What your hormones were doing all along

Some of you know we have cows on our place here in Tomball. It's one of my favorite parts of the day, walking out to check on them as the sun goes down.

Evening on our place in Tomball

This time of year, the nights get cooler and the grass stops growing as fast. The protein in it drops off significantly. Our cattle can graze all day and still lose ground, because the microbes in their gut need protein to break down that dry grass. So this is when we start supplementing.

A little protein and everything changes. They eat more, digest more, hold their weight and handle the cold better. One input, and the whole animal does better. And you can't fix it in February. You set them up in October.

The same thing happens to us. As we age, we move into a season of life where our bodies stop making the building blocks we need to thrive. For women, the big three are estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

We're about two months into Huemn's hormone program for women, and we're starting to see what it means for our clients. This week a message came in from a mom who started a hormone plan with Shawn six weeks ago, and it made my day:

Anxiety. Driving. Sleep. Being present with her kids. Those look like four different problems. For a lot of women, they share one root.

Your hormones are the protein

Those three hormones work a lot like the protein that carries our cows through the winter. Estrogen supports your brain, heart, bones and skin. Progesterone helps you sleep and keeps you calm. Testosterone, which women make too, drives energy, muscle and libido. Together they keep nearly every system running. So when they start dropping in perimenopause and menopause, it tends to show up everywhere at once: anxiety out of nowhere, 3 a.m. wake-ups, brain fog, weight that won't budge, aches that weren't there before.

A major review published this month in the journal Science made the same point. The researchers describe menopause as a whole-body transition that changes how nearly every organ ages. It covers about 40% of a woman's life, women can report up to 72 different symptoms, and the timing and severity of that transition are linked to health risks decades later.

Treating one symptom at a time is like doctoring a thin calf while it's still eating dead grass.

The question that never gets asked

Our team hears the same story again and again. A woman in her 40s walks into a doctor's office with anxiety, poor sleep and a mood she doesn't recognize. Too often she walks out with a prescription for an SSRI, and nobody ever checks her hormones. Nobody asks when her cycle started changing.

We think every woman deserves better than that. Before anyone tells you the problem is in your head, you deserve to know whether your body has run out of the building blocks it needs.

That's the whole reason Huemn exists. Our medical team starts by asking why: Dr. Juan Garcia, MD; Michael Blanco, MSN, APRN; and Shawn Sepassi, APRN, FNP-C. We look at the whole person, run the labs and connect the dots between symptoms that usually get treated one at a time. Mrs. G's six weeks are what that looks like when it works.

Want to talk with Shawn or Michael? Request your $99 consult →

Why Shawn joined our team

Shawn leads women's hormone care for our team, and she sees patients at Huemn every Tuesday. She runs the labs, listens to the full list of symptoms and digs into what else might be in play, like Hashimoto's, mold exposure and stubborn weight. Then she builds a plan around you, with Dr. Garcia and Michael alongside her.

That matters, because there are more than 200 hormone therapy options, with different doses, delivery methods and risk profiles. The right one depends on your symptoms, your history and your labs. Mrs. G's plan was built for Mrs. G.

And at Huemn, your hormone plan comes with everything around it. Members use their credits for the red light bed, PEMF, hyperbaric oxygen, cold plunge and sauna, all under one roof. Feed the foundation, then support every system that depends on it.

Last week I wrote to the dads. This one is for the moms, and for every woman who's been told her symptoms are part of getting older. Dads, if that sounds like your wife, forward this to her.

Better humanity begins with better health.

Bill Hanks Founder · Huemn