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The Hormone Truth with Rowan Sanderson

The Hormone Truth with Rowan Sanderson

By: Rowan
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Something shifted in your 40s or 50s. The weight won't move. Sleep is broken. Energy is gone. Brain fog is constant. And every test comes back normal.

You have tried eating less, training harder, cutting carbs, and fasting. Nothing worked. Some things made it worse.

I am Rowan Sanderson, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner with 12 years and 1,000+ cases in female hormone health.

Every week I share what I have learned watching the standard approach fail women in perimenopause and menopause, and what actually works instead.

New episode every week.

© 2026 The Hormone Truth with Rowan Sanderson
Hygiene & Healthy Living
Episodes
  • 5 Warning Signs Your Doctor Is Using an Outdated Hormone Playbook
    Jun 25 2026

    📌 Book your complimentary Discovery Call: https://thehormonebalanceclinic.com/

    Your doctor may have 30 years of hormone experience. That does not mean 30 years of keeping up. There is a real difference between three decades of continuous learning and three decades of repeating the same outdated protocol. Most women have no way of knowing which one they are sitting across from, and that gap can cost years of unnecessary suffering.

    If your treatment is not working, this is probably why.

    In this episode, I'm going to walk you through 5 specific warning signs that your hormone care is built on an outdated clinical model, so you can walk into your next appointment knowing exactly what questions to ask.

    ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
    0:00 5 Warning Signs Your Doctor Is Using an Outdated Hormone Playbook
    1:03 Sign 1: Nobody told you when in your cycle your blood should be drawn
    4:20 Sign 2: Your "normal" result was compared to the wrong population
    7:33 Sign 3: Estrogen was prescribed before progesterone was ever checked
    11:18 Sign 4: Your doctor has never mentioned aromatization 14:10 How testosterone converts to estrogen and worsens your symptoms
    16:09 Sign 5: You received a prescription and were sent home without support
    18:04 What proper clinical monitoring after starting HRT actually looks like

    ❓ QUESTIONS ANSWERED

    What are the warning signs your hormone doctor is using an outdated approach?
    If your doctor never discussed the timing of your blood draw, never mentioned progesterone before prescribing estrogen, or never explained what the reference range actually measures, your care may not reflect current hormonal science.

    Why do some women feel terrible even when hormone labs come back "normal"?
    Standard hormone reference ranges are built from population averages, not optimal health. A result inside the range means you are average for that sample group. It does not mean your hormones are where they need to be for you to function well.

    What is aromatization and why should women on HRT understand it?
    Aromatization is the process by which testosterone converts to estrogen inside the body, driven by an enzyme that becomes far more active when inflammation is present. A testosterone prescription can worsen estrogen dominance in women whose conversion is running unchecked.

    📱 RESOURCES
    Website: https://thehormonebalanceclinic.com/
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehormonebalanceclinic/

    🔔 Subscribe for weekly evidence-informed content on female hormonal health, perimenopause, and the clinical approach that conventional medicine is not designed to deliver.

    ABOUT ROWAN SANDERSON:
    I'm Rowan Sanderson, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner specialising in female functional endocrinology. After more than a decade working exclusively with women navigating perimenopause and hormonal transition, and having worked with over a thousand women who arrived having already failed conventional HRT, I founded The Hormone Balance Clinic to give women the precise clinical approach that the standard medical model has consistently failed to provide.

    #Perimenopause #HormoneHealth #WomensHealth #EstrogenDominance #WomenOver40

    Show More Show Less
    21 mins
  • Still Exhausted After Years of Thyroid Treatment? This Is Why
    Jun 18 2026

    📌 Book your complimentary Discovery Call: https://thehormonebalanceclinic.com/

    Treating only your thyroid will never fix how you feel. You've taken the medication. You've followed the protocol. Your numbers come back normal and your doctor says to stay the course. But you are still exhausted. You still can't lose weight. And the brain fog has not lifted.

    That is not a compliance problem. It's a diagnosis problem.

    In this episode, I'm going to show you exactly why thyroid-only treatment keeps failing women in perimenopause, what is running the show upstream of your thyroid, and the three questions to ask before your next appointment.

    ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
    0:00 Why thyroid medication isn't enough for women in perimenopause
    1:16 Point 1: Why thyroid-only treatment keeps failing you
    2:17 The thyroid was never running the show
    4:17 Point 2: The cortisol and progesterone pattern driving your symptoms
    5:17 Why your T4 is not converting into usable T3
    6:44 Point 3: How to tell if this is what you're dealing with
    8:30 The exact symptom picture I see most often in clinic
    8:49 Point 4: What the right treatment actually looks like
    11:41 Point 5: Your first step before the next appointment
    12:12 Three questions to bring to your doctor

    ❓ QUESTIONS ANSWERED
    Q: What is the connection between cortisol, progesterone, and thyroid function?
    A: Cortisol and progesterone are built from the same raw materials. When chronic stress or perimenopause pushes cortisol up, the body prioritizes it over progesterone. Low progesterone then blocks the T4-to-T3 conversion your thyroid depends on.

    Q: Why isn't my thyroid medication working even though my blood tests look normal?
    A: Blood tests measure thyroid hormone going in, not whether your body can convert it into the active form it can use. If the conversion is failing, your levels look fine on paper while you still feel terrible.

    Q: What should I ask my doctor if thyroid medication isn't helping?
    A: Ask for free T3 measured alongside your TSH and T4, progesterone tested in relation to thyroid function, and a cortisol pattern assessment to find out whether your stress response is blocking conversion.

    📱 RESOURCES
    Website: https://thehormonebalanceclinic.com/
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehormonebalanceclinic/

    Youtube: https://youtu.be/vihunOsGQJY

    🔔 Subscribe to this podcast for weekly evidence-informed content on female hormonal health, perimenopause, and the clinical approach that conventional medicine is not designed to deliver.

    ABOUT ROWAN SANDERSON: I'm Rowan Sanderson, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner specialising in female functional endocrinology. After more than a decade working exclusively with women navigating perimenopause and hormonal transition, and having worked with over a thousand women who arrived having already failed conventional HRT, I founded The Hormone Balance Clinic to give women the precise clinical approach that the standard medical model has consistently failed to provide.

    #Perimenopause #HormoneHealth #WomensHealth #ProgesteroneDeficiency #HormoneTesting

    Show More Show Less
    13 mins
  • If You Have Avoided HRT Because of Cancer Fear, This Is for You.
    Jun 11 2026

    📌 Book your complimentary Discovery Call: https://thehormonebalanceclinic.com/

    You have been white-knuckling your way through perimenopause symptoms because someone told you HRT causes breast cancer. That fear is real. But it is based on a study that never measured the most important part of the equation.

    In this episode, I'm going to show you what actually drives cancer risk when it comes to hormones, why the fear most women carry is pointed at the wrong thing, and exactly what to ask your doctor before you make another decision about HRT.

    ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
    1:32 Where this fear came from: what the 2002 WHI study actually measured
    2:56 What the study missed entirely (and why it changes everything)
    4:16 What estrogen metabolism actually means and why it determines your risk
    5:13 The three estrogen pathways: which one your body favours matters most
    6:12 Why the DUTCH test is the missing piece of your decision
    7:11 Signs your estrogen metabolism is already working against you
    8:09 The checklist: how to know if this applies to you
    10:37 What the science actually shows when you ask the right question
    13:00 The specific questions to bring to your next appointment

    ❓ QUESTIONS ANSWERED

    Q: Does HRT cause breast cancer?
    A: Whether estrogen is present in your body is not what determines your cancer risk. What matters is how your body metabolises it. The 2002 study that drove this fear never once measured estrogen metabolism, which is the part of the equation that actually matters.

    Q: What is the DUTCH test and why does it matter for HRT decisions?
    A: The DUTCH test maps how your body processes and clears estrogen across the two primary metabolic phases. It shows whether you are predisposed to the problematic estrogen pathway and whether your methylation is working well enough to safely clear estrogen, giving you an individual risk picture rather than a population-level caution.

    Q: Can you take HRT and lower your cancer risk at the same time?
    A: For women whose estrogen metabolism is working well, bioidentical HRT does not elevate cancer risk. For many, it lowers it. If your metabolism is currently compromised, that pathway can be supported and shifted, at which point HRT can become not just safe but genuinely therapeutic.

    📱 RESOURCES

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHormoneBalanceClinic/videos
    Website: https://thehormonebalanceclinic.com/
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehormonebalanceclinic/

    🔔 Subscribe to this podcast for weekly evidence-informed content on female hormonal health, perimenopause, and the clinical approach that conventional medicine is not designed to deliver.

    ABOUT ROWAN SANDERSON: I'm Rowan Sanderson, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner specialising in female functional endocrinology. After more than a decade working exclusively with women navigating perimenopause and hormonal transition, and having worked with over a thousand women who arrived having already failed conventional HRT, I founded The Hormone Balance Clinic to give women the precise clinical approach that the standard medical model has consistently failed to provide.

    #Perimenopause #HormoneHealth #WomensHealth #EstrogenDominance #WomenOver40

    Show More Show Less
    16 mins
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