The War on Women’s Health: The Truth About Women's Hormones ft. Emily Sadri, NP
Season 2, Episode 15 — ft. Emily Sadri, NP
RAW Season 2, Episode 15: The War on Women's Health ft. Emily Sadri, NPYou've been told your labs are normal. You've been told it's probably stress. You've been handed an antidepressant, a sleep aid, or a referral to a specialist who runs the same panels and comes back with the same answer: nothing's wrong.
But something is wrong. You can feel it.
In this episode of RAW, host Alison Hite sits down with Emily Sadri — a UPenn-trained women's health nurse practitioner, certified nurse midwife, and founder of Aurelia Health — to have the conversation too many women never get in a clinical setting. One that starts with a simple, validating premise: your symptoms are not random. They are signals.
"Your symptoms are not random — they're signals."
— Emily Sadri, NP | RAW S2E15
Meet our guest, Emily Sadri, CNM, APRN
Emily Sadri is the founder of Aurelia Health, a hormones-first telemedicine practice for women in midlife. A UPenn-trained women's health nurse practitioner and nurse midwife turned hormone specialist, Emily helps women make sense of perimenopause and menopause through a personalized, physiology-based approach. After years inside the traditional medical system, she built Aurelia Health to offer something different: care that looks at the full hormonal picture, not just isolated symptoms — and treats women as the complex, capable individuals they are.
Connect with Emily
Visit Aurelia Health | Use code CHEEKY100 for $100 off the Hormone Deep Dive — Aurelia's comprehensive entry point for understanding your hormones, metabolism, and overall health.
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In This Episode We Discuss
Perimenopause Starts Earlier Than Most Women Realize
Perimenopause isn't the dramatic transition most women imagine. It often begins quietly — in the late 30s or early 40s — with symptoms that seem completely unrelated: anxiety that comes out of nowhere, disrupted sleep, mood swings, brain fog, weight gain around the midsection, or cycle irregularities. Because these symptoms aren't typically framed as hormonal, they're often attributed to stress, aging, or mental health issues — and the actual cause goes unaddressed.
Estrogen Does Far More Than Most People Know
Estrogen is not simply a reproductive hormone. It plays a central role in metabolism, sleep architecture, brain function, cardiovascular health, bone density, stress resilience, and insulin sensitivity. As estrogen fluctuates and declines during perimenopause, the downstream effects touch nearly every system in the body. Understanding this reframes the experience of midlife for women — it's not aging, it's physiology.
The Symptom Management Problem
One of the most important threads in this conversation is the gap between symptom management and root-cause care. Birth control pills are prescribed to regulate cycles without examining why they're irregular. Antidepressants are prescribed for mood shifts that are hormonally driven. Sleep aids are prescribed for insomnia rooted in progesterone decline. Emily explains why this approach — while sometimes necessary in the short term — consistently misses the underlying hormonal picture and leaves women no closer to understanding their own bodies.
Being Dismissed Is Common. It Is Not Acceptable.
Emily is clear-eyed about a reality most women have experienced firsthand: being told that labs are "normal" when symptoms are anything but, being told that what they're feeling is stress or anxiety, and being offered a prescription when what they needed was an explanation. She argues that women deserve care that is comprehensive, personalized, and grounded in the full hormonal picture — not just the parts that fit standard reference ranges.
Postpartum and Midlife as Major Hormonal Transition Windows
Two periods in a woman's life create particular vulnerability to hormonal depletion and dysregulation: postpartum and perimenopause. Both are windows where the body undergoes rapid hormonal recalibration — and both are frequently minimized or normalized in conventional care. Autoimmune issues, thyroid dysfunction, and metabolic shifts often surface in these windows and deserve more attention than they typically receive.
Ovulation as a Health Signal
The presence of ovulation — and a healthy, rhythmic hormonal cycle — is one of the most important signals of female health. When it's suppressed (as it is on hormonal birth control) or disrupted (as it can be by chronic stress, under-fueling, or HPA axis dysregulation), the downstream hormonal and metabolic effects are significant. Emily advocates for treating the menstrual cycle as a vital sign, not an inconvenience.
Restoring Physiology vs. Suppressing Symptoms
The central distinction of this conversation: there is a fundamental difference between suppressing a symptom and addressing its root cause. Emily's approach at Aurelia Health is physiology-based and individualized — working with the body's hormonal rhythms rather than overriding them, and providing women with a genuine understanding of what's happening and why.
Key Takeaways
Your symptoms are not random. Anxiety, poor sleep, brain fog, weight gain, and cycle changes in midlife are often hormonal signals — not evidence of stress or imagined illness.
Perimenopause starts earlier than most women expect. Late 30s and early 40s are common windows for early hormonal shifts.
Estrogen affects your whole body. Metabolism, sleep, mood, brain function, bone health, and cardiovascular health are all estrogen-dependent.
Symptom management is not root-cause care. Birth control, antidepressants, and sleep aids address outputs without examining the hormonal drivers.
Being dismissed is common — but not something to accept. If you're not getting answers, seek a different kind of care.
Postpartum and midlife are high-risk hormonal windows. These transitions deserve proactive, informed support.
Ovulation matters. A healthy cycle is a vital sign — not something to be suppressed or ignored.
Physiology-based care is personalized care. Hormone health is not one-size-fits-all.
Women need support, not shame. Stress, burnout, and under-fueling compound every hormone issue.
Ask better questions. You have the right to explanations — not just prescriptions.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A: Early perimenopause can begin in the late 30s to early 40s and often presents as anxiety, sleep disruption, mood swings, brain fog, cycle irregularities, and weight gain — particularly around the midsection. Because these symptoms are frequently attributed to stress or aging, the hormonal root cause is often missed and left unaddressed for years.
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A: Estrogen supports serotonin and dopamine production, insulin sensitivity, cognitive function, and energy metabolism. Progesterone has a calming, sleep-promoting effect — its decline in perimenopause is a primary driver of insomnia and anxiety. When both hormones fluctuate, the effects ripple across nearly every body system, including cardiovascular health, bone density, and stress resilience.
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A: Women's symptoms are frequently attributed to stress, anxiety, or normal aging rather than hormonal shifts. Standard lab reference ranges are often too broad to detect early hormonal changes. The conventional model tends toward symptom management — prescribing antidepressants for mood, sleep aids for insomnia, or birth control for cycle issues — rather than investigating the hormonal root cause.
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A: Perimenopause is the transitional phase leading up to menopause — often lasting 4 to 10 years — during which estrogen and progesterone fluctuate significantly. Menopause is defined as 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period. Perimenopause symptoms are often more variable and intense than menopause itself, and they frequently begin far earlier than women expect.
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A: Yes, in many cases. Hormonal birth control suppresses ovulation and the body's natural hormone cycle, which can mask symptoms of underlying dysregulation including cycle irregularities, hormonal acne, and mood instability. When women discontinue birth control, these issues often resurface — unaddressed — because the medication managed the symptom without identifying the root cause.
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A: A physiology-based approach assesses the full hormonal picture — estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, thyroid, and metabolic markers — rather than treating symptoms in isolation. It works with the body's natural hormonal rhythms, identifies root causes of dysregulation, and provides individualized care rather than one-size-fits-all prescriptions. Practices like Aurelia Health specialize in this model for midlife women.
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A: Postpartum is a major hormonal transition window. After delivery, estrogen and progesterone drop rapidly, which — combined with nutritional depletion, sleep deprivation, and the stress of new parenthood — can trigger thyroid dysfunction, mood disorders, autoimmune flares, and metabolic shifts. These effects are often undertreated or normalized, when in fact they warrant proactive hormonal and nutritional support.
This conversation covers far more than we could capture here. Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Work with Emily at Aurelia Health 💰 Use code CHEEKY100 for $100 off the Hormone Deep Dive.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and watch on YouTube.
Related Episodes
S2 E12 — The Truth About GLP-1s ft. Gretchen Spetz, RD
Directly overlapping territory — insulin resistance, midlife metabolism, and the hormonal drivers behind weight gain and body composition changes. Strong companion for listeners navigating both conversations.
S2 E6 — How to Get Healthier As We Age ft. Dr. Mary
Covers inflammation, strength training, and holistic women's wellness — another expert lens on the same core question: what does it actually take for women to age well?
S1 E21 — Treat the Root — Not the Symptoms ft. Dr. Madison Lagard
The functional medicine framework that underpins Emily's approach — addressing root causes rather than symptoms, and why conventional care so often falls short.
