Libsyn Directory

What You’re Eating Is Making Menopause Worse | Andrea Donsky

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Release Date: 06/04/2026

A Harvard Doctor on the Menopause Education Gap and How to Advocate for Yourself | Dr. Deborah Kwolek

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

You finally get the appointment. You tell your doctor you're not sleeping, the weight is climbing, and your moods feel like someone else's. You walk out with a prescription for an antidepressant, or with nothing at all. Dr. Deborah Kwolek, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of Harvard's Women's Health and Menopause course, joins me to talk about why so many doctors were never taught menopause care and what she's doing to change it. We cover the exact questions to bring to your next appointment, your estrogen by the numbers, the labs to know, who may need to...

Brain Defenders: How Hormones and Metabolism Shape Your Brain’s Future | Dr. David Perlmutter

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Your brain has its own immune cells, and the way you live each day helps decide whether they protect you or turn on you. Two-thirds of Americans living with Alzheimer's are women. Living longer doesn't explain that gap, girlfriend. So what does? I'm so happy to welcome back my dear friend Dr. David Perlmutter, board-certified neurologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Brain Defenders. He explains microglia, the immune cells that make up about 10% of your brain. On a good day, they're like firefighters in the firehouse, quietly repairing the blood-brain barrier and helping your...

The Hidden Stress Behind Your Hormone Imbalance | Dr. Sue Morter

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

A divorce. A layoff. A season where you held everything together for everyone. Your body flipped into fight or flight to protect you, exactly the way it was built to. But what happens when the stress passes and your nervous system never gets the message? Bioenergetic medicine expert Dr. Sue Morter, author of The Energy Codes and The Anatomy of Awakening, explains the hidden stress your body can keep carrying for years. She shows how that old emergency ripples through your adrenals, your thyroid, and your hormones in midlife. Then she walks me through her first two steps. The wise belly breath,...

What Caused Your Cancer? The Question Nobody Asked Dr. Nasha Winters

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

When a woman sits across from Dr. Anna after a breast cancer diagnosis, she asks one question. What did your oncologist say caused it? Almost every time, the answer is a blank stare. Dr. Nasha Winters has lived that silence from the inside. By 19, she had collected a decade of diagnoses, including PCOS, endometriosis, IBS, anxiety, and thyroid trouble. Then she landed in the ER with a grapefruit-sized tumor and was told she was too ill for treatment. In this conversation, she shares the three things she credits with changing her path. She also explains how childhood trauma can shape the immune...

Leptin Resistance in Menopause: The Hormone Nobody Tests | Sarah Kleiner

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Tell me if you've heard this before. You're sleeping. You're eating the way you were told to eat. Your labs come back normal, and you still know something is off. That's the woman I had in mind for this conversation. After twenty years in hormone and longevity medicine, here's what I keep coming back to. Most of what supports your hormones comes down to the foundations, like light, darkness, and when you eat, and so many of them cost you nothing. My guest, Sarah Kleiner, is board-certified through the Quantum Biology Institute and the creator of My Circadian App. She came to this work the hard...

What's Really Aging Your Skin (And the Diagnosis Doctors Miss) | Dr. Mamina Turegano

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Dr. Anna sits down with triple board-certified dermatologist, internist, and dermatopathologist Dr. Mamina Turegano for a deep dive into skin health from the inside out. They cover the real drivers of collagen breakdown, which anti-aging ingredients and procedures actually hold up to decades of evidence, and how to build a sunscreen routine you don't have to second-guess. The conversation then turns to two of the toughest conditions in women's health, rosacea and vulvar lichen sclerosus, with practical, root-cause-informed guidance for both. This is the episode to bookmark if you've ever...

From Blindsided to Empowered, Four Coaches' Real Stories | Dr. Anna Cabeca

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

I was sitting in my studio in Dallas with four women who had just spent five months inside my Magic Menopause Certification, and every one of them got emotional before we even started recording. That tells you something about what this season of life actually does to a woman who thought she had it handled. As a triple board-certified OB/GYN and the creator of the Keto-Green method and the Magic Menopause Coach Certification, I sat down with graduating coaches Chelsea, Song, Tara, and Jamie for a live, unscripted panel on everything nobody warns you about before perimenopause hits. In...

Menopause Is Natural. Suffering Is Optional. — Four Coaches Share Their Stories

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Grab your Mighty Maca and get cozy. In this episode of The Girlfriend Doctor Podcast, Dr. Anna Cabeca sits down with the very first graduates of her Magic Menopause Hormone Restoration Coaching Certification, Emily, Ann, Amy and Angela. Four women, four completely different paths into menopause, and one shared mission, making sure no woman has to go through this alone. We're talking surgical menopause, the myths that keep women suffering in silence, the postpartum "mini menopause" nobody warns you about, and what it actually takes to feel like yourself again. Key Timestamps 0:00 Welcome...

Are You Being Medically Gaslit? | Dr. Efrat LaMandre

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

You leave your doctor's office with "everything looks normal" ringing in your ears, but your body is telling you something else. This week Dr. Anna talks with nurse practitioner Dr. Efrat LaMandre, aka Dr. E, about medical gaslighting, why "you're fine" often means "I ran out of tools," and how to advocate for yourself without burning every bridge with your doctor. You'll learn: The difference between "normal" and "optimal," and why it matters What "pre-disease" is and why most providers aren't equipped for it How to describe your symptoms so your doctor actually listens Why one...

Midlife Isn't a Breakdown, It's Your Upgrade | Chalene Johnson

The Girlfriend Doctor w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca

Have you done everything right and still watched the scale refuse to move? I sat down with fitness industry veteran Chalene Johnson, who built her career telling women exactly how to lose weight, and then walked straight into that same wall herself in perimenopause. Her hormone panel came back "dialed in." She was still doing every workout, every macro track, every habit that used to work. The weight stayed anyway, until she found the piece nobody had pointed her toward, the link between cortisol, insulin resistance, and a metabolism that stops cooperating no matter how hard you push. We get...

More Episodes

What if the brain fog, exhaustion, anxiety, bloating, hot flashes, sleep struggles, and weight gain you’re experiencing in perimenopause aren’t “just aging”… but signs your body is asking for a completely different kind of nourishment?

In this empowering episode of The Girlfriend Doctor Show, Dr. Anna Cabeca sits down with nutritionist, menopause educator, and 7X published menopause researcher Andrea Donsky for a deeply validating conversation about the real science behind menopause symptoms—and what women can actually do to feel better.

Andrea shares how her groundbreaking menopause research uncovered more than 103 symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause, with many of the most common symptoms linked to brain health, cognition, anxiety, mood, and sleep. Together, Dr. Anna and Andrea unpack why so many women feel dismissed by healthcare providers and how nutrition, digestion, blood sugar balance, sleep, stress reduction, and targeted supplementation can dramatically improve quality of life.

Andrea also introduces her BALANCE Blueprint from her new book Nourishing Menopause, a practical framework for supporting hormones, metabolism, gut health, and energy through midlife and beyond.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why blood sugar balance is critical during perimenopause and menopause
The surprising connection between gut health, hormones, mood, and brain fog
How digestion changes in menopause—and why constipation, bloating, and inflammation increase
Which foods and habits may worsen hot flashes, night sweats, and poor sleep
The foundational supplements Andrea recommends for midlife women
Why menopause symptoms are often misunderstood or dismissed by doctors
How mindset, self-compassion, and education can transform the menopause experience

If you’ve ever felt like “something is wrong” in your body but couldn’t explain it, this conversation will help you feel seen, informed, and empowered with practical tools to support your Second Spring.

Key Timestamps:

00:01 – Why more women are finally talking openly about perimenopause
Dr. Anna introduces the conversation around optimizing health during menopause and beyond.
01:52 – Andrea discovers there are over 100 menopause symptoms
Andrea shares how her menopause research journey began and what surprised her most.
02:54 – The shocking link between menopause and mental health symptoms
Discussion about anxiety, cognitive health, depression, and why women often feel “crazy” during hormonal shifts.
05:47 – What Andrea’s doctor visit survey revealed
The heartbreaking reality of women being dismissed, unheard, and misdiagnosed during perimenopause.
10:56 – What women are still not being told about menopause
Andrea explains why “just exercise more and lose weight” is not enough.
13:40 – The BALANCE Blueprint for nourishing menopause
Andrea breaks down her nutrition framework for supporting metabolism, hormones, gut health, and energy.
16:02 – Why blood sugar balance becomes essential in menopause
Discussion on insulin resistance, PCOS, metabolism, and protein needs during midlife.
20:47 – How menopause changes digestion and gut health
Andrea explains bloating, constipation, food sensitivities, inflammation, and the gut-brain connection.
26:58 – Nutrition strategies for better sleep and fewer hot flashes
Why late-night eating, alcohol, chocolate, and blood sugar spikes may worsen symptoms.
32:56 – Andrea’s foundational menopause supplements
Magnesium, omega-3s, fiber, vitamin D, and why supplementation matters during hormonal shifts.
37:47 – Rapid-fire menopause wisdom and mindset shifts
Andrea shares the habits, mindset changes, and self-care practices that transformed her own menopause journey.
42:27 – Where to find Andrea’s book, resources, and menopause research
Final thoughts on empowerment, pelvic health, and changing the menopause conversation together.