Dr. Robin Austin

So I think it's really starting to kind of have normalizing it for yourself, your partner, your family, and the community and saying, you don't want to make an assumption someone's going through the transition or what have you or menopause, but there are resources that are available.

And I think sometimes just having community to talk about it, to say like, today is just not my best day.

I'm going to show up and it's going to be 5% of my normal, but whatever, I'm showing up.

And so I think that's a big factor for me as well and having colleagues and friends that understand what's happening and kind of going through it at the same time as well.

But the mood swings can be real.

I will tell you that.

And it's, I still think it was the days I was like, I better not drive.

I don't know.

I want that hat.

It's so true.

Literally by three or four o'clock, if you ask me that question, I think I might run out the door.

Yeah, great question.

I know that there was just an article that came out around, I think, menopause and COVID.

And I can't remember exactly the findings of it, but they're starting to do more research in that space, specifically understanding how long COVID patients potentially, and long COVID is real.

And so I think that there are factors that we just don't even quite understand yet that haven't had the time to do the research to understand the impacts of some of these

longer kind of more chronic kind of infectious diseases and impacts on hormonal health.

And so I know it's being done right now.

I don't have a lot of knowledge in that space per se right now.

I just know that there's colleagues that are looking at this right now and what can we then do in the future for other potential future pandemics or understanding the risks of infectious diseases and the impact of hormonal health.

And it may take, just as we age too in general, I think recovering from a COVID or the flu, it may take a little bit longer than normal.