are not. They’re not equipped normally to talk about herbals, but also it’s like they don’t want The time frame to start integrating herbals into your life and addressing your cycle in that way, that takes time. Yeah. And so you want to make sure that you’re budgeting for that time that you’re going to take.
[00:30:48] For sure. Well, I mean, it takes a follicle a hundred days to develop, right? And so if we really want to impact the follicle, we have to start early. We have to start in advance. I love that.
[00:30:58] Ashley Rocha: I also just mentioned for you, we always focus so much on women for fertility, which of course makes sense, but I want to say like, we should also be looking at the sperm and the men’s health as well.
[00:31:10] Ashley Rocha: If your husband or your partner or whoever is like not that healthy, like they don’t eat well or. You know, whatever, like their sperm doesn’t matter. It’s half the equation. So they can also be taking a CoQ10 supplement. Like there’s men’s fertility supplements that they can take to help, you know, improve their, their sperm quality.
[00:31:30] Ashley Rocha: Um, so that’s something to do in tandem.
[00:31:33] Yeah, for sure. And, and, and thanks to things like endocrine disruption, right? We’re seeing lower sperm counts across the board. There’s, there’s so much in that we could go on our, we could have our own pod. Yeah, I
[00:31:42] Ashley Rocha: could dive really deep into that because I’m totally obsessed with endocrine disruptions.
[00:31:45] Ashley Rocha: Get rid of your non stick pans and all your plastic. Right.
[00:31:48] Switch it all. Yeah, I know. Um, but the thing is like, I’m glad you mentioned that. Cause even in my own journey, you know, I’ve shared this on the podcast before, but I had laparoscopic surgeries. We did ovadryl injections. We did the whole time sex misery, all that, all the whole thing.
[00:32:02] Before the doctor finally was like, well, maybe we should have your husband assessed and analyzed. Right. And it was it was literally 6 months into the journey. And of course, I look back on that. I’m like, duh, like, what? You know, like, why didn’t we why didn’t anybody? But I was putting the authority on the doctor instead of saying like, Hey, like this takes two to tango.
[00:32:20] Can we, can we both be checked? But like you said, they started my, he actually, um, ended up having surgeries and such as well. And so they ended up putting him on CoQ10 and a whole variety of different supplements to just up his testosterone, up his sperm count, all that kind of stuff. So like you said, just to reiterate, like if you’re thinking, okay, well, I want to try having kids when I’m 24, right?
[00:32:41] At 22, 23, like we should be optimizing our bodies, right? We should be looking at, at these types of things in advance. So I love that. Oh, one thing I wanted to mention that you meant you were talking about the, uh, I forget what it was you said. I made a note that I wanted to mention. Oh, yeah, you’re talking about just sort of prenatals.
[00:32:58] Um, this was something that now granted my early twenties was really occupied with chronic migraine issues. So we weren’t really thinking about like conceiving at that point. I was just trying to get out of it. But doctors were still putting me on because I went off of birth control. And so we kind of pulled the goalie, all that kind of stuff.
[00:33:14] And so they put me on prenatals and folic acid and all this stuff. Right? Well, Fast forward to I’m now 40, um, just in this last year, I invested in a genetic test, um, because I wanted to see, you know, what are my genetic predispositions? I was adopted at birth. So I don’t have any medical history from like my birth mother or birth father.
[00:33:33] Um, and so I just wanted to know, like, What, what might I be up against? Right. And everything was so funny. Cause I remember getting that test and being like, Oh my gosh, like this information would have been hugely valuable in the last 40 years. Like why did we not do a genetic test before now? I have MTHFR com T gene mutations.
[00:33:49] And so my body doesn’t methylate well. So I need to do methylated vitamins. I need to do methylfolate, not just traditional folic acid. And so for years, it might literally five and a half, six years, doctors had me on just folic acid, which actually was more toxic to me than what my body needs. My body wasn’t utilizing it whatsoever.
[00:34:07] Right. So making sure that we are taking that extra step, um, not necessarily through testing, but just like making, taking that extra step to make sure that again, that the supplements are individual to us. Okay. So as we wrap this up, I do want to just ask you as a supplement creator, um, Um, you know, I want to ask you your opinion on what people should look for in supplements because there is a lot of confusion in the space, um, whether it’s hormone health supplements or, you know, I come from the world of like protein shakes and fitness and powders and all the things like, and I literally just did a video this week explaining, um, how a lot of supplement companies will cut corners, um, how we want to be really mindful of ingredients that are in products.
[00:34:47] So I would just kind of love your take on, you know, what to look for in supplements and what makes them quality.
[00:34:53] Ashley Rocha: Yes, so the first thing I always look for is to see what their testing policy is, if they, if they do testing. Uh, all our products are third party tested, so they’re tested for purity and efficacy.
[00:35:06] Ashley Rocha: Of course, you don’t want to take something that’s not working, but also you don’t want to take something that’s adding bad, unnecessary things back into your body. So if you’re trying to get pregnant, And so you’re taking a fertility boosting supplement, but it has like endocrine disruptors in there, like you’re counteracting what you’re, you’re, you’re trying to accomplish there.
[00:35:24] Ashley Rocha: So just make sure it’s clean and tested. That’s like the number one thing. I always like to take and recommend taking supplements that are in glass bottles or glass jars because plastic just leaches into your foods and your supplements, whatever there is. So all our products are always, you know, Packaged in glass.
[00:35:42] Ashley Rocha: I think that’s super important to me. Um, and then you just wanna make sure you trust the brand too, because there is marketing involved, right? People can say like, whatever they want on their personal website. Um, so I like to look at the, the, like the founding story of the brand, the about us page and see who’s behind the brand.
[00:36:04] Ashley Rocha: Um, like is there a real people behind it? Like if you look at my website like there’s obviously I’m part of my brand like I’m telling this story A lot of these supplement companies just kind of there’s no story to it Which kind of it’s like well, who are these people? Like is there a medical board?
[00:36:20] Ashley Rocha: Like how is it formulated? So my all my supplements are formulated by Functional medicine doctors, experts in women’s health, fertility doctors. So seeing who’s doing the formulations, who’s behind the brand, how it’s tested, how it’s packaged it, whether it’s, whether it’s made in America or it’s made overseas, I think it’s also a big indicator.
[00:36:42] Ashley Rocha: All our things, all our supplements are made in America. Um, so that kind of helps, uh, I think minimize some risk there in terms of just ingredient quality. So those are all things I recommend. And the supplement industry is. Unregulated, so it’s kind of like the Wild West out there in the supplement world.
[00:37:00] Ashley Rocha: So, you know, price, I price my supplements like super affordably because I want to be able to reach as many women as possible and create something that’s really accessible. Um, if something’s priced really low on Amazon, you might think twice about it, I would say. Um, it could be done or I mean, look deeper into the brand, but you get what you pay for in terms of supplements as well.
[00:37:23] Ashley Rocha: And it’s your health. And if you’re investing in this to begin with, and you’re putting something in your body every day that you want to see a change with, it’s, it’s an important thing.
[00:37:32] Yeah. The whole time you were talking, I just wanted to slow clap because I think, you know, I think that my people have heard me say this over and over third party testing is where it’s at, right?
[00:37:41] Third party testing, making sure there are no endocrine disruptors in the product. I love your recommendation about the plastic bottles. Um, Having a medical board on staff, like having this, this actually be, you know, supplementation is like you said, the wild west, but everybody’s doing it. Right. Because they know that they can make money doing it, whether it’s white labeling, whether it’s just crafting something cheaply that they can then upsell, um, we see this happening on Amazon.
[00:38:03] In fact, just recently I was really desperate for my omega three supplement. I thought I was getting it from the credible source on Amazon. It came in the mail and it was rancid. Like it was disgusting. And I was like, this is, I have to remind myself like no to Amazon, but even if it’s the brand. It may not be the brand, right?
[00:38:19] And so please don’t buy your supplements on Amazon unless, you know, for sure. It’s coming directly from the company that you trust. Um, but you know, it’s, it is the wild west and I, I unfortunately see a lot of. Women falling victim to, you know, false marketing. Um, And I think the more transparent companies are, like, if you can go to a company’s website, you could figure out the ingredients that are in the product.
[00:38:41] Um, if you can, you know, even find out where natural flavors are derived from, you know, a lot of companies, if they want to be transparent, they’ll share with you, like, our citric acid comes from lemon rind as opposed to black mold. Right? Those things matter. Um, but a lot of companies don’t say that. Right?
[00:38:56] And so we just see something like natural flavors. I know my mom, she’s 76. She still keeps that darn ketchup bottle in the fridge that says no sugar. And I’m like, ah! Mom, like this is worse. Like just buy the regular ketchup. Now you’re, you got like sucralose in your ketchup. So, um, don’t fall for the false marketing.
[00:39:13] Right. That’s all I have to say. So I really want to, I know we’re almost out of time, but we, one thing that we didn’t touch on specifically that I want to make sure I call out here as we wrap up is I know that a lot of my listeners are in that 35 plus category. They are in their sort of second puberty as we know it, um, perimenopause where things are unpredictable.
[00:39:32] You know, they’re sitting here listening to me and they’re like, but Jenny, I can’t track my cycle because I don’t know when it’s coming. I don’t know when my period’s coming. Um, it is a very rocky time. Right. And, but I want to just say that just because it’s rocky and, or can become, can be uncomfortable doesn’t mean we have to suffer through it.
[00:39:50] So first and foremost, before we dive into, you know, asking you the question of maybe herbals. I know we mentioned ashwagandha but, um, before we dive into that, I just want to say like, If you haven’t pursued a functional wellness journey before the age of 40, let this be your time, right? Like, let this be, it’s, and it’s not too late.
[00:40:08] It’s not too late to do the proper testing, which by the way, is not just a quick lab draw, um, at any given time of your cycle. If your doctor is referring to some If he’s referring to doing saliva or urine testing, you’re probably in better hands than you would be with just a, hey, head down the hall and get your labs checked.
[00:40:27] Right? Um, so getting the right doctor, getting the, as we mentioned, finding the 3%, right? Getting the right doctor, getting the proper testing that you need, and then doing that deeper dive on your bio individuality. On your bio individuality can be game changing because the research that we now have on women finally is pointing to these very, very specific correlations between decline in hormones as we age.
[00:40:55] And things like Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, and bone density issues, and cardiovascular disease. You know, two thirds of Alzheimer’s sufferers are women. The leading cause of death for women is cardiovascular disease. I don’t have the percentage off the top of my head, but osteoporosis, more persistent in women.
[00:41:12] There’s a reason for this. We replace every hormone in the body, except for some reason we have this weird stigma about, about sex hormones that I hope is changing. I hope the conversation is changing, but we can do things like, like Ashley’s teaching us when it comes to herbals and lifestyle that can help us thrive during that transition.
[00:41:29] So. Tell us just your take on just sort of perimenopause and you know, what you would be doing if you were in the shoes of someone who all of a sudden now things are unpredictable, they’re experiencing those symptoms that we alluded to, um, from an herbal perspective, you know, do you, do you guys have a blend dedicated to, to that?
[00:41:46] Ashley Rocha: Yeah. So I think it’s important for women to, I don’t think a lot of people really know The term perimenopause, like when I just talked to my friends, like they were like, I don’t know what perimenopause is. I have no idea what you’re talking about. So, uh, it’s different than menopause, right? It’s that transition to menopause.
[00:42:03] Ashley Rocha: And it can begin in your 30s. I think that’s kind of shocking to a lot of women. They think that, oh, I’m just having PMS. Um, your cycle definitely will begin to change in length and, you know, eventually go away, which is, after 12 months without a period, that’s when you’re officially in menopause. So I think it’s important just to know when, when it’s can be starting and what to look out for.
[00:42:29] Ashley Rocha: And then yes, how to treat it. Um, you’re obviously your age matters. So if you’re in your twenties to thirties, you’re probably PMSing, but in your premenopause can begin in your late thirties, like even 35. Um, and then. In terms of like the symptoms, you gotta, you gotta also parse out the symptoms between these different stages.
[00:42:48] Ashley Rocha: So if you’re getting hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, these are all hallmark signs of perimenopause. Not KMS, but perimenopause has so many symptoms, it’s Kind of unbelievable. Like if you have all of a sudden an auditory sensitivity or just like
[00:43:05] there’s like ear itching and like frozen shoulder And yeah, the
[00:43:08] Ashley Rocha: frozen shoulder if you start to smell like yourself having really bad BO
[00:43:13] I’ve noticed at the age of 41.
[00:43:15] My husband chews louder than ever like I never used to I think that’s perimenopause.
[00:43:20] Ashley Rocha: Yes So I would just like Google, Google that if you’re interested. Um, but you can take, um, supplements. Once again, like we talked about, ashwagandha, black OSH is good. Saffron I mentioned earlier is, is good as well. Um, and then if you go to your doctor, they can do testing and you can choose to take, do hormone replacement therapy if you want, and use bio bioidenticals, uh, has been shown to help women a lot.
[00:43:48] Ashley Rocha: If you’re, if it’s like really severe. And you just can’t manage that through herbals or lifestyle changes, uh, depends on how it’s affecting you. So, it was different, yeah, different levels of approach to that.
[00:44:01] Yeah, and my listeners know I’m a huge bioHRT fan. I’ve been using it myself and work alongside a physician for telehealth consults and we are, you know, We make sure we do our due diligence.
[00:44:12] Like we don’t just recommend it for everybody because it’s not for everybody. But if you have the testing and you have the symptoms and we do have significant science to now show that it’s beneficial for a lot of those reasons I mentioned earlier as well. So,
[00:44:22] Ashley Rocha: yeah. And I haven’t taken it because I’m not there yet, but I, I hear it’s pretty instantaneous.
[00:44:27] Ashley Rocha: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:44:28] I mean, I’ve been a, I’ve been on bioidentical progesterone for 14 years now, um, mostly for migraine. And I don’t know where I’d be without it, to be honest, because it’s. It’s been a life changer for me. I actually, my best friend from college just reached out to me this week and she’s like, my doctor finally got me on progesterone.
[00:44:43] She had had some, some Dutch testing that came back twice now with really low levels. And, um, like her family history is, you know, early menopause and all that kind of stuff. And so I was like, you need to push back and ask about this. And so long story short, her doctor finally put her on it and she messaged me this week and she was like, Oh my gosh.
[00:45:00] She’s like, I finally slept last night. And so I’m like, yes, it’s game changing, right? So, um, yeah, we have to fight for it. We have to fight. We do
[00:45:09] Ashley Rocha: also have to have the resources. Um, people who live in a small town, like might not have those resources or just don’t have the education. It’s yeah, for
[00:45:16] sure.
[00:45:17] Ashley Rocha: For sure.
[00:45:17] Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing this interview. I want to make sure we spend some time here. Just sharing, you know, you guys listening and we will have a link for you in the show notes. So you can simply swipe up to learn more about her amazing company and these people. blends that she’s mentioned.
[00:45:29] I will link those up for you in the show notes with a discount code, but I would love for you to tell us like, where can people find you? Where can they find the company, you know, on social media, that kind of stuff.
[00:45:37] Ashley Rocha: Yeah, you can visit our website at getladywell. com. Uh, all our supplements are there. We have some other items as well to help women’s cycles.
[00:45:46] Ashley Rocha: And then you can find us on Instagram, Tik TOK. Pinterest, um, YouTube at get lady.
[00:45:52] Well, perfect. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Ashley, for sharing your story and how you’ve turned that into really your purpose and serving other women. And I’m excited to try these products myself. So I’m going to hop on the website today and, and, and try some myself.
[00:46:05] So thank you guys so much for listening until next time. We’ll talk soon. Thank you.