Research suggests that herbicides like atrazine can disrupt hormone function and cause testicular malformations in animals and potentially humans.

“This is the stuff of textbooks and it causes severe testicular malformations. So again, atrazine exposure is serious and what's interesting is if you look at the data what you find is that at sites in western and midwestern sections of the United States, 10 to 92% of male frogs, these were frogs min”

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA and phthalates, found in plastics and consumer goods, interfere with sex hormone receptors and are a direct cause of declining testosterone levels.

“I think it's pretty at this point um just looking at the totality of evidence, it's pretty obvious that they are affecting our hormones.”

Endocrine disrupting chemicals from plastics are ubiquitous and contribute significantly to health problems like fertility loss.

“All these various chemicals that are endocrine disruptors that are ubiquitous in the modern world. >> Yes. Unfortunately.”

Modern lifestyle reliance on plastics is a primary factor in current fertility issues and other health concerns, yet it receives insufficient public attention.

“The big part seems to be that we're being poisoned and we're doing it by virtue of our modern world that we live in where so much of your life relies on plastic. And it's very difficult for people that are so set in their ways”

Endocrine disrupting chemicals are substances that block or mimic hormones, and their most significant negative impacts occur during critical developmental windows like gestation.

“they either block or mimic hormones and those can have long-term effects on all kinds of Developmental uh aspects including sexual development”

Dr. Pelz maintains that insulin is the most influential hormone affecting the balance of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in the hormonal hierarchy.

“So at the bottom of the hierarchy are the three hormones you just mentioned, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. The hormone that's going to impact those three the most is insulin.”

Hormonal imbalances can be addressed through lifestyle changes and testing to restore homeostasis.

“So, there's ways that hormones get out of balance, but there's also ways to easily get back into a state of homeostasis.”

High levels of insulin resulting from frequent glucose spikes can disrupt hormonal balance by signaling ovaries to produce excess testosterone.

“we also know that when there's a lot of insulin in a female body it tells your ovaries to produce more testosterone”

Resistance training and caloric restriction are the two most powerful lifestyle interventions for optimizing hormonal health.

“The two strongest ones are likely diet and exercise. For hormone health, specifically resistance training is particularly helpful. For diet, caloric restriction can be particularly helpful”

Managing hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause requires supporting the body through proper nutrition, sleep hygiene, and stress management.

“it depends a lot on how the process is supported, on the experience that one woman or another will have, and also on where she comes from, you know? However they come in, whatever their previous health history has been .”

Women should track their cycles and adjust their exercise and nutrition based on the follicular and luteal phases.

“So I encourage women to start to learn their cycle. start to learn like hey there's a follicular phase for the first 14 days then there's a ludial phase and at the end of the ludial phase that PMS it's called the late ludial phase”

Women should track their individual cycles to determine training intensity because generalized studies often fail to account for ovulation and individual variation.

“We need women to track their own cycle and find their own patterns because we know that there are times where you feel like crap and you can't push intensity but that might be on day eight for one woman it might be day 18 for another”

Women experience significant physiological and neurological shifts daily due to ovarian hormones, making them feel like different people throughout the month.

“Women are essentially four different women across the span of a month. The female biology and physiology is the most complex and sophisticated biological system on the planet.”

Elicia advocates for supporting oneself through the luteal phase instead of resisting it to avoid worsening the experience.

“And if I really resist it and I don't lean into it or even shame myself for not being how I usually am during that time, it just makes everything worse.”