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084: Rash Triggers For Your Sensitive Lady Parts (That Can Be Embarrassing To Talk About) w/ Dr. Jolene Brighten

Speaking about our genitals, specifically problems or rashes around them, can be really embarrassing and awkward. My guest today is here to break the stigma around talking about skin rashes in the genital area.  

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android

Dr. Jolene Brighten, NMD, is one of the leading experts in women’s medicine and is a pioneer in her exploration of the far-reaching impact of hormonal birth control and the little known side effects that impact health in a large way.

In her best selling book, Beyond the Pill, she shares her clinical protocols aimed at supporting women struggling with symptoms of hormone imbalance, including Post-Birth Control Pill Syndrome and birth control related side effects.

A trained nutritional biochemist and Naturopathic Physician, Dr. Brighten is the founder and Clinic Director at Rubus Health, an integrative women’s medicine clinic. She is a member of the MindBodyGreen Collective and has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Forbes, Cosmopolitan, ABC news, and the New York Post.

Join us as we discuss possible genital rash triggers, which might be embarrassing to talk about.

In this episode:

  • What is lichen sclerosus and how does it present on the skin?
  • How do our hormones affect our skin?
  • Steroid creams for itchy genitalia
  • Why you should discuss skin treatments (even natural ones!) with your doctor

Quotes

“[Lichen sclerosus] tends to occur primarily when women haven't reached menstruation yet, or menarche, and in postmenopausal women, which tells us that there is a hormonal component to this just like all other autoimmune disease.” [6:47]

“We don't want to be putting just anything in our vagina…Even if you're considering a natural therapy, have a conversation with your doctor.” [21:40]

Links

Find Dr. Brighten online

Register now for FREE access to Dr. Brighten's Take Back Your Hormones event

Get Dr. Brighten's FREE E-book, Post-Birth Control Syndrome Detox Diet Quick Start Guide, here

Healthy Skin Show episode 005: How Hormonal Birth Control May Be Contributing to Your Skin Condition w/ Dr. Brighten

Healthy Skin Show episode 015: Alternative Remedies For Lichen Sclerosus w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Healthy Skin Show episode 040: Lichen Sclerosus Help With Diet And Physical Therapy w/ Dr. Jessica Drummond

Beyond the Pill

Follow Dr. Brighten on Instagram | Facebook

084: Rash Triggers For Your Sensitive Lady Parts (That Can Be Embarrassing To Talk About) w/ Dr. Jolene Brighten FULL TRANSCRIPT

Jennifer: Hi everyone. Welcome back. I've got a special recurring guest with me. You guys have might remember her. She was one of the first guests on the healthy skin show many, many months ago. Her name is Dr Jolene Brighten and she's one of the leading experts in women's medicine and is a pioneer in her exploration of the far reaching impact of hormonal birth control and the little known side effects that impact health in a large way. In her best selling book, Beyond the Pill, which is a phenomenal read by the way. She shares her clinical protocols aimed at supporting women struggling with symptoms of hormonal imbalance including post birth control syndrome and birth control related side effects. A trained nutritional biochemist and naturopathic physician, Dr Brighten is the founder and clinical director at Rubus Health, an integrative women's medicine clinic. She's a member of the mindbodygreen collective and has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Forbes, Posmopolitan, ABC News, and the New York post. Dr Brighten, thank you so much for joining us again.

Dr. Brighten: Thank you. You make me sound so cool.

Jennifer: You are. We're going to have an interesting conversation today and I, you know, we had talked about how to preface this cause we want to talk about lichen sclerosus, but obviously we are going to be talking about some things where if moms are in the car with their little ones and so why don't you share what you felt was a good preface to this conversation.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, I appreciate that because I'm a mom as well and I want to be aware that like there's just some uncomfortable conversations we're just not ready to have yet with our small humans. So we're going to use anatomically correct terms and everything that we talk about today is the same way that I educate my six year old son about female anatomy and genitalia. And I know even genitalia can feel like a triggering word. So let me just say this. If you're not ready to go there in the conversation and you have small human ears surrounding you, it's one for later because I think it is important for every human on the planet to have proper and accurate anatomical education and you know, education overall about our hormones. Which is why we have the Take Back Your Hormones conference going on is to provide that information.

Dr. Brighten: And I want to go into this topic because you talk a lot about skin rashes, skin issues on this podcast. And yet we can have these skin issues and symptoms show up on our genitalia. And so we're going to talk about lichen sclerosus, but it's also important to recognize that some women present with eczema and psoriasis as well can only be located on the genitalia. And because it's one of those taboo areas and there is no way you don't feel embarrassed when you have a rash on your vulvar area. So for women to understand when we're talking about these rashes people often say vagina and it's kind of this like ubiquitous term, but that's actually the internal infrastructure. And what we're really talking about is the vulva. So external structure. And that's where on the labia majora, the labia minora, we may see rashes showing we can have itching, we can have discharge.

Dr. Brighten: And there's no, like, there's no real space held in society for us to openly have dialogues about this. And it absolutely can feel embarrassing, but it's really important for women to understand. It is not uncommon to present with rashes and other skin symptoms here. And this is an area you need to be acquainted with because there are certain changes that can start showing up in this area. There's even cancers that can show up in this area and they show up with changes in pigmentation. We can have autoimmune disease show up, which is like eczema or lichen sclerosus. And so as much as it can feel like, and I definitely, I was raised in a very religious household, so it did take time to lose the blush, the triggering of the flushing of my cheeks of like, Oh, we're going to talk about this. And then I became a doctor in women's health and was like, we have to talk about lady parts to every woman in a way that ditches the shame, ditches the dogma, ditches, you know, any of the emotions around it because we are humans. And talking about your vagina, talking about your lady parts. That's like talking about your oral health. It's like talking about your eyes, your ears, your other skin in your body. It's another body part.

Jennifer: Yeah. And so why don't we start out if in case everybody didn't hear the other two episodes where we talked about lichen sclerosus, what is that? And we're going to actually focus for those listening on women today. So I know some people are interested in hearing about how this could impact men, but we're going to focus on the ladies today.

Dr. Brighten: I appreciate that because you know, my focus is really in women's health and that's important because we're going to be talking about the relation to hormones. So lichen sclerosus is a chronic condition. It causes the skin to become thin. There can be white patches of skin, so hypopigmentation, and this is generally located in the genital area. And what is most maddening is what I would say about this condition is the itching. So the itching is one of the hallmark symptoms that women experience. And what's interesting about this condition. So one is it's thought to be auto immune mediated, which means that if you have this condition, it's important for you: one go through Jen's other podcast where she talks about autoimmunity, what to do about it. But in addition to that, understand that if you have lichen sclerosus, you have one autoimmune disease.

Dr. Brighten: Some studies have shown with certain autoimmune conditions, by the time a woman gets diagnosed with one, she actually has three. And this is important because if you have Hashimoto's, then which is the most common or you know, other conditions, you want to be really aware of this, this area of your body and seek help immediately. Also knowing that white patches can also be vitiligo and vitiligo is where you basically have your immune system destroying the melanocytes. So you get the, and there's a Victoria's secret model. I love that now vitiligo is like this thing that's like beautiful in the world. So you may have seen this she's an African American woman I believe. And so she has darker skin. So it's quite a contrast. When you see the hypopigmentation. How do you know if it's lichen sclerosus?

Dr. Brighten: Well, one, you need to see a doctor, but two, it's likely going to be really itchy and we don't want to scratch it because scratching makes it worse and you can get thickening of the skin. And so it can start to have changes where the skin thickens and it's almost like it starts to become a callus because of all of the friction and the trauma. Now the last thing I want to say, and then I know you've got more questions for me is this condition tends to occur primarily when women haven't reached menstruation yet, or menarche, and in postmenopausal women, which tells us that there is a hormonal component to this just like all other autoimmune disease. So it's likely there's a genetic relation that there is a problem, there's been a trauma or an infection is a triggering event. And in addition to that, you are on these ends of the spectrum where you don't have cyclical hormones and so you're not getting your progesterone up in the same way. You're not spiking estrogen and while those can sometimes be troublemakers for autoimmunity. They play a big role in regulating our immune system as well. And so I think this is why I really felt it was so important that even if you are a mom and you have small children around, you really listen to this because you may notice it's not uncommon to see a child grabbing on their genitalia and that's not, I have a, I'm a small boy and so the first time I was like, what is going on there? Okay, wait, okay, this is just what kids do. But if you notice that maybe your child is scratching a lot or sometimes we'll, they're sitting there like moving their hips back and forth, creating some friction. It may be because there's an itch there. And I'm not saying that like, Oh, this is lichen sclerosus, but it is something just to be aware of because it could be a yeast infection going on. It could be, it could be eczema presenting there, it could be lichen sclerosus or it could be nothing. It could be that they need to go take a bath or they need a new pair of underwear or different kind of underwear. But if we don't know what to be aware of and what these possibilities are, we don't know when to go to the doctor.

Jennifer: Well, and what's really interesting is the clients that I've worked with who've had, lichen sclerosus, the number one suggestion from their doctor was a steroid cream, which is interesting because one of the side effects of steroid creams is thinning the skin.

Dr. Brighten: I'm so glad you brought that up.

Jennifer: One of the symptoms is that the skin becomes thin. So what are your thoughts? Because Dr Cabeca who spoke on this, she talked about the connection with candida. We've talked with Dr Jessica Drummond about the physical therapy aspects to helping support that area, especially if you have lichen sclerosus. So what's your take like is steroid cream the best? And I know you can't necessarily, there's a time and a place for medication, but what are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Brighten: It's not the best course of longterm treatment, but if you are not sleeping, so let's talk about this. So yes, this condition comes with discomfort and itching and you can even have tearing of the skin because it's so itchy. I mean it, it drives you crazy with the edge and you also don't sleep. So we see them at night is when the itching gets worse, which makes sense because this is also when chronic pain conditions get worse. Why? Because your cortisol naturally declines at night. It needs to decline at night. And so as cortisol goes down, inflammation begins to rise. And so if you're not sleeping, then you may need to get some steroids on board for a very short period of time to get that symptom relief. However, before patients go into using steroids, we sometimes try things like calendula salve, which is like you can get it based in some really nourishing oils and vitamin E and that sometimes can bring some relief.

Dr. Brighten: Now that's not going to cut through the inflammation and it's not necessarily designed to be anti-itch, but if you know, if the skin is feeling dry and it's irritated, that can sometimes be helpful. For that you want to be really aware. I mean if you are using steroids, just like the same as if you're using any hormones on your genitalia. So whether it's progesterone, estrogen, DHEA, you always have to think about who you're coming in contact with. So this is another thing to keep in mind is that as women, if they're going to use these steroids, if you have sexual intercourse, that other person is being exposed to this as well. And if you already have fryable skin, so as I said, this can be post-menopausal that this comes up. We'll postmenopausal women, they generally have vaginal atrophy, thinning of the skin, and it's more fryable.

Dr. Brighten: That means it's more likely when friction is present, that you will see bleeding and the skin will tear. And if you add steroids in the mix, it can make things a lot worse. And that's where women can start seeing pain with intercourse and they see bleeding with intercourse, not from the vagina but from the skin tearing. So if that's what's going on, this is where bringing in lubricants is a really, really good idea. There is no shame in using lubrication for intercourse as cyclical creatures. So when we are cycling that there are times in the cycle where you're not going to be able to naturally lubricate and when you're post-menopausal, you're going to need more lubricant to support you. So just, I'm like, I tell my patients, be liberal and be preventative and even if you can self sometimes just bringing on that lubrication can be soothing and help support that.

Dr. Brighten: You know that that physical act so that you don't end up with pain later, but you have to recognize if your skin, so one, your skin absorbs things very well to a mucus membrane absorbs it even better. That's what your vaginal tissue is. And three, if your skin barriers broken down, you're gonna absorb even more. So what is in your lube can absolutely be an irritant. It can be an endocrine disruptor and it can actually, you have things in there that aggravate the immune system. We don't want immune system activation. And so in all of this, we also need to do hormone testing. So I don't want women using endocrine disruptors when we need to actually test her hormones. Because as I said, there is a hormonal component from what we've observed. There's a hormonal component in this, which is, you know, in the Take Back Your Hormones conference that we're running really helping women understand their hormones, understand their body, and have more productive conversations with their doctors so they can optimize their hormones when an aren't high risk of autoimmune disease. And a big reason is, is because we are hormonal creatures and those can be triggering events. That doesn't mean your hormones are bad. In fact, you can actually bring them into balance and that can put some autoimmune conditions into remission. So like lupus, eczema, psoriasis, and then certainly lichen sclerosus as well.

Jennifer: So with lichen sclerosus you know, one question that I had got a while ago was, well it's, it's down in the lady part section region. You know, am I supposed to clean my lady part? Like what? And I didn't know. That's not really my, that's not my wheelhouse, that's beyond my scope of practice. But it's a good question. Is that the result of perhaps not taking care of the skin down there in an appropriate fashion?

Dr. Brighten: So it can be and maybe not the way that we think about it because often like when you have a rash of any kind, it's a normal, it's a very normal thing to be like, I need to clean this more. I need like the answer is more cleaning. Now here's what we know. We know that the microbes that inhabit our body in our gut, our mouth, our vagina on our skin, they all interplay with our immune system and their immune regulatory. So your lady parts your vagina and the external tissue has its own microbiome, which we don't know a whole lot about. Big surprise, right? We haven't like explored this reason yet. Thanks medicine. And yet we do know that the microbes in our gut and on our skin, they are susceptible to a lot of the things in our environment. And one thing that we've received messaging on like forever as women is that vaginas are unclean and that you need to clean them and that if they have an odor, something's wrong.

Dr. Brighten: Now there are ends of the spectrum with odors. If you have like that fish like odor, which is something that like, I swear if I see another like dude joke where they're like making fun of that, I'm like, no, that's not actually her. That's the bacteria. And it's the amiens and there's a, there's a physiological thing going on here that warrants investigation by a doctor. So that's bacterial vaginosis that we'll see with that, that otherwise your vagina is supposed to have a smell. It is supposed to have a scent, just like your armpits are supposed to have a scent. This is, goes back to like you are an animal at the end of the day. And scent is very important. It's why we have a sense of smell. It's very, very important in the environment and with mate selection made attraction. But there's been this messaging throughout the years and you know, you and I were just together in person and I was even talking about like, Oh yeah, make your vagina smell like tulips.

Dr. Brighten: Like what? Wait, what? And I talk about this and beyond the pill as well of like how I thought as a woman I was supposed to smell like vanilla or supposed to smell like you know, champagne and berries. By the way, no one smells like champagne. That's actually yeast fermentation. So I don't know about that one. Right. But I just laugh because, you know, this was what I thought through my twenties as well. And I also thought you know, I had you know, also thought like I need to scrub, you know, I need to scrub my labia with soap and keep it really clean. Now the thing is is about all these scented products, they generally are endocrine disruptors. So we're talking about hormone disruption. So these can lead to a hormone imbalance because they will dock on receptors and stimulate everything in the wrong way at the cellular level.

Dr. Brighten: But in addition to that, it's very disruptive of the microbiome. There is actually no medical evidence that any woman ever needs to douche. In fact, I say, you know, the vagina is a self cleaning machine. It will clean itself. There's no reason to insert anything in there unless there's an infection and you've had a prescription or you're using an over the counter product. We also have to recognize, as you said about Dr Anna Cabeca, talking about yeast vaginitis being a trigger for like lichen sclerosus and some of these other conditions as well, is that Monistat, which is an over the counter treatment is actually an endocrine disruptor and everybody can go to environmental working group and you can plug that in. Now the natural alternative treatment that we use with that is boric acid work, acid, high amounts, longterm exposure, also an endocrine disruptor, but not not exactly in the same way.

Dr. Brighten: And there's been some speculation that it's weaker than what we find, the things that are in Monistat. So understand that if you need to treat a yeast infection, you need to treat a yeast infection cause you also won't sleep. Your vagina becomes very red, very inflamed, very painful. And so does the exterior tissue as well. And so we thought we just have to recognize though that what we put in in this space is highly, it's a highly absorbable tissue. So this is how we deliver hormones to women and it's absorbs really well. So anything that's scented even these these wipes. So I'm going to say like when I used to go to the aesthetician to get like, Oh, it's bikini season, let's get a bikini wax. And there would be these scented wipes there that were like freshen up before you go in.

Dr. Brighten: And which by the way guys, if you are someone's skin struggling with skin issues, waxing not a good idea. Sugaring might be okay, but honestly if there's trauma there and this is the other thing cause some people are very pro pubic hair. And I'm not pro or anti pubic hair. Like you do whatever you want to do. Like you do, you, no judgies, but when you need to be applying creams or you have a skin condition actually using like like a beard trimmer can actually work really well because if you do have a lot of hair in that area, then you can't actually get those topical agents directly onto the skin. So just want to note that, but also just to note that like it, if waxing causes trauma also what's in waxes not well-regulated, what you're exposing yourself to, but it's something else causes trauma to this tissue. Remember what I said at the top of this trauma can trigger these conditions. So it could be like horseback riding or bike riding. I've had patients who have developed lichen sclerosus like, and they ride their bikes all the time, which is awesome that they're riding their bikes all the time. But that seat friction.

Jennifer: I used to be a big road biker and getting the correct seat and the right pants or shorts to wear was a really big deal because it can be the material. Yeah, it can be very, very painful. It's interesting this conversation, Dr Cabeca talked about it from one aspect, but this is a larger conversation about the things that we're exposed to. The trauma that you could essentially, you know, that has been kind of normalized, whether you ride a bike or you go get waxing or any number of things could actually cause some of these issues. Hormonal imbalances. I mean I would certainly assume too, do you investigate like any potential gut issues?

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Because your gut and your vagina share the microorganisms that are there and your hormones also nourish these micro organisms as well. And so we will, you know, we look at gut health absolutely. If your immune system lives there and we've got an immune problem then we have to look there. But we also will do vaginal swabs as well. And so I like to do a culture and I prefer to use labs that look for everything. So if I use the run of the mill lab like your OB gynecologists might use, they might look for yeast bodies they might look for like, is there gardnerella, you know, what, what is going on in terms of what we can see under a microscope. But I also want to see like what kind of yeast are we dealing with? If it's a yeast problem, what kind of bacteria are we dealing with?

Dr. Brighten: Is there normal flora present or is there overgrowth of other things? And then why like culture is because they can also test the sensitivity to things. So it's no surprise I think to anyone to know that there's resistance happening when it comes to antibiotics. The good news is is there doesn't tend to be the same resistance happening with natural ingredients. So natural ingredients like natural substances. So like garlic for example. There have been some studies showing like with mersa you know, this bacteria that's resistant to antibiotics is actually susceptible to Alison and active constituent within garlic. Now I want to say this, there's this old wives tale, so to speak of like you got a yeast infection, insert plain yogurt into your vagina or use a garlic clove. We have to be very careful what we are inserting in our vagina and we actually have better ways of addressing this.

Dr. Brighten: These days. We also have to recognize that what is in plain yogurt, those organisms are not alive and it may just very well have been the pH of the yogurt changing things. But like I said, we don't want to be putting just anything in our vagina. I have had to extract garlic cloves via speculum exam from women. I have had to extract tampons that have been soaked in Apple cider vinegar inserted deep into the vagina. And so just to be really aware that this could land you in a doctor's office and with some things we run the risk of like toxic shock syndrome. Even if you're considering a natural therapy, have a conversation with your doctor. So I'm going to share a quick story about a skin fail because I think this is actually kind of hilarious. Before you go travel in countries that have like malaria and all of these like a mosquito borne illness, there is this treatment that you could do, you will find this on the Pinterest where you actually put olive oil on the bottom of your feet and then you put socks on and you put garlic in a second pair of socks, raw garlic that you crush and you put it, you put them on the socks and you will have garlic breath in the morning like it will infuse in your system.

Dr. Brighten: And that is mosquito repellent right there. So my husband who you know, Bryce and I were like, we're going to Colombia. Let's do this treatment. You know what it looks like when I get bit by mosquitoes is like I went into a tennis court and just stood in front of the the tennis ball machine and it fired at me. Like that's what it looks like. No we do this treatment. I like when we get in bed, I wake up like an hour later and my feet are on fire. I'm in so much pain again in the bathtub and the entire soles and my feet are just bright red with like welt. I am using all kinds of oils cause I know like I've got to get oils if I'm going to remove this. He had no issues. Now here I was backpacking through Colombia with blisters all over my feet because I had that kind of response to garlic that was not even direct contact onto my skin.

Dr. Brighten: I think this was pre Pinterest days actually, but you'll find it on Pinterest and it might work for someone, but it might not work for you. Now imagine that I decided I had a yeast infection. I wanted to insert a clove of garlic inside my vagina knowing that was the response of my feet. What if I didn't know that though? So you have to understand that just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's going to work for you. It's going to be safe for you and you want to be just really mindful to talk to your doctor first. If your doctor's like, I have no experience with this, but I have a better alternative that's tried and true. It doesn't cause reactions. Listen to your doctor because they are trying to give you that individualized medicine. And if it is something where you're like, but I'm hitting my head against the wall and I'm only being offered steroids, well time for a different kind of doctor you need to say, and I'm trying like physician or a functional medicine provider, your doctor's not bad.

Dr. Brighten: You just need someone else. So when it comes to lichen sclerosus and really even eczema or psoriasis showing up on the genitalia, doctors are usually quick with corticosteroids and then it stops. Like from there, there's not a lot of other solutions. And with like lichen sclerosus, we can actually work with compounding pharmacies to get things in there like vitamin A and vitamin E and even, you know bringing in some herbal medicine, the in a compounded known dose cream to help heal up the tissue. But you're still gonna have to work with the doctor to be able to act. You don't want to be going and mixing this stuff in your kitchen.

Jennifer: Yeah, and I actually really appreciate you sharing that because I think it's important to know that you can't just assume that because it's either a pharmaceutical or even a natural agent, that there's guaranteed safety. There's risks on both sides. You know, that's why even the drug pamphlets, we'll say, by the way, it might only be one or 2% of people in our studies, but these people experiencing these side effects and yes, you can still react to natural agents even if it's a garlic clove.

Dr. Brighten: This is the other thing that's really important for women to understand about like vaginal health and and caring for their lady parts is when you buy new underwear, wash them and make sure they're the right size. Even if you have some fancy fancy panties, do you want it to have like cotton on the inside when you're going to go work out, you want to wear underwear that breeds and pants that breathe. Those are the kinds of things that we should all be told like before we ever get our period is that basic hygiene wiping front to back urinating after sex, after sex, you're not dirty. Okay. Like you're not dirty. You don't have to go in with scented wipes or anything like that. Depending on your risk. Some women have sex and then because of the shift in pH, they then get an infection and that can light up things like skin rashes as well.

Dr. Brighten: So it may be that like you do a bird bath with a washcloth and a sink or you squat in the bathtub and run the bath water and like, I know these are the kinds of things that are, you're like, Oh my gosh, is she really like talking about this? Yeah, this is real life. That's all you need is water. And it's actually when you start introducing soaps and even if they are like the, the cleanest of the cleanest soaps, like even introducing that can be disruptive to the area right now, one thing I'll say is that period blood shifts the pH. And for some women having period blood sit against their skin. So if you're wearing a pad or like a period panties or underwear, but if you're wearing those those kinds of products. Yeah. So two things that if women get irritation, one is you know, doing the bird bath action of like you don't have to have a full shower but just cleansing the area and it may also be helpful to shave down the hair so that basically the tissues can get exposure to the water more easily. Like when you're washing.

Jennifer: You know, I think there's a lot of actionable things that people can take from this conversation and also not feel ashamed to put whatever choice that they make. I think this is the one big thing that, and I love that you reinforce this and I try to reinforce this, but I love it when gas reinforce it, is that we need to take a cautious approach with whatever we do. Because you are not someone else. What you read because it's natural doesn't necessarily mean it's not going to cause a problem. And I do have a lot of clients that have, as you mentioned, psoriasis in the vagina and they're embarrassed to discuss it. There's a lot of shame around it and that's why I felt that this conversation was so helpful because you know, in your upcoming take back your hormones week, you guys are discussing a lot of these issues to help normalize this and help provide the information that they need in order to make better choices. So I want to make sure that everybody knows that is starting very soon depending on when you're listening to this. Can you just tell everybody a little bit about the event?

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, really appreciate you asking that. And exactly. Our aim is to educate women about their bodies, their hormones, and help them have a better understanding of how they operate, the more productive conversations with their doctors as well. So there's several tracks that women can go through. So when you register for the event, we're actually going to send you a hormone balancing cookbook with some recipes. You have some recipes in there too. And then you're also going to get a program guide. So there are a lot of classes to take in the week. And really we don't want to mess with your cortisol and your stress hormones by being like you have to take them all. And so we're going to give you a program guide. This is an online conference so that means you can hang out in your pajamas with us and choose like, do I want to go down the track and learn about period problems?

Dr. Brighten: Do I need to learn more about endometriosis? Am I struggling with polycystic ovarian syndrome or hair loss? So we have a whole hair and skin track. Your one of our speakers talking all about how to approach your skin in ways that most doctors won't talk to you about. And you know, we've really spanned the spectrum of women's health. I'm really excited for this event. Moving really amazing lineup of speakers. We've got PhD researchers and we've got medical doctors and naturopathic doctors. You're going to hear from people that the world has never heard of. And I for one super excited about that.

Jennifer: It is a such a great event. It's an honor for me to be a part of it, and I just wanted to make sure that all of you guys knew about it that way you could take advantage of it while it's happening because these types of things don't happen ongoing. It's like you've got to get in there and take a listen while it's available. So I'm going to put all of the links so that you guys can tune in in the show notes as well as Dr Brighten's book beyond the pill and Dr Brighten, thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to our next conversation here on the Healthy Skin Show.

“[Lichen sclerosus] tends to occur primarily when women haven't reached menstruation yet, or menarche, and in postmenopausal women, which tells us that there is a hormonal component to this just like all other autoimmune disease.”


Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS

Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS is an integrative Clinical Nutritionist and the founder of Skinterrupt. She works with women who are fed up with chronic gut and skin rash issues discover the root causes and create a plan to get them back to a fuller, richer life.


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