What Perimenopause Can Feel Like Before You Know It’s Hormonal with Mariana Iskander

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Discover how perimenopause symptoms can begin years before menopause and show up as changes in mood, sleep, energy, libido, and overall quality of life.
• Learn why testosterone plays an important role in women’s muscle mass, motivation, mood, and sexual health.
• Uncover how declining progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone can affect women differently throughout the perimenopause transition.
• Find out why symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, poor sleep, and low libido may sometimes lead women to look beyond everyday stress for answers.
• Get a better understanding of how Mariana combines laboratory testing with a patient’s symptoms when evaluating hormone health.
• Understand why hormone replacement therapy can involve different options, including patches, creams, injections, and pellets, depending on the individual.
• Hear how finding the right hormone treatment plan may require adjustments in dosage and delivery method over several months.
• Gain insight into why Mariana believes patient education is essential when discussing common concerns and misconceptions about hormone therapy.
• Learn how hormone health, skin changes, body composition, and confidence can overlap as women move through perimenopause and menopause.

In this episode…

Could the irritability, disrupted sleep, low libido, anxiety, or lack of energy you have been blaming on stress actually be connected to changing hormones? Perimenopause can begin years before menopause, and the symptoms do not always look the way women expect. So how can you recognize when something deeper may be changing?

Mariana explains why testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen all matter in women’s health, how she pairs laboratory results with a patient’s symptoms, and why hormone replacement therapy is rarely a one size fits all process. She also shares what she sees when women arrive after being told their mood or sleep changes are simply part of getting older, and why finding the right formulation and dose can require patience and ongoing adjustments.



In this episode of Beauty Talk, host Daniel Gouw interviews Mariana Iskander, a nationally certified Physician Associate and founder of Lotus Wellness and Medspa in Aurora, Ohio. She began her medical career at Cleveland Clinic in 2013 before expanding her focus into aesthetics and wellness. Mariana discusses perimenopause symptoms, the role of testosterone in women, hormone testing, hormone replacement options, common misconceptions about HRT, and the connection between wellness, aging, and aesthetic care. Tune in to learn how to make informed choices about your health, beauty, and well-being.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Daniel Gouw on LinkedIn
• EDNA Digital Marketing  
• Lotus Wellness and Medspa Website
• Lotus Wellness and Medspa on Instagram

Sponsor for this episode...