Are you waking up exhausted, no matter how many hours you’ve slept? Do you find yourself wondering why your once-sharp brain feels foggy and why simple tasks take so much energy? You’re not alone. This week on The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin dives into the real reasons behind extreme exhaustion during menopause and after hysterectomies—and what you can do to reclaim your vitality.

Episode Highlights

• Why Menopause Fatigue Is More Than Just Aging

Dr. Kyrin explains why hormonal poverty is not "just a part of getting older" and explores the critical differences between gradual hormonal decline and the sudden hormonal drop caused by hysterectomies. Discover why your exhaustion might be a direct signal from your body that hormonal imbalances need attention.

• Beyond Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone

Think fatigue is only about sex hormones? Think again. Dr. Kyrin reveals how cortisol, thyroid, and insulin levels play a significant role in your energy levels, mood, and even sugar cravings.

• Surgery as a Hidden Trigger

The invisible trauma of surgeries like hysterectomies often goes unaddressed, but the effects linger. Learn how surgical stress, anesthesia, and antibiotics impact your body long after you’ve been discharged.

• Practical Solutions for Hormonal Poverty

Dr. Kyrin doesn’t just highlight the problem—she provides actionable steps. From identifying hidden hormonal imbalances to understanding what traditional doctors often miss, Dr. Kyrin guides you toward hormonal prosperity.

What You’ll Take Away

• An understanding of hormonal poverty and why it includes more than just menopause.

• Insight into why your exhaustion, mood swings, and lack of restorative sleep might not just be “in your head.”

• Practical, easy-to-follow steps to help you regain energy.

• A supportive reminder that what you’re experiencing is not normal—and that you do have the power to feel better.

Your Call to Action

Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz

Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!

👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.

Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back

Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!

No one deserves to live in hormonal poverty. 🛑 Drop the disempowering question, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWPD)

Catch the full episode now and start crafting the vibrant, healthy life you deserve.

✨ Listen Now ✨

Podcast Episode Transcript:

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):

Are you feeling extremely exhausted in menopause? Maybe after a hysterectomy or without one? Here I lay out what's going on. Why are you fatigued with hormonal poverty and mostly what to do about it. Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To ask empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag wwhpd, join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:09):

Jump into the maze. Question. Hi there. I'm new here, but I had a hysterectomy last December, so I was thrown into menopause pretty quickly. I'm 53 by the way. The hot flashes, I worried about the constantly cold feet I wasn't prepared for, but the thing that's killing me is I get spells of extreme exhaustion all in caps, like, I'm too tired to talk kindly. Who else can relate? One minute I'm fine. And then the next, I feel like I haven't slept in a week. It's causing me to make mistakes at work and become irritable with my hubby. Sometimes I go to bed and sleep for hours and still feel tired when I get up. Other times I'm dying to sleep and I just can't. I have an appointment with the doctor to discuss HRT next week, but I haven't really found anyone who is suffering from the same thing.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:50):

This is driving me crazy and I have so much I want to do and no energy to do it. The other night I was all caps too tired to order takeout. That's tired, may, and then last night I ate all of the large bounty batter, extreme blizzard. I don't normally do that. So I love this question. May you point out a bunch of different things. So many of you probably have had hysterectomies where they took your ovaries out, threw you into menopause immediately, sometimes at a young age, in your thirties, forties. And it can be extremely disturbing. You know, there's the old adage, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And unfortunately, because most women go through perimenopause in a very piecemeal state, right? Little by little by little, our hormones are declining, declining, declining, declining into hormonal poverty.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:42):

We're descending. We don't really notice what's happening until it's too late. And then we don't have that extreme comparison to I was normal. One day I went to the hospital, I had a hysterectomy, and then a few weeks later I was down here. So when it happens, very gradually we come to believe the insanity that this is normal for our age. So may you really highlight this discrepancy, and I wanna point it out for anybody watching, because whether you're in the extreme discrepancy category where you had your ovary surgically removed and you get it, something's wrong. And this is related to my hormones. That's actually what I love about this question. There's no question in your mind, this is related to my female hormones, I had my hysterectomy but I'm gonna shed some more light on that 'cause it might be other hormones too. Whereas the women who go gradually into hormonal poverty don't have that quick discrepancy.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:39):

And so they're scratching their head thinking, my extreme exhaustion, most women who didn't have surgical ovary removal don't get it, that it's related to hormonal poverty and menopause. And so they're all over the internet searching for why, why am I so extremely fatigued? But you get it. So I wanna cue the women in who are searching for that to know that this is related to the hysterectomy. So that's the first thing. The other thing is that yes, this can be related to your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. But when I hear someone with extreme exhaustion, excuse me, more, what I think about is insulin, cortisol, and thyroid, the other hormones, and why do I think about them? So surgery is a huge stress on your body. It your body cans consider surgery life-threatening. You know, on some level you are anesthetized, but your subconscious mind is still picking up information during surgery.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:48):

And they've even done studies where they've given messages to people through their ears during surgery. And some of the information has been retained consciously after the surgery. So even though you are in a subconscious anesthetized state, your body still registers that someone came at you with a knife and cut you open that you were traumatized. So that in itself is traumatic. Plus the antibiotics that they give you before and after the anesthetic compounds are fat soluble, highly volatile, highly toxic, and have to be processed by your liver and kidneys and excreted. And that can take a long time. So that's traumatic. Being out of your own environment in the hospital environment is very traumatic. So it is a trauma to your body. You might not register it that consciously, but your body registers it subconsciously as a trauma, meaning your cortisol is triggered and activated in huge extreme ways, nevermind the blood flow changes.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:56):

There's so many changes that your body undergoes when you are having an organ removed. We've come to normalize it in mainstream western society. Oh, I just had surgery. I just had a hysterectomy. Right? In fact, it's the most common surgery, probably second only to cesarean section is hysterectomy in the United States anyway, and in most westernized countries. So we've normalized it that this traumatic experience, it's just a normal everyday thing, and it is not to your body. So you need to be looking may at your cortisol. Cortisol probably has taken a hit when your cortisol takes a hit, your insulin takes a hit and insulin regulates your blood sugar. Hence the I ate the whole large brownie batter, extreme blizzard that's gonna make you crave sugar. And both of cortisol and insulin being out of balance are going to pull on your thyroid and pull your thyroid off too.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:58):

Even if you don't have a thyroid problem, it can pull it off just enough so that you become extremely exhausted. You mentioned irritability, making mistakes at work. You still feel tired after sleep. Sleep is not restorative. So you've got to look at all the seven main metabolic hormones is what it's to say, right? Hormone poverty is not just about your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and this is for all of you with fatigue. If you're over 40, even those of you younger than 40, you need to discover are you in hormonal poverty? And if so, which hormones are involved and address all of the problems. So I'm glad you have an appointment with your doctor to talk about HRT, that's one component. But most likely, if your doctor is traditionally trained in mainstream corporate medicine, they're not going to look at your cortisol and they're not gonna look at your insulin or your thyroid.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:53):

So you're, there are myriad aspects that go into informing your body if you're in hormonal poverty or not, and programming you for energy and vitality or exhaustion and fatigue. Thank you so much for the question. Mei. I think you're on the right track. You can take the quiz. This will give you an idea if it's about more than just your sex hormones. You can click the link in the show notes. It takes less than 60 seconds. And I'll also send you information on the path that I've taken thousands of women through the step, exact steps to take to get out of hormonal poverty, into hormonal prosperity, because that's where everything that you want happens. Vitality, energy, good mood, <laugh> good memory, cognitive function, hair, skin, nails, digestive function, all the things, disease prevention. So I hope you'll consider taking that and that it helps you and you can follow that blueprint to where you wanna be. Thanks so much for the question, may thanks for all of you for joining me, and I'll see you next time. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all,

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:13):

Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.