From Hot Flashes to Healthspan: The FxMed Guide to Hormones & Longevity

Few guests bring the kind of insight and energy that Dr. Carrie Jones does. She’s a dear friend, a brilliant colleague, and truly deserves her title of Queen of Hormones. With more than twenty years in women’s health and endocrinology, she has helped shape how we think about hormone testing and education in functional medicine.

In this conversation, we dive into women’s hormones across the lifespan, with an extra focus on perimenopause, and how it ties back to mitochondrial health. Carrie brings humor and clarity to even the most complex topics, dropping clinical pearls along the way. It’s a fascinating and genuinely hopeful discussion you won’t want to miss.

~DrKF

From Hot Flashes to Healthspan: The FxMed Guide to Hormones & Longevity

In this episode of New Frontiers in Functional Medicine, Dr. Kara Fitzgerald speaks with women’s health and hormone expert Dr. Carrie Jones about the importance of hormone balance for healthspan and longevity, current trends in hormone shifts throughout women’s life stages, and the powerful connection between mitochondrial health and women’s hormones.

The discussion connects hormone functions (including the surprising role of melatonin), metabolic health, mental well-being and aging, interweaving foundational functional medicine principles, the latest evidence on hormone replacement therapy and practical insights for supporting women during perimenopause and beyond.

Dr. Jones delivers her hallmark blend of scientific depth and clinical practicality, helping listeners understand how mitochondrial resilience influences hormonal transitions, sleep quality, and emotional health. This episode offers a fresh look at how functional medicine can redefine women’s health at every stage of life.

In this episode of New Frontiers, learn about:

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Hi everybody, welcome to New Frontiers in Functional Medicine where we are interviewing the best minds in functional medicine and today is no exception. I am thrilled to welcome back my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Carrie Jones. Many of you know her as the “Queen of Hormones” and for good reason. She is a naturopathic physician, like myself, and she’s got over 20 years in women’s health, endocrinology and public health. She was the first medical director at DUTCH Test and she helped shape education at Rupa Health.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: She’s now the chief medical officer over at NuEthix Formulations, and she’s the host of Hello Hormones, a podcast that if you haven’t tuned into it yet, be sure to check it out. What I’ve always loved about Carrie is that she’s whip smart, she’s got clinically relevant, actionable tips for us as doctors that we can use and practice immediately, and she’s funny. She just brings the best analogies, she brings a good sense of humor and just a lightness on a topic that can be really challenging. We’re talking about women’s hormones today through the lifespan, but extra focus on perimenopause. So take a listen and let me know what you think.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Dr. Carrie Jones, it is such an honor, privilege, great time to get to hang out with you and just pick your brilliant brain for a little while. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Oh my gosh, well thanks for having me. I always, always, always love talking with you, especially considering how long we’ve known each other.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: I know, I know we’re the OG. When I read in your bio that you’ve been around 20 years, I was like, we graduated together.

Dr. Carrie Jones: That means you too!

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: I know, me too. I’m not quite ready for that mantle. I don’t quite feel it, which is a good thing. But nonetheless, here we are. And so when I was reflecting on your bio, it just made me want to hear from you, you know, with the experience of this time, like deep in, many phases of functional medicine, naturopathic medicine, industry, labs, et cetera, et cetera. What’s the state of the state with regard to treating women or women’s health as opposed to where it was when we first graduated?

Dr. Carrie Jones: When we first graduated, I felt like we were the rebels, right? We were on the rebel team that were trying to help women as best we could. We were, I believe, second, if not third year medical students when the WHI, the Women’s Health Initiative, came out. And my attending, Dr. Kimberly Winstar was like, “We’re going to be careful, but we’re still going to keep prescribing hormones.” And that, immediately, was against the grain. But as a naturopathic doctor I was ready, I was used to it, it’s all right. And so I would watch and beg and get hate from all over. Like, those cause cancer, those cause cancer. You can do the birth control pill but hormones cause cancer. We don’t do this. And the complete lack of care, the lack of studies, just the lack of lifestyle, the lack of the concern about healthspan and longevity, we were beating a very small drum way back then. And that pendulum has swung.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: It sure has.

Dr. Carrie Jones: And I’m really excited to see it. Even some of the crazy controversial parts. I’m like, it’ll balance itself out, you know, the pendulum was far one way, it’s moving the other way. And now the pledges for research, the amount of research that we have, the number of researchers who are dedicating themselves to women’s health, the amount of education on social media, the amount of awareness for women of all ages, let’s be honest, but really over 40, on social media, the amount of books– All these pink books behind me are all women’s health, hormone-related something, which just wasn’t the case 20 years ago. Publishers didn’t want to touch that with a 10-foot pole. And so we’ve come a long way.

Dr. Carrie Jones: And what’s really fascinating is, given our background in naturopathic, functional, integrative, holistic medicine, I now see that moving so much more to the forefront. I now see historically conventional doctors and researchers talking about, make sure you eat protein, and make sure you exercise, and make sure you find your community, and make sure you— these key ingredients that have been researched—make sure you remove endocrine disruptors. Just some of these tenants of our base of treat the cause and remove the obstacles to healing. It took 20 years but here we are. And as the OGs, it’s really fun and fascinating and exciting to see.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: It really is. That’s such a great point. It’s interesting, I get Medscape, you know, and it’s evolved.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah. I’m still a Medscape student.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: That’s funny. Wow. Twenty years in. But you’re absolutely right. When I get the dump of the various studies that have been published that week on the various things I’m subscribed to over there, it’s more and more sophisticated. It’s more exposomic, environment, to your point. On that, I’m also curious, you know, it was horse urine back in the day. The compounds, if they were prescribed, if there was access to them, were such poor quality. And God forbid if you question that, you know, progestins and estrogen sources, et cetera, they didn’t—Bioidentical was absolutely frowned upon, so that is starting to change as well, although it’s not far along enough. But any thoughts there?

Dr. Carrie Jones: When we were in school, I learned a lot about hormones, the bioidentical [ones], through the compounding pharmacies, which was a huge– Again, it almost felt like the dark underground because I was trying to learn about progesterone and estradiol and estriol and testosterone. I mean, we don’t have a FDA approved testosterone for women now and we surely didn’t back then. And I didn’t want to use conjugated equine estrogen. I didn’t want to use ethinylestradiol if I could avoid it. I mean, I’m not saying I wouldn’t, or a woman wouldn’t come to me already on it and feeling great, but I thought, why can’t we just make a hormone that looks like our hormone? Why do we have to go through all these hoops? Why is it such a big deal? And that is coming around.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Although I will say I just went to my own primary care last week who’s in her 30s, and she said, “Well, I just went to a seminar and I’m learning about perimenopause,” which I’m grateful for. And she said, “You’re that age. It’s time to go in the birth control pill.” And I was like, “Oh, so close.” No. And she’s like, “Yep, I think you should go on the pill until you’re 52 and then we’ll switch you to Prempro or something. Progesterone and a estradiol patch.” And I was like, nope. I mean, I’m super glad the pill exists. That’s not what I need. That’s not what I’m on. That’s not what I want. Let’s keep learning, let’s keep this conversation alive. So we still definitely have more education to go because she didn’t realize all the options that are out there. That wasn’t explained to her in the seminar she went to.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Sure. You’re right. But at least she was offering you something, whereas—

Dr. Carrie Jones: And brought up the word perimenopause. Yes.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Right, that is a step forward. Let me just say on this, we have a lot to cover, but I remember treating women in perimenopause when I was in my 30s, and it’s a lot different now.

Dr. Carrie Jones: It is a lot different now.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Isn’t it? When you’re actually in it.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yes, it is. We use the lowest dose for the shortest amount of time. A lot of times it was DHEA, pregnenolone and some herbs, like you said earlier. And now, given what we know, it’s so much different.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: But also, given what we know out there and in our toolkit, but in our own self.

Dr. Carrie Jones: In our own self. Yes.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Isn’t that amazing? I mean, my approach to patients now is one of a much deeper empathy, walking that journey myself. Yeah.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yes. HUGE empathy. Especially if somebody’s having the same symptoms you are. So for example, ocular migraines are a new fantastic gift at 48-years-old. Thank you, perimenopause. And a woman wrote me on Instagram and said, “I just started getting ocular migraines. My doctor told me I’m absolutely not a candidate for hormones.” And I was like, “Let me voice memo you because I just feel like kindred spirits, girl. I’m getting them now for the first time too. Here’s what I know so you can educate your doctor.” But if you have no idea what it is, you’ve never had a hot flash or vaginal dryness, you’ve never had itchy ears, you’ve never had, you know, like tinnitus, you’ve never had some of these crazy… burning tongue, things that come and go.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yes. Or the redistribution of your body weight from the back to the front. Like what the hell is that?

Dr. Carrie Jones: Like, what the heck is that about? I mean, I know what it’s about logically, you know, and logically I can explain it and I’m pissed. Yeah.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. Like what the heck is this? And it just happened. And it’s interesting too, going back to social media, there have been some influencers, some guys out there just really challenging that redistribution. You know, “If you ate right, if you get enough protein, this phenomena wouldn’t happen.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah. Calories in calories out.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: And that’s just absolutely coming from someone who hasn’t had the experience.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah. Even women, you know, you mentioned guys, but definitely women in their 20s and their 30s who’ve never had to manage hormonal dysfunction, not going through perimenopause. Once you go through, you fully understand.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, you’ll be there. That journey is inevitable for you. It’s obviously not inevitable for the guys, but yeah, certainly as women we’ll know it. And it’s not that we can’t do much about it because we can, but the phenomena is there. I mean, I definitely was never one to gain weight in my middle until I started gaining weight in my middle.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Right. There it was. And then it was, yeah, right?

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, it was not a thing for me. It was just not my body distribution.

Dr. Carrie Jones: But then it was. And then you’re like, what the heck?

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. I want to hear about ocular migraines because people are going to be asking me. You just brought it up. You responded to this woman. What did you say?

Dr. Carrie Jones: Oh right. So for people who don’t know, this is what happened to me about four months ago. I had eaten breakfast and I was sitting down to a meeting and in my right eye, a gray pixelated area showed up and I had vision loss and I couldn’t see through that gray pixelated area. Thank God I’m medically trained. If I wasn’t, I would have completely freaked out. And I probably should have freaked out. You should freak out when you have vision loss. But my eye didn’t hurt. I literally performed eye exams on myself. I videotaped my eyes to make sure they were tracking and I didn’t have nystagmus, or sort of the bounce/rebound. And about five, ten minutes later it went away and then I had a headache and I was like, dang it.

Dr. Carrie Jones: That was about day four of my period and the next month it happened again. And I’d called my primary care who is an ND and said, here are my symptoms. And she said, yeah, sounds like ocular. I saw an eye doctor who said, your optic nerve looks great. It’s nothing I can see in your eyes, anyway. I got a whole bunch of blood work and everyone’s like—And I’ve had it four times since, all during my period, low estrogen states or estrogen shifting states. Blood sugar seems to play a role. If my blood sugar is really low because I’m in meetings and haven’t eaten, whatever and then boom, I get this little bit of gray pixelated or a shiny spot in my right eye. So that’s an ocular migraine

Dr. Carrie Jones: It’s not an aura, and so based on the research I have found you can do hormones. You can do progesterone, you can do estradiol, especially topical estradiol. I have a history of migraines, but not migraines with aura, which is sometimes a concern with oral estrogen, estradiol. Like the birth control pill, they often say if you have migraine with aura, maybe you aren’t a candidate for birth control pill. But I rechecked with my doctor and even though she’s brand new, I said, just in general with women in ocular migraines, and she said, topical. We can do topical, but I’m OK with the birth control pill for you. And I was like, no thank you. So I voice memoed with this woman and said, based on what I’ve researched, I’m OK with topical estrogens and progesterone. Both of my primary cares, my ND and MD, were okay with it. But do your due diligence, go get worked up. Don’t just sit at home and self-diagnose off ChatGPT.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, right, right. And since, are you still experiencing them? I mean, when do you expect to—

Dr. Carrie Jones:  I just picked up the prescription last week and then immediately went out of town for another conference, and haven’t started it yet.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Okay, all right. Well, we’ll pay attention. By the way, just for folks to know, and we’ll link to it, you have a couple of free downloads to share. I don’t want to forget. My team mentioned them to me. You’ve got the Estrogen Detox Guide and then the Stages of Perimenopause ebook, which you can really speak to from a very authentic voice.

Dr. Carrie Jones: I can, especially because there’s only two stages. I think that’s very limited, but that’s fine. I explain it.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Cool. Well, I’m sure both of those downloads are great. And then you’ve got a book coming out in 2026. But the reason I’m saying all of this is because if you follow Dr. Jones on social media, you won’t regret it. She’s funny and really, she’s just like she is here, with nice bright pops of color, unlike yours truly. Exact opposite.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: So science is getting exciting with regard to women’s health. We’re understanding more and more what makes us tick and we’re caring about it. And, God, we’re just doing more research in women and thank God. You’ve been thinking a lot about mitochondrial health in the context of ovarian aging and I think just aging more broadly. And I want to get your thoughts on that. I want to hear about the role mitochondria in ovarian aging and importantly, and I’ll circle you back to this if need be, just how we as clinicians want to be thinking about this in our women going through transition.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Historically, we always say women will transition through perimenopause and menopause, assuming you still have your ovaries and haven’t had a hysterectomy, and it’s the loss of follicles. They go down, they go down, they go down, and eventually have none left, and poof, that’s what makes you cross over into menopause. Years ago, I’d read an article about the mitochondrial theory of ovarian aging and I started talking about it. And I got a lot of pushback of like, that’s not it. It’s not the mitochondria. You just lose follicles. Once they’re done, they’re done. And I was like, all right, well, fine. And then fast forward, I’ve been seeing a few articles come out here and there. And then in Frontiers this year, a whole article came out about like, yeah, we’re pretty certain this is for real. Yes, the follicles decline, but at the same time, the mitochondria, which are very heavily concentrated in the ovaries, take a big hit.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Mitochondria are, as we all learned about them in school, are the cellular powerhouses, but they’re also very fragile and kind of a diva. So if things, and not good things, like inflammation, infection, heavy metals, et cetera, blood sugar issues, happen to them, they shut down, kind of fall apart, have issues. Well, what we forget is that the first step to making steroid hormones are in our mitochondria. So if you would like to make estradiol, if you would like to make progesterone, testosterone, cortisol– cortisol actually starts and finishes in the mitochondria, it leaves for a minute and then comes back– then you’re going to struggle to make hormones. So not only are you going to struggle to continue to have healthy ovaries, you will struggle with hormones. And because they’re so fragile and they get attacked and assaulted very easily, our body tried to give them a lot of self-antioxidants to support them, but it didn’t give them a very great DNA repair system, the mitochondrial repair.

Dr. Carrie Jones: So I liken it to dog hair. We can keep up on our dog hair, but if you stop for a week, all of a sudden there’s dog hair or cat hair just everywhere and overwhelming. And that can happen in the mitochondria and all of a sudden there’s dog hair everywhere and you just can’t function and they start to shut down. It affects our hormones, it affects our aging and poof, women are going through and having all these symptoms.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Interesting. By the way, the cool fact is that the mitochondrial density in the ovaries is greater than any other organ system. Number one.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Greater than any other organ. Yeah. We often think the heart. Everyone’s like, “Not the heart?” I’m like, in women those ovaries just power pack them in there because we have to make so many hormones. I mean, those are the glands that pump it all out and then maintain fertility, if that’s a goal of yours. Even if it’s not a goal of yours, it’s not a goal of mine, but my ovaries still every month are saying, well, it might be, so we have to maintain a level.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Well, and not only that, if you’re continuing to be able to produce hormones you’re taking care of your brain, you’re taking care of your heart, you’re taking care of your skin, you’re taking care of your bones. You’re taking care of every other system in the body. Every other organ system is influenced by these extraordinarily important hormones we’re making.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yes. I think that when you asked the original question of what do I see shifting, we’re shifting away from women are just their uterus and ovaries, to we have twelve systems in the body. The hormones that the ovaries are making are impacting all twelve systems. Some are a little more critical, like you said, bone, brain, heart is an example, as far as health span and longevity goes. I mean, I want beautiful skin too, don’t get me wrong, but I also don’t want to break a bone, so I would prioritize that. So everyone’s just like, “Oh, you had a hysterectomy, like you don’t have a uterus? No big deal, you don’t need them. No, no, we need to support all the other systems. We are much more than just ovaries.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. That’s absolutely right. And I think that is still going to take a little while for that to really be understood that we need to continue to support mitochondrial health. So my question is, with this awareness, it’s pretty cool that you were inspired to really light on the importance of mitochondria way back in the day, and now you’re being validated. That’s such a theme in our medicine. So would you say one of the most foundationally important interventions in women’s health, therefore, is like a good cocktail of mitochondrial nutrients?

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yes, and… I would say we know a lot interferes with the mitochondria. I said they’re fragile beings, they can be. So a lot of that exterior, again, exercise, nutrition, endocrine disruptor exposure, how’s your blood sugar and insulin, inflammation, you know, these things play a major role. Medications you’re taking, a lot of medications unfortunately don’t like mitochondria. So that layered on top of– Somebody just sent me a summary of an article talking about, which of course will be right up your alley, your polyphenols, which are very pro-mitochondria, B vitamins, very pro-mitochondria, gut health support, pre-, pro-, and post-biotics, very mitochondrial supportive. When you layer the two of them together, independent of hormones, independent of going on hormone therapy, it could really support the mitochondria and might, for a lot of women, make for a much easier perimenopause. And actually, any age, if you’re struggling with fertility, if you have PCOS, if you have PMS, endometriosis, like I’m looking at this from just the grand lens of women’s health. If your mitochondria are faltering, they’re going to falter at any age. Whatever age they’re at, it’s going to affect you.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s right. What you’re articulating are just really profoundly important foundational interventions across the lifespan of women. I’m curious, you and I were both at a conference and we were just talking offline. Peter Attia was there and talking about his favorite topic, cholesterol and lowering cholesterol, and kind of arguing that there’s not necessarily– I don’t want to misquote him, actually– but no issue around lowering it very profoundly. Profoundly dropping cholesterol. And I’m curious your thoughts, being in the world of thinking all things steroid hormones, whether you would subscribe to this as an appropriate treatment approach for women. Or would you be concerned about the fallout? Yeah.

Dr. Carrie Jones: I’ll be honest. So anecdotally in practice, I saw it more in men and testosterone than I saw in women. So men would come in, and I didn’t have a large male following, I predominantly saw women and then I saw the subset of their husbands where they didn’t have a choice, you know, you have to go see Carrie. And so they would come in on heavy statin doses, very low cholesterol levels, and then very low testosterone levels. And so I often would communicate with their cardiologists, who thankfully being in the Portland area, were maybe a little more open to, okay, I’ll cut them back on the statin or maybe let’s go ahead and put them on testosterone.

Dr. Carrie Jones: And the reason we’re bringing this up is because a lipid droplet is the backbone to all of these hormones. So a lipid droplet gets pulled into the mitochondria, using a nifty little enzyme called the star protein, and it turns that cholesterol into pregnenolone. That’s the first step. It’s a very controlled, highly-guarded step and then pregnenolone leaves and goes to the endoplasmic reticulum and becomes the other hormones. 11-deoxycortisol comes back and finishes out in the mitochondria as cortisol. That’s why I say cortisol starts and stops there. So if you’re on whatever combination of cocktail for cholesterol, because there’s a few now, and you have very, very low levels, but you’re also really struggling in the hormone department, anecdotally, I would see that especially in men. Specifically in men.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. Now, would those same men— just out of curiosity, because I know that you also were the first medical director over at Precision Analytical, and looking at many, many, many, many, many, many, thousands of hormone panels in men and women— these men could be converting their testosterone over to estrogen as well under the influence of inflammation.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yes.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: So I’m wondering if you were able to determine whether it was the acute drop in cholesterol precursor availability, or was it conversion to estrogens?

Dr. Carrie Jones: That’s a great question. I don’t think we looked close enough at that data. We could see it. So one-on-one, let’s say you and I did a consult and you were like, I have this guy, he’s 58, he’s high cholesterol, high insulin, obese, really inflamed, he’s on a statin. I could look at the test and go, oh yeah, it appears these two things are happening. Yes, I see that. But taking a step back and collating the data, they have not done that. It’s not a bad idea, honestly for any lab, because people have to mark what medications they’re on, if they’re on hormones or not. What I did find, especially in men, is that their cardiologist, if they were okay with testosterone, would say, well, I’m not lowering their statin. Let’s just put them on testosterone. Let’s put them on a little bit of testosterone. So then we would just not need that pathway per se, that cholesterol to pregnenolone pathway and they would just circumvent it by taking testosterone.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: By taking testosterone.

Dr. Carrie Jones: And then they would take an aromatase inhibitor, often at the same time, so they wouldn’t convert it to estrogen. Yeah.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, interesting, interesting. As a functional medicine doc I would definitely be thinking we want to take care of the landscape in that arena. We can do an aromatase inhibitor, but still, we just want to tend to their diet and lifestyle and all those other pieces to make that intervention protocol as clean and high-functioning as possible.

Dr. Carrie Jones: And I think we’re seeing it younger and younger. I don’t know about you, but I feel like, especially just casually watching on social, the number of men who report being on testosterone at a young age. The number of women who are reporting they’re perimenopausal and they’re 33, 35. Now, anything’s possible, I’m not denying that. But at the same time, when you and I take a much bigger, grander, more functional approach, I’m like, are we sure it’s perimenopause or it’s not something else? Are we sure it’s not a thyroid issue, or any kind of nutrient issue, or HPA stress dysfunction, somatic? Like, is there anything else maybe going on that’s just not getting looked at because everyone’s just pigeonholing, “Oh, you have perimenopause.” It’s so popular right now, with good reason, but also we have to use our critical thinking skills.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s right. We really do. I think that’s where a nice functional, naturopathic evaluation is so, so, so essential to confirm or rule out all of those. All right, the four horsewomen of aging, unless you’re really vigilant, you know, we’re going to fall prey to these: cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson, frailty, cancer. And what else could be in here? I think we’ve got…

Dr. Carrie Jones: I would mix metabolic with cardio, cardiometabolic, given 93% of Americans, unfortunately, are not metabolically healthy and we see it everywhere.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. I would say unless we’re very intentionally sort of pushing up the stream, we’re going to fall prey to metabolic dysfunction. Talk about the ovaries and their role in mitochondrial health, ovarian health, and their role in bringing these upon us or not.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Let’s take frailty as an example because I was just in an airport traveling and I watched a very, very– at first I thought very cute– much older couple, tottering along to their gate. And I thought, man, she is so thin. Just bird thin, very frail, and I turned back around to look at my gate and she fell. I heard a thump behind me, turned around, and everybody came rushing towards her. The airline rep brought a wheelchair and of course adrenaline kicked in so she was like I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. She got herself back up and I thought, please don’t have broken anything because you are really, really, really, thin. That’s what I’m thinking my head. I got on the plane and I’m in the emergency exit row, so I’m about middle of the plane and when we landed they said, please everybody stay seated. We’re going to bring in personnel on the plane. And of course, we’re thinking drama. I’m thinking arrest, right? We’re all looking around like who got in a fight

Dr. Carrie Jones: Turned out it was the woman. She was on the plane, she was sitting way in the front and she had just sat for five hours, her adrenaline had worn off, and I hope nothing broke but they had to carry her off the plane. And we know that hormones– I mean, weight-bearing exercise, protein— but also estradiol, the rise and fall of progesterone, testosterone, like they play such a critical role in bone health. So we don’t think about that when we’re in our 30s, 40s, 50s. We’re maybe more concerned about immediate symptoms like, why do I have this belly fat? Why do I have hot flashes? Why am I not sleeping? Why do I feel rageful? But we have to also be mindful of, you don’t want to be that grandma. Like you don’t want to break a hip. You don’t want to be unstable. You don’t want to be weak. I want you to be able to pick up a suitcase if you need to, pick up your grandchild. Get off the floor without having to have a 15-point touch to just push yourself up.

Dr. Carrie Jones: But we don’t think about those things when we are young and so longevity is one thing, but healthspan is a whole other. If you’re going to live a long time because genetics or modern medicine, then I don’t want you to fall in the airport because you don’t have your feet under you and then unfortunately, maybe break a hip or a femur or get a concussion, something. And that’s just one example of how we have to focus on the immediate– I want you to feel really good, I want you to be really excited about this next phase going through the menopausal transition– but also look to the future in this one example.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s great. That’s very meaningful. I think we’re putting more attention there as well, right? Women are getting that we need to be consuming sufficient amounts of protein, that we actually have to engage in resistance training, and not just, you know– My mom walks around the block, I mean she gardens, she actually does a bunch of stuff, but I would like to see her doing some Tabatas, kettlebell squats. She’s not going to, but…

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah, well, I remember watching you. I mean, you’ve always been an exerciser for like as long as I’ve known you. And I remember thinking back then like, man, not to play victim, but I wish I had the motivation Kara does. And now I weight train for sure. I jump on things, I try sprint training. Definitely in the last couple of years I’ve got to get it together. I’m in my 40s, I’m almost 50. I don’t want to be weak. I am a carry-on travel girl so I’m going to be lifting my suitcase over my head. I’m going to be running after grandchildren. So I want to be healthy.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yes. Yeah. Oh my God, I know I get it. And you look great. I just saw you in real life a little while ago and you just look so strong and gorgeous. Yeah. I appreciate that. You know, cycling is my antidepressant so it wasn’t difficult for me to do it because it had such a fundamental… It still does. It still does. I’m still that same geeky, sort of sweaty person on their bike. I’m still that person. But way back in the day I injured my knees. I was pushing too big of a chain ring, they say. I was pedaling too hard and injured my knees and the orthopedist said you need to train your quads and your hams. And so that’s when I started to get into weightlifting, only because it influenced my biking. That’s it. Like I had to do it for cycling. And then I just would throw in stuff for my arms. So yeah, it became a habit early on for me and it is reflected in my bone density. But it was truly because of having a vulnerability towards depression and wanting to remedy that without medication and it’s just continued to work.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Well, honestly, I think depression is a good thing to talk about because a lot of women– we know the change in hormones, speaking of how the ovaries play a role– it’s not one of the four horsemen, but it definitely comes up for a lot: anxiety and depression. I mean, the change in estradiol, as an example, it’s huge. It impacts so many neurotransmitters that women, first of all, are confused if they’ve never had this before. They’re wondering what’s going on. Or maybe they had it mildly, mild to moderately growing up and had felt like they had it under control and now it comes back or it comes with a vengeance. Women report panic, their anxiety is out of control. And I just really want those who are listening to realize it could be very ovarian-related. It could be very hormone-related.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. How might we know that?

Dr. Carrie Jones: Usually it coincides with the onset of perimenopause. I have found in perimenopause— and I’d love your opinion on this. The definition of the first stage or the early stage of perimenopause is your cycles change by seven days. That’s how they decide in research which stage you’re in. But I find women don’t change by seven days. They may change by two or three. But usually the big first signs are I can’t sleep, my mood is changing, whether it’s anxiety or depression, anger, rage, or all of the above. And they’ll report more fatigue. They will start to report the weight. So these are kind of those early symptoms that I do see.

Dr. Carrie Jones: So if you’re like listening and you’re going, yeah, that’s me. I’m totally in my 40s or maybe 50s or late 30s, and all of a sudden I’m really just feeling or noticing more depression, more apathy. Or the opposite, more rage, more impatience, more panic, more anxiety. And I’ve had women describe it as the panic or the anxiety just grips them. It’s something they’ve never experienced before. I’m like, “Ah! hormone.” You didn’t grow up with this. This is a relatively sudden onset. And estradiol in particular plays such a role in oxytocin, like bonding. Women will say, I don’t feel like doing things. I don’t want to hang out.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Right, right.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Things that used to bring me joy don’t bring me joy. I don’t feel as connected anymore. I don’t feel as loving. I don’t have that empathy. In fact, I wish everybody would go away. I’m like, “Ah! Oxytocin.” Even with the creation of serotonin, which then goes on to make melatonin, estradiol plays a big signaling role there. Dopamine. I mean, it just really— And then when it’s chaotic up and down in the early parts of perimenopause, you feel chaotic. You’re like thrust in, pulled out, thrust in, pulled out. And then all of a sudden it starts to settle out low and now your symptoms are more consistent because you have less estradiol all the time. I don’t know who designed this. I would like a word.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: So who’s an appropriate candidate for hormone therapy and when do we want to be starting them? And are we going to be doing some kind of a toggle, you know, given the rise and fall of symptoms? Or would you do hormone therapy plus some key botanical interventions, plus your diet? How do you think about the big picture in approaching women? Lay it out there.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah. My big thing is always meet women where they’re at because especially with the diet, lifestyle, supplemental… Some people just need a little guidance on what to eat, how to train, their sleep hygiene, stress, what have you. Other women are like, nope, I have a full time job, I have three kids at home, I’m barely keeping my head above water. What can I do? So trying to meet them where they’re at. Because yes, my goal for sure is foundational stuff. Are you sleeping? What are you eating? Are you engaging with your community? Do you feel joy? Do you feel safe? Are you exercising? Are you training, lifting heavy things, as they say, et cetera.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Then when it comes to hormone therapy, there are a number of contraindications, but not all contraindications are absolute, and it depends on the type of hormone therapy. So for example, I get this a lot. “Carrie, I have high blood pressure, I can’t take hormones.” I’m like, “Oh, not true.” With high blood pressure that’s controlled, you can take progesterone, as an example, and you might be a pretty good candidate for the topical estradiol, so a patch or a gel, and you’re definitely a candidate for the vaginal. So again, these all have nuances. Somebody might say, “I have fibroids, I have bleeding, I can’t do estrogen.” But we can do progesterone, we can look at testosterone maybe, we can look at maybe DHEA, we can maybe look at vaginal. So everything’s kind of… Negotiable is not the right word, but very personalized. Nuanced and personalized.

Dr. Carrie Jones: The only one that’s really, really clear, I mean, there’s a few, but if you have active breast cancer, like right now, they’re not going to give you any hormones. If you have a history of breast cancer– you had it 10 years ago, 15 years ago– negotiable, depending on what kind: hormone receptor-positive or not. What does your oncologist think? What are the symptoms you’re having? And weighing the risk-benefit. I think that has come a long way.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yes.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Whereas it used to be here are the 10 contraindications and every single one of them is a hard no. And now all the guidelines are like, risk-benefit, talk to your practitioner, it’s a mutual decision. There’s different options, swallow it, slather it, stick it, push it up there. So we have all these different options for hormones. And then on top of that, then I layer in the supplemental piece. What are we missing? What do we need more of? Do you need more fiber? Do you need more B vitamins? Are you still not sleeping very well? We have great herbs for sleep. Do we need more minerals? I’m a big fan of minerals like magnesium. Then we layer that in with it to get a really well-rounded plan.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yes. Fabulous. Are you leaning on botanicals

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yes, I am for sure. Especially in the sleep department, especially in the stress department. I still use a lot of adaptogens, a lot of sleep stuff. Most definitely. Yeah, most definitely.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: And you’re a huge fan of melatonin. Why? Do tell.

Dr. Carrie Jones: I am a huge fan of melatonin.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Why? Do tell.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Oh my gosh. And I have been for years. So melatonin, everyone thinks, oh it’s the sleep hormone. And it is. It’s the other half of the circadian rhythm with cortisol. But melatonin is billions of years old so it’s like that car insurance commercial, “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.” That’s melatonin. And melatonin is made in our brain in our pineal gland and it’s not stored there, that’s what’s released and that’s part of the circadian rhythm. But every single mitochondria has the ability to make melatonin in the body. It’s a powerful, powerful, powerful antioxidant. And the longest, oldest melatonin researcher is Dr. Russel Reiter. He’s been studying melatonin since the 40s. And I have been reading his papers for years and I got to meet him in person a couple of years ago. And I said, I think melatonin’s a stronger antioxidant than glutathione. And he was like, “Me too! This is great!”

Dr. Carrie Jones: And that always shocks people when I say that because glutathione is always touted as the most potent antioxidant. I’m like, have you met melatonin? Have you looked at its mitochondrial benefit independent of the circadian rhythm? It plays a big role in the gut, the ability to make it is heavily concentrated in the ovaries, thank you very much, and then, yeah, for sure, there’s circadian rhythm. Melatonin helps signal around to a lot of organs and glands, it’s nighttime.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: What’s it doing as an antioxidant in the ovaries?

Dr. Carrie Jones: My best analogy is, have you seen those Russian dolls where they break apart? Or Pac-Man almost? Melatonin will get a reactive oxygen species and then it will convert into a metabolite and that has the ability to get a reactive oxygen species and it turns into a… So it kind of has this like jumping, like the dolls break apart and then like, grrr, I’ll get you and eat it up and take care of it. And then it’s able to do it a couple of times so it can really quench when you’ve got free radicals. Too much dog hair, as I said earlier. We’ve got way too much dog hair. Melatonin is one. We have other options, right? We have catalase, we have superoxide dismutase, we have glutathione, but people forget about melatonin. We only link melatonin with the circadian rhythm.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: That’s so fascinating. I don’t know that we’ve really been sufficiently educated, and I’ll raise my hand, with regard to its role in this capacity. That’s so fascinating.

Dr. Carrie Jones: I’m telling you and listen, have you had Dr. Deanna Minich on? Have her on. She is also a wealth for melatonin. She geeks out on it like me. Melatonin spikes in the middle of the night somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m. And part of that spike is to drop your core body temperature. Well, who doesn’t sleep? Who wakes up between 2 and 4 a.m. and doesn’t have lower core body temperature? Women in their 40s and 50s and you know, they wake up hot.

Dr. Carrie Jones: So it may not be blood sugar, it might not be cortisol, it might not be snoring. It might be the fact their melatonin did not spike, their core body temperature did not drop and they wake up as a result. And that spike plays a role in insulin so you are more likely to be insulin resistant the next day, have higher ghrelin, be hungrier when you don’t sleep and don’t get that melatonin spike. Well, who’s not getting melatonin spikes, complains of being hungry all the time and hedging towards insulin resistance? Perimenopausal women. I’m like, oh my gosh.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Right. So then what do we do about it? I mean, are we taking a sustained release melatonin or what the hell are we doing? And why are we even going through that to begin with?

Dr. Carrie Jones: Like, wait a minute. Sleep hygiene is obviously very important and it becomes even more critical. We’re just a bunch of toddlers when we hit our 40s and 50s. We need nap time, we need to wind down at night, somebody to brush our teeth, read us a story and tuck us in with low light. That’s what we need. But instead we’re all on our phones and we’re watching Netflix and we’re up late and people are having heavy meals and sugar and drinking, and then they’re trying to go to bed, but they’re trying to go to bed in their 40s and 50s. You can do it in your 20s, but in your 40s and 50s, you don’t have the other hormonal stability that you used to have. Now, how do you make melatonin? Well, you make it from tryptophan, which comes from protein, which then makes 5-HTP, and a big trigger for that is estradiol and lot of women don’t have estradiol, and there’s some nutrients in there. And then 5-HTP, serotonin, and then eventually we get to melatonin.

Dr. Carrie Jones: So do you even have the cofactors in the first place? I will say though, according to Dr. Ryder, he says the average human, male or female, their melatonin production naturally declines at 50. So just like, it freaking feels like everything else in our body declines at middle age, melatonin does too. He says the network, the communication, especially to the pineal gland seems to degrade or fall apart or not be as great. We don’t make as much melatonin, in which case there is some interesting research on all the improvements if you give women melatonin in menopause on insulin, weight, sleep. Now there’s a lot of nuance on melatonin because some people don’t like it. They wake up drowsy, they get wild dreams, they get the opposite effect, they’re awake all night. Melatonin can shift REM sleep and so for some people it phase shifts them too much.

Dr. Carrie Jones: So in where we take melatonin, you have to play with it. Do you take it an hour before bed, two hours before bed, right before bed? It’s not like vitamin C where you just take it. You do have to kind of time it and play with it. Same with the dose. Humans only make about 0.3 milligrams.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: I know Deanna has talked about the amount of melatonin we should use as a micro amount, but then in the literature, you know, people are studying 10 milligrams and plus. I think that reference was specifically in cancer, but where do you land with this?

Dr. Carrie Jones: So I usually tell people, I find a lot of women as they get older become a little more like a little sensitive bunny. So I’m like, let’s start with the micro and move up. You may start with a 0.3 point, maybe kind of a 1.0 in half and that’ll give you a 0.5. How do you do? Don’t like that? Not working? Let’s go up to a 1.0 and then let’s try sustained release. Again, I wish it was as straightforward and simple as just take vitamin C, which is kind of non-complicated, but you do have to play around a little bit with melatonin. What dose makes you too groggy the next morning? We either take it earlier in the night or cut the dose down.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. That little wake up window is a pain in the butt and it’s hard to treat. I mean, I certainly have experienced it and then layer a kid on top of it. Yeah, it’s pretty disruptive, but then also treating it. I mean, I do prescribe melatonin frequently. I will have people do a lozenge and then just take a microchip during that time so it’s late– I’m not having them take it early– to see. And maybe they’ll just be groggy the next day, but it’s like as we tweak what we’re going to do about that window. But you think that little wake up time where we’re like, yeah, just eat some protein before bed or like we have all these ideas. Or have a fat bomb. I mean, there’s so many things that I’ve experimented with but this sounds a little bit more compelling. And it’s pretty uniform. I don’t know that many women who haven’t gone through this wake up period.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Gosh no. My first perimenopausal symptom at 44 was that I had a brilliant idea. Brilliant. And I know it was brilliant, because I thought, “That’s brilliant.” And I went to open a tab on my computer, and by the time I opened the tab, I couldn’t remember what the brilliant idea was. And I was like, “What just happened?” My second symptom—

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: That’s horrible. That’s not cool. Not cool!

Dr. Carrie Jones: Not cool, I was so mad. My second symptom was 3 a.m. wakeups, like clockwork and I couldn’t break it. And I was like, oh. But yeah, I’m not opposed to protein, I’m not opposed to the fat bomb, because it could be those things. It could totally be blood sugar. If you have a continuous glucose monitor on and you can see, great. If you are doing middle of the night cortisol testing, as some of those companies give you a sample you can collect, and you see that your cortisol is really high, well, that’s going to suppress melatonin, so it’s a cortisol issue. So we have our answer.

Dr. Carrie Jones: And other people wake up because their partner’s snoring, or their kid comes in, or their dog is barking. There’s a lot of unfortunate reasons for waking up, but the melatonin between 2 and 4 a.m.– And I read that pretty consistently in the studies. We have to have that spike. And that spike also lowers blood pressure so the people who wake up and have high waking blood pressures, if you’re monitoring your blood pressure, it could be because you don’t get the spike of melatonin between 2 and 4 a.m. And again, we seem to lose it as we get older and we for sure feel it within a couple years of 50. I mean, 50 is just an average. Some people will be later, some people it will be before. But yeah.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: I’m not okay with “This just happens because we’re old,” you know, “We’re deteriorating because we’re old.” If we engage in the lifestyle pieces that you’ve been talking about here, really for the entire conversation, if we’re exercising, if we’re engaged in decent sleep hygiene practices, turning off the phone, engaging in community, like all of the sort of functional naturopathic pieces that we think are so essential, your 50 is somebody else’s 70. I mean, you can turn these around. So we don’t need to be—

Dr. Carrie Jones: And we know it. How many people, myself included, have said, if I wind down, drink tea, get in bed, lower the lights, read a real book, not my Kindle, play nice music, and go to sleep, my heart rate variability is so much higher. I know some of this is self-inflicted. Some of it’s in my control, some of it’s not, depending on family and circumstances. But those are the nights that I sleep fantastic— if I’m in complete dark, if I’m camping and I don’t have all the light, but I get a lot in nature, my heart rate variability is great, I sleep great. I know that sometimes it’s just hard.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. One of the crazy thing that has been very helpful in my sleep world is I basically go to bed when Isabella goes to bed. That has just dialed me into a whole— That would never happen if I didn’t have a seven-year-old who has to get up at 6:30 and needs 10 hours.

Dr. Carrie Jones: There are many a night my husband and I look at each other and we’re like, it’s 8:15 and we’re reading in bed.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: That’s right. I know it’s so funny. What is that? Not cool, but there it is.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah, did we become these people? When did we cross over?

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, you did. That is really, really, really funny. So let me see. What else do I want to ask you about? We seem to shy away from using oral estrogen, although there are a handful of docs — one of my doctors, actually, would love for me to be on oral estrogen, she prefers it, but I use the patch and I mostly love it. It’s a little bit annoying, but it’s easy. I can forget about it for a little while. There was an interesting paper that came out looking at it, again in Medscape, comparing topical versus oral, and they seem to serve different parts of the body. I want to hear what you think about and what you would go for. You’ve mentioned the patch a few times and why we might be concerned about oral, but talk it through.

Dr. Carrie Jones: You know, it’s funny, I just had this conversation yesterday or the day before with a good friend of mine who’s in the longevity space. And she said, have you realized all the research, especially on some of the lipid aspects and brain health, it’s all oral, Carrie. It’s not topical, we’re extrapolating to topical. And I was like, “I know.” And I usually lean pretty heavily to the transdermal, whether it’s a cream, whether it’s a patch, that’s usually where I lean towards just to reduce risk of the other cardiovascular, you know, the slight clot risk, as an example. But yeah, especially the brain health. The brain health stuff is on the oral. And so my longevity friend was like, I think we really need to look harder at oral estradiol and really reconsider that. And so I literally have a to-do note that I have to go right back through that research and see. And I think some people definitely have concerns when it’s the oral conjugated equine estrogen, CEE, which is often studied. And it’s studied in the lower risk of breast cancer.

Dr. Carrie Jones: When you look at– In the UK there’s this beautiful graphic, they have the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). They put out graphics for 1,000 women that are 50- to 59-years-old, the average woman, no hormone, there’s 23 out of 1,000 will develop breast cancer. And if you were on CEE, conjugated equine estrogen, four less women get breast cancer. So they don’t look at estradiol, they look at CEE. So even that data. Now CEE can be inflammatory in some, and has some issues for sure in some, in other markers, not breast cancer.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Sure. Yeah.

Dr. Carrie Jones: But even just that, the oral risk is not as grand as it’s often made out to be. When you see the diagram of the increased risk of clot, it’s not like, “Oh my gosh, 400 more people develop clots!” It’s like, “Oh, it’s two. It’s three.” And so I don’t want it to be you, but also I would take a pretty in-depth history about clots and cardiovascular if we did oral.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Whether that’s a risk, yeah.

Dr. Carrie Jones: So I also, very recently, am going back and forth between oral and transdermal and trying to decide.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s fair. I think it’s important and I’ll stay tuned to hear where you land on that. I think it’s an incredibly important discussion and I do suspect that oral has been probably been unnecessarily maligned for that clot risk and we can do things about mitigating clot risk in some women. I mean, would we think about some of our usual interventions? I mean, top of mind is fish oil, for example.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Fish oil is the first thing I thought of, yeah.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, and then maybe tracking some of those biomarkers like fibrinogen and so on and so forth. So we could always create the most healthy environment in which to prescribe an oral estrogen. Okay, really interesting. Yeah, I’ll be curious to see where the dialogue goes amongst you ladies.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah. Especially when you look at it from just a conventional social media space, transdermal is sort of the way that you hear all the time. Again, it’s once you get into that, well, what did the study really look at? Oh, it was oral. Like, Oh, it was CEE. Okay. And sometimes it was oral estradiol. Personally, yeah, I do need to go back and look at that again. It’s not going to be just transdermal all the time, although I personally have a prescription for the transdermal estradiol patch.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah. I mean, I’ve been using the patch and I like it because it’s easy. But I did I did use oral for a while and it was fine and my lipids were perfect. You know, impeccable. I don’t know, maybe my brain was functioning a little better back then. I don’t know.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Speaking of brain, FSH ,follicle stimulating hormone, being a potential marker to follow along with that. FSH being the signal on the follicles to make estradiol when you’re cycling. We thought for a long time FSH had one job and that was it. They just told the follicles, do your job, make estrogen and poof, it did. And now research is going, well, actually the higher FSH is, it seems to have a negative impact on bone, brain, and weight. More research is needed, but really fascinating and it makes total sense that FSH does not have just one job. And it’s an easy blood test. It’s very cheap or covered by insurance. And so from a transdermal or oral perspective, I’m curious if we get that number down, FSH down under 50, under 30, on a blood test, how are your bones? How is your brain? How is your weight? So I think we’re going to find some new— not new, but markers that we’ve been using apply even more so, but differently, as we hit this age.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah, fabulous. Very interesting. All right, so more to uncover here. Again, I just want to mention you have some downloadables, one on estrogen detox, one on the stages of perimenopause. You’ve got a book coming out in 2026. You’re fun, fun, fun to follow on Instagram. You are, you’re still fun for me and I’ve known you forever. You’re funny, you know, you have good energy and you deal with the issues really straight on that we care about as women and that we care about as clinicians treating women.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: We did a masterclass a little while ago and the masterclass was titled Functional Medicine is Longevity Medicine™ and it was for clinicians because we just want folks to know who are trained in this space that we think were the best suited to be working with those of us who are interested in longevity, all of us.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Yeah. Yep.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: And then, and two things we wanted to do after the masterclass that we didn’t have the space to do in the masterclass was a very specific treatment of hormones. Like we wanted a full hour. And so your part, you’re basically an extension of this masterclass. We wanted you to be a part of it, but we really wanted to give it the appropriate attention. And we also have Gabrielle Lyon coming on in a couple of months to fill in that piece as well. So two pieces we wanted just good, juicy, hour-plus-long conversations to round out our masterclass. And so again, we’ll link to the masterclass recordings if anybody’s interested. But thank you for just being a good, important voice in this space and just making it a lot of fun as well as very valuable.

Dr. Carrie Jones: Thank you. Well, I obviously adore you and all the work you’re doing and have so much respect for you. And so I’m just so happy to be here.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Alright, big hug girl. To be continued. Ciao ciao.

Dr. Carrie Jones, ND, FABNE, MPH, MSCP, is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and educator on women’s health and hormones. Known as the “Queen of Hormones,” she is a naturopathic physician with more than 20 years of experience in women’s health, endocrinology, and functional medicine. Dr. Jones completed a two-year residency focused on women’s health and endocrinology, earned her Master of Public Health, and was among the first to become board certified in Naturopathic Endocrinology (FABNE) and a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP).

She has served as a medical educator and consultant for several leading functional labs and women’s health companies and is currently Chief Medical Officer at NuEthix Formulations. Dr. Jones is also the host of Hello Hormones, a podcast dedicated to bringing clarity, humor, and actionable insight to complex hormone topics.

Dr. Carrie Jones

Hello Hormones podcast

Peter Attia, MD

Dr. Russel Reiter

Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS, IFMCP

Article: Estrogen Therapy

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence publication: HRT and the likelihood of some medical conditions: A discussion aid for healthcare professionals and patients

Gabrielle Lyon, MD

Podcast: An HRT Revolution is Underway. Are You Ready to Individualize Recommendations for Hormone Health?

Podcast: Hidden Mitochondria Problems Are Accelerating Your Age & Draining Your Health

Blog: What Urinary Hormone Metabolite Testing Tells Us about Estrogen Metabolism and Breast Cancer Risk

Blog: How Hormone Monitors are Changing the Way Providers Care for Women

Blog: Insomnia’s Five Subtypes: Here’s How to Address Each One

DrKF Clinic: Patient consults with DrKF physicians including Younger You Concierge

Bio Age Lab Test

Bio Age Self Assessment Quiz

Younger You Practitioner Training Program

Younger You book

Better Broths and Healing Tonics book

Younger You Daily Supplements are Now Here!

What could be more convenient than having your daily supplements all pre-portioned in one pouch? Choose your level to get the combination of supplements that’s right from you. Monthly subscription available.

(note you’ll be leaving www.drkarafitzgerald.com to go to www.vitaboom.com to complete your purchase)