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Natalie Lund Introduction and Guest Introduction

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Rachel: Welcome back to another episode of Menopause. I have another guest.

Rachel: I am really happy to introduce all of you two. I'm meeting her for the first time today, but I've heard a lot. Here's what I've heard. Let me tell you all before you even get a chance to hear from her directly, but. She was born in Brazil and raised across three continents, which instantly makes her way interesting to me.

Rachel: I'm like, oh gosh. So much there. But Natalie Lund is an artist turned hypnotherapist whose eclectic path from performing arts to tech, yoga instruction to film led her to rapid transformational therapy in 2021. After nine years in Berlin and recent relocation to Portugal, she now helps clients worldwide navigate trauma.

Rachel: Perimenopause, A DHD and so forth struggles through her intuitive, deeply human approach. We like human here. This is the way we roll as both a [00:01:00] certified RTT practitioner and someone who's walked through many of the same challenges that her clients face. She brings not just professional tools, but genuine empathy and lived experience to every session, and she's bringing it to this session too.

Rachel: I can already tell her philosophy is beautifully simple. She doesn't believe in fixing people. But rather in helping them remember who they were before the world told them otherwise. This is the song we are singing with this channel, and with this podcast. Natalie, I am so excited to welcome you to Menopause.

Rachel: Thanks for joining us.

Natalie: Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for having me.

Rachel: Oh my gosh. I'm thrilled.

Natalie's Background and Journey

Rachel: I know we were just talking about, we met on Pod Match and so, as you can probably tell on anyone watching this, I'm looking for a very specific type of guest and I'm so pleased we found you and, I just compressed your lengthy experience and history and life experience and expertise into just a few sentences.

Rachel: But I wanna give you an opportunity too. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself? You know, if you can include stuff like [00:02:00] family, job interests, obviously you've got geographic location down, but yet tell us more about yourself. we'd love to hear about you.

Natalie: Oh, okay. Family. I have none. I used to be married but divorced 12 years ago. And have been living basically with my dogs since then.

Rachel: Nice.

Natalie: Freedom. Freedom. Freedom.

Rachel: Well, do they really give you freedom? I'm sure. now, are they demanding dogs? Are they pretty chill dogs?

Rachel: They're, they're demanding.

Natalie: I have one dog, actually. I have one dog. And she is absolutely chill. She just needs her walks and affection and I love walking, especially in nature. So that's all good. And she's small enough so I can fly with her in my bag. Yeah.

Rachel: Oh, that's so cute. So she's like a little pip squeak dog. She's so cute.

Natalie: she is. She weighs six and a half kilos, so.

Natalie: Up to eight kilos, they can fly with me in the cabin. So yeah, she's absolutely chill. My dog before wasn't that chill, but also [00:03:00] small and, you know, it's easy to take them everywhere. So that's why I say freedom. I, I literally, I left Berlin going, what do I do with my life now? Because I just couldn't take it anymore.

Natalie: Couldn't take anything anymore. Couldn't take the shit of people, couldn't take jobs I couldn't take, the noise. So I just packed everything with my dog into my little vintage car and off we went and came to Portugal. So the trip here was amazing. It was beautiful through France and Spain and you know, yeah, so nice and freedom.

Natalie: I felt so free. I've never felt that free in my life. So, yeah, found a little house here in, in a tiny town with 280 people. And um,

Rachel: Oh,

Natalie: yeah,

Rachel: that sounds glorious. That sounds, I mean, seriously, we're all like listening going, that sounds really awesome.

Natalie: it is for a while. For a while it is. I needed it. I come from Sao Paulo, right? We've got over 20 million people and then lived in Hong Kong and [00:04:00] in Berlin. Always big cities, so I'm a city girl, so I was like, no, I need, change. So I came here and I'm here and it's

Rachel: Well, I'm,it sounds amazing. I

Experiences with Perimenopause

Rachel: mean, and well, I think change is gonna be like a theme of this discussion because of the topic, but let's dig into it. so I always like to ask our guests, this can be a little bit difficult maybe. It depends. I mean, it depends what everyone's experience is.

Rachel: You know, respectively, like everyone's got their own experience with menopause. But if our guests haven't guessed it, haven't guessed it from the actual sign over my head that's hanging over my head, it's very it's very pictures. It's very symbolic that it's hanging over my head. We're here to talk about menopause and we're also here to talk about all the things that you address with menopause and you know, some of the things that, the ways you've approached it.

Rachel: But first things first. What is one word that you would use to describe menopause and your experience with it so far?

Natalie: Wild.

Rachel: Oof.

Natalie: It's been wild.

Rachel: Yeah. It has, and everybody's got their [00:05:00] own, you know, what's my wild barometer? But it certainly is that. How has it been wild for you? Tell me a little bit more about that.

Natalie: So, first of all, I did not know that I was in perimenopause. I had no idea. I had not heard about it much or at all actually. But everything was weird. Like everything was hurting. My, my shoulders were hurting, and that started when I was like 38 or something. So I didn't even go that far thinking, oh, it could be something like that, you know, decreasing estrogen or anything like that.

Natalie: So I just, I was like, okay this is painful. And then I started, I've got ADHD and I had no coping mechanisms anymore. My coping mechanisms went to shit. And I was like, who the fuck am I, I am enraged. I am in pain. I don't understand what's happening. and everything was hurting. I gained weight.

Natalie: And I'm like, but I'm so young. 'cause everyone says, oh, but you're so young. And then,[00:06:00]

Rachel: that's right.

Natalie: and I'm like trying to figure out what's, what was happening to me. Obviously I was also, I studied rapid transformational therapy and started learning. So much about myself

Natalie: And about the family I come from and all the trauma and everything, and I'm like, thought that had something to do with that until I heard a podcast with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Natalie: And she was just. Saying, oh, and you know, shoulder pain and, you know, gain weight brain fog. I'm like, what is brain fog? And I was like, oh, forgetting words. And I'm like, I forget the words in every language. I used to forget the word of the language I was speaking in, but then I blanked out every other language as well.

Natalie: And I'm like, what is happening to my brain? And then as I was listening to that, I'm like, okay, I need hormone replacement therapy.

Natalie: Because I didn't feel like myself. I was angry all the time. I, you know, was in pain and I was like, I need [00:07:00] HRT. Yeah try and get some HRT, try and get a doctor who prescribes HRT, and I was living in Berlin.

Natalie: I went to my gynecologist, said, look, I want hormones. And she's like, oh, you're too young. I don't care. I have all these symptoms.

Rachel: Yeah.

Natalie: And she's like, oh, you know what? Ah, depression. Well get an antidepressant. Go to your psychiatrist. He's like, I don't have a psychiatrist. I know this is a symptom. Oh, you gain weight.

Natalie: Oh, well eat less. So that was, that was the response I got and I was like you, no, I want hormones. She didn't give them to me.

Rachel: Oh.

Natalie: So I tried a different way. There is an app, I think you can use it in Germany and Austria, maybe Switzerland.

Rachel: Yeah,

Natalie: And I put in, I have all these symptoms. I'm in perimenopause, I think.

Natalie: I'm sure. I want to talk to somebody who actually is pro HRT,

Rachel: Yeah.

Natalie: and then this Polish doctor from [00:08:00] a tiny island in the north of Germany contacted me. I got together