749. My Journey with PCOS, Autoimmune Flares, and How I Finally Got Answers
The Female Health Solution Podcast
Release Date: 09/15/2025
768. Normal Labs, No Answers: How to Find the Root Cause of Hormone Issues with Dr. Jenny Gerken
The Female Health Solution Podcast
Have you ever been told your labs are “normal,” but you still feel exhausted, foggy, wired, or not like yourself? I'm Dr. Jenny, one of the docs on the team with Dr. Beth Westie. In this episode of The Female Health Solution Podcast, I share my clinical perspective after working with hundreds of women inside Dr. Beth Westie’s practice. We dive into why normal blood work doesn’t always mean your hormones are functioning well and how deeper testing helps us uncover what’s really happening behind the scenes. I also show the difference between blood work and the DUTCH Test, why cortisol...
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767. The Truth About Fatigue, Cortisol, and Adrenal Health
The Female Health Solution Podcast
If you are exhausted all the time and can’t figure out why, this episode is for you. Today I’m breaking down the real truth about adrenal health, cortisol, and fatigue, and why so many women feel stuck, dismissed, or confused when it comes to their energy. Fatigue is not one thing. It is not always just stress, and it is definitely not something you should be told to “just push through.” One of the most frustrating things about fatigue is that so many symptoms overlap. Low energy can come from nutrient deficiencies, blood sugar instability, thyroid dysfunction, estrogen or progesterone...
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766. Wired But Tired: The Cortisol Pattern Most Women Miss
The Female Health Solution Podcast
The wired-but-tired feeling is incredibly common, especially for women, and it’s one of the most frustrating places to be. You want energy during the day. You want sleep at night. But instead, it feels like your body is doing the exact opposite of what it should. In this episode, I’m breaking down what’s actually happening behind the scenes when you feel wired but tired and why pushing harder, drinking more coffee, or just “trying to relax” usually makes things worse. When I see this pattern, it almost always points back to dysfunction in the HPA axis, which controls your adrenal...
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765. The Hidden Hormone Drain: How Estrogen and Progesterone Affect Your Energy
The Female Health Solution Podcast
Have you ever noticed that your energy is not consistent throughout the month? Some weeks you feel sharp, motivated, and on top of everything, and other weeks you feel exhausted, anxious, foggy, or completely wiped out. That is not random. That is hormones. In this episode, I walk you through how estrogen and progesterone impact your energy across your entire cycle and why understanding this changes everything. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. I break down what a typical 28 day cycle looks like and what your hormones are supposed to be doing at each phase. What we cover in this episode:...
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764. Is It Cortisol? How to Tell If Your Adrenals Are Really the Problem
The Female Health Solution Podcast
How do you know if it’s really your cortisol causing symptoms like exhaustion, burnout, low mood, or low libido? How do you know if it’s adrenal insufficiency, adrenal dysfunction, or something else entirely? In this episode, I break down exactly how to tell the difference between low cortisol and high cortisol, why symptoms overlap with thyroid issues and other hormone imbalances, and why guessing or treating blindly can actually make things worse. What I Cover in This Episode • The difference between adrenal function vs cortisol output • Why blood, saliva, and urine cortisol...
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763. Sleep & Hormones: Why Your Brain Won't Shut Off At Night
The Female Health Solution Podcast
In this episode, I break down why you can feel exhausted all day but suddenly wired the moment you try to sleep. We talk about how cortisol, melatonin, blood sugar, and perimenopause all play a role, and what you can actually do to get real rest. What we cover: 1. Cortisol and melatonin basics Your circadian rhythm depends on high cortisol in the morning and low cortisol at night. If cortisol spikes in the evening, you will feel “tired but wired.” Taking melatonin will not help if melatonin is normal and cortisol is the real problem. 2. How DUTCH testing reveals the root cause A...
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762. What Your Regular Hormone Labs Can’t Tell You
The Female Health Solution Podcast
In this episode of the Female Health Solution Podcast, I break down one of the biggest frustrations women face: Your labs come back “normal,” yet you still feel exhausted, inflamed, moody, or nothing like yourself, and no one can explain why. Here’s what we cover: Why basic blood work misses the real problem Regular labs look for disease, not dysfunction. A standard CBC or hormone panel can’t show how your hormones are produced, processed, or eliminated. Blood tests catch crises, not the early warning signs of perimenopause, adrenal burnout, or estrogen dominance. What DUTCH...
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761. How to Protect Your Hormones During the Holidays
The Female Health Solution Podcast
Your hormones are not separate from your life. They’re responding to it. And nothing reveals that more clearly than the holiday season. Every year, women take on more—more planning, more emotional labor, more mental load, more pressure to make everything magical. And we tell ourselves it’s “just busy,” but physiologically, there’s so much more happening beneath the surface. When your schedule gets unpredictable, your meals get irregular, or your sleep gets pushed aside, your cortisol rises. When cortisol rises, progesterone dips. And when progesterone dips, you feel it: heavier...
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760. Is It Really Perimenopause? The Truth About What Your Body Is Really Doing
The Female Health Solution Podcast
Today is a little different...I'm pulling back the curtain on what’s really happening inside your body during this stage of life—and what most women are never told. If you’re in your 40s (or even your late 30s) and you’ve wondered, “Is this perimenopause… or is something actually wrong with me?” this conversation is for you. As I’ve moved into my forties myself, and having worked with hundreds of women in this phase, I’ve become even more aware of how much confusion and noise surrounds this transition. Perimenopause has almost become a buzzword, but very few women understand...
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759. The Top 5 Herbs Every Woman Needs for Hormone Balance
The Female Health Solution Podcast
In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly how specific herbs in our cycle-based tinctures support your hormones in a real, clinical way—not just “woo” or wishful thinking. We talk through five key herbs you’ll find in my Estrogen support and progesterone-support tinctures—red clover, angelica, white peony, Vitex, and red raspberry leaf—and what they actually do in the body: How red clover helps your estrogen receptors work properly (without “adding more estrogen”) so you can calm brain fog, mood swings, and night sweats. Why angelica and white peony are powerful...
info_outlineIn this episode, I’m opening up about my own journey with PCOS, multiple autoimmune conditions, and how functional testing—especially the DUTCH test—has changed everything for me and the women I work with.
For years, I pushed through health challenges: PCOS, Hashimoto’s, celiac, even mysterious skin flares from annuloma granulare. Add to that the exhaustion, thyroid struggles, ovarian cysts after childbirth, and the rollercoaster of perimenopause symptoms—and I know firsthand what it feels like when your body seems to betray you.
Like so many women, I was raised in the “no pain, no gain” culture. I kept going, even when I was so weak I couldn’t carry my baby in his car seat without stopping. Doctors gave me creams, steroids, and quick fixes, but nothing addressed the deeper issue: my body was desperately out of balance.
That’s when testing became my lifeline. Not just blood work, but the DUTCH test—a comprehensive hormone panel that shows exactly how your body is producing and processing hormones. With it, I learned how my cortisol, thyroid, estrogen, and progesterone were really functioning—and how to actually support them.
Here’s why this matters:
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Symptoms overlap. Fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, irregular cycles—it could be thyroid, adrenals, perimenopause, or PCOS. Without testing, it’s guesswork.
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Numbers don’t lie. The DUTCH test gives you black-and-white data that takes away the uncertainty.
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No one-size-fits-all fixes. The results guide a plan tailored to your unique body—nutrition, supplements, lifestyle, and sometimes simply rest.
I see this with clients all the time. So many women wait, punishing themselves, thinking they just need to “try harder.” But the truth is—you don’t need to push harder. You need the right information about your body so you can finally work with it instead of against it.
If you’ve ever wondered, Am I in perimenopause? Is this my thyroid? Do I have PCOS flares?, the DUTCH test is the place to start. It gives us the roadmap, so you stop guessing and start healing.
Don’t wait years like I did. Don’t wait until you’re completely burned out. Get answers now: https://drbethwestie.com/dutch-hormone-testing/